My Joy List

Since reading Abraham-Hicks I've become acutely aware of my thoughts and feelings. And I can honestly say that in just over two weeks, I feel like a new person. Every aspect of my life is now changing visibly.

My relationship with Dirk is a source of even greater joy (and that's no mean achievement for newly weds!); my work is really starting to take off; and I've developed the confidence to launch myself as a coach/consultant.

And I believe it's going to get EVEN better! The key to it all is keeping that sense of delight, excitement and anticipation alive and bubbling quietly in my veins.

I now find it easier to notice when I feel 'normal' as opposed to when I feel a light 'buzzing' feeling; and the more we stay with that buzzing feeling, where we're feeling energised and alive, the easier it is to attract better experiences.

So to shift myself from 'feeling normal' to feeling 'buzzing'(!) I've developed a list of thoughts that immediately lift me up. I share them below in case they trigger inspirational thoughts that set you on fire!

The feeling I had after swimming with wild dolphins and sting rays
The laughter of a small baby on a baby-milk ad at the moment
My brother Luke's bellylaugh when he was a toddler
The 'high' I got from Inspirational Insight, when I had an idea I knew was a great idea
Laughing after those 12 hugs!

There are others, but I start with those few ideas and build from there...

In another two weeks, who knows what will have happened! I'll let you know because I am so convinced that our thoughts and emotions are the keys to the life of our dreams that I'm determined to prove it's true in order to inspire others to make their dreams come true.

If all else fails...

And if all else fails, I suggest this...

Twelve hugs.

Those full-on, massive, bear hugs that engulf you and the lucky other person.

Twelve in a row.

Without stopping...

I heard about this on a radio show almost twenty years ago and decided to try it on my Mum. It did work! Though we didn't always have a great relationship when I was in my teens, we laughed a lot after those 12 hugs.

It's a 'technique' - that doesn't quite seem like the right word! - that I still use and, it's got to be said, few things beat a hug.

Teddybears and pillows are also good to hug when willing volunteers are unavailable!

Hanging in there

It is my deepest belief that each and every person is a star in their own right. The light we shine forth lights up the world of those around us. Even on the days that we are convinced we have no light left.

Over the past six months I have had days (as you may know!) when I felt I couldn't move from the couch. When I felt that nothing in life would change and I was flat and empty: powerless to change anything myself.

I did believe (in an abstract way) that things would get better... but it was a distant thought. Mostly my mind was numb on those days.

On such days, there's not always a lot we can do to change the situation. The only thing we may have any vague control over is how we feel. So I gave up watching the news and I started watching comedies on TV. Laughing helped!

The other thing that helped was thinking of good things when I could muster the energy. Even if only for 5 minutes.

If you’re feeling pummelled by life at the moment, two things jump out at me.

First, this is a moment in time when the energy is shifting massively on the planet. That is creating what feels like emotional whip-lash for many sensitive people. As this process softens and the energy finds its balance, there will be a realignment that will open up new opportunities and greater balance than before.

Second, to make the most of this new opportunity - where conscious creation will be much easier - we are being advised to visualise what we truly want to create in our lives.

Start with anything that resonates with you: an emotion you'd like to feel; a event you'd like to experience; a object you'd like to have... even one thought about something that you choose for yourself starts you on a positive track. It increases your energy and feel-good factor.

Next, think about Why you choose that: ‘what will it give you?’ This process is the equivalent of creating an etheric foundation for your visualisation. It gives it body and shape: it makes it Attractive...

If you can do this even once a day (68 seconds is all it takes), it will begin to change the way you feel. The more you can think of things you would like, the stronger the feel-good effect in the present moment and the stronger the Attraction point is for manifesting your wish.

This is a small example: "I want to have the dinner made for me."

Why? "Because I love the feeling of being cared for that I get when someone looks after me; because it means I can sit here for longer on the sofa watching comedies; because Dirk makes better salads than I do and I love his flavours. And if he made dinner, he may treat me and do the washing up too, and I know I’ll feel really, really cherished then!"

