Posts Tagged ‘motivation’

Leading by Example: Turning National And Personal Unrest Around…

Inspiration always comes…

We just have to be still enough to notice it.

In August 2005, just after the train bombings in London, amongst the fear and the negativity, I heard people say: “I want to change the world”. Then they shrugged and added, “But I can’t do it alone.”

I disagreed.

You see, a fundamental belief behind CommunitySoul is that you can change the world.

How?

I won’t happen if we trying to tackle the whole problem. That’s just too much of a big bite. The way to change the world is through changing the part of the world you influence and control.

Let me put it like this…

You will probably agree… that while you may know life isn’t perfect ( i.e. you may have some debt; kids you love, but can’t relate to; a spouse who you love, but lost the spark with) you may not be wandering around 24/7 trying to fix it all.

The truth is the problems most people face are “back of mind” issues rather than “front of mind”. What this means is that we go from day to day coping and getting by, but perhaps never really standing up for our highest truth.

Some spiritual teachers claim everything is a reflection. Others say, “As within, so without”. So this morning as I’m writing this to you, I’m thinking about changing the world and what the riots in major UK cities reflect that we have going on inside us. I’m also wondering about what our Prime Minister calls a, “Sick Society.”

My question is this…

When shops get looted, when cars get burned and people act violently against each other, what is it that is going on inside each of us  that is being reflected on a national scale?

For days I’ve been asking people if they know what the riots are about.

I asked my parents. I asked my children. I posted on Facebook. I read countless articles on-line. What became apparent is that the reasons are varied.

MendLondon website put it in a nutshell: “There was quite clearly a spectrum of reasons people got involved ranging from ego, boredom, peer pressure, anger, sheer bloody-mindedness, greed, territoriality, hatred and for a sense of thrill.”

Martin Luther King in Birmingham Jail

So, what are the riots reflecting in each of us?

For me, all this has happened at a time when I’ve just finished reviewing the life of Martin Luther King for my Life Purpose Group.

Let me share an insight from the great man…

King said (when talking about the Vietnam war and the death of John F. Kennedy) that through our silence and willingness to compromise our highest principles we construct an atmosphere where events materialise.

He says: “By allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is the one who masters the art of shooting and techniques of killing, we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred become popular pastimes.”

Of course, since King spoke those words back in the 1960’s, so in addition to TV and movies we can add a whole host of violent video games.

As parents… business owners… as human beings… we all have choices and responsibilities about what to buy, what to create, what to sell, what to allow into our homes and what to allow into our minds.

For example, if we want the world to become a more peaceful less violent angry place we have to exert influence over the part of the world we control. That means we turn the TV over when we notice violence. We skip the movie with needless bloodshed. We don’t buy the game. We send a message to the creators, do make this. When profits are hit, they will stop making the movies and people who do not have your ability to switch off from violence will see less of it.

When I started to do this, I found it hard to begin with, as I broke old habits.

Andey, playing guitar

Is it possible that as you make that choice your children will see less violence and be less aggressive?

When my son was 13 years old his behaviour became uncharacteristically aggressive. I noticed this coincided with him playing on the Playstation.  We spoke about it and regulated his time with it. Coinciding with other changes in his life (we took him out of school) he sometimes complained of  boredom.  Boredom, with some parental love, allowed him space to experience who he really is and discover a purpose and one day he picked up a guitar. Four years later he began teaching music, enrolled in a music course at college, played in a various band, regularly gets on the stage at open mic nights and records his music in a studio.

As I said, inspiration always comes. Can you see how that materilised from noticing what came out of the boredom which not playing a Playstation allowed?

Can you see how it created opportunity?

Would you agree he discovered something worthwhile and purposeful?

Here’s another example…

My 11 year old daughter watches almost no TV. As a result, her mind is not swamped by – and therefore not programmed by – the adverts or images we have not chosen for her to see.

