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 Hi Everyone,
Well, here in
France, Spring is very much in evidence.
The prune trees are in full white blossom, the
birds are busy nest building and there is a
general sense of new life and hope for the
future. And of course Easter is
very much about new life.
In the Christian faith, Christ rose
from the dead to eternal life whilst the Jewish
festival of Passover commemorates Moses leading
the Children of Israel out of Egypt to
freedom. The astrologer Jonathan Cainer,
also tells us that this is a very important
time of birth and renewal for the Mayans,
Persians and Tibetans. Add to this the Pagan
celebration of Ostara, from which we get our
Easter Bunny’s and Eggs as symbols of
fertility, and it’s very clear that this time
of the year is vibrant with the sense of new
beginnings.
Does your life feel like
that? Do you feel upbeat and
enthusiastic – looking forward to all that life
has to offer? Or do you feel a bit
like your feet are stuck in treacle and you’re
wondering what to do next? If so,
REJOICE! “What!?”,I hear you
exclaim, “what’s to rejoice about feeling
stuck? Plenty.
You’ve probably heard the expression
“The darkest hour is just before dawn” and
whilst feeling stuck might not represent the
darkest hour, it is often the time before a
breakthrough, an “aha” moment, new ideas, fresh
creativity. The secret is not to
despair and get all uptight about it – but to
surrender to it, to trust that in the
“stuckness”, you are actually working things
through. It’s as though your inner
world is sorting and sifting and re-arranging –
ready for that moment of clarity.
So take heart and let the energy of
the season infuse your body, mind and spirit.
carefully to your “inner tutor” - your
intuition and let Spring be the Springboard to
release whatever you need for the next part of
your journey. (Sorry if that sounds
corny, but it positively bounced into my
head…so I just had to write it!)
Something else that came into my head
the other day when I was driving along, was the
word Willpower and I have long recognised to
take heed of words that just seem to jump
into my mind. So I started to
think about the word and this is the subject
for this month’s feature.
Here's what else is coming
up....
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Feature:
What exactly is
Willpower?
To Make You
Smile: An Irish Ghost
Story
Because we
like them.......
Group
Facilitation in Action workshop
with John
Beautiful,
heartfelt and personalised
ceremonies with
Akasha
TOTAL READ
TIME: 5
minutes
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Feature: What exactly is Willpower?
It seems we have a number of
expressions in our vocabulary around willpower.
For example: “He/she is a wilful
child”. What does this mean?
Determined, independent, stubborn, has a mind
of their own, wants things on their own
terms? Possibly it means all of these
things.
“They have no willpower at all when it
comes to giving up smoking/losing weight
etc”. How many times have you heard
someone say “I’m determined to …… (whatever it
is) and then it doesn’t work? I
know I’ve been guilty of that with weight loss
– “I’m determined to lose 14lbs by March” – but
I haven’t. Why is that?
Wasn’t I determined enough, didn’t I apply
enough willpower? Maybe that was
it. However, I also know that when
I really “set my mind to something”, I achieve
it. So what is the
difference?
Well I decided to do some research and
it was fascinating because not only did it take
me back to the roots of my training in
psychotherapy and hypnosis but also linked
strongly with a lot of other current day theory
around “thoughts vs visualisation”, “conscious
vs unconscious” etc.
When I typed Willpower into Google
(I’d left the dictionary at home!), it led me
to the pioneering work of Emile Coué in the
early 1920’s, which was then re-created in
works by Norman Vincent Peale and W. Clement
Stone – the big positive thinking writers of
their day. I often quote Coué’s famous
verbal experiment, “everyday in every way I am
getting better and better”, and had included it
in my book “How to do life – powerful pointers
for powerful living”.
What Coué said about Willpower is that
on its own it didn’t work, because it was
purely a function of the Conscious mind,
requiring exertion, determination and effort –
“the efforts we make to conquer an idea
by exerting the will only serve to make the
idea more powerful”. So saying “I must
give up smoking” makes it much harder to
achieve than if you say “I don’t smoke”,
because in some way the latter has also bedded
into the imagination, which is a function of
the unconscious mind.
To demonstrate his point, Coué used a
hand clasping experiment. He would ask
his patient to clasp their hands tightly
together and then he’d say “Now try and pull
them apart. Pull hard. You will
find that the more you try, the more tightly
they become clasped together”. He
would find that no attempt to unclasp them
worked until he instructed “Now think – “I can
open my hands””. Then they would
open. However, one man just pulled his
hands apart with no problem so Coué asked him
what he had been thinking. The reply “I
thought that I probably could open them after
all”.
To me this seems to prove again that
our thoughts do indeed influence our
physicality, which is presumably why the
medical world finally recognises that
encouraging patients to think and believe that
they will get better is a powerful part of the
recovery process. If that thinking is
linked then with visualising getting better or
something healing more quickly, there is a
strong chance it will work. Even in the
case of a terminal illness, life can be
extended and I have heard several moving
stories of this just recently through the
funerals I have conducted.
