New Leaf Mentoring … new thought. new health. new life.

Posts tagged ‘change’

Permaculture and I; A Lifetime Healthy Romance!


About 25 years ago my husband and I found ourselves having to start new lives. Our lives had taken a sharp turn for the worst in the late 80’s and we quite suddenly found ourselves broke with a new young family; one 16 year old boy and 3 babes under 2 to provide for. We were quite shell-shocked, disorientated and struggling our way through every day. Our losses and 3 difficult pregnancies had taken a hard toll. We had moved to an old Ontario farmstead to lick our wounds in peace and through a weird twist of events decided to give herb farming a go. We had both been raised on farms and were at this stage of our lives desperately longing to find a simple way to be in the world. We also needed a way to be productive and earn a living while we tried to rebuild and restructure our lives. At some primal level we also knew that we needed to get our feet into the dirt; literally get back to our roots. We were starting over.

Making a Living

IMG_0341Our choice was to focus on growing many varieties of heirloom vegetables, herbs and perennial flowers suitable for drying, selling the produce from the farm and at farmer’s markets and craft shows. These were high density crops that could survive and hopefully thrive with the meager assets we could provide. Our land and our lives had specific inherent challenges that we had to get around if we wanted to realize any kind of success. First and foremost was that we had no money nor slush fund to work from. Secondly, we had really crappy land to work with. Half of our gardens were on land that was seriously depleted from dozens of years of being a badly kept lawn, and the other half of the land was stolen from the adjacent corn and soy bean fields that had been repeatedly sprayed for years on end with chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers. A serious challenge for an organic herb farm! We also had a minimal water supply – enough for the house only. The area was further challenged in that it had no shelter therefore it experienced full sun, wind and rain exposure leaving it prone to erosion and drought. There were very little native resources on site. Thankfully we were extremely resourceful, had great support from family and close friends and we had neighbours that were very willing to help the new crazy people on the block if only for the giggle value.

Growing, growing, growing!

We were already committed to working organically, utilizing raised beds, mulch, compost and manure fertlizer. As we researched various gardening methods and techniques to help us deal more effectively with the site issues we stumbled into and started experimenting with biodynamic gardening and permaculture techniques. As we grew and developed our ideas, we brought in more and more species and created more and more gardens and increased our biodiversity exponentially. Eventually we had created 19 20’x20’ plots for experimental/demonstration gardens plus a “Tea” herb garden, a 30’x40’market herb garden plus a 50’x50′ english/medicine wheel/labyrinth garden for wandering in, meditation and ceremony. We also renovated one driving shed into a drying storage barn and another into a flower workshop and gift shop. A lean-to verandah became a makeshift greenhouse, a lean-to shed was stripped of it’s inner and outer coverings and became another greenhouse/chicken coup and finally 3 4’x20’ cold frames were dug out of a south facing slope. We were holding guided gardening tours, various educational and crafting workshops, and selling exclusively from the farm year round.  These were some of the physical successes we had. Today I would do things almost the same way, tweak some ideas, and hopefully be able to invest in certain aspects of the farm better than I could in those days but all in all it was a great experience, my kids grew up grazing and it served us well for over 7 years. Because we were deeply immersed in the process we barely noticed the really spectacular achievement of those years. The really important value was that as we healed the land it healed us, we transformed, we came back to life!

As we came back to health and our family thrived, life took another turn, my husband was ‘called’ back to working with heavy equipment and I had been ‘called’ into energy work and by 1998 Reiki had taken over all my time. We left the farm and moved into new career directions, the gardening principles persisted however but this time in an entirely new dimension. Today I am once again walking my crooked path and have come full circle. With some wisdom gained through review and hindsight I have decided to get certified as a permaculture designer. All my previous career paths are coming together into one – I feel whole and full.

Why Permaculture Today

The reason I mention all this today is that almost 25 years ago my husband and I chose permaculture as a way to live and work in the world; not because of climate change, not because of the world water issues, not because of imminent oil or financial industry collapse but simply because we needed to get well. We needed to heal. We needed to get our feet in the soil and get in touch with our souls and re-connect with nature again. During those years on the farm we received hundreds of visitors as our guests. I became deeply aware of the pain and suffering people were experiencing in their daily lives. They were struggling with health and unhappiness issues. They came, drawn in by the herbs, and they sat in the gardens – sometimes for hours. I recognized the need for the garden as a healing energy in people’s lives. A deeply restorative place in which we can sit immersed in primordial order. In a natural well designed garden we are held and supported, nurtured and healed.

Permaculture offers us a permanent natural culture that is built on year after year on any scale in any situation. It naturally supports us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We are healed and revitalized energetically as well and it doesn’t depend on us becoming avid gardeners with glowing green thumbs. In “permacultural” living we work and live together with nature harmoniously, neither tries to override and dominate the other, we don’t become slave to each other and we naturally nurture each other with food, energy and peace. Nature and we relax – together. Our garden becomes a living sanctuary for all species of life. We listen to each other and enjoy a symbiotic natural relationship.

