! stand up !

Stand up and be counted - it's census night! The five yearly survey of the Australian population. This year we had the option to complete the census online. For some reason it seemed a lot shorter than previous times i have completed it ... maybe my life is less complicated than it was in the past.

I always have a laugh at some of the questions. The one that tickled my fancy tonight was a question "Do you ever need help to communicate?" or something to that effect. I think there are many times when I need help to communicate and be understood. I know that wasn't the intent of the question, but even the census is become incredibly politically correct in how we describe certain disabilities without actually using the word disability or impaired.

There has been some controversy about data security. So, when I got to the end of the survey, I did laugh out loud here you have the option to share on facebook or tweet, that you have done your bit for Australia. Modern society ... I just hope that by the next government election we can vote online as well!

---

Flying Solo Tip 040365 : Every one counts.

---

a bug's life

So, the blue light blocking glasses arrived and the experiment that I talked about in "Screen Time Down TIme" will begin. Maybe by wearing these I will scare the cockroaches away!.

In 1998, Pixar released the delightful animation, "A Bug's Life". It is the story of Flik, an ant in search of finding better ways to be a bug. Of course Flik, stuffs up big time. As with any Pixar film there are philosophical gems in there and advice on how to live life.

Fly: "I've only got twenty four hours to live and ain't gonna waste it here." ... a lesson in making most of the time your have, which is this moment now!

Hopper: "The first rule of leadership. Everything is your fault". ... a lesson in responsibility.

One of the amazing things we can take from the world of bugs and insects is the concept of Metamorphisis. What a beautiful sounding word that is! It is a robust word, and to me, strikes the right balance between hard and soft syllables. In the insect world, metamorphisis is the process of significant physical change. How often do we truly see the butterfly inside of the caterpillar, when we have to deal with the caterpillar munching on our garden? The change can be sudden, abrupt and dramatic; or it can be far more gradual. I think, in a spiritual, emotional and mental sense we are all in a constant state of metamorphisis - and therein lies the amazement of life's journey. The flip side of metamorphisis is that once the transformative change takes place, it is no longer possible to revert back to the caterpillar.

The book here is another of my favourite go-to books "Living in Balance" which also happens to be published in 1998 and written by Joel & Michelle Levey. In recent months, I have found the following passages particularly useful as I set about my days, with each morning taking a meditative moment to create and write an intention for the day:

"As you read each of these four questions, pause to reflect and honestly answer each one:

1. Are you happy living how you are living and doing what you are doing?

2. Is what you are doing adding to the confusion?

3. What are you doing to further peace and contentment in your own life and in the world?

4. How will you be remembered after you are gone — either in absence or in death?

If you are happy doing what you are doing, what brings you the greatest joy? What is your next frontier for satisfaction and fulfillment? If you aren't happy living the way you are living, is balance to be found in changing what you are doing, or in changing your mindset or attitude toward what you are doing?

If you find that what you are doing is actually adding to the confusion and creating more problems or imbalances in your life, say 'Whoa,' and ask yourself, 'What is driving me to act in these ways?' Often, the forces that drive us into self-defeating or destructive ways of living are unconscious to us. When we are able to look and listen deeply into our hearts and minds, and to look squarely into the eyes of our own 'inner enemies,' we are better able to shine the light of our compassion, forgiveness, or wisdom into these aspects of ourselves in order to heal our wounds, and restore our balance."

---

Flying Solo Tip 039365 : Once the caterpillar has grown wings, he can no longer revert back to being caterpillar and reject his inner essence. By the laws of nature, he must liberate the butterfly within.

---

now being well

This morning I was asked a simple question ... Why? Not a surprising question, as I know that sometimes my thinking and behaviour is not conventional. I have known that from a very young age and that is why at this stage in my life it is exciting that finally I am coming to terms with what makes me, me.

My answer to the question was quite simple - I believe in healing. I believe in the possibility and the capacity inside each of us to find our personal way and answers to heal ourselves. I believe that even our darkest hours are our greatest gifts to find those answers, if we are will be open enough and look for the learnings.

I think the desire to find answers to heal was with me from a very early age. There is one specific memory that comes to mind. I was probably about 8 or 9 at the times and I was walking down one of the tracks on my parent's farm. There are a line of pine trees there and cones were strewn over the ground. The thought that went to my mind was, "I wonder if pine cones have some kind of special medicinal power that could treat some terrible disease."

In those days I was indoctrinated with Catholicism and had learnt the Catechism by rote ... Where is God? God is everywhere. It occurred to me that if God could allow terrible illness and disease, that in his omnipotent manner he would have also created a solution to all those problems - we just had to find it. Perhaps it was hidden in some exotic location. Perhaps it was hidden in plain view like an innocent stretch of pine trees.

As a teenager, I fascinated by how the brain worked, more specifically I was fascinated by the way I thought. No-one seemed to have the questions to my answers and growing up in country Queensland Australia, resources and understanding of a much bigger world was a little limited. (If only I had google and the internet.) My first degree was in psychology. Looking back, psychology was probably not my calling. It seemed far too interested in squeezing people and behaviours into boxes. For me none of the boxes seemed to fit. I think, if I had known a broader range of options, I would probably have been far more excited by neuroscience - but knowing me back then I would have thought I was not clever enough to do that kind of study.

What is particularly exciting right now and the past decade is the explosion of research and understanding in the field of neuroscience. Our ability to re-wire our brain is so exciting to me. Our capacity to heal emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually, by re-wiring our brain is totally within the realm of possibility. There are people around us doing that right now. I think the ancient mystics knew this. I think that deep inside our psyche we all know that. Science is finally catching up.

At some point this blog will become part of a larger website site called "Now Being Well". Those three words are incredibly important and powerful to me. Those three words were a part of a mantra I would recite continuously in my brain, the first couple of years that I presented with Multiple Sclerosis. Along with other things that I did, I do believe that those three words rewired my brain and I was able to heal some of the lesions that exist inside my head. I have the MRI scans to prove it.

"Now being well, well being now, being now well, now wellbeing"

In those early years with MS there were three other sources that I found much comfort in. The book by Norman Doidge titled "The Brain that Changes Itself". Just the title alone screams a positive outlook rather than facing a life sentence trapped by a particular medical condition. A meditation CD called "Spontaneous Remission" by Debbie Williams; and the feature documentary called "What the Bleep Do We Know". Since then evidence and understanding of the brain's neuroplasticity has exploded. In my mind, there is now doubt.

It was in the video "What the Bleep Do We Know" that I first came across Joe Dispenza. With the other things that happened in my life, Joe and his subsequent work fell off my radar. A couple of weeks ago, a friend made me aware that Joe was running a course in Sydney in the near future and if I was interested in going along. Today, I signed up for my ticket. I am so excited! I might even have a neural orgasm!

---

Flying Solo Tip 038365 : You are wired to heal, give yourself permission.

---

post script : I have decided to solve one of my life's mysteries and google pine cones and have a guess what ... read this