It's been a very busy and interesting week for me. Some things have fallen into place in my mind and I'm feeling a lot clearer now about where I'm going and what I need to do (or not) next.

I've been busy decorating the living room this week. It's been ages (years) since I did it and it had a nice cosy feel to it with burgundy coloured walls and a dark blue ceiling. Very nice to snuggle up in for me, and it seemed to work well for the groups and workshops too. However, since I bought the new suite, I've been looking at the room and thinking it could do with a makeover. And as I have a lot of workshops and events coming up, I decided it would be a good idea to do it now before they all come along.

Phew! It's a twenty-one by ten foot room and it seemed to take ages. The ceiling took four coats to get the blue to become a more suitable magnolia shade. There is no chance of it ever being white I don't think! I'd still be painting now.

Anyway, back to the point… It was while I was up a ladder bemoaning the fact that I hadn't got a handy painter/decorator to do it for me, that it struck me that it's not what life presents us with, it's how we handle it that matters. After all, I thought, some people would be happy simply to be given the chance to be able to afford the paint, and some folks who are ill would love to simply be able to actually get up and do the job. So I was lucky on two counts at least. But how was I to make the job into something more than just wishing the time away and thinking about the time I'd finish and it would all be done? Well, the answer was on my bookshelf.

I'd recently bought a copy of Abraham-Hicks' 'The Astonishing Power of Emotions' and noticed that it comes with a free CD at the back. I've never had time to listen to it before, so I decided to put it on while I was up the ladder. In amongst the usual talk of the Law of Attraction was Abraham's idea that we should enjoy being where we are at the moment, and that will help us turn our boats 'upstream' to where we would like to be. Basically it's acceptance of what is in our lives at the moment, and setting the intention that we will enjoy whatever it is we're doing now while keeping our eyes on the future and what we would like to create for ourselves.

Apparently, if we rail against what already is, and moan and groan about our current circumstances, we will only attract more things into our lives to moan and groan about. So our new mantra must become "I am where I am, and that's okay!" Or "I am what I am and that's okay!" Sounds good to me.

It's interesting how I attracted this, just as I was looking for some inspiration. And if I hadn't made the effort to make a boring job more interesting and enjoyable by putting on the CD, I'd never have found it. So there you are. It seems it's not what life gives you; it's what you make of it that counts. Just another lesson along my life path. I hope all my lessons are as enjoyable as this one.

By the way, the room's now finished and it looks great so I'm glad I made the effort.

I was watching TV recently and saw a very beautiful, very talented young lady singing. She had the most wonderful voice. And I must admit to being a bit envious of her. To have her obvious good looks, and a beautiful voice? Too much good luck for one person, I thought! And it occurred to me that she was very blessed to be doing work she obviously enjoyed tremendously and presumably was being paid a fair amount for doing too.

I have always believed that we were all unique and special and that we all have our very own special talents and gifts to give the world. But how do we know what those are? And how can we find out?

I think the key to this lies in 'following our bliss'. Doing the things that we most enjoy doing is our clue to finding out where our true talents and gifts lie. For instance, what is it you're doing when time seems to stand still? Or what are you doing when you look up and find that a whole day has gone by without your noticing it?

What do you do that makes your soul sing? What job would you do even if nobody paid you for doing it? And what are the things you do that make you feel energised and alive?

I believe that these are the clues that we should look for. For instance, it doesn't matter how tired I am, being able to give a Reiki treatment or run a workshop makes me feel good all over afterwards. And the same applies to 'messing about on the computer' updating the web site or writing this journal. Somehow, when I've finished and look up, the time has simply flown by.

And it is these very things that are our unique and special gifts that we can give to the world. No one can do these things the way we can. Even if people are creating, making or doing the same things they would not be done in quite the same way as we would do them. And if we can use our gifts and talents and develop them wisely, there is no reason why we shouldn't all have something as wonderful as that beautiful lady singer with which to grace the world.

What a lovely Sunday I just had! Doing (and you'll never believe it…) nothing. Simply sitting and being for a change. I usually fill in my Sunday journal and give myself an hour's Reiki and think about what I've got to do in the next week or maybe read a self-help book or whatever, but this time I simply 'chilled' and really enjoyed myself too.

This was a real change for me, not having to think about or do anything. Somehow I just didn't feel the need. I figured that the jobs that needed doing would still need doing the next day and it wouldn't make any difference whether I did them today or tomorrow. I suppose if there had been anything urgent to do, I would have done it, but there wasn't. Not really. Most of the 'stuff' I had to do would wait, I thought.

And I really enjoyed the feeling of having not to be anywhere, not having to do anything, not having to contact anybody. This, as you will realise if you've read the journal this far, is something fairly alien to me. Usually, I'm full of busyness and things that need doing or seeing to.

