How can that be?

Well….. if you put things into perspective, the damage that the constant bad news stories about this crisis is doing, is potentially more harmful to our psyche.  According to health specialist Nick Haines, every time we hear a media report of another death, it is hard not to get triggered.  Even though our rational intellect reminds us that we are OK, as the news channels drip-feed the number of cases diagnosed, our sub-conscious mind gets into action. 

Nick, who was an acupuncturist for 35 years treating tens of thousands of patients, says our immune system, which every day is fighting off bacteria and viruses to keep us safe, goes into panic alert mode.  That’s when we start to create a stress response in our bodies which can compromise our own ability to keep well and fight off any outside intruding virus .. not just Corona. Fear starts to diminish our ability to keep well.

If there was a running total of deaths by all causes, every day, we would put this virus epidemic into the right perspective.  According to the What Doctors Don’t Tell You news report this week (reporting from New England Journal of Medicine), Corona Virus is likely no more deadly than seasonal flu which claims 650,000 worldwide every year.  Nick highlights that less than 3,500 deaths have happened from Corona Virus in the last 3 months since it hit the headlines.  Compare this total to the 1,200 who die, every single day, from suicide. If we had those two totals running along  like a meter on the TV news screens, people would more likely rush out and take on mental wellbeing as a massive priority. Instead many are considering cancelling travel, staying at home and self isolating. Whilst each Corona Virus death is tragic, we know it is those who are most vulnerable who are the most likely to die if diagnosed. We have to see that we have an obligation to keep ourselves well.

Nick Haines says this global scare is actually a wake-up call for each of us to look at how we are managing our wellbeing because for the majority of people, that is the key. What can we do consistently, every day, to be calm, well and resilient? Every single lifestyle and dietary choice is either moving us in the direction of wellness or away from it and towards disease. Everything we do every choice we make. The  disease of fear is as powerful as a virus. We need to lower our stress levels, be kind and take better care of ourselves. 

Unofficial Tips 

• Keep Calm and Carry on .. literally. Stress will make you ill. It wears down your adrenal glands and upsets your whole system, chipping away at your capacity to be resilient 
• Listen to Official Advice and yes…. do keep washing your hands
• Take really good care of yourself … look at what you are doing now to be kind to yourself and work out what better, and healthier, choices you can make
• Don’t be tempted to overload your house with germ-fighting chemicals. Tea Tree oil is a natural anti-bacterial while Colloidal Silver is anti-viral. Dissolve some in water to spray around anywhere that you think might have been exposed to virus carriers (everywhere probably). It is non-toxic.

It is definitely a case of taking on traditional British advice and “Keep Calm and Carry On”. Or , as we say in Yorkshire… put the kettle on and let’s have a brew.

 

 

London reunion of our Women’s Gathering entrepreneur community who first started meeting monthly in 2008

The women gathered .. again 

Who would have thought when a group of 16 women entrepreneurs had a first gathering back in 2008, 16 of us in a Weymouth Mews home, that so much love and connection would grow, and endure over the years. We supported each other through the ups and down of the re-invention journeys that most of us had embarked on. And guess what .. we have still not finished transforming. If we ever arrived at our destinations, we found there was another level to aim for. 

Although we stopped having monthly and frequent meetings about 8-9 years ago, we have had two or three special events in the last 5 years since Gina moved out of her London home, but our original co-host Mynoo has not been in the room with us since 2010!  What is beautiful is the fact that the years seemed to roll away. The gap of time, however long, did not matter. Since our original meet way back in April 2008 when we set out on a monthly schedule, we have come to know each other so well.  The eyes were being kind when someone said I had not changed but in truth, everyone looked the same.  We see what see!

Groundbreaking healer Mary Molloy, co-host Gina Lazenby and Conscious accounting pioneer Kay Westmoreland

Back in those early days, many of the women in the community were corporate refugees who had given up working for large companies or organisations and intended to go it alone. That was why we had all joined the XL Entrepreneur network because it is not always easy carving a new path for yourself, as many were finding out. As much as we loved the male entrepreneurs in our new community, we particularly enjoyed the small corner we formed that was women-only. Ilaria Poggesi had called out “What about a meeting just for women?!” and Mynoo and I immediately stepped up to volunteer our homes as spaces to gather .. private spaces for the deeper conversation and connection that we had all unknowing been craving.  

We became a fantastic resource for each other, sharing our skills, testing out our offerings on each other, creating joint ventures and providing much-needed sounding boards and advice. And so it has continued over the years in a looser way. Coming back together this February after the long gap, there was an immediate hunger for re-connection. It was a delight to share our triumphs and not only receive recognition but to have acknowledgment that we have survived well and thrived. 

The power of the community is our practice of sitting in a circle with each woman having time to share and receiving a full, deep listening from the group. It is empowering to be seen and heard by a community who know you and love you, and want to support you

Many women who joined the community at the start were embarking on marketing their newly developed healing skills and knowledge. That was not always easy but times move on and we evolve with them. Most of us continue to defy categorisation, especially when taking those healing hands and hearts back into the corporate arena, in a covert way,  where they are much needed but people generally don’t know what they need. Lesley shared how after many years of working in vibrational healing and finding that hard to create the space to do that work, she is now in the corporate communications department in one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects. She has returned to her original business skills but as a new woman with a greatly expanded repertoire of extra skills which her new employers will benefit from, for free most likely! Many of us are bringing several different disciplines together and have become beings beyond description. Perhaps Renaissance Women is what we are?

The timing for our gathering felt right and auspicious. So many delicious stories to share about what we have moved on to and where we are hoping to go. We all felt very blessed to be seen by colleagues and friends who have known us a long time, particularly over a period of significant growth and change. We also felt a sense that we need each other again … perhaps there is a different kind of need .. to be recognised along our journeys by kindred spirits. And we can always accept any help and support. 

As we stepped into our circle space it felt comfortable and familiar. We also welcomed two new members to our community: sex therapist Shekhina and our host Anna, a friend of Mynoo’s who, even though she had not met any of us, opened her beautiful Bayswater Mews home for our evening. Anna has agreed to host another gathering in the near future so we will work on a date for that. So much was exchanged that was helpful to each of us that if felt like a workshop! What about a whole weekend of this I suggested .. create our own workshop .. and that is something we could do in the Healthy Home. Gina will nominate a couple of possible dates and see if there is the energy to create a retreat for ourselves in Yorkshire and do a skills sharing for a couple of days away from the city in the Healthy Home Retreat. 

Compassionate Leadership

The Conscious Cafe Skipton community gathered in October with Emma Slade

Compassion and Leadership:  Bringing these two words and concepts together seems to trigger raised eyebrows. Do many of us fall into the trap of thinking like our speaker Emma Slade confided, that compassion is not a natural companion for leadership?  Perhaps we have seen so many examples of isolated, assertive, alpha male leadership that we just think that it is the norm? A complex discussion was opened up …..

A Journey through Compassion

In October we welcomed international yogi, teacher and author Emma Slade to take us on a journey through compassion, from her Buddhist perspective, and to explore nits potential for supporting leadership roles today. Emma joined our monthly Conscious Cafe Skipton at Avalon Wellbeing the evening before delivering a weekend retreat programme.  Since being ordained as a Buddhist nun, the first western woman to achieve this, she is also known as Ani Pema Deki. She has an incredible story to tell and this is most fruitfully discovered by reading her book ‘Set Free: A Life-Changing Journey From Banking to Buddhism in Bhutan’.She is also CEO of the charity “Opening Your Heart to Bhutan”which she founded to focus on helping children in need in the Himalayan kingdom.

Firstly – what is Compassion?  “Compassion is a mental state endowed with a sense of concern for others and the wish to see that suffering relieved.”This is the Buddhist interpretation. There are three motivations for Compassion:

• Cognitive – ‘I understand with you.’
• Affective – ‘I feel for you.’
• Motivational – ‘I want to help you.’

These motivations, or wishes, will potentially lead to a shift from simply ‘Me’ to ‘Me andYou’ which becomes an understanding of ‘US and notions of WE.’  This shift to a more inclusive, collective thinking is perhaps the biggest challenge to our traditional thinking about what a leader is.

What do we think the role of a leader is?  Emma asked us to consider this question in our Cafe discussion groups and to start with these possible categorisations:

1. To lead by example?
2. To give us wisest guidance – to tell us what to do?
3. To bring out the best in each individual?
4. To inspire others around a shared vision?

Have we ever considered leadership in the ‘We’ inclusive form?

Emma said that the Buddhist texts contain only a few references to leadership and mostly in the context of letters to leaders like the King. They mainly focus on the pressure leaders have with a great deal of power and telling people what to do with their “wisest guidance”.

