The unique gift of Clarity

I finally made some time to watch one of Oprah's Life Class episodes on my computer. Oprah's guest Cheryl Richardson was on the show to talk about the lessons in the book she co-authored with Louise Hay titled, You can create an exceptional life. It was a highly spirited show with lots of topics covered. Cheryl shared the very interesting idea of sending herself a unique gift of positive affirmations using an iphone app called "tell me later". She suggested ideas like, "You become what you believe" and "Only good lies before me". These affirmations, which she has programmed to herself,show up on her phone every hour of the day. It was actually fun watching the interaction between Oprah and Cheryl with the dance and challenge of the word ego threaded throughout the hour. It is well worth watching and I thoroughly enjoyed it.



I did walk away with a true gem or nugget of wisdom when Cheryl answered a young woman's question about happiness. Cheryl suggested the woman try what she referred to as an adult exercise. It was framed around the word 'wanting'. Cheryl suggested that "Sitting with the 'wanting' or to sit with the 'want' more and allow life to bring it through to you."

What really intrigued me about that statement is that when I think of the entire episode, every person who spoke from the audience really wanted something. They were all very honorable desires and goals that the audience members were sharing but I could feel the angst in every single person. When Cheryl spoke of wanting she pointed out that the wanting in itself was getting in the way of your future unfolding. Wanting she pointed out was merely the unfinished connection of the desire meeting the physical world through you.


I reflected on my own wanting for the day, and decided that I was going to consciously sit with the want rather than reacting or chasing the emotion. I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I made this conscious decision. By sitting with the want and not reacting to it and trusting that what I was wanting is a work in progress not actualized yet. How adult of me I mused to myself.


What is uncanny about all this is that I have started a thirty day observation of breathing every morning for five minutes before I start my day. On my first day I had some trouble as I kept wondering when five minutes was up, and that was really distracting. The second day I used my travel clock timer, and it was actually quite easy. My inspiration for this was from listening to a tape over the past weekend by psychologist Radha Sheila Conrad.


The tape was of a class that I took earlier this year. I have such respect and admiration for Radha and the knowledge that she shares. Radha mentions in her tape the importance of breathing every day because this is part of what she calls developing the muscle so you can ask yourself questions. I actually forgot about all this information but I remember vaguely telling myself last spring "I was going to breathe every a.m. for five minutes" last spring and then the idea fell by the wayside. The way that Radha explains breathe is: in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. If your mind wanders gently move your attention back to your in and out breath. It could not be simpler. Why is this so easy I asked myself?



In the same class tape Radha explains through the psychology of being a child and that our basic adult profile is pretty much imprinted by the time we are seven years old. Radha then explained how to get quiet and ask yourself a question.

When I asked myself a question about life and what I should be thinking about, the first thing that popped into my head was breathing.

On the braveheartwomen website you can access this information for free through her community that she has set up called Sisterhood of Clarity. She explains in a video exactly how to do this exercise and this is like less than five minutes of your time. I will not do it any justice by explaining it any further. I share my story to explain how I came up with the inspiration of breathing every morning-I owe it to the tele-class I took with Radha Conrad.


I told a friend of mine to check that site out this summer and when she emailed me back she said it was hard to navigate through the site and found it a little confusing. I guess it does take a few clicks to find it on the site and then to watch Radha but it is well worth the investment of your time and curiosity.


I looked through the archives of Braveheartwomen and found this interview of Radha just shortly after she had set up her community on the site. Radha has been a psychotherapist for forty years and lives in Maui, Hawaii. If you watch the attached video, you will be the recipient of some knowledge by a very educated, highly skilled healer and psychologist. In addition to the braveheart community site, she has her own website called Life Mastery Skills. On Radha's site you will find an extensive bio of the years of involvement working with the mental health community in Hawaii. Radha is a young seventy years old this year.

Enjoy the video.





Have a beautiful day,


Joy,


photo: 'clarity' PKM



Rena


www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It is a positive thing. You can move about, unnoticed and invisible.

~Doris Lessing

English writer

When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

~Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

New Zealand writer

What seems like courage is really persistence-the ability to put part of yourself on hold - Patience.

