God has a plan!
When we try to see the way ahead and can't, we invite crippling fear.
Best we live fully in the moment and embrace that perfect "plan".
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
THE REFINER'S FIRE
The centre of Life's fire is most often our greatest dread. This is the place of absolute human transformation and a necessary preparation for a significant future journey. Bless this alchemical experience for it is here that you always become MORE!
Monday, February 14, 2011
LIMITED BY CHOICE
If you were diagnosed as being HIV+, would you reveal your status? Or would you choose to go into self-imposed exile as a victim of your own shame and fear of rejection?
HIV has hopefully started to move away from the "leprosy" status it attracted thirty years ago, when ignorance blighted people's reaction to the virus. The media has done a lot to correct these dangerous misconceptions and HIV is slowly starting to take its rightful place.
When we confine anything to secrecy, we give it a power way beyond what it deserves. The moment we talk openly about serious issues, we disempower them. It is that act of sharing which enables us to take back our power and to refuse to continue being hostage to something that doesn't warrant such destructive attention.
For several months I have been involved in assisting people going through a HIVEX treatment for HIV. As their physical well-being begins to recover, so they start to examine the mental and spiritual issues around this illness. Every adversity, including HIV and Aids, is a profound opportunity to grow, to become MORE! HIV comes to mirror our inadequacies and to enable personal growth in ways we could never have envisaged.
Many of those who visit this treatment centre tell me how they have lived a shut-down exile since discovering their HIV infection. One woman even left family and friends and a significant career to go live abroad as she tried to run away from her new HIV+ existence. Just in the past week, she has engaged family and friends and revealed her status. The lightness of being that has emanated from this positive disclosure is clearly visible on her face. She now radiates light rather than projecting the darkness of her burdensome secrets.
As people emerge from this unspoken veil, they are most frequently met with overwhelming love and support, rather than facing the torment of rejection that is the root of this tyrannical fear. Rejection always begins with self and this creates the energetic space for others to choose to reject us.
HIV forces us to deal with our fragile ego, to learn that the more authentic we are about everything, the more powerful we become. When we stop projecting rejection and start to love ourselves enough, we find a world that welcomes us with open arms, despite HIV or any other perceived affliction.
Life gives us everything we need to expand us into the fullness of our being. We need to become conscious to the several disguised opportunities to become MORE, rather than being grounded by self-pity and the inability to look for the high ground.
Life is about choice and best we make choices that are expansive and valuable not only to ourselves but to everyone around us. When people start to face their reality with candour and with the desire to become MORE, that is the space where considerable myths get debunked where limitation is conquered.
HIV is not a death sentence! HIV is an opportunity to live differently and to engage life significantly. HIV generates the need to make considerable choices and should be the conduit for positive transformation rather than a pitiful degeneration. This attitude soon teaches us that the most apparent limitations are created by our own thinking anyway.
If you were HIV+, would you continue to be ashamed of your status?
HIV has hopefully started to move away from the "leprosy" status it attracted thirty years ago, when ignorance blighted people's reaction to the virus. The media has done a lot to correct these dangerous misconceptions and HIV is slowly starting to take its rightful place.
When we confine anything to secrecy, we give it a power way beyond what it deserves. The moment we talk openly about serious issues, we disempower them. It is that act of sharing which enables us to take back our power and to refuse to continue being hostage to something that doesn't warrant such destructive attention.
For several months I have been involved in assisting people going through a HIVEX treatment for HIV. As their physical well-being begins to recover, so they start to examine the mental and spiritual issues around this illness. Every adversity, including HIV and Aids, is a profound opportunity to grow, to become MORE! HIV comes to mirror our inadequacies and to enable personal growth in ways we could never have envisaged.
Many of those who visit this treatment centre tell me how they have lived a shut-down exile since discovering their HIV infection. One woman even left family and friends and a significant career to go live abroad as she tried to run away from her new HIV+ existence. Just in the past week, she has engaged family and friends and revealed her status. The lightness of being that has emanated from this positive disclosure is clearly visible on her face. She now radiates light rather than projecting the darkness of her burdensome secrets.
As people emerge from this unspoken veil, they are most frequently met with overwhelming love and support, rather than facing the torment of rejection that is the root of this tyrannical fear. Rejection always begins with self and this creates the energetic space for others to choose to reject us.
HIV forces us to deal with our fragile ego, to learn that the more authentic we are about everything, the more powerful we become. When we stop projecting rejection and start to love ourselves enough, we find a world that welcomes us with open arms, despite HIV or any other perceived affliction.
Life gives us everything we need to expand us into the fullness of our being. We need to become conscious to the several disguised opportunities to become MORE, rather than being grounded by self-pity and the inability to look for the high ground.
