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.

A Snapshot of My Life, and how to be reminded of the good

Here is a photo I took this morning of my garden, I took it whilst watering it, well a small part of it. Today I am having a rare experience, I’m here at home, alone. No husband, no baby. Such space both physically and mentally has allowed me to have a more significant than usual experience of deep thoughts gently rising to the surface in my mind. The thought, or rather, string of thoughts that went to form an idea that paints an extremely cathartic tableau. Let me explain what they were and I ask that you too take a snapshot of your life and do the same. It will help you to connect with your personal strength and spiritual nature.

You’re going to have to keep looking at the picture above for this, I’m going to walk you around.

Starting at the front of the picture, look at what is growing. Beans and nasturtiums intertwined, radish and self-seeded nettle. Overlooking this healthy scene are two metal magpies, purchased last weekend from a trip to see open gardens in Richmond. Separating the garden from the house area is a wire fence, on the other side of that you notice the front wall of the house is blue and against that blue wall is a bbq. Righto that is enough for now. Let me explain how each one of these features shows me just who I am now and how much I have changed in a very positive way.

The garden, I love gardening and it is in my Irish blood and it was in my nana’s too and I have gardened in some way or other my whole life. Over all these years I have acquired many skills and finally I think I am getting there with the relatively recent goal (perhaps 5-7 years old) of mine to grow as much food of my own as possible. I did think it was about being self-reliant and I did think it was about ensuring I had a ready supply of nutrient dense food and I did think it was about some sort of personal biosecurity and it is, but I realise now it is about so much more.

Having a garden that self-seeds, is nutrient dense, supplies a yield and follows permaculture principles does not happen overnight, it takes years to learn how and it takes countless hours to create. Looking at the garden and how healthy and happy the plants are I see reflected in that my ability to be resilient and to push on, to try and try again.

Those recently purchased magpies (aren’t they lovely!) are in our garden because my husband Nick bought them. We went, as a family, on an open gardens day last weekend and he saw that many people had them in their gardens. He saw the little shop where they were sold, made my a local chap. So now we have two of them and four faery wrens. My husband is my second husband and there is no way my first husband would have said ‘hey, tomorrow, let’s go as a family to see the open gardens in Richmond. The money goes to epilepsy Tasmania and I’ll do everything. You just relax and come along. It will be romantic.’ My husband is the most unselfish, loving, giving, patient, thoughtful, hardworking, kind and wise man I know. I, am married to him and we are best friends. When I look at those magpies I see reflected in them my ability to choose a relationship that is truly loving and respectful.  It took years!

The wire fence was built by my husband, yes, the man mentioned above. It is strong and it is well built, it is also ascetically pleasing and it also keeps the cats in the yard. He didn’t just build it, he consulted with me. What do I want and why? Do you want to be able to see through it? How big will the garden bed behind it be? When I look at that fence I see reflected in it my ability to collaborate with someone else and I see that I know what I need to do and what I need to do.

The blue house wall, not just any wall but the front of the house. It is blue! It has a shattered mirror art installation on it, it has cobwebs on it, the sky is often the same colour. When I was a child I was not allowed to alter my environment and certainly, certainly not go around painting the front of the house bright blue. This restriction on self-expression was more than vigilantly imposed. Often it is not easy to externally express one’s inner nature. When everybody else has white walls or brown ones and you were brought up in an environment that is less than liberal your hand can remain stayed on the paintbrush over the bucket of bright blue paint. When I look at that blue wall I am reminded that I am a creative, an artist and that I find deep joy in colour and life and that I am now strong enough to simply be me, regardless of the so called social and family conditioning rules state.

