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Being with nature - tuning in to it. Feeling it. Breathing it. Joining its gentle rhythms, or its wildness. The plants, the animals, the weather. They're what we can connect with, to reconnect to our own true pace. Interacting with life at its purest helps us to live as our purest, most natural way of being. We need this and completely forget and deny that we do. Too busy, too distracted, too up, too unsettled. I almost didn't stop and sit here by the lake, so determined was I to forge on and complete this work out. But my deep desire for photographing this beauty won me over...just.  I know, I know! You're crazy busy, or can't see the point of doing this - this just being with nature- letting it fill you with its beauty and wonder. And you won't get the power of it until you're actually doing it. Nature is so stunningly beautiful. It feeds your essence - whatever that is for you. It fills you with lightness and connectedness and peace and joy. It stirs something within you. Something real and alive and absolutely a part of all of this.  The wind has picked up a bit and I can feel my skin interacting with it. It feels slightly uncomfortable, as I was basking in the delightful sunlight's warmth, and enjoying the rare treat of nature warming me (it's the last day of winter on the West Coast of Tasmania, in a very wet zone). I've come to realise that it's a matter of allowing yourself to take the time out to do these things. Time out of the hullabaloo and activity. I know, I really do, that you genuinely may not have the time to get into nature, or grab 10 minutes. But I imagine you could grab 5 seconds.  Look at nature, breathe it in, feel it. Just for a moment. Even if the only wildness you can find is on this screen. Pull up a photo, or video of nature. And just breathe deeply for a few seconds. Reset, reconnect, recuperate, restore, revive, realise that this moment is the truth of how you are, who you are. Yes, you're all of that (activity, busyness, personality) too. But underneath it all, this is your essential nature. Peacefulness, connection.
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 We Need People Who Are Aware, Kind, Thoughtful and Compassionate To Step Up And Into Their Potential Now. For too long good people like yourself have been hesitant to embrace their potential. And if there's ever been a time for us to take a stand and shine, it's now. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone got out of their own way and started thriving? For years I was waiting... For someone to tell me that it was the right time for me to step up. I kept hoping that someone would see the potential in me and take me by the hand to guide me through the process of exploring the possibilities in my life. I was stuck on the sidelines and deeply frustrated by all of the limitations I felt - like walls keeping me caged. Then one day I realised that it was my own mindset and beliefs that were keeping me small and unsatisfied. It was a lack of self-knowledge. And that no one was going to come along and just hand me the answers. It required self-inquiry and honesty.  I Needed To Work Out Who I Was, What I Really Wanted and What I Was Here To Do And so I started writing down a huge list of questions and things to consider. And I took the time to answer them. It helped me so much that it ended up becoming my first book, because I knew that I wasn't alone in being stuck, unsure and needing someone to give me a map and directions. But even then, there are people who want to take it a step further and go deeper.  Sometimes We Want Someone On Our Side, Someone Who REALLY Cares, Whose Been Where We Are - And Knows The Way Out! So I created the 'Discover Your Purpose, Potential and Purpose Course. We all need help at different times and stages in our lives. Do you want a guide to show you the way to uncover the hidden gems within yourself? Discover Your Purpose, Possibilities and Potential is your chance to finally say 'yes' to yourself and start thriving. Love Donna x As I was lying awake in the middle of the night, just before the full moon, I contemplated some of my recent experiences. The first was touching some of the little daisies that are springing up in our garden. They felt so soft, delicate, fresh and alive. They looked so perfect, vibrant and natural. I was doing this just after feeding next door's chickens. They dove straight for the raspberries and then the almond pulp (that we make from making our own almond milk) - they love it! I watched them eat for a while, seeing who was claiming centre stage, how they interacted and who was being bossy. The group has changed over the last few months - the one who was most shy about claiming any food has grown and is now pecking at the others to get to it. They look healthy, love dirt baths and scratching and pecking around the garden.  The third was when I was helping neighbours shovel loads of mulch into their wheelbarrow to take to their new garden beds. We were chatting, catching up and getting to know each other better as well as interacting in (and with) the moment. Lastly, was the inner work that I've been doing lately, exploring what seems to be working, what most definitely didn't and who I am at my core. And I came to the realisation that what we're all really wanting and looking for in our lives is deeper intimacy - with ourselves, each other, the moment, our environment, the truth and our lives. We want REAL connection. We desire to really know, experience, understand and appreciate everything. We don't always know that's what we want, but we feel it. We feel dissatisfied. We feel that something's missing. We feel disconnected. We feel that there's something more, there must be, otherwise we wouldn't feel this way. Normally, we try to remedy this by reaching for more - more food, more entertainment, more information, more excitement, more something - you know what I mean, right? However, the solution is to find what's missing in the first place. The answer is to dive in deeper and find that connection - to become more aware of what's happening right here, right now.  When you're talking with someone, are you really listening? Are you really curious about who they are, what makes them tick, or what their dreams and desires are? Are you really aware of what they're trying to say? Are you really interested? When you're out for a walk, are you taking in your environment? Are you noticing the changes through the different seasons? Are you listening to the sounds around you - the birds, your feet on the ground, the wind in the trees? Are you feeling the weather and its effects on your body? When you're eating, are you tasting each ingredient, or the magical alchemy of their combinations? Are you noticing their vibrant and tantalising colours? Are you feeling their textures in your mouth? And are you aware of how hot or cool each of them is?  When you're with your lover, are you feeling the softness of their skin? Are you honouring their soul? Are you aware of their preferences as well as your own? Do you feel the electricity between your bodies? Do you communicate honestly, lovingly and curiously?