Life is about choice and best we make choices that are expansive and valuable not only to ourselves but to everyone around us. When people start to face their reality with candour and with the desire to become MORE, that is the space where considerable myths get debunked where limitation is conquered.
HIV is not a death sentence! HIV is an opportunity to live differently and to engage life significantly. HIV generates the need to make considerable choices and should be the conduit for positive transformation rather than a pitiful degeneration. This attitude soon teaches us that the most apparent limitations are created by our own thinking anyway.
If you were HIV+, would you continue to be ashamed of your status?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
INDIGO-MAN
I am indigo, violet-blue.
I am deep like the ocean and light like the cool dawn sky.
Like my birthstone, amethyst, I am mystical
And often reside in the quiet caverns of my thinking.
I am Indigo-Man, child of the Aquarian Age.
I believe in the transformative power of love
And wish to shine my quiet light into darkened hearts,
That they may learn to love themselves enough to shine brightly again.
I am deep like the ocean and light like the cool dawn sky.
Like my birthstone, amethyst, I am mystical
And often reside in the quiet caverns of my thinking.
I am Indigo-Man, child of the Aquarian Age.
I believe in the transformative power of love
And wish to shine my quiet light into darkened hearts,
That they may learn to love themselves enough to shine brightly again.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
LIGHTING OUR LIGHT
The victim's pitiful lament is always: "Why me?" which speaks of a "Poor me!" mentality.
When we start to see every situation as sacred opportunity to grow and transcend ourselves, we embrace a spirit of gratitude and excitement that begs the question: "What next?"
That change of mental focus transforms everything in the most profound way and we become a light in the world.
When we start to see every situation as sacred opportunity to grow and transcend ourselves, we embrace a spirit of gratitude and excitement that begs the question: "What next?"
That change of mental focus transforms everything in the most profound way and we become a light in the world.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
ON REFLECTION
Life is characterised by seasons; whether they be climatic or just the unfolding chapters of our lives. The continuum of change is fed by loss, where every loss forces us into a new paradigm which encourages evolutionary learning and growth.
Human nature yearns for the gentleness and ease of the comfort zone and we tend to do everything in our power to encourage that repetitive stasis. But life insists that the journey be sufficiently spiced with new experiences, wrought mainly by unforeseen change. The more we struggle against life's natural flow, the more intense becomes the acquisition of valuable new understanding.
Rather than seeing life as an unfolding adventure, we readily choose to be victims of circumstance and accentuate our suffering by wallowing in pain, rather than learning life's precious lessons and moving ahead. We often stupidly seek attention through our apparent "misfortunes", instead of being mindful that our focus is what we always manifest. Such pitiful behaviour has the effect of keeping us stuck in a litany of unhappiness.
Twenty years ago, a brilliant woman called Darby Costello, told me that my life would be in two distinct chapters. The first chapter was created out of a conditioning for what I believed society revered. I followed my early dreams of making money and being at the cutting edge of pioneering and innovation in the South African investment world. In tandem to the cut and thrust of commerce, came a growing spirituality, where I actively sought the face of the Creator. This was the time when I discovered that I had been blessed with the gift of healing and actively began trying to heal the world as well.
This early part was defined by the conventional. In playing the "game", I wore pin-striped suits and monogrammed shirts. My shoes were polished to distraction and mirrored me towering above them. I strove to create wealth and the comforts which money brings.
My happiest moment came when I first looked into the soulful eyes of my son, James. To finally meet your offspring is an unparalleled joy. In that moment, I felt the depth of our soul connection which is still evident today.
This dream existence was shattered by the unexpected death of my daughter, Victoria. Her journey lasted less than a day, but her coming and going was profound. The raw parental ache of permanently saying goodbye to a child would make this a sharply defining moment where life could never be the same again. Victoria came to change the world and that becomes increasingly evident as time goes by.
Victoria's passing soon gave way to the end of my marriage and the implosion of a significant career in finance. Darby's earlier prediction of a life of two distinct chapters was being fulfilled. The more I struggled to preserve a fading past, the more extreme became the changes that were being unceremoniously foist on me. I was to be stripped bare as a preparation for the next long season of my life.
Few things have changed me more than being diagnosed with HIV. HIV taught me that worrying about the thoughts and opinions of others was pointless. More important, was to actively encourage myself to hold empowering thoughts most of the time. HIV also came to teach me the nuances of self-love, because it was by being reckless that I contacted HIV in the first place.
As I have come to understand the importance of self-love, I began to live by my doctrine of "MORE" or "LESS". Anything that detracts from our life to make us "LESS" is not an act of self-love and should not be entertained. (Visit: http://www.indigo-man.com. Click "Indigo Links" and then click "MORE or LESS".)