Ah, the bbq, this is a nice one. The bbq was given to us a few weeks ago by a friend who was moving. It is her 40^th this year and she did not want to celebrate. She is the most kind and generous person on the planet, really she is. So, I said to her, if we are to take the bbq you are to have a vegan bbq birthday party at our place with your friends. I’m so looking forward to her and her partner and some of their friends coming to our little home tomorrow to celebrate her 40^th birthday. When I look at that bbq I am reminded that I have some very, very good friends in my life that mirror my own generosity and loyalty of spirit. I am a deeply generous person and I am loving and my friends are this too. I have the most wonderful friends!

In this picture there are so many more reminders of how good my life is and what it took for me to get there. Though as I said at the start, I’ll finish with the bbq. Never doubt that you are not moving forward. Look at a snap shot of your life and be reminded of what your life is and where you are going to bring yourself inspiration!

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Getting back to breathe

I rarely, rarely feel unwell. The past few weeks though, I have felt unwell. I couldn't work out what was causing the nausea and feeling of exhaustion. Nothing in my life has changed, that is, my diet is as always good, my friendships are good, my marriage is good, my baby is good, I am good. Milly the dog can be a bit of a handful though, however, this was not due to Milly. I tried everything.

I went to bed earlier, I ate less, I walked more, I pondered and pondered and I could not find a reason for this ongoing nausea and feeling of exhaustion. Then it hit me. My breath. 

Each day I meditate and each day I perform Agnihotra . I perform Omkara repeated many times, but what I needed was to pay special attention to my breath. It was time to focus on pranayama with strong attention. I began to mean business where pranayama is concerned.

I streamlined some of my sadhana practises so I had some extra time and energy to focus on pranayama. There is so much we can include in our sadhana (meditation, asana, diet, ethics, thoughts, pranayama to name just a few) and it is easy to 'get stuck' in performing the same components of a sadhana when really we may need to modify or adjust it according to what is going on right now in our whole being experience. So, I needed to bring into focus my breath because this was going to help me understand and overcome my unusual feeling of nausea and exhaustion. I began right away, this is what I did and this is why and here are the results.

During morning meditation I began by simply focussing on my natural breath. Allowing my breathing to be natural and uncontrolled. Allowing my breathing to be and to observe that breath. I actually noticed that both my inhalation and exhalation were short and that my exhalation was limited more so than my inhalation. Next I noticed the rhythm of both my inhalation and exhalation was out of time, it was 'jumpy' rather than smooth. Why would this be and what did this tell me about what was going on?

The flow of my breath combined with the feeling of nausea and exhaustion were signals of stress. Stress? But I'm not stressed. That's what I thought. I meditated on it a bit longer as I went about my day(s) and I kept getting the same answer... stress. After accepting this as possible I had a think about what could be causing this stress. Here is where the need for pranayama really came into play.

I was not breathing properly, fully and in a relaxed way. I was not relaxing enough, I was not experiencing the relaxation response enough.  I had underestimated the energy and attention supervising a one year old and caring for a garden and living off grid (etc) actually took. I knew I needed to take a step back. I knew I needed to calm down. I knew I needed to breath.

So I did.

I began with Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) as this is the most effective way to calm and balance all three doshas of the body, it is a highly effective way to reduce stress and anxiety throughout the whole mind/body system. After just a couple of sessions which I simply slipped into my daily morning sadhana practise, I felt much, much better.

It's been about a week and so much has changed. The feelings nausea and exhaustion have finally passed and I have calmed down, relaxed deeply enough for the real reason for my stress to emerge.

Today I sat outside whilst the baby slept and I wrote it out. I uncovered some wonderful answers and I have created an autosuggestion inspired by them.

There was a hurdle there I needed to jump. There was a door there I needed to go through and it began with the feelings of being unwell and it ended with the compiling and (now) implementing of a new autosuggestion. What carried me through? What was the working factor that helped me to calmly and peacefully move through this? Connecting consciously to my breath, putting a focus on pranayama in my sadhana each day.

I can roll back my focus on the breath now because that focus has done it's job. I can meditate a little longer or sing or spend a little more time with my asana. 