The seeds of a Compassionate leader can be seen here in the concept of Level 5 Leadership:  Celebrated business author Jim Collins gives us a good insight into a different kind of leadership that is successful. He looked at why some companies go from good to great and the role of leaders in making that happen. Those instrumental in taking their companies to ‘greatness’ were known in Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great”as ‘Level 5 Leaders’. He said these individuals were able to mix two apparently conflicting qualities; great ambitionand personal humility. Their ambition was less personal for the SELF and more for the enterprise.  While Level 5 leaders can come in many personality packages, they are often self-effacing, quiet, reserved, and even shy. Every good-to-great transition in Collins’ research began with a Level 5 leader who motivated the enterprise more with inspired standards than inspiring personality.  Perhaps in this business language we begin to find the seeds of the Compassionate Leader.

How to develop these two qualities?  From the Buddhist point of view, whenever we talk about the conscious development of anything, we talk about the Root (or the ground), then the Path and followed by the Result.  These three levels of development provide a good structure for thoughtabout anything, including our leadership conversation.

• More than being nice.The study of Compassion has been very much part of Emma Slade’s journey and personal development. She says people can be quite fuzzy about it not realising that it is something that can be developed.  It is much more than just being “nice”. From a Buddhist point of view it has a very rigorous training. It starts from having a Bodhisattva intention, that is the idea of shifting ultimately from ‘me’ orientated to being connected and ‘we’ orientated. It is an essential shift in thinking. Even when thinking thoughts of peacefulness and calmness, if you are just thinking them for yourself it is not really being compassionate.  That is notgoing to take you from good to great.

• “Who am I doing this for?” You always start any practice thinking about this question. The notion of shifting from me-to-we is always going to be in the Root of it. Once you have shifted your thinking from me-to-we then then how big is We? It’s limitless so it is termed immeasurable. Therefore, in order to respond to that immeasurable number of beings, the mind needs to have an immeasurable quality. That is sensible and appropriate.  The first quality to develop is Loving Kindness which means care and love for other beings.  Once you care and love other beings then of course compassion will follow so it is easier. If you love someone you do not wish them to suffer.

• Love is the Root,the immeasurable basis. From that compassion will naturally arise, you will not need to have to force it.

• The need to be impartial.To start with the idea of immeasurable beings, we do have to develop a mind of impartiality and usually all of our human emotions are highly partial. We do tend to treat people differently when we feel that some people are more deserving of our love than others.

• Animpartial attitude of loving kindness must be developed, and to do that it is important to recollect the kindness that has been given to us by so many other sentient beings… and particularly in the Buddhist text the usual example is that of the Mother (or main care-giver). The detailed and practical example given of the Mother cites care that is given with some degree of hardship. That loving care required the Mother to have determination, patience and huge dedication of energy and time. All parents will understand this archetypal energy. Hardship is invariably experienced when dedicated care is given, even when this means things like lack of sleep.

• Expansion of limits.To understand compassion more deeply, we are invited to consider how the Mother was able to expand her own limits to give, and continue giving, when it is difficult. Feeding a child before one feeds oneself is a very practical demonstration of compassion.  In Buddhist terms, we are encouraged to see and treat all beings as if they have been our Mother.   The Buddhist teaching is literal but we can imagine how to apply the metaphor.

• Understand the Causes.Looking at the Root, the Path and Result, in Compassion practice, one wishes others to be free from suffering AND its causes because it is as important to examine what causes suffering as it is to want to relieve the suffering itself. When we more deeply understand the sufferer and the cause of the suffering, our response can be more appropriate.

• Use the Power of Mother Love.The meditation practices for this are highly practical and visual examples of situations where your concern for your own mother would naturally arise. Based on the understanding that the love your mother has shown you, looking at that in very practical ways, understanding that she might be tired and needing support when she can no longer walk or she herself is in pain .. so the texts describe how you can step in to save the suffering of your mother.

• The practice of compassion is seen to be perfected when one has done these two things:
• Fully purified yourself from self-clinging
• From the depths of one’s mind (our most inner mind) one desires all beings to be free from suffering.

The Buddha of Compassion: The visual expression of this perfected compassion is seen in the mind of Chenrezig, the most revered of all Bodhisattva, embodying the Buddha of Compassion. The image of him is depicted as having a thousand arms which is an attempt to show the mind of compassion as being unlimited and immeasurable. The multiple arms help to relieve the many who suffer and the causes of suffering. The palms of the hands have an eye which shows an ability to see, and not turning away, being able to respond. The face is very calm showing that the mind is very stable. Even though this entity is in the midst of profound suffering, the mind is still calm. This image is used frequently in meditation to help provide a tangible focus for developing greater compassion.

Feedback on discussing Compassionate Leadership: “Enormous”, “tricky” and “daunting subject”. Most groups found the subject to be huge, getting bigger the more it was discussed.  In a nutshell, it seems to be complicated and triggers many deeper and wide-ranging conversations. 

Feedback on groups discussing Compassionate Leadership:  “Enormous”, “tricky” and “daunting subject”. Most groups found the subject to be huge, getting bigger the more it was discussed.  In a nutshell, it seems to be complicated and triggers many deeper and wide-ranging conversations.

Different types of Leadership:  Looking around, leadership is not just happening at work in our organisations.  The church, for example, is full of leadership levels and ultimately, the Pope, has recently set an example of true compassion by shifting the Catholic Church from denial that paedophiles were among the ranks, to advocating an acceptance of the truthand a desire for the family of the church to move forward. Family life is led by parents who guide their children with their values.  Good leadership in family life is crucial for the next generation.

Leading by Example:  We are familiar with the old adage that you should “do as you would be done by”. And yet, treating others as we would wish to be treated carries an assumption that what is right for us, is also right for others. A Compassionate leadership approach would also involve empathy and a listening for what is really neededin each situation .. not necessarily what we ‘think” is needed. Our responses will be most appropriate if we take the time to truly understand othersand their particular needs.

Compassionate Leaders are Rare:  Compassionate does not seem to be a normal or usual description of a leader. Some people gave examples of their surprise when they came across individuals for whom they had worked whose actions displayed compassion.

What isa Compassionate Leader?  Compassion is not seen as a management competency, rather, it is a human skill that good leadership benefits from.

A number of traits and values were identified as being part of a profile for Compassionate leaders we have known:

• Honesty is key
• Authentic
• Humility
• Have integrity
• They work for the highest good
• Treat people with equal respect
• Is able to have courage to acknowledge their own mistakes
• They take responsibility, not blaming others
• A person who has the courage to express their core values while at work

Techniques for Embedding Compassion:  Knowing your people. This seems to be a key aspect of being a Compassionate leader. How to do this? Making it your business to know your people is a start … being interested in them and valuing the knowledge you have about them. Informal listening as well as formal conversations helps. Making surepeople feel heard by deep listeningis important. Taking time to start formal meetings with a “Check-in’ allows people the time and space to share what is going on for them. If everyone has the chance to share it helps to build a sense of loving kindness into the culture.

Compassionate Leadership is also about Tough Love:  It is not about being kind and nice to everyone. Tough decisions have to be made so it is not about softness. There are times when individuals have to be let go from a business, perhaps where they are causing disruption and making others suffer. It was acknowledged that such individuals would be helped but at the bottom line, sometimes it can be more compassionate to removed a person from a job and let them go. Tough love is about caring for somebody enough to help them see the truth.

Compassionate Economics:  When we look at our modern economy based on people being seen as consumers, and goods being produced as cheaply as possible, somewhere in the supply chain, it is likely that there is suffering. Cheap labour can have a high price that the end consumer does not necessarily pay. If we are to create a more compassionate world then it is important to look at what is hidden in our current notion of supply and demand economics. Creating change in this deeply embedded system requires individual acts of courage to ensure everyone is treated with respect. Anyone who steps forward to create change here, would be seen as a Compassionate Leader.

What happens when the Culture is not Compassionate?  Again, few organisations seems to be worthy of the description of being compassionate. In the average office, compassion is not necessarily part of the culture even when the organisation is non-profit. Very often it is not safe for a person to be their authentic self. In these circumstances, it can be even more difficult for an individual to go against the grain and be a Compassionate leader. It takes courage to make a stand and be authentic. Cultures don’t change without a struggle. Today, more and more millennials and young people are looking to work for organisations that do show compassion and allow authentic expression.

What does it take to be Compassionate?  Fully understanding the Buddhist perspective on being compassionate, we can see that it is important to really look and see the reality of the suffering that is happening around us and in the world.  Where do you decide to put your compassion on a daily basisso that you do not feel in overwhelm? Who do you support .. how do you handle moral dilemmas? It is easy to be kind and make someone a cup of tea but when circumstances get really difficult that is when we are really testing and trying helps us. We have to look and see what is happening in our own minds. The Root, the starting point, must be stable to provide a firm foundation for our subsequent response and action. We cannot be wavering in our response to suffering. You can indeed transform your capacity to be compassionate with mind training such as is advocated by the Buddhist teachings.

