Harvest What Love Sows

“In a kingdom called Bhutan in the Himalays they value a little thing called self-realisation that we would do well to seek in our own lives. Let me break it down for you. Is your life who you really are? Have you actually realised who you are? What's holding you back? Would you like to realise yourself and follow your destiny? If the seeds of such dreams and desires are already there in your mind, then why not bring them out into the sunshine where you can make them grow? Plant fresh ideas into your mind. Be your own gardener; pull out the weeds, dump the dirt, and make your life into a garden you can be proud of - and that symbolises you. And keep this moment of awareness: a good gardener knows that anyone can plant a seed, what counts is how you care for the plant so that it grows well.”
— Mickie Kent

Are you having the time of your life? I ask this because when you dig into the practicalities of life (as we all have to do) and you lose yourself in the work, you lose yourself in the dead-ends of life. We find that work piles up, and our momentum slows down. Sometimes even our family can seem like hard work, and we have little time for them.

And while you're supposed to be having the time of your life, you're treading water furiously to keep yourself from drowning. Trust me, I've been there. We can all get caught up in the routine of the grind. But I make it a priority to refocus every day and to concentrate on the reason why I'm here in the world. To share moments with my loved ones, to keep my head held up high, eyes locked onto the stars that brighten our lives.

This does something pretty unique. It makes me slow down. It makes me assess. It gives me a space in which to recover and to boost my motivation levels. I get many mails asking what people should do when their motivation dries up: "It's great to begin with, but then the motivation slowly goes; it doesn't last," is a complaint I hear plenty and often. The challenge comes when your initial motivation fades as life gets super busy or an unexpected personal crisis knocks the wind out of you.

I say that motivation is like hygiene for the mind; you need to go to the bathroom everyday, don't you? So, too, should self-motivation be a daily thing, a moment where you can flush the remains of the (previous) day, and come out good to go. Some call it dumping the dirt out of the brain. You'll not only be refreshed, but you'll be re-affirming what's important to you, and your unique purpose in life.

You'll remind yourself that maybe you need to spend more time with your loved ones. Or maybe you'll want to shake your life up a bit; as they say, life begins at the end of your comfort zone. You'll attract extra zing, because motivated people are contagious. They are bubbling with energy, focused, and eager to do what it takes to achieve their goals.

Click here for 5 ways to change your life!

Funnily enough, when you slow life down for a minute and take a deep breath, you can motivate yourself to work smarter, and stop wasting time. When you stop procrastinating, you'll discover that you get more time back to do the things you were meant to do. To get back to the time of your life and start spending more time finding yourself in life and less time regretting missed opportunities.

A great quote I read recently from an article titled The Art of Manifesting Our Dreams in The Huffington Post is: "You miss a 100 percent of the shots you never take." The article is filled with actionable tips that you can implement immediately, but what caught my eye was the spiritual element to getting closer to your best potential self.

Sometimes the universe has other plans for us, or we just aren't ready to receive yet. This phenomenon is also well-documented in science with the placebo effect.

The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the brain's role in physical health. Some call it the power of our minds to heal our bodies. Some well-being experts speculated that if most illnesses are caused by the mind, it is extremely likely that most illnesses can be reversed by the mind, too. They theorised that by healing our minds, our emotional state, and changing our thought patterns, we can create physical well-being as well. This is called psychosomatic wellness.

The theory not only concerns what is termed as the neural top down control of physiology - involving the direct regulation by the brain of our physiological functions - but it also suggests by default that what we believe affects us strongly. In the same way, it's believed we can be conditioned to associate certain things to one another, even if they have no logical link - just as 19th Century scientist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate the sound of a bell with the prospect of food. Some believe that superstitions work in the same way; we are conditioned through external factors to associate good luck with a rabbit's foot, for example, when one doesn't have any logical association to the other.

In another example, the full moon known as the Harvest Moon has a reputation of being especially big and bright and orange, but it's not really bigger, brighter or more pumpkin-coloured than other full moons. Still, for reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, you might think otherwise. Some believe it's because the Harvest Moon has such a powerful mystique, but you can find lengthy explanations about it's size, colour and other so-called "Moon Illusions" by googling these words yourself.

This reminds me that we close September 2012 with a Harvest Moon. The moon has been waxing larger each night, and full moon is the night of September 29-30; in traditional skylore, this full moon is known as the Harvest Moon because it's the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox.

For us in the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox came on September 22. That makes the September 29-30 full moon the Harvest Moon. As there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise during this period, in times past this feature was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops, hence the name. If the full moon fell on the first actual day of autumn, it became "super harvest," or the "harvestest".

In 2010 we saw a super harvest moon, a rare occurrence (not to be confused with supermoons) and the first time in almost 20 years. The last such event was in 1991. There's also a name for the next full moon after the Harvest Moon. It's called the Hunter's Moon, and it'll come this year on October 29.

Read more about moons.

We tend to treat full moons as powerful symbols; it's a full circle that symbolises endings and beginnings. When something completes - and full moons bring completions - something begins. Similar to the wheel of life, some believe it speaks to our luck and destiny, as our thoughts and beliefs turn all three.

Full moons are traditionally associated with many subjects, ranging from the romantic to the horrifying; namely temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic derived from "Luna", the Latin for Moon) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy (the professed ability or power of a human being to transform into a wolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics). Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behaviour around the time of a full moon or according to the cycles of the moon - although studies have shown a full moon can disrupt our sleep.

But if the Moon can affect the tides of the oceans, then why not the tides of the emotions within us? Some still strongly believe that the magnetics of the Earth can affect how we think and act. Astrologers say that this full moon is the most intense full moon of 2012 and the last week of September and the first week of October are going to be the most intense for us. Thus if we believe in such things, the advice is that we do need to be aware of our energy - and practice being calm, centred and grounded.

Read about the power of meditation.

Thus major changes are to be expected - and to go back to the start of this post - if you feel stuck in a rut, maybe you're feeling the pull towards change, as though the ground seems to rock beneath your feet. I've even has some readers email me to complain about dizzy spells and feelings of nausea attacking them from out of the blue.

The secret to our success in a shifting environment is our willingness to experience change. Rapid revolutions can be painful at times, but necessary for our long-term, gradual evolution. Their rewards can be great; conflict and oppositions are not things to be feared. Conflict can be healthy; it's unresolved conflicts that can lead to violence and hurt. Conflict can make us learn; oppositions are awarenesses that come to us externally from other people, events, situations from relationships, partnerships to question our balance and harmony - and whether we really are happy with our lives.

Maybe you feel that the world is currently filled with injustice; you want to set the world to rights. Is something inside challenging you to fight for the rights of the individual, the rights of women, the rights of children, the rights of the environment. Keep in mind, however, that though we may feel compelled to fight for just causes, we need to do it peacefully, with use of non-violent language and protesting for our rights.

Some say energies empowering our communities to "fight" injustice will be with us for years to come, changing us from the core level, pushing us on to change things so we have greater prosperity, abundance and freedom not just in our lives, but for everyone. Maybe you feel your energy shifting from the inside out, shifting everything and everyone. Astrologers say this is because the full moon of September 2012 is in Aries coupled with Uranus, and Aries rules action, the individual, courage and inspiration. This also includes originality, taking risks and putting yourself out there.