It need only be a small example... finding something, anything at all, that we would like and exploring why it would make us feel good creates a good feeling.

And that may lead to another feel-good thought.

And maybe even another good-feeling thought!

Breathe: the Beautiful Journey

Day in, day out, we breathe...

We give it such little attention, this magical process. Yet breathing is a mysterious process... it is where the intangible becomes tangible, where air fuels our body.

It links our ephemeral spirit and the physicality of our human bodies. With each breath in, we inhale the intangible...

We trust completely that there is an abundance of the air we need. We don't fret or worry about it: this energy is here for us all... to use freely.

With each breath out, we release... we relax... we surrender... we share from the centre of our beings with everyone else. Freely...

And in the moment between the inhalation... and the exhalation... there is a minute pause. A stillness. A moment when intangible and tangible, spirit and body, are one.

We use it passively, never doubting our ability to breathe, but we can also use it actively. It is a powerful tool that is constantly with us. Our breath can calm us… it can release our pent up fears and frustrations.

We can use it to glide us into more peaceful states, to float into balance... to use its waves as a soothing lullaby to our sometimes ragged spirits.

Breathing in peace, breathing out release
Breathing in peace, breathing out release

Breathing in peace, breathing out light
Breathing in peace, breathing out light

Breathing in peace, breathing out joy
Breathing in peace, breathing out joy

Can I help?

I'm launching my coaching and consultancy service this month.

If you know someone who is looking for coaching or consultancy support, I'd be be very grateful if you would pass my details on to them.

It's hard to know what sort of support we need when we're going through changes - or even not enough change! - that's why I believe it's really important to have a chat first to discover if and how I could support anyone who is interested in coaching or consultancy.

But one thing is sure - it's always easier when you don't feel as though you're paddling on your own.

Email: jennifercrokaert@yahoo.com
Mobile: 0781 5955 782

Free paddle for the first 8 callers!

With thanks and love, Jennifer

Falling in love - daily

Ahhh.... falling in love! Can there be a more wonderful feeling in the whole world? Out of no where life takes on a rainbow-tinge: people seem friendlier, the weather is better, chores become delights... Regardless of what is happening in our lives, they can be transformed overnight by simply falling in love.

We see in our beloved all that is most wonderful in life: they embody the best of all characteristics. We feel alive and whole when we are with them. It can even seem as though they bring out the best in us.

When we fall in love with another, we are actually falling in love with ourselves. They see our quirks as cute, our hobbies as interesting, our passions as inspiring ... and our jokes as funny! They give us permission to see ourselves as cute, interesting, inspiring, funny people. Falling in love allows us to reconnect with the best of who we are and it feels wonderful.

When we fall in love we are suddenly reconnected to our Source and our Higher Selves because we are seen as our very best selves in the beginning of a relationship.

As the relationship goes on, instead of looking for the best, our beloved (and we ourselves) no longer focus exclusively on the positive: we begin to see the imperfections, we even start to look for the flaws. This is a crucial turning point because when we move from seeing the best of who we are to focusing on 'flaws' we move from appreciation to criticism, from acceptance to defensiveness.

Have we changed overnight? Have our jokes got worse? Or quirks become more peculiar? No. It is that simple shift from seeing the best in another to looking for the flaws. And that very act disconnects us from our own joy which changes the dyanmic of the relationship and our own sense of well-being.

But it's possible to go beyond that cycle. It's possible to keep that falling-in-love feeling. The secret (or so I’ve read!) is to move from seeking love outside ourselves to finding it inside ourselves. By focusing on thoughts that make us feel good, we recapture that feeling of joy and magic, so we are lighter in ourselves. And we are lighter with our beloved.

I've been experimenting with this principle - focusing on the good that exists, thinking positive thoughts and seeing the best interpretation rather than the worst, for the past two weeks.

And my empirical evidence is this: it does improve relationships! That vibrant, viceral feeling of love makes us stronger yet lighter.

