“Just because it’s common doesn’t make it right” I said. I was talking to a lawyer about a response she was composing for a client. Her client had been acting in accordance with initial good faith agreements between the parties involved while, instead of just saying they had changed their mind, the other party had been denying there had ever been any agreements.

Not only that, but rather than addressing anything directly, the other party had started accusing her client of excessive expenditures never made, threatening to cut off finances and being verbally abusive on a number of occasions, with many examples of petty, spiteful and dishonest behaviours.

Her client had wanted to address these directly along with the evidence that had been carefully documented through emails, texts, social media trails, recorded conversations and others who could confirm what had actually taken place.

The lawyer seemed reluctant, she said “We are trying to reach agreement; I like to keep emotions out of it, stick to the facts and just focus on the deal. Going down that road will just piss off the other party”.

While I could see the sense in that, I said “But isn’t that precisely what the other party is doing? Meanwhile they are not being confronted with the evidence of their lies and are actually dictating the narrative while not even coming close to a fair deal”. She responded “It’s just tactics, I see it all the time, and it washes over me mostly”.

“Yes,” I said “But just because it happens all the time does not make it right”.

This reminded me of an interview I heard last year with a national politician I used to work with. In retaliation for whistle blowing he found himself personally attacked through revelations of his private life. He commented on how affairs were rife in Parliament and said “While I’m not saying it was right, it was all part of the game, it was the accepted norm”.

I used to see this often in corporate cultures too where behaviours that would not be misplaced in a school playground would often come to the fore wrapped in a professional gloss.

It puts me in mind of a talk I once attended with author John Parsons, whose most popular book is about keeping children safe online. He points to this tendency for us to look at online games as being a separate reality that exists outside of ours where it’s okay to kill people because “it’s not real”. Yet the themes and narratives of the games are played by real people, through real interactions.  

Just as they are in the legal system, or the political system, or any other system I could care to mention.

It’s as if we live in a society where the fundamental traits that create cooperation, cohesion, compassion and a more joyful and peaceful existence, are just swept aside in a bid for power and control. What happens in the legal arena, the political arena, the corporate arena and the online world, are just examples of sub sections of our culture that are somehow seen as less real and just a game making quite deplorable behaviours somehow okay.

As I had been contemplating all this I opened up my Insight Timer app to listen to a Sarah Blondin meditation and the quote “What you allow is what will continue” popped up on my screen.

There are many people who help those at the receiving end of toxic behaviours, but who is holding those responsible for them accountable? Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “There comes a point when we need to stop just pulling people out the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in”.

When author, philanthropist and activist Glennon Doyle started looking upstream, she learned that where there is great suffering, there is often great profit. Now when she encounters someone struggling to stay afloat she knows not only to ask “How can I help you right now” but, once they are safe, to also ask “What institution or person is benefitting from your suffering?” which is how she became an activist.

At what point do we stand up and say, actually, our legal system isn’t working, our political system isn’t working, our corporate cultures don’t work, these online gaming systems don’t work, nothing big and institutional works, it’s simply breeding grounds for the power hungry and the worst of human behaviours get perpetuated.

Another interesting point Glennon  makes, when asked about why she refers to god as a she, and whether she believes god is female, she says “I don’t. I think it’s ridiculous to think of god as anything that could be gendered, but as long as women continue to be undervalued and abused and controlled here on Earth I’ll keep using it.”

She makes a point worthy of exploration. It does seem that these covert power plays, that are rife in our society, do play nicely into suppressing females in many ways – though not exclusively by any means.

I can certainly attest that, as someone who was very independent (financially and otherwise), it was extremely hard for me to forego that in order to look after my children. When I met their father he had talked about being a stay-at-home dad initially, but isn’t something that appealed so much when up close and personal with the tasks of daily child rearing and domesticity.

I too had wanted to give our children that gift of my attention they needed but, as the main breadwinner at the time, it wasn’t feasible. Nonetheless with a baby and toddler at home wanting my attention all night long after being farmed out all day – albeit to a beautiful and loving soul who looked after them well – I was soon in the burn out zone and knew something had to give.

Moving to another part of the country where house prices were more affordable meant being able to be with the kids in the ways that they needed.  However it also meant moving away from the opportunity for me to earn income in the way I had previously.

The last 15 years of my paid career were spent in senior management roles working for large organisations advising on and leading strategic people changes to enable transformation to their customer experience. These roles are few and far between in New Zealand as a whole, but generally not available where I now live.

In the meantime I helped the children’s father establish and run his business, which is now thriving. My personal intention in returning to work, when the children were old enough, was to use some of my previous skills and experience to work more directly with individuals.  

With a special interest in the field of trauma and how it impacts on human potential, I have been on a very personal journey of study and self growth and have amassed a large body of published work in the years since I left my corporate career. Training in clinical hypnotherapy was how I had planned to re-enter the workforce and make a living.

But with the urgency of a separation, and the introduction of restrictions in the educational sector as well as mandates in the healthcare sector, I instead decided to combine all my previous experience to provide business coaching, contracting and consulting to businesses.

What that means though, is that - in addition to the initial period of financial uncertainly while establishing a business and hours obviously restricted within school hours and term time - being full-time carer of our children put me at a financial disadvantage both during the relationship and post separation.

Given that it will likely take at least 12-18 months to establish a stable income history to enable a home loan to be secured, house price rises and loan restrictions could make this an impossible goal. In the meantime, my share of the equity from the sale of our family home will diminish as it will be needed in order to pay for living costs. This is a common scenario facing women everywhere.

Then when you add to that some of these common underhand tactics being played out between parties in the legal system, it’s not hard to see where Glennon Doyle’s conclusions have come from.

I for one intend to ensure that I fully express what life is like from within these sorts of unjust scenarios, and what I have and can learn from them, in the hope that by sharing it brings into the light what lives in our shadows and plays over time and time again. Only through examining the toxicity that we allow and learning new ways of approaching things, will we start to foster the kind of cooperation, cohesion, compassion and a more joyful and peaceful existence that we all deserve.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How to Find the Courage to Let Us Hear Your Heart’s Voice, Kneel at the Doorway of Your Heart to Usher the Dawn of a New Era, You See What Happens When You Learn to Speak Your Truth, Let Us Hear Your Unique Perspective – But Be Kind and Be Wise, How to Stand in Your Truth and Be Heard Without a Fight and Be an Evolutionary (Rather Than a Revolutionary). To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

This week I listened to a meditation on Attracting Your Soul Mate. I’ve had access to this for quite some time and have never felt compelled to listen to it before. As I heard the words “the person who is the best, highest, most compatible and committed person for you” I became acutely aware of something often referred to as my point of attraction.

The law of attraction became more widely known back in 2006 after Rhonda Byrne released The Secret, but it was very much associated with manifesting material things. However, as it’s based on a universal principle, it’s something I’ve inevitably become more acquainted with over the years of personal growth and development. One thing I know for sure is that in order for me to experience something I want, I have to be an energetic match to it.

For instance, just to demonstrate the point, if I wanted to build an amazing career as a popstar then I’d really have to believe that was possible in order for it to actually eventuate. In my case, while I might have occasionally dreamt of the glamorous life of a popstar when I was younger, all parts of me were not at all in alignment with this.

I didn’t believe I had a good voice, nor did I believe I had what it would take to be that one-in-a-million who makes it to the big time, and nor did I really believe in my heart that kind of life would be as glamorous as it’s sometimes portrayed. In fact I thought it would be hideous to be under such public scrutiny all the time.

So that right there is some pretty big resistance to this fleeting dream, and at the very heart of why I’ll never wake up one day to find I’m a top selling artist singing on stages around the world. However, would I like to attract a career that reflects the best and highest version of me? Heck yes!

And yet… I hesitate, because what I’ve discovered is this universe has some very backhanded and uncomfortable ways of delivering my desires. If I dream instead about teaching and leading and speaking on stages, for example, and my point of attraction isn’t a match, but I truly truly desire it, well then I’m going to get an opportunity to become a match. It just may not be a very comfortable opportunity.

It did strike me earlier in the week when reading what Teal Swan had to say about comfort zones and taking risks, life is rather like a bowling alley. Instead of seeing wanted and unwanted as a polarity, I saw them more as two sides of a bowling lane. There is a comfort zone in the middle, but the ball can go off to (either) side at any time. In life, both are a call to growth and expansion, whether it’s inspiring and exciting or it’s scary and awful very much depends on how much of a match I am to where I want to go.

My last relationship was a startling example of just how mismatched I was to my strong desire to be myself. In my head I pictured that as being with a person with whom I would feel at one with myself. I was not a match to a kind and inspiring relationship because I was not kind nor inspiring towards myself.

In fact I had a whole heap of self doubts, low self esteem, and a number of dysfunctional beliefs and enmeshment trauma standing between me and the dream in my head. In short, I had no clear view of who I truly was in order to be at one with that. And I ignored the many signs that pointed to this not being a relationship in which I could find my way to feeling at one with myself in a kind and inspiring way.

Due to my lack of awareness and unwillingness to listen to my inner voice (which ignored many warning signs), summed as being fear driven (fear of missing the opportunity to start a family) rather than love driven, the bowling ball had fallen on the side of the alley that meant I was in for a bumpy ride. But to give the universe its credit, it delivered the perfect match to all my desires in terms of the growth and expansion that needed to occur.

Growing up I thought of relationships as a search to find a part of me that was missing, the yin to my yang. In fact, I had my wedding ring engraved with the yin and yang sign all around it to symbolize just that.

What I didn’t realise then, was that I am a whole person, yin and yang. I didn’t know that I had fragmented myself into many parts as I was growing up and – in an attempt to gather all the parts of me back together that I had denied, disowned or suppressed – I was attracting do-overs of all my earlier challenges in a subconscious attempt to get a different outcome.

The parts of me that saw the light of day were those that have been encouraged, loved, applauded even, the rest were kept in the shadows where even I wouldn’t look too closely. And I’m talking about simple things like productivity; human productivity is valued more highly than humans being, contemplating, and observing and so on. Yet I am someone who flourishes when I have lots of time to just be.

All parts of my identity have been shaped by both my outer and inner world. I am acutely aware that I have been steeping in a patriarchal, misogynistic, racist, sex-biased (and many more prejudices, to which we appear to have now added vaccine status) societal soup.

I am aware of how these many prejudices and dysfunctional ways of relating inadvertently (certainly from my parents’ point of view) led to my many unhelpful beliefs about myself about whether I was a worthy human, whether I was enough, or crazy or different and so on. And, what I had to be to be loveable.

It’s been a long journey back to me. But as I was listening to this idea of attracting a person with whom I feel the deepest sense of belonging, companionship, wholeness, love and joy, the person who is the best and highest and most compatible and committed person for me, this no longer seems out of reach or unrealistic.

It no longer feels like I’m a half of a whole seeking to complete myself through another. I feel more that I’m a person who is whole, who has shone the lights on my shadows and reintegrated parts of myself I’d long since rejected. I know the journey is not over, but I no longer feel at war with myself, I feel more largely at peace.

And so I feel excited at what I might now attract into my life as this feeling of peaceful incubation wants to merge with another part of me that feels more like the nature of the sun, a large frission of energy that is ever expanding.

It’s like there’s been a shift from “a half plus a half equals a whole” to “a whole plus a whole equals more than the sum of its parts” That would apply as much to a mate, as to a friendship, or a working situation or anything I engage in.

Does that mean I’m the best and highest version of myself? Unlikely, for while there is breath still in me I imagine I will keep growing and expanding. But I do feel whole, I do feel authentic, I do have the skills now to hold healthy boundaries, and the skills to notice when there are incompatibilities and how to address those.

I’m no longer scared of what I might attract into my life, I’m excited to see what comes next. I also know that, regardless which side of the bowling alley the ball falls, whether my experiences were planned or unplanned, I have the strength and courage to grow through and become more.

What about you, how confident do you feel about whether you are attracting the best relationships, friendships, career, life that match the highest version of yourself?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How to Attract the Blissful Relationships You Actually Deserve, A Triumph of Authenticity - Can You Embrace the Totality of Your Being?, Simplify Your Life to Be Accepted and Loved as Your Authentic Self, Does Your Heart Long to Be Accepted for Being Just You? and How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog

I was talking to various friends this week about those three magic words I love you. Our experiences of hearing and speaking those words all vary widely, and my own relationship with them has changed dramatically over the years.

The first person I ever said those words to, and recall hearing those words from, was my boyfriend when we were twelve or thirteen and we used to write letters to one another. I grew up believing – mainly through movies and books - those romantic relationships were where a person expressed any kind of big feelings.

Saying I love you to family members was more in the domain of those crazy Americans we used to watch on TV. Certainly not in our homes, nor in popular culture in the UK, it just wasn’t something people said to each other; a definite overhang of centuries of emotional repression.

Yet in recent years it has crept in. I personally remember the creep very well, I didn’t just suddenly find myself saying those words to all and sundry, and still don’t of course, I am selective. But my world of expressing and receiving love now goes beyond romantic relationships and it was a process.

My niece and I were having a conversation about what is happening with Russia and the Ukraine. To me, this is all connected; it isn’t something that happens in isolation. I was sharing with her that I resonated with one of Brene Brown’s posts where she said “We stand with every Ukrainian. We stand with the thousands of brave Russians demonstrating in protest, risking their safety to do so, and all those devastated by this unprovoked, terrifying, and reprehensible war”.

It also brought up for me the hundreds of thousands of protesters around the world whose governments are not only ignoring their messages about the overreach in regards to COVID19 restrictions, but vilifying peaceful protesters in the mainstream media as violent troublemakers. I’ve seen many times now firsthand live footage of what is actually happening versus what gets reported.

So, what do I think is really going on... first COVID19 extremism and now Putin invades the Ukraine, is the world going to hell in a hand cart? 

No I'd say not. I'd say it's more like Mother Earth is ridding herself of a poison. All that was hidden beneath is bubbling to the surface. The atrocities of 80 years ago amid the horrors of WW2, with characters like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco etc did not just disappear. The narcissistic traits that created pain and war then are still seen in many people today, in many households, workplaces and they are very obviously and sadly seen in many people in power positions.

I think this is a time of taking off rose coloured glasses, and many still have them on so there could be more to come, but we are collectively starting the process of clearing out all the junk in our trunk.

As I awakened to the lie that power is an external force to be complied with, and is instead an internal allowing of love from within, that is when space was cleared within me. I have come to feel this love as the powerful force it is.

I think it was around the time I started to find my feet as an adult I can remember my mum saying “Love you Sho”. For a long time those words would send me into freeze mode. As I spoke to in Who Are You Protecting? Why Telling Your Story Is Powerful the relationship I had had with my mum in childhood had created a lot of anxiety as I grew. Love was not unconditional.

As in most households and upbringings, there were expectations around behaviour and, if not met, there would be punishment, withdrawal of love and words such as “you should be ashamed”. So for many years I was not able to receive those three words I love you from my mum, nor anyone else outside of a romantic relationship.

I would feel like a cat caught in the headlights and avoid saying anything in response and come up with other phrases to smooth over that awkward moment. It wasn’t really until I started doing my own inner work not long before my mum died that I began to clear space for the love that I am to rise up within me.

There was – and is ongoing – a necessary and conscious look at all that dwells in the shadows, and a deliberate process of forgiveness and healing. This also gave rise to new possibilities, new connections and a place to receive and give those three words more freely.

But perhaps the biggest gift has been the ability to feel those three words in relation to myself. As I have begun to reintegrate the parts of me I had rejected as I grew, because they hadn’t fit into what was expected or desired of me back then.

In recent years I’ve been able to more easily say to my closest confidants, family members and girlfriends “I love you” with more and more ease. To me it means something like “I see you, the real you, in all your glory and pain. I’ve got your back. I trust you not to betray me. And it hurts my heart when I see you being dishonored”.

And it’s also been easier to say it to my guy friends recently without that romantic overlay/entanglement. That boyfriend from my younger days is still in my world. The level of intimacy in our relationship has obviously changed over the years as we each went on to have other relationships, had kids and moved to different countries.

But our friendship has endured and I love to hear how he and his family are doing, and we generally have the other’s back when life throws some pain our way. These things are not always easy, and I have to respect and honour the other people in my people’s lives. Everyone is at a different stage of their own journey and the relationship they have in terms of self love and the words I love you.

I do believe that as each person finds their way back to and expresses the love that they are, it purges more and more of the poison that stops each of us from feeling and receiving the love that is there.