It's time to free the individual in you; it's all about the rights of the individual; and sometimes under powerful emotional stress the mind and body are capable of almost unbelievable feats. The status quo is not going to do well in this type of shift. The old paradigms are collapsing as more people become empowered to ask for justice, for a proper distribution of global wealth so that we can all share in the prosperity, abundance and freedom that life has to offer - because we are connected as much as we are also unique in ourselves.

Some may feel it's time to come together as one to bring about the necessary change, so you may want to seek out like-minded people, join a support group, or seek out new forums to help you in your transformational change. One of Confucius' life lessons was that friends matter and that your friends are a prophecy of your future; where they are is where you're headed. It would serve you well to find friends who are going where you want to go.

Even the most determined student, the dogged athlete goes through emotional slumps when they lack their usual zeal. Build up your own inner circle of supporters as no one climbs the mountain of success alone. Be on the look out for those people who are willing to be your cheerleaders, and who you can cheer in return.

On the opposite side of the coin, it could time for you to practise extreme self-care. Set boundaries with those that are not loving and respectful. Unfortunately, many people in your life will not be supportive of your dreams. While this lack of support can be a real drain on your energy and motivation, do not let your enthusiasm for your dreams drop.

We are being asked to upgrade our relationships, and the biggest relationship is with self. How are you taking care of yourself? If you're noticing that your sleep is off, or you're not meditating, or exercising enough, then astrologers are saying it's because the energies are so intense. They suggest that you pay attention to your lifestyle and make the changes as needed. It's all about balance; don't be too co-dependent in relationships, or so aggressive that you're running rough shod over everyone else.

Your balance by extension affects your loved ones; a family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden, but if these minds get out of harmony with one another, it's like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. Balance is the key, and the key to taking care of ourselves so that we can be balanced and present in our relationships with others and ourselves. This will also determine whether you are riding the wave of change, or fighting the changes struggling to keep the status quo, when clearly the universe is showing you otherwise.

Love is the true balancer in life.

The advice is to be open to the new, and to allow the wave of change to carry you. We are all changing, all the time. Resisting change - even immense change that goes to the core of your being - is futile. It's unhelpful to hang on to what's not working; we must all change.

Ask yourself: What self-limiting beliefs, paradigms and behaviours do you need to release? Does your inner critic hold you back from taking chances? A shifting climate will bring opportunities, but we have to be willing to take a chance - whether it's a relationship, a new job, a new living location, a new business or a new idea. Whatever it is, we need to be willing to take that chance.

Again ask yourself: What needs to change for you to experience greater freedom and joy? The need for change pushes us to blaze new trails, and those trails are in the right relationships, right economics, right livelihood and rightful care of our environment. Could this be the opportunity for you to think outside of the box? We shouldn't just limit our knowledge to those previous boxes of understanding that people in the past put information in because they didn't understand it - such as New Age, Christianity, Islam, etc. Albert Einstein said that the religion of the future should be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Maybe it's time for you to push past dogma and the war machines, and find your own path (and new ways) to peace and prosperity.

Listen to your intuition; empowerment comes from following your intuition and taking chances. Pay attention to the events in your life as these could be cues to your destiny. Are you being coaxed into a new direction? What is right for you? What is right work, right livelihood for you? Are you on your "right" path? If you are doing what's right for you then you would feel as though you're living life, rather than just going through the motions. Likewise, experts in this field say that if you're running into resistance and struggle, it may be an indication that it's not on your right path, and you should let it go. You're free to resist, yet many suggest you may profit by going with the flow and seeing where life opens up for you.

Change is a time of questions, challenging us to see where we've come from, and where we're heading, to see if this is the direction in life we need to go. Thus, if you feel you want to improve yourself, now could be the perfect time to do so. Some see this as a type of self-therapy; an approach that emphasises an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualisation. This humanistic psychology is sometimes referred to as a "third force" - distinct from the two more traditional approaches to psychology, psychoanalysis and behaviourism. It typically holds that people are inherently good. It adopts a holistic approach to human existence and pays special attention to such phenomena as creativity, free will, and human potential.

Is war an innate part of human nature?

It's the type of approach I generally advocate to my readers, but I also believe that a unified approach with the talking therapies under medical supervision for people with deep seated concerns is a must, too. This approach isn't a replacement, in fact it should be a lifestyle choice. Moreover, I always prefer readers to have their own experience when they read my articles. I rarely say anything is "fact" - I say decide for yourself. Take on board when resonates with you. This is what I believe true self-help articles should emphasise, helping you to help yourself.

Because when energies stir us, we can't rush to a trained professional at any given moment in an emergency. We need to have "hot spot" methods to calm us in the heat of those moments of crisis when we feel we might lose control of our emotions and our words, which we could come to regret later. The more we get ourselves out of the hot-spots, the more confidence we will have for the next crisis that comes along. It will also make us flexible, adaptable and adjustable - willing to change and let go of what no longer serves you. Similarly, don't allow what you can't do to interfere with what you can do.

Astrologers are also saying of this period that anger could be at an all time high; we could experience sudden surprises. The cosmic message is be bold, but be love. In times of uncertainty, we need to expect the unexpected. Marcus Aurelius in his meditations proclaimed, "How ridiculous and what a stranger he is who is surprised at anything which happens in life". Expect the contradictory and the impossible. Your first step to an extraordinary life is to take the attitude that anything is possible.

1. Don't dismiss anything as impossible: Notions such as "failure" and "defeat" start from within, and if you don't believe in yourself you're dooming your efforts before you even begin. Don't allow yourself to be locked in, totally constricted by imaginary boundaries that only exist in your own mind. The fact of the matter is you can only accomplish what you believe is possible. Anything is possible, if you keep thinking.

   All these people said "it'll never happen", imagine what we would have never accomplished had others (sometimes even themselves) truly believed them!

   • Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), British scientist and mathematician said that flying machines were impossible.
   • Ken Olson, whose company made computers used by big businesses in 1977, believed there was no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
   • In 1876, Western Union the telegraph company stated in a report, on whether they should get into the telephone business, that the "telephone" had too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. They believed the device to be of no value to them. But by 1877 Western Union changed their minds and decided to set up the American Speaking Telephone Company. This would become part of the American Bell Company, which by 1900 would have almost a million phones in service!
   • Margaret Thatcher speaking in 1969 said it would be years before a woman would become Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, and certainly not in her time. Although she repeated this in 1970, 1971 and 1973, she must have changed her mind, as only ten years later she became Prime Minister of the UK.
   • Sir Harold Spencer Jones, UK's Astronomer Royal, in 1957 said that space travel was bunk. Two weeks later, the Russian spacecraft Sputnik orbited the Earth.
   • Dr Dionysus Larder, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College, London said, "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia".
   • In 1946 Darryl Zanuck, legendary movie producer, said, "Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night" - failing to foresee that the popularity of TV would one day be prolonged when they were made of plastic rather than plywood.
   • Mary Somerville, pioneer of radio educational broadcasts, in 1948 said, "Television won't last. It's a flash in the pan".
   • In 1927 H.M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers movie studio, said, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" - failing to see that the people who want to see actors walk would also want to hear them talk.

2. Be completely certain and 100% confident that you can overcome any obstacle: You need to take this attitude when going after a goal; you don't need to worry about the obstacles that might come your way. You will deal with them one by one until they have no more affect on your life. Remain confident and deal with each one as they come; sometimes you may need to ask for help, sometimes you may need to take a new approach, but no matter what don't let any obstacle deter you from achieving your goals to get you to your purpose in life - once you have truly identified it. Just keep your eye on the prize and believe deep down to your core and things generally have a way of working themselves out. As long as you keep this attitude, challenges become lessons and steps that lead you higher on to the next level of your purpose.