I've seen that when I'm feeling really happy, Dirk's mood lifts to meet me. When he's feeling great, my mood lifts to meet his. Our natural inclination is to feel good so we naturally gravitate to people who help us feel that way (babies are masters at this!). And being able to create that feeling within ourselves – that joyful, easy flow of love – means that we need never be dependent on a ‘once in a lifetime high’, we can choose to live that joyful love every day.

Inspiration is your soul's whisper

Inspiration is our soul’s whisper, reminding us of our own greatness and our – as yet - unexpressed potential. It is a gentle nudge that encourages us by showing us who we can become, the talents and skills that we can step into in order to feel that we are truly alive, soaring with exhilaration rather than simply ‘getting by’.

Its role is to reveal more of who we are to us, at moments when we are open and ready to take the next step.

It's appearance is subtle; in a quiet, delicate manner it whispers in our ear, reminding us of who we can be, if we will but step forth and explore the path it's lighting for us. It's as though a veil falls from before our eyes, offering us just a glimpse… a detail… an idea that we have not been able to discern before suddenly appears and makes complete sense.

It can seem as though Inspiration does not arrive with a manual, but that is not entirely true. Its ‘How To’ guide is as enigmatic as Inspiration itself. Once we step on its path, it gently suggests new ideas, new ways of being, new paths, new connections…

If we take up its invitation, then Inspiration walks alongside us on our journey, bringing us new insights – each one building on the last – with impeccable timing (regardless of what we think of its timing!).

Yet much like a bird in our hands, we cannot grasp too tightly for we will suffocate it, nor can we open our grasp entirely, for we will loose sight of it and it will dissolve. In keeping with its enigmatic nature, it speaks to us at moments when our minds are misted, when we are day-dreaming, meditating… moments when our minds have expanded, loose and supple…

When Inspiration visits, it offers us an invitation… a glimpse of who we can become to magnify and more fully embody who we already are. And if we choose to dance with Inspiration, it will dance with us, gently guiding our steps.

What is your Inspiration whispering to you?
Who could you become if you were to follow your soul’s hunches?

Finding the Silver Lining

In the eternal flow of life there are inevitably moments that light us up and moments that bring us down. So the challenge is to get from 'down' to ‘up’ (never let it be said that I don’t have a talent for stating the obvious!).

One of the most useful tools I've discovered of late is the process below, again from the Abraham-Hicks stable.

Every moment that brings us down in our lives shows us what we would like, what would lift us up. By turning our thinking from what we don't want to what we do want, we take the first steps towards feeling better. So the first step is to answer these questions:

What does this show me about what I would like?
What do I now realise that I really want?

The next step is to go from the mind to the emotions: Make it real, make it visceral. Two simple questions again:

Why would this ‘better event’ make me feel better?
What would this ‘better event’ give me?

By focusing on how we'd feel in this new, improved version of reality, we begin to feel even better. We now have a real silver lining to that cloud, an experience that makes us feel better and helps us imagine an even more pleasing future moment.

I got to practice this process and saw its transformational effect in less than one week...

Someone very close to me read my blog for the first time and was less than complimentary. As I'm determined to live life with bounce, I immediately started to turn that event around...

It showed me that I'd really love those dearest to me to be enthusiastic and supportive of my writing.

What that would give me is a sense of achievement, of value - that what I write has a wider meaning and resonance than my own life - and of support from my friends and family.

Over the following days, every time I felt bad about the comment, I'd quickly shift to the reality I would like. It was a long-term aspiration as far as I was concerned, but after 4 days the comment had lost its sting, so I was pleased!

And then, to my amazement, as if to prove the process works, after 3 months with 6 followers, I got a 7th follower! And here's the best bit, it was my beloved brother Luke!

Thanks Luke - you've no idea how much you made my day!

"Bringing the Sparkle to Daily Life " Journal

I've made a decision to keep a journal for a month. It only takes 28 days to learn a new skill, so after a month, I hope I'll be a dab-hand at shifting myself into appreciation and joy, quickly and easily. It's a lofty vision, but there's nothing quite like aiming high!