The more we take responsibility for healing our own wounds, the less we will see of the atrocities that are happening today. We can rise in anger, and well we should, it is better than powerlessness, but we can also find the powerful force of love within and allow that to rise up and to get to know our true nature which is powerful beyond imagination.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Why the Integration of Feelings and Logic Will Save the Human Race, How to Quieten the Inner Critic, When to Act on Possibility, Embracing the Feminine within All of Us, , What You Give Your Attention to Is Your Greatest Contribution, Connect to Your Well-Being  and Could a Broader Perspective Benefit Us All Right Now? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

By happy circumstance I found myself at a Soulful CEO circle this week. Six of us sitting in the shade of a mature Cherry Blossom tree in the summer sun, taking time out to contemplate the topic for the session, which was around using our intuition to grow/start our business.

The conversation centred on those intuitive nudges, or flashes of inspiration, we get and – often in instant response – the voice of the inner critic that comes up with all the reasons why that is a bad idea.

It was a good reminder of the tug of war that often happens in my inner world. The inner critic is very convincing as it’s all about safety. However, its voice was born very early on in my life when safety was linked (as it is for all humans) to approval from my primary caregivers. The messages were then reinforced over and over in various settings in childhood, like school and competitive sports, where the desire for approval was very much linked to the innate instinct for belonging and safety.

There was never really a point in my life where someone said “trust your inner voice”, it was more the opposite. Even as an adult it is the same memo that society often plays back, the messaging around the current pandemic could be no clearer a case in point. The overarching theme – certainly here in New Zealand- is “do not trust yourself, trust your government instead, this is the one source of truth”.

I am in wonder that more people are not incredulous at the wildly differing advice, approaches and mandates globally, from these one sources of truth. The only one source of truth that exists, I believe, exists inside each of us.

And yet I suspect the biggest pandemic on planet Earth today is self abandonment.

This is sometimes referred to as the mind versus heart, or ego versus intuition, and how to know which voice is speaking?

Serendipitously, as I’m reading Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living at the moment, she has been talking about this very issue. She recounts a conversation she had with a friend about a pivotal decision in her life. Her friend had suggested that she get really present in her body and out of her head.

When she had become more present in her body – which for me is most easily achieved by intentionally focusing on breathing in/out my tummy and becoming aware of how my body is feeling – her friend asked her to relook at her choices one by one, each time asking “Does that feel warm to me?”

At this point her decision felt obvious, as one choice felt cold, icy actually, like she might die of cold. The other felt warm, soft and spacious. Her friend said “Your body will tell you things your mind will talk you out of. Your body is telling you what direction life is in. Try trusting it. Turn away from what feels cold and toward what feels warm”.

Glennon goes on to say that these days, in business meetings, she is not looking for justifications, judgements or opinions, she is looking for knowing. She listens for statements like “I did the research and sat with these options for a while, this one feels warm to me”.

I was talking to a friend about growing his business. Since starting the company, he had taken on a couple of employees, both more by chance rather than through a specific job search. I love this organic approach, but I also think its potency truly comes into its own when setting some intentionality around it.

If he can take some time to imagine a future team of people who collectively represent the same values that he himself projects from his inner world, who can collectively deliver his vision, he can start to wonder just how that might come about and listen out for the intuitive nudges that will undoubtedly pop into his head.

Envisioning the biggest contribution I can make in life, spending time just wondering how that could look, then actively asking, “I wonder how this will come about” primes me neurologically to receive all sorts of interesting insights and impulses into how my dreams can be achieved. The trick is to follow the ones that feel right, without letting my inner critic sabotage each idea before it even takes flight.

Right now I have the impulse to update my online presence and profile in terms of what I have to offer in the business arena. My current presence doesn’t convey the level of skills and experience I have working on businesses as well as in them very succinctly.

With all the years I had in senior management, working at the strategic end of business, I haven’t even listed three of the four businesses I have helped set up and run; far less joined a lot of dots that give me quite a comprehensive toolkit as a business coach/consultant. I need to create outwardly the shifts that have occurred within me.

As I said in Do You Want to Make a Heartfelt Change to Your Career? between my own personal growth that needed to happen, and the collective dysfunction that I’d seen over and over in organisations getting in the way of meaningful and lasting change, I hadn’t expected I’d even want to return to that world so I hadn’t really focused too much on it.

Of course my inner critic has been hard as work with every impulse I’ve had, “who are you to offer these services?”, “are you good enough?”, “do you have enough skills and experience?” and lots of comparison with many others out there. In the session under the cherry tree this week, I listened to most of the others voice the same concerns about growing their own ventures while simultaneously thinking, felling and saying to them “Of course you can do it, go for it”.

I recognise these voices for what they are, momentary doubt from my inner critic just trying to keep me safe. But it’s all good, I am safe. It’s actually mainly with excited anticipation I think about stepping back into the arena. I have an authentic edge now that makes all the difference to me in the type of work I’ll engage in, assisting and guiding people in running a business by helping them clarify the vision of their business and how it fits with their personal goals. 

As I listened to some of the others air their inner critic at the Soulful CEO circle, I thought of Glennon’s advice and realised that, when I lean into this, it feels warm, smoking hot, like I’ve got this. I can hear and I trust my inner knowing.

What about you, have you had any impulses or intuitive nudges regarding your career or business? What has your soul been whispering and what has your inner critic had to say about it? Maybe it’s time to thank our inner critic for trying to keep us safe but, smiling, say “I’ve got this” and go step forward into your new future.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Why the Integration of Feelings and Logic Will Save the Human Race, How to Quieten the Inner Critic, When to Act on Possibility, Embracing the Feminine within All of Us, , What You Give Your Attention to Is Your Greatest Contribution, Connect to Your Well-Being  and Could a Broader Perspective Benefit Us All Right Now? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

A man told me a story of a woman he had known growing up and, one night, their relationship unexpectedly became more than friendship. It had all felt so natural and he had never felt so in tune with anyone as he did then. However, the next day he panicked, lost in a sea of feeling unworthy and misplaced loyalties to others.

As a result, theirs was a story that never unfolded. Both went on to other relationships, the kind of relationships that played out every painful thing they had each believed about themselves.

It was a sad tale, and one particularly poignant for me, I was that woman.

What could have been I wondered? Yet if I am to wonder anything, it cannot be regrets for there is a future still to be lived. I certainly wonder at the path I took, always looking outside myself for love.

I had had some really good relationships up until the one. As he walked across the train station, a friend of a friend coming out with us that night, the moment seemed to slow and everything else faded away except him walking. I knew right then I was in trouble, my heart lost.

After almost two years together, he decided it was time to leave, and I was broken; devastated, left standing at the edge of an abyss. I wallowed for a long time in a sea of utter misery, blaming myself for who I was, who I had been. I had grown up thinking relationships are where I find the love I had been seeking, and if this guy didn’t think I was worthy then that was my truth.

Other relationships followed, all reflecting the parts of me I rejected through their incompatibilities or – if they were compatible – they were unavailable. Each one reinforced the painful beliefs I had about me. These ranged from lack of worth, to feeling like I was too much, through to feeling like I was unseen, with many others in between.

So in the aftermath of that night with my friend, it was just further confirmation, and I felt hurt, abandoned and alone.

Now many years later, I look back and see so clearly that it was me who had abandoned myself thirty years ago, when the one turned out not to be.

It isn’t until recent years that I began to really wake up to how much more I deserve, and how that it is an inside job. I have to love me before anyone else can.

My friend said he often thinks of that night when he wants to forget the painful things in his life for a while. I replied “The thing is, I’m not a forgetting-things-for-a-while kind of woman. I’m a remembering who you truly are kind of woman.” I guess that is why the memory has stayed with us both.

I had decided this week to participate in Teal Swan’s 7-day self love challenge. On day four she posed a list of ten questions, I got stuck at the first one “What thought do I most want to think about myself?” I couldn’t think of anything, “Something kind and loving but what?” I wondered. I thought if I could look at what’s on my mind most, what I am feeling the most, then I could flip it and create a loving thought.

There’s an almost constant pain in my throat and chest, like I’m trying to swallow down big emotions. I’m sure that is exactly what it is, I’m well practiced, and now I am feeling into the pain of the last fifty years instead of pushing it away. But I couldn’t match the thoughts to the feelings, they were at the edge of my awareness beyond my reach. I decided just to wonder and to let the words arise in their own time.

Learning to love myself is one of the hardest, most gratifying things I have ever done. I feel pain a lot, I think it’s inevitable and most probably temporary. It’s certainly better than the pain of rejected myself and all that life brought me in response.

Glennon Doyle talks about this when she tells the story about going to her fifth recovery meeting (on her sixth day of sobriety) and how she decided to explain how much she hurt and how being alive doesn’t seem as hard for others as is for her. Someone explained to her “It’s okay to feel all the stuff you’re feeling. You’re not doing life wrong, you’re just human, feeling all your feelings is hard, but that’s what they’re there for. Feelings are for feelings. All of them. Even the hard ones.”

She did not know that all feelings were for feeling. She had thought she was supposed to feel happy. That happy was for feeling and pain was for fixing and numbing and hiding and deflecting and ignoring. She thought when life got hard she’d gone wrong somewhere, that pain was weakness and she was supposed to suck it up. The more she sucked it up the more booze she drank down.

From that day she began to return to herself, to practice feeling it all. She learned “Firstly, I can feel everything and survive. Second, I can use pain to become. I am here to keep becoming truer, more beautiful versions of myself again and again forever. To be alive is to be in a perpetual state of revolution. Whether I like it or not pain is the fire of revolution. Everything I need to become the woman I’m meant to be next is inside my feelings of now. Life is alchemy, and emotions are the fire that turns me to gold. I will continue to become only if I resist extinguishing myself a million times a day. If I can sit in the fire of my own feelings, I will keep becoming.”

I see and feel many aspects of who I am reflected back in many ways through others. There have been tens of thousands of people doing this 7-day Self Love challenge right along with me, I hear their stories and feel their pain, and everyone has a story.

The years of stuffing down my own needs and desires and true feelings, are now welling up and wanting to be seen. I imagine it’s very much like the pain of coming off a drug, the pain wants to be seen and acknowledged. There are only two choices, one is to seek a salve, for me that would be connection with others who can validate me externally. The other is to sit with the pain, and validate myself.

A good friend said to me this week “Name one thing you love about Shona”. It gave me pause. At first I was actually unable to answer. “After all this work I’ve done, surely I can find one thing to love about me?” I thought.

Then a voice within me said “kind”. Yes, I can own that, I am a kind person and I do love that. Then the voice said “perceptive”. Yes, I can own that too. Then the voice kept coming, soon I had a decent list.

Circling back to the question I couldn’t answer on the Self Love challenge “What thought do I most want to think about myself?” it’s “I’m here, I’m listening”. And I am listening, I feel and am processing the hurt of having abandoned myself for decades, but it’s better late than never. I’m coming home.

In her book Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living, Glennon says we are all bilingual, we speak the language of indoctrination but our native tongue is the language of imagination:

“The language of indoctrination is the language of the mind, with it’s should and shouldn’t, right and wrong, good and bad. In order to get beyond our training, we need to activate our imaginations, our storytelling faculty. So instead of asking ourselves what is right and wrong, ask ourselves, what is true and beautiful?”

She asks:

“What is the truest, most beautiful life you can imagine?

What is the truest, most beautiful family you can imagine?

What is the truest, most beautiful world you can hope for?

Write it down, these are out blueprints, our marching orders...”

So did you, like Glennon, like me, like too many, believe that happiness was for feeling and pain was for fixing and numbing and hiding and deflecting and ignoring? Are you ready to sit with your pain and make plans for a more beautiful version of your life? What is the truest most beautiful version of your life you can imagine right now?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How to Attract the Blissful Relationships You Actually Deserve, Do You Want to Make a Heartfelt Change to Your Career?, Simplify Your Life to Be Accepted and Loved as Your Authentic Self, Does Your Heart Long to Be Accepted for Being Just You? and How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

This week I’ve been contemplating taking on work outside home for the first time in almost seven years.

When I left my corporate career I knew I’d never return to work in the way I had done until then, yet I knew I’d gained a lot of skills and experience that I would no doubt put to good use at some future point.

As I often recount, at that juncture in my life I simply felt my outer and inner world were not a match, I had a gnawing frustration I was not all me, yet I had no idea who or what that looked like.

When my children came along I had become more determined to live the way I wanted them to, so when I left corporate life to spend more time with them, it was also with a steely determination to tune in and figure out who I really am, what I really like and what I really want out of life.

Jungian analyst and author Dr James Hollis believes asking “What does my soul want of me?” to be one of the most important questions to ask ourselves if we want to live a fulfilled life. He says “This is especially imperative for people journeying into the second half of their lives”, something he’s explored in writing for almost thirty years.

I haven’t quite been writing that long, but I have written continuously over the last seven years. In fact this is the three hundred and sixty first week of publishing my life lessons as I come home to more of me and learn to nurture my true nature.

It’s been a big journey, one where I’ve looked into a lot of dark corners, faced a lot of fears, brought to light and merged together parts of myself that were in conflict. All the while the question on my mind has been “What comes next?  What wants to find expression through me?”

I had been thinking perhaps I’d move away from the business world altogether and work more one-on-one with individuals. The field of Customer Experience represents the output of an organisation. The issues, frustrations and customer complaints reflect the amount of collective dysfunction within an organisation, which in itself is fuelled by the dysfunction within individuals, particularly in leadership teams.

Patrick Lencioni sums this up well in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (a Leadership Fable) where he spells out the five most common dysfunctions as absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.

Now that I am more trauma informed, I deeply understand how much of this directly maps back to how the human psyche is shaped by early childhood experiences in each individual, unknowingly influencing the way people show up – and often limit themselves – as adults.

I was no exception with my perfectionist and people pleasing tendencies, I worked long and hard to do and be it all for everyone. There was one particularly competitive, controlling and manipulative colleague who really contributed to me eventually learning a valuable lesson, summed up well by an unattributed post I saw this week:

“You absolutely have to become okay with not being liked. No matter how loving or kind you are, you will never people please your way into collective acceptances. You could be a whole ray of sunshine and people will hate you because they are used to rain.”

I say eventually as it took many more years in a similarly intensive personal relationship to fully awaken to the level of trauma within my psyche and body. Being good was a childhood lesson my nervous system had learned well, and – as such – I carried extremely high levels of anxiety into adult relationships and interactions. That is something I have had to consciously learn to recognise in the moment and apply learned skills around having and holding healthy boundaries in order to move away from defensive states of being.

In my corporate career I worked closely with people at all levels of business. From executives at a strategic level, to those at the coal face delivering the product or service, it became very obvious to me that true success comes from people being, well, authentic. That sums up in a nutshell what Patrick Lencioni was pointing to.

Left unchallenged, the school bullies are still bullies, the nerds are still nerds, the rebels are still rebels and the compliant kids just become compliant adults. From the water cooler to the board room it could often be like a school playground. There are those who strut around acting entitled and superior and those who are repressed, with everything in between. All human dysfunctions come to the fore.

Because I worked to transform the customer experience through people and cultures, I could clearly see what did not work. For example, I learned that job descriptions and key performance targets – even giving them lots of training and development or new systems or processes – doesn’t change their inner landscape.

So between my own personal growth that needed to happen, and the collective dysfunction that I’d seen over and over in organisations getting in the way of meaningful and lasting change, I hadn’t expected I’d want to return to that world.

In terms of living a fulfilled life, to Dr James Hollis’ point, what my soul had been yearning for was me to step into my full potential. I can’t say I’m all the way there yet, that feels like a lifelong journey, but I certainly feel like I’ve a stepped into a much healthier, more evolved version of myself. I know for sure that any future work I do with people and organisations must be based around one thing – authenticity – both from me and them.

Talking to a business owner this week, who has several things they need help with, brought my lens into sharp focus. As I listened to the issues and tasks at hand, I started to mentally take on what they might look and feel like, some felt great, and others not so great.

“Boundaries” I thought on a personal note, “this is hugely helpful in gaining clarity around the stuff I’m great at and enjoy, the real value-adding stuff that is a win-win, versus the kinds of things I’m might be proficient at but I really do not enjoy”.

I started to think in terms of my skills and experience across three categories:

• What I’m great at and enjoy
• What I’m proficient at but do not enjoy
• What I’m just not good at

I know whatever I do has to be about the first category; it’s where I can really make a difference.

