Do You Recognise Beauty?

We are enjoying beautiful weather here in Southern Tasmania at the moment, it's late spring and everything is bursting with life in my special place, the garden.
I was feeding the dogs, I looked up and saw a little tableau of a geranium in flower, an old post with two little ceramic birds on it and a teapot with a succulent growing in it. The beauty of it caught my breath and my attention. I don't always see beauty, do you?

I've noticed that when I see beauty, when it truly grabs me it is when I am feeling my best. It's a marker for me that my energy is operating at a high frequency. When I don't see the beauty around me in this way, it is a marker for me that my energy is lagging, or low.

I have put so much effort into trying to change that lagging energy into the high frequency sort that has me catching my breath in beauty, has me feeling that my heart will explode it is full of so much love and joy and peace. It doesn't work, not really.

What that sort of effort does is drain you so your energy lags even more.

When you can't see the beauty and feel the love, don't worry. Don't give it another thought, don't try and change it. Take your mind off it, chanting mantra, I find, works very well.

When you see the beauty, and your heart is bursting with it... drink it up and soak it in.

Little native pigface, the petals open and close each day.

A rose about to bloom, did you know that roses have the highest frequency of any plant? Grow them to uplift your energy.

What's Your Thing?

Today we went into the big smoke of Hobart, I noticed there are Christmas decorations up. Not for the first time I have silently thanked God and my own common sense that we don't really 'get into' Christmas. This blog is not anti Christmas, or anti any celebration, this blog is about choosing what you get involved in and not getting drained by societal celebrations. If you want to have far, far less stress in your life than you need to stocktake what it is you celebrate. You need to have a clean out, just as you would your wardrobe or shed because you need to make room, have room to breathe.

What do you celebrate and how? Do you celebrate what is important to you?

Celebrating Halloween in Australia is a really new thing, and in Tasmania it is very, very new. I have never celebrated Halloween and don't intend to. I'm sure it is lots of fun and for some people a real highlight in their year. For me, it doesn't matter so I don't acknowledge it. I also don't really celebrate Christmas or Easter, I do however celebrate my birthday because that is important for me.

When I saw those decorations today I immediately felt drained and tired. They are a sign of something much more for many people, a marker of the extreme stress to come. Gift buying, long drives away and time away from home and endless organising of logistics for the big event. Maybe all this really gives you a buzz and you love it, good for you. However, maybe there are other celebrations you don't get a buzz out of, maybe there are other celebrations that drain you.

Think of your energy as money in a bank account and there is only so much. Do you spend your money willy nilly? Why not?, because you don't want to drain your account. You (wisely) want some there for when you need it, you don't want to feel the stress of being broke (if you can help it). Your energy is the same. You only have so much you know. It's precious.

Choose to spend your money wisely, your energy wisely.

What you need is... a little spot to sit.

Here is something you can do to make sure you get enough of an opportunity to trigger the relaxation response, it works every time, all the time. What you need to do is to create a little spot to sit, or in my case, about five little spots to sit.

The best place for this spot is somewhere you find peaceful and beautiful. So not a spot inside surrounded by jobs. My little spots to sit are all in our garden, because this is the most wonderful place in the world for me.

Your little spot to sit needs to be somewhere that you see and walk past on a regular basis. This is so that you see it often and it invites and reminds you to sit down.

Your little spot to sit needs to be comfortable, it needs to be a do nothing spot... so not your meditation spot. This little spot is for you to relax and enjoy doing nothing at all really. You need to be able to sit back with a cuppa tea.

Your little spot needs to be out of the way of the general traffic of other people. I sometimes sneak off to my little spot and at times I am there for up to an hour before I am found out! Sometimes I only get five minutes before our little daughter finds me.

This little spot to sit is where you will rejuvenate, where you will relax, where you can let your guard down, where you can daydream and drift off. You need this time, you need this spot for your mental health. This is YOUR special and sacred spot. Happy daydreaming.

How Can You Tell if a Spiritual Teacher is the Real Deal?

Did you know that a Reading is actually a medicine? For those of you who have had a Reading with me or with someone else, you will know that they work on two levels, one is fast acting and one is slow release. You can think of a Reading as a fast and slow release medicine fertiliser for your soul. They work.

When you have a reading what you hear will confirm things that you already know, this helps your mind to open up to the changes that need to be. You might know these things consciously or subconsciously, either way, receiving confirmation will instigate immediate acknowledgement from you and things will begin to change. Right then and there you will begin to feel better after a Real Reading.

The slow release medicine starts to take effect as soon as you hear your reading, it gets the ball rolling. It is the first domino that will hit the next one and a chain reaction of change will start. You might have a very long line of dominos lined up or maybe just a short line, the length of your domino line will determine how long it will take before you see the full effect of your reading in your life.

I have had readings that have taken years to fully come to fruition. I have totally forgotten about what I have heard in a reading only to remember years later when something happens which reminds me.

That's what readings do, they instigate change. If you have a reading then what you are saying is, I am ready to set a line of dominos off. It's a wonderful thing, very empowering and it's positive action in motion.

Readings ought never be negative, they ought always to bring an energy of love and understanding to the situation. Why is this? Because readings do not come from the person giving the reading they come from a higher source and that higher source is always an energy of love, peace and understanding.