In our home DVD’s and game stations are mostly for weekends, and only after working together as a family. My daughter contributes to the household. She has taken on a role as a team-player in the home. We pay her for chores and she learns the cause and effect of effort and reward, and financial responsibility.

Father and daughter ready for a dinner party

We also speak about games she plays and who she plays with and how they add meaning to her life. We talk every day about life in general and work with her to resolve issues.

Her is a recent one…

A teacher had been shouting at her and this upsetting her. After speaking with me she went to the teacher. She promised to give respect to the teacher and asked for respect in return (i.e. not being shouted at). The teacher responded positively and now has an excellent relationship with my daughter.

Do you believe she is learning to respect our home?

Do you believe she is learning a healthy respect for money?

Do you believe she has an understanding of her importance to the family unit?

Can you see how she is learning about having a healthy self-respect and how to communicate her needs?

Contrast that with a child left to watch TV or play video games all day long, who is given “hand-outs” like pocket money, allowed to leave their dirty undies on the floor and their plate by the sink after dinner and whose parents are both run ragged. Think about what that teaches a child.

Following King’s suggestion we create an atmosphere where events materialise. And what materialises if we love our children so much that we do everything for them?

Dependency?

State hand-outs?

An inability to contribute?

Failure to understand worth as a human being place and value in society?

Lack of care for society?

Frustration?

Anger?

A generation who covet nice things, but lack the knowledge to lawfully create having it.

My commitment, back in 2005, was to do what I could to change the world through changing the part of the world I influence and control. I aim to do this in my finances and in my relationship with my wife. I do this through my business. I encourage everyone who takes part in my Life Purpose programme to try what I suggest and then use the programme material to lead by example and inspire their children.

How we raise our children is just one of the ways we can influence and control world change.

As we change, the world around us changes. The example you create has a ripple effect on others beside our children. It ripples out to their friends and teachers, our partners, the people we work with, our friends and neighbours.

Most of us don’t need a government to create new laws to make the world a better place. Most of us know that governments are big machines that take years to bring about changes. Experience shows that commercial interests and economic growth is often a higher value than moral rightness.

So the decisions we make as mother’s father’s and business owners and human beings about what we watch, what we buy, what we sell, what we allow into our homes and into our minds will determined the pace with which consciousness shifts in our country.

As we make better decisions, the decisions made by those around us become better.

Take the green issues for example. Whether you believe in global warming or not does not matter. The fact is we are polluting the air and raping the resources of the world by the way we live. Governments have been talking about the problems for years, but have solved it yet?

But you and I both know the solution isn’t new laws. It’s about us doing what we have always known to be the right thing to do.

Some of my choices (and yours may be different) are to grow some fruit and veg at home, walk when I don;t need to drive, stop buying things that I don’t need and that have little or no real purpose, recycle, reuse, refuse (and more often than not borrow from a friend or family member).

In this article I have only scratched the surface of a much bigger debate, but…

Are you starting to see how much power you really have to influence changes in the world?

Are you seeing how much more control you really have over your life and the issues that face you?

Can you see how world change ripples outwards from the choices you make?

If we can define our purpose… what’s most important to us… we can start to change the world.

As Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

CommunitySoul is all about helping people improve their everyday experience in life. You can sign up for a FREE hour exploring Life Purpose with me at www.communitysoullife.co.uk

Good wishes
Neil

Neil Fellowes
Director
CommunitySoul

Main website – www.communitysoul.co.uk
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A Secret about how to live life gently – in just 3 minutes

I don’t know if this happens to you, but it certainly happens to me.

Life is going along – happy, wonderful, good things happening – then suddenly it can all change and you can’t figure out why.

A couple of years ago I remember it was all good fun, everything was just going magically, then in the space of 15 minutes  it transformed.  It stayed that way for two glum weeks.

While, of course, this felt horrible there is a silver lining. And it’s that silver lining that I want to share with you today.

