From Empty Returns to Investing in Me

By Julie Chung, Melbourne

I have come to realise that in the past I have been an extremely bad investor. Over all of my 56 years and all that I have invested in, I should be a very wealthy, healthy and wise person by now. But all I kept getting were empty returns that needed to be filled up with another investment to satisfy me. It left me feeling incomplete and not enough as a person, which was very dis-empowering, draining and totally not who I now know myself to be.

I realised that I can’t possibly feel or know the fullness of me or who I truly am at those times because I’ve chosen to not feel what I truly need and instead go with outside stimulation as a filler – and it doesn’t work. It was like trying to fill something with nothing, so I couldn’t possibly feel open and spacious, vital and complete. Continue reading “From Empty Returns to Investing in Me” →

Pornography, Internet & Sex – An Insight into a Distorted World

by Anonymous

Thirty plus years ago I was seven years old when I found a huge pile of pornographic magazines at our family home in the UK. They were stacked in a fireplace behind an old welsh dresser. I was assisting my mother in cleaning out the old dresser that was no longer wanted in our house. When we found them there was no discussion, no normalizing of the situation, but ignorance and a quiet ‘they’re your father’s magazines’. Submissive really, and yet something in me was fascinated. I was hooked and wanted to see and read more. The challenge was getting back to the magazines in secret! How is it possible that at the age of seven I knew that I could get something from them? It wasn’t that it was sexual at that stage: a fascination it could be dubbed. However, there is something much more sinister here looking back… there was already an inbuilt program wanting to be refuelled for this lifetime. And it started so early. Continue reading “Pornography, Internet & Sex – An Insight into a Distorted World” →

From Superwoman & Supermum to Super Amazing Me

by R.B, Northern NSW

I used to feel that to be an amazing woman, I had to be like SUPERWOMAN, and Supermum. The definition included being a good mum, keeping the house clean, doing the homework with my daughter, cooking meals, doing the laundry, keeping the car clean – and as you can imagine that list goes on forever because as soon as you have ticked those boxes, there always seem to be more that appear out of nowhere… and this is along with being a friend, full-time worker and business owner.

In the past when things got hard, I got tough. I would knuckle down and push on through.

I would feel like a failure if I couldn’t accomplish everything on my own… and felt like I was great because I didn’t need anyone’s help. Continue reading “From Superwoman & Supermum to Super Amazing Me” →

From Ideals and Beliefs to Making Loving Work Choices

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

In the last couple of months I’ve been exploring the option of setting aside my role as a self-employed consultant to return to regular employment, and have been looking at various jobs. My work had slowed down over the last six months and I was starting to feel the next step would need to be a practical one, to bring in more income.

I’ve changed jobs – and careers – many times before, but I’ve never brought to the process the kind of honesty I’m bringing to it now. In fact I’ve used this time to reflect on my working life as a whole, a chapter of which I’ve already written about in Celebrity Chef or Self-loving Chef:Where is the Love in the Work that We Do?. Continue reading “From Ideals and Beliefs to Making Loving Work Choices” →

Celebrity Chef or Self-Loving Chef: Where is the Love in the Work that We Do?

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

For six or so years, across the mid 1980s to the mid 90s, I trained and worked as a chef. One thing I’ll never forget is my first day in a commercial kitchen. I was completely overwhelmed – by the sharp banter of the staff as they prepared for the busy weekend ahead, by the controlled chaos of the kitchen itself, by the pungent, unforgettable smells of simmering stocks and chopped, fresh herbs, and by the stern-looking, mostly silent head chef and the glamorous restaurant owner.

Both the head chef and owner were famous – the restaurant I’d been lucky enough to score a day’s work experience in was at that time widely regarded as Australia’s best. It was out of town and could only be accessed by water, but this did nothing to prevent local and visiting foodies making the inconvenient trek to its doors. It opened for a limited time each week, with staff staying on site for the duration. I was daunted by the rather basic accommodation, and the fact the restaurant would be lived and breathed for days at a time. But I could also tell that the ‘privilege’ of working there out-weighed any disadvantages in the minds of the staff. Continue reading “Celebrity Chef or Self-Loving Chef: Where is the Love in the Work that We Do?” →

Marijuana Addiction

I grew up as a teenager in the 80s and a surfer. We watched as our parents self-medicated on a daily basis with alcohol, cigarettes and coffee, but our generation worshipped the sounds and spirituality of Bob Marley and escapism and marijuana was our medicine – we used it to escape and check out, to not truly see what was going on in our lives, and as a rebellion against a world that didn’t make sense.

It was ours exclusively as our parents didn’t understand much about it. From its innocent beginnings the so called ‘non-addictive’ drug wreaked havoc in our lives as well as those of everyone connected to us as we under-performed, buried our issues, told lies to cover up, broke many laws, endangered other people’s lives, as well as our own, and failed to commit to our lives and relationships. Continue reading “Marijuana Addiction” →