I’m mentioning this today because permaculture is one of those things that is just right and good for you to do for you today on whatever scale you choose. If any of this appeals to you I would be happy to discuss and help you design your permaculture home sanctuary.

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Metaphysics

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Butterfly Effects of Change


A few months ago I connected with a woman through LinkedIn, Lu Pierro, and she had a vision to share!

She was promoting her 2nd annual Worldwide Holistic Day. The purpose of the event is to introduce people to the options offered through alternative complementary therapies. Ms. Pierro has asked practitioners of all modalities to plan an event where they can offer their respective therapies to their local communities at no charge on the 2nd of October on the anniversary of Gandhi’s birthday. The theme, of course, is to “Be the Change”. I became totally and completely smitten with the idea.

I immediately began to plan my own event and have passed the word on. I loved everything about Lu’s vision. I loved that it was meant to encompass  every modality and that it was a volunteer offering. I loved that it celebrated Gandhi’s birthday and that its primary invitation to the public was to be the change! But most of all I loved the simple fact that Lu understood the powerful effects of small intentional change. Of course this too was Gandhi’s life’s vision! I live my life by this code and it was a captivating idea to be part of something as huge as a global event just doing my own little thing! I couldn’t wait to share it!

So on October 2nd from 1 – 4pm I will be in Hamilton with my associates Lynda Henriksen, Mary Giuffre and Paul Clark doing our thing. I am going to be holding a seminar and open discussion on “Being the Change”, complete with focused guided meditations and a healing circle. We will close with networking and a hands on healing share by and for whom ever wants to participate. Our space holds 150 participants and I hope it’s packed! But if it’s not…it will still be perfect!

The Butterfly Effect

Very simply said…the butterfly effect says that small tiny changes can eventually cause huge effects, in  fact the theory goes that the gentle flap of a butterflies wings could be the cause of a major wind current like a hurricane down the road. In Chaos Theory the butterfly effect is defined as “the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a non-linear system can result in large differences to a later state”.

When we bring this phenomenon to our front mind we add the factor of intention. When we multiply that intention by hundreds of people intending the same thing we increase our effect exponentially.

Intending Outcomes

We are not randomly, arbitrarily going to sit there in Hamilton in a group and mindlessly flap our metaphoric wings trying to create a wind storm. No we are going to intentionally establish a common heightened vibration, a symbiotic intention for ourselves first and then Be it.

As Gandhi put it to us..Be the change we want to see in the world. So on Sunday we will practice Being the Change! We will learn to embrace ourselves as the masters of change. We will come to understand our place in the Universe as co-creative beings with power. We will endeavor to feel with our whole bodies what it means to be healthy, vibrant and brave. We will experience the vast illumination of bio-electric magnetic energy that we truly are and feel what it feels like to be empowered in a self-generating high frequency vibration. And after that…well after that there is nothing left to do…after that we just are!

The greatest problem in the world today is that we have forgotten the truth of what we are. We are sacred, radiant beings of light, perfectly capable of being healthy, abundantly prosperous and loving beings. We’ve lost sight of our innate Divinity. When we learn to embrace our essential Godliness we instantly increase our vibration toward a more perfect frequency. The phenomenon that takes over then is called entrainment. Every molecule that is of a lower frequency will instantly strive to raise its vibration to match with the healthiest vibration available. Everyone that shares DNA will quickly establish a resonance with the increased frequencies – no matter how far away! All we have to do is be pure and strong in our in own individual intention and it will be felt the world over! A noble plan indeed! But in the world of quantum physics this is how it works.

Being the Change!

So on October 2nd I need your help! I need you to join me in Hamilton in body or in spirit and in the hours between 1 and 4 set your attention on being the very best you can be! Clear your mind of difficulties and challenges, and turn your focus on imagining your world as being stress free, joyful, healthy, love-filled and peaceful. For 3 hours on Sunday simply allow yourself to feel what it would feel like to live the life of your dreams. Deny the voices that tell you life isn’t so or that it can’t be had, or to stop being foolish. For 3 hours intend a tsunami of positive loving energy flooding through the hearts and minds of all those you come in contact with, your relatives near and far, and in all the places you have had the good fortune to visit.

For 3 small hours on Sunday October 2nd catch the wave of change toward the life of your dreams and join thousands of others as we co-create a vision and in truth a new possibility for a positive, loving, healthy, and peaceful world. For 3 small hours on Sunday join us in daring to BEING THE CHANGE!

Category:

Healing, Metaphysics

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The Perils of Fence Sitting


There are days when I would just love to run around pushing people off the fences they’re sitting on! I’m not really a nasty person, I just see that life would be better for people  – no matter how hard – if they would simply say what’s on their mind! It’s kinda’ the same as pulling a band-aid off quickly!

I strongly believe that you can’t tell people what to do for a couple of reasons. i) they don’t like it and ii) I don’t have the right to. I’m not saying my life is perfect, and for sure it’s easier to spot a fence sitter than to always know when you’re on one yourself, but really…sometimes you just got to wonder what people are waiting for! I hear people say: “I’m just not ready to make a decision yet.”

