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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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!”
Hi there Garden of the Soul friends,
Here is your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice from LAST week (Wednesday 8 July 2009). I am sorry this didn’t come to you on Friday as usual, but I was preparing for some amazing training I did in London over the weekend on the Transition Town movement. I’ll share that with you later this week.
Last week’s number was selected intuitively by cancer survivor and author Cindy Papale. I read Cindy’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. Cindy will be one of my upcoming guests in October).
Number 54 is the number for the attribute of “Rebirth”, 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, discovery, evolution and creativity… and of course the process of rebirth. And in many ways, my training with the Transition Town Network was very much tied into this idea of rebirth. Dive deeply into this one. It’s a meaningful one. And be sure to tune into tonight’s show to find out what this week’s number is
AND don’t forget to send me your intuitive number for next week’s meditation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Day 54: Rebirth Rebirth is that point in our personal transformation when we emerge from the old and into the new. True rebirth of any kind involves letting go of the past. In the autumn, the trees allow their dry, lifeless leaves to drop to the ground, return to the soil, crumble away, and help to create fertile ground for new vegetation to grow, and also for the trees themselves to flourish. Similarly, in our own lives, Rebirth takes place when we let go of the old emotions, as well as old patterns of thinking or behaving that do not bring us joy, and allow them to slip away naturally to become a part of the ground from which our Rebirth will take place. When we do this, we feel ourselves reborn into our true and authentic Nature.
In The Garden of the Soul the Daffodils teach us about Rebirth. They burst forth in the early springtime, like bright beacons deep within the dark wood, rising from the fertile ground that has been formed by the leaves of the ancient trees that surround them. Drinking deeply of the nourishment of the history of the forest, they are creating new life every spring, leaving behind the coldness of the earth and bringing forth colour, hope and joy to everyone around them. Then, when spring is over, they return to the Earth, and their own leaves and petals become fertile ground for their own re-emergence the following spring.
Just like the coming of spring, Rebirth is a natural and divine process. It does not come about from artificially suppressing or denying emotions. Rather, it is about being very in tune with the rhythms of our own lives, and with the world around us, just as the Daffodils are in tune with the seasons. When we develop this awareness, we know intuitively what we need to be happy, and are able to let go of what is no longer feeding our Souls. When we do this, we learn how to take nourishment from all that has come before, even the painful things, instead of sitting within the decay of dwelling upon what once was, and feeling lifeless as a result. Our past then becomes a vital and life-giving part of our bigger hero’s story, rather than a smaller story in which we feel continually stuck. When this happens, we can know with certainty that we havestepped fully into our Divine Rebirth of Self.
Symptoms of when it is blocked or distorted Bitterness; full of regret; staying stuck; feeling old beyond one’s years; prone to chronic illness; crippling limiting beliefs; despair
Symptoms of when it is flowing Hopefulness; lightness; positive; youthful outlook; strong immune system; able to nurture one’s self; not grudge-bearing
Enquiries to cultivate this attribute
What thoughts of the past do I think about over and over?
What would my life be like if were free of these thoughts?
If I allowed myself to be reborn into my true Divine Self, what would I be like?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 54: Rebirth, selected by Cindy Papale
Day ??? Coming tonight! 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 5 of 5)
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
For Part 3: view post dated 9 July 2009
For Part 4: view post dated 10 July 2009
Becoming BIG Just to share with you, three years ago, I claimed my own life purpose:
“I am the all-embracing voice that frees the hearts of millions
to sing their own true song.”
Notice this life purpose sounds very “big”. A life purpose should be big! When I work with clients to find their life purpose, we don’t stop until it takes their own breath away. My purpose still takes my breath away, and it gives me tremendous self-permission and motivation. How can I “free the hearts of millions” if I stay in a box living a small life? For instance, I wrote a book and I also do a radio show. Both of these reach an audience that is far greater than I could ever have reached if I stayed “small”. My book is all about finding one’s voice and living the life you were meant to live. Reaching a wide audience is not driven by my own personal desire for fame, but rather by my life purpose. I know that I can only help free the hearts of millions by reaching millions of people.