   Is the best goal no goal?

3. Take action right now: This is a tactic I have mentioned before as a recommendation by the experts, and from experience I can say that this works. However, although it is crucial to success (especially in goal-achieving when opportunities arise) many of us don't like to hear it. We generally like to put things on the back burner, and do them another day. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. The harsh truth is this: If you haven't taken any action (for change, on a goal, etc.,) then you haven't really made it your true purpose.

   Action and achievement are so closely entwined that's it's impossible to really separate them. This means that we can't just sit and wait for our completed goals to fall magically into our laps. Positive thought requires the addition of inspired action to equal achievement. That's why taking action right now is crucial to lasting change.

   The good news is that once you do take action, each step taken (each "win") makes the next step easier as you start to gain momentum - sometimes the first step really is the hardest! The true insider secret to long-term success is that the world rewards people who take action. Don't talk yourself out of some idea, opportunity or inspirational passion that has opened its door to you, or tell yourself you'll purse that idea, goal, etc., "some day" - after this or that thing has happened. Don't lose that first rush of energy or enthusiasm you get from a passionate idea or emotional desire for change that spurs you into creating momentum.

   Moreover, you can only truly recognise your intention when you take action. So, whether you believe in the law of attraction or human psychology, taking action on a planned, thought-out goal towards your life purpose will yield results. Possibly not even the ones you were expecting, maybe different, better results than you could have ever imagined. Just don't allow yourself to lose your drive in a gradual decline as you drift further and further from that initial rush of inspiration, desire for change, etc.

   Dicover your passion.

   This is why procrastination is basically another form of self-sabotage. Some people use procrastination as a way of stopping them from reaching out and taking opportunities that are handed to them - which lead to...

4. Do away with procrastination once and for all: I won't be unrealistic and say I never procrastinate, but what I have done is put a stop to the control procrastination has over my life. Waiting until the last minute is NOT the only way to get anything done, and the unfortunate truth is that you can never do your best when you're doing something at the last minute - which you do only when doing nothing gets too painful.

   Procrastination stems from the limiting belief that taking action now is going to be more painful than doing nothing, but if you're last minute efforts are anything like mine, you realise that doing the whole thing at the last minute is going to take more time than you initially thought. Never mind the stress or hurry or feeling rushed as you try to finish everything at the last moment, worst of all is when you put something off until you have literally lost your chance.

   When you've let procrastination completely destroy an opportunity that you knew you had. The best way to overcome procrastination is to keep in your mind that in the long run you will experience more pain as a result of doing nothing now. When you consider putting something off even for a second you need to remember that each second that passes makes it more likely you will lose a chance at an incredible opportunity that may be in front of you right now. If you can't get excited about your goals, or your desires then it's time to start finding new ones to rouse passion in you, or evaluate whether you are on the right track to your true purpose in life.

   Whatever are the things holding you back, you need to realise that the long-term future suffering of never following through is worse than anything you can experience from putting yourself out of your comfort zone to take immediate action. Remember that anything is possible, and you can handle any obstacle, but you have to take some action - no matter how small - before you've officially started on your way to change.

5. Get clear on what you really want out of life: Some experts say this step is actually the most important step, and is touted as the one piece of "secret advice" which is the quickest way to achieve any goal, desire, etc. It's not a trick, or a cheat. It's a simple task - so simple that most people completely overlook it initially because they think they already know what it is they need to know. Here it is: If you want to to determine the fastest or surest path to achieve something, first you need to be totally clear about what you actually want.

   For example, it could be you're not a "money" person, i.e. you're simply not locked into generating wealth of that kind, money wouldn't really make you happy. This isn't wrong, it just isn't you, but as money is such a central issue in our society you feel you goal should be to "make lots of money". But what if you know deep down that reaching that goal is not going to make you happy - you might not even know what you would do with "lots of money" even if you had it. This is something you need to know right now if you are ready to create massive success in your life.

   And no matter how much you really think you know what you really want, you won't have the requisite clarity until you have specific, measurable details about your goal, desire, or change you want to achieve. Another danger zone is that if you're fuzzy on the details, and just know broadly what it is you want, you may spread your efforts so thinly across so many different areas (e.g., by trying out various different tasks to achieve your goal) that it becomes almost impossible to achieve massive change that really transforms your life.

   But if you take the same amount of effort and channel it all into achieving one goal with laser-like focus then you'll start seeing the results you really want. Mentally desire to zoom in on specifics, and things will start to happen. So ask yourself: what is the number one thing you are trying to achieve and what does life look like now you have achieved it? Thus if money is your goal, what does having money mean to you? Does it mean you want to have enough money to travel the world? Does it mean you just want enough to pay your monthly bills, with some left over for luxuries? It could be you want the freedom it'll provide for you to work less and spend more time with loved ones or providing help to your community.

   Identify your core values.

   Once you truly know the answers to these questions and can keep a clear picture of the goals you'd like to achieve in your mind - as you make decisions on how to you use your time - experts say you'll start to see these goals speeding towards you in real life.

Yours in love,

Choose Love Over All

“As I love to bake, television has become a rare feature in my life at the moment. I'm following the Great British Bake Off on the BBC, and my twin flame is trying his hand at baking to impress me. It has raised the discussion of the alpha and beta type males, and which we women really prefer. By extension, what type of society would we prefer? An alpha or a beta one? For me it's a no-brainer; isn't it time we used brain over brawn?”
— Mickie Kent

I'm going to begin this article on the soul in my series as life is in the main - bitter-sweet. Notwithstanding the slow arrival of autumn, the weather has noticeably turned, and my twin flame usually puts a drop of whisky in his tea to warm him up. He sometimes tries to sneak in a drop for my morning beverage, but I keep telling him that's not what I mean by a morning burn.

We always try to share a laugh in the morning. To start the day as we mean to go on, as an affirmation of our time together, and a reminder of just how lucky we really are. He often has a habit of leaving me little notes around the house, and will sign them with a personalised emoticon. My favourite has always been the :), and it's just celebrated its 30th birthday. Reading about its origins struck a chord with me as relevant to our times.

The story of the smiley

MSN UK, in an article titled Emoticons reach their 30th birthday: a brief history of the :-), explains that we can trace the origin of the smiley with great precision - it was introduced to the world at 11.44 on Sunday, September 19, 1982. We know this because it was sent in an email; specifically, an email sent by Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. In his email to the CMU computer science bulletin board, he suggested the symbol as a solution to the tricky problem of telling when someone was joking in a text email. He wrote:

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways.

And so the smiley was born. Helpfully, Fahlman also invented the frowny in the same email, continuing:

Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(

Fahlman's suggestion quickly caught on, and rapidly spread beyond Carnegie Mellon to other universities, and, eventually, the world. But what caught my eye was the bit in Fahlman's 1982 mail that talked about how the frowny would be more appropriate "given current trends". A perfect example of as much things may change, they also stay the same; forty decades on intolerance abounds. We are still locked in between the struggle for more smileys between people. Life, it occurred to me is really about the story of the smiley, and our pursuit to hold on to it, despite the odds. But sometimes it is just life that knocks our smileys down, instead of another.

