She Finds Freedom

Please enjoy this wonderful interview with certified psychiatrist Dr. Bill Petitt. A pioneer in mental health, and the understanding that I will be talking about throughout this program.

Before you listen to the video/ audio exercise, open the pdf below.

You can print the pdf or create your own two columns on a piece of paper – just copy the columns roughly as they are shown in the pdf. When listening to the video/audio, you'll need:

• the printed pdf (or your copy of it)

• something to write with

• scissors

• a small bowl

Some pointers on how to get the most from this program

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.” ~ Roy T. Bennett, The Light in The Heart

You are not who you think you are..

What if the 90% of you that is invisible is actually the most important part?

"The field of the finite is all that we can see, hear, touch, remember, and describe.

This field is basically that which is manifest, or tangible.

The essential quality of the infinite, by contrast, is its subtlety, its intangibility.

This quality is conveyed in the word 'spirit',

whose root meaning is 'wind or breath.'

This suggests an invisible but pervasive energy,

to which the manifest world of the finite responds.

This energy, or spirit, infuses all living things,

and without it any organism must fall apart into its constituent elements.

That which is truly alive in living systems is this energy of spirit,

and this is born and never dies" ~ David Bohm, Theoretical Physicist

John Flaherty is a wonderful friend, an internationally recognised life guide, author, and a respected leader in the field of addiction recovery

John is the author of 'Addiction Unplugged: How To Be Free' - the first book of its kind to be written from the perspective of conscious awareness, and is also the author of 'Guilt Unplugged: Waking Up From The Lie We Live'

If anyone wants a copy of the PDF 'Addiction Unplugged: How to be free' please let me know and I will send it to you.

All I ask is that you give John a review on Amazon :)

In this video, we start to explore the mind-body connection, and the impact on us physiologically when we innocently pay attention to our troubling thoughts.

This cartoon from 'Far Side' is referenced in the video. This is the visual

Quotes from this video ->

Einstein - "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Viktor E Fankl - "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

What if your habit of thought or behaviour was just a sign of a healthy brain?

The books I mention in this video are:

'Rational Recovery' by Jack Trimpey

'Steering by Starlight' by Martha Beck

This is a webinar with psychologist Steve Adair.

Steve did a webinar with one of my groups (The Circle group) around the subject of Habits.

Please have a listen as I think you may hear some words of wisdom in this talk.

Take a moment to look at the picture below.

Do you see an old woman with a big nose and a haggard expression, or do you see a young woman with a button nose and fluttering eyelashes?

"Thought creates our world and then says, 'I didn't do it'" ~ David Bohm

"Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn't notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates." ~ David Bohm

"What is the source of all this trouble? I'm saying that the source is basically in thought. Many people would think that such a statement is crazy because thought is the one thing we have with which to solve our problems. That's part of our tradition. Yet it looks as if the thing we use to solve our problems is the source of our problems" ~ David Bohm

This is the site I reference during the video http://www.sydneybanks.org

Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience -- and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it.

How does this happen?

According to neuroscientist Anil Seth, we're all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it "reality."

Anti Seth - "Instead of perception depending largely on signals coming into the brain from the outside world, it depends as much, if not more, on perceptual predictions flowing in the opposite direction. We don't just passively perceive the world, we actively generate it. The world we experience comes as much, if not more, from the inside out as from the outside in.........

.....Now, these are fundamental changes in how we understand ourselves, but I think they should be celebrated, because as so often in science, from Copernicus -- we're not at the center of the universe -- to Darwin -- we're related to all other creatures -- to the present day. With a greater sense of understanding comes a greater sense of wonder, and a greater realisation that we are part of and not apart from the rest of nature. And ... when the end of consciousness comes, there's nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all."

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

Her book, "My stroke of insight" is an exceptional read if you get the chance, I highly recommend it.

Synopsis

On the morning of the 10th December 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain.

A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she lost the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four hours.

As the damaged left side of her brain -- the rational, logical, detail and time-oriented side -- swung in an out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realities: the euphoric Nirvana of the intuitive and emotional right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace; and the logical left brain, that realised Jill was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely.

In My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Taylor brings to light a new perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery that she gained through the intimate experience of awakening her own injured mind.

The journey to recovery took eight years for Jill to feel completely healed.

Using her knowledge of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and an amazing mother, Taylor completely repaired her mind and recalibrated her understanding of the world according to the insight gained from her right brain that December morning.

"You see, where we're searching for is our home grounds - we're searching to find the way home.

And to find the way home, what you have to do is look at everything in reverse.

Because naturally, if you're away from home, if you keep walking, you walk further away.

To find home you've got to turn around, and instead of searching outside for the answer you seek, all you do is look inside.. and there lie the secrets you want." ~ Syd Banks

"If the only thing people learned was to not be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world" ~ Sydney Banks

It would change the world... and it would rid you of unwanted habits. So how do we come to not fear our experience?

Understand them!

When we see Thought and feeling for what they are, they are far less scary.

This is a wonderful interview with Amir Karkouti, who is a friend of mine, and the author of the book, 'What The F**K Are the Three Principles?: And 18 Other Questions Answered From So-called Wisdom'

Imagine you were raised in an ancient culture which believed that in order for the sun to successfully rise and set each day, it was necessary for you, the strongest, fastest person in the village to go out to the farthest reaches of the countryside on horseback at dawn, awaiting the sunrise. As soon as the first light appeared in the East, you threw invisible lariats as far and high as you could, each lariat made by hand by the medicine man of your village from a golden light too fine for the human eye to see. Once you caught the sun in their snare, you took off on horseback and began pulling the sun through the sky,

This activity would continue until midday, at which point you would need to cut the golden lariats free and instead hoist a 30-foot tall scarecrow and ride on behind the sun, now chasing it the rest of the way across the sky until it left your people in peace for the night.