Balance, resilience and recovery Getting to the stage of discovering and claiming our life purpose is wonderful, but if I were simply to get clients all high on life during our coaching sessions with no tools to recover from the inevitable ups and downs of life, then they would simply burn out and are likely to go back to their old patterns in life. In my book The Garden of the Soul, as well as in my own life, I follow a simple balancing model of Four Principles: Give, Receive, Become and Be. Life is like riding a surfboard. There are always going to be waves going up and down and side to side. Surfers know how to sense the waves and stay on the board, and if they do happen to fall off, they know how to get out of the way of the board, and also how to get back onto their feet. All in all, it’s a fine craft learning how to find balance, expanding the awareness, trusting your intuition, responding to the situation and enjoying the ride.
And that is what really what life is all about too. In my own life, my book, my coaching and my workshops I use this model of “Give, Receive, Become and Be” to master the art of balance, resilience and recovery, so that we can find a sustainable way to find fulfilment, manifest our life purpose and become the heroes of our own lives, and bring all those wonderful gifts into the world for which we were created.
And that is why personal transformation is so important, not merely for our own sakes, but for the sake of the entire world. If you have been stuck in an unfulfilling state of life, resisting the call of your own life because you thought it would be selfish to do so, or felt you did not have the courage or ability to change, go for a walk into Nature today and simply listen, allowing the Universe to speak directly to your heart. You will hear that all your reasons for avoiding your own life are based upon fear of being alone in your story. Step into that fear and embrace your purpose in life, and allow the Universe carry you. If you feel any doubts, remind yourself that this wonderful Universe is big enough to carry each and every one of us.
AND… never forget: the Universe WANTS you to succeed!
* * * * *
That’s the complete article
“Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World.”
Ready to explore your own journey of personal transformation?
I offer free 30-minute consultations to a limited amount of prospective clients every month. CLICK HERE to request a free consultation.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive upcoming articles AND visit the Create-a-Life Coaching website for free eBooks, newsletter and more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 4)
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
For Part 3: view post dated 9 July 2009
The role of coaching in this process In my coaching, this is a major facet of how I help people. First, I help them realise the unconscious limiting belief patterns they have created and carried with them for many years (perhaps since they were children). Because coaching focuses on the “now” and not the past, it is not essential to go back in time to the cause of these beliefs; but often I find that as soon as clients see the pattern emerging in their lives, they can frequently scan back in their memory and find the root of it without effort. Usually, they are amazed that the belief has gone back so far in time, and they begin to see the impact this belief has had upon them, sometimes for many decades. This in itself can create a huge shift in the clients’ view of life, and they see that they are truly at choice to change their belief system, if it is no longer working for them in their current lives.
Stepping into your life purpose Of course, as you begin to transform, it is also important to learn compassion and forgiveness towards oneself as you release these old belief systems, so you do not blame yourself for wasted time or spend time dwelling on regrets for past decisions. This process of “letting go” is the next stage in transformation. Taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture of the story of your life, instead of all the little stories in isolation, you begin to see who the world has been calling for you to become within your lifetime. At this stage, I help clients identify and claim their life purpose.
A life purpose is not the same thing as a career or defining what you want to “do”. A life purpose is identifying your ultimate impact on the world—your legacy. Once we come to understand that we actually have a life purpose, we look at life differently.
If the words “impact” or “legacy” are too challenging for you at this point, trying substituting them with the word “gift”. To get a clue as to your purpose in life, ask yourself these questions:
What keeps calling me over and over again throughout my life?
What do I keep resisting out of fear?
If I could create/do anything, what is the “gift” I would want to leave behind for the rest of the world?
What would I need to stop resisting so I could give that gift?
When you begin to see that you have a “gift” for the world, it shifts your sense of purpose. Instead of believing you are powerless and insignificant, you begin to see your own importance in the world. When I work with clients at this stage, I help them “claim” their life purpose, and learn how to give themselves full permission to live that purpose, for the sake of giving the gift that only they can give. This is when all the old, out-of-date belief systems simply start to slip away. No longer do we see ourselves as selfish human beings for living our life purpose, Rather we start to see that our own personal transformation and fulfilment is actually the key that can unlock a future world that is full of peace, harmony, compassion and wide-spread happiness at a global level…
To be continued.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive complete article.
