The Journeys we take – inner and outer…

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When will you begin that long journey into yourself – Rumi

I’ve been joyfully peripatetic for the past six months travelling and working in different locales around the world from Bondi Beach to Byron Bay, Singapore to solar and sustainability in the desert, Himalayan Mountains to Hawaii, tigers in the wild to tribal villages, road tripping to Rishikesh, monasteries and meditation, a travel memoir writing course, wanderings in the wilderness and whole lot more – it’s been a wild ride and it has been meaningful and life enriching.

 

Journeys take on a myriad of forms. The inner journey of meditation can take you to a place that does not exist on any external map, the somewhat secret journeys that we take during sleep and at our time of death, the much needed Read more…

Happy Halloween

Scary things and fear- trick or treat?

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Happy Halloween – I thought it only fitting with Halloween this weekend to write about being fears and all things scary and at the extreme of the two – phobias.

Fear as a protective measure is necessary for our survival however, throughout the history of humankind, we have seen the rise of extreme fears and phobias ranging from what some might consider totally weird to absurd – FalseEvidenceAppearingReal

Flying

“One persons fear is another persons flight of fancy and freedom” – Louise Crosby

For some of us facing our fears comes more easily than for others and endeavouring to force someone to face a fear when they are not ready can often serve to exacerbate the fear or set up another fear.

As a coach and practitioner of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), I’ve worked with a wide range of clients with an equally diverse range of fears. It is important to remember that whilst we might think a fear or phobia to be irrational it is real in the mind of the individual – hence a bit of kindness and compassion without of course reinforcing the fear.

Fear and the situation, event or experience that triggered the state of fear as with all other information entering your system are represented in your neurology through your sensory representational systems, through one or more of the five senses; visual, auditory, kinaesthetic (tactile/touch), gustatory (taste) or olfactory (smell). The process or sequence of sensory-based descriptions is occurring below your conscious awareness, which of course is why it is challenging at times to overcome a fear. You need to be able to change the sensory-based representation to change the representation of the experience and subsequent fear response – not something taught in school.

Elite athletes are familiar with Read more…