Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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!”

Related posts

• The Lily – the Principle of Being (0)
• Books (2)
• Thurs 25 June – An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Poise as a Quality of the Divine (0)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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!”

Related posts

• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Consciousness, Intention and Divine Growth (0)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

See you in the Garden!

Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn
Author of Amazon bestseller, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self,
Official book site: http://www.give-receive-become-be.com
Coaching: http://www.create-a-life.co.uk

Related posts

• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Poise as a Quality of the Divine (0)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)
• Video of the Week! “Validation” (4)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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:

• COACHING: www.create-a-life.co.uk
• BOOK: www.give-receive-become-be.com (or find the book on Amazon)
• GLOBAL WELLNESS CIRCLE: www.global-wellness-circle
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL RADIO SHOW: www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL FACEBOOK GROUP: http://tinyurl.com/fb-gots
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/gots-fan
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL SOCIAL NETWORK: www.gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Related posts

• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 3 (0)
• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 4 (1)
• The Lily – the Principle of Being (0)
• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 1 (0)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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:

• COACHING: www.create-a-life.co.uk
• BOOK: www.give-receive-become-be.com (or find the book on Amazon)
• GLOBAL WELLNESS CIRCLE: www.global-wellness-circle
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL RADIO SHOW: www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL FACEBOOK GROUP: http://tinyurl.com/fb-gots
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE: http://tinyurl.com/gots-fan
• GARDEN OF THE SOUL SOCIAL NETWORK: www.gardenofthesoul.ning.com 

Related posts

• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 2 (0)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 3 (0)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)
• The Lily – the Principle of Being (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

Event: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul

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

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).

Purchase tickets at http://tinyurl.com/gots-7aug09

Related posts

• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Thurs 25 June – An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Books (2)
• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

If you aren’t aware of the Weekly Meditation “game”, see info below to find out how to play.

Here is your Garden of the Soul Meditation/Practice for the week. This week’s number was selected intuitively by Kate Parker from Leicester, England. Kate intuitively picked number 11, which is in the number for the attribute of “Boldness” that appears in section on “The Rose: The Principle of Giving.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DAY 11: BOLDNESS
Boldness is our willingness to be seen in the world. This does not mean making ourselves the centre of attention, although we might indeed find that we our noticed by others when we are bold. Boldness means we are daring enough to express our Truth using whatever the Universe has given us as our unique talent, and to live our life purpose regardless of what others may think, and in spite of what limiting beliefs we carry around about ourselves. When we are living according to our life purpose, we are fully standing in boldness.

In The Garden of the Soul the Rose teaches by example as she stands her own boldness. Standing erect and armed with thorns, she remains poised in her own beauty, softness, sensuality and alluring aroma. True boldness has nothing to do with being aggressive or rude. Nor does it mean we are never fearful. It means to pick up the challenge of the unique life purpose (our dharma) that calls us, in spite of our fears. True boldness is spiritual. When we step into spiritual boldness, we have embraced our Eternal Dharma.

SYMPTOMS OF WHEN IT IS BLOCKED OR DISTORTED
Timidity; self-criticism; feeling useless; wandering; drifting; withdrawal; avoidance; intoxication; passive or aggressive

SYMPTOMS OF WHEN IT IS FLOWING
Confidence; faith; vibrancy; steadiness; sense of Higher purpose; able to recover when shaken; self-worth; clear vision

ENQUIRIES TO CULTIVATE THIS ATTRIBUTE

1. Where do I tend not to be seen in my life?
2. What stories have I told myself about why I disappear?
3. What will change both in my own life and in the wider world when I finally step into Divine Boldness?

 PRACTICAL EXERCISE TO CULTIVATE THIS ATTRIBUTE
Take your journal and write a story about a situation in your current life where you know you are not allowing your Divine Self to be seen. Then put your pen down and meditate upon the unique gift you carry for the world. Now rewrite the same story as it would happen if you gave this gift to the world by allowing yourself to step into your Divine Boldness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you liked this week’s Garden of the Soul Weekly Meditation.