Coming up in Part 5:
“Becoming BIG” and
“Balance, Resilience and Recovery”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 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”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
For more information about Lynn and her work, visit:
Those of you who know me know that I believe there is a powerful and positive shift in global consciousness happening throughout the world. At the same time, these days we are also being met with an unparalleled amount of challenges in all aspects of our external and internal environments. The Transistion Movement was originally formed to answer the call to action we are facing with regards to the need to move away from fossil fuels for our energy supply. But really, it is much more than that. The Transition Movement (and now the Transition Network) offers us the opportunity to bring communities back together for the purpose of creating their own future, at all levels of human existence. Conservation, ecology, economy, education, abundance, health, wellbeing, global peace, non-judgment, inclusivity, self-worth, awareness of the sanctity of life and of the planet and a return to grass-roots community and support are but some of the values that I believe are a part of the emerging Transition Network.
This week I have had the great honour of being asked to be the Chairperson for Transition Bedford, which is a part of the greater Transition Network throughout the world. Local members here in Bedford would like to send me for Transition training, so I can better serve both our town and the Transition movement in general. This training will enable me to help Bedford and other local communities create their own non-political, grass-roots solutions to environmental and social challenges we currently face at a global level.
I am MOST fortunate to have been given
a place on my first training session…
THIS WEEKEND (11/12 July) in London.
Will you please pledge £10 to help send me on this training?
If we raise enough, I will also be able to go on the “Train the Transition Trainer” programme, so we can create a formidable group of Transition trainers in this part of the UK, and make a real impact in building awareness in our schools and local communities, so everyone can understand both the importance and the practical means of living in harmony with each other and with our environment.
AND, as Founder/Leader of the Global Wellness Circle here in Britain, I will also be able to utilise my training directly to serve a rapidly growing network of over 400 members in the central UK region.
To give your pledge, or for more information about the training and the Transition Network in general, click on the link above, or go to: http://www.pledgebank.com/TTTraining
NOTE: You don’t need to live in Bedford or even in the UK to help. All you need is to do is this:
Send £10 to this email: lynn [at] create-a-life [dot] co [dot] uk. Replace the word “at” with “@” and the words “dot” with a dot “.”
If you send your £10 as a “gift”, you can opt to pay the 53p service charge to ensure we receive your complete donation. Transition Bedford is not yet registered, but when we do, we can send you a receipt so you can deduct it from your taxes.
Want to know more about the Transition movement? Check out this video by Rob Carr:
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:
Title: Dresser after Dark Location: Syndicated on 35 different US/UK radio stations (see list) Link out: Click here Description: Host Michael Dresser interviews author Lynn Serafinn about the meaning and teachings of her book “The Garden of the Soul”. Syndicated on 35 radio stations in US and UK. Click the link to see ful list and find a station in your area. Start Time: 1:00 AM Date: 2009-06-25
(Stations shown below in bold have a live internet stream so you can listen right now!)
Title: Losing it with Lorna on BBC 3 Counties Location: 95.5 FM, 103.8 FM or 104.5 FM Link out: Click here Description: Losing it With Lorna started on the Lorna Milton Afternoon Show on BBC Three Counties Radio in October 2008 with four very different ladies all who wished to lose a significant amount of weight. They were each signed up to a different health plan, including diet, hypnosis and personal training. After four months the health plans were discontinued to assess their long-term impact. The ladies felt the need for more motivation and have realised that losing weight isn’t only about changing your body shape, but it\’s also about adjusting your mindset and breaking old habits. Starting in May, each lady will be paired up with a Life/Motivational Coach to see if coaching can help to make a real difference in their lives. Every week between May and August, Join Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn and three other UK coaches as they work with these ladies in hopes of helping to transform their lives for the better.
“I help people overcome their limiting beliefs, establish connection to their Higher Self, discover their life purpose, and become the heroes of their own lives. My goal is to turn up the volume of the music in YOUR heart!”