~Barbara Gordon

20th-century American writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

Criticism can be very subtle in the way it creeps into our thoughts. Here are some examples of criticism to help you become aware of its subtlety, so you can eliminate it from your thoughts:

The weather is awful today.

The traffic is terrible.

The service is really bad.

Oh no, look at the line.

He/she is always late.

How long do we have to wait for our order?

That motorist is a lunatic.

It's so hot in here.

I've been on hold for so long!

These are subtle things, but the law of attraction is listening to them all. You have the ability to appreciate something in every single circumstance. There is always something to be grateful for.

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator, The Secret

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D., Creating Affluence-Wealth Consciousness in the Field of all Possibilities

"K" stands for the fact that organizing power is inherent in knowledge. Knowledge of any kind gets metabolized spontaneously and brings about a change in awareness from where it is possible to create new realities.

For example, becoming familiar with the knowledge in this book will spontaneously create the conditions for wealth and affluence.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay~

"This I know and affirm for myself: I love and approve of myself. All is well in my world. I inhale the precious yet abundant breath of life and allow my body, mind and emotions to relax. There is no need for me to scare myself. I am in harmony with all life."

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: 'lake up high' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui, happiness and wealth

In a recent interview Terah Kathryn Collins, founder of the Western School of Feng Shui, spoke of the importance of kindness to ourselves, and kindness to those all around us.

Terah mentioned what happens when we become aware of our relationship with our surroundings, and offers her insightful stories of Feng Shui as a way for us to regain balance in our lives. You can read her experiences of Feng Shui in her book, The Western Guide to Feng Shui. There is an array of informational tools to download to explore and play with the art of placement, which is another explanation of Feng Shui.

It can be that when we look at the big picture of life, or even within our home we can become overwhelmed with the enormity of it all. When working with Feng Shui for a home, at times it is necessary to scale the energy work down to baby steps. Rather than focusing on everything big, work within each room and the enhancements for the area that you are focusing on. A classic example is that you might want a huge water fountain in your back yard but at present you just don't have the funds to do it. Instead, find the wealth section in each room of your house and add some intention to each of these areas.

Using western form Feng Shui or non-directional as taught by Terah, you will know that the wealth sector is at the far back left corner of your house. In turn, on a smaller scale, this can be translated to the wealth corner being in every left hand back corner of every room in your house. Place something you treasure in that corner area of every room to work as an enhancement. This can be an affirmation card, a vase with flowers or even a piece of jewelry. It is important to work with the moment in front of you when you are put in these types of situations. This can keep the flow of energy moving and you will be the beneficiary of feeling happy because of your attention you have invested in your environment.

On the other hand you may be reading this and be in a different situation altogether. You may not have a house to live in at all. Your reality may be far away from wanting a water feature for your backyard and actually you may be wondering how you are going to pay your rent and tomorrow seems like a long way away.

This inspires me to share the book by Viktor Frankl M.D., Ph.D., Man's Search for

Meaning. (1905-1997, Vienna). He was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. According to a survey conducted by the Library of Congress, Man's Search for Meaning belongs to a list of "the ten most influential books in the United States." At the time of the author's death in 1997, the book had sold 10 million copies in twenty-four languages.

Dr. Frankl chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate based on his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living.

The biggest point that I took away from this book (and I have to confess I read the book back in the 1990's but I still remember to this day) is that we are not defined by our external condition in order to keep our inner happiness. He sums it up by saying that the inner hold a person has on his spiritual self relies on having a faith in the future.

In a summary written in the book, Dr. Frankl shares from his experience that a person's psychological reactions are not solely the result of the condition of his life, but also from the freedom of choice he always has. He concludes that the meaning of life is in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning.

Dr. Frankl was one of the key figures in existential therapy and a prominent source of inspiration for humanistic psychologists. I remember so clearly the day I picked that book up in the bookstore and thought to myself, "What a skinny book-what could be so important in such a small book?"

So my offering to you with this posting is to ask where your wealth sector is in your inner self? What kind thought to yourself can you place in your mind to enhance your wealth of happiness. Oprah used to comment that just being able to breathe in and out is a great place to start.