Reading about the funeral of a father and his two sons who died in a farming accident while trying to save each other moved me deeply this week. It was a stark reminder (if any were needed) that we will all suffer loss and sometime or another. That is inevitable. But how we deal with is less so. In the wake of human tragedy, some will often cling to faith and meaning, believing that there must be a wider plan to all that happens - rather than choosing to see loss as just senseless and random. It's not a case of whether this is right or wrong; it's about what gets you through the grieving process. Faith and meaning when used towards positive aims can be a buttress for our lives. It can provide us with dignity in the face of adversity.

The family deaths were also in stark contrast to the deaths caused during violent worldwide protests against an anti-Islamic movie, which YouTube is refusing to remove from its site. Organised religion has been a hotbed of disputes for centuries, but I don't understand why (if these are indeed enlightened times) we need to mock other people's beliefs, or laugh at the caricaturisation of whole races by playing on racial stereotypes. I personally feel uncomfortable when individuals hide behind the freedom of speech argument as an excuse to just be abusive - because the more we abuse the freedom of speech the more we erode it.

Likewise, the more Muslims abuse their beliefs by causing deaths in protest clashes, the more they lower themselves with undignified responses to provocation. To me, such people are as bad as each other, because they share a common bond - a complete lack of disrespect for the sacredness of life. Although we preach it, very rarely, it seems, do we believe it - or else we believe we should only let people who are like us, or who believe like us, or who dress like us live peaceably.

yet we are all human; we all share the same genome, and if DNA is the physical manifestation of who we are - if it's the soul's physical aspect - then in one very real sense we all share (or come from) the same "soul". And more practically, as the global population is increasing, it makes sense that we learn to tolerate each other.

But what can we expect when our societies are not based on the sacredness of life? Rather some would say we prefer to cheapen our lives by making a brutal display of them all over the internet - by those that follow a different kind of religion, that of the celebrity. I personally have nothing against our celebrity culture - it only supplies what society demands after all - but even celebrities seem to have lost their mystique. They now fill our screens on talent shows - even musicians seem to be spending less time making music and more time making small screen appearances.

And in our societies what's toxic to the soul is equalled by what's toxic to the stomach; we have food giants and the flavourings industry that manufacture and sell us poison. It was in the news this week that a man has been awarded millions in damages after claiming he developed "popcorn lung" from inhaling the artificial butter in microwave popcorn. "Popcorn lung" is a form of irreversible obstructive lung disease that scars the lung and makes it difficult for air to flow out. The popcorn manufacturer was found negligent for not placing warning labels to state that the bag's fumes were dangerous to inhale. Over the last 15 years, a number of popcorn lung sufferers have needed lung transplants to survive and a small handful of people have died. It seems crazy that we manufacture foods that sound (and act) like weapons of mass destruction.

Plus, when I read about a US pharmaceutical company that is set to introduce a controversial new genetically modified corn to help farmers fight resistant weeds, I ask myself if we shall ever learn that poisoning our planet is not the answer. The company, Dow Agrosciences says their new genetically modified (GM) product will use a chemical that was once a component of the Vietnam war defoliant, Agent Orange. This fills me with horror; a chemical weapon of war will be in our foods.

Experts say the reason farmers are in difficulty is because the available technology was mismanaged; and throwing poison after poison seems illogical to me if the "cure" is deadlier than the problem. It's not surprising, however. At a time when everyone is looking for cheaper foods, cheaper production is going to be at the forefront of the minds of mass producers. Even though history has shown that turning to such methods during times of financial crisis simply turns our food cycle toxic, we are still going down the same route; it seems we haven't learnt a thing in this respect. And even if the biotechnology bandwagon is to succeed we will need more biodiversity, like the organic farmers who rotate their crops more, so ironically the future of GM foods may well depend on re-incorporating some of the older skills that the technology once threatened to replace anyway.

Shield yourself with real food.

Yet, this is representative of how society's vision of money is skewed. Money isn't evil; money is whatever we use it for. True wealth sets you free, it doesn't imprison you. Creating wealth can be a worthwhile goal for some. It offers people freedom, options, choices, chances to add value to our lives by using it to help others for a greater good - but it's not there as a standard for us to measure each other by or to think that the cheapest option (or the most commercial one) is always the best one.

For example the failing economy has hit the publishing media, too, with books (even by previously published authors) seen as too non-commercial being rejected. But this year's Man Booker short-list has shone a spotlight on the role of independent publishers. Had it not been for an indie publishing company, author Deborah Levy's book might never have seen the light of day - so devastated was she by the rejection from her previous publishers citing commercial issues. Now her book has made the Man Booker short-list it draws attention to what we can lose if we focus too much on commercialism. Thus sometimes we have to look at what is rejected by mainstream thought, if for nothing else as inspiration for getting yourself heard against the odds.

Life is all about beating the odds; never is that more clear than when we look at the origins of the human story of existence where science shows us that life can survive the most extreme conditions. Bringing and protecting new life into the world is all about beating the odds, and if that wasn't difficult enough, we make it more so by having to give birth on war fronts and sending our children to school in times of war. But life doesn't stop simply because we war - and neither does our thirst for it, clearly evidenced by most of our medical advancements which surround shortening mortality rates. In this field, too, as we our food chains, we are delving into modification at the DNA level which we all share.

Still some would argue that genetic engineering in itself is not "bad" or "good". For instance, on the subject of three parent IVF, it can be about wanting designer babies or it can be about trying to create a healthy baby. And science in itself is not about "playing with fire", it's all about prompting our curiosity, and trying to find answers for the questions that life throws out. What we do with those answers, and the responsibility of any consequences, is up to us. And isn't it ironic then, that as hard as we know creating life is, we are quick to end it? Which leads to another question that many of us will ask in our lives at one time or another.

"Why am I here?"

We constantly ask ourselves that question both consciously and subconsciously but there never seems to be an answer. We look around at our lot in life and ask "Is this all there is?" At the same time, the world talks and wonders about phenomena such as obesity, alcoholism, stress, road-rage, and depression being the modern diseases without ever seeming to make the link. Just as a boy joins a violent street-gang out of frustration for not gaining love and friendship, increasing amounts of others find themselves suffering from one of these modern diseases for not failing to attain what some experts have labelled as the final level of self-actualisation.

Scientist Abraham Maslow, long considered the grandfather of modern psychology, identified a "Hierarchy of Needs" as shown in order of priority from bottom to top in the image on the right (source: Abraham Maslow.com). Translated from top to bottom:

• Self Actualisation: Acceptance of facts, creativity, problem solving, lack of prejudice.
• Esteem Needs: Achievement, respect of others, confidence, ego needs.
• Social Needs: Friendship, family, lovers.
• Safety Needs: health, property, income, physical security.
• Physiological Needs: Food, water, breathing, sleep, etc.

The main thesis is simple: humans aren't interested in, and/or aren't capable of achieving, the level above unless the level below is satisfied. So it's a one step at a time thing - we won't be capable of achieving self-actualisation until all the other steps are met.

Proponents to this theory believe that humans tend to prioritise their requirements as shown above. We're not interested in the level below unless the one above is satisfied; clearly, we won't be thinking about where our next meal is coming from if our lives are in danger just as we're not interested in friendship if we're hungry and cold. And the theory goes, if life is getting you down, consider your place in Maslow's hierarchy, and see what you need to do to get to the top. For instance, you may just be sleep deprived, and be way down the bottom. Then fight the appropriate fight to get to the top.

However, some argue that as we evolved as beings, each of the levels of the hierarchy became more and more taken for granted. At each stage, we never once looked back at how far we'd come, and thought ourselves lucky. It's in our nature to just want more and more. After a baby has learned the words "Mama" and "Dada", the third word is often "More". This is a very cynical world-view for me personally, but it does hold some truth.

