More Haste, Less Speed!

“Have you got a busy day ahead?” my friend asked me yesterday morning.

“How did you guess?” I answered.

“Your aura has a rather busy look about it” she replied.

Busy? Busy is the understatement of the week, hence my lack of blog posts! As well as my usual weekly juggle of learning activities with the kids (we home educate), my own studying and writing, household chores (never my strong point), cleaning out the chickens and mowing our massive lawn, I had the task of completing and posting a long overdue quarterly newsletter for the MBS group I help organize.

The production of the newsletter began ever so calmly a few weeks ago, but very swiftly gained momentum this week, resulting into rushing mode. One of the speakers changed some details at the last minute, resulting in my needing to redo massive sections of text and condensing other sections so I could cram it all into it’s allotted small space which seemed to take me forever. And then just as I thought I was on the home straight I ran out of ink half way through printing!

So off to town we trotted (a journey I could really have done without) destination Staples photocopier swiftly followed by BB’s coffee shop to compile the finished article. In between slurps of coffee and mouthfuls of muffin, my husband folded the newsletters, I stuffed them into envelopes, my son stuck on the stamps and my daughter popped them into a box ready for posting. We finally got them into the post box yesterday evening with a huge sigh of relief. It wasn’t until I was lying in bed at the end of the day running through the newsletter in my head that I suddenly realised that I’d made a major error. I’d written down a meeting date incorrectly… Argh! In my efforts to get the newsletter out, I’d made a blunder. I could hear my dad’s words echoing in my ears, coming back to haunt me from my childhood – “more haste, less speed”.

So what did I do? Well, I rolled over and went to sleep, full in the knowledge that sitting up all night worrying would not solve anything and that I could at least amend the email version before sending it in the morning. (The godsend of electronic mail – you can always amend your cock-ups immediately and hit ‘resend’ if you need to!)

In the past I would have been up half the night fretting. So what’s changed? My mind state. On the flipside of my chaotic week I had an amazing crystal healing session (which I’ll share with you in my next post), joined a fabulous meditation group for children (that my kids absolutely loved), did yoga every morning and a minimum of 20 minutes meditation every evening. That's the secret to my altered state of mind.

It's taken me years to combat my neurotic personality, but at last the accumulation of all my mind-freeing activities have started to make real noticeable effects in my life. To top the week I had my 'date with the artist' at the Buddhist centre and you’ll never guess what the meditation and teaching was about…'busyness' (yes, the teacher used that word!) and how meditation helps find peace of mind. They’re right, it does! Good job too as I’ve got an even busier week coming up next week! Txx

Do you naturally cope with life and have everything in control? Or are you exploring different methods to find peace of mind? If so, which ways work for you and which ways don’t? Share your experiences by leaving a comment – I’d love to know what works for you.

A Heart Centred Solstice

Having welcomed in the Solstice sunrise alone and naked in the morning, I saw the Sun to bed celebrating with friends in the evening. I went to a celebration organised by Sarah Line of The Field of Healing. Sarah and her husband have built a full-size 11-tier Labyrinth in a field at the bottom of their garden in a small village close to the Cambridgeshire border and at special times throughout the year, Sarah invites people to come and walk her labyrinth and share in various celebrations. This time it was the Summer Solstice.

I’ve been lucky enough to walk several labyrinths before, but none have affected me the way Sarah’s does, so I made sure I was there early enough to walk it alone. I arrived at 6.30pm and walked the Labyrinth before everyone else turned up (what I experience when I walk Sarah’s labyrinth is story in itself, so I’ll cover those experiences in another post soon – I promise). By the time I had finished my walk other people were arriving and I joined them in making our way up to the village hall for the evening’s proceedings.

Sitting in a circle in the hall, with a lovely log fire to keep us warm, Sarah started the evening off with some spiritual philosophy followed by a meditation, accompanied by a young chap called Clinton who played the Native American flute. We then sang a few chants and drummed until it was time to go back down to the labyrinth again. This time we all walked the labyrinth to the sound of shamanic drums and the flute. Afterwards we collected around the fire pit situated next to the labyrinth and a few people threw offerings of herbs into the fire while intending a few blessings and the odd spell or two. We then made our way back up to the hall to be treated to a group channeling by Glendra Duffy.

Glendra channels the language of sound and light, something I had never experienced before. As she stood and dropped into a trance-like state (she says she doesn’t go into trance, but is slightly altered – watching her, I beg to differ, but I guess it depends on your interpretation of trance), the most amazing thing happened. A voice something close to an opera star mixed with what I would imagine an angel’s voice would sound like permeated the air as Glendra opened her mouth. My whole body fizzed as words I did not recognise, but at a deeper level somehow understood, filled the room. Glenda then went on to interpret the messages she had sung into a meaningful message for the group and humanity as a whole.

