We become what we think – and just as our body would suffer if we fed it decaying and devitalised food, we need to nourish our mind with life giving thoughts that truly sustain us and allow us to grow towards the light of our greater consciousness.

All the fresh juices, supplements and exercise in the world won’t combat a diet of self defeating thoughts that create unwanted chemical responses in our body – and unwanted experiences in our life.

Hormones are released into our body with every thought and emotion we produce. It’s not difficult to imagine that anxious, critical or fearful thoughts flush our body with the hormones of stress, while encouraging and compassionate attitudes create very different reactions that build health and wellbeing.

Our bodies are pharmaceutical factories – and our thoughts and emotions are the prescriptions we daily write for ourselves, often unconsciously.

When negative thoughts flood our systems with cortisol … we are immediately on the way to feeling poorly.  Inflamed thoughts create inflammation in the body.  Acid and inflammation are the breeding grounds for more serious ailments.

Our emotions of course create our state of being, and negative emotions soon have us radiating a frequency to match.  Whatever we  emit is on its way back to us in this reflective universe – and very soon we attract more things to confirm our pessimistic outlook.

The emerging field of Epigenetics shows that genes are also turned on and off by our internal environment – our emotional states.  We don’t have to accept that we are automatically predisposed to certain health outcomes because of our family history.  The receptors on the cell membrane are not only sensitive to our external environment but also our mental attitudes and perceptions, our stresses and expectations. Leading a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy mind set encourage our genes to express positive, disease fighting behaviours.

We all have a lot of conditioning through family, community, culture and the legacy of human history tucked in our DNA.  These unseen characteristics shape our personalities, our expectations and our experiences.

As Oscar Wilde said:  “Most people are other people.  Their thoughts are someone else’s opinion, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

The importance of shaping our own unique and supportive view of self and a positive world view cannot be overstated.  Fortunately, we live in a time of compelling and empowering breakthroughs in medicine and science that tell us our brain has a limitless capacity to change and grow.

We are always free to over-write old, limiting patterns of thought that keep us locked in a level of mind that no longer serves us.  Yes, it takes clarity and commitment to wrestle debilitating core beliefs to the ground and develop liberating attitudes and true definitions of self.   It is of course, the only diet worth adopting!

Hummingbird reminds you that you have the ability to adapt easily to whatever situation you may find yourself in and make the most of your new circumstances.

Don’t waste time looking back.

Like the Hummingbird, keep looking for the sweetness in life wherever you are.

Why is mindfulness a worthy pursuit?  Because it’s a good idea to be conscious of our endless flow of thoughts – more than seventy thousand a day apparently. We’re not going to catch all of them of course, but we can identify repetitive thoughts and feelings that cause discomfort.

Each thought we have creates a matching emotion that immediately begins to affect us on all levels.  They create our general state of being, moment by moment.

Our states can range from harmonious to agitated and every other conceivable emotion.  They create a resonance and a frequency that deliver health and wellbeing to our body, mind and spirit – or the lack of it.  We most definitely create good and bad vibes for our selves, right down to our cellular health as we swing from state to state, often unconsciously. 

Ah, but to take some time to be still, to quieten our mind, to reflect or meditate -or simply to do what we love.  We then have a chance to sift through our thoughts and delete those that have outlived their usefulness.  Choosing to focus on healthy, self supporting beliefs and attitudes begins to sculpt our brain, forming new neuro pathways while outmoded ones peel away through lack of attention. The term Neuroplasticity tells us the brain is capable of change at any age and that change comes from where we place our attention – and focus is key.

Einstein thought imagination was the most important thing and he would tell school children to daydream.  We can understand that imagining all the things we would love to experience, rather than your worst fears would create a fertile mental and emotional environment. It would create a different frequency of thought and alter our state of being and we would feel that change as would others. In this ‘reflective universe’, as Einstein termed it, what we radiate in that unseen way is drawn back to us is corresponding experiences.  A smile begets a smile and misery attracts like company.

When we are awash with our best thoughts and feelings we move into a cohesive state – physically, mentally and emotionally.  We begin to entrain our world, internally and externally. We’re more at the helm of our being moving deliberately to our preferred life events.

