The Power of Showing your Vulnerability

By Kim Schultz

Last week I attended an event, and after dinner I left to drive home only to find some women outside discussing how they were going to walk to their cars in the dark. After giving the women some directions, I started to walk forward into the darkness when an ever so gentle tender voice emerged from behind me saying “I’m scared”.

The vulnerability in her voice absolutely melted me but after feeling that, instantly ‘the hard Kimberley bush girl’ kicked in and I had to stop myself saying “are you serious?!!”, as in the past I would have walked in the dark with snakes, cookie monsters and all. I became aware of that hardness kicking in from the realisation that my thoughts and the feeling of toughness in my body did not match that sweet tender vulnerable voice. I stopped myself from walking in the dark, found my handy ‘APP’ torch on my phone and guided the way to the car park for me and the other women.   Continue reading “The Power of Showing your Vulnerability” →

Thinking Life Was All About Me

By Rosie Bason, Mullumbimby, NSW

I have lived most of my life thinking that I could do everything on my own, that I did not need anyone’s help and I should never rely on others because they will probably let me down. I also really believed that if I did it on my own it would be better. I thought my life was all about me, and not about all of us!

I can laugh at myself when I get really honest. It’s crazy how we can choose to live… and even scarier is the fact that most of the time, we can be unaware of it.  Continue reading “Thinking Life Was All About Me” →

Living is as Easy as Breathing

Living is as easy as breathing… as easy as choosing your breath in each and every moment. As easy as choosing to make that next breath gentle.

Our breath is our life, without it we die.

Yet we take our breath for granted; we breathe in and out mechanically without thought or awareness of our breath or how we are breathing. Continue reading “Living is as Easy as Breathing” →

The Only ‘Esoteric’ in the Village – Discernment or Judgement

By Fumiyo Egashira, Japan

This is about my trying to be esoteric and discerning, but because there was no self-love to begin with, I ended up being judgemental. This was exposed through my noticing of a sense of ‘relief’ which followed an uncomfortable sensation in my body: this ‘contraction/relief’ mechanism was traced back to an old belief I had held.

The other day, when I was checking out what my friends were getting up to, reading about what they were recommending – practitioners/presenters/modalities/methods/events etc – I noticed something: I felt as if I was looking for an evidence, a clue to form a judgement and to satisfy myself that they were not esoteric, not of truth, and actually feeling almost relieved when I decided that they were not. Relieved as if I somehow believed that it would make me less if they turned out to be of truth.  Continue reading “The Only ‘Esoteric’ in the Village – Discernment or Judgement” →

Bringing Self-care to Dentistry: 7 Steps to Returning to Love

by Dr Rachel Mascord BDS, Sydney 

As a student dentist I geared myself up with hope that upon final graduation I would become confident and secure within myself. I believed that success and ease would be the natural outcomes of all the hard work I’d done. I had achieved great success as a student by pushing and driving myself: what I did not grasp was that my developed patterns of self-neglect and anxious drive had become an entrenched and normal way of operating.

The picture of ‘perfection’ I had formulated was so narrow it would hurt me for many years to come. I made life about getting everything ‘right’. Without that, I did not feel like a worthy member of the profession, or indeed a worthy human being.

My picture of a ‘life of success’ did not eventuate, and every day at work was in the dullness of just getting by and coping with the fear that I never felt ‘good enough’. I existed in this state for 17 years… Continue reading “Bringing Self-care to Dentistry: 7 Steps to Returning to Love” →

The Fragile Man

by Frank Tybislawski, Brisbane, Australia

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Recently my wife and I visited Vietnam to attend a Universal Medicine Retreat and also to explore the country a little. The first location we stayed was Hanoi in the northern part of the country. We made a few trips from our hotel into the main center of town to experience the Vietnamese shopping culture, and of course noticed the chaotic (by our standards) road traffic. Most roads are filled with bicycles, motorcycles, cars, taxis, buses and trucks, with the bicycles and motorcycles making up the majority. There was also a lot of horn beeping, not as an indication of aggression, but it seems more of a courtesy to say ‘beware, I am passing beside you’.

On our last day in Hanoi our hotel booked a taxi to convey us to the airport. About halfway to the airport we were looking out the window from the back seat of the taxi as we crossed over a large bridge. The next moment I heard a loud crashing sound followed instantly by a sudden jolt across my lap, shoulder, and through my neck. After a moment or two I looked forward and realised the taxi had been in a car accident. Continue reading “The Fragile Man” →