Ok, now you are probably going to think I’ve lost the plot. Twitter changed my life. Let me tell you how. AND I am going to attempt to tell this story in lines of 140 characters or less. It all started when I launched my book “The Garden of the Soul” in April 2009. After a year of mastering [...] […]
Presenting an exciting NEW concept on the Internet, combining coaching, learning, community and business-building in a creative, spirit-based environment… SPIRIT AUTHORS GRAND OPENING Register for free at: http://spiritauthors.com/pages/grand-opening.html Spirit Authors (www.spiritauthors.com) is an innovative new membership site where established, new and […]
SIDEBAR NOTE: If you haven’t yet gotten your copy of Allison Maslan’s Number-1 seller, check this page out before Friday 29 January: http://myblastoff.com/booklaunch to receive 20 free mind-body-spirit gifts when you buy the book, “Blast Off!”. This is a true story of how one small thing can change your life. Back in September 2009, a fellow named [...] […]
I have a HUGE appeal I want to make to all of you. As most of you know by now, amongst other things, I am a book promotion coach for spirit-based authors. For the past 5 months, I’ve been working with a VERY wonderful woman named Allison Maslan. Allison came to me wanting me to design [...] […]
TUESDAY UPDATE! Yesterday I told you all about the launch of the book Blast Off! by my good friend and client, and fellow Spirit Author, Allison Maslan. Well I am pleased to announce that her book came out early this morning and has already been dancing around the top 25 list in “Entrepreneurship” category all morning here [...] […]
Hi everyone! Happy Monday to you. I just HAD to put this blog post up today because tomorrow, Tuesday 19 January, is a day I’ve been looking forward to for the past 5 months. Tomorrow is the day that my very good friend and client, Allison Maslan, is launching her new self-help book Blast Off! The [...] […]
By guest blogger Allison Maslan Note from Lynn: The exciting launch of Allison’s new book, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality is coming THIS Tuesday, January 19. To find out how you can buy the book and receive more than 20 beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts during the launch, go to www.myblastoff.com/booklaunch. Are [...] […]
I can hardly believe that we are now into the second decade of the new millennium. It seems like only yesterday I was watching the fireworks over London (on TV) as we passed from the 20th century into the 21st. I don’t know about you, but I have a truly wonderful feeling about this [...] […]
It’s hard to believe that my radio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul is coming up to its 1st anniversary this month with episode 49. I wanted to celebrate the occasion in style, so I had in mind I wanted an extra special guest for that particular broadcast. I am delighted to tell you who [...] […]
Happy New Decade everyone. I am SO pleased to reveal the identity of some of the FANTASTIC guests I have lined up for the first few months of 2010 for Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul radio show on BlogTalkRadio. You’ll see some names that will really interest you, I know! The shows are not [...] […]
Many thanks to Simon Ireland-Davies of ID Coaching, Liverpool, who selected the number 65 for this week’s meditation. If you would like to help me write my upcoming book “The Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul” and possibly have your name listed in the acknowledgements of the book, and announced on my weekly radio broadcast, just select a number from 1-80 and post it in the comment thread below.
Meditation 65: Wisdom
from “Lessons from the Lily: the Principle of Being”
Wisdom is the natural energy that flows through us when we surrender our ego so we may establish our connection with the Divine. Wisdom does not come to us as the result of learning. It is not something can be increased by any type of effort. Wisdom is Eternal, Infinite and Absolute. It belongs to no one and to everyone, simultaneously and equally. When we imagine that we can capture Wisdom via our own efforts, we are operating from the platform of ego, wherein we imagine that there is a limited amount of Wisdom to be gained in the Universe, and that it can be controlled and conquered by our own efforts. If this were the case, then the Universe would be a merciless and poverty-stricken place, as only the strongest or most intellectually gifted would ever have access to Wisdom. But the Truth is the Universe is infinitely opulent and full of mercy. Wisdom is the birthright of all living entities, and no effort is required to manifest Wisdom other than to allow it to enter us, without ego blocking its way.
In The Garden of the Soul, the Lily is the bearer of Wisdom. She stands alone, allowing the light of the full Moon to bathe her with its illuminating rays, Without effort, she absorbs whatever Wisdom is shone upon her, and then creates a mesmerising diamond-like mandala of light and reflection around her so that others may be able to see and delight in what she knows intuitively. She does not block the rays via any kind of shade or cover. She allows all of them to shine upon her equally, without judgment or preference…
If you would like to read the rest of this article,
including the Enquiries for the week,
read the complete entry on my NEW blog at http://www.lynnserafinn.com.
AND while you are there, be sure to subscribe to that blog, as this blog will shortly be discontinued and moved to the new site.
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If you would like to find out how to master the four Principles of “Give, Receive, Become and Be” from my book The Garden of the Soul, as well as many other skills for personal transformation, join me and my colleague Vicki Goodyear on the Transformation Trilogy Weekend Workshop Series. Two new UK series starting 17 October (Bedford), and 7 November (Totnes, Devon). Click HERE for complete information and to book your place.
AND… if you think money is an issue, be sure you read about our innovative “Gratitude System” that, we hope, will enable everyone to attend.
See you there!
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn “Turning up the volume of the music in your heart!”
Many thanks to Evelyn Thomas of Lizard Life Coaching who selected the number 27 for this week’s meditation. If you would like to help me write my upcoming book “The Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul” and possibly have your name listed in the acknowledgements of the book, and announced on my weekly radio broadcast, just select a number from 1-80 and post it in the comment thread below.
Meditation 27: Poise from “Lessons from the Iris: the Principle of Receiving”
Poise is a state of being in which you move freely and effortlessly within your own energy.
We tend to think of Poise as a word used to describe the quality of someone who is physically graceful and calm. Many of us also believe Poise to be the ability to control our emotional expression. While these external symptoms might sometimes be indicators of Poise, there are not the key elements. In fact, they might even been a shield that is covering up a lack of genuine Poise. How many of us refrain from expressing our emotions because we have told ourselves that it is the more “poised” thing to do. But if such emotional restraint is coming from the desire to appear mature, professional or in control, it is unlikely to be genuine Poise. You can tell the difference between the two, because true Poise results in a feeling of ease, satisfaction and freedom, while false Poise results in a feeling of being stuck, frustrated or stifled…
If you would like to read the rest of this meditation, please click over to my NEW blog portal at http://www.lynnserafinn.com. If you haven’t yet subscribed to that blog, please do so, as this blog will be discontinued shortly (it will just be a regular website) and all my meditations and other blogs will be sent from the new portal.
AND…
If you would like to find out how to master the four Principles of “Give, Receive, Become and Be” from my book The Garden of the Soul, as well as many other skills for personal transformation, join me and my colleague Vicki Goodyear on the Transformation Trilogy Weekend Workshop Series.Two new UK series starting 17 October (Bedford), and 7 November (Totnes, Devon). Click HERE for complete information and to book your place.
AND… if you think money is an issue, be sure you read about our innovative “Gratitude System” that, we hope, will enable everyone to attend.
See you there!
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn “Turning up the volume of the music in your heart!”
Below is the first part of your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice for the week. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I am moving ALL these posts to my new blog at http://www.lynnserafnn.com. If you wish to continue to receive them, you will need to come over to that site and subscribe, as shortly this blog will be discontinued (I just had too many blogs!).
This week’s number was selected intuitively by my great Twitter friend Lisa Lauffer (aka @deepwaterscoach) of Colorado. Lisa is a Co-Active coach and she always sends me fabulous cheesy disco on Fridays on Twitter.
Lisa selected number 19, which is the number for the attribute of “Life Purpose”. In my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, Life Purpose is part of the section called “Lessons from the Rose”. The Rose teaches us “The Principle of Giving” which everything that emanates from within you, out into the world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 19: Life Purpose Life purpose is the active process of embracing, expressing and living our reason to exist. Many people imagine Life Purpose to be something that they discover by asking the age-old questions of “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” And while to some extent this is true, the term “Life Purpose” is meaningless until we consciously integrate our thoughts and feelings, and set them into action in our lives. If Life Purpose were merely a matter of receiving a message from some Divine source, it would mean we had a passive role to play with it, and it would not be an active process. We would probably fight against it, as we would perceive it as something that had come from outside of ourselves, and against which we were the powerless victims of fate. This is why it is important to remember that Life Purpose is an attribute of the Principle of Giving. It originates within the Self, and it can only manifest when we ourselves choose to send it into the world in an outward direction. At this moment we begin to live our lives “on purpose.”
Knowing this, we can finally cease our endless battle in life…
To read the rest of this meditation,
including your enquiries for the week, CLICK HERE
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This meditation came from my upcoming book The Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul,which is a practical guide to the lessons from the four flowers that appear in my bestselling book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self,. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, check it out on Amazon by clicking HERE.
NOTE: I am moving to a new blog at www.lynnserafinn.com, which is a web portal for all of my various website. The article below is NOT the complete meditation. To read the complete article, please go to www.lynnserafinn.com, and be sure to subscribe to that new blog so you receive all future meditations and other articles.
Meditation 77: Continuity Continuity is a sense of begininglessness and endlessness that comes from feeling connected to Existence itself. In the Divine sense, Continuity does not refer to the act of “sticking with things” for a long period of time. In fact, Continuity has nothing at all to do with “doing”; it is an attribute of Being. Nor does Continuity refer to a need for things to be changeless. Quite the opposite, Continuity is that state we reach where we are able to witness all of Creation as a great system of continual flow and change without beginning or end. Existence is both always the same, and always changing, simultaneously. When we witness this, and feel this at our core, we come to realise that Reality is comprised of a single experience of Divine Continuity, which has infinite possibilities of expression. These possibilities flow like the colours of a kaleidoscope as we turn the wheel around and around. As these patterns are ever-changing, we cannot say there is ever truly a specific pattern, as there is no way to “freeze” them in time. When we release the need to hold on to a particular pattern, we begin to step into the awestruck feeling of Divine Continuity, and come to enjoy every moment as it unfolds before us….
*If you wish to read the rest of this meditation (and there’s quite a lot more to read), come on over to my NEW blog at http://www.lynnserafinn.com. Over the next month, I will be gradually shifting ALL my blogging over there, so please subscribe to it to be sure you stay on top of all Garden of the Soul events.
Darlene Siddons, host of "Good Morning Inspiration"
Lynn Serafinn
Lynn Serafinn will be interviewed on the “Good Morning Inspiration Show” with host Darlene Siddons on BlogTalkRadio.
Date: 22 July 2009
Time: 19:00 UK time (2pm Eastern)
Episode title: “Turning Up the Volume of the Music in Your Heart!” Link to show: Click here
Description: Lynn Serafinn is a Personal Transformation Coach, bestselling author, teacher, motivational speaker, talk radio show host and community leader whose passion in life is to help people find and express their authentic voice. Her debut book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self is a transformational journey towards finding her own voice, and is an Amazon bestseller in both the UK and the US in spirituality, mind-body-spirit and self-help. Owing to her long and diverse professional history in the music industry– from symphony violinist, to opera singer, to east-west fusion artist, to a number-1 electronic dance artist in the 90’s– Lynn’s writing is lyrical, rhythmic, colourful, highly visual and undeniably metaphoric. Lynn is also the Founder/Leader of the Global Wellness Circle, a thriving community-based holistic education project spread throughout the United Kingdom, and host of the weekly radio show \”Lynn Serafinn\’s Garden of the Soul\” on Blog Talk Radio. On today\’s show, Lynn will share a bit about the creative processes used in writing the book, the key teachings of the book and how they can help us create happier lives, how looking at our own life stories can help us unlock our life purpose, find our inner hero, and find relief from emotional pain. She will also share a few excerpts from the book, read in her uniquely inspirational style.
Start Time: 19:00 UK time Date: 2009-07-22 End Time: 20:00 UK time
Here is your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice for the week. This week’s number was selected intuitively by Co-Active Coach Jude Jennison, CPCC. I read Jude’s selected meditation LAST Wednesday on my weekly broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on Blog Talk Radio. You can listen on demand at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. (While you’re there, mark the show as your favourite!)