While trying to find my way out of all this nasty negative stuff, I had a profound moment. It allowed me to flip negativity in general on it’s head.

I’d just had a long day – sixteen hours to be more or less precise, several of which had been splattered with unpleasantness. I had just flicked the kettle on and was just considering comfort eating anything that looked like food while running through the worst of the day.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have this little voice in the back of my mind that sometimes whispers a gem of wisdom – it also whispers quite a bit of old tosh too – but I like to think I have a talent for filtering that out!

So, there I was, looking at the light of my life – the glow of the refrigerator at this moment – when the gem of wisdom came out of the blue.

“What if all this negative stuff isn’t negative?”

Strange?

I thought for a moment. Can negative really be positive?

That’s when the little voice said, “It’s not positive or negative. It just is.”

“Marvelous”, I thought, “A Zen Buddhist has hijacked my grey matter”. I shut the fridge door, poured my drink and pondered…

True enough when things happen, they are what they are. We know this because, you and I could be in the same room, experience the same thing, and interpret it in completely different ways. What makes one person sad or angry can make another laugh or smile.

But when you’re in this negative pool, how do you get out of it? How can you just see it for the positive?

I believe it begins just there (with your awareness open) – at the moment where you realise you don’t have to react (re-act) to the situation in a conditioned way; at the moment you know you don’t have to look at the situation as negative. If your not attached to your feeling you can let it go. If you don’t want to feel that way, you can release it.

When you lose the attachment to the feeling it begins to lose power. When you start to look for the good in the experience you start to increase your energy and resourcefulness in handling it. As a result answers come.

In coaching this happens time and again. A client recently told me they had lost a contract. They also had a legal issue on the go and it was draining the business finances.

When we reframed the experience the legal matter no longer presented as a problem – in fact it resolved quickly. The lost contract presented an opportunity to look for new business. As a result the client found four new contracts that now pay him more than the one he lost.

In a family situation, when children (or partners) feel tired they tend to take it out on the closest person to them. You could take this on as being negativity or you could see it for what it is – they feel under the weather. To heal the situation they may need some help. If you feel resourceful and able you can help them – return them to the love they feel disconnected from. The negativity will then evaporate sooner rather than later.

Easier said than done? Maybe.

But it’s far more rewarding than getting sucked in to the negative.

Why not give it a go?

Love and best wishes

Neil

If you need more help try our Life Purpose Programme – www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm

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And while you’re here, leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this blog.

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How to Make a Difference and a Profit

How do you feel about making a difference and making a profit?

For some people that means you’ll be taking your great ideas and maybe doubling your income. And that means your great ideas, your passions, the things you really care about are going to be reaching more people and having a bigger impact in the world.

If you’re going to double your business income, you might be forgiven for thinking, “Uh-oh does that means I’m going to be working 2-3 times harder or longer?”

I hope not! If that was true that would mean you might be working 22-23 hours a day and that’s not what you really want to be doing.

So, what is the way to create a business that doubles in profit on a regular basis, reduces the time you spend in it, and contributes to making a better world?

That’s a big question, but it’s a great question because it drives at the kind of lifestyle most of us got into business to have – one that makes money, gives us freedom and flexibility and creates a contribution or a legacy.

So how do we do that?

I was listening to a former Olympic medallist speak the other day and he was saying, that no medallist wins because they work 2 or 3 times harder than the rest. No one wins a race by 2 or 3 times as much as anyone else. It’s fractions of an inch and 100ths of a second that make a difference.

So it’s the little things they do in training, day after day, that make the difference when it counts. And it’s these little things that will win you medals. It’s these little things that  save you time, energy and money. And it’s these little things, subtle things I want to show you, so you can make a big difference, without selling your soul.

So, how does this translate into business?

In your marketing it may be one subtle thing that makes the difference between no sales and a bucket load – this is your fraction of an inch and your 100th of a second.