Last week I had a friend visiting me from London and he stayed for nearly a week. I thoroughly enjoyed that. We went out to the market and out for lunch a couple of times. We went to the pub and enjoyed seeing a local band I'd never seen before. We sat and chatted too, and made time for the inevitable catch-up session. So, of course, I was busy then, and afterwards, as I had an extra pile of washing and cleaning up to do when my visitor went home.

So I've been doing something a bit different to my usual thing this week, and having a beautiful lazy Sunday was a great way to finish the week off for me. And now I'm back to my usual Monday routine of updating the web site and other things. And how I love doing this too.

But it's interesting how I'm enjoying it even more this week after my week doing different things. I truly believe that variety is the spice of life and I encourage you all to take some time out from your routines once in a while and discover hidden treasures in your lives. And you will find, when you go back to your routines again, that you enjoy them even more for having had a change.

It's interesting what comes up when you 'put yourself out there' isn't it? A while ago, I decided to 'follow my bliss' and create a lovely holiday video, which I put onto 'Youtube' (see the 'Living More Positively' post) and while I was checking to see how many people had been looking at it recently, I came across a music video put on there by a friend of mine from way back (early 70's I think) that I haven't seen or heard of for ages.

Just watching his video took me back years. I was a whole different person then with a completely different way of life, with different friends and different interests. It was very tempting to see what else I could find and I spent most of the morning looking at old videos and seeing people I haven't seen in years. It was lovely to go back and immerse myself in those days for a while. Like looking at old photographs and remembering when they were taken and what we were doing at the time.

But at the same time, it was also a reminder to me of just how far I have come since those days. At that time, I wouldn't have said 'boo' to a goose, and now I stand and give talks and presentations to roomfuls of strangers.

And yes, I got in touch, and found that my friend had a page on Myspace. I'd never been on Myspace before, now I have a whole page of my own, which is great. (Link on the left if you want to see.) This now brings more people to my Site and to the Forum and Blog. Brilliant! And all from 'following my bliss' and doing something I enjoyed.

However, it occurred to me while I was doing this, that, although it's nice to look back and see how far we've come, it's never a good idea to dwell on the past. Even if we could go back, things wouldn't be the same. We wouldn't be the same would we? And if we waste our time yearning to go back to the 'old days', we're missing out on the wonderful things that can be happening in the present. The place we really need to be is in the now, because as Louise Hay would say "The point of power is in the present moment." Which means that everything that our future holds for us, is determined by what we do and say right now. We cannot rewrite the past, nor undo what has been done. Yet the future is ours to create, beginning right now.

I'm up for it… Are you?

Seeking inspiration, especially when you really need it, is a thankless task sometimes. I've been trying to find some inspiration for a new workshop I wanted to run and the more I thought about it, the more confused I became. I had the theme, but needed ideas for exercises and, more specifically, a plan for the day. By the time I'd finished thinking about it, my mind was running in circles.

It’s a bit like when we have a problem and don't know what to do. The more we worry and fret, the worse things seem to become and the more we worry and fret. It's a vicious circle.

I'd read somewhere that if you're planning to write a book, the first thing you should do is to write the blurb that goes on the back cover. That way, you give yourself a focus and you know what your intentions are for writing the book. And I'd also heard that if we’re worrying about something, the best thing we can do is to forget it for a while and the solution will present itself while we're doing something else.

The 'something else' I decided to do was create the poster for the event. That way, I would be doing something I love (creating graphics etc.) and also give myself an idea of what I wanted the workshop to achieve. And guess what? It worked! By the end of the day I knew exactly what I wanted to do and achieve with this workshop, and I'd had a thoroughly good time 'playing with the graphics' as well. Not to mention the fact that the poster's now done and ready to go.

And I think there's a lesson in there somewhere too. We can't ignore our problems. They won't go away on their own. But if we keep worrying and fretting we can only make things worse because our minds cannot 'think straight' while they're going round in circles. So if we can find some time to rest, relax and think of something else for a while, we allow the solution to simply pop into our heads when we're not looking for it. This is one I'm definitely going to try again!

And here's the finished poster…

'Step into Spring'

Been busy again this week. Busy, busy, busy. I'm working on organising a new workshop and also preparing to run the Pathways to Wisdom, Egyptian Wisdom workshop this Saturday. These 'Pathways' have been running for about four years now, and although they're basically the same workshop, each one is very different depending on the theme. We use different oracle cards, different music – even the table is set differently to reflect the theme. And even if the same people come twice, they'll get different guidance and wisdom each time depending on where in their lives they are at present.

I do love doing these workshops, but I also love doing something different too. I spent all day yesterday working on the new one, which will be totally different (watch this space for details) and will probably be another one-day one. And today I'm back in the office again beavering away, but thankfully I have a Reiki client in this afternoon. That will give me a break from the computer.

