 I read a story about a man who had an apple tree on the land where he lived, when he was hungry and fancied one, he picked an apple and ate it. The taste of this apple is beyond the comprehension of most of us today, we are used to buying fruit long since plucked from its source of life, not grown for its nutrition or even taste particularly, more for its shelf life. This apple, however, was freely available to him and contributed greatly to the man’s health and wellbeing.
One day this man looks over at an apple tree on some neighbouring land. He sees others picking all the apples, putting them into boxes. Upon investigation he discovers the apples are being picked for a thing called a wholesaler, who will exchange them for a thing called money with a thing called a shop. A shop is where his fellow man will go with his own money that he has earned from a thing called a job to buy the apple. Some portion of the money the wholesaler and the retailer made, will go towards a thing called a tax imposed by a thing called a government. I could go further. On neighbouring land he may in fact see orchards full of apple trees, propagated for more so for their looks and shelf life than anything else. This land will be sprayed with fertilizers, insecticides and weed killers to keep the orchard in full production. What part of this makes sense? The man could not make sense of it, why would his fellow man take a job to buy something he had freely available? He had planted a variety of trees and shrubs, the plants on the land he tended did not need things sprayed upon them in order to thrive, they naturally attracted insects that were helpful to their growth and the dead leaves and fallen branches of other plants would fertilize the soil. Once upon a time there was an Earth more abundant with plant life and beasts than it is today. Humans lived in that abundance, freely on the land, man had not yet ‘carved up’ nature proclaiming ownership of some sort. Yet here we are, the proverbial frogs slowly boiled in a pan of water. How did this happen? I can recount to you several theories, or perhaps you can work it out for yourself. Logic would dictate it was driven by a thirst for power and by people who did much planning and scheming. We had abundance, we cut it up and created ‘systems’ that we now we live in slavery to. Whoever the original source or sources, they had time to think and knew that their thoughts held the key to creation. Perhaps let’s not dwell on who, because it’s happened over such a long period of time (proverbial frogs remember) and it really is no longer even relevant. What is more relevant is to recognise it for what it is, insanity. It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Mmm, well then, how do we break the cycle? Well, start by simply becoming aware that you live in bondage to a man made construct called ‘society’ shaped and reshaped over hundreds or years, thousands actually. Given all the habitable land on Earth (estimated 15.77 billion acres) this is enough for more than 2 acres per person, though as Mahatma Gandi said “There is enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed”. So why it that land, which preceded humans, is something which is ‘owned’? I used to think ‘living off grid’ was the domain of hippies and doomsday preppers, but lately I’ve been looking at things a little differently. Although I wouldn’t call myself a gardener, I do recall what my dad taught me about planting with the end in mind, with regard to the natural size things would grow, the natural cycles and seasons, to create all year round interest and food. A few of the parents at our kids’ school have taken such courses in organic gardening in recent years. People are beginning to see the sense in returning to the land. We should not underestimate the difference in taste and nutritional value of plants grown in loving care. Talking to ones plants has always been a bit of a kooky gardener’s thing. Yet think how anything reacts if it is treated simply as one of a number. Perhaps look at the work of Masaru Emoto when he decided to photograph frozen water from various different sources – the difference between water bestowed with good wishes and that which is not is immense. While I’ve focused on plants here, it’s worth also consider whether humans have yet to make anything anywhere near to the perfection found in nature. Even with plants we have lost a lot of what our ancestors knew about their healing properties. But there is so much about the natural world, including our own bodies and consciousness that eludes us as we have become so entrapped in a different world of our own making. There was a time when I would aspire to things money could buy: bigger houses, nice clothes, expensive trips and fine jewelry were on the list. I’ve had, and still have, nice things. But nothing we humans have created comes even close to the intelligence and beauty found naturally. Compare nature to the ugliness of man’s rotting creations of yesteryear, the ever-growing garbage pile of consumable goods, never mind the run down appearance and associated societal issues with old housing and untended parts of towns. Everything we create requires maintenance. We have becomes slaves of our own creations, creations that are substandard to those that naturally exist, and are freely available in nature. And nothing – not all the massages, spas and holidays – comes as close to soothing and creating clarity as time in nature. Time to think, to contemplate life, your life. Time, as another friend reminded me today, another man made construct. It’s the one thing most people yearn for more of, time to do with whatever they feel – the things you want to do rather than the things you feel you have to do. What can you do about it? Rage against the machine is one thing, but it does nothing but give power to the machine. Better to ignore it altogether if possible, focus on the future you do want. What is that though? Have you taken any time to think about it beyond the relentless machine you are part of today? Perhaps now is the time. As we approach another new year, a time when typically people reevaluate their lives. What about a commitment to have regular time to contemplate your life, to keep your eye on the bigger picture, to make quality decisions? Making it a priority to take time just for you, to think, to simply be, is far more important than you realise. You are part of the generations becoming more aware of themselves on Earth, you know you are a frog whose skin had adapted to the boiling temperatures of the pot, but you also feel the freedom beyond the pot and yearn to make the leap. Go ahead, take the leap, escape the insanity of this man made world and take some time to fill your cup in nature. Not just temporary reprieves, but life changing moves. Take the time to contemplate your life, to do your best thinking, and that will lead to your best life. I’d love for you to like, comment on, or share these thoughts with others if they inspire, or contact me directly at shona@shonakeachie.com, I’m always happy to help if I can. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also subscribe to my newsletter and, as a special thank you, you will receive the link to my video 3 Steps to Becoming You.