We will not be able to avoid all of the big and challenging life events that are destined to shape our unique journeys but we can contribute consciously to how we move through them and how we continue to create our lives.

ACT ON YOUR EXCITEMENT !

Your feelings are your own inner GPS and your excitement serves as your compass. Following your excitement is what your soul hopes you’ll choose to do with your free will.

If you follow that thread of excitement you’ll find that it is connected to all manner of experiences that hold that same quality of joy and wonder.  You’ll experience coincidences and synchronicities that let you know you’ve had a hand in their creation. It’s the way “all that is” likes to remind you you’re on track. 

Last week a whale beached itself on the coastline where I live.

I’ve often wondered how these beautiful creatures with their sophisticated use of sonar lose their way so completely.  What could go so wrong with their internal navigation system which normally connects them so powerfully to their family group and their migration routes?

I then thought it is the same for us at times when we become disorientated, becalmed or beached in our own lives or when we totally disconnect from our own personal guidance system.

I watched the group of locals in their wet suits in the cold water – keeping their vigil around the whale like sentinels.  They could do nothing but be there with it in the fading light and wait for the water to rise.  They stood there in the shallows comforting this motionless mammal – acknowledging where it was, a ‘fish’ almost out of water – knowing with certainty the tide would turn.

There’s an important message contained in this episode.  I think this is what we as humans need when life stops flowing and we feel beached and powerless.  It is during these times we need others to stand with us in the shallows – compassionately acknowledging where we’re at – holding a view of our future that we cannot necessarily see ourselves – and coaxing us gently back into deeper water where we can feel the natural currents of life again.

It’s good to remember how powerfully your own thoughts can affect the wellbeing of another. When you are concerned about those around you, seeing them as you wish them to be helps their own GPS kick back in.

The story of this beached whale had a happy ending which was inspiring for everyone to witness.  Seeing that whale swim away from the rescuers – and the unbridled joy on their faces was one of those feel good moments that stayed with me and one I just had to share.

The process of meditation is nothing more than quietly going within. When you close your eyes to the external world with all its distractions and stimuli you can connect more easily with your inner world and your whole self – not just your distracted personality self.  You connect with your higher mind which is also the greater universal mind we all share.

Meditation can simply be moments of reflection – when walking along the beach, or sitting in front of an open fire or even when you’re driving or taking a shower.

When I first came to meditation over 20 years ago I had some funny experiences.  I used to try very hard to access this perceived illusive state of meditation.  I was attending lots of courses at the time including meditation classes.  Often the facilitator would guide the group through a meditation after which the other students would report having had remarkable mystical experiences where I had none.  I felt like an absolute fraud, but loved the learning curve I was on and kept my little secret to myself.

At the time, I was having a lot of dental work done as I’d decided to replace all of my mercury/amalgam fillings with something healthier.  At my first appointment my dentist went about fitting a rubber dam in my mouth, hooking it around my teeth to catch the dislodged mercury so it didn’t flood my system.  The problem was that the harder he tried to secure it, the more I disrupted the procedure when it activated my gag response and he’d have to start again.   He and his assistant tried for twenty minutes before giving up in frustration, saying they had to proceed with out it. Well, that threw me into mild panic, and I immediately held up my hand and declared – “Please try one more time, I’m sure I will be fine.”

Deciding that mind over matter was the only way forward I began to think about the colours of the chakras that were discussed in meditation class.  I imagined the ladder of these energy centres in my body and their corresponding colours. I would give the red of the base chakra my whole, unwavering attention and then flash the colour through my whole body, and then move up the ladder to the next colour.   It was an exercise to simply divert my attention away from the frenzied activity and all the instruments in my mouth.

I didn’t think anything extraordinary was happening but the next hour and a half sped by, seeming like no time at all, and I realised it was all over.  The odd thing was that I didn’t want to come out of that blissful state.  I had sat motionless, without the hint of a twitch, almost breathless for about 90 minutes. The dentist was astonished and so was I.  It was a moment of realisation when I knew I had moved myself into a true meditative state.