I am an award-winning certified coach, teacher, Co-active Leader, as well as an Amazon bestelling author in self-help, mind-body-spirit and spirituality. My passion is to help people find and express their authentic voice and find deep fulfilment in their work, life and relationships. I do this through my coaching, my courses and workshops, my public speaking and broadcasting, and my writing. I like to refer to myself as a “Cosmic Alchemist”, as I believe the universe is continually providing us with everything we need to pro-actively create fantastically rewarding lives, if we only learn some basic skills to recognise, receive and utilise what is around us. I also believe that all people are the heroes of their own lives, and that Personal Transformation is one way to unlock that inner hero, not only for your own personal fulfilment, but also to enable you to create a powerful and positive impact in the world. What makes me unique is my “Create-a-Life System” for personal growth that can help you tap into your “Whole Self”, offering you a practical system for specific needs, depending upon where YOU are on your hero’s journey in life.
My coaching company is called “Create-a-Life”
because I help people create the lives they want to live.
I offer:
1-to-1 coaching
Garden of the Soul Coaching Groups
Transformation Telecourses
Transformation Trilogy Workshops
Coming late 2009: “Becoming the Hero of Your Own Life Retreat”
Details of the above services will be on this site shortly. If you wish to know more now, please send your query to info@create-a-life.co.uk, or sign up for a free consultation on my Create-a-Life website at www.create-a-life.co.uk.
If you are FINALLY ready to discover your life purpose, stop self-sabotage, express your authentic self and create the life you were meant to live with an award-winning coach, teacher, and bestselling spirituality author:
Visit my Create-a-Life Website at http://www.create-a-life.co.uk
or
call 0845 880 2528 (UK) and ask for a free consultation.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
Realising the Gift in Goodbye: Lynn Serafinn’s interview with author Gemini Adams on BlogTalkRadio reveals how Gemini’s journey through bereavement led to her finding her authentic voice.
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul EP16-Voice as a Key to Wholeness GUEST: Gemini Adams DATE AIRED:Wednesday 6 May 2009
I met coach, author and spiritual healer Gemini Adams earlier this year when we were both guests on John Levine’s Happy and Healthy Hour in Cambridge, England. Gemini is a Brit by birth who currently makes her home in Los Angeles, so I was fortunate to have crossed her path on one of her occasional trips back to her homeland. What I noticed about her as soon as I met her was how open and generous she was. She did not even know me and she immediately took one of her books out of her satchel, signed it and made a gift of it to me. Of course, I knew I had to have this woman on my radio show.
Gemini is the author of a unique book called Your Legacy of Love: realise the gift in goodbye. The book was prompted by Gemini’s mother’s untimely death from cancer, when Gemini was only 21 years old. While much of the book gives us deep insight into the largely unspoken impact of bereavement upon the human spirit, and how it can last far longer than most of us care to admit, this is not just another book about loss and how to deal with it at an emotional level. Gemini offers the reader practical answers to how to deal with the “D” word, so that your loved ones are not left with a big gaping hole in their lives.
That practical solution is to leave a legacy of love for those you will leave behind. Gemini offers a range of practical, creative and pleasurable ideas for what that could be, ranging from letters to your loved ones, personal biographies, musical diaries, detailed instructions for how you wish to be remembered, and many other ideas. Gemini gives many compelling reasons why we should do this when we are well and fit, rather than waiting for the time when, heaven forbid, we find ourselves diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. She describes in detail, giving many case studies, how the gift of a legacy of love can help those we leave behind deal with grief and bereavement after we pass on.
And like all books, especially of this type, there is always a story behind it. Gemini explained to me how the process of writing this book also helped unlock her own voice to find ultimate wholeness of self and peace with the universe after years of previously unresolved bereavement. In a private interview, she told me how she believes that “our authentic voice is always there, but we are scared to use it.” Having done past life regression, Gemini came to the conclusion that this might be the culmination of issues that have transpired of many lifetimes, and that it can go on for generations. She says that she finds this to be especially true of women, and that she felt that this was a kind of historical, collective pain that all of us must confront and overcome. To overcome this, it is essential that we break through the fear of judgement. She said that writing offered her great healing in this regard, but the inner barriers are often more formidable than what can be resolved through writing.