Number 45 is the number for the attribute of “Growth”, which comes from the section my book “The Garden of the Soul” called “Lessons from the Daffodils”. The Daffodils teach us “The Principle of Becoming” which is all about youth, rebirth, discovery, evolution and creativity… and of course the process of growth. Let this one take root. It’s a subtle one.
And be sure to tune into next Wednesday’s show to find out what next week’s number is. AND if you’d like to help me write my book, and get a chance at having your name announced on the radio and in my next book, don’t forget to send me your intuitive number for next week’s meditation.
The Daffodil
Day 45: Growth Growth is our willingness to expand beyond our boundaries and move into a different space. I say “willingness” because, while the natural tendency of all life is growth and expansion, true Growth can only take place via a combination of consciousness, will and intention. For instance, if you stop tending to your garden for only a few weeks, you will quickly see the life-forms spread out in every direction and create chaos, as conflicting intentions compete for space. A garden that gets choked with weeds, or a body that becomes riddled with cancer, are both signs that our consciousness and intention are competing rather than working with the principle of Divine Growth.
The Daffodils in The Garden of the Soul are teachers of this balance between consciousness, will and intention. As spring approaches, they become conscious of the changes in the time and space around them, and the, at precisely the right moment, willingly and freely expand beyond the boundaries of their underworld as they burst into the chilly late winter air. Rarely do you see a lone Daffodil. Rather, they spread like a bright yellow sea throughout the countryside, taking all the space they want, with the sole intention of announcing “Spring has come!” In doing this, they begin the cycle of Divine Growth.
Similarly, when we set our consciousness upon an intention of bringing about powerful change, whether for ourselves or the rest of the world, we begin to tap into our own natural potential for Divine Growth. To do this, we must, like the Daffodils, settle our consciousness into the “underworld” of a quiet mind. Then, as our consciousness becomes full, we must hold the enquiry, “What is needed now, at this point in time and space?” When our consciousness hears the answer to this question, we will then feel the will arising to act upon it. At this point, it becomes our choice to allow that will to flow or not. If intention is not there, then we are apt not to answer the call. If intention drives our choice, then we are more likely.
Without Divine Intentions, our decisions are likely to take on the qualities of the overgrown garden. When we set our Divine Intention by asking, “What is needed now, at this point in time and space?” we connect to the purpose of our actions, and become able to set our Divine intentions and initiate the process of Divine Growth.
Symptoms of when it is blocked or distorted Inertia, routine, narrow-mindedness, resistant to new things, directionlessness, falling back on habits, dull spirit, decay
Symptoms of when it is flowing Open-mindedness, willingness, full of intention, vision, faith, productivity, expansiveness, exuberance, evolving spirit
Enquiries to cultivate this attribute
What is needed now, for me and for the rest of the world, at this point in time and space?
What will grow if this need is filled?
What will grow if it is not filled?
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I hope you liked this week’s Garden of the Soul Weekly Meditation. Read below to find you how you can help me write my next book, have your name mentioned on the radio, and have a chance to be mentioned in the book, under my acknowledgements.
ABOUT THIS COLLABORATIVE BOOK PROJECT…
I am writing a “Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul: 80 Daily/Weekly Practices to Allow Your Spirit to Blossom”. The book has 80 Daily (or Weekly) meditations to help to cultivate the spiritual attributes of the four flowers in the book. All 80 attributes are already “assigned” a number, but the entries for them have not necessarily been written yet.
YOU CAN HELP ME WRITE MY BOOK!
Every Wednesday through Sunday, just send me a number from 1 – 80 that you pick intuitively.
I will put all the numbers into a “hat” and chose one at random.
I will publish the correlating “meditation” for that number on the following Friday.
AND… if you number is selected, I will also read your name and your intuitively chosen meditation ON THE AIR on my weekly broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. Now that our show is 1 hour long, I have plenty of time for this. It’s just so much fun.
AND…I will also mention every person whose number was selected in the “acknowledgements” section of my book when it is published!
HOW DO YOU SEND ME YOUR NUMBER? You can SEND me your number by:
HERE’S THE BEAUTY OF IT…
If you send me a numbers for which I haven’t written the entries yet, I’ll write them as you send them. In other words, if 10 of you send me 10 new numbers, then I will write 10 new entries, but I will only post only one per week. That way, you will help me write my book, and you will receive a free meditation every week.
SO FAR THE WEEKLY MEDITATIONS I HAVE SENT TO YOU HAVE BEEN:
Day 75: Self-Awareness, selected by Kristina Berglund
Day 11: Boldness, selected by Kate Parker
Day 13: Vitality, selected by Callie Carling
Day 48: Discovery, selected by Geoff Laughton
Day 54: Rebirth, selected by Cindy Papale
Day 45: Growth, selected by Jude Jennison
Day ??? Coming next week! What does YOUR intuition tell you?
I look forward to receiving your intuitive number this week.
Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World (Part 3)
by Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC Personal Transformation Coach and bestselling author
For Part 1: view post dated 7 July 2009
For Part 2: view post dated 8 July 2009
The impact our beliefs have upon us When we are convinced that something “is” true, it stands to reason that we will not bother to look at it a different way. So at the core of this feeling of powerlessness is the belief that something simply “is” and we are not at choice with it.
But the minute we are willing to try to see the same situation from a different angle, we have stepped out of the role of being the victim, and become one step closer to our Authentic Self. For instance, if someone has the habitual tendency to criticise you, you might have developed a belief around the fact that you are trapped in this situation and cannot escape it. At the core of this belief might be a deeper belief that you are weak and powerless, or that you actually are all the horrible things that the person is saying you are. Standing in these beliefs, you already believe yourself to be weak, flawed and vulnerable, and your reactions will be dictated by these beliefs. Because you feel so vulnerable, you might react by counter-attacking their criticisms. Or, if you are feeling very flawed and weak, you might simply “stuff” your feelings so as not to get into an argument, only to feel upset or irritable about it later. You might even believe that what they are saying is true, and beat yourself up about it rather than get into a conflict with them.
This is classic “passive-aggressive” behaviour. In either case, whether passive or aggressive, you have still allowed their criticisms to affect you emotionally, and to enter your mental and physical world. In the long term, this can cause stress and even disease. In some extreme scenarios (such as abuse or incessant bullying) it might be necessary to take yourself physically out of the situation as a first step, but until you learn how to realign and rebalance yourself from such energies in the outside world, you will simply continue to swing back and forth in a passive-aggressive pattern, without being truly free of its effects.
Learning to realign Learning to realign is a matter of developing the ability to step into different perspectives where you are not “taking on” the energy of that critical person, and you do not feel the need to expend any of your own energy towards it, whether physical, mental or emotional. When you begin this process of realignment, you start to see that person as someone who is simply trapped in their own sense of powerlessness, and their criticisms lose their energy. When you do not take on that undesired energy, and you do not expend any of your own energy to reflect it, you remain equipoised, balanced and stress-free. And when the body and mind are not under stress, it means you are not only healthier and happier, but you are also more able to be creative and find more solutions to the challenges in your life. So while it is true that you cannot change the person’s behaviour, their behaviour no longer has a negative impact on you, and you find that you are more able to create the outcome you truly desire for yourself…
To be continued.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive complete article.
Coming up in Part 4:
“The Role of Coaching in this Process” and
“Stepping into Your Life Purpose”
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Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
For more information about Lynn and her work, visit:
Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World (Part 2)
by Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC Personal Transformation Coach and bestselling author
(if you missed Part 1, view post dated 7 July 2009)
The stories we tell ourselves In my work, I have discovered that many people would indeed change, even at the age of 50 or even older, if they believed they had the power, choice and courage to do so. I hear them say things like, “Ok, all that sounds really good, but I can’t change my life. I have a family, job, etc. It would be SELFISH for me to change. My world would fall apart. I would let everyone else down. It would be irresponsible of me. I cannot change my life. Isn’t it the mature and dignified thing to simply accept what we cannot change?”
Well here’s something that might come as a shock to you—if you are not living the life that the world had in mind for you when you came into this world, and you are currently suffering as a result, it is actually selfish of you NOT to transform yourself, and step into the person you were always meant to be. Why? Because you are not on the outside of the world looking in, or the inside of your own little world looking out. You are an integral part of this greater world called the Universe. You are like a facet in a very intricate diamond. If I take out your facet, the entire system loses a bit of its lustre. When you are not living the life the Universe deeply desires you to live, you not only get caught in an endless karmic swirl of frustration and personal dissatisfaction, but you also cause the Universe to weep for that person it knows you are, and for the impact it wants you to create in the greater world.
“Whoa there—impact?” you may ask. “Who me? You say I am supposed to create an impact? People like me don’t create an impact on the world.”
Well, here’s the news:
You are exactly the same kind of person as those you consider to be great heroes
Everything you do already creates an impact, whether you are aware of it or not
Why we stay stuck I believe that the reason why so many of us stay stuck in lives that do not fulfil us is because we believe we are powerless. I believe that this feeling arises from a basic lack of connection to Self and the rest of the world. When we feel disconnected from Self and other, our energies are driven downwards—mentally, physically and emotionally—and we become less able to see and feel our impact, even though we are indeed creating one. We begin to feel isolated and insignificant, and these feelings can lead us to believe we are very small and therefore have no impact upon the world. And sadly, when we believe ourselves to be these things, the world (and the life) we create for ourselves only reinforces these beliefs again and again.
Seeing so much “evidence” around us confirming (or so we believe) that we are small and insignificant, we develop the underlying belief that life is “happening to us” and all of this is simply beyond our control. As soon as we adopt this belief system, where we hold ourselves to be powerless, we have stepped into the role of the victim. Playing the role of the victim is a very subtle thing. Many of us may not realise we are doing it, and would argue that it is not true. Many of us might say, “You’re wrong. I’m not playing the victim. It’s just that the economy really is bad right now” or “It’s just that my parent/partner is always so critical of me” or “It’s just the way my life is right now” or “It’s just that my body is prone to such-and-such illness.” As soon as such “is” statements become our truths, we take on the role of the victim because we are saying that we are simply powerless against the forces around us. And in some distorted way, this because a very satisfying place to be for many people (I used to be like this myself) because it allows us to blame another person, entity or circumstance for our troubles, thus making us feel less critical of ourselves. But deep down, we are simply spinning in a vortex of powerlessness that we ourselves have chosen…
To be continued.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive complete article.
Coming up in Part 3:
“The Impact Our Beliefs Have Upon Us” and
“Learning to Realign”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
For more information about Lynn and her work, visit:
Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World (Part 1)
by Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC Personal Transformation Coach and bestselling author
Like so many other coaches I know, when I first started my coaching practice, I was going through many changes in my life. Moving to a new country, major illness/surgery, my father’s death, menopause, divorce from a 22-year abusive marriage, recovery from post-traumatic stress, leaving my decades-old religious and social circles, doing a Masters degree and a full teaching qualification, feeling the pangs of “empty nest” when my daughter started her adult life, moving to a new town with nothing but a computer and a suitcase of clothes, living completely on my own for the first time since my 20s, becoming a grandmother, changing jobs three times while climbing the corporate ladder in the educational sector, “making it” by becoming a director of a college department with a good salary and even better prestige, and then suddenly dropping everything to change my career completely to start my own coaching practice (and all the training that goes along with it) had all come within an unbelievably short time period of only 7 years. Furthermore, by the end of those 7 years, I was already in my early 50s. Who in their right mind would start their lives over from scratch at such an age and after going through all that change already?
So, was I in my right mind?
Well, since making the decision to embark on my own journey of personal transformation:
A long list of long-term physical illnesses have vanished from my life
I look and feel 10 years younger than I did 10 years ago
I won a business award for my coaching
I started an organisation called the Global Wellness Circle that is transforming the holistic community in central England
I became a talk radio host and frequent media guest
I have been a keynote speaker at such events as International Women’s Day
AND I wrote and self-published an Amazon bestselling book called The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self
Furthermore, I have coached and mentored hundreds of people through the process of their own personal transformation.
But regardless of all those wonderful things, for which I am truly grateful, the most significant thing of all is that I can honestly say I am truly, deeply happy and fulfilled, and that I know my life has meaning and purpose.