But there is a lot in that middle category after decades of perfectionism and people pleasing, and I can get distracted and tripped up by taking on things just because I am capable of doing them, but then |I just end up demotivated and unhappy, and it shows.

Then I remembered that a few years ago I went through my Linked In profile and purged dozens of skills endorsements I had for skills I really did not want to use again professionally, like contract management. Anything structured like that gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I also similarly took out bullet points of achievements that I had no desire to recreate. That was hard to do because they were hard won, but made no sense to keep unless I wanted to invite more struggles.
But I did keep all the ones that make my heart sing; those that centre around understanding people and their potential, writing, speaking, personal development, leadership development, communications, strategic planning, coaching and mentoring to name a few.

In my thought process this brought me to a dilemma, how to succinctly convey this breadth and depth of skillset and experience with just the right flavour of me. The me who no longer gets driven by wiring that wants to please and perfect to the exclusion of my soul, but the me who is learning to dance to my soul’s rhythm.

When I have done contracting or consulting work in the past I’ve just used my name, as I have on my website. But I got invited to a Soulful CEO circle a while back, and I immediately thought “Oh that name is amazing”, I could see the benefit of having a name that gets directly to the heart of matters.

The bringing together of what is often seen as a juxtaposition – the sharp edge of business with the authentic resonance of the soul – is something that excites me. Having a real passion for authenticity, creating structures in society (whether a business or part of a larger system) that thrive on and enhance people being their full authentic expressions of themselves motivates me.

As for a business name, I like Authentic Edge, or something similar, but the right thing will fall into place at the right time. I’m just blown away by the possibilities of getting back into something I thought I’d never go near again, and it’s really all down to tuning into and defining more of who I am and learning the skills I need to honour that.

What about you? Does your career honour who you are on the inside? Does your role reflect the biggest version of your contribution you can imagine right now? In what ways could you shift focus to attract more of what would excite and empower you and deliver more of what you have to offer to the world at large?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely, Simplify Your Life to Be Accepted and Loved as Your Authentic Self, Want to Make the World a Better Place? Tune In, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good, What Do the People in Your Life Have to Teach (Good and Bad)? and How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

Having had my share of unhappy relationships, both personally and some professionally, I’ve reflected a lot on the question of how to attract better relationships; ones that nourish rather than deplete me.

The key, I’ve decided, is in that word deserve and there are two angles to that.

The first is like mine, going about my life for years believing that - since I was attracting poor situations and behaviours - it must just be as good as it gets. I felt that, clearly on some level, I must be undeserving, or unlucky, or this is simply how life is.

The other angle, if I look at it from the perspective of some of the self centred people and circumstances I seem to have attracted, is that clearly there are people who go about their life fundamentally believing that others exist to serve their needs, the deserving manifests as a sense of entitlement without any conscience or consideration towards the rights and feelings of those others.

Of course there are all shades of grey in between these two angles, but it demonstrates a spectrum of sorts, along which people sit.

So, with this in mind, I was reading an article by Teal Swan about people who experience some sort of dishonour in their relationships (which inevitably stems from their childhood experiences) and come out with an attitude of wanting to be accepted “no matter what”. This effectively makes them the aggressor, perpetuating dysfunctional behaviour, and expecting unconditional love from another “no matter what” they do/don’t do or who they are/aren’t.

The juicy bit for me, was when Teal explained:
“It is important to beware that when we first get into relationships, we often do so by hiding the parts of ourselves that got us rejected before. But this means we are selling someone on something that isn’t the full truth of us. It is guaranteed that sooner or later, we will either bring out or switch into the part of us that we were hiding. And the other person will feel duped.”

She says that the what in “no matter what” is actually very specific; it is a specific thing, or multiple specific things that we need someone to want and value. The answer involves the very things about us that were rejected, not accepted, pushed away, unwanted, not valued, disapproved of and/or unloved.

Teal asserts “By figuring out what that specific thing is, we can improve our own relationship with that thing and then we can go about finding conscious and direct ways for that thing to be accepted, included, wanted, valued, appreciated and loved in compatible ways i.e. finding people who do want that. People, who can accept, include, value, appreciate and love that.”

So the real question, she says, is:

“Who is the me that I need people to want? Or what about me do I need people to want?”

This struck me in its simplicity, it makes so much sense.

In A Triumph of Authenticity - Can You Embrace the Totality of Your Being? I shared that I wrote in my journal, quite some time ago, “Imagine what it might feel like to be with a person who takes an interest in me, in what I think, do or feel, or someone who offers to do things for me, or someone who does stuff with pleasing me in mind.”

That had kicked off some soul searching about the aspects of myself I had rejected along life’s path. So instead I imagined a life in which I reflected and embraced the totality of who I am, especially in the way I interact with others. Today I am deeply grateful for my closest confidants who know and love me as the curious, deep thinker I am, which was the example I talked about.

But another aspect of me that has come to light recently, after having been shoved in a dark closest for too long, is the part of me that really likes to take my own sweet time going about things. As opposed to feeling constantly harangued and rushed, which actually triggers me into flight/fight or – most often - freeze.

When I took my kids away a couple of weeks ago, we rented a holiday home for the week in a beautiful area we had never visited before. It was lovely to just get up in the morning and take our time getting ready, deciding whether we wanted to go somewhere or not, or just hang out and relax.

When I think back to my childhood, rushing here and there was just part and parcel of life that involved school, training (I swam competitively), family commitments, and friends and so on. Really, I feel we live in a society that values productivity above all else, yet I find I am far more productive given space to allow my creative thoughts to wander untethered across the vast fields of possibilities in my mind.

Having and holding healthy boundaries has been revolutionary, to uncover my boundaries was a process, answering questions about my needs and desires. But this was a new angle, that helped me cross reference and sense check how I’m putting myself across.

I was laughing with some friends about the irony of all that I’ve attracted into my life in recent weeks, after saying how new relationships were not top of my agenda, in fact not particularly even on my radar, yet all that the universe seems to have served up is guidance about relationships in various guises.

That probably makes a huge amount of sense given I’m on the cusp of re-establishing my career and no doubt making many more new contacts and forging relationships in the months and years ahead.

I’m in no doubt that all the inner work I’ve done will pay dividends and help me recognise which relationships are compatible and which are incompatible. Especially without feeling the need to morph into someone else and to have the courage to let the incompatible ones go regardless of the opportunities i might be afraid I’ll miss.

I have learned the hard way, if there are red flags, pay attention. If someone seems unreasonable one time, fine, if it happens with regularity, they aren’t going to change. And if they treat other people badly, you won’t be the exception forever even if you are now.  

Watching other friends struggle in relationships where they are treated in ways that are far from blissful and are certainly not deserved, I can now appreciate how my closest friends felt watching me from the sidelines for years. Of course it’s also now gratifying for them to watch me step into authenticity.

One of my dearest friends told me the other day “How inspiring you are at this juncture Shona, I see you just going from strength to strength...Just love witnessing this bud beginning to bloom”.

That is what I want for everyone else too. We are all buds waiting to bloom, whether we are the oppressor or suppressed, people are in pain. Incompatible relationships serve to help us see ourselves just the same as compatible ones do, but they are more painful. Let’s stop the pain, and learn to attract the blissful relationships you actually deserve.

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Simplify Your Life to Be Accepted and Loved as Your Authentic Self, Does Your Heart Long to Be Accepted for Being Just You?, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good, What Do the People in Your Life Have to Teach (Good and Bad)? and How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I happened upon something I wrote in my journal quite some time ago “Imagine what it might feel like to be with a person who takes an interest in me, in what I think, do or feel, or someone who offers to do things for me, or someone who does stuff with pleasing me in mind.”

To be fair, these days I have close friends who reflect these things back to me, and I can’t deny I’ve experienced times in other relationships like this. However, I can also see the ways in which I’ve rejected myself over the decades and how that has been reflected back also.

A good friend recently asked what my wish list would be for a relationship; I responded that not only would I want someone who could deal with the totality of who I am but who would want to. This, I realise, starts with me being able to embrace the totality of who I am. If I can’t, if I reject parts of myself, then I’m unlikely to express them fully or positively and be embraced for them.

That got me wondering about the different aspects of myself that I’ve invited rejection around throughout my life. I don’t mean the one off comments, but patterns.

One glaringly obvious trait I seem to have done of good job of inviting rejection around is my deep, reflective nature. Most people I come across simply can’t do deep to the degree I do, some find it intimidating, others too serious or too intense.

My mum used to joke that I was born asking “why”. There were lots of things she would try to answer, but if I questioned her actions, authority, decisions or beliefs that was where I would meet a dead end - as many kids do – with the phrase “because I said so”. Enter stage left obedience, self doubt and people pleasing characteristics.

The breadth and depth in my perception of life is, I think, largely driven by my felt experience of life being about far more than that which my physical senses recognise. This kind of conversation was a non starter in my childhood home. Both my parents had rejected the religion of their childhoods and, along with it, any interest or discussion about the spiritual aspects of life.

In some ways this was to my benefit as it really sent me on a journey of discovery. When I was working in Spain during the summer of 1991, my dad jokingly asked in a letter “So, have you figured out the meaning of life yet?” In short, at age nineteen, no, I hadn’t. But figuring out the meaning behind so many aspects of life is something I revel in.

I’ve since come to understand we are all different expressions of one thing, one energy – love, if you will - split and fractured in a bid to get to know itself, and ultimately seeking unity. This I see reflected in human existence where people reject parts of themselves and each other, yet I figure we are all connected and so what I reject in you, I reject in me.

I also believe every action creates a reaction and those ripples across the cosmic pond are all connected. So there isn’t a single thing I couldn’t wonder “why” about. It could be as simple as a mix up in an order, a physical ailment, an unhelpful conversation, a run in with another, or government decisions, or even natural disasters. On the other side of the coin, it could be an unexpected gift, an achievement, a compliment or an amazing holiday; the “why” of it all is fascinating, even if it’s only obvious in retrospect.

This is far from the life and world in which I was brought up, which was far more focused on physical outputs and productivity, manners, rules and convention, and intellectual pursuits so long as they were related to something mainstream. Therefore my deep nature isn’t one I embraced within myself, in some ways I felt like something was wrong with me for not just accepting life at face value and I always aspired to be more carefree.

So it’s no surprise I attracted relationships where my depth of wonder and conclusions about life and its serendipities was not generally appreciated. Yet I can see I’m not alone. The global wellness industry, including spiritual self care, had apparently grown to $4 trillion in 2020, so there are obviously a lot of people out there who think along similar lines to me.

Recently I was having a conversation with an old friend who told me they just can’t do so much deep. For me, it was a mark of my progress to recognise this wasn’t a rejection of me, and nor did I feel I had to bend to another’s shape; it was simply a mismatch of preferences and traits, all of which are valid and valuable in their own ways.

I think it was Abraham-Hicks I once heard warning against getting too prescriptive about how what I want in life is delivered. If I desire that another person be a particular way, I am setting myself up for failure as I don’t control others or circumstances and it is not necessary to, nor is it healthy. Instead if I just imagine what I do want in my life without assigning it to any particular person or circumstance, and imagine having it, I’ll be far more successful.

So instead I imagine a life in which I reflect and embrace the totality of who I am in the way I interact with others, having and holding healthy boundaries. Accepting life at face value is no longer something I aspire to, although I trust in life at this level because I have faith that everything in the wider context is always working out and evolving, and that assuredness comes from my deeper curiosity and understanding. 

Today I am deeply grateful for my closest confidants who know and love me as the curious, deep thinker that I am, and who can not only go the rounds of introspection and speculation about the why’s and wherefore’s of life but can drive their own conversations in that regard. I am also grateful for those in my life who live life on a lighter note, but who also enjoy embracing the depths from time to time when in my company. Life is a lovely mix of all of it and I look forward to more.

What aspects of yourself have you rejected along life’s path? Can you imagine how it would feel to embrace the totality of your being and have others reflect that back to you? It would certainly be a real triumph for authenticity and a sure fire way of living your best life.

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think?, How to Receive and Be More Confident in Your Needs, Desires and Opinions, Embrace Your Authentic Self, Shed the Toxic People in Your Life and How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

Perhaps you do not understand
This thing you think funny, where it will land?
It hits a spot deep down inside
I feel myself recoil, wanting to hide
If I tell you my story will you then comprehend?
Or will what is between us lie cold on the floor my friend?
 
Too deep, too much, I hear you say
Well, that no longer touches me, no longer holds any sway
For all my life I have made myself small
Bent and shrunk my shape instead of standing tall
So serious, you say, lighten up
Take a chill pill, relax Buttercup
Yours is the drum beat of a familiar song
One where the other tries to make me wrong
Wrong for standing up for what I believe
Yet in my heart I grieve
For do you not see when you make fun of another
It is not comical, it is denigration of your sister or brother
 
This time it was female anatomy
Inviting shame not flattery
Others have found it funny you say
That may be, but perhaps they are misguided in the same way?
The young girl that I was, was warned of this crap
Mother told me, “beware, men want nothing but sex, it’s a trap”
That young girl was fed a lie in a way
But the young boy that was you also fell prey
You were taught to belittle and laugh at another
To joke about that which would otherwise flourish and flower
Stuck in old patterns we grew up to the beat of the same drum
But let’s set aside what was taught by uncle, dad or mum
We can be different and break the chain
Not be the one that keeps on dealing out endless pain
Revise what is funny, if it comes at the expense of another
It hurts us all, sister and brother
Compassion is where it truly is at
Anything else will simply fall flat
 
Well... that is my truth, I have no real wish to make you wrong
For in my having a go we are singing the same song
I have to laugh at myself ranting and raving
Indignation at being made to feel wrong created a craving
I only wish for you to understand
Where what you found funny would actually land
You are me and I am you
Reflections of the other in some insane human brew
Perhaps it is time to take another peep
At something in which I’d rather steep
“Each to their own” I hear myself say
Let’s find some fun in something we both see as play
For when I allow myself to let go and laugh
Especially at myself on this crazy path
I find we are more alike than I’d often own
But when I do, my heart feels like it has come home
 
If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy some of my other poems, or articles like How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think?, How to Receive and Be More Confident in Your Needs, Desires and Opinions, Embrace Your Authentic Self, Shed the Toxic People in Your Life and How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

A friend of mine was relating what a beautiful New Year’s Eve she had had with a few special friends and they each chose a word for 2022, which got me thinking about my own word for 2022. Simplicity was the one I landed on, and it’s certainly come through as a theme this week in my life.

Many years ago, a mentor of mine talked about the need to make space and let go of things in order for the new to arise. I thought about this again when I read a recent observation from Teal Swan that most people are so overwhelmed and stressed out right now, managing the multitude of interconnected elements of their lives, that they are stretched to the limit.

It’s her view that a mass move towards simplification will happen naturally, out of sheer necessity, as people are pushed to the distress/overwhelm breaking point. She says “At its essence, to simplify is to strip away the nonessential; so as to be able to put your focus, time, energy and action on the things that matter the very most to you”.

Having had the last week of the year to myself, which is the most me-time I have had in years, I really got a definite sense of how burdened I can feel by my usual day-to-day responsibilities. Of course, being in the middle of a separation also brings its own complexities and thus opportunities to simplify, as well as the social restrictions imposed by governments and the opportunities to simplify that exist around that.

Certainly during lockdowns I have used the time to go through all my physical belongings and radically declutter, especially the boxes of stuff in my attic. I’m also looking forward to the split of households to let go of even more. I have found simplifying physical things to be cathartic and relatively straight forward, and therefore a good place to start.

But lockdowns have also given me the opportunity to get a felt sense of release from social obligations, and I have very clearly noticed the areas in my life where I was doing things out of a sense of duty only, and have begun to set healthier boundaries around these.

Teal’s advice is “In order to simplify, you have to be completely honest with yourself and others about your values and how they are prioritised. No person can tell you what your values should be because no one can tell you what should be most important to you.”

That said, I can – at times - find it tricky to distinguish what I do actually value from unhealthy embedded beliefs. Many unhelpful beliefs still lurk from childhood experiences that led to ingrained people pleasing behaviours, enmeshment trauma, codependent ways of relating and perfectionism to name a few.

Yet, as much as experiences with people can create complexity on many levels, I suspect is it only through interacting with people that I will also get more clarity on what else I have to simplify within me, and it would certainly be a lonely experience without other people in my life.