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 As I was talking to someone last week about life, existence and human potential, he acknowledged the probability of ‘something more’ because of the astounding perfection found in nature, but felt it was fruitless to pursue it as nothing could be proven.
I reflected on this and realised that is not in fact true, it can be proven – but – only to oneself. There is little value in trying to prove or persuade anyone else to a belief in something that cannot be taught, only experienced. The more I pondered this, I asked myself why it’s important to ask the bigger questions about our existence. The answers are many, but can be summed up simply as the answers lead you to your best life. As discussed in previous articles, like “is religion stopping you from exploring your inner world?”, for many years I simply didn’t think too deeply about the meaning of life, although I did come to a vague point of appreciating that there was more that existed beyond my comprehension. Then, just prior to leaving the corporate world three years ago, I had a number of things fall into place that suddenly opened my eyes to a whole new world around me. Shortly afterwards, I managed to neatly manifest an exit from corporate life with a steely determination to uncover more of the real me, I just felt there was so much more to me and to life than I was experiencing. Over these last few years, I have written to focus my thoughts and understand my feelings, understanding these are the very tools of creation. Thoughts, and the way we feel about them, become things. Taking charge of our thoughts and feelings begins a process of creating life experiences that are wanted rather than a result of lazy thinking. Lazy thinking is – for example – thoughts about hating a boss, a job, a partner. There is nothing wrong in having the thought, the point is to recognise the thought and recognise that unless you do something to change the thought you will continue to experience all the same things in the future. Note I’m saying “change the thought” rather than the boss, job or partner. You can do those things too, certainly the thoughts you have gathered about those will have a lot of momentum and are perhaps easier to change when there are not those specific people in your life. However, if you don’t learn to recognise and change the unhelpful thought patterns that led to those circumstances, you will simply attract them again in a different guise. So, yes, you can change your experiences in life. First there are those experiences with the things that you have personal relationships with – like your health, wellbeing, relationships and wealth. A good place to start, but as you undertake the journey and your experiences validate the power of your thoughts and feelings in your life, keep asking yourself about the bigger questions -“why am I here?”. “what is the purpose of my life?”, “what is the purpose of all life?”. As I did and discovered that the more I come to know, the more I realise I don’t know. Life is exponentially more amazing than I imagined. Muhammad Ali once said “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it”. I’ve known this to be true for a while. So let’s zone into something quite spectacular. Think Star Trek and “beam me up Scottie”, can a human dematerialise and then rematerialise in another place? In the same or a different time and space dimension? Only you can answer that for yourself. I have now had enough experience of my own existence in this physical body and of the non-physical energy that flows through it to believe that is indeed possible. Though is seems a rather intense process to put the physical body through when it is entirely possible to separate all that you are from your physical body temporarily and undertake experiences elsewhere much more easily. I was thinking this as I spent almost 60 hours in a metal tube flying through the air this week to visit loved ones. Now that really takes a toll on the body physically. Yet, if there was a more widespread understanding of the human capacity to do this, people who live at a distance could easily ‘visit’ or communicate with each other without the arduous undertaking of the body making the actual journey. You can remain skeptical of this, but should you wish to explore it, you will find there are examples out there of humans who have and do achieve this. And should you wish to not believe them, you will find evidence for that too. What remains at the heart of this is the controversy that we are eternal, non-physical beings who are simply having a physical experience in this time and space dimension. Instead we see ourselves cut-off from all that is and believe we are only this body and the thoughts it has. But for me, and the experiences that have led to me to this broader understanding of life, so much of the way we live and the things that cause pain are so unnecessary. If every thought that ever existed still remains, it is only energy after all, and you can access that ‘thought bank’ at any time, then why do we ‘educate’ our children? Why do we treat our children as empty vessels that need to “learn about the world”? What if they are actually only needing to learn how to best flow their energy through this physical apparatus they projected themselves into? Therein lies the problem. That is not something most of us know how