It was this need to break free from these fears that ultimate drove Gemini to take action. Going strongly against her middle class instincts, she decided to give up her previous lifestyle and move out of London, out of the UK altogether, far away from everyone and everything she knew. Giving up all her personal possessions, she went to live in someone’s garden shed in Los Angeles, surviving on the dole. It was here that Gemini at last found the voice to write this book, and in doing so she found, and began to live, her life purpose.
Gemini told me that the entire experience of moving through her own bereavement, and ultimately finding her own voice, gave her a deep personal intention and underlying need to make a contribution to the world, and that her motivation is never money or fame. She says that she knows she is helping others to live freely through her work, and that the ultimate intention of the book is to heal and to help others to heal.
When I asked Gemini what her “bigger message” for the world was, she said, “You can be who you really are; you don’t need all the pretence. Education is designed to undo ourselves. Forget what others want for you. Become a unique, pioneering person. YOU are the one who must be satisfied.
If you want to find out more about Gemini, listen to the podcast below. And after you do, be sure to visit Gemini’s websites:
NEXT ON
Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
(this show was already aired; catch the blog and podcast shortly)
Thursday 14 May
SHOW: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Ep17-Forgiveness as a Pathway to Freedom
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 award-winning actress and Forgiveness Coach, Brenda Adelman. Brenda will be sharing her story of how she learned to “forgive the unforgivable” after her father murdered her mother and married her mother’s sister. A trained chaplain at the Unity Church and recipient of “A Hero of Forgiveness Award” from the Hawaii International Forgiveness Project, Brenda now leads forgiveness workshops entitled, “Forgiving the Unforgivable as a Path to Freedom” and regularly tours with her own one-woman show, “My Brooklyn Hamlet.” Brenda will tell us about her journey through deep loss and pain, and resultant depression, to the ultimate freedom and joy she experienced when she learned how to open her heart to forgiveness. Brenda will also reveal her “three steps to forgive and be free” and her “top five reasons to never forgive, and why you must,” and will read us an excerpt from her upcoming book, Forgive and Be Free: A Pathway to Personal Happiness.
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.
At 1245 -115 PM, Lynn will deliver 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.
Show: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul Ep15-Astrology, Numerology and Birth Order to Discover Your Life Purpose Special Guest: Michelle Payton, Ph.D. Date aired:Wednesday 29 April2009
Well, my blog is a TOTALLY late this week! Last week I had a whole series of physical challenges that got me in a real state. First I had a massive spasm in my shoulder that wouldn’t go away. The pain was excruciating. Over the week, it became obvious to me that the spasm was actually being triggered by something weird going on in my teeth. Then, finally, on Sunday of this week one of my teeth when totally haywire and I had massive nerve pain running through my head, face and neck. It was so painful I just couldn’t think straight at all. AND then on top of everything else, it was a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and everything was closed. I ended up in the hospital at A&E, where they pumped me full of pain killers until I could get to my dentist…which I finally did yesterday. She took one look at my tooth and said that the root was dying and that I need a root canal right away. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Well, I have to say she actually did a magnificent job of it. Apart from the pain of the shot going into the roof of my mouth (OUCH!), I felt absolutely no pain; today, I am happy to say, I am pain-free, drug-free and even should-spasm free. I feel really lucky and in SUCH a better mood!
So, while the going is good, I decided I would write TWO blogs today about my past two guests on BlogTalkRadio. The first is about last week’s show, which aired on Wednesday 29 April 2009, where I interviewed Conscious Living Communicator and 6-time author Michelle Payton, Ph.D.
Michelle explained that she calls herself a “conscious living communicator” and a “mind over matter professional” because the essence of her work is to help others live consciously. She said that she was led to this work by asking herself questions like:
“Why am I doing what I am doing?”
“How do I learn how to interact with others gracefully?”
“How do I express my own intuition to others with ease?”
In Michelle’s work, she uses a variety of methods to “help people relax into who they are” including hypnotherapy, NLP and EFT. But one particular method that she created, and about which she is particularly enthusiastic, is called “Birth Mix Patterns” (BMP). BMP combines Astrology, Numerology and Birth Order. She calls this your “Cosmic Personality Mix” and says that understanding it can help you create better relationships, and gain insight into your underlying life path.
