Leanne Margaret

So far this month, I've been wallowing in my new nest. My mind has been consumed with hanging pictures and sticky hooks, assembling flatpack chairs, and cleaning the old dirt caked on by the previous owner of my new home.  Any physical efforts have been hampered by a knee twanging case of tendonitis. I want to be charging through edits on my memoir, but it seems most of my energy is being burned up by the physical dimensions of my life: body, space, nest, nutrition, rest. Like the house of Dorothy, mine has spun through the air, flattening the wicked witch I had become at my previous home, leaving me feeling like Glinda the good witch is still alive and shining within me. It's hard to have a happy mind in an unhappy home. I've been in my new home for nine weeks, and I catch myself having a little giggle from time to time about my luck.  My psych would say it wasn't luck but good choices. To help me manifest the right home I also maintained a five-year ritual of spell-cr

Eight years ago I started this blog with a post about my introduction to  apartment life . Now I'm standing on the cusp between two lives, as I prepare to move home again in ten day's time. Anyone familiar with my journey will know that living in my current home hasn't been easy. It has however been a succinct teacher, illuminating me to the most difficult aspects of my own nature; parts of me that had disappeared into the background as white noise, barely audible under the cacophony of the external dramas in my life. As the fallout from my second divorce slowly—too slowly—ebbed away, I began to realise that the angry situations invoked by my marriages were just tips of the tongues of angry flames that went way back in time. I was left with myself, intolerant and angry—triggered by the sounds around me.  Although it has been a difficult environment to live in, I feel like I've been through a major period of personal and creative development. When I moved here I was focu

An excerpt from book The Love of the Universe . Read it slowly, feeling the meaning of each word with each of your senses.  The power isn't in the words, but how you use them; let them settle—opening your mind towards extraordinary sensing.  Remember to practice your new craft, so that it grows stronger. An eg: With eyes closed, practice reaching into a bag of M&Ms, pick one and guess what colour you might have in your hand.  The results might surprise you, but if you are too sceptical, the activation of your left brain will distract from the right hemisphere. So please approach this exercise with an open, relaxed mind.  Page 206: Psychic Development Contemplation Poem  'See with your mind Hear with your mind Feel and touch with mind.  Feel with your hands See with your hands Hear and receive with hands. Hear with your ears Feel with your ears See and imagine with ears. See with your eyes hear with your eyes Feel and perceive with eyes. Listen with your skin Sense with your

Anyone who read my very first blog post on this site back in 2014, will know that I had some trouble adapting to apartment life. Readers may have wondered whether I would be able to sustain it. Well, I did—for a while. In fact, I lasted seven years—a lot longer than I thought I would.  Seven is a mystical number that expresses the energy of learning through experience. This kind of learning isn't always comfortable, and often involves sacrifice. It took time for me to grow comfortable with the idea of relinquishing the family home, and all the stuff I'd accumulated. I grieved for my big house, even though I knew intuitively that I was moving forward. As I reduced my physical load to a density that my new apartment could hold, my spirit expanded. I felt free enough from domestic distractions to be able to focus on my creative work, and my healing from PTSD; which I felt were inextricably linked.  But when I realised how noisy my new home was, I wondered if I could focus. Relucta

The world has grown noisier since Melbourne's long lockdown began. It shouldn't—the roads are generally more quiet. But major railway construction is taking place a few blocks away, diverting traffic up my street; bringing more noise into my world. Another growth opportunity—yay! Sensitivity to noise is one of my more visible anxiety symptoms. It's visible by my posts on social media, by my hands over my ears as loud cars drive by, and by the 'conversations' I've had with my neighbour over their distressed dog. Otherwise, I keep these signs to myself; mostly anyway. Social sensitivity is another. I take on people's stuff too much and allow it to affect my sense of peace. Not as much as I used to—I'm more aware now! But enough that social interactions can sometimes leave me overstimulated or exhausted. So the social isolation of being in lockdown isn't as unpleasant as it could be. And besides—people are pretty passionate at the moment! I'm replen

Is anyone else experiencing an acceleration of time? Maybe it's just middle-age catching up with me, but this year seems to have marched by quicker than most.  Back in May, my last blog post actually, I decided to take a break from memoir writing. Now, here we are in July—and I've only just started again. Has it really been five months? At least I'm working again, and I've recruited a 'manager.' I'm not talking about a human manager. Instead I've recruited the services of Apple Reminders, and Google Tasks. I should add that they're not paying me. I just like their apps. In the past, I'd resisted the urge toward evolving from my paper diary to a slightly less visual form; where appointments and tasks get tucked away inside a phone app—never to be tapped on again! But Apple upgraded their app, and I upgraded too. So my simple three lists for: shopping, books and movies, has grown somewhat. I now maintain seventeen task lists, some with subtasks. I

Majickal Meditation Workshop Chirnside Community Centre 1pm, Monday 26th April, 2021 2-hour workshop, $45. Bookings: 1300 835 235 'Did you know that anyone can meditate? Even if you have a thirty-second attention span. Even if your eyes roll at the thought of sitting for an hour in lotus pose, chanting mysterious words. Even if meditation makes you just want to go to sleep. In fact, you're probably doing it more often than you realise.' -from book, Multidimensional Meditation, by Leanne Margaret Let me show you... Are you too busy to stop and connect to your real needs? Join me, as I guide you through a series of meditations to help bring you home to yourself. You will begin with simple awareness of your body. Then, you will gradually ascend to higher, freer levels of consciousness; step-by-step. These higher levels can assist you with your creative work, as well as helping you to transition into sleep.  Most of all, you will learn how to take some simple mindfulness practi

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

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

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

  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 myself together and mak