Category: Articles

Standing on the edge of a high diving board we look down and are suddenly filled with fear. We climbed the ladder with the intention of jumping but now we want to turn around and climb back down. We move back from the edge and our minds whirl: What was I thinking? I might hurt myself? My responsibilities? How painful will it be when I hit the water? What if I land on someone? Sure enough many of us turn around and climb down the ladder.

Some, however, will look at the fear and laugh and jump any way. After a few jumps the fear diminishes, it is the unknown which we are most afraid of after all. Because we don’t know what’s going to happen our mind fills in the blanks with the most terrifying scenarios. In truth the future is always unknown, we kid ourselves that we are in control and that there is only the one path that we are on, but there are actually always a million paths that we could take. Our fear blinkers us and keeps us going on in our rut.

We might argue – my fear is useful – it is protecting me, it is keeping me alive, it stops me from behaving recklessly. To some extent that might be true, but I think fear also causes us to live in mediocrity, it causes apathy and lethargy. We missed out on the amazing experience of flying through the air and crashing into the water. What other experiences do we cut ourselves off from because of fear? We might not say what we really want to because we are afraid of what people might think. We might live half lives, never allowing our creative urges to be expressed because of fear. We might stick to a job we hate because of fear. We might stay in an unhealthy relationship because of fear. We might continue with the status quo even though deep down we know that something is wrong.

Fear needs to be seen, to be made conscious. It needs to be felt. Then we need to remember that it is basically a lower function of our brains, this is the reptilian, fight or flight area of the brain. While it may have once served it’s evolutionary purpose, it’s usefulness is overrated. Actually in a stressful situation, we need to keep cool and not give into the fear. Giving in to the fear may do us more harm. Instinctively running from a wild animal may be fatal, using our wits we may realise that climbing a tree would be more sensible.

It’s easy to see our fear when we stand on the diving board but when it is subtly inside us controlling our actions it is not so easily spotted. It doesn’t manifest as shaking knees or sweating. It manifests as limiting beliefs, which we may not even be aware of. It has us sticking to our comfort zone, not really alive.

Inside of each and everyone of us is a wild and passionate being, but all to often this being does not get the microphone. Many of us aren’t even aware of this being, and those that are, are often too afraid to act upon it’s impulses. When we follow our inspiration, we allow spirit to manifest it’s self in the physical, through our actions. The more we do this, the more it flows. If we stop this flow, with fearful thoughts, we loose contact with our inspiration.

That energy of inspiration arrives from somewhere, let’s call it the universe, and a little seed is planted in our brains, which grows into an idea. Our mind works on this idea and soon enough we have figured out how to make it happen. When we make that idea happen a cycle is completed and energy has flowed from the realm of spirit, of thought into the physical. That energy flows through from our minds into our bodies. When we block that energy, with some kind of fear, it no longer flows, and manifests as tension and dysfunction. Making those fears conscious and moving beyond them allows those tensions to release and the energy to start flowing again.

When we doubt our own ability, we block the flow of energy from the universe. This doubt manifests itself as insecurity and thoughts like, ‘I can’t do that’, ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘Who am I to do this?’. When we give this part of ourselves the microphone and believe it, the energy stops flowing. We need to see the part of us that is in this state of fear and talk to it kindly, as we would to a child. ‘Listen I know you are afraid that you will fail, but you must at least try. What’s the worst that can happen? ‘. We need courage, we need to think thoughts like: ‘I can do this’, ‘I am good enough’ and ‘Although I might not be the best in the world at this, at least I can make a contribution’, and ‘If I don’t even give it a go how will I know if I can or can’t do it’.

All of us are too concerned with what people think of us. This again is a massive stumbling block in the flow of creativity. What will people think of my ideas? I know so and so won’t like it. So instead of showing our true flare we hide it away. In my experience people actually don’t care that much.

Once I decided to leave a moustache when I shaved. To me, it looked awful, I thought, everyone is going to laugh at me when I see them. But I decided to leave it anyway. To my great surprise, when I went out to meet a group of people I regularly meet, not one person, commented on my facial hair. We are so wrapped up in ourselves, we think the world revolves around us and that everyone cares about what we look like and how we behave. This traps us into keeping our image and behaviour consistent and within certain boundaries, but in actual fact this is not the case.

Where we do find people caring about our appearance or behaviour is when it impacts on their own image. ‘I don’t want people to know that I’m associated with that person because it makes me look bad’. Do we really want to stop being our true selves and living to our full potential. Not sharing our talents with the world, because we might loose some friends? By colluding in this charade we are, in fact, stopping our friends from shinning too, so it’s a loose loose situation.