YOU CAN HELP ME WRITE MY NEXT BOOK!
To “play” all you need to do is: 

1. Subscribe to this blog
2. Pick a number from 1 – 80 that you select intuitively.
3. 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 following week)
4. I will put all the numbers into a “hat” and chose one at random and publish the correlating “meditation” for that number on the following Friday right here in the Garden.
5. Watch every Friday for a brand new weekly meditation, and then send me your new intuitive number

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.

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?

If you haven’t yet sent your number for the week, go ahead and send it now. Maybe yours will be next week’s Garden of the Soul meditation, to be posted next Friday.

Have a wonderful week in your Garden!

Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
Personal Transformation Coach at Create-a-Life
http://www.create-a-life.co.uk

Author of Amazon bestseller,
The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self
http://www.give-receive-become-be.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LynnSerafinn
Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LynnSerafinn
Join the Garden of the Soul Facebook group: http://tinyurl.com/fb-gots
Join the Garden of the Soul Social Network: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Related posts

• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• 1st-time self-published Lynn Serafinn: Amazon best-seller day of launch (1)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

1. Subscribe to this blog
2. 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)
3. 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.

AND come join the “Garden of the Soul” group on Facebook too at http://tinyurl.com/fb-gots

Have a wonderful week in your Garden!
Warm wishes,
Lynn

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LynnSerafinn
Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LynnSerafinn
Join the Garden of the Soul Facebook group: http://tinyurl.com/fb-gots
Join the Garden of the Soul Social Network: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Related posts

• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• The Lily – the Principle of Being (0)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Garden of the Soul Meditation Number 11 – Boldness (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

Author, Personal Transformation Coach Lynn Serafinn interviews author/spiritual coach Steve Ryals on www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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 6^th or 7^th 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 21^st 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.

Listen to the playback of the show here:

Or download the MP3 of this show from:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/06/03/Ep20-Feeling-is-Healing

Subscribe to the podcast here:  

Steve’s Official Drunk with Wonder Website: www.drunkwithwonder.com

Audio Book version of Drunk with Wonder on iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAudiobook?id=251938760&s=143441 

Browse through other episodes at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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

Listen LIVE or download the broadcast “on demand” at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/06/10/Ep21-Integrating-Spirit-and-Human
Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)

Can’t make it to the live show? No problem!

Catch all our episodes “on demand” at
www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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

• Garden of the Soul Book Blog: www.give-receive-become-be.com
• Garden of the Soul Social Network: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com
• Create-a-Life Coaching/Training: www.create-a-life.co.uk
• Global Wellness Circle: www.global-wellness-circle.com

Related posts

• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Books (2)
• Thurs 11 June – SHINE Radio Show on Westside Radio, Southall, London (0)
• Living the Law of Attraction: interview with Ruth Hegarty (1)
• Always Look on the Bright Side of Death (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

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
• You can also receive the full eCourse absolutely FREE at http://www.forgivenessandfreedom.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. 

Listen to playback of the show below:

Download the MP3 from:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/05/14/Ep17-Forgiveness-as-a-Pathway-to-Freedom

Subscribe to the podcast here: 

Browse through other episodes at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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.

This show was already aired. Catch the replay at “on demand” at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn/2009/05/20/Ep18-Photography-and-Transformation

Can’t make it to the live show? No problem!

Catch all our episodes “on demand” at
www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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

• Garden of the Soul Book Blog: www.give-receive-become-be.com
• Garden of the Soul Social Network: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com
• Create-a-Life Coaching/Training: www.create-a-life.co.uk
• Global Wellness Circle: www.global-wellness-circle.com

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

Related posts

• Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence – an interview with Gail Sussman Miller (0)
• The Gift in Goodbye. Interview with Gemini Adams (1)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)
• Living the Law of Attraction: interview with Ruth Hegarty (1)
• Vision and Visionary: Photographer Sheila Finkelstein (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

The Lily- The Principle of Being

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.