I remember attending a personal development group once, and was told to stop working as I was doing too much and wasn't allowing myself time to rest. I really took the advice to heart and tried my best not to work, but to me it felt all wrong. All I wanted to do was get on with the things I had to do, not force myself to have to stop. Eventually I gave in to my heart and went back to work and finished the things I needed to do before I took my well-earned holiday.

I did, however, learn an important lesson from this. Well two lessons really. The first lesson was to follow my heart and do what makes me feel good because then I'm giving my best to everyone (including myself). The second lesson was to allow myself a little time for me, because if I'm not working well because I'm tired, I'm not going to enjoy my work and neither will my clients.

Nowadays, I'm in the office around 7.45 each morning but I make it a rule to have an hour for lunch mid-day and not finish any later than 6.00 which gives me time for a nice soak in the bath and an hour's Reiki before dinner. Bliss!!!

Try it yourself and see. We can make a real difference in our lives and the lives of those around us simply by making time for ourselves. And even if this might seem selfish at first, think about it – what would your loved ones do if you couldn't be there for them because you're too ill, tired or simply plain exhausted to do it?

What an interesting day! I've been reading the Abraham-Hicks book 'The Astonishing Power of Emotions' which tells how, when we're navigating the river of life, we tend to turn our canoes 'upstream' and waste much time and energy fighting and going against the current.

And I've noticed that I do that too. Quite a lot actually! When we've got a 'grumble' about something in our lives, how many times do we perpetuate the thought by dwelling on it, or even sharing it with a friend or relative who is usually quick to agree with us that life shouldn't be like that or whatever. Or get busy, busy, believing that there's something we have to do to make things right. This then perpetuates the 'grumble' even more and aggravates the situation further. (Well, it would. The Law of Attraction simply can't work any other way.)

It turns out that thinking and acting this way is simply 'paddling upstream' and apparently "Nothing we want is upstream." We're fighting against the current, and our negative thoughts and worries then attract more things to make us feel negatively and worry about.

The new idea is to take our 'grumbles' (for want of a better word) and see if we can't find a thought that makes us feel better than the original thought about the grumble. So if, for instance, your grumble was about work, you could say you have a thoroughly horrible job (which may be true,) but at least the job pays your wages (which is a better thought.) And it gets you out of the house and makes you feel a bit independent. Or there may be other little things you could focus on that are good about your job. Suddenly, you're not feeling quite so bad are you?

The idea is to put ourselves in a space of allowing what is happening, to simply be. To realise that if we didn't hate our job so much we wouldn't have the desire to change it, and that desire could lead us towards many wonderful things if we let it.

To me, paddling downstream is like going with the flow. We don't have to struggle to get where we want to go, we simply allow it to happen. Yesterday I made a promise to myself to do this. Every time I find something to grumble about, I'll find something good about it. So today, when I was thinking about the fact that I hadn't had many bookings for my services this week yet, I remembered how well I've done so far this year for bookings. 'Cheery be,' I said to myself, and got on with what I was doing. Would you believe it? Well you would, because it happened. The phone started ringing, the emails came in and now I've got nearly as much as I can handle this week.

I believe that this is all down to my attitude and making a positive decision to let the river take me 'downstream' instead of fighting it all the way and struggling to find clients etc. I could have wasted all day emailing or phoning people up and got nowhere. Instead I simply turned around and paddled downstream. I changed my initial thought to a more comforting one and got on with the other things I had to do. And the Universe took care of me. And very quickly and easily too. Maybe you'd like to try it sometime…

A change is as good as a rest, they say. But how may of us are truly open to change I wonder? Even if we know that change will be for the better, it can sometimes seem like too big a step for us to take.

For instance, I came to the computer just now and automatically tuned into Radio Rivendell (all beautiful fantasy music.) It failed to connect, so I thought, "Fine. Let's go to Stellar Attraction instead." (Wonderful progressive music – I love that!) However, that also failed to connect. Some searching on the Internet produced another lovely radio station called Sky FM, which plays new age music. Lovely soft sounds, just perfect for working to. And if I hadn't lost the connection with the other stations, I would never have discovered it. I wouldn't have bothered to change. Just carried on in the usual way. And I'm really enjoying the new music now. So you see, it pays to change occasionally!

The thought of change can be scary when we want a big new thing to happen in our lives. Sometimes we think we want something, but the fear of the change that actually achieving that something will bring is too much for us. So we 'sabotage' our hopes and dreams and put blocks in our way, which wouldn't otherwise be there.

And fear is a strange thing. We can fear success sometimes, as much as we can fear failure. Perhaps there will be many things to 'live up to' if we are successful. Perhaps we're too attached to something to really let it go and replace it with something new. Sometimes it takes a big shove to put us on the road to our dreams and sometimes it's just one little thing that can motivate us to move forwards.