We need to see that this fear, this insecurity, is actually ego, self-importance. It is part of the mind’s dysfunctions, passed to us from our parents and society. It is the mind’s trick to keep it in control, to stop us from surrendering into the unknown.

Our capitalist, profit driven society doesn’t help us at all in this quest. The images it chooses to hold up to us as examples of successful beautiful people, and the objects they tell us we need to have in order to fit into their idea of the model being, perpetuate the idea of inadequacy. Everything around us is telling us, until we have this or are like that, we are not good enough. Unless we are like those model citizens, who are photoshopped into perfection in our glossy magazines and adverts, we are not good enough. So even people who seem super confident and fit closely to the ideal we are presented on our screens, are actually very insecure.

So how can we find true security, fearlessness? Perhaps by first accepting that there is no security, by embracing our fear. Living in the knowledge that change is the only thing that is certain, and embracing that. Not giving the microphone to those parts of our selves that don’t accept that, by noticing when they arise and seeing them for what they are. The voice that is left, is the voice of reason, the voice that hears the whisperings of new ideas in the wind, connected to spirit, to inspiration.

We need to find the centre of our being, that part that no matter what happens, is not blown around in the winds of emotion. That watches the drama of our lives unfold, with a gentle smile on it’s lips. At points on the journey we may feel we have found it and then something comes along and shows us that, this was also a façade, another layer of the onion that can be peeled back to reveal our raw selves. It is a process, of ever deeper surrendering to what is, trusting in the perfection of what is happening, the building of faith. The only moment to start this journey is now.

When seen from space, the earth is a tiny dot and we are virtually insignificant in the scheme of things. Adding a little of this perspective to our lives can help us to overcome fear. Knowing what great infinite beings we truly are, how we stand at the end of a vastly long line of ancestors with countless experiences, can help us see beyond our limited perspectives and step beyond our obsession with ourselves. Then we can grasp the opportunity to do something new and to stand up and show the world what our souls are capable of.

We are here on the earth for such a short time, what are we going to do with our one wild and precious life? Stick to the known, because venturing into the unknown makes us afraid? Our planet is in the mess it is in because of what we have been doing to her and each other all these years, what we need now, is less of the known and more of the unknown. It is time to be fearless and courageous. We need to step out of the rut that we’ve been in, that has been harming life and destroying the ecosystems of our precious planet.

Just imagine, if one morning we all got up and said “I’m not going to do this any more, I want to live in a better world, and with my skills and talents I’m going to do what I can to make a change”. How would the world suddenly look, if politicians, business managers, milkmen, farmers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, parents, builders, people from every walk of life, committed to making a change within their field. If everyone made a commitment to being kind to the earth and all the beings living on her, to be truthful, moral and just. To check out their suppliers and sources of information to ensure no part of what they were doing was harming of life. What would this world look like by the end of that day? It would already be a better place. If we continued, in the matter of a few years, we could turn what was once polluted back into it’s pristine purity, and find solutions for all the problems afflicting the beings of the world today.

There is so much untapped potential with us all, that has been squashed. Let’s not let the fear of our own greatness stop us being great. Let’s make the changes we need to make, stop living our our lives ‘comfortably numb’ and see what it feels like to be living our one wild and precious life to the full. To make the changes that are needed to make this world a wonderful place for all of it’s inhabitants.

I think that one of our biggest problems on this planet is our lack of maturity; lack of vision and lack of selflessness.

I believe in reincarnation. I believe that death is not the end but life carries on. When my mother died I could feel her presence expand from her body out into the room. In those hours and days after her death – I knew with certainty that although her body was dead, her spirit was very much alive. I can’t tell where she is or what form she has taken now, but I know that I could feel her presence in the room days after she stopped breathing. It was an incredible peace greater than I have ever felt. While I always believed in reincarnation, this experience has lead me to the knowing that life continues after death and this means that in some form or another, it is likely that we are born again and again.

If we have been born and died countless times, Imagine the wisdom that our soul carries. The countless life experiences it has had, both good and bad. I think that it takes many years to really incarnate that being, perhaps it may not be possible to anchor it completely in this dimension. We can certainly find examples of beings who have incarnated that wisdom more than others.

We are conceived and then we are born. Throughout our childhood our brains and bodies are developing. While we may be able to incarnate certain aspects of who we are, and the purity and innocence of that grandeur can shine through, we don’t have the physical and mental skills to articulate that full potential.