Glenda’s messages and Sarah’s main theme of the night turned out to be the same – the need to engage the heart in everything we do. With all the changes we are going through and the chaos and upheaval we are experiencing – consciously and subconsciously – the message was that if we can operate from a position of love, then all will be OK. For me this echo’s the message that all the spiritual practices and religions were originally set up for before they engaged in their dogmas – that of compassion for our fellow man and all life.

To engage in the heart centred practice that the spiritual realm suggested through Glendra, and which Sarah spoke about, we apparently need to devote 20 minutes a day in meditation with the intention of opening up our heart area. This, for me is not some wild fancy idea, but is grounded also in science – by engaging our heart during meditation we also activate beneficial hormones and switch on the brain in a special way which brings about a change in consciousness (see the HeartMath research). All too often in our day to day lives we make decisions based on our brain alone. Surely this is a time when more is called for – a change of heart as it were? Reaching out to others in the process.

Our evening ended fully grounded with copious amounts of cake provided, as ever, by Sarah’s mother. Nothing like a sugar rush to ground the spirit and give that good all over feeling – as if we needed anymore after the evenings celebrations!

I finally crawled into bed at well past midnight. No wonder they call it the longest day! Today (24^th June), I have been on my second 'date with the artist’ only to hear the same message from the local Buddhist centre: to operate from a position of love and compassion at all times. So I’ll end this message sending out love to you all. With Love, Theresa xx

My First Date with an Artist nearly fell at the first hurdle last Friday, but my husband saved the day.

I had my first date all planned. The artist and I were supposed to be visiting the local Buddhist centre to spend a serene hour meditating followed by another pleasurable hour sitting in the retreat's beautiful garden sipping at a free cup of coffee and getting to know each other. When my husband checked the times for me though, we found out that the Buddhist centre was going to be closed that day for a private function. I was really disappointed and had resigned myself to staying in when my husband suggested I take the artist somewhere else.

So leaving my husband at home with the kids, the artist and I set off for the local town in search of spending quality time together. It felt a little weird and self-indulgent at first, but eventually we had a wonderful time. We did a bit of retail therapy, we did some people watching in the library, explored why the artist had become a recluse in the past and ended the afternoon by touring a fabulous collection of paintings by local artists, which my artist positively drooled over.

By now, you may be wondering why my husband would let me go off on a date with someone else? Perhaps I ought to explain who the artist is and how we met...

Recently, I came across a book called, The Artists Way. Well, actually ‘came across’ it is not strictly true - it feels as if the universe practically forced it upon me! So, let me start again... I first came across the book mentioned in one of my emails. I subscribe to Julia McCutchen's e-newsletter and that week she was featuring a teleseminar about both the book and the author, Julia Cameron. While the book sounded interesting at the time, my thoughts were, 'I’m not an artist' and so I ignored it. Then I came across a reference to the book when I was looking through some trance research notes I’d printed off from Wiki and I remember thinking, ‘I wonder what’s so special about this book, maybe I should take a look at it’, but I didn’t. Then a couple of weeks ago I was flicking through a book about trance when I saw The Artist’s Way mentioned again. ‘There's that damn title again. Why is everyone quoting it and what has it got to do with trance?’ I questioned.

Well, three times a charm they say and so I took the hint and decided to look it up on Amazon, but even then I still thought, ‘It’s really for artists (which I’m not), so why should I get it?’ Anyway, I duly put it on my wish list, as you do, thinking I’ll get it when I have some spare cash or if need to make up an order to qualify for Amazon’s free-delivery. The universe though obviously had other plans and two weekends ago literally dumped the book in my path.

That fateful weekend a local home-education group that we used to belong to was holding a craft fair and we decided to take an impromptu trip to it to support them. While I was standing chatting, catching up with old friends, a small second-hand bookstall caught my eye - and there it was, The Artist’s Way, sitting on top of a pile of tatty old books, just waiting to be found. (Even now, after all this time I still find I get a tingle when I experience moments of sychronicity like that.)

It cost 50p. So I picked it up and paid for it there and then, and started to read it as soon as we got in the car. I’ll no doubt share more about what’s inside over the next few weeks, but I just wanted to let you know about the artist… One of the tasks listed in the book is to find two totally self-indulgent hours in a week to go on a date with your own inner creative artist. By artist, Julia Cameron doesn’t just mean people who paint, but everyone. We are all creative, and all have an inner artist, but many of us have buried that aspect of ourselves and the goal is to bring that side of us back out into the open.

At first my thought was, ‘Yeah right! Where am I going to find two hours spare?’ But once I committed to the programme, I found it. After much creeping to my husband, he agreed to let me go off on my dates alone with my inner artist while he looks after the kids. I’m not sure what will happen each week, or where the tasks laid out in the book will ultimately take us - me and my artist - but after last Friday's experience, I’m already looking forward to my second date this Friday. All being well, the Buddhist centre will be open and we’ll get our meditation followed by a free cup of coffee sitting in the sunshine and I’ll hopefully get to know my artist a little bit more. I’ll keep you posted as to how we get on…