In looking at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, in our world, survival, food and shelter are pretty much taken for granted - we don't give a second of our day contemplating gratitude for this. But most of us in developed, democratic countries have fulfilled the bottom two of the hierarchy (safety and food and shelter), so by the same token, most of us are ready to realise the next need: love and friendship. As a result, most of us have lovers and friends - or spend most of their time being preoccupied with such relationships.

So the next level up from there is "Esteem Needs". With our health intact, a roof over our heads, and a spouse at our side, we arrive at this level, and this level is where most people find themselves in a daily struggle as our egos fight for recognition and respect, making a name for ourselves. Millions of egos all battling for an increasingly scarce resource these days: admiration and respect. But the ego is never satisfied, it will always crave more. And give you more stress in the quest to feed it. The only way out of this rut is to break through to the next and penultimate level - which only leaves the top level on the hierarchy of needs. The one most elusive to us: self-actualisation - finding purpose and meaning in our lives.

You are unique

So how do you achieve self-actualisation? Experts say that in a word, by destruction of the ego and having consciousness of one's actions, i.e., self-awareness. But what of this question that tortures us so much - and in some instances drives us to insanity, death, and destruction - the question "Why am I here?" Many great thinkers have tried to answer a question to which none may ever give a definitive answer (there is none say some), and yet a few thinkers in this field say there is a big clue to this answer - creativity.

Some believe that at the heart of everyone's personal dream is creativity in some form or another, although that "certain something" that represents meaningful activity to us will be different for each person as a result of each of us being unique. Thus we can only answer such a difficult question in a broad fashion, because we are all individual. Our uniqueness has been described like a whirlpool, where we are made out of our surroundings, but distinct within it.

People filled with prejudices will say there are only a few types of people, but every snowflake is a world of its own, and a universe lies in the spaces between. We are distinct but unified at the same time, because there is a global interconnectedness at a fundamental or spiritual level where we are not separate, and are all connected. You are unique; you are one of one, and yet one of a greater whole - thus we not only learn from each other, but allowing ourselves to connect makes us greater.

Similarly, creativity not only reflects our individual traits, but connects us together in a common need of expression, communication and creation. We thrive on creating something, doing something, and seeing an end product. Since we walked the planet, we have been creative - we have produced things. It seems to be the inherent and lasting key to our personal satisfaction, whether it's building a house, producing a child, or writing a poem. Or discovering fire. And when we look at world events, we are also just as quick to destroy those things created by us and by nature.

Think about this: When we were small children, we were happiest when we were busily engaged building, painting, playing games, and inventing - creating and seeing an end product. And of course, our childhood represents our true selves that we need to recapture in order to each find meaning and purpose, so this fact about children's habits is an important clue in answering why we're here, some experts say.

Do our lives or jobs feed this inherent need to create? Sometimes? But does the average life give an individual the freedom of self-expression that is so essential with personal creativity? Even if you are "lucky" enough to live a life or have a job that provides you with a level of creative expression, you're usually compromised and restricted in some form unless you work for yourself. And even then, the marketplace restricts what you create if you want to actually make any money.

Needless to say that the average employee is highly unlikely to find meaning and purpose from their job, and will resultantly be unhappy at a deep level. But this goes deeper than being your own boss, in work and in life. Some see creating wealth as a way to break free of the grind; at least this way you'll have the freedom to find your dream and express your creativity in some form. Some believe wealth and happiness are not contrary, but rather very complimentary to a large degree when you appreciate the freedom money can give you through the combination of reducing what you spend and creating a passive income (one that requires minimal input).

And like our finances, what we do with our thoughts will give them value. Not only that, but taking control of your own life (and not just your finances) is an expression of your creativity. For example, coming up with an original idea and nurturing it from conception to production. Or writing down a plan and watching it transform from a piece of paper to a bustling office where you're the boss. Or visualising yourself transforming your life, then manifesting that with inspired action.

The power of creativity

Creativity opens up new ways to explore human feelings, too. For example, acting on stage requires using emotional memory - those in the acting profession believe the search for emotional truth will stimulate your emotional juices for life. It's powerful, emotional stuff - and naturally the best actor plays the truth of the scene, avoiding indulging in emotion for its own sake.

Read about the power of emotions.

While some believe that music is the sound our soul makes; when we sing from our heart, mind and body in unison we become primed for life. Similarly, combining different creative forms together can be just as powerful. A musical composition set in a stone sculpture in Fairlop Waters, Essex, was opened to the public last month, where people were encouraged to get close and touch the sculpture, made from Angel Stone (or Gneiss).

People's movements triggered a number of motion sensors set within the sculpture, with the piece emitting different sounds depending on how people approached it. The natural sounds and music were recorded in South Africa and included a vocal melody sung by the University of Johannesburg Choir. The project was conceived by Mira Calix who described the whole thing as "a song". The work, which is called "Nothing Is Set in Stone", was commissioned for the Mayor of London Presents Festival.

And the drive to create is one way to bring meaning to your life. Take art for example: it is essentially subjective, there is no good or bad art per se, but true art will elicit emotion and make us question the way we view the world and ourselves. It will divide opinion, cause controversy, make us feel something. With human art it's fascinating how every era, every culture has its own art and how many forms bridge cultures. For instance, many cultures use nudity as the artist's passionate celebration of the human form. They name their pieces, and give them a soul.

Far from being a luxury, art has been inherent to humanity since the first, regardless of the riches, poverty, degree of technology or location of the human group. It is part of our legacy and of our psyche, collectively and individually. Indeed the world's oldest known human art - a unique example of Palaeolithic rock art discovered in a cave sealed off for dozens of millennia in southern France - has been termed as the birth of the human soul. The Chauvet cave is rock-hard evidence that art is powerful, and is food for the soul.

What inspires our creativity?

Creativity is bundled into our existence, we confer our humanity on it. It's not difficult to see why - for as well as being a scientist and engineer, Nature is an artist, too. Some say everything is art in a sense; we imitate it, it imitates us; like the mirror dance of two people getting to know the other. Others believe art isn't life, or at any rate shouldn't be - it should be larger than life. To instil pride; to inspire. To prove there is some part of us not made of earth. To make something of ourselves, but bigger than ourselves.

Art in this sense is a rescue of order from the messy wreck of life. Some artists believe that creativity comes out of suffering; you can't spell painting without pain. Sometimes hearing a line of poetry can be like a petal plucked from the stem of the soul. Art, they say, is how we let out our private demons. It is often said that creative geniuses have troubled minds. But being creative is healing; it can be a healthy avenue to release pain.

Contrariwise, creativity at one time was thought to be blasphemous by organised religion; it gave you ambitions, and if you have ambitions it means you believe you're born to more that just your mortal lot. Instead of keeping eyes on the ground, creativity forces us to look up and out to see the shooting stars across the sky - to ask, question and demand. Where we can be free, or be freed to make ourselves anew, to think and to grow.

Thus - whatever the reason we need to creative - the general consensus would be that without creativity we are half what we might be, like an intermission of the mind's life. Indeed it is what gives us "soul". Others may not be artistic, but can be a catalyst for great art - like the real life subject in Leonardo da Vinci's the Mona Lisa. She never lifted a paintbrush but inspired what many consider to be the most iconic painting (if not the greatest) in the world.