And sometimes the hopes and dreams we are trying to realise are not even our own, but are the hopes and dreams of another. It never ceases to amaze me how many people tell me that they want to do something, and then when I ask why, they say, "Because my Mother/Sister/friend/whoever thinks I should."

So if you have hopes and dreams still unfulfilled, first of all ask yourself "Is this dream really mine?" Don't go on feeling like you've failed at something when it's something you never really wanted to do in the first place. And if you find that your dreams are truly yours, and that they are truly what you want, then ask yourself "What am I afraid of?" "What do I fear most?" And "Am I really open to change?" Listen to your heart and you will receive the answers I'm sure.

A new affirmation came my way recently and instead of the usual phrasing of "This thing is coming to me now," it read, "I am ready to receive…" That's something I'm going to try. Being 'ready to receive' puts us in a much more powerful position and affirms our willingness and readiness to receive our dreams whatever they may be. Why not give it a try yourself? You could be surprised by the results.

Happy dreaming!

Well, tonight is New Year's Eve. Whatever you believe about Christmas and the like, today is something we all can celebrate. Unless, of course, your New Year falls on a different date. In which case, Happy New Year to you for then…

I do like a New Year. It seems like a fresh start to me. I fill in my journal each week during the year, and write down the important and not-so-important things that have happened over the last week, and anything I feel I have learned from what's happened to me. And I seem to be learning all the time. I expect I always will… Anyhow, the point is that I have something to look back on tomorrow, which will give me a feel for how the last year has been and I can also see just how far I've come. My aim in doing this is to enjoy my little triumphs and successes and learn from the other things.

I also like to set 'intentions' for the year ahead. I never set resolutions. It feels like failure if you don't manage to stick to all of them, (and who does?) so I set intentions instead. I read through last year's intentions and see just how many I've managed to fulfil then I can pat myself on the back for those and check to see if any I haven't fulfilled are ready for dropping, or for moving forward for the New Year.

Sometimes we set resolutions or even intentions for things we think we want at the time, but subsequently find are not really what we want at all. And sometimes we can play 'avoidance' with things we say we want to do, because we don't really want to do them at all either. And we can feel like we've failed if things remain undone. So a New Year is a chance for a clear out and a fresh start for me at least.

I think that one of the most important things I've learned this last year is about the Law of Attraction. I've read and re-read the Abraham-Hicks books and 'The Secret' as well as the 'God' series of books by Neale Donald Walsch and finally understood more of what it's all about. They've certainly filled a great gap in my knowledge that was holding me up and have helped me move forward much more quickly and positively.

Briefly, what I found was that it seems that having what I want enables me to be happy and contributes happiness to the world and is not 'greedy' after all. The more I have of anything, be it happiness, money, health or whatever, the more I can offer to the world. I've always believed in some sort of collective consciousness that we contribute to with our moods and outlook and now I'm told, there is one, and we do each have the power to influence it. And I've learned that the things that are wrong in our lives (what we don't want) only serve to help us create 'rockets of desire' and show us what we do want. So even the bad things are good for us in a strange sort of way. By looking at what we don't want, we become clearer about what we do want.

I've had a go at Cosmic Ordering with some small successes so I think this New Year will herald more of the same for me, hopefully with some of my bigger orders coming through. I also took the plunge and finally left work last January to pursue my 'real work' full time. So far the Universe has supported me well and I'm sure it will do the same next year. I've learned that the Universe loves a grateful soul, and that the more things I find to be grateful for, the more I will be given to be grateful for. And, of course, I have so much to be grateful for so I'm busy focusing on that and letting the things I wish to change show me the way to better things. And likewise with my positivity. Whenever I've found things to be positive about, whenever I'm having a 'good day', I find even more to be positive about. Life, after all, is just like a great big mirror. It just mirrors back to me whatever I'm thinking/feeling at the time.

This has made me realise that 'nothing is more important than that I feel good' and if I can help myself to feel good in small ways (a nice long soak in some lovely bubbles, a good chat with a friend etc.) the Universe will mirror that good feeling back to me and send me even more people and situations which will make me feel good. Then I can go out and spread those good feelings to others. Well, it works for me!

Meanwhile this next year is one in which I hope all of your dreams (and mine) come true. Look back to your past and be glad of your successes, learn from your failures, and this time next year when you look back, let the mirror of your life show you a positive, successful, happy and healthy you!

Happy New Year to you all!

Hello again. This is just a short blog from me on something very dear to my heart. Positive thinking and how we can do more of it. Positive thinking alone won't solve our problems, I know. However if we can put ourselves in a more positive frame of mind it really can help. It's the best way I know to encourage more situations into our lives, which will give us in even more things to be positive about.