If you ever have a reading or have had a reading that does not leave you feeling uplifted, inspired and full of hope for the next step do not worry because it is the energy of love that guides us and determines our ultimate path so that energy will will out in the end.

Real readings, real teachers will only share love with you and will always hold complete understanding for you. Real readings and teachers will only ever uplift you and this will be an energy of Divinity.

Recognisinig Cycles as Omens

These three beehives in a row have spoken to me this morning. I look at them and I see that a cycle has come to an end. I didn't know that the end of the cycle would look like this, and I could not have possibly seen the steps in between the first beehive coming into my life and these three now all in a row.

That's the thing to remember, life and it's steps roll out in their own time and in a Divine fashion. Rather than trying to end cycles yourself, to complete cycles and to place meeting on things happening as being the end of cycle... let the omen for the end of a cycle appear as it will.

You do not control the cycles in your life, they are following their own pattern. When a cycle ends you will, if you are relaxed, see this ending and you will be able to decipher the omens in this ending.

It has taken roughly seven years for these beehives to find this spot, in a row, as their perfect home. They speak to me of so much; learning, loving, letting go and acquiring new skills. They speak to me of so much more too. I look at them and I can see a long story, it is a part of my story. I can now sit back and enjoy looking at these three sisters in a row, I can enjoy the energy that is present at the end of this cycle. I can give thanks and I can find release.

To decipher the meaning of the omens in the ending of cycles look at the characters, the scene, the time it has taken and look to how you yourself have grown.

Trigger change, Trigger love

Walking in our garden this morning, the garden that I am making amongst our beloved wild plants I saw the first Trigger Plant of the season to blossom. It is a beautiful little plant that is from the orchid family, it looks fragile and yet it is resilient. It is one of the flower essences in the Australian Living Essence range and it is no coincidence that the time at which it blooms also corresponds to big change in the sphere of personal, romantic relationships. Here is a message from this beautiful little plant.

'I am the Pink Trigger Plant, each little flower that blooms from me looks like a little butterfly with perfectly balanced wings... do you see how each butterfly flies upwards?

I grow in rocky soils.. I take care of myself, I am strong because I regrow each year. I regrow after a fire, after disturbance and I even regrow when my friends and neighbours around me change.

I am starting to bloom and there will be many, many more of me to bloom into the near future. Taken as an essence I help you to recover from relationship shock and change.

Take heart, now might be a time of change for you, it is spring time in my world and my little butterfly flowers bloom and bloom... just as you will bloom and bloom too.

What to do with an egg whisk when you are a vegan

Egg whisks are such wonderful tools in the vegan kitchen, and having followed a vegan diet for 26 years I was surprised to find that I didn’t know just how useful, essential actually, they are for the vegan chef. It was my husband who showed me the completely valuable role they perform, hours of time has been saved and a much better result has been achieved in preparing foods now that I know the real reason egg whisks were invented.

On the vegan dinner table it is quite common to find legumes, beans, rice and quinoa and if the pulses are correctly prepared you’ll find they are soft, easily digested and not the catalyst for flatulence that many people assume them to be. There are two procedures you need to undertake in order to get the best out of pulses in the kitchen. The first is that you soak them, all pulses (beans and legumes) need to be soaked and the soaking time differs from one pulse to the next. More on that later. The second being that all pulses, rice and quinoa need to be rinsed and rinsed well. This is where the egg whisk comes into play.

You’ll find it too easy to eat more beans and legumes in your diet because soaked and washing them is very easy and takes very little time. All you need to do is to put the quantity of pulses you wish to cook into a bowl and cover them with about five centimetres of water. When the required soaking time is finished give them a good rinse and they are ready to be cooked. Rinsing pulses, rice and quinoa is essential for them to cook nicely and be easily digested, using an egg whisk in the rinsing/washing procedure will save you water and time.

All lots of water into your bowl of soaked pulses or into the rice you wish to cook and use the whisk to wash them. Agitate the rice or pulses in the water, using the whisk and the water give them a good scrub. Drain and repeat twice more, the rinse water may not run too clear and this is alright.  Now drain and cook them.

Soaking mung beans

A little bit about soaking and rinsing pulses (beans and legumes that is) before you cook them, it’s a very important step in preparing your legumes for healthy eating. Soaking pulses reduces cooking time and renders them more digestible, reducing their causing flatulence. In fact, if you are getting flatulence after eating legumes it is a sign you are not preparing them correctly. Split red lentils, moong dal, urad dal and other broken legumes soak for perhaps half an hour. The only dal you will need to soak longer is chana dal and this is because it is made of broken chickpeas and chickpeas have a long cooking time. Green lentils, puy lentils (French lentils), whole red lentils and mung beans are best soaked for at least an hour or more. Much longer soak times are required for chickpeas, kidney beans and black beans. Being much larger they require more time to soak up water so it makes sense. Putting chickpeas and red kidney beans on to soak before you go to bed and using them the next day is a good idea.

Chickpeas, kidney beans and black beans have a long cooking time, using a pressure cooker will greatly reduce their cooking time and is a truly valuable addition to the kitchen. Soaked, rinsed and home cooked pulses are vastly healthier and environmentally friendly, they are also cheaper than their tinned cousins. Canned foods are not alive and cause a sludge in the system. I avoid them. Red lentils and red kidney beans are high in iron and are good for the blood so be sure to eat them a few times a week.

One of my favourites, chana dal which is tomato based and made with chickpeas

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

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