Related posts

• Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence – an interview with Gail Sussman Miller (0)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Books (2)
• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 3 (0)
• Personal Transformation and Why it is Important for the Greater World – Pt 2 (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

NEWS FLASH!

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 Self  entered 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 Soul achieved “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.”

Purchase this best-selling book on or before Friday 10 April and receive 26 fabulous free gifts. Click HERE to find out how.

Title: The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self

Author: Lynn Serafinn
Publisher: Bright Pen Books
Publish date: 20 March 2009
Release Date: 7 April 2009
Format: paperback, 404 pages, illustrated
Genres: mind-body-spirit; spirituality; self-help/personal growth
ISBN13: 978-0-7552-1126-5
ISBN10 (Amazon ASIN no): 075521126X
Price: £14.99 GBP/$21.95 USD

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 Soul is 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.

Enquiries: info@give-receive-become-be.com

Related posts

• Books (2)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Stephanie Bell (0)
• Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Lola Fayemi (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

Show: Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Episode 8: Sound as a Pathway to Spirit
Date aired: Wed 11 March 2009

Last week on my BlogTalkRadio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul, I interviewed internationally renowned musician, recording artist, singer and composer Sat Kartar Khalsa. Sat Kartar spoke about the link between sound and the spirit, and practical ways in which we can use sound meditation, such as mantra, singing and chanting, to access the Divine Self. Sat Kartar also shared two very heavenly treats from her albums on the air, so it was a true auditory delight.

Sat Kartar shared some delightful information about herself, including insight into her early “hippy” days and how she moved from taking drugs to chanting mantras, and how within the sound vibration she was able to get a permanent “high” without intoxicants. She also talked about how her “upside down lefty” guitar playing influences her creativity, and how she came to mesh a sample from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” with an esoteric Indian mantra (which she shared with us on the air). Listeners sampled two delightful sound bytes from Sat Kartar’s albums, including her latest album “Flow”. Although we were only able to listen to a few minutes of each one, they really demonstrated the breadth (and “breath”) of Sat Kartar’s uplifting and enchanting style, and the undeniable purity of her captivating voice.

And captivating, she truly is. I myself have been amongst Sat Kartar’s fans from the moment I met her in 1994. Since then, she has been a close personal friend of mine, so this show was a real privilege for me. But I also know about her integrity as a musician, and her creativity in the studio, for I worked with Sat Kartar when she was the vocalist on a track called “Imagine! Deeply Hypnotic Mix” by our band “Overlords of the UFO”. I believe it was her deliciously smooth voice and passionate harmonies that helped to propel the progressive b-side of that vinyl-only release to be called “Weird by wicked” by Mixmag, and shoot to the top of the trance DJ charts in 1994. You can hear a short snippet of that track, and Sat Kartar’s vocals, on the closing music to my radio show every week. Later, in 1999, she went on to record two more tracks with us on an EP entitled “Transcendental Overdrive”. Both of these are currently out of print, but stay tuned as there is chance you just might see them re-released later in 2009.

But you don’t have to wait until then to hear Sat Kartar’s vocals. Her delicious albums “Flow” and “Listen” are available both on Amazon, and these, along with other back-catalogue, are also available on her website at www.satkartarmusic.com. You can also purchase “Flow” and “Listen” right here on The Garden of the Soul Gift Shop.

AND… you can receive a very special FR*EE mantra meditation gift from Sat Kartar when you purchase my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self on Tuesday 7 April. To find out how, just click HERE.

 Read more about Sat Kartar on her website at: www.satkartarmusic.com

Listen to the show now:

Subscribe to this podcast here:

NEXT ON
Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul
Wednesday 18 March

Ep09- Food as a Pathway to the Spirit
6.30 PM UK time, 2.30 PM Eastern, 11.30 AM Pacific, 7.30 PM CET

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.