Fleeting versus Ultimate Happiness A sense of purpose is the most important element in finding deep, core happiness. “Every day happiness” can come to us in many guises. We are happy when we fall in love, have children, are accepted for great new job, complete a course of study, or win a competition. But all of these things are what I call “fleeting happiness” because they are dependent upon time and circumstance. What happens when circumstances change? Where is happiness then?
Ultimate happiness—or joy—can really only come when we are connected to a sense of purpose. You might call it “Divine Purpose” (or at least I do). I firmly believe that every human being is born with an innate purpose to fulfil in this world, and that unless and until we hear the call of that purpose—and answer it—we will continue to spin around in life, trying to get as much “fleeting happiness” as we can find. But the problem with this is that as soon as the “fleeting happiness” runs its course, we will simply look for our next “hit”, because we don’t necessarily have the deep core happiness and joy that comes from living a life “on purpose.”
To be continued.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive complete article.
Coming up in Part 2:
“The Stories We Tell Ourselves” and
“Why We Stay Stuck”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
For more information about Lynn and her work, visit:
Date: Friday 7 August 2009 Start Time: 7.30 PM (doors open at 7pm) Location: Life and Soul Academy, Boxmoor Hall, St Johns Road, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP1 1JR Tickets:http://tinyurl.com/gots-7aug09
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
A one-woman show!
An unforgettable multi-media performance combining storytelling, music, poetry, performance, inspiration and life lessons. Presented by Lynn Serafinn, award-winning Personal Transformation Coach, teacher, musician, public speaker, radio host and Amazon bestselling author of The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self.
“As spiritual as Deepak Chopra and as magical as Paulo Coelho.” Lina Nahhas, 1-Urban Humanity
Tickets: £10 at the door; £8 in advance.
Special offer through Friday 17 July ONLY: Get your ticket PLUS a signed copy of the book for only £20 (a 50% savings on cost of entry).
Hi there Garden of the Soul friends,
Here is your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice for the week. This week’s number was selected intuitively by the warm and wonderful Geoff Laughton (Twitter @GeoffLaughton) of Colorado. Some of you may remember Geoff as he was one of my past guests on my radio show on an episode called “Growing up in Your Relationships” back on 4 March 2009.
I read part of this week’s meditation earlier tonight (Wednesday) on my weekly broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on Blog Talk Radio. You can listen on demand at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. (While you’re there, check the March archives to hear Geoff’s show … it was a good one).
Number 48 is the number for the attribute of “Discovery”, which comes from the section my book “The Garden of the Soul” called “Lessons from the Daffodils”. The Daffodils teach us “The Principle of Becoming” which is all about youth, growth, rebirth and creativity. That’s why it’s so cool that Geoff picked this particular number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 48: Discovery Discovery is our willingness to explore places, both outwardly and inwardly, which we have not encountered before, or to delve more deeply into ones we already think we know. The great discoverer Christopher Columbus had no idea what he would find when he sailed westwards across the great Atlantic, or even if he would survive the journey. Similarly, genuine Discovery is when we step into our fear of the unknown for the sake of the thrill of Discovery itself, rather than being attached to the result of what we might find.
The Daffodil
The Daffodils in The Garden of the Soul teach us that no Discovery can take place until we fully embrace whatever shows up in our lives and hold it as an essential part of our journey. Until we do this, we will continually reject the gift of Discovery. True Discovery comes when we step fully into absolute Trust, and are willing to let go of control. After sailing across the stormy seas of our daily lives, we come to the ultimate Divine Discovery when we meet with the essence of who we are, and discover the Source of that essence.
Symptoms of when it is blocked or distorted Fear; stubbornness; overt cautiousness; lack-lustre life; feeling stuck; seeing no options; feeling you “missed the boat”
Symptoms of when it is flowing Thrill; eager anticipation; flexibility; trust; curiosity; highly observant; fascination; willing to go on; able to be with fear
Enquiries to cultivate this attribute
What am I not trusting that is holding me back in life?
What might I discover when I learn to trust?
What will I discover when I meet my Divine essence?
Practical exercise to cultivate this attribut Imagine the most distant galaxy in the Universe. Now imagine you are boarding a spaceship going to that galaxy. Once the ship takes off, there will be no turning back. The journey is so long, it is almost assured you will never return to Earth. What are you feeling as you are sitting in the cockpit before take-off? As the ship leaves Earth’s orbit? As you approach the unknown galaxy? What do you most want to discover?
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I hope you liked this week’s Garden of the Soul Weekly Meditation. Read below to find you how you can help me write my next book, have your name mentioned on the radio, and have a chance to be mentioned in the book, under my acknowledgements.
HOW TO HELP ME WRITE MY NEXT BOOK…
I am writing a “Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul: 80 Daily/Weekly Practices to Allow Your Spirit to Blossom”. The book has 80 Daily (or Weekly) meditations to help to cultivate the spiritual attributes of the four flowers in the book. All 80 attributes are already “assigned” a number, but the entries for them have not necessarily been written yet.
YOU CAN HELP ME WRITE MY BOOK!
Every Wednesday through Sunday, just send me a number from 1 – 80 that you pick intuitively.
I will put all the numbers into a “hat” and chose one at random.
I will publish the correlating “meditation” for that number on the following Friday.
AND… if you number is selected, I will also read your name and your intuitively chosen meditation ON THE AIR on my weekly broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. Now that our show is 1 hour long, I have plenty of time for this. It’s just so much fun.
AND…I will also mention every person whose number was selected in the “acknowledgements” section of my book when it is published!
HOW DO YOU SEND ME YOUR NUMBER?
You can send me your number by:
HERE’S THE BEAUTY OF IT…
If you send me a numbers for which I haven’t written the entries yet, I’ll write them as you send them. In other words, if 10 of you send me 10 new numbers, then I will write 10 new entries, but I will only post only one per week. That way, you will help me write my book, and you will receive a free meditation every week.
SO FAR THE WEEKLY MEDITATIONS I HAVE SENT TO YOU HAVE BEEN:
Day 75: Self-Awareness, selected by Kristina Berglund
Day 11: Boldness, selected by Kate Parker
Day 13: Vitality, selected by Callie Carling
Day 48: Discovery, selected by Geoff Laughton
Day ??? Coming next week! What does YOUR intuition tell you?
I look forward to receiving your intuitive number this week.
Hi there Garden of the Soul friends,
Here is your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice for the week. This week’s number was selected intuitively by our lovely Callie Carling of London. She sent the number 13. Callie says, “13 is unlucky for some, but not for me.” I selected this number at random from about 10 numbers I received this week.
I read part of this week’s meditation earlier this week on my Wednesday broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on Blog Talk Radio. You can listen on demand at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
Lucky number 13 is in the number for the attribute of “Vitality” that (once again) appears in section on “The Rose: The Principle of Giving.”
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Day 13: Vitality
The Rose: The Principle of Giving
Vitality is that inner quality that generates Life. Vitality is one of the easiest and most direct indicators of our connection to Divine Source. It’s easy: if we expend great amounts of energy and feel drained, we know we are not in alignment with Source. When we feel full of life, and feel unstoppable as we progress towards our dreams, we can be confident we are in alignment with Source. When we are in alignment, we become agents of Divine Vitality, wherein lie unlimited creative possibilities.
In The Garden of the Soul the Rose is the sweet embodiment of Divine Vitality. Her vibrant colour, her unrelenting scent, her prickly thorns, her full blossoms that burst with life so full that they make the rose bush bend under their weight, give us a model of Vitality that speaks directly to the heart. And herein lies the key. Vitality means Divine vibrancy, not merely physical health. And while it is always essential to care for the body, true Vitality comes when all parts of the Self are connected and in flow.
Symptoms of when it is blocked or distorted Lethargy, frustration, headaches, exhaustion, irritability, apathy, boredom, sleeplessness, aches, pains, chronic disease
Symptoms of when it is flowing Enthusiasm, bubbly personality, glowing health, sparkling eyes, unstoppable, fun loving, ready to go, radiant inside and out
Enquiries to cultivate this attribute
Where in my life do I feel the most lethargic and apathetic?
Where in my life do I feel the most enthusiastic and radiant?
What things would be wonderful to add into my life that would give my heart a real surge of Vitality?
Practical exercise to cultivate this attribute Think back to a time in your life when you felt radiant, vibrant and glowing from the inside out. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing? Reflect upon all the elements of that scene that made it wonderful, and write down one key word or metaphor that reminds you of each of these elements. Read these key words aloud every morning, and set the intention to find one small thing in the world that day that can bring you the essence of that same feeling of Divine Vitality.
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I hope you liked this week’s Garden of the Soul Weekly Meditation. Read below to find you how you can help me write my next book, have your name mentioned on the radio, and have a chance to be mentioned in the book, under my acknowledgements.
HOW TO HELP ME WRITE MY NEXT BOOK…
I am writing a “Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul: 80 Daily/Weekly Practices to Allow Your Spirit to Blossom”. The book has 80 Daily (or Weekly) meditations to help to cultivate the spiritual attributes of the four flowers in the book. All 80 attributes are already “assigned” a number, but the entries for them have not necessarily been written yet.
YOU CAN HELP ME WRITE MY BOOK!
Every Wednesday through Sunday, just send me a number from 1 – 80 that you pick intuitively.
I will put all the numbers into a “hat” and chose one at random.
I will publish the correlating “meditation” for that number on the following Friday.
AND… if you number is selected, I will also read your name and your intuitively chosen meditation ON THE AIR on my weekly broadcast of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. Now that our show is 1 hour long, I have plenty of time for this. It’s just so much fun.
AND…I will also mention every person whose number was selected in the “acknowledgements” section of my book when it is published!
HOW DO YOU SEND ME YOUR NUMBER?
You can send me your number by:
HERE’S THE BEAUTY OF IT…
If you send me a numbers for which I haven’t written the entries yet, I’ll write them as you send them. In other words, if 10 of you send me 10 new numbers, then I will write 10 new entries, but I will only post only one per week. That way, you will help me write my book, and you will receive a free meditation every week.
SO FAR THE WEEKLY MEDITATIONS I HAVE SENT TO YOU HAVE BEEN:
Day 75: Self-Awareness, selected by Kristina Berglund
Day 11: Boldness, selected by Kate Parker
Day 13: Vitality, selected by Callie Carling
???? Coming next week! What does YOUR intuition tell you?
I look forward to receiving your intuitive number this week.
Have you ever wanted to write a book or see your name in print? Well, here’s an easy way for you to help ME write my next book, and have your name appear in my acknowledgments…
All you have to do is pick a number from 1 – 80!
I am writing a “Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul” that has 80 Daily/Weekly meditations to help to cultivate the spiritual attributes of the four flowers in the book. You can help me write my book! Just send me a number from 1 – 80 that you pick intuitively.
I will draw one number at random to appear in next week’s meditation, which I will publish on Friday here on the blog. If you send me a number for which I haven’t written the entries yet, I’ll WILL write it if you send it to me. In other words, if 10 of you send me 10 new numbers, then I will write 10 new entries, but I will only post ONE of the ones I receive per week. That way, you will help me write my book, and you will receive a free meditation every week. AND I will also mention every person whose number was selected in the “acknowledgements” section of my book when it is published. Sound like fun?
To “play” all you need to do is:
Subscribe to this blog
Post a comment to this post below with your “intuitive” number (so everyone has a chance to play, comments will go “live” after I announce the winner for the week)
Watch every Friday for a brand new weekly meditation
By the way, I started this “game” on my Facebook group last week, so I do have one meditation already done for you, which I’ll put in my next post later today.
An Evening in the Garden of the Soul Location: Putnoe Library, Library Walk, Putnoe Street, Bedford, MK41 8HQ Date: Thurs 25 June Time: 7pm – 9pm FREE entry (but please reserve your tickets in advance; see below) Click HERE for event flyer: http://www.give-receive-become-be.com/pdfs/Putnoe-Library-Flyer.pdf
Description: Get up close and personal with Lynn Serafinn Bedford Bestselling Author of “The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self”
BOOK: The Garden of the Soul by Lynn Serafinn
Title:
Author, Coach, Lynn Serafinn
At this very special and transformative event, Lynn will share:
Her creative processes used in writing the book
The key teachings of the book and how they can help us create happier lives
How looking at our own life stories can help us unlock our life purpose, find our inner hero, and find relief from emotional pain
A few excerpts from the book, read in Lynn’suniquely inspirational style.