In summary.. it seems that we are seeing the beginning of change in our leaders and leadership styles. Having a deeper understanding of what compassion actually is, through this Buddhist thinking, and how it can be developed in uses enormously helpful. Starting with daily acts of Loving Kindness, we can bring Compassionate Leadership to our roles.

Conscious Cafe Host Gina Lazenby with Emma Slade (Ani Pema Deki) and Lisa Milnor who organised the weekend retreat

Emma signs copies of her book Set Free

Expand your idea of what Intelligence is

Our biggest gathering so far with over 50 of us at the Avalon Centre for Wellbeing & Transformation

For September’s Conscious Cafe meet up in Skipton we had Jan Cisek explaining how to increase our spiritual health by increasing our spiritual intelligence.  Understanding the theory is important for understanding but practice is key. However, the more we can understand spiritual intelligence, the better our practice will be.

The event was broadcast on Facebook live in two sessions. We recorded Jan’s opening presentation (about 20 mins) but we don’t record contributions from the audience. A second video (about 30 mins) continues with Jan, after the group did a sharing exercise and gave feedback. Click on the links. It’s well worth watching.

Intelligence has been linked to learning and knowledge but we do have many different intelligences, with IQ being just one. You might have heard of emotional intelligence but add to that anything that you are really good at and have developed skills for, it means you have developed that intelligence .. like parenting, musical, social, mathematical, kinesthetic, physical for sport, logic, visual, artistic and reflective.  

Jan particularly highlighted reflective intelligence as being the most important here because it teaches us HOW to learn and how to evolve. As an individual person we are composed of many different parts made up of these multiple intelligences. (Take some time to consider what you various intelligences are … it will be a good boost to personal self esteem).

There are now about 4,000 papers written about the benefits of spirituality and religion. To begin with no distinction was made between the two, so both aspects are studied but we now know there is a difference as religious study has more about dogma.

The next frontier of learning is how we can boost our spiritual health. Physical, mental and emotional health are accepted ideas that have been well understood now it is timely for us to start to understand more about spiritual wellbeing.

Government-backed programme

This is the first time the government has backed a learning programme in spirituality and the resulting education development has been led by author and mystical education specialist William Bloom. With this diploma, Jan Cisek says he can train people to boost their spiritual wellbeing in schools and hospitals. He recommends it as a good option for a new career choice.

 

What is spirituality?

A most useful definition, based on scientific research, is a blend of three key things which overlap: Connection to a bigger life; Peace of Mind and Care and Compassion.

 

Spiritual and Personal development differ

In spiritual development we are asking questions about who we are, discovering ourselves, asking “who am I?”.  Whereas, in personal development our focus is about creating ourselves, asking questions about  “who do I want to become?” 

Spiritual development is more about waking up to our spiritual nature and our sense of being alive. It’s also timeless, whereas personal development is where we learn to grow up and is much more temporary as we keep growing and changing. It’s the human part of being a human being. Fixing problems in your life is probably best done by focusing on personal development.  It’s only really in the last 25 years that we have made distinctions between these two.

Stages of personal development

The journey we make through our life from early on as a baby, from what is called an ‘archaic’ stage, through a ‘magical’ stage (yes that’s when we believe in Santa Claus!)… to a mythic stage (believing in Gods and beings) to ‘ethnocentric’ where we register our belonging to family and tribe, then ‘world-centric’ as we expand to know our place in the world and finally Kosmo-centric where we feel at one with the world.

States of consciousness

All spiritual traditions, whatever language they use, will agree on this progression of states, starting with simply being awake. Another state we are familiar with is dreaming and some of us may have access to lucid dreaming, where we actually feel in control of what we are dreaming about.  Every night we also know that we drop down into the sleep state. Another state is ‘witnessing” where you are aware of yourself and the world around you and ultimately there is the stage of ‘non-dual oneness’ you feel at one with the world, and there is no separation.  Research suggests that 60% of people have actually experienced this non-dual oneness and enlightenment although they may not have known it at the time. 

In the witnessing state, your consciousness expands and you become aware of the room or space that you are in.. it’s when you move to the next level that you realise that you and the room are one. Witnessing means that you realise the mountain is inside of you, non-dual oneness is when you realise you are the mountain .. you are everything. Physics is actually catching up with this notion. This concept of oneness is not an illusion. The illusion is that we are separate. On a quantum level we are all one. Don’t get hung up on terminology .. there are many different ways to express the same thing. So, how do we get to these timeless higher states of witnessing and oneness? Until now religion has been responsible for studying these higher states but now science is interested. We have the technology to hook people to machines and measure internal brain wave patterns. A new exciting future is opening up for all of us.

How does it feel to be in these states?

Feelings and emotions are different. Feeling is an awareness of an emotion. I feel angry means that I am aware that I am angry.

Deep sleep is a very refreshing state and we need to aim to have that by optimising our environment for it. Witnessing is a state where we feel bliss, peace and inclusiveness, and this is quite an accessible state. Non-Dual oneness, spoken about in many different traditions gives us access to feelings of love, fullness and completeness.

 

What is the function of spirituality?

Connection: this gives us mindfulness, access to oneness, trust and faith making us more relaxed, and gives us energy. When there is a feeling of separation there is always fear so if we can feel connected and in tune with oneness we can leave that fear behind.

Peace of Mind:  We have clarity, we feel easier and relaxed, it’s good for our health, and helps us focus.

Care and Compassion: this is about your Life Purpose, where we feel our lives have meaning, being of service and focusing on a vocation.

 

 

 

To download a copy of this manual click here

EXERCISE (Page 4 of the handout manual)

Take a few minutes to answer these three questions (there are no right or wrong answers):

1. Connection: In what circumstances do you most easily connect with the wonder and energy of life? Think about what triggers you .. you don’t need a big list.
2. Inner Peace: How do you get that inner peace .. what do you do to get it?
3. Care & Compassion: When and where have you enjoyed caring for someone of something?

Finding the route to a state of bliss

Brought up in a Catholic family in a small town in Poland, right at a very young age Jan asked himself three questions. They came into his head after praying, and bored after repeatedly praying the same prayers, these questions dropped in and he found himself in a state of bliss. 

• What is beyond God?
• What would the world look like if I didn’t exist?
• What is infinity and eternity?

The bliss state can be triggered by asking powerful questions. Even listening to birds singing can do that also, and recent research has highlighted that listening to the natural sound of birds can be as good as meditation. Explore and find your own route to bliss. By knowing that meditation is not the ONLY route, this can validate any route that is personal to you. Create as many triggers was you can to get into that state. Meditation is not always easy! It is simple but not easy and some people can find it really difficult. Persevere gently but don’t pursue this if it is a real stressor for you. Know that there are other routes.

Create Sacred Space in your home

• Biophilia effect – connecting with the power of nature. In hospitals, research has found that beds nearer the window helped patients recover more quickly.
• Illusion of landscape is almost as good as the real thing … use photographs and murals where no good views of nature are available.
• Forest-Bathing – being out in the woods in a slow mindful way is very restorative
• Plants in your home: air cleansing plants include spider and lily. They boost creativity .. plenty of research from NASA.
• Shapes shape our reality: nothing in nature is straight and humans never walk in a straight line. People will usually express a preference, both consciously and unconsciously, for curves rather than angles and straight lines.
• Soft words are associated with soft lines and the opposite with harsh words and sharp objects.
• Round shapes in your home will increase a sense of wholeness and completeness in your space.
• Fractality: a measure of complexity where mathematically, self similar patterns expand out, repeating themselves. Nature is fractal. Snowflakes are fractal. Our brains are fractal. We see fractals playing out in our environment: people respond differently to straightforward boxy buildings with lines as opposed to older buildings with curved decoration and ornamental additions. These are so much more pleasing to us, and therefore calming. Add decorative details with beautiful complexity in your home.

 

 

• Schumann Resonance:  The earth resonates at this frequency of 7.83Hz. There is some fluctuation. Your brain has a similar frequency. If you can stimulate your brain with this frequency you can become relaxed and experience healing.
• Grounding: walking barefoot is actually recommended by the NHS to connect with this Schumann resonance. Even better when the grass is wet. Indoor floors have more grounding for you when they are made of ceramic rather than concrete, lino or wood.  Taking a bath is also grounding. It helps re-adjust you having been exposed to electro-magnetic fields all day. Bathing in water takes you away from these more harmful fields. Salt and magnesium can be added to our bath.
• Sleep: how many 90-minute cycles you can achieve in a night is better than the total length of sleep. Regular deep sleep is the biggest key to health. DNA is replaced in deep sleep as well as detoxing of the body, and mind. Light disturbs melatonin production and this inhibits deeper sleep. Have a dark bedroom. Even a small speck of light (one photon) is disturbing. Red light does not have the dame disturbance. Blue and white lights are very intrusive to sleep.
• 

  Read more about sleep and all about electromagnetic fields in Gina Lazenby’s best-selling book

  EMF pollution: Wifi is on the electromagnetic spectrum and your brain interprets it as light. Turn the router OFF for deeper sleep. Earthing mats can help with grounding in an office. We are all sensitive .. our bodies are electromagnetic instruments .. some of us are much more sensitive than others. Electrosensitive people may have to wear special clothing and live in shielded environments. Don’t get a smart meter for your electricity. Educate yourself.