Come back to your breath when you need to. Don't forget you have this amazing, amazing tool that is free and there for you. Remember your breath.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Remembering Inner Sunshine

For the first time in I don't know how long I have a cold. Thanks to baby group I think. Anyway... I sat down to write and I thought quite the poignant topic is remembering inner sunshine cold or no cold. In fact, I think two of the best things about having this cold are #1 I have read so much of my book and #2 I have stayed connected to my inner sunshine.

When we are unwell, or have more quiet time on our hands or are waiting patiently for something it is a wonderful opportunity to remember our inner sunshine.

Our inner sunshine lives within us, it lives, actually, in our hearts. You can feel it there. When you feel happy or excited you can feel it flutter, or it's warmth. When we are feeling unwell, or stressed or lost or any number of things we can be forgiven for thinking that it has gone out, our inner sunshine. Though it has not, it is still there. It never, ever goes out as long as we are alive.

We can be distracted by physical aches or pains or the pains of others. We can be distracted by the woes of the world, we can be distracted by our jobs list or negative thinking... but it is still there and all we need to do is to tap into it. How do we do that?

There are a few ways, what I do is simply feel it. I can feel it glowing in the centre of my chest and tap into that and feel it. If you are a meditator (in some way) you will also find this easy to do. If you are not, you will need to close your eyes and place your hands on the centre of your chest. Feel the warmth in your hands and then feel deeper. It may take a few times for you to feel your inner sunshine, though you will. Maybe you see it?

Our inner sunshine is powerful stuff! This power is not to be underestimated. Tapping into your inner sunshine is tapping into your eternal smile, your heart, your love. Doing so is deeply healing, cathartic and will lift your spirits no end.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

This Is What Happens When We Breathe

When we breathe we open space within ourselves.
We open space in our mind, we open space in our hearts.
We open space in our joints, we open space for our movements.

Dis-ease can not dwell in a space with flow,
dis-ease and worry dwell in the stagnant.

When we breathe we take our time...
to smell the roses, to survey the self and connect.
When we breathe we cope with stress more easily, we make the right decision more often than not.

When we breathe we bring oxygen into our body and breathe out carbon dioxide, we cleanse our blood in this process.

When we breathe we connect to life, to our life, to the life around us,
to the Divinity with us... within all.

When we breathe we sleep beautifully, we worry less, we choose life enhancing foods
and our outlook is more positive.

When we breathe we relax tension and relaxation is the foundation for any peaceful, happy and healthy state of Being.

When we breathe we pause, we cope, we more than cope.
The more we breathe the more we thrive.

Trees breathe, flowers breathe, everything that is alive on Mother Earth breathes.
Mother Earth breathes.

To breathe is to connect to life,
the process of breathing and an intention to breathe is life affirming.

Most of your troubles, my troubles, anyone's troubles can be greatly solved simply by implementing a simple daily breathing practise.  Try it.

Follow your natural breath, in and out, in and out.
Relax.
Consciously, relax.
Breathe.

What to do when everything you touch turns to ...

The past few days have been those sort of days where everything I touch turns to ..... It started three days ago, and they are just little things but they are enough to be seriously annoying and upset my usually beautifully flowing life. I've been quietly watching things and my reaction to them, delving in using my intuitive feelers to see a) what is going on b) why? c) what is causing it?

Of course this is not the first time and I doubt it will be the last time I experience this, though I must say I am getting much better at processing and dealing with this slightly turbulent energy that rocks the boat of happiness and peace.

The number one thing I have realised and perhaps you have too is that this is not anyone else's 'fault'. Nobody is trying to rock my boat and the fact that the dog's voice seems louder, the baby's whinging seems to be conducted at an even more unnerving note and the matches (half a packet of) that it took to light (too late in the end) the agnihotra fire this morning do not 'have it in for me'. No, they do not. However I could definitely be excused for thinking they do as it does seem that everything is indeed focussed upon turning the air I walk on into thick mud. Breathe, that's right, let's take that focus and turn it inwards because the matches are not out to get me.