* Light refreshments served *
* signed copies available for purchase *
* Free admission, but tickets must be reserved in advance *
Pick up your free ticket during opening hours at the Putnoe Library
OR request one from Coral Clarke by calling 01234 276 462
OR via email at Coral.Clarke@bedford.gov.uk
Start Time: 19:00 Date: 2009-06-25 End Time: 21:00
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul EP20-Feeling is Healing GUEST: Steve Ryals DATE AIRED:Wednesday 3 June 2009
Every now and then, you meet a person whose every thought, word and way of looking at things just seems to shine back to you like a mirror. My guest on my last episode of “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” was one of those rare mirrors, whose clarity of heart was so evident that we were able to connect within seconds of first speaking together. That person was Mr Steve Ryals, a licensed spiritual coach and “Feelings Coach,” and author of the transformative book Drunk with Wonder: Awakening to the God Within.
Steve’s book kicks off with a bang. The opening words of the first sentence hurtle us directly into a graphic scene in which he describes one of his many experiences shooting speed in Haight Ashbury in the 1960s. From that scene, we travel along with Steve down the rabbit hole of bereavement, depression, alcoholism and dissociation. But Steve shows us this descent only for the sake of contrast, for his book is far from a nostalgic ode to the Summer of Love. It is, rather, a collection of spiritual dialogues between Steve and his Higher Self.
Which brings us to explore the reasons why this book is described as “‘Where What the Bleep Do we Know?’ meets ‘Conversations with God’”.
First, let’s talk about “Conversations.” Dialogue as a literary vehicle is as old as philosophical thought itself. While so many of our modern philosophical works are presented in the form of scholarly theses, the Greeks, the ancient Indian Vedas and countless other oral traditions of the past utilised dialogues (and metaphoric stories) to present and explain complex spiritual concepts. Following in the tradition of these ancient texts, Steve Ryals, in Drunk with Wonder, allows his “Higher Self” to engage in an ongoing debate with his “lower self”, who asks many of the same kinds of questions we might also ask during the process of our own spiritual evolution.Such a dialogue enables Steve to speak eye-to-eye to the reader, rather than positioning himself “above” the reader as some kind of expert. In this way, the reader travels along with Steve as his two “selves” hash out finer details of the meaning of life. In travelling along with Steve on the journey, he becomes our ally in our own transformation.
If any of you have read my book, The Garden of the Soul, you will no doubt remember that I also use dialogue in my discourses with the Four Flowers, the Very Good King, and also in my escapades with Crow in the story “Learning to Breathe.” I did this because I strongly feel that carefully constructed dialogue is possibly one of the most effective means of presenting a deep, spiritual message. Steve’s use of dialogue is slightly different, although the impact is similar. When I read Drunk with Wonder, the dialogue reminded me a bit of how Boethius wrote the classic work The Consolation of Philosophy way back in the 6th or 7th century. In that work, a reluctant and depressed Boethius is visited by the personification of Philosophy, who brings him to a state of Divine Wisdom through the vehicle of dialogue. Steve does much the same in Drunk with Wonder except that his teachings come from our 21st century perspective, where quantum physics, field theory and holistic thinking have informed our way of explaining the nature of Truth.
Which brings us nicely to the whole “What the Bleep Do We Know?” thing. Back in the days when I was studying Vedic (ancient Indian) spirituality, I used to chant a lot of Sanskrit mantras. The Sanskrit word “Sat” appeared in many of them. Most books translated the word “Sat” as “eternity”, but I always felt that this did not give the true purport of the word, so I made up the word “is-ness” to explain what I felt the word “Sat” to mean. I remember my daughter, when she was little, always used to comment on how much she liked that word, because it was easy to understand the complex meaning of the word “Sat” by thinking of it in that way. Well, as I was reading Drunk with Wonder, to my great surprise and delight Steve also uses the word “is-ness” to describe our intrinsic and unchanging state of being. This made-up word speaks to us at a direct and intuitive level that bypasses the intellect and eradicates the need for logic…which I sort of think is at the backbone of Steve’s Truth. When we start to trust and release the need to understand the Infinite by means of our own finite thought, we start to step into the Divine.
Ok, so I’ve tried to explain a little bit about the style in which Steve’s book in written, but in this blog post I am not going to give away what the profound, yet easy to understand, teachings of the book contain. For that, you will just have to pick up your own copy of Drunk with Wonder and travel with Steve through his journeys with his Higher Self. But first, if you want to get a feeling for how, well, feelingly Steve presents his pathway to the Truth, check out his beautiful reading of one of the poems from the book near the end of the podcast. To my delight, he said that there is indeed an audio version of the book available via iTunes (see link below).
Steve and I did quite a lot of talking both before and after the show, and I felt like we had so much more we wanted to share. He is a lovely person, with a lot of passion for his work and for people in general, so he really is (as I said at the top of this article) just so easy to talk to. We both felt there simply wasn’t enough time on the air to cover everything we wanted to discuss. The whole experience has really got me thinking to extend the show to 60 minutes in length. My guests just keep getting better and better and 30 minutes is just not long enough.
Guess I’ll just have to invite Steve back some day.
AND… watch this space, because I’d actually like to collaborate with Steve to create some sort of intercontinental spiritual awakening experience sometime in early 2010. I’ll keep you posted.
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If you want to find out more about Steve and his work, listen to the podcast below. And after you do, be sure to visit Steve’s websites, and check out his book on Amazon.
NEXT ON
Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the SoulWednesday 10 June
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Ep21-Integrating Spirit and Human
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts life empowerment facilitator, transformational life coach and talk radio show host, Joe Rumbolo. Joe will share his story of how he overcame the challenges of his own lack of confidence, and learned how to recognise and step into opportunities he would never have dreamed of in the past. He will tell us about his experiences with creative channelling and his thoughts on conscious evolution, and will draw upon the material from his workshops to offer us tips on how to “dump the junk” that holds us back, so we can move towards the ascension of our own higher consciousness
About the show, “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” Weekly broadcast exploring personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being. Hosted by Lynn Serafinn, Personal Transformation Coach and author living in Bedford England dedicated to awakening the authentic voice in all people. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, and the Founder/Leader of The Global Wellness Circle, a holistic community project that is rapidly spreading throughout the UK.
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul EP19-The Art of Joyful Living GUEST: Ruth Hegarty DATE AIRED:Wednesday 27 May 2009
Ruth Hegarty, LOA Coach
When I first spoke to Ruth Hegarty on the phone, she felt to me like a ball of bright, fluffy, yellow sunshine wafting through the ether. She was just so upbeat and approachable. But then again, that is what Ruth is all about as a Certified Law of Attraction (LOA) Coach. In my observation, many people have the impression that the Law of Attraction is intended as means of attaining monetary “success”. And while that may or may not be a part of how LOA might manifest in your unique life story, what LOA is really about is attracting that which makes us truly and “outrageously” happy (as Ruth says it). Small wonder that she calls her own radio show, and her whole approach to life, “The Art of Joyful Living.”
Ruth said that she finds LOA not only appealing, but also practical, joyful and empowering. She says that LOA offers us the means to enjoy the moment and have a joyful life at all stages of our journey without putting our life on hold (which she calls “an abysmal scarcity model”).
At a practical level, Ruth gave us three essential parts to the Law of Attraction that crystallise its essence:
The Law of Like Attracts Like
The Law of Deliberate Creation
The Law of Allowing
In explaining “like attracts like,” Ruth gave as an example that if we are unhappy about our lives, and we focus on it, we will only attract more unhappiness.
She said, however, that many people try positive thinking and then come to the conclusion that LOA doesn’t work, because they do not progress onwards to “deliberate creation”. After that, she said, people may still sabotage the deliberate creation because they don’t “allow” things to happen. She gave examples of we do this at a subtle level in the live show (listen to audio below).
With regards to “deliberate creation”, Ruth described how journaling and vision work help us to open up and become more creative. The more we picture the dream, she said, the more it will manifest. She said it is not the “how” that will bring about creation, but rather just the “what” and the “why.”
Being a coach who coaches creative process, I can attest to the fact that when people get too much into the “how” of things, it can shut down the creative process completely. They start to get overwhelmed by the enormity of it. The only thing that is essential for the creative process is to see what it is you want to create, and why you want to create it. “How” is a demotivator, whereas “what” and “why” are motivators. Even if you do not believe in LOA, surely from an intellectual platform you can see the logic of this simple law of creative process.
Ruth also told us about her new Law of Attraction Starter Kit, which has just come out yesterday (Friday 29 May). She said it is an easy and fun to use Law of Attraction home-study program with a focus on practical exercises that show you how to “do” Law of Attraction. She has assembled 10 ways to put LOA into action into your life. The kit includes an audio program with full transcripts.
Plus, you will receive over $2,500.00 worth of fun and powerful bonus programs and products absolutely F*REE when you purchase theLaw of Attraction Starter Kit during the launch anytime between now and Friday 5 June.
Ruth says that these F*REE bonuses are being supplied by some of the top people in the Law of Attraction, personal development and self-image fields and can’t be obtained together like this anywhere else.
Guess who one of those “top people” is? ME of course!
Everyone who buys Ruth’s book can download the first 6 chapters of my upcoming eBook “The Path of Least Resistance to the Self” in both text and audio format. In those chapters, I talk about the importance of understanding what alignment it, how to know when you are in alignment, how you sway from it, and how to return to it.
Perhaps one of the most generous gifts is Eva Gregory’s 12-week e-course “Wake up to the Dream”, which is valued at almost $700. And apart from Eva’s and mine, there are 11 other bonuses available when you buy Ruth’s Law of Attraction Starter Kit.
But the thing I was most amazed to hear (and you can hear my genuine surprise when I am on the air) was the price of the LOA Starter Kit when I asked Ruth how much it cost. It’s only $47!Well, at least during the launch that’s the price (after that, it goes up to $97). Gosh, in the UK, that’s less than £30. I can’t thing of any other 6-week course you can find for that price. What to speak of the fact that the course includes audio, transcripts, workbook, resource list and direct access to Ruth via email.
And…
Ruth just wrote me an email telling me that, to celebrate the launch of this brand new product, the first 25 people who purchase it will receive a private 1-to-1 coaching session with her!
That’s pretty generous, don’t you think? Ruth definitely does NOT suffer from “scarcity mentality”. To me, what makes Ruth a genuine LOA practitioner is that she really walks what she talks.
Wednesday 3 June
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Ep20-Feeling is Healing
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Author, licensed spiritual coach and “Feelings Coach”, Steve Ryals. Steve will be sharing his story of his journey from being a down and out drug addict in Haight Ashbury to an alcoholic to someone who now helps others to get in touch with their feelings, let go of their “old stories”, and reconnect to their passions so they can finally live the life of their dreams. Steve is also author of the powerfully transformative book “Drunk with Wonder”, which is described as “Where What the Bleep do we know meets Conversations with God.” Steve will also share an excerpt or two from his book on the air, and give us some practical tips for developing our Higher Self.
About the show, “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” Weekly broadcast exploring personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being. Hosted by Lynn Serafinn, Personal Transformation Coach and author living in Bedford England dedicated to awakening the authentic voice in all people. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, and the Founder/Leader of The Global Wellness Circle, a holistic community project that is rapidly spreading throughout the UK.
GUEST: Sheila Finkelstein DATE AIRED:Wednesday 20 May 2009
I met the charming and fascinating photographer Sheila Finkelstein via social networking earlier this year, when she offered to be a joint venture partner for my book launch campaign. Like all the other joint venture partners, Sheila offered a free gift to anyone who bought my book during the launch. When I saw the unique gift she was offering, I was immediately impressed. It was a self-reflective photo-journal of thoughts and perceptions she had during the process of peeling a red onion. The reflections made during this most humble activity proved to be a veritable journey into self awareness. “Wow,” I thought, “this is really out-of-the-box. This woman is definitely someone I want to know better.” And so began my friendship with the wonderful Sheila Finkelstein.