Listen LIVE at www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn
Listener questions: call at 646-727-3449 during broadcast (US number)

Related posts

• Creating from Chaos and the Law of Allowing (0)
• Using Sound for Healing and Happiness – interview with John Levine (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)
• Boosting Your Emotional Intelligence – an interview with Gail Sussman Miller (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

Wednesday evening was episode 4 of my radio broadcast “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” on BlogTalkRadio. My special guest was John Levine of Alpha music who composes “Alpha” music that is supposed to put you to sleep. Umm… that didn’t come out the way I meant it… what I mean is, John’s music is intended as a cure for insomnia, anxiety, etc., because it is said to induce Alpha waves in the brain, which actually bring one to a relaxed state. I had spoken to John over the phone before setting up the show, and I thought the story of how he came to create this music was so interesting that I simply had to have him on the show. I was really excited that he was going to be on the air, and we made all the arrangements together.

So along comes Wednesday and I log on to my switchboard for the show. John had agreed to call in at least 5 minutes before air time to touch base before we went live. But 5 min before the start of the show, there was still no one on the guest line. I watched the countdown… 4 min, 3, 2, 1… Suddenly I’m live on the air. The theme music plays. Still no guest. Yikes!

When I was trained in Leadership, we learned that a real leader is supposed to be able to throw out “the plan” when needed, and create something from anything… or nothing, as the case may be. Well, all I had was the title of the show, and little old me. No back-up plan whatsoever.

Hmmm… I thought. So what can I create from this?

Ok, so after the theme music died down, I do my usual spiel to start. I talk about last week’s show, and even the week before. Still no guest. Hmm… we are already 3 minutes into the show. So, I go ahead and introduce my guest anyway, but am completely transparent and tell the audience he’s not there, if you can believe that! I tell them I am just going to talk about the topic anyway, trusting he’ll show up.

TALK?? On what? I ask myself …This is supposed to be an INTERVIEW.”

Anyway, I took the topic of the show, “Using Creativity to Heal the Self” and just started “winging it”. I started talking about my own journey of creativity and how it helped heal me (or not). I ended up talking about my own creative process in writing the book (at least part of it). I spoke about how I let go of control of the need to create and allowed things to just evolve, and how this actually opened up not only my creativity, but allowed me to “heal” from many wounds from the past. I spoke about how different characters appeared for my book, how I “allowed” the characters to write the stories, and how this bought me to a deeper understanding of the story I was writing. I spoke about my story “Learning to Breathe” (part of the section on the “Iris” in The Garden of the Soul) where I wrote about my mother’s death. I spoke about my character “Crow”, who was inspired by an actual crow who came to my window one morning about 2 years ago, and prompted the flow and meaning of the story. I spoke about how Crow asked me questions to which I didn’t premeditate the answers, and how I simply allowed the conversation to unfold in the book. I spoke about the wisdom and the healing this kind of organic creative process brought me regarding many pivotal events in my life, such as my mother’s death.

Then, just as I was “sort of” making a point, and with a whole 14 minutes left to the show, my guest John Levine finally shows up. Apparently, he had been trying to call in for half an hour but couldn’t get through to the call (bless him!). But, as fate would have it, he came in right at a moment when I was just completing the idea of “allowing” things to evolve naturally (but where I would have gone after that, don’t ask me!), so I just sort of used the moment to create from whatever showed up and said something like, “We’re going to be creative right now and allow this moment to happen exactly as it is.”

