Hello!

I’m trying a new format to these weekly writings.

I want to mix it up and not have one huge block of reading but bits and bobs, things that are short and long to help inspire and remind and keep you on your path depending on how much you have on your plate in any given moment.

So enjoy. Let me know what you think, what you learned, what you remembered. I'd love to hear.

Quote that seems to explain today

“Finding yourself is not really how it works. You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are also not lost.

Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are.

Finding yourself is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.”

— Emily McDowel

Space for Grace

I have a small Ascension/awareness/ mentoring group and one thing that really resonated recently was about the expectation a lot of us have to get back to other people’s messages rapidly.

Zach was five this weekend. At the same time a project was really heating up – messages were flying. I wanted to be with him and the family, not somewhere else.

I stuck to no phone mode but was saying to Sumati how it was a little uncomfortable to know everyone was busy and I wasn’t even looking.

Though it was funny – I checked Monday morning and I had one “urgent, must reply now” kinda msg, and then 3 hours later it was a “doesn’t matter, it’s all changed” one.

It’s like that isn’t it?

So – work in progress. But the urgent and the important: I want a life filled with the truly important. The urgent can be squeezed in around that.

It’s a great thing to help people out, but!

I think it’s even better to dictate your own pace of life, given what you need and want at the time.

Oscillation — time for doing and time for nothing. Both crucial, but the time for being isn’t acknowledged in our culture or psyches.

Make space for grace. Make space for absolutely nothing, allow your imagination, intuition and unconscious a blank slate. Make space for what’s truly important to you – undiluted by anything or anyone else.

You won’t regret it. It’ll energise and revitalise you in ways you’ll wish you’d done this years ago.

Upcoming Events and Courses

Evening Mindfulness workshop

If you’re local to Richmond (the North Yorkshire one) I’ve just arranged an evening workshop Thursday 27th March, 7.30-9pm at Physio42’s Pear Tree Studio.

Time and space for some tools and ideas and to really remember how to be fully alive, in an incredible space, with lovely people.

It’ll be ￡10 – so save the date. If you want to get on the waiting list so I can let you know as soon as I’ve sorted how to book, reply and I’ll make sure you’re first in line.

Ascension courses

I say this a lot – I am biased, but if you want the sweetest, simplest, most gently powerful tools to get out of your poor old looping mind with it’s criticism or OTT expectations and “what if’s?” and align with the present moment and the authentic version of you, Ascension is for you.

Once you’ve learnt it is free to repeat forever, so if you’d like to book on to learn new or refresh, let me know. It would be grand to have you.

25-27 April (all BnB rooms are gone, but there are still seats)

4-6 July

(All courses run Fri 7-9.30pm, Sat and Sun 10am-4.30pm).

Not sure if it's for you? Let me know what you're looking for and I'll be able to point you in the right direction.

And To Finish –

The Slightly Longer Read

Take your time. Grab a coffee/tea/beverage of your choice and let yourself soak in some words. As always, enjoy!

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

— Maya Angelou

In this game of mindfulness …

Because this is your life unfolding in front of you, and you can be here for it or you can be absent, hoping and worrying and wishing and planning it away.

Because your poor little brain can only deal with now, with this little bubble of what actually is happening, and only freaks out with the sheer scope of all the possibles and maybes and mightbes.

Because while now might not be chaos free, it certainly is stress free …

Because appreciation and gratitude stem from this moment by moment awareness and so your life becomes enriched, and that is a huge part of a life well-lived.

Because the best thing you can give someone is to be really with them, truly present. Not in your head thinking, not trying to fix or change them (even if you want to help), but alert and curious and alive to them exactly as they are, here, now.

Because you become a rock of sanity for everyone around you.

It really is simply about being here, now.

You can only be present now. What just happened? Doesn’t matter any more. Reset to now. Make the most of now.

But practice this reset to remembering, and you’ll start to find that even in the middle of chaos, you find this sense of awareness isn’t so much about what is going on around you, but this aware, alive, core of who you are –

Not the past and future, not your to-do list, not your challenges, but this sense of real “Me” comes forward.

Your presence is the one thing in the universe that doesn’t shift or move, that you can rely on always, as a sanctuary and a place to stand tall, a source of wisdom and intuition, of patience and joy.

Be aware now and you’ll come to have this solid foundation of Self to live from.

It’s not just about what now contains, it’s all about the constancy of who You are in the middle of all of it.

Having that is a blessing indeed – so keep going. Keep exploring. Keep asking questions.

Find your way back to Yourself.