To me, what makes Sheila an extraordinary artist, and an extraordinary person, is her ability to see things in ways that many of us simply miss. Remember when you were a child and saw pictures in the clouds? Sheila goes way beyond this. She has the uncanny vision to see a face in a crest of sea foam, or a heart in a reflection made between a reed and the surface of a pond. And that is just scratching the surface. On the show, Sheila and I talked about several of her thought-provoking photos, which she very kindly compiled onto a single page for my listeners to see. Have a look at these photos and others of stunning natural beauty at http://www.sheilafinkelstein.com/links-lynn-interview.html
But Sheila doesn’t just take photos; she also teaches others how to use the camera as a tool for personal transformational, through which you can learn to see the world with new and different eyes. On the show, Sheila shared a few tips on how to get started. First and foremost, she said, you should always carry a camera with you. While I am not a photographer, I do appreciate how having a camera in my mobile phone (even if not a very good one) has helped me chronicle the different seasons when I walk through the woods or along my beloved River Ouse here in Bedford, England. Taking a photo compels me to stop and appreciate what is there, instead of just walking through it. It also helps me to connect with the flow of life around me in a deeper way. And that is just from a grainy out-of-focus camera shot. Have a look at Sheila’s photos, and you can get an idea of the quality of Sheila’s photography, and what her students must experience as they work with her.
Sheila tells me that her work has helped many of her students, who had previously believed they were “not artists”, to find and express their unique vision, by noticing the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary, and the magic that is all around us within what she calls the “accidental art” of the world.
Sheila and I have also collaborated on a promotional video entitled “Song of the Rose”, which is a reading of a poem from my book The Garden of the Soul set to music composed by London musicians Bleep Test (two of my former students) and illustrated by a collection of Sheila’s stunning nature photography. If you haven’t seen the video you, be sure to check it out on YouTube at http://tinyurl.com/rose-song. I am really fond of this video, and I would welcome your comments and ratings.
From my perspective, Sheila perfectly exemplifies the “Principle of Receiving” (taught by the Iris) in my book The Garden of the Soul because she is able to open her senses fully and receive what is all around her, and to see the treasure that is contained within the smallest of the small.
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I urge you to check out Sheila’s art and her work. If you have been looking for a novel way to experience self-discovery, check out Sheila’s 4-week telecourse:
“Through and From the Lens”
Discovering Beauty in the Ordinary
Experiencing it as Extraordinary
If you sign up using THIS link, you can save $30 on Sheila’s course as a “Friend of Lynn”:
Wednesday 27 May
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Ep19-The Art of Joyful Living
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts Certified Law of Attraction Coach, educator and talk radio show host, Ruth Hegarty. Ruth will be telling us how she helps women entrepreneurs create effortless success. She will also share her own story of how she went from an extremely shy underachiever, to someone who truly understands the personal demons that hold us back and, most importantly, how to shed those demons and transform into outrageously happy, successful, confident and prosperous beings without sacrificing our authenticity. Listen LIVE or download the broadcast “on demand” at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/05/27/Ep19-The-Art-of-Joyful-Living Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)
About the show, “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” Weekly broadcast exploring personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being. Hosted by Lynn Serafinn, Personal Transformation Coach and author living in Bedford England dedicated to awakening the authentic voice in all people. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, and the Founder/Leader of The Global Wellness Circle, a holistic community project that is rapidly spreading throughout the UK.
Lynn’s links
Find “The Garden of the Soul” on Amazon US: CLICK HERE
Find “The Garden of the Soul” on Amazon UK: CLICK HERE
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul EP17-Forgiveness as a Pathway to Freedom GUEST: Brenda Adelman DATE AIRED:Thursday 14 May 2009
I first met the lovely Brenda Adelman on the coaching networks. When I first heard her story, and about her current work, I knew that she had to be a guest on my show “The Garden of the Soul.” Read on and you’ll see why.
Originally from Brooklyn (like me!) but now residing in Los Angeles, California, Brenda is an award-winning actress, Unity Church Prayer Chaplain, and Forgiveness Coach. What is a “forgiveness coach”? It is someone who works with clients at a deeply spiritual level to enable them to “forgive the unforgivable.” For her outstanding work in the field of forgiveness, helping others to forgive, and overcoming tremendous forgiveness of her own challenges as well, Brenda was the recipient of Hero of Forgiveness Award from the International Hawaii Forgiveness Project in 2008.
What makes Brenda a hero of forgiveness? In 1995 she heard a shot that, as she describes it, “shattered her world” when her mother was shot and killed at point-blank range… by her father. If that would not be enough for one young person to forgive, her father then went on to marry her mother’s sister. On the show, Brenda read an excerpt of this story as she tells it in her upcoming book, Forgive and Be Free: A Pathway to Personal Happiness. I must say that it is gripping and chilling at the same time. The shock of it, as Brenda reads it, does justice (as much as one can with words) to the shock she must have felt when this happened. Brenda then told me about all the subtle ways this impacted her at a deep level. Grief, anger, rage, shame, depression, loss and so many other emotions became a tangled web in her life.
I am quite sure that most people would agree this is just about as close to “unforgivable” as you can get. So imagine coming to a place within yourself where you were not only able to forgive everyone in this situation (father, aunt, the court system, society, the universe, God, self…) but you were also able to step into peacefulness and inner joy. Pretty amazing, huh? Well, now imagine that you not only reach this place within yourself, but you also use all of your talents and abilities to help others overcome devastating loss in their own lives by learning how to forgive. This will give you an idea of who Brenda is, and what she does.
Brenda has created a one-woman show entitled “My Brooklyn Hamlet” that tells the story of her journey from tragedy to freedom in a theatrical setting. After the show, she delivers a workshop entitled “Forgiving the Unforgivable as a Path to Freedom.” She does this, she says, “to open people’s hearts and gets them out of blame.”
As a special gift to our listeners, Brenda shared her 5 Top Reasons to Never Forgive and Why You Must:
Number 1 reason why you tell yourself you must never forgive:
If I forgive this person I am condoning what he/she did. Why you must: Forgiveness is for you, not them. It sets you free.
Number 2 reason why you tell yourself you must never forgive:
My anger assures me that this person will never be in my life again. Why you must: Your anger assures you that this person is constantly in your life through either obsessive thinking about them or suppressing your thoughts about them.
Number 3 reason why you tell yourself you must never forgive:
They will hurt me again.
Why you must: Being angry and unforgiving actually increases the odds of you being triggered emotionally (being upset) by something else that they do.
Number 4 reason why you tell yourself you must never forgive:
Who would I be if I forgave them?
Why you must: You wouldn’t be the same person who holds a grudge, lives in fear and needs a wall up to protect yourself. Your open heart, good judgment and healthy boundaries would lead to a life of more joy.
Number 5 reason why you tell yourself you must never forgive:
What happened to me or a loved one was just too horrible. Why you must: It was horrible. In order for you to create the beautiful and empowering life that you want you need to acknowledge that, grieve what was lost and/or what was taken from you and learn how to release those parts in you that are stuck in darkness and pain.
And finally, Brenda reminds us that “Forgiveness is a process not an event.”
If you want to find out more about Brenda, listen to the podcast below. And after you do, be sure to visit Brenda’s websites, to get a whole lot of free forgiveness “stuff”:
Sign up to find out when Brenda’s new book, Forgive and Be Free: A Pathway to Personal Happiness will be available and get a small gift called Your Personal Forgiveness Assessment at http://www.forgiveandbefreebook.com
And join Brenda for her next free “Forgiveness Teleclass” on Wednesday,May 27th at 5 PM Pacific time “What is a Healthy Boundary? How do you Set It?” Sign-up at http://www.forgivenessandfreedom.com (replay available).
Going to be in Los Angeles in June?—Come see award-winning actress Brenda Adelman in her one-woman show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, on Sunday, June 7th at 7 PM at Celebration Theatre in Hollywood. Get tickets online at www.celebrationtheatre.com . A Q&A follows the performance.
NEXT ON
Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
(this show was already aired; catch the blog and podcast shortly)
Wednesday 20 May
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul Ep18-Photography and Transformation
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts American photographer and transformation teacher Sheila Finkelstein.Sheila will be sharing her tips for using the camera as a tool for personal transformational, through which you learn to see the world with new and different eyes. She will tell us about her success in helping people who previously told themselves they were “not artists” to find and express their unique vision, by noticing the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary, and the magic that is all around us within what she calls the “accidental art” of the world. Check out Sheila’s stunning photography in Lynn’s video “Song of the Rose” at http://tinyurl.com/rose-song.
About the show, “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” Weekly broadcast exploring personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being. Hosted by Lynn Serafinn, Personal Transformation Coach and author living in Bedford England dedicated to awakening the authentic voice in all people. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, and the Founder/Leader of The Global Wellness Circle, a holistic community project that is rapidly spreading throughout the UK.
Lynn’s next live appearance: Saturday 23 May
EVENT: Edenbridge UK Independent Authors Book Fair 9 AM – 4 PM
VENUE: Rickards Hall, 72 High Street, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5AR
The first Independent Authors Book Fair takes place as part of the Eden Valley festival. The festival celebrates the West Kent community of Edenbridge town and the surrounding villages. The Book Fair presents twelve independent authors covering a range of genres. There will be a programme of talks, presentations and readings running throughout the day from 9.00 – 4.00. Light refreshments will be available. Join Lynn and 11 other UK independent authors for this inaugural event. Get to meet authors 1-to-1, ask questions, hear talks of writing and publishing, and purchase signed copies of their books. Be the first to be in the know about who is setting the trends in the independent writing field.
Amongst the speakers, author Lynn Serafinn will be delivering a talk on her new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self which reached Amazon bestseller status in both the US and the UK the first week of its release in such categories as spirituality, mind-body-spirit and self-help. Visit Lynn’s book blogsite at http://www.give-receive-become-be.com for more information and full media kit for The Garden of the Soul. More information at: http://www.ukindependentauthors.co.uk/Edenbridge_Book_Fair.html
Some thoughts on the teachings in my book The Garden of the Soul. Click HERE to find out how to purchase the book today.
Over the past months, I have been sharing with you some of the life lessons from my book, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self.The main body of book is divided into four sections, each one represented by a particular flower. You might think of these flowers as my “guides” or “mentors”, who teach me four spiritual principles:
The Rose teaches the Principle of Giving
The Iris teaches the Principle of Receiving
The Daffodil teaches the Principle of Becoming
And finally, the Lily teaches the Principle of Being
Today I would like to share some thoughts on the Lily and the Principle of Being.
Last month, I spoke about “The Principle of Becoming” (lessons from the Daffodil). The Principle of Becoming calls us forth to let go of “old stories” and allow change to occur for the purpose of expansion and growth. The Principle of Becoming is extremely important because without the conscious act of letting go, we tend to hold on to old patterns of behaviour, old emotions and old belief systems that no longer serve us and keep us stuck in so many ways. The Principle of Becoming is vital to our ability to adapt, experience joy and actualise our own creativity.
While the Principle of Becoming is all about our need for a sense of change, regeneration and rebirth so we can grow and have a sense of aliveness, the Principle of Being reflects our need for a sense of continuity, serenity and timelessness so we can feel safe and have a sense of identity. And while the Principle of Being is the seeming opposite of the Principle of Becoming, it is actually its essential counterpart. Without a firm hold on the Principle of Being, change in our lives can often make us feel vulnerable rather than free. But when both of these Principles are present and working together, they provide that much-needed balance between our desire for outward expansion and our desire for inner stability.
“Being” refers to continuity.
Our “Being” is that which is constant throughout our lives.
Being is…
That safe place to which we can return reliably no matter what else is happening around us
Our sense of Self that is not dependent upon time or circumstance
Our inner knowing of who we are regardless of changes in our age, occupation, education, marital status, achievements, belief systems, social circles or economic status
Our personal wellspring of serenity, wisdom, peace, inner tranquillity and satisfaction
In other words,”Being” is our sense of eternal identity, and is independent of our ever-changing personal relationships and roles in life.
To assess your own connection to your ”Being”, a good question to ask yourself might be, “Who am I when I remove all the labels about myself?” In other words, “Who am I when I am not the mother/father, daughter/son, husband/wife, boss/employee, this profession/that profession, rich/poor, young/old?” etc. In a quiet moment, ask this question, without self-judgment, and you will begin to get an idea of how much (or how little) you are in touch with your own essential “Being”.