A friend of mine sent me a photo of something he had read which he thought would appeal to me, I think it’s from A Course in Miracles:

“To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind. No one alone can judge the ego truly. Yet when two or more join together in searching for truth, the ego can no longer defend its lack of content. Our union is therefore the way to renounce the ego.”

As I said a few years ago in The People Who Hurt Us Are Vehicles for Our Growth: “It’s no coincidence that we form relationships with people who trigger us. We are drawn to people who are – in some way – a match to our own issues, and they both challenge us and help us heal and grow.”

So much of my personal growth has come from recognising the dysfunctional thoughts, beliefs and behaviours I had cultivated. And, as I have grown, my friendships and relationships have changed, attracting new challenges. I get a strong sense that there is still more to clear out.

Someone was telling me that one of the first things people learn in AA is “keep it simple”. We had been discussing various concepts and I jokingly said “why would I use 200 words when 2000 will do”, acknowledging I have a tendency to delve deep into things which can lose a lot of people.

Words have been my go-to for so long, keeping me safe in the same way a buffer of any kind creates space between me and being hurt, it’s a hard habit to break despite it fuelling a sense that I am too much for other people.

But words are just one facet of it, feelings and insecurities are another. I became conscious this week in dealing with a shy person that I have a propensity to overshare my own feelings in order to attempt to make them feel safer to express their own feelings. But if I’m honest with myself, I don’t give people enough space to actually do that, scared of the silence that brings an opportunity for rejection.

I also notice that when I share something with someone about my own feelings (when it’s actually their feelings I’m interested in) instead of asking them the question directly, it’s possibly because I am scared about seeming too needy. This is another dysfunctional pattern arising from old hurts and old habits.

The next lines in that excerpt from A Course in Miracles are quite beautiful, it says “The truth in both of us is beyond the ego. You believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love”. In simple terms that translates to me as worrying about something makes it worse, trust is paramount.

So to simplify my life from an emotional standpoint, I have to continue to be radically honest with myself about my motives in the way I interact. I then have to learn new skills and practice them, which is likely to be kind of clunky at first. That creates another fear in itself, of looking stupid or inviting rejection. Rejection of a false self is one thing, rejection of my true self is quite another.

And yet, another possibility exists. That is the possibility that by simplifying on every level of my being, and by offering up my authentic self in each interaction, my true self will not only be accepted, it will be loved.

A simple truth occurs to me at this point, is it not better to lose those people who reject my authentic self than to continue to feed the illusion of the false self in order to not lose those people? This has come at a huge cost – my happiness. And, on the flip side, what would it feel like to attract into my life those who resonate with the true expression of who I am?

Yes simplicity on every level is the way to go in 2022 for me.

What would benefit from the process of simplifying in your life? Is it time to strip away the nonessential; so as to be able to put your focus, time, energy and action on the things that matter the very most to you, and to be accepted and loved for more of who you truly are?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think?, How to Receive and Be More Confident in Your Needs, Desires and Opinions, Embrace Your Authentic Self, Shed the Toxic People in Your Life and How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog

A whole week to myself, I haven’t had so much me-time in over fifteen years, and it’s been an absolute tonic.

One of my friends asked, as we headed into 2022, what my objectives are. On the cusp of my fiftieth birthday, it really feels like I am stepping into the second part of my life which – in many ways – will be quite contrary to the first part. As much as the first half century amounted to giving away my personal power, the second half is about fully embodying and embracing my personal power and settling for nothing less than I deserve in all respects.

Those are some great words, but as another friend said in frustration of her own personal growth journey “how?”

Setting an intention is one thing but making it happen requires a mixture of new skills, awareness, patience and fortitude. I happened to be listening to a video from Brianna McWilliams, a therapist who specialises in helping those with insecure attachment styles, talking about three things needed to get the best from relationships of all kinds, from personal to professional.

She says that, particularly for people pleasers with an open heart attachment style, it’s about:

• Learning to receive (rather than just give)
• Learning to have and hold good boundaries
• Learning to self advocate (express my opinion and own the fullness of who I am)

She makes the point that “People pleasers don’t know how to receive because they don’t want to be burdensome or dependant on another person’s generosity; because generally that generosity has come at a cost in the past and makes us suspicious. So remaining in a giving position keeps us in control but also makes us thoroughly unavailable”.

In situations when others offer to do something for me and I say “It’s okay thanks, I’ve got it”, she says that it isn’t about whether I’m capable of the task, it’s about letting other people in to be able to show their appreciation and love.

“Okay” I thought, that’s one objective then. Certainly when I hear someone offering to do something for me, it might take quite a bit of practice to allow them to. Because also attached to this is the desire for perfection. Again, not because I personally value perfection – in fact I would argue there is no such thing – but because striving for it was always a way to get ahead of any critics.

As a wise friend said “strive for progression not perfection”. To progress, I recognise I am so independent that it would be wise to ask my closest confidants to help me become aware at times when I am shutting people out from opportunities to contribute to my life.

When it comes to boundaries, I’m already on the right track. That said, I hadn’t heard about having personal boundaries until fairly recently in the scheme of things, and I still have a way to go, especially on being really specific about what I want – I still have a tendency to be too vague and accommodating.

This is particularly true of people who tell me what they are going to do (rather than ask me) when it is something that involves me, which I still find a little jarring. The trick is, I believe, is to respond as if they had asked my opinion and be very specific in stating my own preferences. People who act like this, I’ve found, are generally as poor at knowing and stating their own boundaries as I am, but come at it from a position of entitlement rather than subservience.

“Boundaries are guidelines for how someone relates the self to the rest of the world. They are rules of conduct built out of a mix of beliefs, opinions, attitudes, past experiences and social learning. Personal boundaries operate in two directions, affecting both the incoming and outgoing interactions between people. Personal boundaries help to define an individual by outlining likes and dislikes and what is right for them personally or wrong for them personally. Defining these things helps us to know how we will and won’t allow ourselves to be treated by others”  - Teal Swan

There are some great resources out there for learning this skill, my go-to is Boundary Boss by Terri Cole, an amazing book, and this podcast is a fantastic introduction to the topic. There are many other resources, the inimitable Teal Swan has taught a lot about boundaries from a number of perspectives and is great to listen to or read, and Yvette Rose also has her own slant.

As an objective, while I have had a good introduction to this concept and some good practice, I still have a way to go in mastering this skill. Again, trusted confidants and mentors are those I rely upon with my vulnerabilities around this.

Lastly there is self advocacy, an interesting topic. One example Brianna gave was about expressing a personal opinion, particularly if it’s contrary to an expert or mainstream opinion. Anyone who knows me knows that I have little difficulty in doing this. However, what they may not know is the whole twisted inner landscape that goes with it.

As another friend, also a recovering people pleaser, said “That’s fecking hard to do without wondering if you’ll hurt someone or worrying about what people’s opinions are etc”. Indeed. Not caring what someone thinks or feels is not where I want to head, but I don’t want to abandon myself in the process of trying to fulfil others’ desires, that is the unhealthy part.

And of course self advocacy is also about putting oneself forward, something I have an opportunity to relook at right now as I orientate myself towards making an independent income again. I have had a bad habit of making myself seem smaller to avoid looking too big for my boots. In fact I’ve probably constricted so much I’ve been rattling around inside my proverbial boots, lost in the darkness for years.

In my alone time this week, my inner voice reminded me to breathe life into the fullness of who I am. I’m not just a writer, or a pursuer and facilitator of personal growth, or an all-things strategically people related business consultant I’m all those things and more.     

In fact, these beautiful words came to me:
“You are a life that has known itself in pieces, and the pain of holding those pieces apart from themselves, but at the same time you are the life of everything in synchronicity. There is only love and resistance to love, that is everything. If you let go - you will see that the pieces cannot do anything but integrate when in the flow, they only fracture in resistance”.

I recognise the truth of that in all of us. It relates directly to what Tony Robbins said “Inside of you, there are parts of you that are incredibly gracious and generous, but there is also a part that is selfish. We all have loving parts and not so loving parts, playful parts and boring parts, courageous parts and fearful parts”.

Then he said poignantly, “The real question is not Who are you? The real question is Which part of you is in charge right now?”

So when it comes to self advocacy, I think it’s as much about putting on my big girl pants and being brave as I go about breaking the old patterns of staying small. I believe we each have a lot to offer and it can be many things to many people. I certainly would like to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that, it keeps my life interesting and fulfilling.

As I was reminded this week, looking back on 2021, if all that happened was that I just feel a bit better about myself, or I became clearer about what I truly need to be happy and healthy or I uncovered some of the things that truly matter to me and have taken steps towards living according to them, then – as Teal Swan says - “Congratulations you have attuned yourself to the bigger picture”.

Evolution, growth and inner work are journeys that require time, commitment and effort. So as you step into 2022, in what ways can you learn how to receive more? And what steps can you take towards becoming more confident around asserting your own needs, desires and opinions? This world is not only waiting for you to step into the fullness of who you are, it needs us each to do this. Let us take small steps together.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How Do I Honour What I Believe and Care Less What You Think?. Your Mind Will Try to Protect You By Resisting Your Healthy Boundaries, Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin, Do You Need to Heal Your Boundaries? and How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I am alone on Christmas Day for the first time in my life, but I will say that I am not lonely.

Instead, I feel a strange sense of spending time with someone that I have felt awkward with for too long – me. It used to be that I could barely stand to spend any time with me; it was a concept so foreign that I would even say I was afraid to be alone.

Today as I sat on the beach by myself, I no longer feel that fear. A memory sprang up of sitting alone in a park in Sweden after a break up long ago. It was a beautiful summer’s day, and the park was busy with families and couples and people connecting. I sat in the grass among them feeling conspicuous, anxious, thinking “I could do this; I can be on my own”.

And for a while, a short while, I was. I had some time to connect in with myself, but I gave it up without having found any of the real answers I was looking for. There were possibilities laid at my door: join Al Gore’s ranks in Aussie, creating awareness about climate change; head to an African country to volunteer my services with an organisation I knew of through a leadership development programme I had worked with; or forego those and satisfy the internal clock that was ticking oh so loudly.

Making a conscious decision, I chose the opportunity to start a family. Not that it was easy, I had to earn an income and I had turned away from those other possibilities not yet knowing this me I had only just become aware of. At the time it was with a heavy heart that I turned back back to what had been tried and tested for me in a career sense.

And the starting a family part took a further three years, and two more miscarriages. But finally I satisfied that internal clock that had, in some ways, distracted me further from who I am. Because being codependent in my relationship style, knowing nothing else, I turned my back on that me I had a brief dalliance with.

I regret nothing though, it has been my honour to birth and raise such beautiful people into the world, and I enjoy seeing who they are becoming. And their birth was also my rebirth in many ways.

My closest friends called me a doormat in reference to what became in those years afterward. While that was rather jarring to hear, at one time I would have raged with indignation at such a statement, I am grateful to have such honest friends. “How did a strong, independent woman like me become a doormat?” I wondered. It is a long story and not one for the telling now, but as I slowly became reacquainted with the me that I am, being a doormat was never going to be sustainable.

I listened to Jim Carrey talk about his role playing Andy Kaufman in Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, and I was struck by his analogy between the way a pearl is formed and the way people take on a persona that is different to their inherent self.

He said that no matter what masterpiece we create to hide the parts of us we don’t feel are acceptable – in his case it was the comedic guise he took on - at some point we have to put the real us out there.
Otherwise, for him, it was an empty existence, all that fame and wealth meant nothing when hiding from himself.

I can understand that, I’ve longed to be seen and valued for so much of my life, yet I am the one who rejected parts of myself I didn’t feel were acceptable. Of course, a lot of this rejection was subconscious and part of the normal childhood adapting to fit in.

I certainly know who I had become. In the words of Lisa Romano, people who are codependent in their relationship style “feel better when rescuing, fixing and managing the poor choices of others”. And, she says “abandonment issues keep us stuck in the past, we worry, we are not true to ourselves because we are too busy trying to be what we think others need us to be and we often deny our needs for the sake of others and feel invisible in our relationships”.

To sum up the desires driving me, I wished for peace, fun, love, to feel enough and to feel seen.
But who is this me I so utterly rejected? That is who I completely lost sight of, the person my heart longed to be accepted.

As someone who loves to learn, to explore ideas, to be in my inner world and connect with others through emotional and spiritual awareness, it is bewildering to look back now and see just how much I had rejected those part of myself.

I bought into the idea that in order to be an acceptable daughter, employee, partner and mother I had to do it all or die trying. I would always do all the things I felt were expected of me and then – if there was time or (more importantly) energy - I could do the things I love.

My beliefs were also so compromised it’s ridiculous. Why should I have been afraid to explore that broader part of me that knows so much more than I ever learned from a school teacher, a doctor or a minister? Was I really so threatened by mainstream narrative and the narrow range of vision of those around me at times throughout my life?

I see now that it has often been from a very contained and restrained place of pleasing others I have looked out through eyes and into the world over the years.

I will be forever grateful for the blunt lessons that called me back from the fog. For no matter how well I kept the house, no matter how well I ran the finances, no matter how well I did in my career, no matter how well I looked after the kids and nurtured them through emotionally trying times, no matter how well I anticipated and took care of everyone’s needs, it was never enough.

There was always some criticism; the windows needed cleaning, or the way I had cooked the meal wasn’t right, or the meal itself wasn’t right, or the groceries I purchased weren’t right, or the hotel I had booked wasn’t good enough. The list was endless.

And should I take time to self care, that always attracted unwanted attention. Comments in a tone that were decidedly divisive and designed to ensure I knew that it was not acceptable for me to sit and read my book for half an hour, or go for walk along the beach in the middle of the day, or invite friends or family over or to stay for any length of time to name a few.

All of these things were absolute gifts, because they caused me to get angry and to stand up for myself, albeit carrying a great deal of grief at not feeling seen or valued for who I am. Well, now the constraints are gone. I am alone and I feel relief.

And a little awkwardness at denying and disowning the authentic parts of me, that would so fascinate me in others, for so long. As I have begun to know myself more, I say “Hello world, here I am” and it is on those terms you will meet me.

I have learned the valuable lesson that I can never be good enough to please other people all of the time. The number one person I need to respect is my self, a self that I am thoroughly enjoying getting reacquainted with and reclaiming.

Over this holiday season, are you able to take a little time to become aware of parts of yourself that you may be rejecting in order to feel accepted? In your heart, might you even want to become reacquainted with the you that you were born to be? After all, if we are not being ourselves then who is the person that is living your life other than an illusion?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Who Are You Protecting? Why Telling Your Story Is Powerful, Normal Is Dysfunctional That Is the Growth Opportunity, Your Childhood Is Not Your Fault but It Will Be Your Limitation and Resentment, the Family Business. Are You Willing to Let It Go? To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I was sitting outside the theatre recently, unable to go in and watch my child perform due to the new restrictions here. I had sent a plea to the theatre owners as – under the new restrictions – they could have chosen to waive the requirement for a My Vaccine Pass but didn’t.

A friend in the same situation said “Shall we stage a protest?” My response, she decided, was pretty zen. I had decided to wait outside peacefully as I suspect the owners are more scared of the virus than the vaccination, and I am the opposite. And I didn’t think I was going to overcome their fears by further protesting, any more than they were overcoming mine through segregation and exclusion.

Honestly that response may have come from divine inspiration because all I feel is exhausted. It’s hard sometimes to avoid getting caught up in the constant bid for my attention that many things in daily life compete for.

We then sat talking about my separation and some issues going on at school for the kids. There is a lot going on. And yet, if I constantly allow myself to get dragged down rabbit holes, I am detracting from the bigger picture and just getting stuck longer and longer in a reality that is well past its expiry date. “What do I want my future to look like?” I wondered.

As I said in Be Purposeful in Your Focus - Your Glass Is Actually Still Half Full once I start contemplating and appreciating the things that are going well in my life, I get on a roll and realise that my glass is well and truly more full than empty. From there it is easier to get into visualising the future because my heart is more open.

So it is an ongoing practice, particularly at this time: to actively find things to appreciate in the present and get into visualising the future.

Luckily the weather had been great last week and I had managed a few walks at the beach. I sat imagining what kind of house I will have once I have finally sorted out the details of how to disentangle my assets. I’d love a little cottage, shabby chic furnishings, with just enough room inside for the kids and I to have our own spaces and enough garden around it that my neighbours can’t hear me sneeze.

