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Showing posts from 2020

Solstice - A Festival For Everyone

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No matter where you are on Earth, no matter what your political views or religion, your gender or your economic status, you are influenced by the changing of the seasons. Specifically, the solstice, which occurs twice each year, between December the 20th and 23rd, and June 20th and 22nd. Our brains are able to measure the lengthening and shortening of the days, making necessary changes to metabolic function to match the needs of the season. That's why we're usually more hungry in winter, when we need extra energy stores to stay warm. If, like me, you are living in the southern hemisphere, you are approaching the summer solstice. The days stretch to their longest point, as the sun reaches its peak for the year. We are experiencing more active hours each day than we did during the dark of the winter. If you are living in the northern hemisphere, you are approaching the winter solstice. The nights grow long, the sun having waned to its lowest point in the sky. The number of active...

The Parent Bird Also Flies the Nest

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The empty nest isn't a new thing for me. My daughter's departure from my home was complete six years ago. To be honest, at the time I didn't really suffer it. I was distracted, enjoying the financial advantages of downsizing into a new apartment. Our relationship was enriched by my capacity to go out shopping, to eat at cafes, and even go out dancing. My grown-up daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the joys of the world together, as adults. I revelled in our relationship, proud when people made a fuss that these two dancing queens were mother and daughter. It seemed like we had found our new normal, and I loved it. Me & her at Xmas Then COVID arrived and we Melbournians were locked up in our homes, unable to travel more than 5kms. This placed a prolonged physical divide between me and my daughter that felt like a hemisphere. To make matters worse, we had been processing some normal mother/daughter conflicts at the time. Conflicts which sank behind the walls of o...

Cabin Fever in Melbourne Lockdown

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Sunday night, I sat swearing at the News. I didn't care about Trump. I didn't care about Australian politicians having intimate relationships–seriously, who does? All I wanted to see was news that we Melbournians can be released from our stage four lockdown prisons. When that news didn't arrive my resilience began to plummet. The next day, I was so distracted that I accidentally brushed my teeth with the grout-cleaning toothbrush. Although I went on to have a productive day, anxiety snapped at my heels like a feral dog. I was bitching and moaning about every little thing. It wore me down. By Tuesday, I knew as soon as I opened my eyes that it wasn't going to be a good day. Time slowed down so that one hour felt like four. Everything annoyed me. Activities which I happily enjoyed over the past week suddenly held no interest for me. I didn't want to play piano. I didn't want to go for a walk. I didn't want to do yoga or dance. I didn't even want to heat up...

Getting Personal With Life Writing

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If you've read either of my personal development books you'll know there's a story behind them. There's a reason I spent years exploring the human energy field and how it relates to self-care, and recovery from trauma. I needed to do this because I was in the grips of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  It wasn't the first time I had battled the dragon of mental illness. I was twenty-four years old when diagnosed with Post-Natal Depression (PND). My baby and I went off to hospital for several weeks while I learned skills in parenting an infant and setting up good routines. I also began learning about self-care. But there were large gaps in my self-awareness and I was still regularly plagued with flashbacks from earlier experiences in my life. I was so used to them that I was no longer conscious of the effect they were having on me, and my relationships. I was both terrified of people, and of being alone.  By the time I was thirty-eight these unhealed wounds had ...

Evolving In 13 Ways When You're Home Alone In Lockdown

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So you're stuck at home in isolation, alone, unable to do life as normal, while we cycle through a collective world groundhog day. The COVID epidemic doesn't look as though it will ease this year, at least. So finding ways to amuse ourselves as days string together into months is super important. Grab a cuppa and get ready to change the world, one dimension at a time.  I believe evolution happens at levels beyond the genetic. As we adapt to outside influences we learn, grow and change, evolving toward managing our challenges more effectively. I have discerned various levels of what I call multidimensional consciousness. You can find out what I mean here . But for today's post I'm focussing on how to adapt to 2020 in particular. It begins with basic coping strategies and then steps you up, level by level, toward world healing and even world-building. Each numbered point represents a dimension of consciousness, each level rising toward greater understanding of and partici...

7 Dos and Don'ts When You're Stressing Out

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Well Cabin Fever is setting in. Not because I'm bored or especially isolated like the elderly, but because life can contain 'issues,' and for the past couple of months several of my panic buttons have been simultaneously pressed. Some, such as job loss, relate to the Carona Virus and its effects, but others are family related. On that level - my isolation is real. So, for my benefit as much as yours, I thought it might be helpful to create a list of dos and don'ts to remember when the shit is at risk of hitting the fan. These tips can help to disperse or re-route intense emotional energy into productive, or at least not destructive, directions. 1. Don't  use social media or mobile phones in a panic. Your response might make perfect sense when you feel stressed, but later when your judgement returns you'll be scrambling to clean up your profile and will possibly be suffering from SMS-guilt. Remember - you can't delete a DM or SMS! Do keep a journal o...

Easy Easter Egg Majick Creativity Ritual

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Happy Easter at home everyone. I hope you're enjoying eating everyone's easter eggs. I have been happily munching away on my daughter's mini chocolate bunnies. But I'm saving the bigger egg for a ritual. You might like to join me - it's really easy. You just need a chocolate easter egg, bunny or whatever - as long as it's hollow. Solid won't work for this particular ritual. If you read all the way to the end you'll find what I've called a 'power phrase.'  It's a short sentence for deeper contemplation. Set Your Intent First set your intent for the coming year. This is where you really need to focus on one thing. Of course you can invoke the idea of various goals, but this scatters your energy. If you focus on bringing in a single goal - one at a time - you can focus more energy on each one, as well as maintain previous goals.  Then when you have imagined what it is you want to achieve, try to reduce it to as few words as poss...

Trauma Rescue - What To Do When You're Freaking Out

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  A little over a decade ago I experienced several years of persistent loss and trauma. I was forced to pick up my broken pieces and start all over again. Previously I had been an avid reader, practitioner and even teacher within the positive thinking movement, but it was useless when I found myself in fight/flight mode, my heart racing, my thinking panicked and irrational.  Gradually over years of refinement under continuing stressful conditions, I created a set of tools that addressed not only calming the inner creature in trauma, but also transitioned that frightened creature out of terror and into empowerment.  Personally I have gained more of a sense of control over my life and my personal energy. And we know particularly during this pandemic that control is really just an idea we hold onto so we don’t fall down. But we can move ourselves out of trauma and gain more control over our own consciousness.  So here’s a step-by-step list of how I pull myse...