How was your Christmas? I hope you had a lovely day with your family and/or friends. I can’t believe it’s only a week since my last Enews. It seems like so much has happened since then. Harry and I had Christmas Eve with our son and his girlfriend; Christmas morning at our eldest daughter’s and lunch at Leah’s (our youngest daughter). I must say we were very spoilt. On Christmas night I didn’t think I would need to eat again for a week.
Since then we’ve had a night at Rye, back home for a night and we’re now camping at Barwon Heads. My head is still in a bit of a spin after a really full year so I’m looking forward to catching up on my sleep and enjoying the beach.
Of course, over the past week we’ve been keeping a close eye on the fires along the Great Ocean Rd. What a devastating thing to happen on Christmas Day! So sad for the families that lost their homes, and the loss of animals is heart-breaking. We have friends with a holiday house at Separation Creek so we were particularly concerned for them. We found out on Saturday that their house was spared which was a big relief but many of their neighbours were not so lucky.
Mother Nature certainly is powerful and unpredictable and life can change in a heartbeat. I guess the message is that we really can’t take anything for granted. Whether it’s our possessions, our health, our relationships, finances or our career, nothing is set in stone. Devastating things by definition, take us by surprise. We feel like they are not supposed to happen to us. We assume life will be stable and when we wake up each morning our life will be relatively the same as the day before.
When we consider the possibility of losing our health, our job, a loved one, our home or our material possessions our mind can go in one of two different directions. One direction is that of fear. Anxiety and insecurity can take over and we can make ourselves sick with worry. I’ve worked with a lot of new mums who are terrified that something bad will happen to them or their child. They have obsessive thoughts about it and suffer from anxiety on a daily basis even though they and their child are perfectly healthy.
The other direction the mind can go in is that of gratitude. Remembering that at any moment we could lose something can actually make us cherish it much more. Living with the awareness of the impermanence of all things can trigger us to feel incredibly grateful, blessed and appreciative for what we do have in the present moment. I’m not sick very often but I remember the feeling of being well again after being sick. Life is great and it feels fabulous just to be able to get out of bed and walk to the park or go to the supermarket! As the saying goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.” Unfortunately that gratitude for our health tends to fade pretty quickly and going to the supermarket becomes a chore rather than a blessing. Holding onto that mindfulness that everything in life, including life itself, is impermanent is a quite a game changer.
One of my favourite movies is “The Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. These two characters meet in a hospital cancer ward and write their wish list of the things they want to do before they die. Together they set out to fulfil as many wishes as they can. It’s a beautiful, moving and heart-warming story. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. The other thing I recommend is to write your own bucket list.
Just imagine for a moment that you only have 6 months to live. What would you want to do in that time? What would be really important to you? What unfinished business would you want to finish? Where might you want to go? What would you want to say to your loved ones? What legacy would you want to leave the world? What is the secret dream that you’ve never told anyone about? It’s a really interesting exercise to explore what comes up for you.
The other interesting thing to explore is… what’s stopped you from doing these things already? What’s blocked you, got in the way or held you back? Chances are that you’ve taken it for granted that you had plenty of time to follow your dreams but more likely than not you don’t feel deserving enough or confident enough to do, say or be exactly what you want to do, say or be. You don’t feel worthy of following your dreams. There’s also a possibility that you can’t work out how to create your dreams. Money, kids, circumstances stop you. You’ve been brought up to be realistic, sensible and responsible. You worry what people will think of you.
Well did you know that 2016 is the year to shift from your head to your heart? To actually wake up your heart’s desire and stop procrastinating? When people truly let themselves follow their hearts desire, whatever it is that gives you joy, it usually ends up being something that’s of benefit to the planet. It doesn’t matter whether your secret desire is to set up a shelter for the homeless, make patchwork quilts or be a concert pianist whatever it is that you have a calling to do before you die is part of your life purpose. So my advice is stop procrastinating and do what brings you joy.
This month we have three amazing workshops to help you do this. Next Thursday night we still have some places left for “It’s Your Life – Now or Never”. This workshop will teach you the art of Metaphysics to manifest your goals. You won’t believe some of the stories Anne-Maree will share with you! On Jan 20th I’m running a workshop called “Shine Your Light.” This will give you some powerful and effective techniques to clear the belief that you’re not good enough. It will dissolve away all the old programming that has damaged your self-confidence. And on Saturday Jan the lovely Kara Kovacs and Julie van Nispen are teaming up to present “Love Your Life – Awakening Your Hearts Desire” Take a look at the right hand column for more details and to book online >>>
THIS WEEK AT SIMPLY NATURAL
Most of our practitioners are available this week so why not take the opportunity to have a Massage, Reflexology, Kinesiology Balance, Energy Healing or Naturopathy consult? Or why not get a head start on your New Year’s Resolutions with a Hypnotherapy session?
We are offering 20 minute Kinesiology sessions for $30 this week.
CLASSES
Summer Holiday Yoga on Tuesday at 7pm and Wed at 9.30am is starting next week
Sound Healing Meditation 7pm Monday from Jan 4th
Kindred Spirits will resume on Jan 21st
Our shop is open as usual from 9am to 5.30pm except for New Year’s Day.
That’s all for now. I’m off over the Barwon bridge for my morning coffee.
Have a Happy New Year and I’ll talk with you again next week,
Warm Regards from sunny Barwon Heads,
Alison Burton
Health and Happiness Guru
Simply Natural Therapies
41 Tunstall Square
East Doncaster
VIC 3109
03 9842 7033
info@simplynaturaltherapies.com.au
www.simplynaturaltherapies.com.au
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