When you're sitting on a hill, by a lake or in a meadow, are you allowing yourself to breathe deeper? Are you letting your breath and heart rate match the gentle rhythms of the natural world around you? Are you really seeing that cloud, those leaves, that flower? Are you feeling the breeze on your skin, the water in your hand as you wave it through the lake, the connection between you and all that beauty? Don't you feel more satisfied when you've spent time with someone who respects you, and wants to know you, understand you, and love you? How about offering that to someone - everyone - today? How can you let your senses connect you to life today? How can you use your curiosity to engage on a deeper level with people? How can you use your awareness to see, feel, hear, love, enjoy and connect more? I hope that you have a beautiful, intimate day! Donna x Humanity is a completely unique species. Firstly, we're capable of free will - we have the choice to act according to our mammalian instincts or to choose something else entirely. We have the capacity of imagination – which brings with it so many gifts and challenges. We are blessed with creativity and use it to create the most extraordinary, beautiful, useful and sometimes devastating things. We have a special form of consciousness and can use our awareness in a way no other animal can at this point. We are life experiencing and expressing itself. We are life able to know that it is life.  So, what is the best use of our abilities? It seems sensible to question what we can do with them to benefit us individually, societally, as a species, and globally. We have the ability to evolve at will and to choose our thoughts, behaviours and actions. And as an intelligent species it's our responsibility to reflect on who we are and what we're capable of. We have the chance to imagine a better way, to contemplate, ponder, discuss and decide how our presence on earth can be of benefit to everything and everyone on it. The current paradigms that we live by have been created mostly by default, but sometimes consciously - as have our societies, laws, systems and beliefs. We created them and we can change them.  An intelligent species with the ability to think for itself and decide its own fate would take the time to ponder and realise what the best way of living would be. And it would then work towards being that, keeping track of its progress, discussing challenges and deciding what is and isn’t working as it progressed. That's what a conscious species would do – choose to be an active participant in the betterment and evolution of its own species. So what do you think is the best use of who and what we are, to evolve ourselves, and improve conditions and life, for everyone and everything on this planet? The important thing is to be asking these questions of ourselves and finding the most evolved answers. For 30 years I’ve been exploring, trying to discover who we are and what we’re doing here. I was looking for the truth. It turns out that if you step back far enough the answer is clean and clear, pure and simple. We are LIFE. Now I know that sounds exceedingly obvious, in a way that’s kind of embarrassing. But stick with me, because the truth is that it’s profound and can help you change your perspective in such a way that you automatically feel happy, free and purposeful all at once. You’re not just alive, you are Life itself. Conscious, creative, curious life.  For billions of years life has been evolving, changing and adapting. And today it stands here in the form of you. You are conscious, aware, intelligent life with the capacity for brilliant and wonderful thoughts, feelings, ideas, creations and actions. You have free will, self awareness and reason. You can use your imagination to create worlds, concepts and visions that you can share with others in multitudes of ways. There is a single thread of life that began around 3.6 billion years ago and has managed to survive and thrive, non-stop, to become you. That is extraordinary. Generation by generation, eon after eon, life continued and developed. And you are the result along this particular thread. In talking about our genetics, an article titled 'The Common Genetic Code', in the PBS library online, explains it like this... This thread of genetic similarity connects us and the roughly 10 million other species in the modern world to the entire history of life, back to a single common ancestor more than 3.5 billion years ago. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/04/4/l_044_02.html  We are all connected, and we are all unique. We’re each a part of a magnificent and inspiring history, narrative, truth. You are as vital and important to life and the world as everyone else. Your lineage is 3.6 billion years old, (13 billion if you start from the very beginning) just like everything and everyone else. You are valuable beyond measure because you are the aspect of life that is conscious of itself. So, how can this information help you? How can it change your world and perspective? This knowledge frees you from the confines of believing that your identity is all that you are. You’re not just your personality, looks and job. You are so much more than that. Realising that you are life opens you up to shedding old thoughts and habits that kept you limited and constrained. What you are is life exploring, experiencing, expressing and evolving – with the capacity to enjoy it all along the way. With the awareness that you are the evolution of life becoming ever more conscious of itself you get more clarity, space, deeper meaning and a broader perspective of yourself and life. You are life growing in awareness with every action that you take and every thought that you think. As you life is independent, curious and able to look back at its own origins. Humanity is, as far as we know, life’s first chance to truly be free to explore its potential. Our species can ponder the beginning of time, imagining that moment 13 billion years ago, right up until today and into the future. We can create music, movies, machines and moments of breathtaking beauty and design. Our imaginations and impetus to explore have taken us around the planet and the solar system and, through fiction, far beyond. As conscious, evolving life you realise that you're a part of all of life and that it’s a part of you. You honour it and you honour yourself because you recognise the extraordinary diversity and uniqueness within you both. You know what it means to be considerate, loving, forgiving and kind. You can use your knowledge, imagination and awareness to create a wonderful reality for yourself and others. You can choose to grow and learn – to explore and express your potential for yourself and on behalf of the billions of lives that came before you. The only limit on what we and life are capable of, especially when we work together, is our imagination and belief in ourselves and what’s possible. That is – you get to choose what happens to life through the life you choose to lead. Thanks to life you exist. Because of evolution you are conscious and intelligent. Through you, life is free to explore. |
About MeHi, I'm Donna Nelson - Author, Trainer and Coach sharing Ideas, Inspirations and Insights to help you live a Wonderful, Meaningful and Extraordinary Life. Archives
November 2016
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