Michelle discussed the appeal and logic of combining these methods. She commented that, in her opinion, numerology has a masculine feel, while astrology has a more feminine quality. She says that when she goes into a workplace using BMP, it’s actually a lot of fun, and it takes the mystique out of these three elements. She also mentioned that men especially seem to be extremely interested in understanding their birth order to shed light on their own personalities.
Michelle’s unique method involves taking the birth date of a person and putting it into its numerical equivalent, and then looking at it in the context of birth order. To show how easy it is to do, she gave a short demo on the air, by looking at my own numerology, birth date and birth order. She pointed out that birth order is not always self-evident. We can be “only children” if we are more than 5 years away from our nearest sibling. Also, being the first in a particular gender (i.e., the first girl or the first boy) can also impact our personality. If you want to find out what she said about me… well, you’ll just have to listen to the podcast below.
And after you do, be sure to visit Michelle’s website and calculate your own numbers for yourself for FR*EE:
NEXT ON
Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
(this show was already aired; catch the blog and podcast shortly)
Wednesday 6 May 2009 Ep16: Voice as a Key to Wholeness 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 coach and spiritual healer Gemini Adams, author of the book “Your Legacy of Love: realise the gift in goodbye”. Gemini will share her own story of how her mother’s untimely death when she was a young woman gave her insight into value of creating a loving and living legacy for those we leave behind us after we leave the world, as a means of overcoming and preparing for the challenges of loss. She will also talk about how this experience helped her to unlock her own voice to find ultimate wholeness of self and peace with the universe after years of previously unresolved bereavement.
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.
You can STILL receive 26 special mind-body-spirit gifts when you buy my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self before Friday 8 May 2009.
This is the ABSOLUTE final deadline… it was actually supposed to end last week, but my toothache got in the way!
So, my pain is your gain!
Buy the book and get these beautiful gifts at: http://www.give-receive-become-be.com/pages/bonus.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.
Show: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul Episode 14:Using Sound for Healing and Happiness Date aired: Thursday 23 April 2009
This week on my BlogTalkRadio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul, I interviewed Australian (living in UK) musician, recording artist and composer John Levine of Alphamusic. John was a guest on an earlier episode in February, but he had some technical difficulties that prevented him from being able to dial in, and his interview was less than half the length of what it should have been. On that episode he spoke a bit about what led him to create “alpha music”, after watching his father live through a lifetime of stress-related diseases, only to die from them at the early age of 58.
On tonight’s show, John shared further insights into the mind-body-spirit connection. He explained a bit about the different waves in the brain, and how alpha waves can enable natural restoration of health and wellbeing. He explained a bit about how his Alphamusic which has been proven both anecdotally and scientifically to induce alpha waves in the brain, and how this results in a reduction of stress hormones, and an increased a feeling of relaxation, not dissimilar to a meditational state.
We played two samples of John’s music on the air. First was a short excerpt from his 1984 composition “The Silence of Peace”, which was played on a grand piano in a studio. John said the complete composition is 1 hour in length, and that the full relaxation benefits can be felt after listening to the piece for at least 15 minutes–he cautioned that it should not be played whilst driving! .
The second piece was “Gratitude”, which was a electro-acoustic composition from John’s 2007 album “Emerald Forest”. Played in a free-form ambient pastiche of various acoustic instruments blended with the occasional synthesiser, this composition has a markedly more complex feel to “Silence of Peace”, while still maintaining an open approach to musical structure. Of the air, John said that one of the salient features of Alphamusic is that you specifically cannot sing it or tap your toe to it. In other words, you cannot anticipate what is coming up, or repeat it, as there is no real structure. Still, there are simple melodic motifs (usually built around specific harmonic intervals) that keep it from being so abstract that it feels “avant garde” or discordant.