Thus creativity is not just about creating something yourself, it's about adding value to something. In this sense, we can take joy in inspiring other people, even if we're not creative. If we can't be a great artist, we can be a great subject; every human has his or her own talents and limits - the smart ones have learned to use their talents, but the happy ones have learned to accept their "limits".

I put that word in quotation marks, because really there are no limits; we can all paint, it doesn't mean the end result will be a Mona Lisa, as long as the end result within ourselves is a masterpiece. Beside the great works our attempts may feel like candles beside the sun, but allowing yourself to be hampered by the fact you're no master painter will not help; we all need to focus on the positive. Shine your own unique light as bright as you can; the story of the high-aiming soul can be a tragedy, but a greater tragedy is the one that never shone at all. Sometimes it can be hard to follow your heart, but be true to who you are and love what others might see as your imperfections - because it means you can't be fit into any mould. You're unique. Creativity is a showcase for that uniqueness - creativity in all forms - and words have just as much power as images to create and to make.

If you never listen to words, you can't make them do enchanted things. Whether writers write from experience or outside of it, they may be far from godlike in their lives, and yet make their godlike presence known on the page, in the words, in the spaces between the words. The right words - or the wrong words - can have a dramatic impact on a person's response to essentially the same point. Said one way, words can change someone's life and they'll remember what you said forever. Said another, the message can fail to connect, or worse, it can damage whatever connection there might have been. It's amazing what simple little letters from our alphabet can do when arranged in the right order.

Words are powerful enough to fill the void in our soul, to refill us as vessels of optimism and hope once more. When we write down statements on how to live our life, it forms a powerful affirmation between our mind, body and spirit and life itself. Think on this:

Despite my past...
Despite tragedy...
Despite hardship...
I will be unconquerable.

Imagine how powerful you would be if that was your mindset. If you adopted this philosophy into every aspect of your day, and every aspect of your life. That's the power of choosing the right words to express your feelings and having the courage to convey your emotions at all. This is the artistry of the wordsmith.

The unconquerable soul

Remember that when you are communicating with your loved ones, friends, and work colleagues a little encouragement, said in the right way, can have a tremendous impact. The way you articulate your feelings can make someone feel 10 feet tall. It gives your words immense value; but also comes with great responsibility.

You never know how you can change someone's life, how you may impact them forever, and how your powerful words will encourage them to follow their dreams. Even if, as Maya Angelou once said, "People will forget what you said", I agree more with how she finished this thought, "but people will never forget how you made them feel."

But it's only by living in accordance to what matters to you, released from the shackles of other's expectations you are able to live a life that inspires admiration in someone else. be an example of someone who followed their dreams passionately and wisely, using perceived "failures" and "limitations" as props to help you get to where you want to go - rather than see them as obstacles to stop you in your tracks, on which stage of life you're currently on. It is these types of individuals that inspire us on to greater things.

The life of English poet William Ernest Henley is one such example. Born in 1849, at the age of 12, Henley contracted tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 17. Immediately after the amputation, he received news that another operation would have to be done on his other leg. However, he decided to enlist the help of a different doctor named Joseph Lister. Under Lister's care he was able to keep his other leg by undergoing intensive surgery on his remaining foot.

It was while recovering from this surgery in the infirmary (and influenced by the philosophy of stoicism popular in Victorian times) he was moved to write this poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

This short Victorian poem was initially without a title when Henley wrote it. The title "Invictus" (Latin for "unconquered") was added by editor Arthur Quiller-Couch when the poem was included in The Oxford Book of English Verse. Since then, the words of Invictus have come to influence many creative works in print and film, and Henley is known to most people by virtue of this single poem. That tough period of his life, coupled with the reality of an impoverished childhood, played a major role in the meaning behind the poem; it is also the prime reason for its existence.

Despite his physical loss, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53. And I wonder how many people he has inspired, how many have been propped up and saved in their times of crisis because he was courageous enough to use his misfortune for a greater good. His strength added value to all our lives, and the lesson here is that you simply must speak up. Share a few simple words today with someone you admire. William Lyon Phelps once said, we never forget "an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration", and I can't help but agree with that sentiment.

Charles Kuralt said that the "love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege," and for some it's the people we let into our life, the people we trust and love as family that will be our inspiration, the value and the meaning in our lives. Love inspires us to be better than we are, greater than we are.

It's obvious that as a global community we have not managed to attain the top of Maslow's pyramid; even our most developed societies still seem preoccupied with brawn rather than brain - but things are changing. WE can make things change, by changing the way we think. Rather than an "eye for an eye", or "turning the other cheek" in disputes, why not realise there is no need for war to reach a common ground? And rather than be unconquerable in life as in Henley's inspirational poem, what if we didn't see life and its challenges as a duel to fight, but as a duet to participate instead?

Because we can be inspired by people's will to overcome, but bring a new take to existing ideas, too. That we can still command our own voice as we sing along with life - versed to be like a rose that bends with the storm, and opens in the sun. Or that violence should NOT simply be for self-defence; we should no longer make violence an option At ALL. When we can do that, there'll be no need for defence of self or any other kind.

Is war an innate part of human nature?

It used to be in ages past that all the important testaments were of military virtue; tied to medieval codes of honour and the chivalry of knights, where a warlike ruler was believed to be a good ruler and warfare was endemic. It was the law of life, and survival meant success in battle. No land went uncontested, dominion was all. The local populations, including women and children, were happily massacred, while the lives of knights were spared thanks to the code of military valour. We have moved on from that, and we can move further still.

To do this needs a greater awareness of life itself. And maybe we should look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs top-down - that without a level of self-actualisation we can't really understand the worth of the other levels to any great degree. It's not just about the opening of our eyes to our true needs, but of opening hearts and minds, too, to realise that we need to choose love over all.

Yours in love,

Love Will Help to Change You

“When we look at the chaos that faces our news screens in 2012, it's not such a leap of the imagination to wonder where it will lead us. We must be doing something wrong if it feels like we're looking back when we look forward, and all we see are the repeated mistakes of the past. Therefore transformational change is necessary; it's a part of life's deal with us. And how do we go about initiating change for the better? We start that change within ourselves.”
— Mickie Kent

The BBC News Online site has run an article on Andrew Marr's History of the World documentary series which attempts to tell the history of the whole world in one go, by Marr himself. In it Marr describes how he and his team had to choose which "stories" to tell within the historical framework they had chosen, namely to tell the story of man the social animal, and our rise from hunter-gatherers in Africa to today's clever apes and our technologically adept, seven-billion-plus domination of the planet.

Clearly this is human history accelerated, but how do you choose what stories of it to keep, and which to throw away on the cutting room floor? And just where is away? When you throw something away, where is that? For many people that simple inquiry offers much to ponder. It can even serve as a catalyst for transformational change within you.

It was asked by Julia Butterfly Hill during the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium by the Pachamama Alliance in which participants learned of social injustices and environmental practices that threaten the planet and were encouraged to act on that information. We honour the land, because it nurtures us. Some people dedicated themselves to recycling and other methods of protecting the planet, others committed to raising awareness among teenagers about the environment - but the question is significant and meaningful to all of us.

When you throw something "away" - where is it in truth going? Discovering that there is in reality no such thing as "away" can trigger shifts in awareness, feelings, thinking, connectedness, or perception. For some it clears the way forward; it offers clarity. Whatever you throw "away" - if not disposed of properly - will come back to you in worse form. And for those for whom the path is yet to be determined, this understanding can still bring about profound cognitive and affective differences. Transformational change is possible at any time for everyone - no matter your background, education, or abilities.