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: 'together' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui flow and home

Recently I spent a lovely afternoon with a friend at her home. Although we talk on the telephone and email all the time we tallied up the years and realized that for close to a decade that I had been over visiting her in the home that she had built. In between sipping tea and enjoying homemade cookies, the conversation shifted over to the topic of Feng Shui and the flow of energy in a home.

In 2001, I was actually invited to participate in the layout and design decisions of my girlfriends home, using my Feng Shui training. Needless to say I was thrilled to share my knowledge and it was a very amazing experience to see the entire house unfold through to completion. The house was originally an older home and it was taken down to the studs and rebuilt from the ground up.

The footprint of the house was essentially the same, but that was about it. We were able to create missing corners and living areas not originally there and all in all it was a blast to be involved with the design using Feng Shui principles as sounding board and rudder.

In our conversation my friend mentioned that there were decorating issues that she did not feel completely comfortable with and asked me if I could give her space some thought. It was pretty obvious to me there were some design issues going on but we were so busy blabbing and catching up on our girl talk that it wasn't until the next day that I was able to email her with the answers to her design and energy inquiry.

She did the changes the same day and phoned me chirping with glee at how the energy shifted when she moved the larger pieces of furniture into their new position. There were a couple of longer term solutions she was going to work on as well. To finish off she was also going with new placement of her artwork to enhance the flow of the energy in her home.

I thought it would helpful to share in my blog some ideas on how you can work with and decorate your space on your own using some Feng Shui principles. As a certified Interior ReDesigner with the Canadian ReDesigners Association and the American affiliate, IRIS, Interior ReDesign Industry Specialists, I have first hand experience in reworking an existing space with what you have collected-in a new way.

There are many resources on the Internet for ReDesigning your space if you do a little digging. I would like to offer you the following information for when you are feeling that your space needs a shift working with just the elements.

Decorating with five elements: FIRE, EARTH, METAL, WATER, WOOD.

The first thing to do is to find pictures of rooms in magazines or on the Internet, however that may be, and you personally gather and store images. Compile as many as you like. Some rooms will hit all the things you love, other images will make you like some of the space but not so much other parts.

Do not spend time second guessing yourself. This process should be easy and fun.

Using this list of the five elements, check off what the elements are in the image of the room you are attracted to. Using this information you will be empowered to create your own beautiful sanctuary that you call home. Ideally a room well proportioned in all the five elements energetically will be more balanced. Remember that a room can be all one color but the shapes of all five elements can be used to balance the energy as well.

Tip:

Review the images again from the magazines you gathered that you like a lot but do not completely sit well with you. Using the provided list below make a note of the elements that were used. What elements are missing? Go through the list and find what element is not in the space. Ask yourself what would the room look like if that element were included?

The FIRE element is found in:
:All lighting, including candles, natural sunlight, fireplaces
:Things made from animals, fur, leather, bone, feathers
:Pets and wildlife
:Shapes, triangles and stars
:The red spectrum of colors
:Humans
:Art with people or animals, color red, triangles, sunlight, fire


The EARTH element is found in:
:Ceramic objects
:Cement, sand,
:All rocks and stones, marble, granite
:Natural crystals, rocks, gemstones
:The yellow and earthen spectrum of colors
:Shapes, squares and long flat surfaces
:Art with Earth landscapes, fields,



The METAL element is found in:
:All metals, stainless steel, copper, brass, iron, silver and gold
:The white and light icicle pastel spectrum of colors
:Shapes, circle, oval and arch
:Art made from metal or stone



The WATER element is found in:
:Rivers, pools, fountains, and water features
:Mirrors, crystal, glass
:The black and and dark colors as well as blue
:Shapes, flowing, asymmetrical shapes



The WOOD element is found in:
:Wood furniture, trees, plants, flooring, decks
:Art with flowers, gardens, plants
:The green spectrum of colors
:Shapes, columnar shape, poles, and rectangle

When you start to take note of the elements you will notice that there are elemental combinations in the things around you. For example, your coffee table shape may be earth and the table itself is made up of wood. The glass top would be a water element. You may find that the simplest object may be a combination of several elements. In working with these elements you will be training yourself to see your environment in a new light.