• Electrosmog – how much more radiation penetrates your body today compared to ten years ago ? A quintillion times .. 18 zeros!
• Mobiles: 4 minutes on a mobile can adversely affect your brain. So much research has been done. Don’t wear a mobile on your body, if you do wear  one do so in a back pocket, not a front one. Use a speaker phone or hands-free cable.
• Geopathic stress:  disturbance in the earth’s Schumann Resonance field can create energy lines harmful to health. Helios machines can correct this. Available from http://thehealthyhome.com/online-store/
• Inspiring images: use these in your home to connect you to a bigger context of life. Reminding you of where you are in the universe.

 

What’s Next? … Consciousness Studies on the rise

We are on our way to recognising consciousness.  So many studies have been done, outside of religion. We are moving away from a self-centric world to one where we become consciousness-centric. It’s a big and ongoing shift. The next thing to be prepared for is the revelation and discovery that alien life actually exists.

Recommended Books coming out soon: 

“Diamonds from Heaven: LSD and the mind of the universe by Prof Christopher Bache

 

The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes

 

WATCH Jan Cisek’s presentation recorded for Facebook Live 

Video 1 on facebook (21 minute video)

Video 2 on Facebook (30 minute video)

 

Don’t forget you can download a copy of the 40-page A4 manual that Jan Cisek brought with him here

Next event with Conscious Cafe Skipton is “Conscious Leadership” on 10th October. More here.

 

and finally my recipe for the gluten-free muffins I baked .. Recipe Conscious Cafe Sept Muffins Gluten free.

A Meditation Exercise – Sitting in pairs acts to amplify your practice, together

 

our biggest group ever at Conscious Cafe Skipton – at the Avalon Centre for Wellbeing

We had a throughly enjoyable evening in Skipton with philosopher Tim Freke in July, when he gave a lively presentation about the concept of spirituality based on his own experience and almost five decades of research. He said that we don’t need to work hard and aspire to a connection with Oneness. That is something that can actually happen quickly and joyfully and it is only a belief system that says it takes a long time with lots of hard work to attain a lofty spiritual plane. His own spontaneous spiritual connection as a child opened him to that idea of soul connection through joy.

He talked about a new form of spirituality being needed to take humanity forward. Something that is empowering and one where we can have a new language that helps us to understand our soul connection to each other. There is no need to enrol people to something like a religion. We all have our own individual journeys and each one is valid. It is all about the love we feel and can share, creating space for each other to be, without judgement, and to come together in acceptance and community.

Tim’s 45 minute introduction to his ideas about a new spirituality that is needed and which is emerging, was broadcast and recorded on Facebook LIVE on the Conscious Cafe Skipton page. Unfortunately, although the recording is good and worth watching, the camera transmitted the broadcast sideways. That is not good for the neck .. watching sideways!  It is worth watching (click here) and I have taken the time to transcribe what Tim talked about. It gave me an opportunity to refresh and go deeper with Tim’s ideas and I got a lot of value and insights from that. I encourage you to watch the broadcast and/or read the transcript below.  After the intro, Tim then led the group in a meditation process in pairs. This was not recorded but there are notes about it at the end of the blog.

The Big Question

Tim Freke opened up our evening, and our minds with the big question. What is it that we wake up to every day? What is this experience of LIFE?

The answer is …..We don’t know. But what we do do, like everyone else through history, is buy into the ideas of the age …. whatever teachings are prevalent at the time guiding us about the experience of being alive. How do we find out if there is much more to existence than simply the birth-to-death journey that we are all on in  this large universe? Our vision of what this experience is now, is completely different to100 years ago. Back then we thought our world was part of THE universe but now we have come to realise that our universe is simply part of a galaxy with 100 billion others. Life is enormous.

Be Open in the Not Knowing

During this evening Tim asked us to be open in the not-knowing and he would provide us with some of his best guesses. He has spent all his life pursuing this big question. Whilst we don’t know, we pretend that we do. Then, for some people ….something happens ….. and the mystery gets us, just for a moment, and we wake up to the “Wow!”   And that’s when we realise that we are alive. This is the awakening, the understanding of the experience that is life. 

Finding the Deep Awake

This waking up moment happened to Tim at aged 12 when he sat on a hilltop puzzling over the question of what life is. He saw this awakening through the innocent eyes of a child wondering why none of the grown-ups ever talked about what life actually is. Something happened to him in that moment and he woke up. Suddenly he was in a different state of consciousness which he calls the Deep Awake. And when that shift takes place for anyone, there is a profound sense of oneness with the thing that we call Love.

He said he could feel the whole universe pulsating. He wondered if anybody else noticed that as well. He later realised that the answer to the really big question about life is actually an experience, it’s a “Wow!”  Then he wondered how could he get back to that, how could he go deeper then how could he take others with him? 

Experiencing the moment of “Wow!” is Natural

For 48 years that has been Tim Freke’s quest. He has studied a lot of spiritual traditions going into each and finding out, peeling away the layers of culture trying to find a place where one day the experience is one of “Wow!” .. the moment where you feel that everything is one and everything is Love. So how can we understand this awakening now, today, so that it is not just about words and archaic practices?  So that it is about actual shifts that we can experience for ourselves? It is something that can happen to anybody at any time. The profound experience of “Wow!” is something completely natural. It does not have to happen in a church or temple. 12 year old Tim was not reading a holy Scripture at the time, he was simply sitting on a hill. His realisation was that this awakening is simply a natural part of being human.

A New Form of Spirituality called for

Tim says what we need today in the 21st century, is a new form of spirituality which can genuinely speak to science. One which is no longer antagonistic but which is a heart based, inspirational spirituality. One that can be intellectually robust and rational, and can actually engage with the incredible scientific knowledge that we have achieved. That is what Tim wants to put together. What story do we tell that will bring it all together?

Evolution is Making our Lives Significant Now

Tim says it’s important to understand why our lives are so significant. If we can understand the grandeur of what it is to be a human being, we can actually bring something significant to life. And more people can experience what he experienced on the hilltop, that feeling of kindness and connection. The latest information from the frontiers of science say that what we are in, or at the end of, is 13.8 billion years of evolution. We are certainly in an evolving consciousness. At the beginning all there was was hydrogen. And ultimately billions of years later here we are, us as human beings. He quoted Brian Swimme saying “take hydrogen and wait long enough …. that’s what we humans are now”

Consciousness is Evolving Faster

Four billion years ago life started on earth and there has been continual emergence since then. We are in a huge creative process. Once there was not even water, when that arrived life started then carbon came into existence, then sentience and then consciousness. That emergence process has not stopped. It is happening now but faster than ever before because it is exponential in its expansion. 

We Experience the Material and the Non-material all the Time

Hydrogen is the basis of matter and through an extraordinary process has led to us as humans and the experience we are currently having, which is psyche. Right now we are experiencing the material nature of the universe as matter and also experiencing it at another level .. it is something else which holds our thoughts, images, ideas. It is a different completely different type of experience to sensation and it is not local to us like our physicality. These experiences are through the psyche, a Greek name, with the Latin version being called Soul. Soul is a non-material elements of reality that we are experiencing all the time.

The Soul is not simply a Byproduct of Matter

Tim explained that the process of evolution has taken the basic matter of hydrogen through biology to the level of Soul which is not made of matter but a whole different dimension of reality. All the action today is taking place in the Soul. The Soul is evolving really fast. Everything that has been through Soul, has been through the imagination. This narrative is different to what the spiritual traditions teach and is controversial to scientists. What Tim is asking science to consider is the possibility that this realm of Soul is not just a byproduct of a piece of matter. Science has such a reductionist approach. When scientists consider our feelings of love they say it’s simply chemicals in the brain.  The whole point of the emergent universe is that it cannot be reduced, which is the problem with science. As a human we may be made of chemicals but we are not just chemicals. In this creative process there is always more, and the more cannot be reduced. 

The  Non-material Realm of Spirituality Needs to be Explored

Spirituality has always been to do with this non-material realm which you can explore through meditation and other spiritual practices like shamanic journeys, creativity and dreams. This is a whole reality which is not to be reduced. Imagination is the most emergent level of reality so you can’t refer to it as that as just imagination. All this is where evolution has come to. So Tim Freke is asking science not to reduce it. This reality of imagination that spirituality has been exploring needs to be treated as its own reality just like the biological sphere, or the physical sphere. What Tim is saying to spirituality is …. you need to let go of the idea of the ‘fall’, because the traditional spiritual idea says that the spiritual imagination realm has existed forever and we have simply fallen from it. We have fallen into the body and life is simply a big mistake.