One way to facilitate it is by challenging assumptions you hold about yourself that may not be serving you, that keep you stuck in the same old way of thinking, the same old way of reacting. Assumptions about who you are and what you think you can do. Another is to stop sleepwalking through life, and begin living consciously. We blindly go about our daily activities unaware that if we only made a few, slightly different choices we'd turn out to be completely different people. The path forward will clear when you can say: "What I now know, see, feel, or choose to be and do."

Life is about choices and options. Getting educated, gathering knowledge gives you options. Options means more choices to make, and that is not a bad thing - although many of us have been programmed to fell as though too much choice is somehow not good for us. Most find life is easier just to be given one way to go - to be told this is the "right" way and to follow it blindly, saving us from the headache of having to make decisions for ourselves.

Yet, this is the one real freedom we do have, the right of choice which means we're free to figure things out for ourselves. And providing more options in our lives will not confuse our decision making abilities, it will help them. Sifting through these stories is a necessary process for us to discover who we really are, and what our own unique purpose in life is.

On the journey to your purpose it may seem very simplistic, but the experts say the first step is to just pick. So, a) pick what do you want to be or do, then b) see if it's really for you - figure out if that's really what you want to do, learn, or be, etc. - and then c) go and find out how to become that. During the process what you choose for a) may change - but during the process you will learn and grow and find out more about yourself.

This is what transformational change is all about, and looking for your own unique purpose in life will help you stick to life's deal for constant change. Step c) also highlights the need for options, as when you go out to find ways of achieving step a) you will realise that you will need to look at all of the possibilities before you focus on what it is you really what to do in life. Naturally, life is never easy as ABC - life's road sometimes has turns that are not on our emotional map.

But we shouldn't bury our hopes, dreams and reasons in caves we cannot reach, nor throw them away to leave them adrift, like in those doubtful areas where early mapmakers resorted to curlicued monsters. We should treat challenges as an adventure on the treasure map to the golden purpose of our lives. As a human being there are certain aspects of life that will faze you. To be able to survive you need to be mentally strong.

Keep in mind that any worthy change is hard fought; this is what gives it gravitas, weight, and worth. Every now and then things happen that can't be rationalised in a conventional way. Life isn't about getting things the easy way; it's about finding your way.

Follow your own path

When we look at the history of our world from a distance, so as to see it all in one go, we see how small humans really are in the grand scale of things - how tiny we are on this Earth, like flies on the scale of a Mercator globe. It can be humbling and grounding, and it is also revealing. We tie moments with a string we call time, so they don't escape us like tying a rock to the end of a kite. But we create the real; nothing that is made ever ceases to be - it changes.

The past only exists for us when we look back at it consciously; but neither is it thrown away into the ether. It stays in our subconscious, and unless we dispose of it properly, errant beliefs can sabotage our future successes and happiness. Every moment made still exists; like energy it doesn't die but changes; and thus it is how we perceive things that matter. A moment that we thought hurt us, when we look back on it with awareness, can be made to exist in a more positive light. The past and the moment is like the body and the soul. The past is the past, when it's gone it's no more - we can't go back to relive it - but the energy of every moment lives on. It's up to us what we do with that energy.

We can decide to follow our own maps; allow ourselves more options; de-clutter our lives for a simplicity of vision to see those options, and get out of our rut where we feel everything is the same and we want change. That is life, nudging us to remember our deal. That we must change, move forward, evolve; and like the flow of a stream, we can flow over hard obstacles until they become smooth and then disappear in time. But this will happen only when people work together in unity.

There are some that are citing the global events of 2012 as signs of a cataclysm; as though popular fiction is finally coming to pass and the world is being divided into sides for a fight to the death. We see Muslims being parodied in film similar to the way Jews were parodied in literature in Nazi Germany and persecuted in the last century - and what is equally dangerous and wrong are the violent protests from the global Islamic community. Hate only begets hate; and such protests only play into the parody image they protest against so vehemently.

We need to break the cycles of intolerance. It can be done. Britain did it with football hooliganism in the nineties; it is about changing energies, about shifting perspectives. Barack Obama has been unable to get the United States loved and admired around the world after eight years of George W. Bush, as the turmoil in the world appears to escalate. Some now even talk of war.

Meanwhile, the recession has finally started to bite the budgets of high earners in the United Kingdom. Figures indicate that a third of high earners have switched to cheaper supermarkets and dipped into savings. How rich a person is perceived to be is relative, but the experts are saying this recession is so bad that whatever your income, we're all in it together. However it has also created an anti-wealth sentiment, and an anti-establishment feeling - which the Islamic protests are also tapping into across the world.

And in the face of challenges, if hope feels like a rare flower that blooms, it's because we tend to forget about the eloquence or passion on the beauty there is in life. As much as we may think society seems to delight in the suffering of the weak and failed, we need to stop thinking in terms of black and white, crime and punishment, right and wrong, rich and poor.

People in the public eye are more than ever under scrutiny for their actions (where the privileged are afforded more protections than those society deems less so), and social attitudes are hardening, but let's not preach - rather let's be pragmatic. We can't reach love through old hurts. Highlighting differences in these divisive times breeds only more frustration, aggression and more anti-social tendencies.

There is good news out there to give us something to look forward to. Although financial experts warn that things will get worse this year as the global economy continues to weaken, on the horizon economic recovery is slated to be coming next year, with an outside chance that someone will come up with a formula to save the economy. But, though money is an important thing in terms of representing freedom in our world, we have to realise that money will not buy us love, peace or stability - only we can achieve these goals - together. And we may yet come back from the brink of a major war stronger than ever. A concentrated view of history also shows us that humans are always at their best at the eleventh hour.

We have a mind to imagine, and we can leap after it; such is humanity. This is the best and worst aspect of us. What have we mortals ever thought of that we have refrained to try out? History shows us that there is nothing we thought of that we dared not build. From the worst engines of torture to the atomic bomb, to reaching the Moon and creating the most uplifting works of art - there is nothing that the mind has baulked at or shied away from. The mind is the great theatre where the great and the horrific is played out first; and when we imagine the worse we make the world a little less. Like the age you feel, it's a state of the mind.

Expanding our awareness

“What's the point of this mind, body and soul series? To prime you; to get you consciously aware of yourself, of the wider living community and your surroundings. Without conscious awareness, any advice on love, life and happiness will mean squat. It'll be like teaching someone how to drive a car while they can't get out of bed.”
— Mickie Kent

Some experts suggest that there's a type of "unitive" neural wiring in the brain that literally connects everything. People who have spiritual experiences often describe how suddenly the whole universe is laid out in front of them, giving them an understanding of it all and thus expand their awareness in ways that lead to change - often at a transformational level. It's claimed that tapping into that spiritual intelligence makes you realise that all of the wisdom of the universe is within you.

In this context, it's suggested that we read books and gather knowledge as a way of reminding is of what we have known and need to know now at a conscious level. This is why, it's said, some things "click" with us when we read them. Proponents to this way of seeing knowledge, compare the conscious mind to a circle about 1 foot in diameter around your feet. This circle exists within a much larger circle - 11 miles in diameter. That vast circle represents the non-conscious mind. Spiritual awareness gives you the ability to bring that 11 miles into your conscious awareness - to connect in and build bridges to that wisdom from the knowledge you gather from great thinkers and your own experiences.