By using this list of elements you can see what you are attracted to and what makes you feel good in an environment. Create the environment from the pictures you have chosen from your own items. Use the same elements that are in the images that you enjoy in your own space. You will now have the empowerment to add the elements for a balanced combination.

Have a beautiful day,

Joy,

photo: PKM 'changes'

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.

-Judith Viorst

American poet

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

-Norman Vincent Peale 1898-1993

American Author, The Power of Positive Thinking

You don't know a woman until you have had a letter from her.

-Ada Leverson 1862-1933

English writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

What is the most powerful thing you can add to the process of creating what you want? Ask for others as you ask for yourself. An easy way to do this is to ask for ALL, which of course includes you. Ask for a good life for all, peace for all, abundance for all, health for all, love for all, and happiness for all.

When you ask for others, it comes back to you, so the law has it ALL covered.

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret'

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D., Creating Affluence -Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"J" stands for the fact that it is not necessary to judge. When we relinquish our need to constantly classify things as good or bad, right or wrong, then we experience more silence in our consciousness. Our internal dialogue begins to quieten when we shed the burden of judgement, and it is then easier to access the gap.

It is important therefore, to get away from definitions, labels, descriptions, interpretations, evaluations, analyses, and judgement, for all of these create the turbulence of our internal dialogue.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay-

"Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if you could live your life without ever being criticized by anyone? Wouldn't it be wonderful to feel totally at ease, totally comfortable? You know what? You can give this to yourself."

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'toward the light' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The charm of a camp fire story

Finally a sunny warm beautiful day.

The summer of 2011 has really turned out to be counting the nice days on the fingers of my hand. It certainly increases the gratitude quotient when an outdoor dinner party coincides with sun and t-shirt weather. It is even more of an event when friends get together and after a wonderful exchange of food and spirits the day then leads to the magic of a beautiful evening and campfire. The real charm of these memories is when everyone somehow gets to share a story that brings out something that everyone can relate to in feeling.

Such is my experience on this special gathering of friends and memories. It usually starts with the casual question; what high school did you go to? Where did you go to College?

Then someone gets up and throws another log onto the fire and everyone takes in that moment. Have you ever noticed the pause after someone puts some wood on the fire? It just seems like that pause is forever and the forever feels good. It's the unspoken feeling that it is all right to just "be".

I unconsciously slump into my lawn chair a little more and know that this is all to be expected of myself. These are such precious moments to be aware of and take note of and then my man does the campfire protocol thing and slips his hand into mine. Holding hands and campfires - love it...

" I grew up with horses," one of the quietest of women at the gathering pipes up out of the darkness.

On the other side of the fire another woman dinner guest chimes in- "I rescued a miniature pony once but it bit me so many times I had to find a foster home for it."

I sit up in my seat with genuine interest and ask.

"Where did you find a rescue home for a miniature pony? Was that hard to do?" The gal sharing her story said it was actually very hard to do because the pony was a biter and nobody wanted him. "Nobody wants a mean miniature pony." Finally she found a Llama rescue farm that just shelters Llamas in Montana and they took him in. The story has a happy ending though as the Llama farm owners discovered that the pony had a bite problem and his teeth were digging into his gum when he closed his mouth and he was in pain. A pony vet dentist filed and reshaped his teeth and now the miniature pony is the King of the Llama farm sanctuary.

He is the unquestioned King because every other animal on the farm is a rescue Llama.

With that story the gates open and everyone shares their stories, but I am going to highlight the original horse story that was offered by the quiet woman at the dinner party who spoke up first.

This story is of a fourteen year old girl who loved and owned a horse named Sir Francis Drake. He was a big Morgan breed and the girl loved him with all her heart and this story was how her Dad sold her horse.

The family lived on a farm and the acreage had an elbow turn at the end of the property that sat beside a local county road. It was on a slight hill and on one wet rainy night a car backfired at the edge of the curve on the roadside where Sir Francis Drake was standing inside the fenced property.

Sir Drake was deeply startled to the point that he must of thought it was a rifle shot because he ran straight for the fence and broke through it and ran down the road.

The unfortunate part was that all the cows on the property ran down the road after the horse Sir Francis Drake. The father rousted all of his children out of bed to come help collect the cows including the young girl who was narrating the story. It was pouring rain out and with just a sweatshirt on over her pyjamas and rubber boots - off she ran to find her horse.