And it’s the person who claims gold that goes down in the record books and who hits the headlines and the guys who end up second, third and fourth who get forgotten.

The frustration is to have a product or service that is fantastic, but to end up being forgotten, just because of a 100th of a second or a fraction of an inch… especially when your service or product makes the world a better place and the person who gets gold doesn’t.

It may just need the fine tuning to your business techniques or mindset to make your business rock and for you to profit from your heart-felt passions and ideals.

We know that people reading this have glorious visions for what they’d like to achieve, but often they’re not striking gold. This can be solved. You just need to find a place  where you can get the resources and the inspiration of resourcefulness.

A little goldmine of help can be found at www.communitysoulbusiness.com

Go and take a look

Neil

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Leave a comment below and let me know how YOU feel about making a difference and a profit. Would love your input.

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Using A Natural Indicator – Where Are You With Getting What You Want

What you want your life to be about is completely linked to who you may soon become.

Where you are on that journey right now is completely linked to who you are now.

Don’t think that you can become a person of peace until you find peace in your own mind.

Interestingly, as I write this, one of my children is asking if they really need to wash their hair when they shower tonight. I can sense this disturbing my peace, so I gave the responsibility to them, because that is an age appropriate thing for me to do.

I simply said: “I think it needs washing. If you agree, I know how much other responsibility I can currently share with you for your life. If you say no, you show me that you are not ready for a bit more freedom of choice. It’s your decision. You go and shower and I’ll see you when you are showered and I have finished this article. (The hair got washed by the way and my peace was maintained while I wrote this).

Helen wanted love in her life – someone who cared and respects her. When we delved into her life we found that she was in a relationship with a man who expected her to care for him like a mother might care for a two year old.

She said she was giving him love. So we examined this love and we found that while she did everything for him, she did have an underlying resentment and a nagging question: when will he start caring for me?

So while Helen wants love (meaning care and respect for her) in her life, longer term, we can see why she isn’t getting it right now, because she isn’t really giving it yet.

Where are you on the journey towards what you most want? Use life as your indicator.

Bear hugs
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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Leave a comment below and tell me where you are on ‘your’ journey towards what you want most.

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How to Avoid Things That Knock You Off Purpose

Two guiding principles I go by are:
1.    Know my purpose
2.    Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Since childhood we’ve been told what to do by our parents, teachers and religions. At work we were told what time to arrive and what time we could leave.

Our peers influence us and so does the TV. And under the weight of all this influence, I suspect that many of us have hardly given much thought to what we really want.

Sometimes I think it’s a bit like we’ve all been hypnotised and just don’t have the brain space to think, so we do what’s being strongly suggested to us.

Our mind reacts to suggestions, and from those suggestion emotions can rise: be they love, anger, joy or hate.

People who succeed on their paths are the people who have learned to control their minds and handle the suggestibility more effectively than others. They have learned to respond only to what is good for them and ignore what is not so good.

Probably one of the biggest influence on our minds is the TV and media. Through news broadcasts we can be manipulated into feeling angry or fearful of other races, cultures and religions and ignore the fact that we’re all human beings and our spiritual priority – above all else – is probably to ensure co-operation and avoid domination.

Advertising is incredibly suggestive. When I was trying to lose weight, I found that whenever I sat down in front of the TV I wanted to eat. Then I realized that a large number of the adverts were food adverts and that after they came on I wanted food.

By knowing my purpose, it allowed me to see the manipulation of the TV. The choice then was, do I watch TV or am I mentally strong enough to self-manage my stomach?

Try following my two guiding principles:
Know my purpose
Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Lotsa Love
Neil

p.s. If you need more help try our Life Purpose Programme – www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm

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And while you’re here, leave a comment below and let me know what your guiding principles are.

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The Power To Create Life As You Want It…Now

At any point you decide you don’t like what’s happening in your life, you can begin to create something different.

It works like this…

We have a thought and suddenly it is now forming in consciousness. That thought will become reality in the next few seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. How long it will take to come into being will be dependent upon how much energy is required.