We receive our education and hone some practical skills physically and mentally but emotionally we are still children. We are not blown around by our emotions as quickly as children but we are still blown away from our centre very often, perhaps we rarely find it. We succumb to fear however subtle and only live half lives. Many of us on this planet, including many of our leaders, live in this state, unaware of the true grandeur of our souls. Acting like children, not thinking long term, unable to see anyone but ourselves. Hence the predicament we are in now.

We need to challenge ourselves to rise up and live from the perspective that we are ancient souls with vast wisdom. Or that we stand at the end of a genetic line consisting of thousands of our ancestors. Our parents, their parents, their parents and so on deep into the past. The genetic wisdom that we ought to be able to access is vast. The great maturity held in our genetic material from the countless experiences passed from parent to child throughout the ages ought to be accessible. If the dysfunctions can be passed down from parent to child then it must be possible for the wisdom to also be passed down. Thinking we are the culmination of thousands of years of evolution ought to lift us up from our limited perspective of this little life and me.

If we believe in God, then we believe God is in everything, then it must also be within us. Can we access that space within us? Can we access that infinite wisdom? That deep knowing? That perspective? Not just looking out from these two eyes for myself, for my family, for my country but for my planet and ultimately for existence itself?

That wisdom is within us all, we can see this even if we don’t believe in God or reincarnation. Just from a point of view of genetics. How can we connect to that and start living from that space?

Perhaps this is the space the religions are pointing to. But they all tell us it is a long way away, only certain special beings can attain this state and we need them to mediate between us and the infinite. This is a method of control, nothing more. Each one of us has this within us, all we need to do is start to act from that place.

What ever model works for you: remind yourself; You stand at the end of a long line of your ancestors with vast life experience. Or god is in everything, god is in me and is infinitely wise. Or – How many times you must have incarnated since beginning less time throughout the infinite universes, how much wisdom and experience your soul must have.

And then start acting like that is true and start treating others like this also.

We need to set aside some time everyday to rewire our neural pathways and to reprogram our subconscious. Imagine we are this being with this depth of maturity, humility, depth of insight and wisdom, this immense compassion and understanding and then slowly but surly become that. If we can find examples of those people who, from our perspective, are living like that or lived like that, then we can try to emulate them. We can listen to them, read about them and put into practice what they are teaching us, never forgetting that this space is within us also.

We all have an image of who we are. When we close our eyes and imagine ourselves, the image we see of ourselves can change, it is not fixed. Some days we feel on top of the world and we feel like the world loves us, this inner being is confident and smiling. Other days we feel down and insecure, this inner being hangs his head low. We can see this when we look in the mirror, sometimes we love the way we look, other times we just see our faults, we are seeing the same physical object but we are projecting a different image onto it. This affects how we are, how we behave and what choices we make.

If we’ve just watched an action film, we might find ourselves identifying with the hero. Just after the film we feel heroic, we feel we can achieve anything, I just watched a film about a billionaire, after the film I felt like I was a billionaire, super confident and abundant, it didn’t last long though. In order to affect a lasting change, to rewire those neural networks, we need disciplined repetition.

What ever we admire, we become. If we can start to admire the qualities of infinite wisdom and compassion, we can start to become those. On the other hand if we admire, good looks and style we will become stylish and good looking, only to find out, when our bodies age, how fleeting these things are.

If, on a daily basis, we work to reprogram our mind’s image of it’s self, when we look in the mirror we will see an infinite being, shining out of those eyes, smiling with a deep smile of compassion. We will be long sighted, our decisions will change from those that satisfy our immediate personal desires to those that benefit all beings.

As we hold this image, we start to become more like it, and as we do, we treat others more like they are also infinite beings. Then they in turn start treating us differently, their image of us changes and we help each other to stay in this space.

Of course, old habits die hard, and this is a process, but with daily reminders we can reprogram ourselves to live like this. Imagine a world in which all humans lived like this, with this level of maturity. The cooperation, the harmony, the creativity, the beauty all around us. And as more people step into this consciousness, the easier it becomes. All of us lifting each other up, out of the fear, into the love.

Let’s hold this vision in our minds for the paradise that we could be living in and know that as more and more of us hold this, the easier it will become for everyone and eventually we will reach a tipping point and then the world will change forever.