Now, I am not a scientist, but I did teach music technology and acoustics for many years. And I feel that it is this precise intension NOT to have structure that is what creates the alpha waves in the brain. Why? Very simply this: when we humans anticipate something, our brain gets very busy analysing and predicting. This anticipation keeps us in a heightened state of awareness, or a Beta state. While this is extremely useful for work, if we are in a continual state of heightened awareness, our bodies become over flooded with stress hormones. And the fact is, our minds and bodies will stay on alert whenever they perceive the need to be. However, when our senses detect something cannot be analysed or predicted, and there also appears to be no danger, the brain will eventually let go of the need to be on alert. And that is exactly what John says is the intent of the music-to lower the “fight or flight” reaction of the brain that increases stress hormones. There are no downbeats, no meters, no predictable phrases, no verses/choruses, etc. The music just “is”. And when the brain gets the message that everything just “is”, it allows itself to relax into an alpha state. It’s really very simple.
Tonight we could only play a few minutes of these substantial tracks, and John has more than a dozen albums available on his website. He sells many of them to holistic practitioners, teachers and medical professionals who use them to reduce anxiety, fear and stress in their clients, students and patients (dentists especially love John’s music!). Check out John’s complete repertoire at www.silenceofmusic.com.
AND…
you can receive a very special FR*EE Alphamusic gift from John Levine PLUS 25 other beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts
when you purchase my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self before the end of April 2009. To find out how, go to http://tinyurl.com/lynn-bonus.
Wednesday 29 April Ep15-Astrology, Numerology and Birth Order to Discover Your Life Purpose 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 Conscious Living Communicator and author Michelle Payton, Ph.D. Michelle will be sharing a process she created called “Birth Mix Patterns” that combines Astrology, Numerology and Birth Order to connect with your unique personality patterns, to improve your relationships and discover clues of your underlying life purpose. Michelle will also be offering a short demo of Lynn’s Birth Mix Patterns right on the air, so you can see how easy and informative it is to do yourself, so be sure to have a pen and paper ready to take some useful tips! Listen LIVE at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/04/29/Ep15-Astrology-Numerology-and-Birth-Order-to-Discover-Your-Life-Purpose
Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)
You can receive 26 special mind-body-spirit gifts
when you buy my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Selfduring the month of April 2009.
Find out how to get these beautiful gifts at: http://www.give-receive-become-be.com/pages/bonus.html
Title: Flitwick Mind Body and Soul Fair Location: Rufus Centre, Flitwick, England Link out: Click here Description: Rufus Centre, Steppingley Road,
Flitwick, Beds MK45 1AH
18th & 19th April 2009
Sat 10.00am – 5.00 pm
sun 10.30am – 4.30pm
Entrance £3.00
Don’t miss this fabulous mind-body-spirit fair. Free talks on both days. Lynn will talk at 1 PM Sat and 12.30 PM Sunday. Signed copies of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self also available. Start Date: 2009-04-18 Start Time: 10.00 End Date: 2009-04-19 End Time: 16.30
BEDFORD, ENLAND, 8 APRIL 2009. Bedford author Lynn Serafinn became an Amazon UK best-selling author yesterday when her debut book, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Selfentered the top selling titles on the day of its launch on 7 April 2009, hitting as high as number 18 in its genres.
Amazon’s sales ratings are updated hourly. Books are not only rated in their rank according to their sales in “all books”, but also within a range of different categories. If a book appears in the ”Top 100″ within any given category, it can be said to be a best-seller.
The Garden of the Soulachieved “Amazon Best Seller” status in the UK in the rankings at 1230 PM on Tuesday 7 April, the day of its official launch, when it ranked 25th in the New Age/Occult category (assumably because it contains content about Indian spirituality) and 28th in the Mind, Body, Spirit/Spirituality category. Later in the day, these rankings rose to number 18 and 21 respectively. It shared this list with authors such as the Dalai Lama, Rhonda Byrne, Deepak Chopra and Paul McKenna, and it is actually AHEAD of some titles by Doreen Virtue, Abraham (Esther Hicks) and Eckhart Tolle. All in all, it is mighty respectable company to be amongst, especially for a brand new author.
In addition to this, by the morning of Wednesday 8 April, Lynn’s book had also reached number 92 in the extremely competitive “Self Help” category, and its rankings in the overall books on Amazon reached an extremely impressive figure of number 1,494 amongst its many MILLIONS of books.