By energy I mean your conscious and subconscious energy, the urgency of your physical energy and actions, the amount of emotional energy and the amount of energy joining from other people. A rider here is also how much baggage you are dragging that might stop you from making necessary mental and physical changes.

Your energy combines with other energy forms outside of you. Like attracting like, joining together – thoughts externalising themselves and becoming physical.

What I failed to understand many years ago was that in struggling to survive day after day in a reality that didn’t work for me, I had chosen to forgo a reality that did work, that supported and strengthened me and led to bigger and better things manifesting in my life.

How we focus our minds for extended periods determines our outcomes. If we focus on things that we don’t enjoy, we compromise other things we could be enjoying.

When we say “Yes” to something we don’t want. We say “No” to something we do want.

When I focussed on getting through a day without abuse, I compromised living a life of freedom and happiness where people were kind to me all day long.

When I focussed on food to provide me with emotional – internal pleasures, I failed to externalise my desire to find a way to find a relationship that could meet my emotional needs and help me become healthier, more confident and more self-motivated.

When I focussed on being broke and worrying about money, I compromised getting out there and finding something that brought me an income.

What I’m talking about here is consciously taking back the control of your life. Finding integrity. Finding the fragments of your life that have become splintered, drawing them back to you, learning from your experiences and then recreating life in a way that is full of purpose, ful-filling (filling up the full) in every way.

A big juicy hug,
Neil

What can you do to take back control of your life? Leave a comment below…

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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Two Simple Things That Help you Engage In Life More Fully

Are you connected with your world?

Are you fully engaged with life?

It’s true. Many of us aren’t as fully engaged in life as we would wish.

Many live begrudgingly…

It’s easy to pinch a bit off here and there from life – taking the kids to school and dashing out the playground to work; getting stuck in traffic and cursing; trying not to share too many lunch breaks with colleagues; shutting ourselves away for nights on end to watch TV.

We separate ourselves from people. We see ourselves as separate to events.

Many blame outside forces… a government, a council, the banks, a colleague and often say: why is this happening to me?!

And it’s not happening to you… It’s happening with you… It’s happening for your benefit.

And you and “it” are one…

We are not separate from everything that’s happening. When we accept this… we recollect the control of our life from outside and bring it back inside.

When we accept the control of our lives we can accept that everything is happening ‘with us,’ is happen for us. We will see no separation between us and the never ending stream of events occurring in our life for our benefit.

It seemed odd to me that one day, out of the blue, two friends I’d not seen for months visited unexpectedly. Yet it happened for my benefit, because it helped me define qualities I wanted to give in friendships – generosity and spontaneity.

I hurt my neck and, while this could have been a bad thing, it made me think about life and where I may be a pain in the neck or who might be a pain in my neck.

If we slow life down a bit… if we engage more fully… we can notice the events stacking up to aid us in the moment towards a better, more fulfilling life.

Stop and notice.

With Loadsa Good Wishes
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

I’d like to hear from you – leave a comment below.

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Something We All Want… Setting Intentions We Easily Achieve

Have you ever set a goal and felt disappointed because you didn’t achieve it?

Or have you set a goal and felt out of alignment with the goal immediately -   or felt bad even if you did achieve it?

Or have you ever set a goal and felt like a fraud or laughed at yourself when you set it and immediately said, “No way?”    to yourself.

It may help you to know I’ve felt all of these feelings too at different times. In fact, truth be known, I’ve had most of these feelings more than once.

In the past what’s often called “goal setting” set me up for failure in one way or another. This happened because I either didn’t achieve the goal or because I didn’t like myself while working towards the goal.

I had times when I’d begun working on my goals and felt physically sick. I’d get sweaty hands, have the shivers and go all dizzy. Funny thing was, when I backed off the goal I suddenly felt better.