So here is the journal format I'm using. If it helps you, do let me know as I'd get a real thrill out of knowing I'd helped someone with all of my ramblings!

The journal is very simple: it has two sections.

The first section is Appreciative Noticing (I might need to think of a better term, that doesn't really trip off the lips!). In this section I write down everything that I notice that is getting better. Anything at all, no matter how large or how small; I take every good thing that happens to me as fuel for my 'feeling better'.

I also note down everything that I appreciate, that makes me glad, that brings a smile to my lips or joy to my heart. It may even be things that don't directly touch me, but if they lift my spirits, then I note them down too. I aim to write a list of 10-20 Appreciative Noticings every morning and it takes about 5 minutes.

The principle is that as I recall the good things, I charge my mind with positive thoughts and I start my day with a positive, appreciative outlook.

The outcome that I've noticed is that it has had an immediate impact on the people around me: people around me have become more helpful and cheerful recently. How great is that?!

The second section is called 8 Impossibly Wonderful Things. Here I dream up 8 wonderful events, experiences or things that currently seem 'impossible' for me to be do or have. The reason for 8 is because it's the universal number of abundance (it's an infinity loop on its side!).

The principle is that by freeing our imagination beyond what we consider to be possible, we open up a plethora of new possibilities and opportunities. We sow seeds of delightful wonders that we would like to receive.

The outcome is that I've had a lot of fun creating whacky ways of experiencing wonderful things. I'll let you know when I have concrete proof that this works - because I'm convinced that it will!

Creating Heaven on Earth

Does that sound far-fetched?! Excellent!

As I've been saying for some time now, we have the power to transform our lives by altering how we perceive our day-to-day events. We have good experiences, we feel good. We have bad experiences, we feel bad. This leaves us hostage to our experiences and robs us of control of our own experiences.

The purpose of From Mud To Miracles is to shift the way we perceive the bad experiences, so that we don't feel bad about them but use them as fuel to discover how we can feel even better about our lives. We can find the pearl within the seemingly negative experiences, the seam of gold that runs through their rock-hard exterior.

According to Abraham-Hicks (my current reading 'must have'!), when we feel good we bring ourselves into alignment with a Vortex filled with every joyful desire for improvement that we have ever had.

Feeling 'bad' holds these joyful delights at a distance from us. Because they spring from a part of us that says 'Better please', they vibrate at a rate that is 'better' or higher than the vibration rate of the event/thing that caused us to desire something 'better'. Please!

Our challenge is to increase our vibration rate until we resonate at that ‘higher’ vibration rate. It’s back to the radio wavelength analogy used in the previous posting.

By becoming aware of when we are feeling down, in whatever way, we open the door to feeling better. We can then reach for any thought that makes us feel better. And better isn't necessarily about going from apathy to joy in one jump. That’s too big a stretch. Apathy to anger is already an improvement; anger to revenge is an improvement; revenge to pettiness is an improvement; pettiness to hope and so on...

Once we feel better, we open ourselves up to having better experiences, to having more fun. Believe it or not, someone actually got up and offered me their seat on the Tube the other day! How amazing is that?!

As I'm learning to shift my energy consciously so that I feel better more of the time, I'm noticing how little things are getting better in my life. I’ve also remembered that I’ve created better outcomes for myself by doing this in the past. The key is being able to sustain a more positive outlook.

In order to keep my momentum going, I've developed a journal for myself. If you're interested in playing with that format and using it for yourself, check out my next posting.

Consciously being, consciously creating

As I sat on the Tube yesterday I overheard a teenager complaining to her friend. She didn't like her Blackberry.
"If they'd given me a choice, I would have chosen the black one. I would never have gone for the silver one. But you get what you're given."

The words leapt out at me: You get what you're given.

"No!" I wanted to cry. That's not true at all.


As society has progressed over the millennia, our understanding of the world around us has increased. That is also due to our increased ability to understand more complex and subtle ideas. This is achieved, in part, through the bit-by-bit incremental growth in our understanding and, in part, through our increased consciousness.