At an even deeper level, true “Being” means an awareness of who we are beyond even more subtle designations of “self”, such as our intelligence, our talents, our nationality, our faith, our ethnicity or even our gender. Now ask yourself “Who am I without these designations?” and look more deeply into yourself to get a sense of that “Being” that lies at your centre. How easy or difficult do you find this?
Now go even deeper still and strip away all designations whatsoever, even to the point of letting go of the boundary between Self and the Universe. At this point, you realise at a deep level, and not merely with your intellect, that you and everything around you is Spirit. You come in touch with your own essence-your own eternal, pure consciousness- where you can see your connection to all of Creation, and is not dependent upon being within a particular bodily form at all. This ultimate understanding is at the core of the Principle of Being.
Some of us might find this perspective shift very challenging, if not scary, if we are at a point in life where we feel little inner connection to our own Being. We might fear that without some kind of “label” we will lose all sense of identity completely, and simply slip into a feeling of “nothingness”. If we dig down to discover the underlying cause of our fear, more often than not we will find it is triggered by a deep-rooted feeling of unworthiness. We do not feel we are “enough” without our worldly attributes. In other words, we have become accustomed to defining our worthiness through our roles, achievements and designations. We feel that we need these roles and designations to feel worthy of love, abundance-to be worthy of “Being”. When we have this underlying belief in our own unworthiness, it stands to reason that we would fear the loss of Self if we were to lose our labels.
But in actuality, the truth is just the opposite. Far from losing the Self, when we reach a state of genuine connection with our “Being-ness”, where no designations are needed to define who we are, our sense of identity is profound. At this point, we are able to find immense peace within the understanding that our identity is no longer dependent upon any external factor and is not subject to circumstance. When we finally release the need to identify the Self with “things” that come and go throughout our lives, we come into contact with our true Self, embracing it as eternal, and transcending all change. And there is an immense sense of safety within this sense of “Being”, which is both immutable and indestructible.
The lessons I learned from the Lily in The Garden of the Soul (and especially in the story in the book called “Message on the Bridge”) guided me gently and lovingly through my own fears and attachments, so I could return to the essence of who I truly am. And the Lily as an image is an inviting and appropriate symbol for the Principle of Being. In the west, the Lily is frequently used in funeral ceremonies as a symbol of eternal, spiritual life. In the east, the water lily (or lotus) is a symbol of eternity and divinity, used to represent the soul, the spiritual master and even the spiritual world itself. In my own personal experience, back when I used to live in Arizona, I remember seeing a very special type of cactus that only bloomed one night a year, during a full moon. While I don’t know the name of this flower, it seemed to me that its white, star-shaped blossom was yet another kind of Lily, who appeared like a solitary hermit praying to the moon itself, shining brilliantly against the dark night for only a few hours. In fact, some of the imagery in my book where I meet the Lily come from my memory of that remarkable cactus flower. To me, the Lily, in all of its lovely permutations, was the perfect metaphor for the Principle of Being, as its beautiful, strong, white petals look like a hand of outstretched fingers, reaching upwards towards the heavens, providing a bridge between the earthly plane and the Divine.
The Four Principles of Give, Receive, Become and Be provide an easy model to check balance and flow in our lives. When we learn how to recognise these Principles in ourselves, we are more easily able to know how to recover from the inevitable upsets that come into our lives. The Principle of Being, like all the other Principles, helps us to enter into a deeper and more meaningful relationship both within our own Self and with the world around us. By tending to the Four Flowers within the Garden of our own Souls, it becomes very easy for our true Selves to blossom.
Master the energy of the Four Flowers in your own life this month!
During the lovely month
of May, I am offering a 30-minute
“Garden of the Soul Coaching Assessment”
to a very limited amount of new clients for the highly discounted price of only…
£20
That is 70% off my usual coaching price.
There’s no catch and absolutely no obligation.
During our Garden of the Soul Coaching Assessment, we will:
Explore the Four Flowers/Principles
Assess the current state
of flow in your own life
Identify which of the Four Flowers/Principles is currently most in need of nurturing
Identify which attributes of that Flower/Principle you would like to call forth
Identify actions and/or changes in perspective that could help you find the balance and flow you seek
My personal aim is that you will:
Experience a session that is be light, fun, colourful and inspiring
Leave with a feeling of renewal, focus, self-awareness and optimism
Book your “Garden of the Soul Coaching Assessment” for only £20 HERE:
Your Time Zone
Times your are NOT available
You will receive confirmation of your session within 48 hours of your request.
This is a limited offer:
1 assessment session per person
Open only to the first 10 new clients who book their session before the end of May.
(If no more sessions are available, you will receive a full and immediate refund).
If you decide you would like to continue 1-to-1 coaching together, your £20 assessment fee will be applied towards your first pre-paid block of coaching.
Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence – an Interview with Gail Sussman Miller
[NOTE to readers: this blog post originally appeared on my social network "Lynn Serafinn's Garden of the Soul" on Ning. When I refer to people by name as "our own" and "right here", I am referring to that network, which can be accessed at http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com. Come JOIN us!]
This evening on my radio show, Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul, my guest was our very own GAIL SUSSMAN MILLER. For those of you in the Garden who have not met her, Gail is a coach, writer and public speaker, living in Chicago. I met Gail about a year ago when I attended one of her excellent teleseminars about reaching your target audience. At that time, I found her energy to be so warm and loving that I simply had to become her friend. On the spot, even though she didn’t know me at all, she volunteered to be one of my “beta readers” for my book (which was, at that time, unfinished). Since then, she has not only been one of my readers, but also a reviewer, a joint venture partner, a friend, a guest on my show and NOW (as of tonight’s show) we are talking about doing a workshop together sometime soon. How cool is that?
Anyway, if you don’t know Gail, become her friend because she is one fabulous lady who really knows how to make you feel welcome. And that is probably why she is so good at what she does. One of Gail’s many specialties is working with small groups to develop “Emotional Intelligence”. The term, she says, was originally coined by Daniel Goldman. On the show, Gail explained how we generally equate “intelligence” with the brain and measure it with “IQ”. This kind of intelligence is fairly static in life. That is to say, we all have a certain amount of “brain” intelligence, and while we can study and learn, brain intelligence itself does not generally increase to a great degree as a result of learning. Our bodies also are great repositories of intelligence (Luis and Fran you are always talking about this!). Lastly, however, our emotional bodies are also great bodies of intelligence. And unlike brain intelligence, emotional intelligence CAN be increased. And a good thing too! Most of us grow up with vastly underdeveloped emotional intelligence. We simply “react” rather than learn how to “respond”. Through development of conscious awareness, however, we can learn how ot separate ourselves from this reactionary modus operandum, and move away from feelings of being controlled by our emotions, and into a place where we feel at choice and within true selves at all times.
These are the ideas that Gail spoke with me about on tonight’s show. She also gave 3 of her 10 “secrets” to developing emotional intelligence. I’m NOT going to tell you what they are!!! (ha ha). If you want to find out these first 3 secrets of emotional intelligence, well you’ll just have to listen to the show by CLICKING HERE..
AND… Gail also wrote an eBook called (as you might have already guessed) “!0 Secrets to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence”. AND… here’s the very cool thing. She is giving it away to everyone who buys my book during its launch. Now, the launch was SUPPOSED to be over today (Wed 8 April) but I have decided, as it is Easter week, that it will run through Easter Monday. That means, if you buy “The Garden of the Soul” on or before this coming Monday, you can STILL get access to download 26 beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts from my friends and colleagues…. many of whom are right here on this site like Gail, Fran Stockley, Amber Rojas, Kathleen Schulweis, Gina Marks, Sheila Finkelstein, Jessica McGregor Johnson and Glenn Smith (did I miss anyone?).
To get Gail’s great eBook, along with all the other wonderful gifts from our friends here in the Garden (and many others besides, just go to http://tinyurl.com/lynn-bonus and find the links to Amazon to buy your copy of my new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Then come back to that same site and enter your name, email and purchase code. That’s all there is to it. you will then be able to “unlock” the bonus page and download all the goodies. Remember…. this page will ONLY be online until Easter Monday, so be sure to claim your copy of the book and these bonuses now.
To find out more about the wonderful Gail Sussman Miller how she teaches women solopreneurs, executives and companies how to turn obstacles into opportunities by boosting their emotional intelligence her many courses, training, coaching and other skills, visit her websites at:
P.S.: If you missed Gail’s show and you don’t have time to hear it now, you can access it “on demand” at www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn or subscribe to “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” via iTunes.
P. P.S.: NEXT WEEK on my show on BlogTalkRadio, my special guest is our own BRUCE MORSE, American artist, photographer, poet and author of the book “Forgive Myself”, which I JUST read last week. Bruce will be sharing his personal story of how he found peace with personal crises in his own life, including the death of his young son, through the pathway of personal forgiveness. Bruce will also share selections from his book. His story is remarkable. Be sure you tune in next WEDNESDAY 15 APRIL 6.30 PM UK/1.30 PM EDT at www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
VIDEO NOTES: Title: “Song of the Rose” from the book “The Garden of the Soul” by Lynn Serafinn Description: Excerpt from the book “The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self” by Lynn Serafinn, as read by the author. While this substantial 400 page work is comprised primarily of narrative stories, each section of the book begins with a poem or “song” sung by one of the four flowers. This “song” is called “Song of the Rose: Maysong.” The Rose is the teacher of the “Principle of Giving”, which encompasses attributes such as passion, self-expression, boldness and life purpose. The Song of the Rose gives you a glimpse into the sensual undertones of the teachings of the Rose, who later takes the author on a journey through the stories of her own life, to explore her own connection to the many colours of passion, from the sacred to the profane. Set to an uplifting instrumental soundscape by London-based band Bleep Test, and illustrated with brilliantly captivating nature photography by Sheila Finkelstein, Lynn’s uniquely lyrical and rhythmic approach to reciting poetry evokes an understanding within the listener that goes far beyond the mere meanings of the words.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Title: The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self Author: Lynn Serafinn Publisher: Bright Pen Books ISBN13: 978-0-7552-1126-5 ASIN: 075521126X Available from:
This video, including any portion of audio soundtrack and/or visual images, is for promotional purposes only and may not be sold. It may, however, be shared and posted on your site or blog without special permission, as long as it remains intact and you include these notes in your listing.
It’s my upcoming interview with author and spiritual teacher Glenn M. Smith on my talk radio show LYNN SERAFINN’S GARDEN OF THE SOUL. Glenn will be sharing his story of how his personal experience with psychic forensics helped him solve a murder of a young girl, and gave him a unique insight into the nature of the afterlife that he says can help people overcome their anxieties about death and dying. He will also tell us about his new book, The Lotus Petal.
Broadcast time:
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Can’t make the live show? No problem! Listen “on demand” at the same website, or subscribe to the show via iTunes.
ABOUT THE SHOW LYNN SERAFINN’S GARDEN OF THE SOUL Weekly broadcast exploring personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being. Hosted by Lynn Serafinn, Personal Transformation Coach and author living in Bedford England dedicated to awakening the authentic voice in all people. She is the author of the upcoming book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, and the Founder/Leader of The Global Wellness Circle, a holistic community project that is rapidly spreading throughout the UK.
Here’s the complete April line-up:
Wed 01-Apr-09: Releasing Yourself from the Fear of Death; special guest Glenn Smith
Wed 08-Apr-09: 10 Ways to Boost Emotional Intelligence; special guest Gail Sussman Miller
Wed 15-Apr-09: Forgiveness as a Pathway to Peace; special guest Bruce Morse
Thur 23-Apr-09: Using Sound for Healing and Happiness; special guest John Levine
Wed 29-Apr-09: Becoming the Hero of Your Own Life (Part 2); special guest Kay Dayss
AND… don’t miss the official Amazon Launch of Lynn’s book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self on Tuesday 7 April. Click HERE to receive a launch reminder so you can receive over 20 beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts when you buy the book.
Title: RADIO: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul Location: Internet Radio Link out: Click here Description: Ep9-Food as a Pathway to Spirit.
Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts British Naturopathic and Nutritional Therapist, Fran Stockley. Fran will be talking about how we can use food to deepen our spiritual connection. She will also share three principles for using food to open up both our “cells” and our “Selves” on a practical level so we can become open and more receptive to receiving guidance from the divine. Start Time: 18:30 GMT Date: 2009-03-18 End Time: 19:00 GMT
Spring is coming to England and the air is losing its chill. So today I took a walk along the River Great Ouse, which is a beautiful and very ancient river that runs through this part of England. Every time I go down to that river, I find myself connecting with nature, with time and space, with the universe, and with my hometown. Basically, it is a very grounding thing for me to do, because I can get a real sense of the timelessness of the river, and how all the life along its waters and riverbanks co-exist together. Perhaps you have had a similar experience in your own hometown, or some other place that is special to you.
In my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, I talk about ”Four Principles” of “Give, Receive, Become and Be”. For me, the River is a great teacher and I find myself able to connect with these four principles easily whenever I go there. But today, the most prominent principle I felt there was the “Principle of Receiving”, which is the principle that includes all that comes from the world and flows into you. ‘Receiving’ as a principle includes acute awareness via the senses and the ability to relish the smallest of the small and the greatest of the great. ‘Receiving’ is the fertile ground upon which creativity can take root; through ‘receiving’, the entire universe can sit upon our consciousness like a canvas.
I walked along the river and simply allowed my senses to open up. I opened my eyes and ears and simply watched and listened. I saw the most wonderful patterns atop the water’s surface, as the currents flowed and hit the sides of the riverbank. I saw dozens of swans, geese, ducks and seagulls along the river (as always) and noticed intricate waves of interference weave together as they swam atop the shimmering water. I noticed how the waves that were created by the flow of their bodies seemed to “clash” at first, but then they formed new waves, each with its own unique pattern, which glimmered brightly in the late afternoon sun. I heard the sounds of the water, the water fowl, the air, and the people along the embankment. I allowed all of it to enter my senses equally, without imposing a preference for one over the other.
And from allowing my senses to open up and simply watch and listen, the wisdom of the moment entered my awareness. I noticed the complexity of the sparkling patterns upon the water, and I could see how things that appear to be “conflicts” in our lives are really simply these waves of interference that weave in and out of each other, continuously coming and going. Each is equally beautiful. It is only our perception that interprets them as “good” or “bad”. Really all waves have a place on the river, and it is when we allow all these waves to flow in and out without judgement, that we become able to live in harmony with the world.
To master the “Principle of Receiving” we need only to open our senses fully, and allow whatever is there to be, and to let it enter us and wash over us. Only then can we see the beautifully intricate patterns within the waves upon the surface of our own lives. When we are receptive to all that life is giving us, rather than inclined to filter it according to our judgements, we are finally able to master the art of receiving. Only then are we able to feel truly grateful and awestruck by how much the world is giving us at any given moment, and to “feel so full that you have no choice but to give yourself away” (from The Garden of the Soul).You can also read all about the Four Principles of “Give, Receive, Become and Be” in my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. It’s coming to Amazon Tues 7 April. You can receive 25 beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts when you buy the book during its launch. Find out all about the book and these gifts at http://tinyurl.com/lynn-bonus.
Afterthoughts: Interview with Swedish Artist Kristina Berglund Show:Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul Episode 3: Using Creativity to Heal the Self Part 2 Date aired: Wed 4 February 2009
This week on my BlogTalkRadio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul, I interviewed Swedish artist, coach and teacher of Vedic Art, Kristina Berglund. Kristina and I discussed how she used painting, and in particular the Vedic Art method of painting, to restore health to emotional pathways that were blocked inside her, resulting in years of difficulty with poor body image and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
Those who listened to the show would have to agree that Kristina is a truly brave and beautiful human being. I have the great pleasure of knowing her as a dear friend, and I have also taken her excellent course on the 17 Principles of Vedic Art. On the air, Kristina kick-started the Vedic process by asking listeners to simply put their pen on a piece of paper in front of them, and let their hands go anywhere it wants to go. She warned that if your brain gets in the way and starts to compel you to create patterns, then you should toss away that paper and start again until the hand is really going on its own and there is no thought process involved. This was just a tiny hint of the first of the 17 Principles of Vedic Art-”the line”. It sounds like such a simple thing, but trust me, once you get into Kristina’s course, you realise the depth of it all, and how the Principles are all interwoven in a very deep and spiritual way.
Kristina’s art specialism is painting original mandalas using very large canvases, and highly textured images, mixing different objects directly into her paint, such as sand and gemstones. When I first saw Kristina’s paintings, all I could say is “Wow.” Fortunately for me, when Kristina read a galley print of my upcoming book The Garden of the Soul, she noticed that I described a mandala in my section “Lessons from the Lily”, and she immediately called me and offered to create an original mandala for the cover. I couldn’t have been more thrilled. I will be “unveiling” her finished work here by mid-February, so be sure you check back then.
From so many angles, Kristina is an artist-she is a painter, a teacher and a coach. She is also starting a project in Sweden aimed at helping men and woman with eating disorders to restore their mental, physical and emotional balance through the process of learning the 17 Principles of Vedic Art. Kristina’s approach to art is a true example of one woman’s use of creativity to heal the Self. But she is not merely an artist; soft and flowing deeply like a river, Kristina is herself is a work of art.
I have a long history in the arts. I started playing music when I was 4 years old, when my mother bought a second-hand piano. I started playing violin at age 9, sang in my first opera at age 13 and went on to be everything from a symphony violinist, to an east-west fusion artist, to an electronic trance musician. I even had a chart-topping dance record back in the 90s. But even though my life was filled with music every day, I always used writing as my medium of choice for personal expression, self-discovery and emotional healing. I have written seriously since my early teens, and have always found it to be the place where I could not only express myself best, but also find the parts of myself that seemed not so clear to me. The entire experience of writing my book The Garden of the Soul, for example, was a cathartic one from start to finish. By the end of the process, I felt like I had not only given birth to a book, but also to my authentic Self.
Personal expression is extremely important to our overall wellbeing. When I work with clients, they often come to me frustrated that they feel unable to express themselves fully in their life, work or relationships. That is my primary focus with them as their coach. But beyond the coaching session, I know that tapping into creativity, whether that means inventing a new recipe, crocheting a scarf or composing a new song, can often be the vital element in a person’s overall balance in life. Because creativity is such a key factor in our fulfilment as human beings, I always listen carefully to the desire of my clients to find out what is longing to be expressed. Then, together we design ways to bring out that expression, so as to allow the inner healing to unfold on its own
In my book, I take the reader through a very simple way to understand what might be missing in our lives whenever we feel a bit ‘out’. In my book, I discuss four principles that bring balance and wholeness to the human spirit: give, receive, become and be. All four of these principles play a vital part in the creative process:
The Principle of Giving: the principle of all that emanates outwards from within you. In relation to creativity, ‘giving’ as a principle includes self-expression, passion, emotiveness, boldness, etc. ‘Giving’ is the energy that drives us to call forth the creative process within ourselves; it is the urge to express.
The Principle of Receiving: the principle of all that comes from the world into you. In relation to creativity, ‘receiving’ as a principle includes acute awareness via the senses and the ability to relish the smallest of the small and the greatest of the great. ‘Receiving’ is the fertile ground upon which creativity can take root; through ‘receiving’, the entire universe can sit upon our consciousness like a canvas.
The Principle of Becoming: the principle of all that is continually changing. In relation to creativity, ‘becoming’ as a principle includes inspiration, imagination, spontaneity, and innovation. ‘Becoming’ is the act of creativity itself; without it, we have no impulse to invent something new.
The Principle of Being: the principle of all that is non-changing. In relation to creativity, ‘being’ as a principle includes inner wisdom, stillness, serenity within all circumstances and the ability to be the observer without judgements. ‘Being’ is the perspective where we accept the role and responsibility of the sacred role of creator; it provides us with the ability to express fully without judging either self or other.
What I have found is that when we are feeling a bit ‘off’ in life, it is often because one of these principles is not flowing properly within us, or perhaps all of them are blocked in some way. When we find we are not expressing ourselves fully and authentically, it can manifest in so many harmful ways in life, such as depression, anger or even (and frequently) physical illness. I know because I have experienced all of these things over the years, and am extremely grateful now that I know how to recover from these imbalances either on my own, or with the help of one of my many wonderful friends. When I coach my clients, I help them to learn how to return to that balance, and sometimes I help them to engage on a creative enterprise, whether it is something artist like writing, music or art, or something life-changing like creating a new business or a creating an entirely new perspective of themselves that they bring into all aspects of their lives.
No matter what method we use to express the innate creator within each one of us, creativity is as essential to our health and happiness as eating a balanced diet. So if you are feeling a little ‘off’ today, take a moment to create something with consciousness-from a great new sandwich to a heartfelt diary entry. Take a look out the window and see what is there. Take a look inside your heart and see what is there. Then listen for what needs to be expressed and find a way to let it be heard. You will find that you not only heal yourself, but you will heal the world around you as well.
I’ll be telling you more about the four principles give, receive, become and be in the coming weeks, and you can also read all about them when my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Selfwhen it comes out on Tues 7 April.
Want to hear more about how some
extraordinary people use creativity to heal the self?
Check out my next two radio broadcasts!
Wednesday 4 February
Using Creativity to Heal the Self Part 2
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts Kristina Berglund, Swedish painter, Co-Active Coach and a teacher of the Vedic Art tradition. Kristina, whose artistic specialty is creating very large mandalas, is also the commissioned artist for the cover of Lynn’s book The Garden of the Soul. On tonight’s show, Kristina will be sharing her story of how she uses a deeper connection to art as a means of overcoming personal battles with eating disorders, distorted body image and other emotional blocks both within herself and others through her teaching. Kristina will be offering a live demo of Vedic art instruction on the air, so have some paper and come coloured pens ready! Listen LIVE at:www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)
Wednesday 11 February
Using Creativity to Heal the Self Part 3
6.30 PM UK time, 1.30 PM Eastern, 10.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET
Author and Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn hosts British musician John Levine of Alphamusic. John will be sharing his story of how being the witness to his father’s lifetime of stress-related illnesses compelled him to find answers to the mind-body-spirit connection, which ultimately led him to use his musical talents to create music that can alter the alpha waves in the brain to restore health and wellbeing to listeners. John will be playing some samples of his compositions on the air, so get ready to an auditory massage. Listen LIVE at:www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)
Did you miss ‘Using Creativity to Heal the Self Part 1
with UK author Tom McGreevy?
Catch the show ‘on demand’ anytime at www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
Afterthoughts: Interview with UK Author Tom McGreevy
Show:Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Episode 2: Using Creativity to Heal the Self Part 1
Date aired: Wed 28 Jan 2009
Last week on my BlogTalkRadio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul, I interviewed British poet, Tom McGreevy, author of the books Poems for Paula and the upcoming book ‘I’m a Soldier…get me out of here! Tom and I discussed how he has used his creativity as a writer to heal his own emotional wounds, as how he currently uses it to help heal the wounds of others.
Those who listened to the show would have to agree that Tom is a down-to-earth, home-spun hero of the highest order. Originally from Newcastle in northeast England (for those who might have been able to place his accent), where he wrote poetry as a child, Tom joined the military at an early age to ‘make his father proud’, even though he knew deep down in his heart of hearts that he is ‘a writer, not a fighter’ (as Tom is found of saying). On the show, Tom shared with us his experience with seeing his best friend die in his arms in the war of the Falklands, and discussed the impact that made on him. He also talked about his experience with prostate cancer, and the emotional rollercoaster of the healing process. Tom’s poetry is traditional and direct, and written in an unassuming, natural way that gets right to the heart of the matter without any fluff. Plainly addressing issues surrounding death, dying and saying good bye to loved ones, Tom’s poems are a true example of one man’s use of creativity to heal the Self.
Tom spoke in brief about his work as Head Moderator for a project called ‘Forces Poetry’, which helps military, ex-military and their families overcome the effects of war, including post traumatic stress disorder, by writing. He is helping to coordinate the publishing of their first book entitled ‘ Voices of the Poppies” a collection poems by members of Forces Poetry, which is a part of a greater organisation called ‘Flow for All’ ( Forces Literary Organisation Worldwide for All ).