My altered state didn’t come about in a meditation class, or while sitting cross legged in an ashram in India, but in my dentist’s surgery on the 33^rd floor of a glass tower in Hong Kong.  I’d moved from a state of high anxiety to a deeply still state,  but the thing to note here is – I didn’t realise I’d shifted states to that degree until I came out of it. While I was in it, it seemed subtle.  I’d lost track of time, of being conscious of where I was and of my circumstances.

I looked forward to my next visit to see if it would work again, and it did every time. Having accessed that state, and observed the signature of it, it was easier to identify again.

Prior to this experience I would have expected a state of meditation to have overwhelmed me    –  that I’d  have felt as if I’d been totally transported to some transcended state.

I remember the author and speaker Carolyn Myss talking about the great cosmic paradox – that the small things are often the big things and visa versa.  Our states of connectedness, when we are truly aligned with spirit and ‘all that is’, can be subtle but powerful.  I also like the words from the Sufi tradition that speak of the subtlety of wisdom – that it remains hidden from obvious view.  It sings in the soft breeze that  rustles through the branches of the trees. You have to stop, still yourself and listen carefully because its small voice can be drowned out by the noise of the world.

So, drop any expectations and know that you can discover moments of meditation and insight as easily as you might step into a warm puddle of water while walking on the beach.

There is an ever present, calm and cohesive energy field that sits within us and around us.  It is the fabric of our true nature, our real home.  It waits for us to hear its gentle call so that it might wrap itself around us again and again.

I always knew that when a golfer hit a hole in one it wasn’t just the result of his or her perfected swing, the prevailing winds or good luck.  With the kind of laser like focus sports professionals are capable of achieving, I understood that it was their intention, combined with intense imagination and mental rehearsal that created that particular outcome.

The champion golfer Jack Nicklaus has said:

“I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.  It’s like a colour movie.  First, I “see” the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright-green grass.  Then the scene quickly changes, and I “see” the ball going there:   its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour before landing.  Then there’s sort of a fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the king of swings that will turn the previous images into reality.  Only at the end of this short, private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.”

Whether we’re a professional sports person or not, we all have a mental movie running in our head continuously imagining how our day or future will play out.   They are OUR mental productions but they’re not entirely original as our scripts are often handed to us through the opinions of others and our conditioned fears and doubts.

Strengthen the observer part of self and be mindful of the kind of films that are running in your inner cinema.  Start critiquing them even as they’re running, and pull some of the re-runs off the screen immediately.  Replace them with a bold new visionary tale casting your good self as you prefer to be.

Once you make this inner picturing process conscious and deliberate, you begin to create experiences to match in your outer world.

Bring mental rehearsing to the forefront of your day – while you’re having your morning shower.  Rehearse how you would like the meeting, or the long drive, or anything on your to-do list to play out.

I like to rehearse phone calls as I’m preparing to make them.   Seeing myself finding just  the right word at the right time.  Sensing the great pleasure I will have as I hang up –   feeling very satisfied at how the conversation has gone.

As I set off in the car to my destination, I mentally rehearse seeing my car pull into its destination at exactly the time I would like the journey to end, and no longer.

SEE THE END IN THE BEGINNING.     Set your intention up front.

Don’t just play with this to manifest the perfect car parking space.  Employ it throughout every day so that you are deliberately creating your preferred outcomes.

Remember of course that it works both ways.  Draw the curtain quickly if the film you’re running turns into a horror movie.  You want to be in the business of producing happy endings.

Pull out some of those old dusty scripts of your wildest dreams that you may have put aside a long time ago.  Let them come to life again vividly on your inner screen and marvel at how they begin to show up in your world in the most surprising ways.

The Hummingbird is considered to be

the bearer of new life.

I have always loved new beginnings! They arrive with such promise of the unknown.

That’s one of the reasons I have the beautiful Hummingbird as my logo as they are said to be a sign of regeneration and the bearer of new life.

The truly amazing thing about the Hummingbird is that it has the largest heart of any species on the planet in relationship to its body mass.

These tiny birds are the essence of adaptability and endurance. They are always searching for the sweetness in life and are master pollinators of beauty on the planet. 

Every moment is a new beginning and an opportunity to have a sweeter, brighter, bolder thought about yourself and your life.

Let that thought float out into the field of all possibilities and bring back to you the experience to match.