A New Narrative is Called For

For many, the narrative has been .. “God had a dream, he got lost in the dream and your body is simply a tomb ..”  according to Plato. Fundamentally, all the spiritual traditions are negative with narratives about falling from Grace. What this new story does is say “No, it is not negative. We have not fallen from this”. Rather … we are emerging into this. We are in an incredibly creative cosmic process that got us from hydrogen to having a conversation about hydrogen! 

Meaning Comes From the Soul Level

The evolutionary process has got us from basic matter to this non-material realm. As we look at Tim standing before us, we are conscious that in the world of sensation and biology, we are looking at Tim, but essentially, he says he is just a monkey wearing funny clothes making funny noises. In the realm of soul or psyche, what we are feeling is meaning. There is no meaning in the funny noises. The meaning is in the non-material realm of Soul because meaning is an emergent reality that arrives with Soul. That is where it comes from that is where it arrives to. 

Evolution Has Now Made us Individuals

Tim suggests what got us from the beginning of the universe to this moment now, is not over. It continues and it has led to this incredible evolution of imagination. It has happened  through a process of individuation. So if you go back to the hydrogen beginning, when one hydrogen atom is the same as another….. by the time you get to the evolution of the biological world, things are getting very individual. The human being recognises it is different to a tree. Then we recognise that we are all different from each other. 

The Journey of Individuation Brought us to Ourselves

As the universe has individuated, it has become more and more conscious through that process, as it has objectively become more individual, it has subjectively become more individual. And we have just been through, and are still in, the most enormous period of individualism. It is astonishing what has happened in the last hundred years, it is unprecedented. We have thrown off centuries, millennia of conditioning. Even having the human divided into two different sexes is an utter revolution, when compared to our beginnings. Look at old media footage and see how everyone 80-100 years ago, was more or less the same …  you could tell the difference between people by looking at their hat and work out what class they belonged to. We have now individuated incredibly. We have become ourselves and there has been huge value in that but it has also left us quite isolated and in some ways, split off from each other.

Becoming Conscious of Unity 

The phase of evolution we are now entering is the emergence of what Tim calls “uni-individuals”. There is no word currently for what we are becoming. An individual who is conscious of unity. And this process is now happening very, very fast. 

Life Is Better Than we Think

Among all this wonder we are not seeing the good evolving in the world. We have an extraordinary propensity for thinking that things are much worse than they are. Most people think the world is going down the pan. Actually, things have been getting steadily better on just about every count, decade after decade. Often older people talk about the world as being terrible. Today, there is a generation of English men who have never been to war, which means they are part of only a few in the history of this country. Western Europe is in peace, the first time in the whole of history. 

Positive News is Getting Lost but .. Monumental Change has been Happening

Things are actually better than we think. Because we are programmed to look for danger, that is what we see. We particularly do this as a parent, to protect our children from danger. Now we have 24 hour news and the thing that gets people’s attention most, are problems. We are getting overloaded with negativity. And it is skewing our vision of what the world is really like. Yes there are some things to be concerned about but we also need to step back and go “Wow! … Look at how good this is no!. Look at what our ancestors have achieved for us. Look at what we are able to enjoy now because of what they did, going into their imagination, imagining beautiful things and then making them happen. And now we have a world better than humans have ever enjoyed”. Mortality is lower, poverty is lower, we have made unbelievable improvements there, and most children get an education. Look at what the process of evolution has been doing, by human beings engaging with it and bringing their attention and love to it. We have achieved monumental changes.

A New Human is Becoming

What is behind all that is the rising of a new human being. The uni-vidual from individual with a sense of oneness. A lot of people now genuinely care about other human beings on the other side of the planet, people who they will never meet, who are suffering. Why are they doing this because it’s never happened before in history? In other periods of history, it was common to hate your immediate neighbour, let alone those on the other side of the world. You would simply steal and take the things you needed from your neighbours.  Most human groups survived by being pirates because it was the quickest way to get stuff. Before the Iraq war, millions of people came out onto the streets to protest. This rising action of compassion for strangers is part of a new phenomenon and we need to notice of events like this. 

The environment is something that large numbers of people focus on now.  For most of history, the natural world was something we needed to engage with and was fundamentally dangerous. Look at some countries today and see how nature and animals are treated. We have moved so far in that, we don’t even notice. Now we care. We have cross species compassion. This is worth noticing. Underneath it, much smaller but highly significant, more and more human beings are having awakenings and spiritual experiences like 12 year old Tim. They are realising that there is one of us. We are coming to understand “I am the universe as me, meeting the universe as you”.

We are Increasingly Recognising our Oneness – a Deep Connection 

What else could we be but the universe itself?! More and more people understand this concept now, it is no longer abstract. They know what that is. What comes with that recognition of oneness? It is Love. That’s what we feel when we experience oneness. We feel the separateness from each other when we see another individual and we also recognise the connection. We are becoming more and more connected as souls so we can feel a connection We feel it as kindness and empathy, beyond just the person into the universal. 

When we wake up to this profoundness, so that we feel at one with everyone and everything, when that happens there is this big unconditional, universal love. When we come into that oneness and we are the universe, it is possible to do what the 2000-year-old Christian tradition has advocated and that is … love our enemies. 

Deepening our Understanding Moves us to the Next Level

The cutting edge of the universe is the individuation that created you and me. We are the most individuated aspects of the universe.  What marks out our individuation, is not just our bodies, but this other level of individual individuality which is Soul, the imagination, the place of conversation, ideas, understanding. Our job now is to take it to the next level. Having individuated, now we need to see that we can be soul conscious. Understand ‘I am more than me’.  If we can do that, we can make a shift in the way we are the way we understand what’s happened to us. That will fundamentally shift the way that human culture is. 

A New Understanding to Unite Science and Spirituality 

Tim spends his life talking about ideas. He says a new understanding of the nature of reality is coming and when it comes, it will be as big a shift for the evolution of human culture as the arrival of science was 400 years ago. Just look at what that did to change human culture. It changed everything. It went beyond the dreams of everyone. If we can come up with an understanding that unites science and spirituality, that this is not a random universe in which your life has no meaning, that you’re here for a short time and then gone but rather we are in a profoundly meaningful unfolding of potentiality in which new things have been emerging in ever deeper ways all the time and the leading edge of that right now is you. And the leading edge of the leading edge is your soul recognising that it is actually at one with everything. 

Connection and Compassion is Part of our Soul Awakening

Spiritual awakening is not about going up mountains. Spiritual awakening is not something that happened over 2,000 years ago. Spiritual awakening is something that happens to the soul when it is mature enough to realise that although it is individual, it is an expression of the universe and with that recognition, this connection with everything, is enormous compassion. This is how we are moving to a culture of kindness. To be able to hold all the less emergent levels (which we have to as the rules of physics over our bodies do not go away) …we each have to live with all the less emergent levels within ourselves.

The Future is What we Emerge and Create

We have to live with all aspects of ourselves. Somehow we keep evolving. What we are in right now is an “OMG!” situation.  It’s something enormous. We need to see it and then engage with it. The way we can engage with it best is to use that creativity of soul to transform ourselves and the culture we are in. Is all this evolution inevitable? No. The future is coming but it’s always creative. Inevitability takes away creativity. We get to create the future. There’s huge momentum and there’s a lot of things playing against it as well. How do we respond? That will create the story.

That is why everything matters.

How can we transform the experience we are already having? The sense that we are one as well as two, separate and together as one, is to connect profoundly with each other. The key thing when we look at each other is what we see, how we pay attention. Maybe we don’t notice much or we do really pay attention. That’s a choice. Look at a unique face of another human, full of all their experiences, personality ….. that’s the body. We don’t just connect with a face.  What we are really connecting with we can’t actually see. The soul of the other. Full of memories, hopes, fears, stories. We can’t see those but that is what we are connecting with. 

Right now something you can’t see is connecting with something you can’t see, through you and the other person. It happens all the time, Soul with Soul. Connecting through the looking at each other. It becomes different if we pay attention. If I really pay attention and sink into my universal nature my uni-viduality, I am the universe looking at the universe. There’s just one of us looking at itself. The one is connecting with the one by being two.

Any form of spiritual practice is supported by meditation. Many people struggle with this .. trying to do it the right way and quieting their mind. There are so different ways of connecting with spirit and meditation, in its many forms, is just one of them.  Yes, most people worry that they get mind-drift. It is common so you just keep choosing where you put your awareness. Awareness is simply focussed attention. Keep coming back to that choice.