Two and a half years ago many people including myself and my family lost everything we owned in a horrific wild fire in Portugal. There was a moment when we were driving away from the fire, 3 kids in the car Mum, Dad and Grandma. It was night time, we were lost, and we could see a wall of flame infront of us 20m high, a wrong turn could have meant the end for us all.

It was a moment of intensity in my life, I will never forget.

Isn’t life always like this? ‘One wrong move and you are dead’, We might die crossing the road or eating the wrong thing. We might die from a heart attack, or coronovirus. Suddenly our lives could end. And yet, most of the time, our habitual pattern of thinking lulls us into a false sense of security. We assume everything will carry on as normal, we will get up and wash and eat breakfast and go to work. We forget the greatest most powerful truth of all – that everything will pass and that change is inevitable.

This situation has made us aware of this great scary truth. All of our lives have, to some extent, been changed by this lockdown. Our rhythm has been broken, and we stand a little more aware that we are always balanced on a knife’s edge. This can induce profound fear in us, I have certainly felt this.

When we lost everything in the fire, it took me many months to assimilate, my head was spinning for a long time.

I noticed that when circumstances in our lives change, it takes some time for our heads to catch up. The bigger the change the longer it takes to adjust. We identify with our things and the place we live, our routines and our work. They become part of who we are, they become part of the structure of our minds and brain’s neural pathways.

When our house burned, after it had gone I could still walk around it in my mind and see all my things. That memory occupied space on my brain’s hard drive and because those memories were used all the time in my subconscious, those neural pathways were well conected, they were the internal map of my world. When those things changed I had to give my brain a chance to catch up with reality. And as it did an array of emotions arose. Grief, fear, Anxiety, Anger and Depression. This seemed to be a necessary part of adjusting to a new situation.

When they arise, if we are aware that this is a natural part of adjusting to change, we can have one foot on the shore and part of us can observe as we cry or feel an emotion. Having this observer makes this process much easier. Having a little space between ‘us’ and the emotion gives us the chance to allow it, but also not to unecessarily feed it. Tears may need to come, we can let the emotion out, but not get lost in it by wallowing in self pity. Fear may arise, we can feel it in our body as tension, we can observe it but not feed it with our thoughts.

We might start thinking “Why is this happening to us?”, “Who is doing this to us?”, Will I and my loved ones be ok?” etc. We can feed those feelings all day long, with facebook and the news. But at some point we need to stop and feel how we feel, and remember, eveything is happening perfectly, even if it seems like it is not. Somehow we need to find trust in a bigger plan, something bigger than our little lives, a bigger picture, we need to surrender, embrace the change, and start to live. Not from fear but from that calm that comes when we realise we are standing on a knife’s edge.

We worry about our demise and that of our loved ones. Why do we only worry about this now? If we were truly aware of impermanence we would be in a perpetual state of terror. Change can and will come in all sorts of unknown guises, and we know not when.

The ultimate of these changes is Death and hence creates the biggest fear. When we stare at death’s face what do we feel? Fear of the unknown; Fear of being alone; Fear of loosing our loved ones; Fear of loosing all our things; Our status; and loosing ourselves.

But what a way to die and what a way to live….

Afraid.

Would there not be a more dignified death and a more fully lived life?

One of surrender to what is. A death and a life where we are aware that everything is happening perfectly and a smile appears on our faces and we surrender to the higher power: The power of time, impermanence, change, the inevitable. All those years struggling against that moment, living in denial of that moment. Why not just surrender into it?

That moment is now and it has always been now, because we never know which is our last moment. And now especially that our routines have been broken and fear is in the air, we have the opportunity to face that fear. Confront it, look at it head on and live accordingly. Like it was our last moment. What would we say to our friends? How would be behave with our loved ones? What would we do with our last precious moments? Watch tv? Check Facebook? Or maybe show someone how much we care, use our talents to help and care for those around us, create beauty. Live 100% not waiting for tomorrow to say what we mean.

We can think to ourselves…

‘This could be my last day, what am I going to do with it given the physical limitations and resources that I have?’

If we remember that “Everything is happening perfectly”

It reminds us to trust in the process of change, to accept impermanence.

And by remembering “This could be my last day”

We stop being complacent and subdued. This thought keeps us focused on following our passion, our inspiration, our flow, to wherever it leads. We have a great opportunity now that our routines are broken, to either fall into the abyss of fear, or to tap into our own inspiration, creativity and passion and to express it for the good of the whole.

I wish you all well fellow beings, these are intense times. Let us not shy away from our unique authenticity but reveal the jewels hidden within.

Much Love