Also, a sustainable lifestyle really appeals to me, particularly in terms of power, water and as many food products as I can manage. I have lived in a couple of houses where water was collected from the roof when it rained, and it provided all the water needs for the household, I’ve always thought that is far more sensible than a huge infrastructure that takes the water further from its natural state.

As I was sitting there contemplating and – frankly – delighting in the idea of creating a home space that reflects who I am, I noticed a lady walking her dog along the shore. The dog was having a fantastic time bounding in and out the waves, and eventually the lady walked over to say hello and we each recognised the Scottish accent we heard from the other.

There are more Scots out of Scotland than in, that is for sure, and I tend to find those of my native tongue very friendly; as was the case on this occasion too. And, as is often the way with me, within seconds we were connecting and sharing stories about what was going on for each of us at a deep heart level at this time.

We were both lamenting that, despite the current restrictions in New Zealand, we were experiencing something quite beautiful, and something that was not often available when we each lived in Scotland – warmth and sunshine on the beach beside a sparkling blue ocean.

When my mum died four years ago she said her one regret was that she wouldn’t feel the warmth of the sun on her back again as she sat on the beach, so every time I’m able to experience that I feel a huge sense of gratitude.

All of this contributed to an overwhelming sense of wellbeing that has carried on each time I manage to get back to the beach and my daydream picks up right where it left off, creating a new home and life where I am able to be more of who I am.

My big lesson right now is to see what I don’t want as a pivot point only, not to waste any more effort than necessary on spinning my wheels in the sinking sand. Fighting against something just gives it more energy and power, and fear is certainly not something I want to perpetuate.

With such extremes playing out both in my personal life and society at large, my focus and attention can go back and forth many times in each day. But always I am aware of bringing my focus back to the wanted rather than the unwanted. My dreams. Dreams are free, but they are also essential to making progress.

It’s my hope that you will each take a little time this holiday season to step away from the things that keep you spinning your wheels and revisit and cultivate your dreams. If there was ever a time this world needed dreamers, it’s now. It is time to create the kind of future we all deserve.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Could a Broader Perspective Benefit Us All Right Now?. Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element, What If The Thing You Dread Is Actually Your Dreams Trying to Unfold?, When Life Is Uncertain It Feels Good to Take a Positive Step, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good and Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I know it’s become a bit of a cliché, but I recognised this week just how much my attention has been focused on the things in my life that cause me pain. That causes me to feel stuck, which is simply frustrating and unhelpful.

Yet it’s not the whole picture. In New Zealand it’s the start of summer and the water is getting warmer, it really is quite beautiful. I went for a walk along the shore earlier and, as I was walking along with the waves lapping over my ankles contemplating what life has taught me this week, I thought about some of the things that had gone well for me.

Understand, probably like you, there are plenty of things in my week that drained my energy. Between navigating a long term relationship break up, and more government restrictions, I don’t think my life has ever been so challenging.

But as I walked along the shoreline appreciating the sun glinting on the water and the cobalt blue of the sky, my inner voice prompted me to dwell awhile in the things that are going just fine. When life is so challenging it makes the contrast between what is going well and what is not even stronger.

So I started to reflect back on my week, a week in which certain my attention had been diverted to one or two things that screamed loudly, and I realised in that moment with the waves lapping just how reassuring the timelessness of nature is. No matter what is going on in my life, the tide continues to come in and out, the sun continues to rise and the sand and sea continue to get warmer beneath my feet. 

And lucky me, it was the third time I had made it to the beach for a short walk, giving my nervous system a chance to find its equilibrium and my mind to let go of its worries and drift and contemplate, even if it was only for ten minutes.

I then purposefully thought back over the week. I thought about how much lighter I’d felt last weekend when my daughter’s party fell on a day that her dad was looking after her. For the first time, it wasn’t me who was wholly responsible for making her day special, it was liberating.

I’d been able to relax and enjoy catching up with some of the other parents as they came to collect their kids. In fact, because of another child’s party, I also spent a lovely late afternoon at the local park after school one day having a picnic and chatting with friends while the kids ran around playing their games. The weather had been perfect, warm and cloudy but with a gentle breeze.

Friends from far flung places checked in on me this week to see how I’m doing, letting me know they care, which was heart warming. I’d also had amazing support from other friends to help tackle the metaphorical fires that had consumed so much of my attention, which was worth its weight in gold.

Then when nipping to the shops before 3 December (when many businesses here became off limits to those without full vaccination certificates), I got great reductions on some gifts that were on my kids’ wish list; the sale happened to start that day.

I was even thrilled when, on one day that was forecast rain, it was instead warm, dry and windy at the outset and I managed to get three loads of washing out and dried before the heavens opened. And when I ordered our groceries this week, the supermarket send a surprise chiller bag full of goodies as a thank you for our custom.

Once I started contemplating the things that had gone well, and the ones I’ve shared here were only really a start, I got on a roll and realised that my glass is well and truly more full than empty. From there it was easy to get into visualising the future because my heart felt open and no longer stuck.
And that really was – and always is – the aim, particularly at this time: to stay out of fear and get into visualising the future.

So where is your focus? When you recognise where your mind is dwelling, can you purposefully switch focus to the think through the things that are going well for you to allow you to more clearly see there is a better future calling?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element, What If The Thing You Dread Is Actually Your Dreams Trying to Unfold?, When Life Is Uncertain It Feels Good to Take a Positive Step, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good and Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.​

As someone who sought approval as a way to feel safe, disagreement with others has always felt very unsafe to me. So getting comfortable with another person’s opinion that is contrary to mine – especially if it is about me – has been quite a journey.

Tony Robbins says “Whether we feel pain or love depends on three things: our story, our strategy and our state; and changing any one will change the other two”.

I had a big story going on about other people’s opinions and what they meant for me. A recent email from Lisa Romano really sums up the worst of the story, she said:

“If you are like most people, you've been pushed around by somebody who thought they had a right to control, manipulate, harass, devalue or minimize you. Perhaps this person was a parent, a sibling, a partner, a friend, or a boss you have known. Whatever your unique experience and circumstance, most likely having someone try to make you feel bad about yourself may have worked to some degree. 

Again, if you're like most people and you are not a raging narcissist, chances are when someone you knew pushed your buttons, for a moment you may have wondered if what this person was saying was true. If this person accused you of something you were not guilty of, or if they deliberately gaslit you, blameshifted, and messed with your head, there may have been a moment where you questioned your reality.”

Lisa is an expert on codependency and narcissistic abuse, so she is used to working with people who seem to attract experiences like this to the degree it’s a pattern in at least one their relationships; thus reinforcing a painful story.

She says “Many of us can get caught up trying to get an abusive person to admit what they've done, but it never works. All an abusive person will do is deny, pretend, and gaslight you even further...and if you don't quit trying to find resolution, an abusive person will discard you, or worse.”

This is precisely the sort of intensive personal growth bootcamp I have attracted into my life a few times, ultimately I believe to help me let go of the need for approval. And to allow others to have their own opinions – be what they may – without it taking up my whole time and attention.

Rebbeca Zung says that when she was dealing with two covert narcissists in her professional life, this is precisely how she felt. She says:

“It's a constant siege.  You're always feeling like you're under attack, always on the defensive, like you can never get ahead. They are always lining up the flying monkeys, not providing the documents they are supposed to, ignoring the court orders and getting away with it; lying, lying and more lying and everyone seems to be believing them.”

And now, on a more macro level, I find myself living in times where people are becoming more polarized. Those unvaccinated in New Zealand face a life of exclusion from the December third when the government begin a new system. A key part of this is the introduction of vaccine certificates which will be digitally recorded, stored and shared on a national system.

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, when asked whether New Zealand would ever follow Austria's example of mandating the vaccination for everybody, was quoted in a national newspaper this week as saying " No. It is just not something we would do."

And yet, as part of the new vaccine certificate system, businesses are incentivized to deal only with vaccinated people in a very clear way. Businesses that choose to deal with unvaccinated people face restrictions in how they operate. Businesses will be also given verification apps to ensure that those people vaccinated have had both initial shots and 6 monthly booster shots in order to still qualify as “vaccinated”.

For those who haven’t got these, there will be access to groceries and emergency medical services, everything else will be either off the table or restricted depending on what alert level the country is in.

For example, the local swim school (at an outdoor pool) says people over the age of twelve must be double vaccinated and this, apparently, is across the board with all swim schools and teaching complexes in New Zealand. If the child is under the age of twelve and parents are not double vaccinated, then children must be dropped off and parents will not allowed to enter the premises.

A post I have previously mentioned came to mind again when I read this “Kind of weird I have to explain this, but taking things away from people until they agree to do what you say isn’t giving them a choice, it’s punishing them until they concede to your demands. Normally we would refer to this type of behaviour as manipulation and abuse”.

So on the macro level, choosing to remain unvaccinated at this stage may be the greatest challenge yet in integrating others’ opinions. Big story, feels painful right?

How do I change the story? In the context of the broader picture I understand there has to be division before there is unity, and all is well. In the words of Abraham Hicks “This isn’t about what you do or don’t do. You either line up with taking it and take it, or you line up with not taking it and don’t. Just don’t decide not to take it and push against – or decide to take it and push against – because it is the pushing against that takes your freedom and your wellbeing and your joy”

What feels right for me might change, at each decision point I’ll be leaning towards the path of least resistance. Each to their own without a need for assertion I say, some people are more afraid of the vaccine than the illness, others are the opposite, and others still are afraid of neither or both. Remember the old adage “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”.

While it’s healthy to consider others’ feelings and circumstances, it is not healthy to consider them above my own. I was always abandoning myself to satisfy others until I finally learned about healthy boundaries and some strategies around implementing them.

I heard a snippet from Teal Swan this week that was examining the word healing, because by saying that something needs healed is to make it wrong, and therefore creates resistance to it. The key, she said, was integration.

I think this is the key when it comes to others’ opinions too.

As I said in How to Reclaim Your Freedom Instead of Feeling Trapped the commonality in this issue is freedom, which I discerned by zooming out of the issues and looking at people’s differing fears and motivations and taking a broader view.

Despite the emotional entanglement of my approval seeking habit, one positive was that it also taught me to reconcile contrasting views. Conflicting viewpoints drive me to go wide and deep to reconcile what I am hearing but doesn't resonate. The point of commonality is what I’m always looking for, what is in within what is being said or felt that I (inner me) can agree with? It taught me that – on one level - I am not you and you are not me and yet – on another level - we are one.

This is about integration, a good strategy. I can hold that your opinion is valid and – at the same time – mine is also. In the past I have always known this, but in the words of a friend of mine, the gold for them this week is knowing they can have a different point of view to another and not need to change it (or what they are doing) in order to please someone else.

All of this though is much easier when my state of being is in a place of love rather than pain as Tony put it. In Learning to Surrender, Sarah Blondin says “The more we constrict, the more worry and burden we pick up along the way. The denser we become, the more we sink like rocks to the bottom of our river. We then ground ourselves in the turbulent waters rather than allowing ourselves to be carried to the cool, calm waters”.

The words I hear when I tune in from a more relaxed state are “Let go”, and imagining myself being carried along in a stream helps to let go of worry, let go of others’ expectations, let go of others’ opinions and let go of seeking others’ approval.

In order to honour what you believe, what can you change right now about the story, strategy or your state of being in order to care less about what others think?
 
If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy What If The Thing You Dread Is Actually Your Dreams Trying to Unfold?, When Life Is Uncertain It Feels Good to Take a Positive Step, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good, What Do the People in Your Life Have to Teach (Good and Bad)? and Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom this week, and out of interest I asked my (soon to turn teen) niece what her definition of freedom was. She responded “the feeling of relief and the feeling that nothing is holding you back in life”.

I couldn’t have defined it better if I had tried. I have heard others define it by conditions that need to exist, rather than as a feeling. But I have read accounts of people who have lived in the absolute worst of human conditions – such as the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps - who still felt freer than others who would appear to be privileged and yet feel trapped.

Freedom has come up for me both on a micro and macro level, with global restrictions in place and whole swathes of people becoming polarized against one another. And I am pondering this on both levels.

When someone asked me recently about some undesirable conditions I had lived with in my life, and why I had put up with them for so long, I responded that once I became aware of my situation I had made a choice and – while staying within it for a certain amount of time – had chosen to focus on the positive aspects.

Yet, as I wrote about a few years ago in Why Does She Stay? … and What Makes You So Different?  it can so often be the case that people are unaware that they have a choice. Lack of confidence, shame, a misplaced sense of duty - all some version of fear – and all have a familiar resonance with feelings from childhood.

For me these feelings drew more experiences that led me to wonder thoughts like “perhaps what I seek is a fantasy, perhaps this is just what life is”. I wrote at the time:

“She stays because she’s rooted in fear, what is known seems safer somehow that what is unknown. The same as why the other s(he) is violent to begin with, or why you stay in that job you hate, or stick with that diet you loathe, or with that person you don’t love, it’s all rooted in fear. Life will often present you with BIG things, like near misses, disease or death, because it knows you need dislodged to get out your comfort zone and show you that you can do it…

So you can wait for the slam dunk, or you can start to see the fear for what it is. It’s a thought. And thoughts can be changed. You just need to start reaching for better feeling thoughts”

It’s fear that takes our sense of freedom.

Over the course of my life, any time I became aware that I was entrenched in circumstances that really weren’t serving me, I usually moved on. But after decades of repeating the same experiences –the same theme with variations on the story and people – I finally started seeing patterns.

This led me to look in the mirror and start to wonder who I was showing up as that kept attracting these same sorts of themes. In turn this led to a juicy and oftentimes uncomfortable perpetual journey of self reflection, awareness and growth.

And so it is I find myself in 2021 with all aspects of my life in movement. Some feel good, some feel not so good, but only in the moment; I feel strongly it’s all okay in the now and it’s all headed in the right direction. Some of it is within my control, some of it isn’t. My reaction to my changing circumstances though is completely within my control.

I was listening to the words of Abraham Hicks this week, who was speaking on Government Control (well worth a listen for anyone currently feeling somewhat constrained at the moment) but it spoke equally to me on the topic of feeling trapped in any way:

“You think nothing comes if you don’t fight for it and we say it comes in spite of your fighting for it. All individuals have the power to feel good and to be free. But when you turn your power over to anybody and say that they need to do something different before you can feel better, you are in trouble because you cannot control them. No one has the ability to take your freedom from you, and no one does when you know that. And until you do, a 2-year old can entrap you.”

Strong words.

In another response to someone, who was deliberating whether to have a vaccine, Abraham Hicks said:

“We are not saying to you that you can give away your freedoms and like it, we are saying to you that you are giving away your freedoms in ways you don’t even know.

This isn’t about what you do or don’t do. You either line up with taking it and take it, or you line up with not taking it and don’t. Just don’t decide not to take it and push against – or decide to take it and push against – because it is the pushing against that takes your freedom and your wellbeing and your joy.

Every time you push against anything you give away freedom and alignment with who you are. But there is so much more evolution and expansion than the decision you are making.”

This pondering has led me to realise that, despite some obvious disagreements over the issues of the COVID19 vaccines, on both sides of that argument people are seeking freedom.

Some, who have always placed their faith in the medical systems and never experienced anything negative as a result – or may in fact feel they owe their physical wellbeing entirely to medical interventions – have had no issues taking the recommended course of action from their governments.

Others, who have had negative experiences of pharmaceuticals and/or the medical system, are understandably wary – or in some cases downright fearful – of the recommended course of action and mandates.

I personally feel the same way about my body as I do about my levels of conscious awareness of my thoughts in recent years, in that I am far more attuned and aware of what my body wants and needs than I was in the past. It does not sit at all well with me that anyone except me should think they are qualified to tell me what my body wants and needs.

Talking with a friend of mine in another country this week about the mandates here in New Zealand for teachers and healthcare works to have had their first jab by 15 November, or not be allowed to continue in their roles, I mentioned a post I had seen which said “Kind of weird I have to explain this, but taking things away from people until they agree to do what you say isn’t giving them a choice, it’s punishing them until they concede to your demands. Normally we would refer to this type of behaviour as manipulation and abuse”.

He was telling me that – after having had a bad reaction to a flu vaccination many years ago – he personally would rather take his chances with his immune system. However, given restrictions on travel and a close family member’s deteriorating health (nothing to do with the virus), he felt he needed to go get the vaccine so he was in a position to get on a plane at a moment’s notice.