In three instances, when a diagnosis
of cancer had been given, the individuals had
all decided that they would “fight” the
illness. One lady, right at the start had
said she was not going to go until she had
reached the age her mother was when she
died. She passed that age by 5
months! As the health of the others
deteriorated, they both decided to reach
important dates for them. Not long after
those dates were passed, they died. I’m
sure you have heard stories like this yourself,
and maybe even actually experienced it within
your own family or friendship
circle.
Whilst this might seem like a
depressing example, it’s also inspiring - the
realisation that we really do have an enormous
amount of control over our health and general
wellbeing in life both emotionally and
physically. However, instead of kicking
out the notion of Willpower entirely, I’m going
to consider what someone who witnessed the work
of Coué said “When willpower is used in line
with the idea in the mind (imagination), then
both get multiplied”. Now…. where’s that
size 12 dress!
SPECIAL OCCASION?
After several funerals in
quick succession, I am looking forward to two
weddings, a baby blessing and an adoption
blessing. If you would like me to create
a special ceremony for a milestone in your life
and be your officiant on the day, then contact
me to discuss your heart's desire at:
If you are not in the UK or too
far away from Wiltshire, then I can still
create the ceremony for you. Details of
all the ceremonies I offer can be seen at:
To make you Smile: An
Irish Ghost
Story
This
happened a while ago in Dublin,
and even though it sounds like
an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it’s
true. John O'Brien, a
Trinity College student, was on
the side of the road hitch
hiking on a very dark night and
in the midst of a
storm.
The
night was rolling on and no car
went by. The storm was so
strong he could hardly see a
few feet ahead of him. Then a
car came slowly out of the rain
towards him and
stopped.
John,
desperate for shelter and
without thinking about it, got
into the car and closed the
door, only to realize there was
nobody behind the wheel and the
engine wasn’t on! The car
started moving slowly. John
looked at the road ahead and
saw a curve approaching.
Scared, he started to pray,
begging for his
life.
Then,
just before the car hit the
curve, a hand appeared through
the window and turned the
wheel. John, paralysed with
terror, watched as the hand
repeatedly came through the
window, but never touched or
harmed him. Shortly thereafter
John saw the lights of a pub
appear down the road, so,
gathering strength, he jumped
out of the car and ran to
it.
Wet
and out of breath, he rushed
inside and started telling
everybody about the horrible
experience he had just had. A
silence enveloped the pub when
everybody realized he was
crying and... wasn’t drunk.
Suddenly, the door opened, and
two other people walked in from
the stormy night. They, like
John, were also soaked and out
of breath.
Looking around, and
seeing John sobbing at the bar,
one said to the other... ‘Look
Paddy... there’s that fecking
eejit that got in the car while
we were pushing it.’
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PASS THIS
ON.
CLICK HERE
TO BRIGHTEN AND INSPIRE
SOMEONE ELSE'S DAY.
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Because we like them
We decided that each month we would include
a few links to other sites, either because we
know the people concerned and think they are
great or we were inspired by the site and
wanted to share it with you. By the way, these
are not affiliate links and no money is
received for including them.
www.care2com
This site is related to green living, health,
human rights and loads more..
It also has some really cool, FREE e-cards
(spread love and laughter whilst saving the
world - sounds good to me!)
www.factmonster.com
I know I featured this before in 2006, but with
all our new readers, I thought I'd share it
again because it's a great site packed with all
sorts of useful information.
www.cainer.com
Jonathan Cainer is an excellent and "spookily
accurate" online astrologer. Whenever I read
his predictions, I feel like he has been
looking over my shoulder!
If you have enjoyed this newsletter and know
of somebody else who would benefit from it's
message, please forward it to them and suggest
that they subscribe. Click
here to pass it on.
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Click here to sign up and
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Breath of Fresh Air
DIARY NOTE:
NEXT WORKSHOP with JOHN
GLOSTER-SMITH
GROUP FACILITATION IN
ACTION
Training in the art of
facilitating events where high levels of
involvement, participation and effectiveness
are needed. This is a co-created
workshop, with opportunities to practice and
experience, with feedback and learning from
what happens.
If you are interested in Group
Facilitation, then you won't want to miss
this. I suggest you seriously consider
booking early, as places are strictly limited
to 10 people.
When?: Saturday and
Sunday,28-29th June 2008
Where?: Regents College,
Inner Circle, Regents
Park, LONDON.NW1.
How much?: £165
early bird or £195 from 15th May
2008.
Where do I book and
pay?
www.consultexcel.com/actionfacilitation.html
Don't forget that you can see details of
everything that we offer by visiting these
sites:
www.simplydivineceremonies.com
www.consultexcel.com
www.thelaughterschoolcom
www.empoweringpartnership.com
So until next time, live life
with passion and on purpose!
Akasha
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