The good news was that the horse stopped just down the way by the roadside and was chomping on some grass he had probably been eyeing for sometime and was led back to his stall. Not was the case with the cows though as they ran and never stopped until the family caught up to them. The first cow the father put a halter over and asked his daughter (now a grown woman telling her story) to take back to the farm was Bossie.

Bossie was not that easy to handle or that willing and she had to pull Bossie by the rope towards the farm in the dark and the pouring rain. The cow halfway back though realized that they were going home and went from being pulled onto a full on trot and now the fourteen year old was running behind the cow all the way down the road back to the farm hanging on to dear life - yelling- "Bossie slow down"!

The horse Sir Francis Drake was sold for breaking the fence and leading the cows astray. The girl cried and cried. Her father realizing that maybe he had acted too hastily took her to the horse auction to buy her another horse. He ended up buying two horses that day. They were a black stallion they called Prince and a pinto filly that she named Daisy.

Prince did not last long at the farm though because they did not realize that he was a wild stallion. Apparently wild horses when sold for auction can be drugged to calm them down so that they can be trotted around the ring to show and sell. When the drugs wear off the owner then has a wild horse on their hands. This is what happened with Prince the stallion and he only lasted a few months with the family.

When they got Daisy the pinto filly home to the stall it was realized that her whole body was infested with ticks that had burrowed in under the young horses hide. Every day, for two months or longer, when the teenager came home from school her Dad would soak a cloth in kerosene and rub Daisy's coat. Finally one by one the ticks backed their way out of the horse's body.

It is such a beautiful story of compassion and love and that this young horse did not die and they were able to save her.

When Daisy got to be a yearling her young owner had a talk with her and told her it was time to have a saddle and she actually handled that horse into a bridle and saddle all by herself.

Daisy the pinto became her best friend and lived on to twenty years of age. The girl, now a full-grown woman shared how it made her whole life to have had that relationship and companionship with her horse.

I took it as one of the more beautiful father daughter relationship stories I had heard in a long time.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like for people in northern California who have a temperate climate and the ability to sit outside by the campfire and share stories all year round.

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui home

From time to time I receive from the t.v. division of braveheartwomen.com updates to my email box. I noticed from one of their earlier broadcasts a ten-minute segment on energy and the interaction of a Feng Shui home with your life energy.

I thought it was pretty interesting from the standpoint that although Feng Shui is a lot more mainstream than it was when I was first introduced to it - this ancient Chinese art still needs to be prefaced with the good it can do for you.

The main speaker being interviewed on this segment was Marie Diamond and I feel they did a stand up job of conveying the overall offering of Feng Shui in your life. Marie Diamond was included in Rhonda Byrne's book, The Secret. The book explains how to work with the premise of the law of attraction.

I am uploading the video for you to view and it moves pretty fast. However, I harken back to my readings of Dr. Sha who mentions diet and health in his health books but also includes Feng Shui for a home health life. Dr. Sha mentions Feng Shui as a complement to a healthy aligned lifestyle. I agree with him completely that Feng Shui without inclusion of proper diet and exercise of mind and body is like a puzzle with a missing piece.

This is most evident in the "prove it to me crowd", with nose up and gufaagh laugh when given Feng Shui ideas of enhancing their sanctuary with pleasing art and furniture placement. It is the attitude of arms folded and mindful resistance to placing two birds in your love sector of your house will bring you love without any involvement on the participant's part.

The good news is that even though you may be depressed while making those love enhancements, you will receive the beneficial energy you are expending on yourself. However, to rely on just Feng Shui you need to be reminded that according to the philosophers of ancient years,it only makes up 33% of your life results.

Including thoughts of thank you, thank you, and love, compassion, fighting your selfishness, and having so much fun as you journey through life practising your joy will exponentially increase your Feng Shui results.

Adding on diet and exercise will strengthen your mind as well and every day you will want to do better and better, and you will become stronger and make you available to open your door to be with the world.

My own life experience to date has shown good results when including the art of a mindful thought into my day.

Enjoy the video:

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: 'fresh air' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com