Instead of solitary practice, meditating with another person is a very powerful way of connecting with spirit using a deep connection with that other person, almost like an amplifier. Tim talked about creating a magical space, an environment that is set up specifically so you can feel safe meditating together for a soul intimacy and deeper connection into the oneness with another person.

Sitting across from another person, in the stillness, with no expression, without judgement .. no data is being exchanged. This moment provides an opportunity for a high level of self acceptance.

At first, the lack of reaction feels blank but there is so much more going on within. Once you settle in, the experience is rich.  The story starts to drop and we see the deepness inside the self. The narrative just fades away.  You begin to realise that you are who you are. It’s as simple as that. The beauty of being with someone else in this process is that you realise the beauty you see within someone else, you have the hope that they see the same in you.

Always thinking ..

Tim says we spend far too much time in cognitive thinking. He says that spirituality today tends to give the mind a bit of a bad wrap. So much teaching is about not thinking and that thinking is negative .. but … thinking is actually imagination .. it is when you are speaking to yourself, generating ideas. Instead of feeling bad about the activity of the mind, honour the mind and help it to find its peaceful place.

Accept that you have an ego, a self, emotions and attachments and that you are simply “a work in progress”.  Accept your individuality and re-affirm with yourself that you do not need to be perfect. It’s OK to be YOU. When you acknowledge that the Thinking Mind has its place, then it is easier to step into the silence. 

Self Love is key

It is amazing that is such an issue for so many. Most people find it easier to love others than they do themselves. And yet Tim spoke of a time when the concept of loving others, as the Commandments now advise, was a strange idea. 2,000 years ago, Christ told people to not only love God, but to also love their neighbours as they would themselves. That was a totally new concept. Now, taking on love for ourselves is an important focus, perhaps also a strange concept for some!

The growth of kindness is powerful

Human cultures have moved on significantly over the last few hundred years and there has been a big shift in the last century.  Our neighbours were to be feared and fought. Then we came to a better understanding and tolerance for them. Today, such is the growth of human compassion that people will go to extraordinary efforts to support and protect people on the other side of the world who they have never met. We are increasingly moved to take actions of their behalf when we see a deep need or injustice. 

This is new for humanity and whilst we are inside this movement it is hard to understand the vast shift that is taking place.  We are learning to give each other love and attention and this loving attention is the most emergent force on the planet right now. The expansion in compassion is so big that we hardly notice it! There has never been a time in history like it. A culture of kindness is a powerful force emerging globally.

Individuals pulling together

We are continually evolving and we each have to go through a process of individuality before we can experience the oneness that is there for us. Individuating gives us a strong sense of who we are. We need to do this as we grow up and create our own space. We test out all the beliefs we have grown up with and find out what we feel is true for us. Through the doubting, questing and learning we become our own person.  Then we feel a deep need to come together with others in soul connection. This longing to be with others is an evolutionary pull. We are coming to understand that we are stronger together and that yearning is helping to create a society of what Tim calls ‘Unividuals’. 

How many need to wake up?

It does not need everybody to “get it” to create the change we want to see. We don’t have to wait for that. Most big changes actually come from small groups of people.  If you think of the power and complexity of one single human being, remember that they were born of one woman and they started out as one single cell.  There is profound power and potential in the small.

Love needs Wisdom

Now we need wisdom to implement the love that is growing. Yes humanity has is developing a greater capacity for loving connection and the desire to embrace, but we also need to be wise. Love sometimes has to say “NO”.  Love may be soft and gentle but it is also big, strong and bold. Go in to the love and learn to use your wisdom. As stupid as you may feel now, Tim says you are always wiser than you were!

 

It as was a pleasure to welcome Tim Freke to our Conscious Cafe Skipton July community evening – seen here with host Gina Lazenby

The beginning of the event was recorded on a Facebook Live transmission. Sadly the camera threw a wobbler and recorded it sideways .. ! Click here.

You can watch, if your next is flexible, but you can also listen in .. just pretend it is an audio podcast!  It’s on our facebook page. This blog post is essential the transcript! ENJOY.

Skipton Conscious Cafe featured in the local newspaper! Read here

Conscious Cafe Skipton has been popular from the word go since the first meeting in June 2017 attracting people from all across the north who appreciate a safe space to have conversations about things that matter. One local participant said “What is remarkable about Conscious Cafe is that there are so many different perspectives in the room. Everybody is interesting and there’s so much listening! I always leave feeling enlightened and inspired by the new ideas generated.”

The monthly events have attracted over 330 attendances and there are now over 100 people who are part of the community. People have travelled from as far as Leeds, York, Cumbria, Huddersfield, Ripon, Barnoldswick, Blackpool and Burnley as well as local Craven villages.  For the last ten months the groups have held meetings in the new Avalon Centre for Wellbeing at Broughton Hall and will continue to meet there.

I started the Conscious Cafe in Skipton encouraged by founder Judy Piatkus in order to help me find a like-minded tribe locally now that I was putting new roots down in the market town. Over the last two years it has become a really vibrant discussion group attracting people willing to reflect and share on issues that are important to all of us, like relationships, making a new start, finding work you love, and creating connection.  It’s very participatory and people say they appreciate the warm, rich and compassionate atmosphere we have created. It seems that people are craving the opportunity for thoughtful dialogue and to have their opinions and feelings shared and heard by others.  

When ex-publisher Judy Piatkus set up the original group in London in 2011 it really took off with folks (like me) travelling far and wide to attend events. Many started asking to create groups in their own areas. There are now ten in the UK who meet regularly, with two overseas groups in Singapore and Geneva. Skipton is the only one so far in the UK’s north. 

The discussion group has attracted a number of leading edge thinkers and authors from outside the area to share their expertise and stimulate new ideas. These have included Runa Magnus from Iceland (author of The Story of Boxes – the Secret to Human Liberation, Peace and Happiness);  Nicholas Haines from Nottingham who shared his research on how to feel good about yourself; and several London-based authors including Dr Phyllis Santamaria (an expert on making a social impact with your job); Carole Railton (author of The Future of Body Language);  and relationship expert Malcolm Stern (Channel 4 TV series Made for Each Other).

The most recent event in June featured Dr David Paul, who is based in Sydney, Australia, the furthest afield a speaker has participated in Conscious Cafe Skipton. Dr Paul is a specialist in complex change and an advisor to political world leaders, and spoke about neuroscience and how we use our brains to cope with an increasingly complex world. He even gave tips on how we can use our brain power to live longer. The evening on June 5th was the group’s 25th event.

 

Our gathering of Conscious Cafe Skipton at Avalon Wellbeing for our April event, our biggest ever

In April we had a biggest event ever in the two year history of Conscious Cafe Skipton. It could have been the speaker, Nick Haines of the Five Institute joining us from Nottingham that was the big draw .. or it could gave been Nick’s subject of “How to Feel Good About Yourself”. Either way, there were nearly 40 of us there and it was a brilliant evening. I knew it would be full of great information so I recorded it. There are three videos of Nick speaking, in between our conversation and Q&A sessions. I also made a transcript of the evening with three summaries below. Do take the time to study this and I really do think, that at the end of your study period, you will indeed feel much better about yourself.  Download the transcript notes with images here.

 

The basics of Chinese philosophy and how the 12 year cycles work, and the key dates that will have impact on us most

1st recording on Youtube

This first video tackles the premise that the more you know about yourself, the more likely you are to feel good about yourself. We look at the cycle of twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac and according to Chinese philosophy, how each year affects us … particularly what has happened in the last 12 and what will the next 12 years be like for us, individually and for  the world.

 

Looking at the Five Energies, what they say about us and what we might be here to do in the world at this time (forewarned is forearmed!)

2nd recording on Youtube

In this Second video, Nick Haines explained the Vitality Test and how it helps you to understand more about how, according to Chinese philosophy, the five energies are balanced or emphasised within you. Each of those five energies presents a KEY PRIMARY QUESTION that will likely endure in your life. Knowing this, and knowing the questions that drive us, is very helpful for relationships and understanding what drives others. When you know your Primary Question it’s easier to understand the gift, and challenges, that it gives you. 

Take the Vitality Test to find out which of the five energies dominates your life and the enduring question that guides you.

How family dialogue makes an impact on us in childhood and why it is virtually impossible to emerge out of it into adulthood with robust self-esteem

Watch the 3rd recording on Youtube

The 3rd video is where Nick Haines hypothesises why it is virtually impossible to come out of childhood with robust self esteem. Neuroscience now indicates that questions have more power over us than statements. Statements with power and force, like scolding ones that are negative in childhood, have greater impact and staying power than ones spoken with gentler, loving tenderness. 

Your unconscious mind is programmed to answer questions. You best serve yourself by asking Conscious Questions. Conscious questions that leverage our imagination and command the unconscious mind to respond can be constructed with a “WHY?’” or a “HOW?”.  These will generate more positive, creative responses and will help us feel good about ourselves. Being kind to ourselves is key, and questions about good self care will make us more sustainable and of course happy.

