Beyond the image
June 29, 2009
I mentioned to a friend that I love watching the TV series “Mary, Queen of Charity Shops”, because it’s refreshing to see someone with visionary zeal be determined to radically update the image of charity shops.
This series follows Mary Portas, as she sets out to show Orpington’s ‘Save The Children’ charity shop, that they can set their sights on having a successful flourishing retail business, based upon people donating items of good quality, rather than be a dumping ground for unwanted goods.
The series was successful in giving this charity shop a new face. I thought that Orpington could rename their shop as “Vintage Vogue”, to be more in line with the style of fashionable clothes that Mary has shown them that they can sell. Personally though, I would go further and suggest we re-examine the purpose of these types of shops.
UK charity shops still carry the tag of second-hand clothes consciousness, even though there are exceptions. My suggestion is that they can aspire to think more in terms of refreshing today’s fashion to inspire tomorrow’s trends.
But I guess that what I’m really wanting is to remove any outdated thinking that hangs around the concept of charity, because I sense there’s something better just waiting to be discovered. Charity has long had the connotation of giving to the poor – it exists as long as we believe in the need for that reality.
Look, we are incredible resourceful beings who shape reality from our thinking, and I’m sure we can go much further than updating the image of charity and charity shops.
What if every single registered charity was treated as a self-aware being, that could give us insights into what it wanted to become next? What if a new model of business entrepreneurship is waiting in the wings, waiting to revitalise society?
Everything is energy, everything is communication, everything is the potential of something new waiting to happen. So let’s look at what can be different everyday rather than settle for a hand-me-down consciousness.
The truth of the matter
June 29, 2009
I recently visited a friend who is physically challenged. In the last few years he has experienced hardship in moving around his house and yet he adamantly refuses to see doctors, believing that he has the key to regaining his mobility.
In conversation, he declared that he’d been working in the realm between dreams and reality, and so had not given much thought to his physicality, viewing his present condition as a ‘pit stop’. But now his attention is back on his physical health and well-being.
Another friend, now in a wheelchair, states that she wants to be considered as normal and not to be viewed as ‘disabled’.
Both these people have an unwavering strength of determination to have everyone realise that their experiences are expressions of physical transformation and must not be seen as diminishment or impairment of their being. In their eyes, there are no disabled people.
That’s a big statement to make … and a fundamental challenge to established ideas of what we view as ‘normal’.
The strength of these people is in being true to what they fundamentally know is true.
Flight of the pheasant
June 29, 2009
Myself, my wife and a friend had enjoyed a fine meal at a local pub and were headed home. As we rounded a bend, we saw that a driver had spun his car off the road and it was lodged in the hedgerow. The driver was shaken but otherwise unhurt, and we quickly learned that he had lost control of the car through trying to avoid a pheasant on the road .
My wife sat talking with him; our friend phoned for the emergency services; and I directed the safe flow of traffic until the police arrived.
Now here’s the interesting piece. His grandmother had died recently and he was still in a state of shock over the loss. Moreover, his grandfather, in turn, had to be taken to hospital from a heart attack – and the ambulance that called for him was the same ambulance that arrived at the scene of this accident. And to top it, my wife tuned into his grandmother and was able to assure him that she was doing fine.
As my wife observed, the man had preceded us from the pub by only a couple of minutes and it was providential that we had followed close behind, to give the assistance that he needed, not only in dealing with the accident but also in dealing with the loss of his grandmother.
It seemed that his grandmother was looking out for him. But, as someone else remarked, “next time … just hit the pheasant”.
Beyond doubt
June 17, 2009
I have a great friend who consistently says, when he’s taking part in a workshop, that he doesn’t get anything. Of course it’s not true. I’ve proved to him many times that he gets information faster than his brain has time to process it, and faster than the people around him, but he continues to doubt his ability and wonders why other people seem to be better at knowing things than himself.
He is not alone in his doubting.
All of us have an ability to detect information through a wide variety of senses, far more than the traditional 5 senses we were taught about at school (long years ago!). And we have an ability to process that information without having to ‘think about it’.