Each day the sun successfully rose and set would be a victory for both you and your people, and while the work might be exhausting and at times backbreaking, your sense of accomplishment each time you basked in the sun over the fields at midday and chased it out of the sky at night let you sleep restfully, despite any worries you might have about having to do it again the next day lest the sun never again rose to its dizzying heights or never left the sky, forcing either endless days or endless nights.

Then one day, a wise shaman from a neighboring village arrived and announced that there was a deeper intelligence at work in the universe and that the sun would surely rise and set without any effort on your part. Most people laughed at the shaman and a few suggested burning her at the stake, but somehow you, in your heart of hearts, recognized the truth in what she was saying.

The next morning, despite the voice in your head screaming at you to get out of your bed and go to work, you lay awake instead in your bedroll and waited to see what would happen. To your surprise, delight, and horror, the sun completed its journey through the sky without any help or interference from you.

Surprise, because instead of your inner recognition of the truth of the shaman’s words, there was still a part of you that needed to see it with your own eyes to truly believe it. Delight, because to bask in the glorious light of the sun without any responsibilities for its success or failure is a truly delightful way to spend one’s time. Horror, because it occurs to you how much time you’ve wasted trying to make something happen that was always already happening whether you knew it or not.

While the village elders simply replaced you with another rider and gave thanks to the gods that despite your taking a day off, their village was blessed with a full day of sunlight nonetheless, you sought out the shaman to give thanks.

When you find her, you look into her eyes and find yourself without words, as though the very sun you spent your life pulling through the sky resides within her as well. She looks at you knowingly and shares these words of wisdom:

"Like the sun, the light of life is always within you. There is nothing you can do to hasten its rise and nothing you can do to chase it away"

You look deeply into her face and finally see that the light in her eyes is merely a reflection of the light emanating from your own.

You embrace and return to your life, calmer, wiser, and with more free time than you know what to do with…

Excerpt from Michael Neill's blog: How to Have More Free Time (no matter how busy you think you are)

Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in your ear,
a settling into things,
then like a hand in the dark
it arrests the whole body,
steeling you for revelation.

In the silence that follows
a great line
you can feel Lazarus
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lift up his hands and walk toward the light.

~ Paul J Howell

When you stop rushing so much, you can feel your life as you live it.

If more wonder and flow sound good to you this week, read this poem. It'll remind you... to be still, my soul.

To honour the beauty that others don't even notice. This isn't a race, after all: this is your *life* and it's meant to be felt, lived, fully.

Unplug. Look without labeling. Listen without dissecting. Get comfortable with not needing to know everything, not needing all the answers.

Feel how wondrous it truly is, just to be here.

Be Still My Soul

Don’t speak just yet.

Sink into this place.

Sit in your heart.

Close your eyes if you must,

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

Feel the beating of your heart.

When the mind is quiet,

You will understand

That sweet, deep awareness

Opens the gates

To another kind of land.

There’s no way to

Hold peace

In the palm of your hand;

It’s a mind-body-spirit state

Where everything

Holds

Abundance and magic—

Even a tiny grain of sand.

Be still my soul.

Hear the winds speak, and

Watch how the leaves on the branches

Blow to and fro.

There can be

Thunder and rain,

Pleasure or pain,

But here you are still,

And that is enough.

Stop, look and listen:

See how wonderful it is.

But don’t think just yet.

For thoughts can be

Beautiful pathways,

But they can make you

Forget

The truth of your Self—

How you were born

Of your own star stuff.

Be still.

Look, and

Listen.

Even a mind must rest

To create its best.

So, do not worry,

Dear heart, head, and hands—

You will have your season

To work and to play,

And there is

Time enough for all,

Every single day.

There is time to make no plans.

And what of the mysteries?

How to piece the puzzle together?

Must you always struggle

To know the unknown better?

No, you must be sure.

The silence

You scurry away from

Is misunderstood.

It is not nothing;

It is everything,

Like the color

White

Or the other side

Of the world,

At night.

If you stop and see

What is here to see,

And if you listen only to

What your ears hear,

You will feel your Self,

Dear Soul,

Melt into the moment, and

Peace will be near.

Even in the

Middle of the night,

The light of Life

Is right here.

In this space, always

This space, is

All you could ever hold dear.

Be still, old soul.

Feel yourself—

Alive—

Right here.

Stop waiting to

Start living;

Stop time, and

Be lived.

Hear the sweet melody of

Your stillness, and the

Music that it

Gives.

~ Jennifer Williamson

'The river is one of my favorite metaphors, the symbol of the great flow of Life Itself.

The river begins at Source, and returns to Source, unerringly.

This happens every single time, without exception. We are no different.'

~ Jeffrey R. Anderson

Here is the supplementary document for the Masterclass: CHANGING HABITS & BEHAVIOUR.

What if you have a refresh button?

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein“

"There are those in this world who believe miracles do not happen. I can assure such skeptics that they do. With hope and faith as beacons, anything can happen. If these writings bring a second chance of life to just one human being, my work has not been in vain.” ~ Syd Banks

Thank you.

If you aren't already a member of my circle group to continue this conversation, please either email me, or you can sign up directly here for your 2-week trial.

You are wonderful, and I would love to continue this conversation with you.

Love, Charli x