Inwardly I gaze and ponder. My first port of call (often the way with me) is to check in with my diet and sleep patterns. I give them both a big tick. I've been eating well and at regular times, food blessed and infused with an intention of light... gratefully accepted from Gaia and all. Sleep, well, I still do wake every three hours to feed you know who, though I do stick to my early bedtimes and I am relaxed before sleep so I sleep well and for roughly 9 hours per night, actual sleep. So it's not my body's chemicals and hormones that are out to get me.

The next thing I check is how mobile I have been, how much I am exercising and practicing pranayama (breathing exercises). Well that gets a big tick as you know who now weighs over 7 kgs and I put her on my back and we walk in the direction of the letter boxes and back most days Our aim is to get all the way down and up our steep gravel road to those letter boxes and back again in not so long a time... that would be 7 kilometres. Most days I work in the yard, digging and digging and ripping out buzzies. I bring in a load of wood a day, feed the chooks and the goats, clean the home and make it pretty and cook on average 8 meals (from scratch) per day. I also pick up and put down (several times a day) you know who, who is 7kgs. Then there is my yoga and meditation practise. So, no, I'm not sitting about and I give my mobility and breathing and meditation practice a big tick too.

So it's not the matches and it's not my diet and it's not my sleep and it's not my mobility... so who is out to get me then? Maybe it is my friends and husband?

Yesterday we took the baby to a play/learn splash everyone with freezing cold water group and a friend works at the school. She knew we were coming and had a picnic morning tea ready for us. On the way home we visited another friend who is a naturopath and spent time sharing her knowledge over an ayurvedic chai (made by her), upon leaving she gave me the sort of hug that you really, really feel loved in.  As soon as I have finished writing this blog I'm making a fantastic lunch to share with friends today.  I started the day (as I do everyday) with half hour massage given by my husband who is now taking the baby for a bushwalk whilst I write and who also (as he does every day) changed the baby's nappy, fed her and all the rest.  So it's not my baby, my mates or my husband who are out to get me. So who is it?

That really leaves one person I have not assessed and that would be me, am I out to get myself? Deep breath, really could it be? I am ready to accept the uncomfortable. Read all that is written above... now, someone who puts so much effort into caring for themselves and is obviously very loved, would they be out to get themselves? No, of course not. I love myself and do my very best to show myself compassion and kindness so I don't think it is me who is out to get me. So who is it?

You know what I have worked out, it's nobody. Nobody is out to get me. Everything is actually wonderful and all I need to do is to breathe and relax and allow this period of bad matches, barking dogs, annoying flies and steeper hills to pass. All I need to do is to focus on my light within, which never changes, and feel that. All I need to realise and know is that nobody is out go to get me, that I am wonderful and so are you are.  If everything you touch seems to be turning to ...., don't worry about it. Go and have a cup of tea or something.

Theresa Daley is a Spiritual Counsellor and Mindful Living Mentor, book an appointment with her here.

The Importance of Prayer

I grew up attending a Catholic school. My family are Catholics, though not practising and nor am I. They certainly are not, were not religious so I am not sure why we were baptised and attended Catholic schools. I think because they were thought to be good schools and they were too. All those hours of sitting in church and attending RE classes, that is, Religious Education classes, meant that the word prayer had for me, a distinctive nuance about it for many years. Even to this day it still does. But praying and prayer is so much more than the activity which comes to mind when we think 'prayer' on bended knee before a God in the sky.

I pray daily, I pray many, many times a day and I'm sure you do to. Whenever we have a wish, an intention then that is a prayer if our heart is in it. Whenever we connect to someone, somewhere, something with our heart than that is also prayer. Whenever we wish someone well, whenever we think.... I hope such and such feels better soon, then that is prayer. Whenever we write a list of goals or create a manifestation board with gratitude in our hearts than that is also prayer. Whenever we give thanks, that is prayer.