Download the 11-page transcript notes with images from the presentation powerpoint.

Nick Haines Conscious Cafe Talk Summary

Our Conscious Cafe gathering in Skipton with author & psychotherapist Malcolm Stern

Modern relationships … have you got the skills needed?

Relationships have changed dramatically over the decades .. back in the day most people simply got married. Few of us got any skills training … roles were more clearly defined, divorce was rare and expectations were radically different.  Where did you learn from …did you just model your parents’ behaviour? Were you influenced by the movies we watched and Hollywood’s idea of romance?

Today, authentic communication is what is needed but are we fully prepared for that?  Mutual understanding seems to be a rare gift in a modern relationship. Over 20 years ago, Psychotherapist Malcolm Stern realised the deep need people have for learning how to be together.  Since then he wrote his book Falling In Love/Staying in Love and his experience working with groups and individuals led him to be the co-presenter of Channel 4’s prime time relationship series Made For Each Other in 2003-2004. We invited London-based Malcolm to join us at Conscious Cafe Skipton in March to talk about how we can develop the necessary skills to transform our relationships.

Relationships are where we learn about ourselves …..

Malcolm opened the evening with a sharing about his own personal relationships journey and how he came to specialise in this area. He said that being in a relationship is one of the greatest tools we have in our lives because …… you can’t hide in a relationship. This is where we are most exposed .. there really is nowhere to hide.  You have to be willing to grow .. whatever age you are because life is always about learning .. learning more about who we are and how we are being. If you want to develop yourself then you need to be in a relationship.

It’s all about LOVE ... A relationship is really an opportunity to practice the skills of loving. We only have one task in life that is to learn to love. As much as we need to look after ourselves, we can’t really do this in isolation… few of us ever fly alone in this world.  In quoting from ‘The Prophet’ (Kahlil Gibran) Malcolm said “Relationships will strip us to the bone, they will show us where the shadow is in play”. 

The skills that we need to survive relationships, and for life in general, are kindness, thoughtfulness, listening and companionability.  

Relationships are rarely problem-free …To create learning for our evening, Malcolm offered the opportunity for an attendee to step forward into the centre of our circle and present their relationship problems for insights. Malcolm pointed out that the group dynamic has enormous power in creating a safe space for opening up and sharing our wisdom, and the most powerful thing that can be offered is our presence and our ability for intentional listening. This depth of sharing would educate us all beyond anything that Malcolm alone could offer. If we can find out what the learning is in the relationship challenges we have, or have had, that is a true gift for all.

• Newsflash: Relationships are complex. We can learn from other people’s stories. Don’t fall in to the trap of creating something that fulfils the expectations of others. Social conditioning can run deep so keep in mind what it is you want in the relationship.

• So far .. there is no training school for marriage, we simply do our best. In the end children are the witnesses to the relationship. They carry forward what they learn from you then they take their own trajectory, as we did from our parents.
• You have to be strong for yourself inside a relationship as it does take strength and resilience to decide and then act on what you want for yourself. You cannot be in a sustainable relationship and let it stop you doing what you want or being who you need to be.

• 

  Expression of how people felt and what they experienced by the end of the evening

• We can’t let the other in a relationship hold us back. A core feature of being human is the need for us to be able to live our lives in our fullness. Without this we would be poorer. There comes a time when we might need to leave a relationship because of this holding back and when we do, the ending has to be done with compassion. But it must be done. 

• Never hurt anyone more than you have to. Learn how to say difficult things.

• Be aware of new boundaries that you might need to draw around yourself. Saying a definite “No” to someone actually helps create a boundary for you. As hard as it is for some people to do this, and not be mealy-mouthed or wishy washy, practice and develop the skill of saying No … I can’t do that … that’s not for me …

• Get to recognise what saying No feels like in your body. Thinking it is not the same as declaring it and owning the sentiment. That will have a feeling that you need to become familiar with. Are you freezing up? Are you remembering to breath? Get out of your head and register your thoughts as feelings in your body. In my experience, most women find this easier, or more familiar, than many men.

• The bigger the conversation, the more important it is to breath.

• When a relationship ends, moving on to another relationship to fill the void is never a wise idea. It is important to take time to process .. give ourselves space for learning before we move on. Fires and frying pans come to mind. Bearing in mind this may well be a time of great sadness, it is important to seek the support of people who can help you.

• Explore your feelings and name them. You get a much clearer idea about yourself, your needs, if you can verbalise and put words to what is going on inside. It helps you to understand yourself more.

• Get clear, get support … then make your choice.

• Know when you are ready for a new relationship .. be able to say a strong Yes when asked if you are. From being on your own and healing from your last relationship, you will likely reach a point, a ripening, when you know you have integrated your learnings and are ready to move forward in to the next relationship.

• Know what you want in a relationship. Forget physical attributes and hobbies .. yes these are important but relationship success is going to come from a set of values and qualities that you want to share with the other. Qualities like kindness, integrity, support and communication. And for each one, know what it looks like for you.  Does support mean strong arms to hold you? It’s really helpful to be specific … precise.

• For everything that is on your list of Wants, you have to be willing to give these back to the other.

• A complication of modern relationships, especially later in life, is the presence of children from former relationships and the need to create a blending of a new family.  Not all families have to live together, all the time .. be creative in how you bring everyone together and consider the continuance of having two homes. Work out what you need to have for your personal relationship to work. What else can work in supporting the step children to continue in the homes they know. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you have to create another nuclear family.

• From double to single .. to double again? People who have been in long term marriages for most of their lives and then find themselves single in later life, have to look deeply into what they want out of a new relationship .. if at all. Maybe we need to be creative about how we spend our lives and balance our need for intimacy and connection with our desire for personal space.

• Is society expecting you to look for a relationship once you are single again? Is this what you want … do you really want to live with someone again and be in a relationship? We carry the scars from before, it’s up to us how we resolve these. Friendship and connections are really important to us … we have to look to our needs to see how best to satisfy them, in a way that is good for us.

• Know what you want. Malcolm quoted Thomas Hubl who said “The essence of love is precision”.  That gave us all something to think about … and you can see the quality of precision needed to ask yourself good questions: What do I need? What does that need look like? Really think about the essential qualities you desire in another so that you do not end up settling for less. The clearer we can be about our own needs, the better chance we have of successfully satisfying them.

• Stand your ground early in a relationship .. don’t put up with crap. If you partner acts weird you have to ask yourself if this is acceptable for you. You get what you tolerate. Something to think about.

• Staying inside a relationship requires work to keep it successful. Everything changes all the time and you have to grow with that. It always comes back to your why … you have to ask yourself what do I want to get out of this?

• The bottom line to a successful relationship is to really think about the essential qualities that are important to you in a partner and not to settle for less.

Are you right for each other? You need to have a resonance between you and there are four areas to look at:-

1. Physical: just being together feels right, walking, chatting with friends .. and of course a sexual connection that works
2. Mental: even if you don’t have the same choice of newspapers being able to exchange ideas and a stimulating conversation is important. Being able to bounce a conversation back and forth.
3. Emotional: can you handle each other at an emotional level? Can you handle their anger .. hold their sadness?
4. Spiritual: does the energy between you feel sympatico? Do you have a sense that you are more than just two individuals and that there is a connection to the divine? What you are passionate about has to be there in the other person.

Conscious Cafe Skipton will meet again on Wednesday April 17th to discuss how to Feel Good about Yourself with guest speaker Nicholas Haines from Nottingham. More details here.

Reflections on times that we have felt separate, different, alone or that we did not belong?

Having a sense of belonging is part of being human. It’s one of our most important basic needs.  Where is your strongest sense of belonging? To a church … an organisation… a tribe on social media .. extended family? Where is it that you feel most valued and recognised? Sometimes we can feel strongly connected to many people and many groups or ideas … then again, we might move through periods of our lives when we feel disconnected, separated .. perhaps lonely. Are there times when you have drifted away from an idea or a group and lost your sense of belonging? What was it that took you away … and what brought you back?

Feeling a strong sense of belonging to a greater community, a cause or even s circle of friends, not only stops us feeling alone … it brings happiness, motivation and wellbeing. What type of effort and practice does it take to build and sustain this connection?

This was the conversation that Conscious Cafe Skipton had when 18 of our community gathered in Avalon Centre for Wellbeing, near Skipton at the end of February. Here are the insights from the three questions we discussed.