As we have progressed, so to has our understanding of physics, of psychology, of consciousness and of Theology, and our understanding of our place and role within the universe has also evolved.

I grew up believing that I was imperfect and highly flawed. My success was hit or miss. It wasn't even dependent on how hard I worked or how smart I was. It was based on the whim of an apparently random God. If I pleased Him, I succeeded. If I didn't, I failed. Over the years, it appeared - judging by my success rate - that I wasn't pleasing Him so much. I felt like a solitary rowing boat being thrown about by a ocean storm.

That is not what I will teach my children. Humanity's understanding of our relationship with God has taken a radical leap over the past 20 years. In Ireland this means that we no longer go to Mass and ask someone else, namely the priest, to talk to God on our behalf. We have a one-to-one relationship with God.

Our relationship with the Divine is evolving from the status of powerless children to co-creative young people. We no longer see ourselves as separate from the Divine, we are part of the Divine, the field of universal consciousness, the Zero-point Field.

We are at the forefront of creation. We stand at the point where thought can become matter: where our observations create our reality. We have always been creating our reality, but we have not had the luxury of consciously creating that reality. Of understanding that what we think creates what we get and being able to channel that into creating lives that are rich and meaningful, societies that are rich and meaningful, even nations that are rich and meaningful.

Understanding that our thoughts are creating our daily lives and loves is a quantum step forward in humanities understanding of All That Is. It is the evolutionary step that brought mammals from the sea to the land; it is the evolutionary step that encourages us to actively choose what we wish to create in our lives by thinking about that and feeling the joy of that creation, even before it is manifest.

For some this feels too big a step, and they may prefer to wait a little longer in the water to see if such an evolutionary step is truly possible. For others, like me, this proposition - that I am an off-shoot of the Divine and, as such, I consciously or unconsciously create my reality - answers the unasked questions that gnawed at the back of my mind. I can never go back. I choose to embrace a vision of a world where I get to live up the challenge of being a spark of the Divine, learn about my ability to consciously create, and go on all the adventures that I attract to myself on this journey.

This is not an abandonment of God. This is an expansion of the concept of Divinity - one that embraces us as a part of the ineffable Divine. The potency and love of this understanding is so vast that our human hearts are not big enough to contain it, human minds fumble to understand it, but the humans' spirit soar to meet it, to embrace it, to live it.

Learning to think

It's getting very exciting now... I realised talking to a friend last night that I am leaving the 'old me' behind. I'm moving into a space where I choose to consciously create my life and I finally have the tools to do it.

I believe that we are all little sparks of the divine; that we are an intrinsic part of the divine and therefore we hold within us the power and the essence of the divine. For me, this means that our birthright, our natural flow, is one of abundance, grace, love and joy. We can constantly use this divine spark to create our lives. Too frequently we end up creating what we don’t want to experience rather than what we do want to experience.

Life and the many 'lessons' we has moulded us into damp versions of who we truly are. We have learnt to think in a way that focuses on problems not solutions; on pain not joy; on effort not serendipity.

We are taught to constrict our natural creative flow rather than to expand our ability to co-create. Consequently, if we focus on problems, we get more problems; if we focus on solutions, we get more solutions. Like attracts like: the Law of Attraction.

So my first challenge is to learn to focus on the positive, on the solutions. I may not know all the solutions, but I do know how I feel when things work out for me.

As I mentioned yesterday, the key is to become aware each time I'm feeling bad that I'm focusing on a problem and closing myself down. Our feelings have been likened to a GPS system – they point out to us when we’re travelling towards our true selves (when we’re vibrant, joyful, happy and loving) and when we’re heading towards our ‘damp’ selves (when we’re feeling fearful and anxious). Our emotions are our internal guidance system that can lead us to the very best of who we are, that expression of ourselves where we feel most alive, most luminous.

The way to turn negative feelings around is to remember that each negative thought is a thought of absence and in a world of opposites, underneath that negative thought is a positive thought: something I would like to have/be/do.