One way provided by experts to do this is to "syntopically" read (make mental images of) three to five books in a couple of hours to solve a personal challenge. Doing this allows you to bring in immense amounts of information and look at any given subject from many points of view - like a concentrated visual look at world history on a time-line. Take five experts and look at a problem through their eyes, and suddenly you get to see it through your own lens, a lens you didn't know you had.

Your brain can't think without you; Albert Einstein's brain is now in a jar in a laboratory, it can no longer think without the man. Thus we can teach our brain to do things for us that we never knew we could do before. And that's at the heart of transformational change. A change in the way you make meaning. So the theory goes, all the experts are simply bringing you back to yourself, revealing that awakened, resourceful individual you really are. The real power and potential is within you.

If you think how we interact with our universe - if we are responding with an highly interactive self-aware universe, which the experts say it is - then it's responding to us all the time. Being aware of this interaction means being spiritually intelligent (or sensitive) - and thus having the power to utilise it for your benefit.

Moreover, the experts say that the one thing we know about the universe is that it loves speed (or expediency). Expert opinion says everything in Nature works by absolute law, and works in the fastest way possible. Nature does what she does with maximum efficiency, on time, every time with no exceptions. Thus, if we believe that Nature works in this orderly fashion - and Nature's first law is order - then she responds to our clarity of mind, or our dissipation of focus.

If our focus is fuzzy, we'll lead a fuzzy life, but if we are clear on what we want, we can achieve it. When we have a great image, a visual of what we want to achieve, that is the collaboration between us and the universal intelligence. Some will ask themselves in the context of philosophical issues of fate: Is it me who has the thought, or the universe that is impregnating me with that thought, and many others, with the same thought/image? Some believe it is the latter, the universe is mechanical and planned, using us as the co-creator on this physical planet for its grand design.

Does Destiny play chess?

Some argue that the comparison with chess pieces is almost too obvious; undoubtedly there are times when we feel like pawns. And what if you were a different sort of chess piece - not pawn, or knight or rook or any of the recognised ranks? If you are as unique as a piece of one, then how would you move on the board? Are the thoughts yours alone?

But whether we prefer to believe we choose the thought, or are given the thought, what strengthens the collaboration is clarity. By deciding specifically, precisely and exactly what it is you want - not what you think you can have. Plus, by repeating that specific goal over and over again, there's another part of the brain called the reticular activating system (RAS) which will let into your concious brain, from all the information being bombarded daily into your subconscious, matched to those things you're repeatedly focusing on.

Feelings are said to play an important part, too, as the emotions you attach to the images in your mind can raise or lower the vibes you send out, and the responses you get in accordance with that. Music can help in this form of visualisation, as it drives in the emotion for you and energises you into a happy state (and any time you hear something that matches that instantly you're in a happy state) - the association between the feeling, emotions and the vision you're creates a very strong neural network in the brain.

Click here to rewire your mindset for success!

In this way, the experts claim you'll notice quickly when the universe responds to the emotional vibration you're sending out to manifest your desires into your reality. And this is how transformational change occurs; you find the tools, the resources, the people - in short everything you need - to help you match the image you have in your mind to your life.

Match your life to your mind show

When transformational change begins in your life, experts tell us to look out for a couple of things that will start to happen.

1. You start to vibrate - every cell of your body vibrates and resonates with the image in your mind.
2. You start to think more about that image.
3. You start to ask different questions than you asked before once you become emotionally connected to the visualisation or image.
4. You start to think differently, but more important than that your perception starts to change, because your brain now starts to look for things that match in the physical world with the image that you're now impressing upon day in and day out, week in and week out.

Repetition and emotion are the two most powerful ways to change yourself on that internal unconscious level where the power centre is believed to be. And when you're doing it with music, mind imagery and affirmations that YOU choose to focus on in a meditative state - which brings your brainwaves to a level more conducive to learning - this makes personal transformation seem almost effortless.

Using a daily system of repeating of your own affirmations and visualisations in a meditative state can manifest physical results in your life. But we have to make the time. We shower, we eat a couple of times a day (some men shave a couple of times a day), so how hard can it be to invest in your own life a couple of minutes a day? It is certainly an easy system, made simple to use daily, to start matching the YOU in your mind to the YOU in your life.

Read about brainwaves here.

Some experts in this field also suggest acting out your visualisations as though they have already materialised; experts say that acting out in this way is not analogous to "living a lie" if it's about bringing out your true self out to the world. We have to make our mind a den where we can be our true self, so that we can project that to the world. It's about being able to programme your mind in a positive way to give us the power necessary for change.

This is difficult to do in modern societies, where most of us like a reactionary life; we're just bombarded by the negative energies of mainstream news, television, internet. When we read about girls murdered just for the way they look, or mothers murdering their babies, how are we meant to feel?

This isn't about avoiding reality; I'm a news junkie who catches up on the news first thing in the morning every day to see what the world is up to, but I choose what goes into my head. My positive energies are my shield, and if we're not consciously aware and selective about what we're watching, then we're being programmed in a negative, victim-(non)conscious way.

There are also subliminal aspects to this, too. If we look at the neuroscience side of it, every nano second of every day we're receiving billions of pieces of information from what we hear, see, smell, taste and touch. Our brain is deciphering a lot of information all the time; some we are aware of, some we are not, and our brain deletes or distorts the information that isn't highly urgent, or can cause fear and anxiety because its dangerous for us.

When you think about the subliminal aspect, however, beneath our concious awareness the negative messages are getting though, and we do have access to it. Science suggests that the brain remembers everything, it is our ability of recalling that into our conscious mind which centres on what we "remember". And there are techniques experts use to call the information in the subconscious at will, i.e., we can get in a hypnotic state to access what has been picked up subliminally (things we are aware of, but not consciously aware of them).

Subliminal messages go past your senses so fast you don't even see it, you're not aware of its presence and it goes right into your subconscious mind. Experts say that visualising transformational change to help you manifest also works subliminally, that is to to say you allow the image to enter beneath your concious awareness, and when this is done repeatedly it kick starts your RAS to take more notice of information around you that will speed you towards your visualised image of a transformed life.

We need the repetition, it's a part of the learning process, of transforming ourselves. It can be difficult at first; our conscious mind may want to block us with its current negativity due to our initial programming. We can find it difficult to work at it, but from knowledge can come understanding - and even without knowledge, keeping at it and seeing results (even without knowing how it works) will indicate transformation at a subconscious level.

Experts claim that in this way we can programme whatever message we want, because it's the unconscious mind that is running the show. We're making conclusions based on what is coming subliminally into the brain, so our commands are going into the unconscious mind - which is our command centre. And some experts prefer using a subliminal system as it bypasses the filter system (and negative programming) of the conscious mind.

Once we become more consciously aware and raise our spiritual intelligence, we become more aware of our options, of the very sacredness of life. We always have a choice - it is not the gun that kills, it is our choice to use the gun that kills. It is the mind that thought up the gun that kills. And in this context, conscious awareness acts as a bridge between the subconscious and conscious so that you can travel to the very power centre that is running your life - that's magnetising it - and take control of what once controlled you.

Experts say that most successful people come to realise that this inner knowledge to transformational change has been lost in recent time by the masses, and that's why some believe the world is on the verge of chaos. If the balance has been lost, then it must be rediscovered. The key for discovery lies in our brains. This is the MOST life changing information which surpasses and transcends all other levels of self help you will have encountered, because it is about understanding and changing reality from the highest place of all - the conductor of your soul - your mind.

Yours in love,