Not Fitting in:

• Perhaps our sense of not belonging comes from feeling that we no longer fit in to a particular group or even a way of life. Something might have changed in us and we have outgrown a situation. The period of time when we recognise the need to separate or disconnect can be very lonely. Even getting older can make us feel this distancing from a way of being that has felt natural to us before, but now we are shifting.
• It’s a big decision to acknowledge that we no longer fit somewhere and decide to remove ourselves from where we previously felt we belonged … whether that was in a church, a career or a geographic place. Even though a voice deep down within tells us to leave, it can still be painful. These shifts and changes in our lives can be viewed as exciting, but we can also feel alone, caught between a past we have known and left behind and a future that has yet to emerge or present itself to us. Maybe we lose our sense of belonging until we begin to recognise our new self and seek out other people and places where we feel a better fit.
• These transit points in our lives can be both powerful and painful .. walking away requires courage and strength but can give us a sense of liberation even if initially we might feel the loss of the familiar reference points that gave us comfort or that we were attached to.  

Negative Thinking:

• Comparing ourselves to others is a negative way to think. Doing so can cause us to judge ourselves harshly and is a surefire way to make us feel separate. Having a sense of feeling inferior, less than or not equal to can really damage our right to feel that we belong.

Feeling the Difference:

• People from mixed race heritage can feel different as they grow up between the two different cultures of their parents. Being exposed to two different worlds and not feeling like they fit in to either. People can feel at odds with a family or community’s cultural expectations placed on them that are not in sync with a local culture that they are also growing up in.
• For a variety of reasons, people have described feeling like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is in the wrong box. 

Where, when and how is the Strongest sense of Belonging felt?

• Our discussions led us to express six key ways that help us connect and make us feel that we belong.
• Family: the close bonds of connection with blood family are strong for most people but for some there can be one key relationship in their family that is their strongest anchor point. A pivotal and close relationship with a parent, sibling or child can provide deep nourishment and a feeling of safety where anything can be shared. Not everyone has this blessing.
• Place has power: wanting to move to a different town or area .. somewhere that calls to us at a certain time in our lives. Here we can make a fresh start, be inspired by the landscape, enjoy more activities and community perhaps in am ore populated place … or simply feel like we are coming home, whether there is family there or not.
• People: Longstanding friendships that take us through the years … these provide deep nourishment if we are lucky to have them. New friendships are valuable too particularly if we find friends with whom we can be our authentic selves.  Being with others is important and many express a preference for the one-to-one contact rather than group gatherings where they can have an increased sense of isolation.    As much as people can feel lonely or disconnected when they are in the company of others .. perhaps at a social party with many strangers …. if the gathering is mindful or purposeful, then we can actually feel deeply connected to a large group of strangers.  Odd as it may seem, the reason that people gather, and the degree to which people are willing to open their hearts, seems to be more important than the quantity of people present.
• Ritual & Ceremony:  we feel the power of this and mourn the loss in our modern life. We recognise how this can unite us. The right kind of facilitation can change a group of strangers into a connected community in a very short time by providing an open forum for sharing. When we have the opportunity to see and understand our shared meaning, a community can be brought together quite easily. Grayson Perry did four programmes on Channel 4 about rituals for Death, Birth, Marriage and Coming of Age. These are still available for viewing online https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grayson-perry-rites-of-passage/on-demand/64824-001
• Spiritual Power: aside from what is happening in our lives, where we live and who we have the opportunity to meet, or not … we can always develop our own inner world of connection through our spiritual practice of choice.  This can be done in a group, a church or an organisation that values mindfulness and meditation practice. Even then, there is no need to belong to a particular group when a personal practice of meditation and reflection can make us feel connected to a higher power that we can reach anytime. It gives us a transcendent ability for us to feel connected to everyone and everything, and continued practice can help us to sustain these feelings.
• Purpose: we can feel a deep sense of belonging when we can engage in work that aligns with our values and which feeds our life purpose. Through work, we can find connection with others who share our values, our vision in the world and our role in it. If we are lucky enough to do what we feel we are here to do, that can give a strong sense of fitting in to the world in the right place and at the right time. That is powerful belonging…. particularly when we are able to to set aside our differences and look forward to a greater cause alongside others who feel the same.

 

What helps us to shift, feel more connection and increase our Sense of Belonging .. how to feel less lost?

• Acceptance: Accepting yourself and what is, is a big first step to belonging. We can’t ask others to do what we are not able to do for ourselves.
• Self Awareness: Instead of us focussing on any difference we see in ourselves, turn that around so that we recognise and accept our own uniqueness.
• Growth: Understand that we are always growing and evolving. Yes, that can sometimes present us with difficulties but that is what makes us grow.
• Values: aligning with a strong cause can re-enforce our sense of belonging. Attaching our professional and work identity to something important that makes a difference that aligns with our values.
• A new Third Age: Later in life after retirement where our sense of purpose was totally wrapped up in our work, it is good to discover new ways to express ourselves and create a sense of belonging from other areas of our lives.
• Open up: Be more curious. Be willing to express our vulnerability. Allow new people and experiences into our lives
• Join in .. deciding to say ‘Yes’ .. make an effort. Sharing experiences with others
• Decide: Making a decision to move forward, setting the intention … meeting the universe half way so we can attract in what we need. Step out of your comfort zone – push yourself
• Deeper connection: Listen deeply to others. Concentrate on what we have in common instead of what might us apart 
• Widen your circles: Find a group that shares your interests or passions. Be open to connecting with people outside of your normal like-minded circle.
• Follow the Love: open your heart … you get what you give. Be more loving and feel the love come back to you.

 

Our Conscious Cafe Circle .. what were people taking away from the evening?

Calmness

Being Uplifted

Feeling enlightened

Enriched

Fulfilled

Energised

Connected

Being heard

Stimulated

Resonance

People thought the discussion was thought-provoking, enjoyed the different ideas expressed and liked having the opportunity to contribute and be heard.

More about Conscious Cafe Skipton events on our Facebook page

These were the qualities experienced at our last Conscious Cafe Skipton event where we talk about … belonging.

Loneliness …  this is often something which people can be very reluctant, and even feel ashamed, to admit to and yet, nine million people in the UK, 14% of the population, are estimated to feel lonely at some point. This is not only affecting their quality of life but their health too. Social isolation of any kind is now clearly being linked to life-threatening diseases.

Loneliness is now actually seen as being lethal. According to a report cited at a presentation I streamed from the Wisdom 2.0 Summit in California this month, scientific research has proven this. It is now even considered as dangerous as smoking!  It was also pointed out at this American event that the UK now has a Government Minister for Loneliness (from April 2018). This is part of the legacy of Jo Cox, the Yorkshire MP who was murdered, and who championed a Commission for Loneliness prior to her death. Taking up the Commission recommendation for appointing a dedicated Ministry, the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May spoke of the sad reality of modern life and the need to address the loneliness of people who have suffered loss, or have no-one with whom to talk or share their thoughts and experiences. 

British MP Tracey Crouch is now the world’s first Minister for Loneliness but it looks likely that other countries will follow the UK example with the news from a study cited in the Harvard Business Review that said loneliness and isolation is a “growing health epidemic …. associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” 

Loneliness was a subject that a group of us shortlisted for discussion for the next season of Conscious Cafe Skipton events when we gathered last summer for a planning meeting.  The idea of the Conscious Cafe community itself was borne out of a need for deeper connection. Founder Judy Piatkus, set up the original London community after selling her publishing company as she missed the more conscious conversations that she had enjoyed at work, particularly with her community of authors. That initiative has been running from 2011 and since then more than a dozen satellite groups have set up around the UK and even as far as Geneva and Singapore. Their growing popularity reflects our need, not only to be in community with others, but to seek meaningful connection.

It was this need for conversations that matter that drove me to start a Conscious Cafe community in Skipton in 2017. I was newly arrived in the Dales market town …. I’d lived in the area part-time since 1996, still with a base in London .. but when I moved here full-time in November 2015, I realised that I barely knew anybody as most of my circle were still back in London. I certainly did not know how to reach what I felt was “my tribe” .. people who were interested in personal growth, conscious living, leading a purposeful and values-driven life that would make a difference in the world. It didn’t mean that these folks weren’t local to me, I just did not know how to reach them.  

Starting Conscious Cafe Skipton has enabled me to find others seeking a deeper connection through conscious conversation, compassionate sharing and powerful listening. We have met monthly since the summer of 2017 and folks as far afield as York, Preston and Huddersfield have found their way to us, particularly when the topic for debate had special resonance.  We all do what we need to do to find others who want what we want, people with whom we can truly be our authentic selves. What is that you do to strengthen your connection with others to relieve any isolation, disconnection or loneliness that you have experienced at any time?

The latest conversation that Conscious Cafe Skipton took on was the issue of loneliness and isolation with an event called “A Sense of Belonging” in late February. To read a report on what we talked about see the next blog post.

Conscious Cafe Skipton has a facebook page, a MeetUp group and posts events on Eventbrite. 

The next event is on March 26th and we have a speaker, Malcolm Stern, talking about the skills needed for modern relationships.