Step 1 Notice that I'm feeling bad
Step 2 Notice the thought of lack that's fuelling that
Step 3 What does this thought tell me about what I do want?
Step 4 Why do I want that? What will it give me?

According to Abraham-Hicks, when we focus on what we want we tap into our positive, creative energy. We begin to engage the Law of Attraction.

When we focus on why we want it, we turbo-charge the Law of Attraction. Be begin attracting it towards us. Everything (that I would like) already exists, so it is simply a question of raising my vibration to the point where I vibrate at the same rate as my desires, then it has to come to me.

The idea itself is elegant and simple. The implementation of it at this stage is like learning to walk - a lot of conscious effort combined with the exhilarating thought of freedom!

One thought at a time

I’m running another little experiment, and you’re welcome to join me if you're interested…

How are you feeling today?

Are your thoughts bringing you up or bringing you down?

Our thoughts create our emotions. Our emotions create our lives: their vibration attracts other people, things and events with a similar vibration.

So if we want better lives, we need better emotions; if we want better emotions, we need better thoughts.

If you're anything like me, the negative thoughts outweigh the positive thoughts, which is why I’m so obsessed with learning how to improve my thinking process! I learnt a simple technique today that helps redress the imbalance... it's called the Pivot Process.

So, if I think about not earning enough, I feel bad. As soon as I catch that thought, I can notice that this thought has a flip side: I would love to earn lots of money. So, each time I think a thought that brings me down, I use it to direct me to a positive thought that inspires me.

This is a thought-by-thought process... It requires me to go slower, not faster in life, if I want to notice my thoughts. It requires me to live in the present, not in my future dreams and past memories.

This could seem like a Herculean task, but if they managed to build the Great Wall of China, then I guess I can become aware of my thoughts, one by one! And then turn them around...

My aim is to saturate my negative thoughts with positive thoughts and positive feelings, so that I become an even more positive person. I have a selfish agenda for this: I really, really do want to master the art of conscious creation. I want to be able to choose amazing experiences and know that I can create them quickly and easily. A grand vision indeed...

And it's achieved only by living in the present moment and using each negative thought to lead me to a positive thought... One brick at a time!

Let’s see how far we’ve got by December 9th…

The elephant on the unicycle

Have you ever seen an elephant on a unicycle? I don't imagine there are many out there! The elephant is too big and the unicycle is too delicate - it's not really a marriage made in heaven.

So where am I going with this? Excellent question! Glad I asked it!!

The real point of this blog is our emotions... We live life as if we were the unicycle and the elephant is our emotions. Our emotions are huge, powerful creatures, but they squash us simply because we don't know how to work with them. We allow them to drive us, rather than choosing to create with them.

Our emotions are our inner guidance systems. They can lead us to the fullest, most magnificent version of ourselves. When we experience joy, love, appreciation, delight and a host of other positive emotions it is because we are in harmony with our core selves, the deepest expression of who we are. Those are the moments we experience the life we are meant to live.

This in-built SATNAV is constantly pointing us in the direction of our best lives, our deepest dreams… our greatest selves. But we don’t listen to it. Instead, we spend most of our lives living as a unicycle under the weight of disheartening emotions that crush us.

When we feel pain, rejection, apathy, anger, frustration and other negative emotions, it's a sure sign that we are on the wrong track. We are not living from our magnificence but from the mundane. And the mundane is often the projections and desires of others; their needs, their wants, their desire to control and feel safe.

The massive power of the elephant is at our disposal, willing us to charge to the most fun waterholes, the greenest tress and the coolest mud baths, if only we are willing to follow that inner signal.

Every single time we can remember to follow the fun, laughter or happiness, we are running with the elephants, side by side. Every time we forget and we follow our negative emotions (most frequently our responses to others' needs, wants and fears) we become the crushed unicycle, overwhelmed and under-performing.