Now, while this is far from ideal in terms of “conditions” relating to personal freedoms, it’s an excellent example of what Abraham Hicks is pointing to; and indeed what my niece said so eloquently.

When faced with a choice, choose the one that gives you the most relief.

And for each person, that will result in different choices. Honour that. Some people will choose to vaccinate over losing their job, some will choose to walk away from their job. Others will choose to abstain from seeing their loved ones, while others will choose to vaccinate in order to travel or be allowed in care homes and so on.

And remember the statement from the Abraham Hicks’ excerpt on Government control “When you turn your power over to anybody and say that they need to do something different before you can feel better, you are in trouble because you cannot control them”.

I think that's the essence of our experience here perhaps, to know ourselves in this oppression so that we can come into the fullest expressions of ourselves. It seems to me, there has never before been a time when so many are governed by so few, and the desire for freedom, be it personal, social, racial, gender identity, economic, health, education or whatever, there is a rising desire for freedom world over.

Esther Hicks said, “My only hope is that ‘what is’ becomes so evident to people that it fuels their desire for freedom”. Ultimately I believe I can and will achieve freedom from the micro and macro situations in my life that oftentimes constrain me, but I’m human, and it’s fair to say I spend more time dwelling on and dissecting ‘what is’ instead of focusing on ‘what I want’ to be.

And that is okay. Even in my resistance, my fighting, ultimately what is so desired will come in spite of my fighting it.

As I was swimming up the lane on my back yesterday I looked at the cobalt blue sky and shining sun beyond the mass of grey and white clouds drifting past. And as I watched the sky I saw it as a beautiful metaphor for this thing called freedom.

Freedom is the basis of life, it is always there like the cobalt blue sky and shining sun, regardless of what is blocking it from view. I can fight against the clouds, or the tilt of the earth, but ultimately they will continue on as they always have, my situation in relation to those is only temporary.

And so that is how I choose to see any obstruction to my freedom.

“Those who feel all powerful, who think they can control the outcome of your experience and others, don’t and can’t” is the final Abraham Hicks quote I’ll share. I choose to see those people or institutions like clouds in the sky. And, just as I do in my meditation each day with my thoughts, I take my attention from those clouds and let them drift on by.

In what ways do you feel your freedom being taken right now? Are there alternative ways of looking at the situation, perhaps as clouds in the sky, which feel better to you? And in what other thoughts or decisions are you able to find relief?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy When Life Is Uncertain It Feels Good to Take a Positive Step, Ask No One to Be Different So That You Can Feel Good, What Do the People in Your Life Have to Teach (Good and Bad)? and Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

Someone who knows me, and occasionally reads my articles, recently commented on her surprise at the vulnerability she reads within them and how much they resonate. She sees me as someone more settled in myself than she feels within herself.

While that may be true, I responded that I have a carefully cultivated armour and it’s one of the reasons I enjoy sharing my writing, it gives a glimpse of what is going on underneath. But it is a great reminder for me to relook at the way I present to the world, especially since the first thing anyone sees when they look at my website is the line “Living Life from the Inside Out”.

A therapist who once worked with me commented on how stoic I can often appear and yet I am deeply sensitive within. Of course, my posture depends on who and what I am dealing with. If I feel safe I can be open and highly responsive, but if I am feeling threatened my jaw will set and I become very unresponsive.

It comes from the need for stoicism as I was growing up. Childhood patterns get passed from generation to generation if left unchecked as I talked about a few years ago in Your Childhood Is Not Your Fault but It Will Be Your Limitation. So the need for me to delve within and figure out who I authentically am was palpable by the time I had my own children.

I read once that in adulthood we attract into our lives people who in some way mirror those early challenges, as a subconscious way of seeking a do-over. The problem with that is, by adulthood, much of those traits I’d subconsciously developed as a temporary defence had by then created well worn neural pathways in my body.

My reactions to similar circumstances were, in effect, automatically the same as in childhood. Only perhaps I felt able to express more of what I’d had to hold back as a youngster. In essence, I was stuck in some pretty dysfunctional patterns and stances.

And it has been quite a journey since, figuring that out and learning new skills to counter the effects of having become hyper attuned to how others feel, codependent in my relationships and constantly striving for perfection among other things. Learning healthy boundaries and how to hold them has become revolutionary for me.

Not knowing healthy boundaries as a child, I had no idea I was even entitled to them. My parents had a solid marriage and seemed to love and respect each other very much, and I always imagined that being in a relationship was the place to find that validation, love and respect I was seeking.

Unfortunately an early experience of heartbreak catapulted me into a new level of unworthiness, attracting a series of relationships that went from less-than-healthy to downright unhealthy over time. It wasn’t until confronted by an unhealthy professional relationship when my kids were only babies, together with the challenges of parenthood, that I finally became determined enough to relook at my whole way of thinking.

There is no doubt I have found it extremely challenging at various times in my life to live and work with people who see themselves, their contribution, their value, and their worth as greater than mine. If I’m honest, it’s was hard to comprehend actually, that anyone could feel and act that way towards another human being.

Almost as though that was a story that belonged to other times, not something in the modern day world among reasonable people, in a society that recognises the equality of human rights. And yet, patterns of superiority exist within many people as evidenced world over and are precisely what my own unhealthy patterns attracted at various times.

From my experience of living or working with people who like to make me feel small so that they can feel big, I have since realised it is within my power to shine brightly and not allow their thoughts and actions to dim that light.

In general I am conscious that I exude an air of confidence which reflects how I feel about life in the broader sense: that everything works out for the greater good eventually. I will only share my worries beyond my inner circle in hindsight, once any emotional charge has passed and I can comment on them from a place of insight and confidence.

The key I think is to have an inner circle, dependable people in my life that I can safely be vulnerable with. And even with those people it has taken a lot for me to share what may actually be going on in my life. Facing the truth of how I’ve allowed myself to be treated by different people at different times was a hard thing to do.

I always refuse to think of myself as a victim, as I imagine most people must, because it is no way to live. And the last thing I could think of as desirable is having people pity me, or try to convince me to do something I’m not ready to do.

When I have found myself living in circumstances that make me feel powerless and trapped, yet have felt - for whatever reason – I could not immediately change my circumstances, the only bearable option left was to change the way I thought about those circumstances in order to feel more empowered.

But with persistence and focus, I feel closer than ever to my authentic nature and not afraid to reveal it. Perhaps it is that I am now feeling more settled in myself that shows up, rather than the old armour, but it is certainly a great reminder to reveal what’s going on inside a bit more when I’m with other people.

So how do you show up in your life? Is what is revealed on the outside a reflection of your authentic inner world? Is it time for you to realise it is within your power to shine brightly? And, in fact, that is not only what you are destined to do but it is what the people and world around you will benefit from the most.
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If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Do You Need to Heal Your Boundaries?, Who Are You Protecting? Why Telling Your Story Is Powerful, What to Do if You Feel Trapped By Your Circumstances, Your Childhood Is Not Your Fault but It Will Be Your Limitation and Overcome the Greatest Human Fear – Be the True You. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

Over the course of my life I noticed I had developed a habit of second guessing myself, I was also constantly ruminating over past conversations and trying to get ahead of any future conflict, as well as feeling like I had brain fog a lot of the time.

In short, I had allowed the essence of who I am to be slowly overshadowed because my attention was always way more focused on pleasing others and what other people thought of who I am.
I was doing an inner healing process this week that involved imagining taking out any hooks that people have into me. The hooks represent other people’s expectations, responsibilities laid at my door that were never my responsibilities to take.

The process starts with imagining one parent and then the other, giving back everything that is theirs, knowing they too don’t need to carry responsibilities that are not their own, they can give back whatever is not theirs too, and so on down through the generations like a ripple effect.

Then I imagined doing it with other people in my life, going back through those who put expectations and responsibilities on my shoulders that belonged to them, not me. Once I started this process is was very easy to feel from the weight of the memory just who had hooks in me and who didn’t.

While this sounds quite abstract, some tangible examples of how these hooks show up are: being constantly questioned in a disdainful tone on my expenditure while the questioner is off spending with little accountability; or having how I spend my time frequently remarked upon scornfully by someone who does as they please; or having my contribution continually belittled and dismissed by someone who is quick to build themselves up.

As I have started to see this more objectively, there is a grief within me that I have allowed others to treat me this way over the years. It’s not as though I was entirely submissive and allowed these sorts of things to go unchallenged, but more the feeling inside of wanting to be seen, to be recognised and accepted for the person that I am.

The sorts of adaptations I made in my life, to gain the love and approval of those who I was dependent on, were: becoming a perfectionist, anticipating others’ needs, and taking on too much of other people’s responsibilities to name a few.

But, as Terri Cole says, there is a fine line between being loving and generous versus giving/doing from a place of need to feel valued, recognised or loved. Over the years that approval seeking behaviour has caused me to align with others who are more narcissistic and demand approval, control and compliance. It’s like a subconscious do-over, repeating patterns from childhood in the hope of a different outcome.

Lisa Romano states this false premise well when talking about her own experiences:

“As an adult, this pattern remained active. I continued to automatically operate on the premise that in order to feel good enough, someone out there had to say so. My saviour was out there somewhere and – one day – if I could finally figure out how to change myself enough, I would feel good enough.”

Of course this can go on throughout life without any conscious awareness. But in my case I have become aware, acutely aware, and have been determined to take back my own power.

When I was picturing myself as a young child, I realised that this need to change myself in order to feel good enough was driven by that younger version of me; it was my child-self’s survival mechanism. Yet, if that were one of my own children I would be telling them, finding ways to show them, that they were born good enough, there’s nothing they need to say, do or be in order for them to receive my love.

Having kids has been a revelation of personal insights and growth. That they need not say, do or be anything different than who they are has been like a driving force in how I approach my role as a mother. I even have a sign on our wall saying “Simply Be Who You Are”. But I also know the many times in each day that I sail dangerously close to waters that speak the language of “in order for you to be accepted in this family/school/relationship you must do this”.

I have (and continue to) examine all my expectations of my kids, the expectations others have of them, and how these are conveyed, all through the lenses of “does this allow them to be who they are without causing harm to others”.  Even that, I know, is a restraining step beyond “simply being who you are”. What does harm look like?

Am I going to stand by and let one of my kids take a long turn on something I can see the other child is desperate to play with? Is that causing the other child harm? Frankly no, it’s teaching them boundaries and patience, but I had certainly been wired to share regardless of whether or not I had finished.

Am I going to stand by if one of my kids starts hitting the other? Or manipulating the other? No, physical, psychological and emotional abuse all cross the line and need me to step in and help them navigate.

Am I great at doing all these things on a consistent basis? Pretty good, and I’m getting better and better all the time. I put in conscious effort to turn the tide from my default responses. When the kids first started expressing themselves in ways that triggered me (and it’s fair to say that happened from the get-go, with nightly screaming from 7-11pm daily for months with my first child for no obvious reason) it was more than a little wearing.

Why make all this effort for my own kids and neglect that child within me? It didn’t make sense. And, besides, I realised it’s not just about who I am being towards my children, it’s about who I am being when I am around my children. For example, if I pass off controlling behaviour from other people towards me as normal in their presence, what silent messages are they taking in?

So defining my own boundaries and learning how to hold them with grace has been top of my agenda as they have grown, both with them and others around me. And by doing that, and learning that I am enough already, I don’t need to prove myself on that front, I am also honouring that younger me as the grown adult who can now take a different, healthier stance.

I also realise that there is nothing to fear except fear itself. My survival no longer depends on those around me. I am an adult who can choose a new mindset, a less encumbered mindset without the hooks of others.

If you are someone who second guesses themselves all the time, constantly feel like you have brain fog and ruminate over past conversations and try to get ahead of any future issues, perhaps it’s time to take a good hard look at who has what hooks in you? Remember, you were born good enough, be fearless, and let no one cast shadow on your light.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Embrace Your Authentic Self, Shed the Toxic People in Your Life, Do You Need to Heal Your Boundaries?, Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin, Are You Overly Responsible? Actually Seeing Yourself Through Fresh Eyes, and Overcome the Greatest Human Fear – Be the True You. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I have a friend who is contending with a lot right now, and feeling that the ground beneath her feet has become rather shaky with COVID19 restrictions intensifying. Amid all of life’s uncertainties, she took a positive step and her face beamed as she told me about it.

The step she took had nothing to do with the circumstances that have been derailing her, it was unrelated, but the point is she had done something positive for herself and it was a massive boost to her morale.

Taking a leaf from her book, I decided it was time for me too to take positive steps towards my own future and started to crystallise my thoughts about how I want my life to look moving forward. I don’t mean what it will look like in two years or five years or ten, I’m good at that sort of vision, but what I want to happen next has been less defined.

My life has been in a state of limbo for too long, and I’ve been allowing it to be determined by others and circumstances so it is time for me to take hold of what tomorrow looks like.

It brings to mind the beautiful lyrics from The Next Right Thing sung by Kristen Bell when she sings “Take a step, step again, it is all that I can do...the next right thing” and “when you are lost, hope is gone, but you must go on...and do the next right thing”.

Life has many uncertainties, from my home life to the life that now consists of numerous COVID19 restrictions, and many things in between. Taking a positive step – any positive step – feels good. Like when I booked myself on a course I’ve been contemplating for a while, or when I decided to get some help to understand my rights.

And richest of all, is taking steps to heal emotionally.

As Teal Swan says “Don’t chase happiness, chase relief”. She explains:

“When you are feeling stuck in a negative emotion, you do not have access to purely positive states like happiness. That seems so far away and unreachable, and only serves to remind you how unhappy you are.

Yet no matter where you are emotionally, you always have access to relief. For example, when you are feeling disempowered, thinking about something that causes you to express anger will cause you to release your attachment to disempowerment and thus you will feel a sensation of release in the body.”

Not that I am aiming for anger, but the grief process tends to go back and forth between different emotional states that all the while slowly start to move to a more neutral point. And I go much faster through these states when I deliberately take steps to see, feel and heal them.

For much of my life I buried pain and anger, soldiering on when I was hurt. But now I have learned that – while I have kids to look after and responsibilities I must meet - I have a responsibility to myself first. So, as positive a step as it is to book myself on a course, it’s a richer step to sit with my pain and see it, and try to understand it, and help it heal.

There are lots of ways to emotionally heal, but they all seem to involve allowing myself to first fully feel the pain instead of pushing it away. I can pretend that it’s okay I didn’t get to take my kids to go visit my dad last year in the UK because of lockdown, for example, but it’s not okay, we are still no closer to getting to visit now. In fact we are further from it as I no longer have the finances to jump on a plane if I could.

Sure, I’m pragmatic about it, there’s nothing I can do about it, and I’m not wallowing in self pity, but I am feeling the pain of it. So I have to turn towards that pain and acknowledge it instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. I have to take myself – or have someone else guide me – through a process to help me name that pain.

Does it make me feel utterly disempowered? Am I feeling anxious about it? Am I furious? Or am I just feeling disappointed? To be fair, how I feel can change, but by always turning towards the feeling rather than turning my back on it, I have a chance of shifting it towards something that feels better; preferably something more neutral.

All of these things are positive steps when life is uncertain.

What are the circumstances in your life that feel uncertain? How do you feel about them? What positive steps can you take today to help you feel better?

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Heal Your Past Hurts To Help You Fulfill Your Potential, Do You Need to Heal Your Boundaries?, Take Your Broken Pieces and Make a Beautiful Life, How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely  and How to Heal the Past so You Can Live Your Best Present. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

I’ve always believed in the inherent goodness of people and, although I learned about different personality types and behavioural styles in my early adulthood, I always assumed people were generally fair minded and want to do the right thing by others.

I knew there were exceptions of course, when I studied psychology we learned about mental illnesses and behavioural disorders and I sort of assigned any mal-intent to that minority. Many years ago when I heard someone say “People don’t do things to you, they do things for themselves” it rang true.

As a result, when I’ve been hurt I have tried not to take it too personally, choosing instead to seek to understand what pain might be driving that poor behaviour, and excused too much of it as a result. In close relationships I would see a person’s true potential, believe I could help them reach it, and want to help fix the problems.

The issue with that is it assumes that person can also see just how encumbered they are with unhelpful beliefs (that drive some gnarly behavioural patterns causing problems in their life), and wants to embark on a journey to reach their potential. Frankly, who needs that uninvited though? It’s like saying “you are not good enough as you are”.