But here is the thing – and this isn’t rocket science, but it is – unfortunately – something that many people overlook.

When you set a goal or intention you must make sure that you are working towards something you really want and that in your heart it really resonates with you.

The intention must excite you and I don’t mean a false ‘In the brain excitement,’ which originates from the thought that you must try to do the right thing here.

What I mean by excitement is that you get it in your ‘cells’. You don’t have to  punch the air or run around in circles howling like a Red Indian on speed. All you need is an in-the-gut flutter or a grounded feeling of rightness.

Make sure the intention you’re working for is something you really want. This is sound advice, but…

Making sure the intention really blows your socks off, is so much better advice.

My friend and wonderful holistic educator, Dr. William Bloom describes something you‘ll want to look into more. In his amazing book, The Endorphin Effect, he talks about a concept he calls Unboundaried Dreaming.

Unboundaried Dreaming is about creating a vision which is beyond your vision.

It’s a lot of fun…

Another teacher, Barefoot Doctor, AKA Stephen Russell, has a different name for Unboundaried Dreaming.

At an event we (CommunitySoul) ran with him in November 2007 he spoke about creating a ‘Fantasy‘.

Since he taught that technique, it’s something that’s become a regular feature in my life. With a fantasy, as with Unboundaried Dreaming, the general advice is to make what you want out of this world and way beyond what you most want.

Try some fantasy/unboundaried dreaming today

Good Wishes
Neil

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Would love your input: Have you tried Unboundaried Dreaming? How do you set and handle your goals?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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Are *YOU* the Common Denominator?

It was one of those days, everyone seemed to be picking on me: my kids, my bank, my electricity supplier, even my computer. And everything that should have been done, was just taking longer and longer. Then something occurred to me.

Moving Away From Negative Energy

I’d decided to remove myself from all the negative energy, and decided to shut myself away from everything. And in the peace and tranquillity of that space I discovered something.

What was it?

I was the common denominator – the one they were all picking on.

Gradually it all began to unfold. I was in a bad mood. It was me that was having the impact on everything around me. All that was happening was that everything was reflecting back at me what I was putting out.

And that was when I picked up a book I recommend you read, ‘Ask and it is Given‘ by Ester and Jerry Hicks. The book fell open on these words: ‘Your thoughts absolutely equal your point of attraction, the better you feel the more everything around you improves.’

And then a few lines down, the book continued to rub salt into my wounds. ‘When you put yourself on a schedule where there is a deadline, then often the shortage of time or money looms up and contradicts the energy, making you miserable.’

I got the point!!

It Seems to Come From Nowhere
Frustration can seem to bubble up out of the blue. However, if I looked back on my day there were pointers right from early morning. First thing, as I was dressing I asked my partner if something at work was frustrating her. She told me no and I concluded I had got it wrong. Then there were computer problems, then a power cut, my bank failed to wire money on a business deal that could be worth a substantial sum. The whole day just built up, right to the moment where my son disagreed with me and my daughter raised her voice.

But get this.

When I wanted to say something back. But instead of saying anything I got one of those irritating tickles in the back of my throat that rendered my voice useless. All that came out was a helpless croak. And while my son and my partner fell about laughing and my daughter marched off to her bedroom in annoyance, I decided to call it a day and closed myself away to reflect.

The Truth
Frustration doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s the build up of events, often self-inflicted deadlines or unreasonable demands. As the pressure mounts we become less reasonable, with ourselves, with others and even with our work.

The words of Ester and Jerry Hicks were timely reminders for me and I hope reminders to us all that our thoughts are our point of attraction. If we feel frustrated then we attract more frustration. If we feel happiness then we attract more of that.

Best
Neil

Leave a comment: What is it that you’re trying to attract?  How long can you maintain your focus on this before something occurs and makes you think about that?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk
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The Part The Guru Left Out

In this article I’m going to lay things on the line concerning a couple of phrases you may have heard being banded around spirituality circles. I’m doing this because I think we all owe it to ourselves to develop a fuller relationship with certain areas of our lives. Through the experience of doing this, we can grow.

