Leanne Margaret

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

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

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

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

  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

I didn't write a book about meditation because I was perfect at it. In fact most of the material I had been writing wasn't about meditation at all but memoir. However, the memoir material was still too emotionally charged for me to face in a rational way. My nervous system, ravaged by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ), was still wired to react to the slightest aggravation. So as I learned how to rebuild my nervous system from the ground up - using what I knew about human consciousness - the material to structure my first book,  The Love of the Universe , emerged. After I finished writing it I realised that I hadn't included enough practical exercises to generate the shifts in consciousness that I was enjoying myself. Somehow I needed to create a more practical, user-friendly version. Fortunately I had written several guided meditations specifically designed to do the job, enough material to create a second book:  Multidimensional Meditation.  My intent was to show