I’ve learned that kind of journey needs to be entirely self motivated. It’s not my business to try to help anyone who hasn’t asked for help. But, I also don’t need to put up with poor behaviours just because I might understand where they are driven from. And, believe me, I’ve put up with a lot of poor behaviours from others in my life.

I clearly had my own journey to go on and my focus shifted years ago from blaming others and circumstances for any unhappiness, to looking within to my beliefs, behaviours and what I’m allowing from others.

This week I have been listening to a series of experts being interviewed on the topic of toxic relationships, a term I haven’t particularly thought much about until this point. But it’s added another layer of realisation in terms of how I allow others to treat me.

Therapist Briana MacWilliam explains that a toxic relationship is one where “a person discounts the other person as autonomous from themselves and treats them as poorly as they treat themselves on the inside”. She goes on to explain this can mean dismissing someone’s feelings and degrading their character – the key being that it is a pattern of behaviour not just a one-off.

When she talked about different forms of relationship attachment styles, the one she described as an “anxious attachment” (or an open heart) rang true for the me I was before I started my inner work:

• I have been accustomed to a lack of love in my romantic relationships and fallen into people-pleasing mode.
• I have tended to give too much, and wait around too long for the reciprocation of loving feelings.
• I have taken on more than the Lion's Share of the responsibility, guilt, and blame in any relationship because I think if I am responsible for something going wrong, it must be within my power to fix it.
• I have had low self-esteem and struggled with feelings of unworthiness.
• Deep down, I have believed I have to earn love and approval and so have been drawn to partners that are “challenging” or “edgy,” that make me work for it.
• By being over-helpful, I have perhaps subconsciously tried to make myself indispensable to partners, the underlying invisible premise being “If they need me, they won’t leave me”. But this is a double edged sword; working so hard, I then question whether or not they really love me for me…(and struggled with knowing who the “real” me was too).
•  I have tended to get lost in the potential of the relationship, rather than the reality of it.

• But the hardest thing is I’ve usually attracted others with insecure attachment styles, who don’t appreciate me and take my generosity for granted.

Many of the discussions in the conference centred on narcissistic behaviours, certainly one I’ve had the misfortune of encountering a number of times. I used to hear the term narcissist and think of it rather like a cliché, but as I have lived through various toxic relationships I’ve begun to recognise just how common this is – and how ill equipped I was to recognise and deal with narcissistic behaviours.

Dr Les Carter is quick to point out narcissistic behaviours can be plotted on a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum there is healthy narcissism, a positive sense of self that is in alignment with the greater good. At the other end of the spectrum there is more destructive narcissism characterised by a consistent pattern of grandiose attitudes and behaviours.

As Dr Carter mentions, it is perfectly normal for people to display thoughtless, selfish behaviour once in a while, it’s the recurring pattern of that behaviour that causes toxic relationships. If someone acts that way, say, twenty percent of the time, that’s obviously quite different from someone who acts that way eighty percent of the time.

He says “Narcissists bring out the worst in us, wearing you down over time. Their desire to be in control puts you in the inferior position and you’re on the receiving end of a lot of criticism, gas lighting (denial, lies, smoke and mirrors), second guessing and –over time – a building sense of frustration, tension and confusion”.

He goes on to explain “You want collaboration in a relationship, they see it as a competition to stay superior. They need to be admired; other people are their potential supply to build up their fragile egos. They whittle away at your dignity, your reasoning and mock your emotions. They want to eliminate your free will.”

Now all this kind of talk sounded much too fantastical to me because it elicits a picture in my head of a person sitting in a room strategising all the ways in which they could consciously entrap me. Whereas in reality I’ve found it’s more a set of subconscious behaviours driven by deep insecurities and shame. And people with these behavioural patterns are not interested in anything but their own truth.

I can see the wasted hours and energy I have spent trying to get other people (who seem bound and determined to dismiss, demean and belittle me) to try to see my perspective. When Dr Carter said “Don’t even attempt to make them think differently, there is only one opinion that matters and it isn’t yours” I realised just how true that is. 

Other tell-tale signs Dr Carter cited that I recognise from experience:

• No empathy – narcissists don’t identify with the feelings or emotions of others, so they don’t care who they hurt to get what they need
• A sense of entitlement – narcissists and other toxic personalities have a sense of entitlement when it comes to their needs always coming first
• Walking on eggshells –erratic behaviours and responses; not knowing from day to day what their mood will be or what you will need to do to appease them.

Then Lisa Romano talked about another common red flag, a pattern of someone getting enraged when you try to raise an issue with them in a civil manner. I have experienced this frequently; there is simply no space for considering another’s opinion, whereas in a healthy relationship there is give and take and mutual respect.

I first came across Lisa last year when I read her story in The Road Back to Me and My Road Beyond the Codependent Divorce. Her story is very compelling as it charts her childhood experiences through to her adult relationships, where cause and effect can clearly be seen.

Circling back to Briana MacWilliam’s definition of a toxic relationship, about treating others “as poorly as they treat themselves on the inside”, Lisa’s story demonstrates exactly how the way a person treats themselves on the inside comes about in those early childhood and adolescent years.

When I read Lisa’s story, I felt grateful I hadn’t had her experiences. Yet when I reflected on my own childhood experiences, I realised that other people heard my story and thought in the same terms (grateful they hadn’t led my life).

My experiences have led me to some very unhealthy entanglements as an adult. I have been in at least two so-called romantic relationships like this, and also had a toxic relationship with a work colleague which fell into this category.

I am realizing that I kept making the same mistakes over and over, excusing poor behaviour towards myself and to others, trying to get them to see me, trying to get them to acknowledge my intentions and contributions, trying to get them to accept that I am entitled to an opinion that differs from theirs and trying to even just get them to care.

Because I could see those people so clearly, I wanted them to see me. But now I know they were not capable (without awareness and desire to change) of seeing me as anything other than a source to feed their own fragile ego.

While there has been a silver lining in my relationships with people who display these toxic characteristics, I often tried to stick with them in the hope they would see the light and change and finally give me the respect and/or love I deserved to feel (or at least respect my right to my own opinions). Meanwhile my own confidence and self esteem would get eroded and I would begin to question my own validity.

The silver lining for me is the intensity to which I’ve experienced these things was what prodded me into taking my own journey to self healing. Here are the things I’ve learned I needed to do to detoxify and rebuild my sense of self worth and self esteem:

1. Self Care – Michelle Farris said “if someone is not ready to leave a toxic relationship, at least try to get them to focus on self care. A good night’s sleep, exercise, seeing friends and having fun”. There are many aspects of self care that I have had to stand up for in toxic relationships, even though it makes me feel like a twisted car wreck inside. It sounds ridiculous to some people to have arguments about spending an extra $4 on a free range chicken as opposed to a factory farmed one, or taking care of my body by seeing a health practitioner, or receiving bitter complaints about friends or family members visiting (and making the atmosphere more than a little awkward when they do). And while experiencing intensive disdain towards my healthy choices, I have been more than accommodating of their choices that I would personally consider unhealthy and damaging. The respect went one way, but I saw that hypocrisy for what it was and stood determined to take care of myself despite the emotional backlash that ensued.
2. Healthy Boundaries – If, like me until a year or so ago, you don’t even really know what this term means, that is a big red flag to go check it out. There were a lot of speakers at the conference talking on this topic, but I personally got a lot of out of Terri Cole’s book Boundary Boss. All three of these points interlink, and I have become much more adept at self care by learning better boundaries and by learning to become less reactive.
3. Become Non-Reactive – As Dr Carter said, the behaviour of toxic people is wearing and it leads to a lot of anger and resentment among other strong emotions. Plus there is that persistent desire to try to convince someone who is being toxic towards me that I deserve fairness, that I am a good person and so on. He recommends “no pleading, no coaxing and no convincing, it’s going into their territory, this person is not interested in anything but their own truth”. Instead he recommends taking a stance of “I understand our opinions differ, none the less that s what I am going to do anyway” Lisa Romano pointed out that “you can’t have something different until l you do something different”. As I said, I had a lot of experience of trying to convince others of my good intentions and trying to get them to see my viewpoint. An old colleague took exception to me and would regularly challenge and belittle my opinions in meetings, and just as regularly I would take her aside for a discussion afterwards. We would get locked in conversations for hours and it became utterly exhausting. In hindsight I can see how fruitless that was, my attention and energy would have benefitted by being directed elsewhere and dealing with her in a more direct way.

​And the absolute worst thing about toxic relationships I’ve found is they are hard to recognise when in them. It’s so confusing because the other person is always deflecting blame.

But it’s simple really, with that person do you mostly feel good or bad, love or fear (p.s. I would never admit to being afraid, but my body said otherwise with my nervous system on constant high alert and my tummy constantly churning)? You deserve respectful communication, to feel seen and heard, to have give/take. You can forgive one-off transgressions but not a pattern. Go detoxify, you deserve it.
​
If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Do You Need to Heal Your Boundaries?, Your Mind Will Try to Protect You By Resisting Your Healthy Boundaries, Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin, Are You Overly Responsible? Actually Seeing Yourself Through Fresh Eyes, Overcome the Greatest Human Fear – Be the True You and What I Love About Being With Narcissistic People. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

An old feeling crept upon me this week; in short I’d call it stress, which Eckhart Tolle defines as being here while wanting to be there.

There are so many aspects of my life right now that contribute to the feeling, ranging from the birthday party I organised for my daughter to the growing restrictions on my freedom in this society and many things in between, including navigating a separation.

I fall into bed exhausted at night and then awake in the small hours with a tight balled-up feeling in my tummy, and proceed to ruminate for hours on all manner of things, from the steps I’ll need to take to create a cake that is shaped like the Mad Hatter’s hat to fears about the future; then back again to organising play dates and activities for the school holidays.

This is a pattern that last stood out in the year in which my mum was diagnosed with cancer and slowly slipped beyond our grasp, it’s the same pattern I recognise from the days of working in a corporate career with a toddler and baby at home, and the many other high intensity moments in my life.

I have resilience, when the going gets tough I step up to the plate and I work through it.
But this time, I don’t want to just plough on ticking all the right boxes except one. The one I’ve always missed in the past is being present with me.

In fact I’ve been so busy, so distracted I asked one of my good friends, “What’s my lesson this week?” as I can’t see the wood from the trees and was wondering what to write about. She suggested “The importance of making cake (metaphor for memories)” and “Being comfortable with the uncomfortable” both great topics for me right now.

Then the dots started joining, I remembered reading an email from Teal Swan about distraction, lack of fulfilment and going to safe and loving place to discover and look at my resistance. She said something that really struck me:

“Even though distraction is less painful in the moment, it further enhances the feeling of inertia within you. It feeds a lack of fulfilment.”

Immediately I recalled the times in my career where I’d be so busy working and multitasking, especially in the evening putting the kids to bed and sitting on the couch in front of the TV while my then partner watched and I responded to emails and follow up actions I had from meetings.

He would switch off the TV and say “Time for bed?” then head upstairs, I would linger in that moment of silence that followed and briefly acknowledge the tugging sensation in my gut. I now know that sensation was my inner frustration at the inertia and lack of fulfilment.

I was busy, extremely productive, but producing little of value to the soul within that travels in this body and wanted me to step back from all of that and hear myself.

What Teal went on to say about lack of fulfilment was very similar to Eckhart’s definition of stress, she said “This means there is a link in your mind between wanting and opposition to the wanting, being prevented from getting what you want.”

And then came the reminder that the way to break that cycle of simultaneous wanting and resistance, and the horrid feelings and patterns of stress that accompany it, is to make the space to be with myself in a meditative state where I can take a better look at that resistance.

If I have enough space around me I am able to go within and lead myself on inner journeys, but right now that is proving difficult. So I decided to listen to one of Teal’s guided meditations and spent some time looking at that tight knot on my tummy, realizing it stems from a much earlier pain that signified my feelings of a lack of self worth, so I spent some time releasing it in my imagination and creating something different that filled my heart.

This led to a much better night’s sleep and, when I awoke the next morning, my daughter and I claimed triumph as we stacked the layers of her Alice in Wonderland cake together. Making cake wouldn’t generally be on my list of things I love to do, but helping my daughter make her dreams come true, absolutely.

Seeing the beautiful things we envisioned and created together come to fruition, and the joy she had in sharing that with her friends as they celebrated the day she arrived here in this life was fulfilling. My friend is right, it is important to make these memories.

These are the kinds of memories that will live in my heart forever, whereas much of the other noise that has been living in my head will be forgotten – unless I let it store its heavy baggage in my being by not taking the time to see, feel and release it.

In fact, experience tells me that forgotten baggage does not like to stay forgotten, it seems to magnetize itself to new experiences that then create a whole other story of pain and more baggage. I figure I may as well be proactive and retrieve it and take a good look at it in the full light of day. I intend to look after my wellbeing now, I don’t need weighed down with any more baggage.

I have a friend who always says she doesn’t want to go near her baggage, or as she says “the skeletons” in her cupboard. Ironically I’ve found my skeletons only have power over me when I refuse to acknowledge how their presence is showing up in my life today. When I do acknowledge those skeletons the ugly takes on a more benign, if not beautiful, form.

What is your stress – beyond the obvious - pointing to right now? Are you willing to give yourself the gift of presence to uncover what wants to be released?

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy How Living Your Passions Fully Combats Feeling Lonely, The Soul’s Yearning – How to Recognise Your Inner Work, How Is Your Ability to Connect With Abundance Right Now? and Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

This is the story of my childhood and the inadvertent trauma I experienced that wove its way into the fabric of who I became in ways that were not always helpful - as published on TinyBuddha.com. Click here to read 

Every now and then I hear something that feels like a fundamental truth about how life works. When I hear it, there is an internal shift, a feeling that something has just clicked into place.

One of the most pivotal things I’ve heard in my life, were these words:

“YOU are the only one who creates your reality. If you knew your potential to feel good, you would ask no one to be different so that you could feel good. You would free yourself of the cumbersome impossibility of needing to control people and circumstances.”

Cumbersome impossibility, those words felt richly mined from the depths of my experiences. At the time I heard them, back in 2006, I was reflecting on every relationship with every person I had ever had to that point. I could see the countless times I had not just tried to persuade people to my way of thinking on any number of things, but literally believing my way was the right way.

And over the years that followed I observed it both within myself and among others. Those words have remained with me like a rod that will not be broken, pointing to a true north it cannot deny. Over the years I have slowly broken old habits and softened my stances and now generally stand in an attitude of live and let live much more of the time.

There are a collection of those kinds of beliefs within me, some that are harder to articulate because I haven’t yet perhaps taken them out into the light, dusted them off and been awed with how they shimmer and gleam. But one I have always felt within me as a truth is “Everything works out for the greater good”.

I mean this in a broader, collective sense. Words that speak to this, and come to mind, were written in one of Belinda Alexandra’s novels, reflected by one of the main characters:

“All honourable causes eventually succeed even if at first they fail. The spirits of good people – even if they die in defeat, return in future generations to continue moving the human race forwards to higher and better things.”

The same character also reflected that “Out of darkness and suffering can come hope, joy and progress”.

I was asking my almost-teen niece this week what she thinks the most important thing is right now for people in the world to consider.

She mentioned both that COVID19 isn’t yet gone and, separately, how she is seeing anger getting played out in ways that aren’t getting the attention needed to resolve the issues. One of the examples she gave was a 13-year old who was stabbed by a so called friend, and she was trying to fathom how a 13-year old had enough anger that he could actually kill his classmate.

I could relate to this as I can recall being shocked when two boys at my own school got into a fight and one stabbed the other. As I’ve learned more about childhood trauma I’ve learned that anger is an emotional reaction that occurs when boundaries have been overstepped. And often that anger gets misdirected at someone whose actions were simply the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I have often wondered, looking back on that fight at my school, what sort of emotional or otherwise abuse was going on at home for both the kids involved.

I agree with my niece that waking up to that is important in our society. Becoming consciously aware of the narratives in my head, and what narratives I’m passing onto my kids either intentionally or unintentionally, has been life transforming for me as I explained in Normal Is Dysfunctional That Is the Growth Opportunity.

But I feel this lack of general awareness and intentionality is actually tied to the other issue my niece mentioned, that COVID19 hasn’t gone away. How many kids around the world right now are hearing a narrative in their homes about COVID19, its effects and government restrictions? And what sort of impact is it having on them I wonder? Are these narratives ones that are making them feel empowered or disempowered? Fearful or safe? Angry or apathetic?