to teach, and so for generations we have perpetuated this insanely limited and cut-off version of who we really are. What if nature can provide you with absolutely everything you need? There is nothing man has invented that even comes close to the natural world. You might think of modern technology as being something of an example, well, while the internet perhaps provides a conceptual example of what I am talking about in terms of the ‘thought bank’ I mentioned, it is vastly inferior to what already exists. But just look at water, The Miracle of Water was what came of me contemplating this for months as I walked along the beach. But you could do the same with air. Then there’s earth, an amazing ever-changing aspect of the planet, bringing us all that we need to be healthy. If we understood the power within nature to heal us, rather than relying on the synthetic versions produced by companies who are after money, a construct in itself created by humans to what? To keep you busy, to stop you from thinking about the absurdity of working to earn money to be able to buy food and shelter which is already available to every human being on the planet. The only reason it is not freely available is why? Why do governments exist? Why do the leadership of those governments not get the time to make quality decisions? Why do we entrust so much to people who haven’t got that quality time? Quality Time = Quality Decisions = Quality of Life. These are big questions, but money, education, healthcare, commerce, governments, the whole construct of our society today is so unnecessarily restrictive to human potential. If you are interested in opening up to alternatives to these just read things like Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organisations or Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedar series. And even death, it is thought of as a bad thing, a painful thing in our society. But if we believed we are non-physical and we are eternal, we might have a different vantage point of this process. Ask yourself the questions, start with you, and who you are, but keep asking and you will find that the secrets to your happiness and wellbeing are not so hard to find, for they lie within. To go within, step out into nature, meditate, it’s not hard, you just have to want to do it. If you are not entirely happy with your life, this is a starting point if you want it to be. Asking the big questions will lead to answers, and those answers will help you unlock the secrets to your best life. I’d love for you to like, comment on, or share these thoughts with others if they inspire, or contact me directly at shona@shonakeachie.com, I’m always happy to help if I can. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also subscribe to my newsletter and, as a special thank you, you will receive the link to my video 3 Steps to Becoming You.  Where do you do your best thinking? For me it’s at the beach, which is only a short drive away, and I make it a priority to get there regularly and alone.
Good for me, what a luxury to regularly get to the beach. Not so much, I have moved mountains to make quality thinking time a priority, even then it only happens in short bursts, but anything is better than nothing. If I’m at the beach and my kids are in tow, well, it’s unlikely much of my attention will be focused anywhere other than them. The same applies if I’m with a friend, or anyone else who is going to need my attention. It’s not just people who distract you from your inner world though, it’s all the thoughts that are swimming around your head about what has happened, what is happening and what needs to happen. That is what makes some form of regular meditation so vital, to quieten the less useful thoughts, the fog, and get some clarity and perspective on what is important. There’s no need to make a meal of meditation, the point is to do it regularly, 15 minutes is all you need, allow yourself to get in the habit of noticing and switching your thoughts instead of running on automatic pilot. These last few years I’ve written a lot about how we cloak ourselves in layer upon layer of others’ beliefs and expectations, derived mainly from our early childhood years and societal expectations, resulting in us not really dancing to the beat of our own drum. But what is it that leads to these expectations and how do we break free of them? Well, for a start, think about your beliefs. Do some quality thinking. These days with so many working outside the home, and so much media vying for your attention, it’s easy to get sucked along and not really do much thinking at all. As I read about the leaders of a country being so busy that they really didn’t get the time to make quality decisions, it led me to memories of the corporate world and all the unnecessary meetings and truckloads of email and other nonsense that constantly stood in the way of allowing enough space for quality thinking and, therefore, quality decisions to be made. It leads you to wonder who is shaping the thinking of today’s leaders? I read a thought provoking statement about Hitler the other day, that while his generals were held to account after the war for their actions, what about his advisors, his spiritual advisor for example? The whole thought pointed to Hitler as more of a puppet than a puppeteer. So setting aside that particular example, it does raise an interesting