Now, one would think that this is probably a host’s worst nightmare. It’s like all those dreams where you are pushed out on stage without ever having had a rehearsal (ever have those?). But you know what? I felt perfectly calm. I was well aware that I probably babbled my silly head off for 16 minutes. But I didn’t care. I felt connected in some WEIRD way, and simply remained open and fully transparent. Now, I find this a very strange thing to have done, and regardless of how “good” the babble ended up being (hahaha… I haven’t listened to it yet! Maybe YOU could listen to it and let me know!), I still feel pretty proud that I was able to hold the room for 16 minutes solo, and actually stay somehow on the topic of the show.

Even though we only had 16 minutes, we managed to have just enough time for John to briefly tell how he first embarked on his journey to producing Alpha music. He spoke a little bit about 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. He told me about his secret desire to record an album in the Taj Mahal some day. Paul Horn did that in the 70s on his album Inside, but all he had was a flute. Bringing in a grand piano would undoubtedly be a little bit more challenging! Unfortunately, we only had time for a small excerpt of one of John’s track on the air, but if you go to his site  at  www.silenceofmusic.com, he’s got loads of clips for your to hear. Of course, I will have John on the show again sometime soon. He’s a lovely person with a great story and a MASSIVE repertoire of Alpha wave inducing music. So and I really want to have the chance to present him properly on another show.

By the way, John will be appearing LIVE here in Bedford at our Global Wellness Circle evening this Monday 16 February at the Park Road West Church Hall, just off Roff Avenue. CLICK HERE for full details, or visit http://www.global-wellness-circle.com and click “events”.

So the question is, I wonder why the Universe wished this to happen? I trust I shall find out eventually.

But I must admit, I now have a real appreciation for the role of a co-host!

Be SURE to check out John’s site at http://www.silenceofmusic.com. He has a MASSIVE amount of music there, and you can here samples online.

Warm wishes,
Lynn

P.S.: Have a listen to my own creative process while I was creating from chaos:

AND it would be great if you gave it a little heart to mark it as your favourite! It will help me get higher in the ratings.

OR… subscribe the podast HERE:

P.P.S.: Next week’s guest is Royal Amber Rojas who has an amazing story of survival to tell! Make SURE you all tune in on Wed 18 Feb at 6.30 PM UK time to hear her incredible story on the air. You can listen to the show online at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn, either live OR “on demand”.

P.P.P.S.: Come on over and join Amber, me and lots of other colourful people on my new social network “The Garden of the Soul” at http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Related posts

• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)
• Thurs 11 June – SHINE Radio Show on Westside Radio, Southall, London (0)
• TALK RADIO: Stepping into Our Personal Legacy (1)
• Sound as a Pathway to Spirit – Sat Kartar Khalsa (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

News Update:  Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on Ning
Become a member at: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com

Today I launched my new social network on Ning called “Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul” in preparation for the launch of my book (exactly 2 months away now!). I describe it as “A vibrant place for cultural and spiritual creatives.” I sent out the invitations this evening (Saturday evening…. not the best time to invite people to join a network?) and within 10 minutes I had several new members. Immediately they started bringing real vibrance to the site with music, pictures and just plain old personality. I found this to be amazing! All I did was set up the page and then click “send” and suddenly there is a virtual event going on all by itself.

While every one of the member pages has a quality and a character to it, I really wanted to showcase a priceless gem from one of my members, artist and poet Bruce Morse. He put on a slide show of his paintings, and frankly I could not believe that a single human being could paint so many paintings, what to speak of so many fabulous ones. I am posting his slideshow here (via YouTube) because I think it is top quality content and he deserves to be shouted about. So here’s to my Ning friend, the amazing artist Bruce Morse:

Visit Bruce’s profile on my new Ning site at http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com/profile/BruceMorse

And while you’re there, leave a comment for Bruce.
AND vote for our site as the on of the top spiritual networks.