So, I invite us to seize the little pleasures and joys in life. Consider running with the elephants, not under them! We were never born to be unicycles, to live in pain and suffering. That's an outmoded, out-dated vision of life.

Our challenge is to become pioneers, to create new ways of living that are based on our joys, our strengths and our passions, and to release the old path that no longer serves.

Worry is simply negative imagination - why waste the immense sparkle of imagination on that?! Why not build a store of memories, jokes and inspirations to lift us up when we slip into unicycle mode? Why not challenge ourselves to notice the moments of joy, the laughter, the sense of connection with others, the feelings of satisfaction? Why not imagine living life on immense, spectacular terms?

Now, I’m off to find the muddiest water hole for a fabulous tumble!

The Zahir extract

Have you ever come away from someone feeling somehow dirty, 'less than', exhausted and empty? Have you noticed coming away from someone and feeling fully alive, vibrant and joyous? Here's an extract from a book I read on holidays that does give some food for thought...

"'Marie, let's suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man's face is completely clean. My quetion is this: which of the two will wash his face?'

'That's a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.'

'No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I'd better have a wash.'

'What are you trying to say?'

'I'm saying that, during the time I spent in hosptial, I came to realise that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves refelcted in me and thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don't let this happen to you.'"
From The Zahir by Paolo Cohelo

Note Now have a second look at the tee-shirt in the mirror.

The A-Ha is A-Here

Alright, so that's a pretty bad title, I'll grant you that! But what it signifies is tremendous: it wasn't a lightbulb that went on so much as a bolt of lightening that struck me. I think I can now officially hang up my blogging hat as I have found my Nirvana.

As I've said many times, I've been searching for understanding about how we realign with who we really, truly are; how we can manifest the lives we dream of; and why, of why, is it that those dreams always seem so elusive and so unattainable.

Well, clearly all that thinking did attract the answer. I spent yesterday reading the clearest, most succinct description of how to realign with our the greatest version of ourselves, how to manifest everything we would like and then some, and why it hasn't worked up to now.

The book is called Ask and it is Given by Abraham-Hicks.

I cannot recommend it enough: I've read a lot of books on this subject but this is truly the clearest of all the books I have read. It was one lightbulb moment after another for me.

Some of the things I learnt include:

When visioning what I'd like to have in my life, it's important to start with the next step up, not a vision of something that is very far removed from my current reality and hard to attain, and build up from the present reality.

As I suspected, life is about joy. The more joy the better. Follow your bliss is key to having a great life. And manifesting!

17 seconds is all it takes to begin magnetising yourself with the object, experience or feeling you wish to create

Holding that thought for 68 seconds slots begins to transform any thought into your dominant thought pattern... anyone else out there have some dominant thought patterns they could do with changing!?

So, now I just need to do go do it! I'm starting small, having identified what I love in my current life; the freedom to work/rest/play when I want to; the sunlight in our flat; the garden; and the amount of fun we have together... I know there are some experiences that would make our lives even more fun and would help our lives flow even more gracefully: a home of our own, a baby, more work that I love doing...

The trick appears to be hold our emotions with as much joy and appreciation as we can. If I'm feeling down, I'm closing down the channels of attraction (like attracts like). So I know I'm on course if I feel good and I know I need to readjust if I feel less good. That’s a simplified version of what to do… more details to follow!

And… if it tickles you, I invite you to try it for yourself.

Natural balance

We're just back from a weekend away where we did a lot of walking in the forests. As a city dweller, I forget how powerful it is to be out in nature.

As we walked, I could feel my body become lighter... The accumulated stresses and frustrations of city living seemed to melt among the trees and leaves.

There is no doubt that city living is a particular art form. It does require us to dig deeper, to consciously find the best of who we are, otherwise we become numb. We can lose our humanity in the speed, ignorance and anonymity of city life. It can be soul destroying.

I think we take city living for granted and often forget to rebalance ourselves.

Whether it's flowers or a plant, leaves from the ground or acorns… Simple connections to powerful life essences can help us reconnect with our innate sense of light, space and balance…