In looking back on yet another birthday, I am grateful for all of my life. It may not have been a comfortable life, but I have always been given exactly what I need. Life knows best! Life also honours our passionate dreams in the most profound way. If we hold onto the vision, despite the challenges that might make us want to acquiesce, we are blessed with living our dreams and our life's purpose.
Getting older is a special experience. In looking back, I am amazed at just how special life really is. I have definitely entered the second major chapter of my life which Darby described as unconventional and the emergence of the real "me". Life has equipped me through a multiplicity of experience and my task is to use this meaningfully and for the betterment of those less fortunate. Now comes the time to use what has been given to create the "fruits" of my lifetime.
In July last year, I underwent a HIVEX treatment for HIV and have been living without any anti-retroviral medication for nearly 8 months. I have been given a significant second chance! I now choose to share this amazing treatment by marshalling my talents and energies to help eradicate HIV wherever it casts its darkness.
It feels like life has only just begun and I look forward to embracing the future to make meaning of all that has already gone before. I want for nothing and only continue to choose to be MORE!
Human nature yearns for the gentleness and ease of the comfort zone and we tend to do everything in our power to encourage that repetitive stasis. But life insists that the journey be sufficiently spiced with new experiences, wrought mainly by unforeseen change. The more we struggle against life's natural flow, the more intense becomes the acquisition of valuable new understanding.
Rather than seeing life as an unfolding adventure, we readily choose to be victims of circumstance and accentuate our suffering by wallowing in pain, rather than learning life's precious lessons and moving ahead. We often stupidly seek attention through our apparent "misfortunes", instead of being mindful that our focus is what we always manifest. Such pitiful behaviour has the effect of keeping us stuck in a litany of unhappiness.
Twenty years ago, a brilliant woman called Darby Costello, told me that my life would be in two distinct chapters. The first chapter was created out of a conditioning for what I believed society revered. I followed my early dreams of making money and being at the cutting edge of pioneering and innovation in the South African investment world. In tandem to the cut and thrust of commerce, came a growing spirituality, where I actively sought the face of the Creator. This was the time when I discovered that I had been blessed with the gift of healing and actively began trying to heal the world as well.
This early part was defined by the conventional. In playing the "game", I wore pin-striped suits and monogrammed shirts. My shoes were polished to distraction and mirrored me towering above them. I strove to create wealth and the comforts which money brings.
My happiest moment came when I first looked into the soulful eyes of my son, James. To finally meet your offspring is an unparalleled joy. In that moment, I felt the depth of our soul connection which is still evident today.
This dream existence was shattered by the unexpected death of my daughter, Victoria. Her journey lasted less than a day, but her coming and going was profound. The raw parental ache of permanently saying goodbye to a child would make this a sharply defining moment where life could never be the same again. Victoria came to change the world and that becomes increasingly evident as time goes by.
Victoria's passing soon gave way to the end of my marriage and the implosion of a significant career in finance. Darby's earlier prediction of a life of two distinct chapters was being fulfilled. The more I struggled to preserve a fading past, the more extreme became the changes that were being unceremoniously foist on me. I was to be stripped bare as a preparation for the next long season of my life.
Few things have changed me more than being diagnosed with HIV. HIV taught me that worrying about the thoughts and opinions of others was pointless. More important, was to actively encourage myself to hold empowering thoughts most of the time. HIV also came to teach me the nuances of self-love, because it was by being reckless that I contacted HIV in the first place.
As I have come to understand the importance of self-love, I began to live by my doctrine of "MORE" or "LESS". Anything that detracts from our life to make us "LESS" is not an act of self-love and should not be entertained. (Visit: http://www.indigo-man.com. Click "Indigo Links" and then click "MORE or LESS".)
In looking back on yet another birthday, I am grateful for all of my life. It may not have been a comfortable life, but I have always been given exactly what I need. Life knows best! Life also honours our passionate dreams in the most profound way. If we hold onto the vision, despite the challenges that might make us want to acquiesce, we are blessed with living our dreams and our life's purpose.
Getting older is a special experience. In looking back, I am amazed at just how special life really is. I have definitely entered the second major chapter of my life which Darby described as unconventional and the emergence of the real "me". Life has equipped me through a multiplicity of experience and my task is to use this meaningfully and for the betterment of those less fortunate. Now comes the time to use what has been given to create the "fruits" of my lifetime.
In July last year, I underwent a HIVEX treatment for HIV and have been living without any anti-retroviral medication for nearly 8 months. I have been given a significant second chance! I now choose to share this amazing treatment by marshalling my talents and energies to help eradicate HIV wherever it casts its darkness.
It feels like life has only just begun and I look forward to embracing the future to make meaning of all that has already gone before. I want for nothing and only continue to choose to be MORE!
EXILED BY GREED
The inability to share, driven by deep-seated greed, always leads to a self-created exile of loneliness.
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