NEXT SHOW: Wed 4 February 6.30 PM UK time. ‘Creativity to
Heal the Self Part 2′ with special guest Kristina Berglund, Stockholm-based artist, coach and teacher of Vedic Art Principles.
FLOW is a non-profit making organisation set up by ex-forces, to help other
ex-forces and their families Worldwide. They try to encourage those suffering from PTSD ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ) to express their fears and feelings through writing poetry, and having it published on their sites. Their sites are free to use for anybody, but they welcome donations to keep the sites running, and help ex-servicemen and women worldwide.
I totally LOVE this video entitled ‘Validation’. At 16 minutes, it is a ‘mini-movie’, but it is really worth watching. Get yourself a drink, sit back and ENJOY this! Would love to hear your comments.
In response to my first article ‘Peace Begets Peace’, one person (anonymous post) replied:
A nice story but unfortunately irrelevant to the situation in Gaza. The truth is that the child has openly declared that he wants to kill his mother and she is trying to take the knife out of his hands. She knows that he always keeps his promises and is stabbing her for more than 8 years over and over again. She is overreacting because she is afraid of blood poisoning and has had enough. I’m all for everlasting peace. But, when the Hamas says he will not stop short of killing me, I have to believe him. I just can’t see what we can talk about.
While my initial article was written with a view towards peace in general, and not necessarily talking solely about the violence in Gaza, these comments are surely a wonderful expression of the frustration that is undoubtedly felt amongst the nations in question. I can personally relate to the imagery from the perspective of my marriage breaking down 6 years ago. Yes, when any relationship has gotten to the point that you are tired of being ’stabbed’ (using your metaphor), then fight or flight appear to be the only two options. However, I have learned a lot about fighting and flying, and how these appear to be the only options when we are in the midst of a situation. However, if we take a metaview of this, or any, hostile situation, I believe ‘peace begets peace’ does indeed apply on a larger scale.
I completely agree that when a relationship, whether between two people or two peoples, has broken down to the point where they are no longer able to hear each other, and communication is obscured because contempt has replaced it, it can seem like there is no way to fix the wounded relationship. There is a point, as you say, when one or both parties feels too wounded to trust any longer, and the relationship becomes toxic.
If you were a married couple in a toxic situation and could no longer endure it, you would divorce. In a divorce, solicitors are employed because, left to their own devices, the two parties would probably do nothing but shout, defile, blame and threaten each other. There is no more trust between them, so they are incapable of managing their affairs without the assistance of a disinterested third party, who has no real vested interest in the outcome. A solicitor might work well to help the severing process, but what a solicitor does not do is heal the relationship because it is assumed it does not want to heal.
Unfortunately, in the matter of nations, dealing with a toxic relationship is a different matter. You cannot divorce each other, yet still third parties (i.e., other countries) are frequently ’employed’ (or deployed) to act in the role of ’solicitor’ wherein property and boundaries are set, whether through additional warfare, sanctions or resolutions. However, there are several reasons why this is not likely to be particularly effective in the long-term. The first is that a third party nation rarely, if ever, has a genuinely disinterested relationship with either nation, so their intervention is bound to feel like manipulation to one, or even both, of the parties. Secondly, while a divorce lawyer can walk away from his clients thinking that it will be up to the clients to heal themselves as they separate from each other, it is practically impossible for two nations (and I use the word ‘nation’ to mean the people, not the geographic boundaries), especially two that have been living as closely as Israelis and Palestinians have, to separate from each other physically, emotionally, culturally or economically. And while couples who have divorced may or may not heal separately with time (some never do), nations have the disadvantage of not being able to truly separate and heal, nor do they have the luxury of taking time in their collective process because the rest of the world is depending upon their stability.
So when dealing with nations, what we need is not a divorce at all, although we traditionally use these tactics. What we need here is a means of actual healing of the relationship itself, not just of the separate nations. I do understand that sometimes it might be deemed that immediate action of a political or military nature for the purpose of ensuring the safety of oneself is necessary in the short-term. But in the long-term what is needed is for those who are more able to see past the blur of cultural prejudices to help the relationship, not in the role of the ’solicitor’, but as the healer.
Healing the relationship is not a matter of conducting mediation for the purpose of making resolutions. It is a global process of rebuilding the trust between the parties so that they can see the humanity in each other, and therefore feel inspired to be at peace with each other. No peace can come without both parties being willing to release their judgements, blame and contempt, and this will not happen until their view of both ’self’ and ‘other’ is shifted. So long as both parties hold tightly to the ‘us’ and ‘them’ of the situation, toxicity will remain. And saying that ‘we’ will not release this view until the ‘other’ party does, only perpetuates the problem. Only when the ‘us and them’ perspective is shifted can healing occur, whether between two individuals or between two peoples. When this shift finally does happen, more choices become apparent, and then a lasting peace, and not just a ‘patch up job’, can take place.
I suppose what I am say here is that when one is caught in the crossfire, yes, there are things that may need to happen to ensure your survival. But if we rise above the situation and see what is needed at a larger level, trusting that it is possible, then our actions will be motivated by a different energy, and a different result is more likely.
As someone who considers herself in a healing profession, I am dedicated to doing my bit for the ‘bigger picture’. While I might not be able to take the knife out of the hand of the belligerent child, I hope to help change the situation so that the child no longer wishes to pick up the knife at all, except to slice the bread he will share with his neighbour and friend.
I firmly believe that all of us can begin this process when we start at a local level and heal the wounds within ourselves by shifting our internal energy to a place of peace, even when there is a turbulent storm raging around us.
I am grateful to this writer of this comment for giving me the chance to hear his anguish over the current situation.
A young child is screaming in the queue of the supermarket. He has seen a toy he wants, but his mother refuses to buy it. And so he starts to scream, saying, ‘I want it, Mummy.’ An embarrassed-looking mother restrains herself as she puts her groceries onto the conveyor belt. The child, being ignored, works himself up into a frenzy until his screaming causes people to look somewhat disdainfully at the distraught mother, who is trying her best to pay for her groceries and get out of the store as quickly as possible. But it’s no use. The child is getting louder and louder and people are looking even more irritated, especially now that the check-out girl at the till has just asked a runner to do a price check on that day-old loaf of bread amongst the woman’s groceries. So now the whole queue is waiting…waiting and trying not to look irritated as the child continues to scream louder and louder and louder…
And then, she loses it.
Unable to contain her composure for a single second longer, the mother starts shouting at the child. Her voice is even louder and more irritating that the child’s screaming. But she doesn’t just shout. She hollers. She threatens. She calls the child names. She uses language that she would never allow the child to use. She grabs the child by the arm, gives him a shove and tells him to shut up. She might even give a slap.
The mother, completely absorbed in her own frustration, is unaware at first that her own shouting is now drawing attention from even more disgruntled onlookers, who look at her with a bit of a critical eye. The mother starts to sense this. She tries to look away and pretends she doesn’t notice, but of course she feels mortified. But what else could I have done? she thinks.
Shocked by the mother’s aggressive behaviour, the child does go quiet-for the moment-and the mother tells herself that her behaviour is justified and that all these people looking at her should just mind their own business. She pays for her groceries, and starts to leave the store.
But as she goes, the child starts to cry again. It starts quietly at first, just a whimper. But soon it grows until it is even more pitiful than before. This time, his cries come from a much deeper place, and his sobs are gut-wrenching and heartbreaking to hear. They come from his feelings of being unloved, even if these feelings are completely unfounded. The onlookers watch as he cries all the way out of the store. Now he is wailing, even louder than before.
I describe this scenario because I have been thinking a lot this week about the nature of peace. As I write this, we are several weeks into the horrible violence happening in Gaza. I myself have several very good friends and colleagues living in the Middle East, both Jews and Palestinians, and the stories they tell me are heart-rending. Clearly, peace is needed, and it is needed immediately.
But taking the lesson from the story of the mother and the child, how does one create a lasting peace? When we attempt to create peace, at the cost of peace itself, we create no peace at all. We have seen again and again over the past two decades that when more powerful nations enter into the war arena in the name of re-establishing peace to a less powerful country or region, it rarely, if ever, works. Just like the mother who is able to temporarily subdue her child because she can shout louder and be more aggressive than the child, larger nations can surely assert their aggression upon smaller ones to get them to ‘behave’, but this is simply a temporary quell. Similarly, just as a child who has been shouted at his whole life learns to be aggressive when he reaches adulthood, nations subdued, whether through military action or political sanctions, also become aggressive when they begin to regain their strength. It might happen a generation later. But the reaction will come. Aggression can never be a solution for peace. Aggression breeds aggression. Only peace can beget peace.
Genuine peace is far deeper than the achievement of an externally subdued behaviour. True peace is a peacefulness of body, mind and spirit. Over the past year, for instance, much of the world appears to be not at peace over the global economy. However, I myself have been feeling very peaceful about it. I see the changes as part of the natural wave of cause and effect, and I am simply riding that wave with flexibility and creativity, feeling no real distress from it. But what I notice is, people who are not at peace within themselves, and who are given to stress, judgments and anxiety, are generally the ones who are the most disturbed by the so-called ‘crisis’. I myself felt this kind of distress about a year ago, until I realised that I was the source of my own anxieties, not the situation. It is not the economy that brings lack of unrest, it is us.
When we are anxious, we tend to spread our anxieties to others. When we do this, we create an imbalance in energy. It’s like tipping a tube filled with liquid. When the tube is unbalanced, the contents flow more to one side or the other. Similarly, when you tip things in the direction of your own anxiety, you only encourage more and more people to get sucked into the void of your own lack of peacefulness. One of most powerful mechanisms for shifting energies on a wide scale is the media. I personally feel that the anxieties surrounding the current economic situation have been greatly exacerbated by the way the media, including newspapers, have shifted the social energy. Shifting energy is the cause of any social epidemic, whether ‘good’ or ‘bad’. And what’s good about that, is that it also means that we have the power to shift it back into balance.
Knowing that global trends are really the result of shifts in energy, I find myself wonder on a daily basis what would happen if the entire world would suddenly come to a place of peace within their hearts. Imagine what would happen to the social energy then. If everyone were at peace within themselves, they would not have any inclination towards waging war, because they would not feel the need to judge or to be envious of others. If everyone were at peace within themselves, they would never feel the need to worry, even if economic circumstances changed. If everyone were at peace within themselves, instead of robbing others of energy, they would be able to give them energy. There would be no sense of competition, because no one would be worried about losing anything. Giving of oneself would come easily, because we would feel no lack within ourselves. Rather, we would feel full, and would have the desire to give. And when the whole world is giving, the planet becomes wealthy. The process is simple to learn. It is easy to do. It is sustainable.
‘But,’ you might ask, ‘this all sounds nice, but there is a real war going on. Blood is being shed. What could we do and what impact could we possibly have, while so much of the world is spinning out of balance?’
This is what you can do–be at peace.
This does not mean to be ignorant. This does not mean to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others. It means to walk with peace, hear with peace, see with peace. And if the whirlwind of the world’s drama tries to sweep you up, step back and know that just as you are the source of your own anxiety, you are also the source of your own peace. And just as the world may seem like it is trying to rob you of your peace, you as the Peace-bearer are actually able to heal the world with your peaceful heart. For when you have peace, the energy balance shifts, and more peace comes as a result.
So if you wish to do something that can make a difference to the citizens of Gaza, or to those who are suffering as a result of the economic tides, or to anyone else who is out of touch with peace, by all means follow your conscience and do whatever you believe is right. But regardless of how you choose to express your conscience, do it with a peace-filled heart, trusting fully that you have the power to shift the energy, and then simply watch the world start to change both around you, and within you
I believe that peace begets peace. So if we wish to bring peace to the world at a global level, we must start with ourselves. Be at peace. Go with peace. And the whole world will feel the impact of your peacefulness. Of this there is no doubt.
YOUR comments are heartily encouraged and requested. Please add to the energy!
Meditation 65: Wisdom
Meditation 27: Poise
Day 19: Life Purpose
This meditation came from my upcoming book The Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul, which is a practical guide to the lessons from the four flowers that appear in my bestselling book 
[NOTE to readers: this blog post originally appeared on my social network "Lynn Serafinn's Garden of the Soul" on Ning. When I refer to people by name as "our own" and "right here", I am referring to that network, which can be accessed at 