The arguments appear to becoming more polarised and fear driven. In particular the central, single most damaging theme – in my opinion – is a narrative that says “my safety and freedom depends on your actions”.

These are the very antithesis of those words I heard back in 2006, that feel to me like a fundamental truth:

“YOU are the only one who creates your reality. If you knew your potential to feel good, you would ask no one to be different so that you could feel good. You would free yourself of the cumbersome impossibility of needing to control people and circumstances.”

I can’t help compare that with political statements and media campaigns I’m seeing at this time in our society. Trying to persuade people that one way is right and another wrong is what has started every human conflict on the face of the planet.

Going back to that same novel of Belinda Alexandra’s, which was set in the era of the Second World War, the character reflected further:

“While most had not wanted war, they had chosen a path of greed and pride and the result had been war. For where else does violence begin but within each individual human heart? It started with violence of thought and action, jealousy of others and loathing of oneself.

It had its beginning in the daily choices one made. Including indifference to others’ suffering and oppression. From there it escalated into a collective competitiveness, selfishness, pettiness, spite and greed. Violence of even the seemingly innocuous kind begets more violence. That was the origin of war.”

While I can readily sense the violence of the 13-year old my niece mentioned, I can sense it just as much in trying to force people to do something they don’t want to. And I mean this in both senses when it comes to choosing a course of action for each individual.

I have seen those who have chosen to accept a vaccine come under as much pressure from well-intentioned family members as those who don’t. “My safety and freedom depends on your actions” is the narrative I am hearing from our government. I am seeing anything that speaks against this narrative – or which even questions it – being torn to shreds, censored and outright vilified.

But what about having the freedom of choice I wonder? Of having sovereignty over my own body? Has that been lost in the fog? Have people been beaten down by the endless lockdowns and loss of other freedoms? The lack of connection with loved ones?

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said “No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself”.
And what is the price in this case I wonder? These issues are not going away.

Final reflections from the character in Belinda’s novel might add some insight into my own way forward as I navigate these times:

“Peace on a worldwide scale is determined by each of us creating peace in our own hearts and minds first, and doing our best to live in harmony with people and other living creatures around us. When we can do that, I believe we will become a force powerful enough to create positive change on a scale never before conceived.”

I believe this too. But it was so much easier in easier times. Now is among the worst of times, and it may get even worse before it gets better.

The most important task for me has been creating peace in my own heart and mind. And to stick to what I felt true, and still do - to ask no one to be different (or do differently) so that I can feel good. I didn’t feel it as a fundamental truth and now think “ah yes, well COVID19 will be the exception”. No, what is happening right now is not the exception; it’s simply an extreme circumstance to which the same truth applies.

“Live and let live” isn’t something I aspired to in the best of times and am now going to ditch. The privilege of owning myself is one that is not always comfortable. The external world can force itself physically, but it cannot change my mind, my beliefs or my values – and the more force it applies the more it exposes its true nature.

Going back to what I said in Why the Integration of Feelings and Logic Will Save the Human Race, the current world view – Materialism – is based on physical objects as the stuff of creation and yet reality remains inexplicable.

In that article I shared that Deepak Chopra cites our most urgent problems as overpopulation, pandemic disease, refugeeism and climate change and says “you may hope and pray that science and technology (which have been the most urgent things in the age of materialism) will come to the rescue, but the chances are tenuous without a huge change in how we think”. All of this leads him to conclude that the change necessary is a change in self awareness.

I also recall a talk by Eckhart Tolle talking frankly about the human need to be right, and the shift in self awareness required to see our thoughts as nothing more than subjective opinions.  And what has been thought of collectively as “good and true” among us simply marks a point in time.

Remember the widespread belief that all computers and electronics would crash as the clock struck midnight heralding the year 2000? I was even paid to do training with companies to protect them against the so-called Millennium Bug. Remember the panic in the 1970’s that oil was going to run out within 30 years? And the panic was purely consumer driven; there was zero thought about what we were doing to the eco-system. Remember the belief that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling nuclear weapons which launched a war killing tens of thousands of people?

This list could go on and on and without even including the vastly differing beliefs of people in societies depending on who is in rule and which dogmas are in place at the time, and without even pointing to some of the fundamental shifts in beliefs that civil rights movements have driven. It is inconceivable to many people now that humans were thought of as unequal just because of their gender or race, and yet that oppression existed and stay plays out today in many ways seen and unseen.

Therefore challenging and compelling people to change their beliefs or their actions does to me feel like a cumbersome impossibility. What if, instead, I just trust my own inner knowing about what is best for me? And trust that others can do the same for themselves? And to trust in the overall direction of life, that the human race is – even if in a snake-and-ladder type fashion at any point in time – moving forwards to higher and better things.

Are you able to ask no one to be different, or take different action, at this time so that you can feel good? What would it take for you to create peace in your own heart and mind right now? Which narratives would feel more empowering?

If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Do YOUR Research! Strengthen Your Character to Stop Getting Triggered by Wild Beliefs, How to Appreciate Our Differences Enough to Admire and Want to Embrace Them, Empower Yourself - When a Difficult Reaction Sends You Into a Tailspin and Make the Invisible Visible - Celebrate the Gold in Your Emotional Reactions. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

Knowing I’ve been going through a separation, I was asked whether I feel lonely which caused me to stop and think. My immediate reaction was “Not any more than I did before”. Sure, there are times I feel lonely, this is a natural by product of letting go of the old, there’s a space that opens up for the new, without that space the new cannot arise.

The very definition of being lonely though is about feeling disconnected. I can be alone or I can be surrounded by other people and still feel lonely. Conversely I can be on my own or with others and feel connected, content, alive, or maybe even joyful.

When I feel lonely, it’s a strong indicator to me that there is something within me – usually thoughts that have been subconsciously circling around – not serving me well. As I was talking to a good friend of mine I realised this is one of the biggest shifts in awareness I’ve long since made in my life. There was a time when I would have looked outside of myself to fill the emptiness within.

In fact there was a pivotal moment, almost two decades ago now, when a partner of mine decided he was going to commit to a new hobby, which meant I would be alone in the house every Sunday night. I literally couldn’t stand the feelings it evoked within me, I felt totally abandoned. Having said goodbye at the front door that first evening, I turned around, closed it, slid to the floor and sat there and sobbed for a good half hour.

I also felt a good deal of self loathing for feeling so needy. It was at that point in my life I started to face the pain that being alone meant I could no longer ignore. Sure, I could have watched more TV, socialised with girlfriends or taken up a hobby of my own, but I didn’t feel drawn to any of those options; I just felt a heavy grey cloud within me.

Most of the time I was too busy working or giving my attention to the person I lived with, or my family, to pay any heed to the nondescript heavy weight inside that was stopping me from fully connecting with life. “Maybe it’s time to face it” I thought.

That is the point in my life I started doing emotional journey work. A friend of mine introduced me to a process developed by Brandon Bays, and I used it to bring some awareness to what was going on inside me. It was the beginning of the journey to me, as I started to unravel this identity called Shona, and uncover the layers that defined it: including feelings about a lack of self worth, a sense of not belonging, about not being important, and the source of those feelings.

It wasn’t a one hit wonder, it was a moment in time where I started the journey and began to look forward to my Sunday night solitude. This led to me making big changes in my life, and moving to the other side of the world.

As I described in Are the Most Loving, Courageous and Compassionate Parts of You in the Driving Seat? I still wasn’t clear on what my role in life was at that point, though I felt strongly there was one, and I entered another phase of life in which I had little solitude for a number of years.

Then in 2014, struggling with the duality of motherhood and career responsibilities, I took my exit from the corporate world with a fierce determination to continue this inner journey I had begun the decade before. Motherhood has been an invitation to strip away those layers of unhelpful beliefs like no other.

I sort of picture this a bit like having been wrapped in layers and layers of soft gauze over the years and then the kids come along, with all their big untamed energy and self-centred desires, and start tearing the gauze to shreds.

Each time this happens I have a choice:

• I can use dominance and control to defend and reinforce my comfy gauze/beliefs (and thus further entrench myself and them in a world where others needs are more important, and I feel obligated to certain things even though I would rather poke out my eyes with a pin); this has been the norm for generations
• Or I can look at the raw wound and start to heal it; which also means learning new skills in managing my reactions, developing healthy boundaries and communicating those in a peaceful, honest and direct way (thus teaching the children healthier choices by example).

I have chosen the latter. But what does this have do with living my passion? Never has this been so clear to me than hearing these questions posed by Janet Attwood, author of The Passion Test:

• How clear are you on your top 5 passions in life?
• Do you make decisions based on what will help you live those passions most fully?
• Do you spend your days doing things you love surrounded by people you love?

What I realised in undertaking the journey to me, is I have a real passion for authenticity. So I set about defining my top five passions:

1. Being the full authentic expression of myself; and helping others discover their own unique authentic expression
2. Being with my children in full authentic connection and being a space in which they can express their authentic selves
3. Recognising the body as a litmus test of how close or how far to that authentic expression I am  and the patterns, illness and disease that show up within it when I’m not
4. Creating structures in society that thrive on and enhance people being their full authentic expressions of themselves
5. The inherent connection I have to all of life, and the idea of thriving on that and enhancing others and things because of that connection.

Janet’s observations nailed it “You have been torn between the desire to follow your heart and your beliefs about what you think you have to do. You may have felt you can’t do what you love because you have responsibilities, or others who need your help, or because you need money. They are all beliefs that keep you separated from joy and fulfillment”.

Something else I heard Tony Robbins speak about recently then came to mind, about immersing myself in things and around people who are aligned with my own aspirations. I began to see that while I’ve been living my first three passions to a large extent for a few years now, there is a huge opportunity gap to make decisions going forwards that align with all of those passions and to seek out more people who feel the same way.

I recognise that if I make decisions that allow me to live my passions most fully, then feeling lonely would be nothing more than a memory.

As Janet Atwood puts it “When you do what is best for you, you’re simultaneously doing what is best for others. When you clarify the things that mean the most to you in your life, and then make choices based on what will allow you to align your life with those things, then you will not only enjoy your life more, but others will also enjoy being around you”.

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Change the World One Day at a Time, Put Money in its Place, What Do the People in Your Life Have to Teach (Good and Bad)?, Want to Make the World a Better Place? Tune In, and Profit, Purpose and Personal Fulfillment Can Thrive Together - A Remarkable New Organisational Construct. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.

A couple of months back my life was sent into a tailspin and I knew that in order to level out and keep moving forwards I had to deliberately focus on things that were going to help rather than hinder me. This is really no different than everyday life, but when something dramatically different happens it’s a lot easier to notice the dynamics at play because they are more exaggerated.

When I saw renowned author, coach and speaker Tony Robbins being interviewed last week, he described this really well.  “Whether we feel pain or love depends on three things: our state, our story and our strategy”:

• State is about my focus
• Story is about the meanings I attach to things
• Strategy is about the action I take

He makes the point that these are all decisions, things that we can control, but we each tend towards patterns which can be helpful or unhelpful. When asked which of the three would give the best returns, while acknowledging all three are interconnected and changing any one will change the other two, his choice would be changing our state of being, our focus.

“People have habitual patterns of focus. For example, do you look at what you have or what’s missing? Do you look at what you can, or can’t, control? Do you focus mainly on the past, the present or the future? Clearly when you focus on what you have, what you can control and the present those are more empowering choices than the alternatives.”

That is his key point, that we each have choices. I may have subconscious patterns, but as Tony says:
“Inside of you, there are parts of you that are incredibly gracious and generous, but there is also a part that is selfish. We all have loving parts and not so loving parts, playful parts and boring parts, courageous parts and fearful parts”.

Then he said poignantly:

“The real question is not Who are you?

The real question is Which part of you is in charge right now?”

In fact, Tony firmly believes he doesn’t change people; he just gets them to put another part of themselves in charge.

So as I was facing the end of my relationship, I knew I had to be careful about which parts of myself I put in charge. Especially since an issue I’d been contemplating for a long time, re-establishing my career, suddenly became more urgent.

What I’m here to do has been a nagging question in my life for as long as I can remember. In school and going to university, choosing which subjects to study, starting my career and looking for jobs, I just couldn’t see anything that felt like the right fit.

I distinctly remember when I immigrated to New Zealand in 2006, it was the year I saw the movie The Secret which helped me awaken to the power I had within me to change my life, but I still had no clue what I was meant to be doing with my life. All I knew was that I wanted to start a family and time was ticking.

So I made the best decision I could at that point and took a job which – while it didn’t light me up in the way I wanted – gave me some security while I set up home with my now ex-partner, and we started a family.

Having finally got the family I so desired, I found that juggling that and my work life was too much, and left the field of corporate change and transformation six years ago to take a more hands-on role with my kids. Bringing up my kids (with a strong desire for them to be an authentic expression of their best self), has proven to be a personal development bootcamp for me.

As Lisa Marchiano puts it “You’re going to project your stuff on your kids. There is no way that you are going to get through any amount of time with your children and not meet those parts of yourself you cut off and sent backstage”. So as I’ve undertaken the journey to me, this question of “what comes next?” has been ever present.

There is no doubt I’ve become extremely passionate about helping others undertake their own journey. Uncovering why I subconsciously chose certain patterns of state, story and strategy – and learning to make different choices – has been revolutionary for me.

As people have contacted me over the years to ask for my advice, I realised that helping others uncover their own blocks and make positive shifts in their lives would be really fulfilling. The question on my mind has been, how? Then last year someone said to me they could see hypnosis being a good healing modality for me to learn.

I wasn’t entirely convinced about the idea of practicing hypnosis. My connotation with it goes back to some sessions I had in my early twenties. I remember the lady having a falsely soothing voice, and I can recall falling asleep during the sessions; I didn’t consider them effective.

Then, when my attention was so abruptly returned to  this notion of “what next” in my career a couple of months ago, I knew it was a pivotal point that could see me sucked back down that same old corporate road if I didn’t choose a more self loving focus.  

There are a lot of feelings to process at the ending of a relationship, I couldn’t just shove them down and soldier on regardless. So I set to work in the same way I have over the last few years as I’ve processed grief from my childhood, grief from my mother passing and uncovering the patterns of beliefs and behaviours that no longer serve my highest interests.

I knew when it came to money, I had to go wider and focus more generally on abundance and its associated energies of love, compassion, joy, connection, adventure, play, laughter, invention and imagination as I wrote about in How Is Your Ability to Connect With Abundance Right Now?

Then, this week as I looked at a Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis with renewed interest, things finally clicked into place.

On my own journey to me, as I’ve so often written about, I’ve used various techniques to uncover and heal the emotional traumas that had remained stuck within me, long after the mental, physical, emotional events that had caused the trauma had ceased to be an issue.

It suddenly occurred to me that the common factor in the various techniques I use is this act of what I call going within which involves quieting the thinking mind and going into a state of deep relaxation where it feels safe to explore past issues, in other words, what I use is self hypnosis. It was a light bulb moment!

I’d gotten stuck with a story in my head about what hypnosis was, and – while acknowledging it as a powerful modality - was not completely aligned with the idea of using it to help others until I realised it is actually my own go-to medium all along. It’s no wonder someone suggested it to me as modality to use to help others.

As Tony said, change my state, story or strategy and the results start to change, everything has lined up.

I can see now why for so much of my life I just couldn’t see what I was meant to be doing; I was lined up with problem rather than the solution. And because I can see that is so normal in our world, and that there is a growing desire for change, this presents a huge opportunity to help others who are seeking that change in themselves.

It seems fortuitous that with the launch of We Rise Up (which I suspect will become another movie of its moment), the focus has moved in the last fifteen years from using personal empowerment for personal success to a redefining of what success looks like - creating new models and structures in society that work for all people, creatures and the planet.

Where in your life are you lined up with the problem rather than the solution? What parts of you are in the driving seat? Let’s find the most loving, courageous and compassionate parts of you and put them in charge of defining and driving success in your life and watch your deepest yearnings finally be fulfilled.

​If you enjoyed reading this, you may enjoy Normal Is Dysfunctional That Is the Growth Opportunity, Reclaim the Sweet Spot of Being in Your Element, What If The Thing You Dread Is Actually Your Dreams Trying to Unfold? Clear the Fog of Trauma to See the Magnificence of Your Being, and What’s Your Relationship with Money? … And a simple technique to improve it. To be the first to receive these posts, you can also opt to subscribe to my blog.