question - who are you, the puppet or the puppeteer? My mum, always so worried I’d be led astray by some dogma or other, asked me quite a few times when she read my early articles about who and what was influencing my thinking. I told her what I’ll repeat here, I do my own thinking and encourage everyone to do the same. Sure, listen, read things, read the opposite just to challenge yourself, but go with what feels right for you in that moment. I recall a conversation at two in the morning with an old mentor of mine (we were in different time zones) who was a whistle-blower on the leadership of an Amway distribution group that had been deceiving people about the extent of their profits coming from the personal development system, rather than the Amway products themselves. He said to me “If something feels off, Shona, trust yourself, it probably is”. That resonated, and it was a turning point for me in terms of self confidence. Over the last 20 years I’ve largely shut myself off from sources of distraction and persuasion – like TV, newspapers, social media etc, and tend to shun any kind of ‘group think’ in favour of my own thinking. You might wonder that I am therefore not abreast of ‘important’ current affairs, believe me it’s amazing what I seem to pick up by osmosis through everyone around me. It’s more amazing what people think is important, yet those same people aren’t taking the time to think about what is truly important. Those who read my articles regularly will know I’ve been encouraging people to start thinking about the big stuff – the “Why am I here? What is life about? What is my purpose?” stuff. It’s important; it will kick you into a different mode of thinking, one that can be less influenced by the plethora of media out there. It’s just as important – more so probably – for our younger generations to think about these things, they are leading us into the next evolution of our world after all. If you get caught up in the drudge of life, before you know it you’re at the other end, wondering what happened and wishing you’d spent more time dancing to the beat of your own drum, rather than doing what was expected of you by others. So what of all this? You do your best thinking and what? Well, you make better decisions, pure and simple. The kind of thinking and decisions many only make once a year (if that) when on holiday. This is how I like to live life. And right now I can tell you I’m happier than I’ve ever been, it’s been that way for a while. It doesn’t mean I don’t have challenges or that I don’t want more from my life, quite the opposite. It just means I make it a priority to make sure I have perspective, so I don’t get bogged down in drudge and get back on a hamster wheel. You are important, you are unique, you are worthy and you are enough. What do you want for your life? How do you want to feel day after day? Only you can make you a priority. If you don’t, no one else will. I can tell you something though, if you will make it a priority to give yourself the space to do some quality thinking on a regular basis, you will absolutely change the momentum of your life for the better. And that is good for everyone. I’d love for you to like, comment on, or share these thoughts with others if they inspire, or contact me directly at shona@shonakeachie.com, I’m always happy to help if I can. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also subscribe to my newsletter and, as a special thank you, you will receive the link to my video 3 Steps to Becoming You.  Life was designed to be perfect
As were you and I Yet, far too often ‘less than’ is the now prevalent cry Really? Are you able to see what is all around? In nature energy and answers always abound Are we so cut off from our world we can’t see what really is? Instead we live our lives in some kind of indoctrinated fizz We took what was perfect and carved it to our demands Yet have created nothing as perfect or sustainable As already exists in our heart and our lands In fact we took our world and carved it in such a way As to make ourselves nothing but slaves both night and day When I am sick or sad or mad, it’s a gift for me to see What my inner world has been trying hard to tell me Help is always near in the natural world that we live Take a walk, feel the truth of all that actually is Switch off your device Stop listening to that clown The fizz is stifling; it keeps your thoughts spinning round Round the same old circuits, believing you are less Believing in what? The answer is anyone’s guess Whatever it is Is usually designed to keep you down Believing you are not enough Intended to wipe the smile, perpetuate a frown Do you know why you’re here? Do you know how perfect you are? Do you know that in all those questions you can ask The answer is never far Yet most live their lives The questions, even if asked Left unanswered as they hide behind the mask Go take time in nature Reach within and you shall see The answers are already there They exist within me I’d love for you to like, comment on, or share these thoughts with others if they inspire, or contact me directly at shona@shonakeachie.com, I’m always happy to help if I can. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also subscribe to my newsletter and, as a special thank you, you will receive the link to my video 3 Steps to Becoming You. |
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