Yeah right! The longer you sit the harder it gets, trust me, been there done that! The longer you sit there doing nothing, the more disoriented you become. Eventually you don’t even know what you really feel! Never mind what you really want to say! And forget about knowing what to do!

Sometimes it is so painfully obvious what needs to be done and yet people insist on sitting on their fence, vacillating, wobbling, pondering, ignoring, and sometimes just waiting. People actually develop back pain and other health issues from trying to maintain their balance while trying not to commit to one way or another. They become so preoccupied in trying to not fall off the fence that they lose sight of the decision they really have to make. Seasons come and go and people sit there like some kind of garden ornament.

There is really only one good reason to sit on a fence; to get a better vantage point. Sometimes raising yourself above a situation that you are mired in will create enough of a shift in perspective to make a decision. Unfortunately, though, once we’re out of the situation and removed from the emotional and mental duress of it we can choose to sit and rest for a while. We just have to be careful that the rest stop doesn’t become a place of refuge, because that’s when the real trouble starts! You can actually build a whole other life sitting on top your fence. And although it looks real, feels real, and sounds real – it isn’t!

You will not be allowed to stay on the fence without consequences. Universal consciousness hates fence sitters, and will test your fence-sitting skills by throwing a couple or ten balls at you that you have to keep juggling to keep up in the air while you’re trying to sit there. And if that doesn’t work, and you somehow manage to still not make a decision to get off your fence and back into the real game, you’ll soon notice the weather getting a little stormy. Illness, emotional upheaval, weight gain or loss, depression, financial issues and other losses will start to affect your balance. Universal consciousness is built by people making choices. Permanent fence-sitting can not be tolerated in an ever-growing, expanding universe. New growth and expansion doesn’t happen easily on a fence. When we don’t make choices we end up getting really confused. Eventually, like it or not you will lose your balance and fall off your fence. A decision will be made…with or without you.

I urge you to get off your fence voluntarily. Speak up! Say what’s on your mind! Don’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers and make some waves. Committing to a decision is way better than not. You can always change your mind. The universe is an endless source of opportunity and new beginnings. Climbing or jumping off your fence voluntarily is a lot easier on the ole’ body than being shoved off and causes way less damage!

Honest!!

Category:

Healing

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A New Leaf


There comes a time when we have to make changes. I know making changes is difficult. It is the human way to become attached – to everything. But as we learn, as we grow, it is important to portray ourselves on the outside in ways that reflect the changes we are going through on the inside. My friends and clients that have known me for many years of my business journey tease me about the way my business image keeps changing every few years. It’s true…at least on the surface. Changing is what my business is all about. Whether it’s with the Reiki, the Metaphysics Workshops, the Living Well Seminars, or my articles, it’s all about helping people stimulate, create, and maintain the changes they want to manifest in their lives. Likewise for myself.

We’re all looking for happiness and peace of mind. What that means is different for each one of us. How that looks on the outside may be  different but in the end we all want the same things; we want to be heard, we want to matter, and we want to be accepted. These elements are the root of all the changes we ever try to implement in our lives. They are the essence of all that it means to be human. It is perhaps even the common purpose that binds us and in the same moment propels the evolution of humanity forward.

Gregg Braden identified the three common fears of mankind to be i) a fear of surrender, ii) a fear of loss of self-worth, and iii) a fear of abandonment. We spend our lives doing what we need to do to try to overcome these fears. We strive to leave a mark in this world that survives our death.

Change is an interesting illusion of our minds. I’m not sure that we ever really change in our core. I believe we are what we are. I also believe that we don’t always know what we are and can spend a lifetime trying to find out. We can get so side tracked in life that we can head off on a path at a very early age that can leave us lost for a long time. To make sense out of a life we feel disconnected from we buy into and build up all the trappings that make us appear to be solid citizens. Eventually that solid looking box begins to crack and disintegrate leaving us confused, angry and afraid if we continue trying to hold on to it.

Everything in our world is impermanent. Everything material and physical changes. Our physical body will also change and die. But spirit lives on. I’m not talking about reincarnation here. I’m talking about the spirit of humanity, the spirit of the Divine Principle, the spirit of God. Our essential purpose is to live that spirit as fully as possible within the expression we are.

And so we change, everyday, trying to be more fully what we are. As the days go by we either choose to do things differently, letting go of everything that no longer fits or we choose to hold on tighter, trying to create a reality that would fool the best of them. It is the heart that will guide you towards the changes you want, and your mind will decide if you do or don’t. If there is disharmony between the heart and mind you will stay locked in a battle that will seep toxicity into all areas of your life. Change doesn’t have to be cruel or harsh. If we decide to make changes freely and easily, consulting with our heart and mind, we can make smaller, incremental changes that reflect our truth, stimulate our passion and empower our presence in the world.

My new business logo and image are reflective of a new lighter, brighter sense of myself and my work. The truth is I’m all about growth, all about change, all about turning a New Leaf! More than anything though I am committed to doing what I have to do to build a harmonious relationship between my heart and my mind so all of me can go peacefully in one direction.

Category:

Healing

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