Related posts

• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• What is “The Garden of the Soul”? (0)
• Video: Song of the Rose from the book The Garden of the Soul (2)
• Video of the Week! “Validation” (4)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

What others are saying about The Garden of the Soul…

“The Garden of the Soul transcends beauty and heroism, as it  guides us along the path to true soul retrieval. Lynn Serafinn has created a literary work of art, a vessel that will transport you to your childish spirit, your higher self and your eternity, all from the very first page.”
– Allison Maslan,
#1 Selling Author, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality

“The Garden of the Soul’ is rich in teaching metaphors and will speak to each of us according to where we are on our own path… Lynn is a brilliant and creative out-of-the-box thinker. Her impact is powerful…and her magic comes through each page of this book. Lynn offers us a message that is both simple and profound. Open up and receive her words and they will affect you in a most positive way.”

–Patrick Ryan,
Author of #1 spirituality bestseller,
Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance

---

“Lynn beautifully weaves together fable and poetry with her personal journey of self-discovery. Through her lyrical style and brilliant imagination, she leads the reader on a magical adventure toward deeper understanding of the relationship between Self and the world.”

–Alan Seale, Transformation Coach
Author of Soul Mission, Life Vision and
The Manifestation Wheel

---

“The Garden of the Soul helps to restore our Divine Self-Image.”

~ Yvonne M. Perry
Founder, Writers in the Sky
Host We Are One in Spirit Podcast
Author of More than Meets the Eye

---

“While as spiritual as the works of Deepak Chopra, and as magical as the novels of Paolo Coelho, ‘The Garden of the Soul’ carries a unique identity within its genre. Reading this book took me on a journey through the entire gamut of human emotions, in all their lightness as well as all their intensity. Lynn is a master at beautifully and coherently weaving together prose and poetry, autobiography and fiction, fantasy and realism, drama and humour (and a lot more of the unexpected), all in service of sharing the wisdom of the Four Principles of the Garden of our Soul. With each amazing chapter of her life, Lynn brilliantly and ever so subtly allows for the blossoming and maturing of our own Soul and wisdom. This is a book I will be going back to again and again as a very powerful spiritual reference book, that is infinitely entertaining, moving and engaging all at the same time. I am certain that with each repeated reading, I will be discovering more gems in its nuances and within my own Soul. I absolutely love it!”

–Lina Nahhas, Founder of “1 Urban Humanity” for the Middle East

---

“Wonderful! 10 out of 10! An epic journey from the 1950s up to the present day –- with one woman’s personal journey of discovery. Engaging, intimate, open and profound, this collection of memoirs, fables and lyrical poetry will provide fertile ground so that your own ‘Garden’ can bloom. Keep this book on your bookshelf right next to ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’.”

–Simon Ireland-Davies, Director, ID Coaching Limited, Liverpool

---

“I was moved to tears (good ones) and put into a spiritual mood that lasted most of the day… Since reading this…whenever I am aware of my inner wounded child feeling insecure, I remind myself I am commanded to live according to my nature… nurtured by the Earth, kissed by the Sun, cooled by the Moon, nourished by the Rains…It’s a story I would love to retell and share!… “The Garden of the Soul is a book that will help you discover your Soul has a voice that can help you… learn how to treasure and leverage your natural spirit, realize the value of your own painful and delightful life stories and be inspired to appreciate Mother Nature’s lessons and the power of honoring your own nature.”

–Gail Sussman Miller, Director, Inspired Choice, Chicago, Illinois, USA

---

“The Garden of the Soul is a truly breathtaking piece of prose…a book to treasure forever and read over and over again…Lynn’s writing style is hypnotic and deeply moving, her own soul laid bare to help us move forward and embrace our own garden of flowers deep within us. A profoundly beautiful experience, a real gem. Are you ready to become the hero of your own life? If so, grab your own copy of The Garden of the Soul.”

–Callie Carling
Therapist & trainer, London

---

“‘The Garden of the Soul’ helps you realise that you already have all the wisdom you need and the answers to your questions are found when you look inwards.”

–Fran Stockley
Nutritional Therapist, Herfordshire, UK

---

“Lynn has the gift of unfolding truths through the power and poetry of deceptively simple stories that resonate long after they are read.”