One of the favourite phrases I hear in New Age spirituality is: ‘Give what you want to get.’ If you want money, you give money and money comes back to you. Another quote I hear in spirituality is the old Gandhi quote, ‘Be the change you want to see’ or its sister, ‘Act as if.’

Spirituality and Money
For many people The idea of ‘Giving money to get money’ hasn’t worked. And why should it? If you’re only going to give in the hope or expectation of getting, there is something wrong with the transaction – it’s being done with a motive.

Since many people involved in spirituality have money issues, let’s apply this ‘Give what you want to get,’ phrase to money. When people hear this idea their response is most often: ‘But how can I give when I have nothing to give?’ or ‘I can hardly afford my bills!’

In this sense the ‘Give what you want to get’ ideal may as well be substituted for ‘Let’s hit and hope.’ I suggest this because the phrase in itself usually only brings up desperation. For me, this type of quip, offered within spirituality concerning money, is nothing more than a cop-out comment offered by people who don’t have any practical knowledge of how to make money, respect it and nurture its growth so we can effect change in the world.

Spirituality and The Practical
In the ‘Act as if’ suggestion we do have a little more practical opportunity. Speaking from experience (having been obese once upon a time) how can you be twenty stone and ‘act as if’ you were the person who is one hundred and four pounds lighter than you. He could run without his inner thighs catching fire. He could tie his shoe laces without his belly getting in the way and do the downward dog in yoga without being choked by the double chin.

So what do we do with these phrases?
I admit, I have wanted to gather up all the people who proffered such airy-fairy advice and lead them all to the tallest tower in far far away land (I did think I might put pink fluffy stuff on the prison bars). I’ve come out the other side of that thinking now and hope I can offer you something of substance.

Money and Spirituality
Let’s go back to ‘Give what you want to get’ and money. For a moment just think of the possibility that you don’t actually have to give money to get it – I know you suddenly feel relieved, don’t you? Good. And what if it’s not about giving money per se? What if all you have to do is give yourself to the experience and relationship you have with money?

I didn’t like my financial situation and wanted to change it forever. During a twelve-month period I immersed myself in understanding my experience and relationship with money. I read books. I met millionaires. I got in conversation with people who were wealthier than me and examined my own attitude and habits towards spending, budgeting, savings, longer-term investments.

Quite literally I gave myself to the experience and relationship of money. I learned a greater respect and appreciation for money. I came to understand money. I nurtured my relationship with money. I cared for money. I cared how I spent it. I cared about the people I spent it with. I grew to love it and accept it as part of my experience and came to really honour it for the choices it gave me.

The Act of Spirituality
With ‘Act as if’ we may have to chunk it down (forgive the pun). If you are twenty stone and want to get to twelve, start by aiming for nineteen stone. Get to understand that the best way to eat a lot of food is to live a long time! Start to swim or walk once a day and build up your endurance over the course of time. Start your food education. Investigate what goes into your mouth and the effects it has on your body. Read. Research the Internet and speak to people who enjoy the kind of health and vitality you’d like to have. Get to understand your relationship with food, exercise and health. Notice how food affects your spirituality. Pay attention to when you’re really tired or just being lazy – yes there is a difference! You may also want to consider my Special Offer on coaching.

A Task for You to Consider This Week:
Where in your life do you use or subscribe to superficial metaphors or thinking? How can you develop your experience and relationship with it?

To those of you who know us – may I express my deep appreciation for your interest in CommunitySoul. You inspire me to continue writing and finding new ways to teach people how to live consciously and work together for a better Community.

I hope that today’s article will be of help to you or someone you know. I hope I have not offended your religion or spirituality and wish you a wonderful week!

Neil

Leave a comment: Do you live consciously and work for a better Community? What are your thoughts about this article?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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