Prayer empowers us because it is a process that allows us to speak and be listened to. It gets our hopes up because when we pray we aim our thoughts at something good. Prayer releases our stress because when we pray we get to take what is in our mind, in our hearts and put it 'out there' rather than carry it around with us. Not only do we put it out there we do so with the hope that we will get help. It is awfully cathartic to ask for help, to be honest. That process starts with ourselves realising and owning up to what we need, what we need to change and when we pray we are saying 'I'm ready'.

Prayer unites us with our world, it erases the delineations of separation. When we pray we are not alone.

Whatever it is that we do that connects us to more than our ego self is prayer. Whatever it is that we do which expands our hearts to encompass more than our own little paradigm is prayer. I see my morning yoga routine as prayer too. I breathe and I expand and in that expansion I breathe some more and I connect to the deeper parts of me and this is prayer too.

Before I eat a meal, I chant the mantra AUM followed by three Shanties and Hari Om Tat Sat. I do this to bless the food and to give thanks to Lady Gaia and to all those that helped (including the nature devas and divas) create/grow the meal for me.  I do this to connect. To disconnect from whatever it is I have been doing and to become present with being and eating. 

Prayer is important because it is a way to connect. It is a way to step outside our own routines and our own thoughts, desires and own little world. Prayer empowers us because it humbles us. In prayer we are acknowledging something bigger, something that is love and gratitude and life. 

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Teacher and Spiritual Counsellor.

It's hard to choose your battles as a hippy

When someone mentions the word hippy I know just what springs into most people's minds... tie dyed clothing, long days of doing not much other than relaxing and listening to groovy music and big plates of mushy food. But that's Okay, hippies are kind of 'out there' pacifists who don't care anyway.

I'm a hippy and not only am I a self professed hippy. I heard my little sister referred to me as 'a big old hippy' to her local postie. I'm not quite sure how well she understands what a hippy is really, I'm not qutie sure many other people do either. Maybe you yourself are a hippy and don't even know it! Perish the thought.

The first false assumption made about we hippies is that we are pacifists, we are not. We choose our battles, every day. There is a list as long as your arm plus your best friend's arm to choose from too. The captain of the army we face in battle is ourselves, and we have faced this most formidable old war dog many, many times. Just as Krishna urges Arjuna in the Bhagavadgita to fight, we also fight. The first battle we fight, the longest battle we will ever fight is with ourselves. It can start when we are quite young, and often does. You may recognise the signs of the battle lines being drawn in sentiments shown by teachers and friends? Always the cry is to conform with the herd. That's if you know what's good for you. We hippies however, don't really have a choice when it comes to conforming, we just can't. Some young hippies in a mainstream society may try very hard to conform and this can cause all sorts of psychological issues in the long run.

The battle to be true to ourselves in the face of great pressure to conform, we're on the front line. Something deep within us knows better than what conformity calls us to not blossom as. It can take quite some time to win ourselves over to the idea of supporting ourselves and then we battle society, family and friends. We battle the social structure around us. Because we know that social structure supports the very thing we believe needs to cave in.

So what battles ought a good hippy choose? To stick with veganism, reduce one's carbon footprint, always support live music, poetry and art? How far does a good hippy take their war effort, as far as spinning and weaving one's own clothes. Ought a good hippy get involved in politics, equal rights, gay rights and animal rights? What about fair trading, sustainable farming and building? There is a dichotomy here, on the one hand, at heart we are pacifists and prefer the gentle path and yet to follow the hippy heart we need to be true to that pull which insists we support compassion and care for all.

Of course we'd rather be sitting about in our tie dyed jeans sipping on home grown tea looking for animal shapes in the clouds, but we have too strong a conscience for that, and we can be very hard on ourselves.

We're warriors of the light! This does not mean it's easy to choose our battles. If you're a big old hippy and you are reading this, remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. Show yourself compassion too. If you know a big old hippy, know they are strong person who is just amazing.