–Antony Parry
Writing Coach, Coach Words, London

Related posts

• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• What is “The Garden of the Soul”? (0)
• Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Stephanie Bell (0)
• Virtual Blog Tour for Garden of the Soul: Lola Fayemi (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

The Garden of the Soul is a book about becoming whole…

Described by its readers as “magical”, “spiritual”, “brilliant” and “profound”, The Garden of the Soul is a book that dances freely on both sides of the bridge between fiction and non-fiction, to illustrate the unearthing of the human spirit, using autobiography, dream work, poetry and metaphor. It is a journey on the ‘path of least resistance to the Self’ using the metaphor of four flowers that represent four spiritual principles that bring wholeness to the Self:

• The Principle of Giving (the Rose)
• The Principle of Receiving (the Iris)
• The Principle of Becoming (the Daffodil)
• The Principle of Being (the Lily).

It is an open invitation to readers to explore how they are already the heroes of their own lives.

More to follow…

Official launch date: 7 April 2009
Publisher: Give-Receive-Become-Be Publications
Enquiries: info@give-receive-become-be.com

Related posts

• Books (2)
• LIVE EVENT: An Evening in the Garden of the Soul (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)
• YOU Can Help Me Write My Next Book! Just Pick a Number! (3)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)

Subscribe to this blog to receive weekly radio listings for Garden of the Soul Radio. Tune into the show Wednesdays at http://blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn

‘The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self’

by Lynn Serafinn

Check out this introduction to Lynn and her book in the video below (originally made for the Next Top Spiritual Author Competition):

USA: Click HERE to purchase the book from Amazon.com

UK: Click HERE to purchase the book from Amazon.co.uk

CANADA: Click HERE to purchase the book from Amazon.ca

Click HERE to browse through
“The Garden of the Soul Gift Shop”

Read Excerpts:

About the Book…

Title: The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self

Author: Lynn Serafinn

Publisher: Bright Pen Books

Publish date: 20 March 2009

ISBN13: 9780755211265

ISBN10 (ASIN): 075521126X

AMAZON BESTSELLER in:

Spirituality, mind-body-spirit, New Age, self-help.

Synopsis:

The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self is a book about becoming whole…

Called ‘as spiritual as Deepak Chopra and as magical as Paulo Coelho,’ The Garden of the Soul is 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 re-examine their own life stories, even the painful ones, and see the beauty, significance and meaning within them, so they can see that they are already the hero of their own story. Appreciative readers report that reading this book has helped them to heal from trauma or abuse, explore and embrace their own creativity, and to feel encouraged to be more courageous in expressing their authentic voice. Within the first few days of its release, the book attained Amazon bestseller status in both the UK and US in the New Age, Mind-Body-Spirit, Spirituality and Self-Help categories.

Click HERE to Buy “The Garden of the Soul”and other recommended titles
at the ”Garden of the Soul Gift Shop”

ABOVE: Very cool video with author Lynn Serafinn reading from the book, nature photography by Sheila Finkelstein and uplifting music from London band Bleep Test.

Here’s what one viewer had to say about the video:

“I finally had time to go listen to the Song of the Rose – It’s exquisite – I love the words, Lynn’s voice, Sheila’s images, Lynn’s sequencing of them – the whole thing is a gem! I feel very inspired.” –Tomar Levine, Picture to Ponder subscriber

What are the Four Principles: Give, Receive, Become, Be?

Find out by subscribing to our Blog!

Give, Receive, Become, Be…

Lynn Serafinn

Related posts

• Feeling is Healing – Interview with Steve Ryals (0)
• 1st-time self-published Lynn Serafinn: Amazon best-seller day of launch (1)
• Wisdom – Our Eternal Dance Partner (0)
• The Lily – the Principle of Being (0)
• Forgive and Be Free – Interview with Brenda Adelman (0)