Archive for September, 2007
Michael Neill was fabulous and a real inspiration. He gave some great tips that are quick, practical that you can use right away to feel better and at more peace right in the moment.
What do you think? If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please leave a comment.
Suzy xx
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Just interviewed Michael Neil, author of Feel Happy Now! Really inspiring interview and will post asap.
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I’ve done my 15 minutes of meditation.
I have to admit, I don’t enjoy it. I do find it painful. Suddenly I am faced with all the thoughts/feelings I have been avoiding with all my busyness. Perhaps this is the point. Let it all bubble to the surface…? but is it released and gone? Or just hanging around me like a bad smell?
So in the big peace process – what do we decide to do about that? Do we persevere? Or find another way.. I commit to persevering and I will see if this changes. Am I simply resistant to my darker thoughts?
But isn’t the point of all this – to feel good? I want to feel good, not to feel pecked at by nasty thoughts.
I will wait for inspiration. I’m interviewing Michael Neil – success coach extraordinaire – for out Big Peace blog…I’ll ask him…..
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So it’s interesting to observe my little goings-on. Yesterday I vowed to meditate every day. I know it makes me feel more peaceful.
15 minutes ago, I had a choice, make myself a cup of coffee or meditate….
There is now an empty cup of coffee on my desk and I’m not feeling remotely peaceful (but slightly revved up). I’m feeling bad that I haven’t meditated, bad for having another coffee (my third of the day and it’s only 11.30?)
What I’m pondering right now is how can we create peaceful habits without it becoming a ‘should’/without feeling wrong for having the coffee?
We know what we ‘should’ do to make us thinner/healthier/more peaceful so why don’t we do it?
It’s that short-term pleasure versus long-term gain battle. It’s about that moment of choice in the moment.
And I must admit, it’s not my best moment. I’ve always been a bit of f**k it girl (oh, f**t it, I’ll just have the one)
It took me about 5 years to give up smoking because I was always saying ‘f**t it’, I’ll just have one more fag. (and even now after 10 years or so of not smoking, if I have a drink…I still want a fag….!)
I don’t want my life to be about denial. My big peace feels warm and comfortable and has coffee in it.
What do I want? To feel good. Warm coffee with a sugar in it makes me feel good. But you know, that’s how I used to feel about cigarettes.
Maybe there is something about this discipline thing in the short-term (or even long-term). Like Matthieu Ricard, the Buddhist monk in his book Happiness has been saying……we need to work at inner peace – it’s something that doesn’t just happen, we do need to train the mind.
I think I do have that instant gratification thing going on. 30 days to inner peace? Great, let’s get it/achieve it/do it then…..tick that box, next?! I know this but I need to be reminded……the big peace…. it’s not a destination….it’s a process….a lifelong process…
And maybe I need to factor in some discipline. Ok, let’s try again.
I’m going to meditate now, meet you back here in 15 minutes.
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I’ve known how to meditate for 10 years now. When I was a journalist, I was sent off to learn transcendal meditation for New Woman magazine and I wrote a piece on how it improved my sex life in 30 days…! (Apparently the TM office phone rang off the hook!)
Why oh why then haven’t I kept it my meditation habit up? I know that it benefits me in every department – not just in the bedroom.
I meditate when I remember. It’s not a habit. I’m reading Happiness by Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk, and he encourages us to cultivate happiness by practising habits that create good soil for happiness to take root in. Happiness does not just happen, he says, we work at it just like we do at getting fit at the gym.
Meditation is one thing that I know makes me feel peaceful on every level – if I do it.
Am I just lazy?
Maybe just afraid because the first few minutes (sometimes the whole 20 minutes) has all my horrible, mean thoughts/worries/fears rising to the surface to peck at my brain. If I keep myself distracted with my busyness, then I don’t have to notice their pecking.
My meditation teacher described it as being on the surface of stormy sea and feeling sea-sick, terrifed you’re going to drown until you surrender and learn to breathe with your scuba-diving equipment and start listening to the calm in and out of your breathing and you’re under the waves, safe from hitting your head on the boat.
Until you see that shark…..