Whenever we are asked to think about something, we begin a mental process of visiting various places in our consciousness to get an answer or to construct an understanding.Yet there is a simpler, more immediate way to access information – and that is to use our knowing.
My use here of the term ‘knowing’ is the ability to capture or retrieve information from a source, at the moment it is required, and to render it in such a way that it provides an understanding, without having to consciously process the information as a thought or series of thoughts.
It’s common practice in my workshops and teleclasses to have people just ‘know’ what to say without having to spend time analysing a question. They stay focused in the energy of whatever we are working on and they stay in the present, so that information flow is easily available to the whole group. Referring back to the past does have a noticeable effect upon the group energetic – it takes the focus away from being in the present.
This is a big marker in our evolution – of knowing what is true at this very moment rather than relying upon historical thought perspectives.
We can sense and know so much about the Cosmos without ever having to step a foot outside our front door or switch on a computer or read a book. Everything is available and open to us. It’s our orientation to the information that makes our perspectives unique, and it’s our sharing of those perspectives that provides the foundation for a shared reality that works for all of us.
The difficulty for my friend, and others like him, is to accept that our special abilities are real and trustworthy – and that the information we receive contains a wealth of compiled material that needs hyper-speed processing.
The greater our shift to owning our hyper-speed processing then more information becomes conscious and instantly available. And with a greater range of information being consciously considered and shared, then our awareness and understanding radically evolves.
Very soon now, my friend will be consciously operating in the realm of hyper-speed processing, and he will realise that he’s been doing it all his life. Clearly beyond doubt!
Getting it to “pop”
June 9, 2009
Yesterday (June 8th) was my birthday – yayyy! – and to celebrate it my wife took me to Brighton, on a hunt for stylish, snappy clothes.
Although we didn’t find the snazzy sneakers and the gorgeous jacket that we were hoping for, we came across some vibrantly coloured t-shirts and socks. The colours that make your heart sing and that you know are just right for you.
For years I was looking for colourful men’s socks and underwear: I was tired of the boring dull greys, blacks and blues. Then I decided I would put a message into the consciousness of designers and producers of men’s clothing, that
“vibrant colour is a necessary function of being a man”
for when you get the right colours for yourself then something “pops” in you.
Women have known this for a long time. It’s not just about feeling good in the latest fashion statements – it’s about finding your energy signature, enhancing it, getting it to lift and stand out. It’s about owning and declaring yourself, be willing to be seen, and celebrating yourself in living colour.
And it’s more than that …
This morning I woke up thinking about web links – the images and text on web pages that, when clicked upon, provide you with more information. In my day-dream state I was selecting the appropriate description for each image on a website. Why, I wondered?
Then the reason became clear. It was important to have each image really stand out and be clearly identified for what it represented. So I was back to my theme of having things “pop”.
Yet still, there was something more to get about all of this.
I talked to my wife about the connection between colour and identity, and the need to have things “pop”. Then I asked her about what she would be doing today. Promoting a teleclass, she replied. Just what I will be doing, I said. So, together, we put out our intentions (energetically and in consciousness) for the right people to respond to our teleclasses.
Now to get an event (teleclass, workshop, conference, etc.) to “pop”, it’s important to -
- have a clear understanding of what it’s about
- be unequivocal in what you seek to achieve
- select the right wording to successfully promote it
- make the appropriate connections to your resonant audience
- ensure you source the energetic reality of what you wish to create
That’s it – it’s about sourcing energetic reality.
The energetic reality in which we live cannot be treated like a bunch of cast-off clothes that we blithely put on, without any consideration for our colour palette or whether they resonate with our energy signature.
It’s necessary to create our reality with care, giving attention to what feels right and is appropriate for all of us. And that means self education.
We need to be more effective in focusing on things that really matter. Wearing colours that make us stand out, doing work that enhances our aliveness, having thoughts that create wonder in our lives – and letting the rest of it go.
The energetic reality that pops for us is when we open our eyes to what we really want and have the determination to accept no lesser standards. Say what we want to create and then go ahead and live that, shaping the energetics as we go, changing the colours of our being because we know what fits for us now.
I know how to make things “pop” – perhaps I should do a teleclass on it!!