Some words from Lynn: All of this is extremely satisfying for a first-time, self-published author working on a complete shoe-string marketing budget and who owes all success to the collaborative efforts of her many colleagues on the social networks! All hail to the power of the world wide web! When it works, it really works. And all of that is just from the first 24 hours! The real work has only just begun.
I am feeling truly grateful today. After two solid years of writing, rewriting, editing, proofing, marketing, coordinating and overall madness… the baby is finally born, and I now release it to the world. Just so you know how important each and every reader is to me, here is my “Artist’s Manifesto”, which I wrote in May 2007, and appears in the Introduction to The Garden of the Soul:
“An artist is a person who has awakened to the thrilling realisation that the real meaning of what he creates can only manifest via the multi-coloured perspectives of those other than himself.
In this state of being, he releases his vision, unattached to its destination.
Until that moment, he is not yet an artist, but a dreamer.
The true beauty of his art takes birth in the things others see in it that he does not.”
Synopsis: The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Selfis a book about becoming whole…
Called ‘as spiritual as Deepak Chopra and as magical as Paulo Coelho,’ The Garden of the Soulis a journey on the ‘path of least resistance to the Self’ through the imagery of four flowers that represent four spiritual principles: ‘Give’ (the Rose), ‘Receive’ (the Iris), ‘Become’ (the Daffodil) and ‘Be’ (the Lily).Taking the reader on a daring and magical journey through the author’s life and imagination–from stage fright and burnout in a classical music conservatory, to life inside an Indian temple, to a hidden life of domestic violence, to finding inner peace atop an old English footbridge–The Garden of the Soul explores birth, death, love, art, spirituality and transformation in an eloquent, poetic and ultimately unforgettable way. It is an open invitation to readers to explore how they are already the heroes of their own lives.
Title: RADIO: Healing the Universe Location: BlogTalkradio Link out: Click here Description: Crystal Clear Speaks with Joe Rumbolo. Joe interviews Lynn Serafinn, author of The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Start Time: 1:00 GMT (yes, 1 AM) Date: 2009-04-03 End Time: 2:30 GMT
Title: RADIO: Happy and Healthy Hour Location: Cambridge radio 105 FM, or http://www.209radio.co.uk/shows/profile.php?show=happy Link out: Click here Description: John Levine hosts the Happy and Healthy Hour. John interviews author, personal transformation coach and teacher Lynn Serafinn. Lynn discusses her new book The Garden of the Soul and reveals four simple principles that can help you express yourself through your authentic voice and find out who you really are (re-broadcast from 24 March). Start Time: 12:00 GMT Date: 2009-03-31 End Time: 13:00 GMT
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: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gail Sussman Miller Location: Gail Sussman Miller’s Blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 15 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Gail’s Inspired Choice blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-25
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Kristina Berglund Location: Kristina Berglund’s Vedic Art Blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 14 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Kristina’s Vedic Art blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Kristina is also the artist of the fabulous mandala artwork on the cover of the book! Date: 2009-03-24
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Callie Carling stop 2! Location: Callie Carling’s Holistic Feathers Blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 13 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Callie’s holistic feather blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-23
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Gina Marks Location: Gina Marks’s Blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 12 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Gina interviews Lynn on the topic of personal transformatin, and the mind-body-soul connection. Lynn shares her views on the link between emotional repression and chronic illness, and shares her own journey of recovery from a crippling case of fibromyalgia and other ailments, and how this led her to understand the four spiritual principles of “give, receive, become and be” that appear in her book The Garden of the Soul. Date posted: 2009-03-21
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Duncan Brodie Location: Duncan Brodies’ Blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 11 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Duncan’s blog and find out what he has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-20
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Lola Fayemi Location: Lola Fayemi’s blog Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 10 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Lola’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-19
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Judy Davids Location: Judy Davids’s Link out: Click here Description: Stop number 9 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. Check out Judy’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-18
Title: Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Heidi Richards Location: Heidi Richards’s Blog Link out: Click HERE Description: Stop number 8 on the Virtual Book Blog Tour for Lynn Serafinn’s new book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self.Check out Heidi’s blog and find out what she has to say about the book. Date: 2009-03-17
Meditation 65: Wisdom
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