We are currently day 18 of the Big Peace programme and I now declare I will be meditating every day for the rest of the programme.
want to join me?
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As most of you will know, The Big Peace is very hip and as such is down with all the cool kids…or at least on Facebook anyway!
Now I know it’s all very new to a lot of you (me too!) so we’ve got a short little video overview to get you started.
You might need to allow the video to buffer a little depending on your internet connect speed – Just click the link below and press play and when the video opens up, press the pause button (bottom left of the screen) to allow the while line to move from left to right along the very bottom before pressing play again.
If you have questions please leave them as comments to this post (click on “Comments”).
Have fun and make sure you come join us on Facebook!
Suzy xx
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A number of people have been wondering about what happens with the big peace after 30th Sept…
Well, me too! I must say I am loving putting all my focus on contentment….and peace……..I’m doing this programme with you….doing the exact same exercises as you and I must say, I’m really enjoying myself (with the occasional wobble).
I have a few thoughts on how we could keep thing going. One that’s not as intense – i.e. not daily emails. What about a year of peace????
What I’d really love is to get your thoughts. What would you like to become of The Big Peace? Leave your comments below (just click on “comments”)
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I’ll also be launching my coaching Golden Tickets soon which is an opportunity for you to make it all much more personal, if that’s what you’d like to do.
Actually the great thing about the Golden Tickets is that you can decide to use the one-on-one time as you’d like to – as your coach, I’m here to serve you!
In a few days I’ll have more details, but if you have any questions you can email me suzy@thebig-leap.com
Talk soon,
Suzy xx
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How excited I am! We got to talk to guru extraordinaire last night – Byron Katie – on what I think is a fast-track method to inner peace (not that it’s a race!). Do listen to the interview or download her worksheets/get yourself a ‘work’ buddy from www.thework.com (it’s all free!)
And now…..guess that? Michael Neill…author of Feel Happy Now! has agreed to talk to us. Must admit I’m in a bit of a flutter. I’m a not so secret raving fan of Michael (named as ‘the finest success coach in the world today’ by Paul McKenna, indeed!)
Michael’s newsletter pops into my inbox every Monday and I always read it and feel happier/perkier or enlighted in some way – how often can you say that? Check out Michael’s website www.geniuscatalyst.com and sign up for his newsletter and we can form a fan club.
Anyway…..he has agreed to give us a 20 minute interview on all his best stuff on finding inner contentment. Will let you know as soon as I’ve posted it.
I feel pretty content right now.
How are you? We are now 12 days into the programme. How are you feeling?
I was feeling a little bit rubbish yesterday as you’ll hear if you listen to the Byron Katie interview but after doing my ‘work’ and 4 question process….I feel like I am welcoming my stressful thoughts because it gets me nearer to feeling peaceful. Yerwhat?
Listen to the interview and all will be revealed!
Suzy xxx
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Here is the Byron Katie interview to download…
Enjoy and do leave a comment if you are so inspired.
Suzy x
I’ve just been blown away by author and all round brilliant person Byron Katie! She has been named as a ‘visionary for the new millennium’ by Time magazine and I’ve just been reminded why.
I was interviewing her for our big peace programme (I will post it to you tomorrow) and we actually did the four question enquiry and turnaround on our interview. Her work is based on questioning our thoughts so we can feel differently.
Pick an ‘aggro’ thought….and then try these four questions:
1. Is that true?
2. Can you be absolutely certain that it is true?
3. How do you react when you think that thought?
4. Who would you be without that thought?
Once again, ‘the work’ worked for me – in a profound way. I admitted to Katie that as committed as I am to The Big Peace…I’ve felt all sorts of nasty, stressful thoughts come up so far on this programme.
"The more I think about peace, the more stressful thoughts I think," I wailed. Katie took me through the 4 question technique and the worked with me on the ‘turnaround’. And it has blown me away. (in a good way). Listen into the interview tomorrow if you can.
The great thing about this work is it’s free and downloadable now from www.thework.com
You can download the worksheets, ring a hotline, get yourself a buddy to work with – all for free.
And this stuff is so powerful.
Enjoy.
Suzy xxx
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