Think and Grow Rich

‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.’

-Napoleon Hill –

WOW. This is literally one of the most fantastic books I have ever read, and I’m among good company as it has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. There is was too much to say about how brilliant the contents of this book is, so first and fore-mostly I will say, if you haven’t read this book yet, I can highly recommend it.

Secondly, I will attempt to summarise why it is indeed so fantastic.

This book will give you the secret to making money and being abundantly successful in life. It will give you practical advice, steps and tools to follow and it will give you real life examples of people who have followed the success principles that Napoleon Hill outlines to achieve financial abundance in their lives.

He also explains how powerful our thoughts are, and when used correctly and positively can be used to manifest incredible things in our life (including money). And he explains the importance of working with (as Napoleon refers to it) Universal Intelligence in order to manifest our hearts desires.

This book is the bible when it comes to making money. And when the guidelines given are received, accepted, believed and acted upon, to the letter, only good will come to the people who read it. Literally anything is possible in life.

And in the book, he outlines 13 Steps to follow in order to achieve riches in life:

1. Desire: The Starting Point of all Achievement
2. Faith: Visualizing and Believing in the Attainment of Desire
3. Autosuggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind
4. Specialized KnowledgeL Personal Experience or Observations
5. Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind
6. Organized Planning: The Crystallization of Desire into Action
7. Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination
8. Persistence: The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith
9. Power of the Master Mind: The Driving Force
10. The Myster of Sex Transmutation
11. The Subconscious Mind: The Connecting Link
12. The Brain: A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought
13. The Sixth Sense: The Door to the Temple of Wisdom

I was interviewed at an event last weekend in Sydney run by the beautiful people at Soul Sessions called ‘Think Feel & Grow Rich‘ alongside the very wonderful Justine Ruszczyk, where we discussed in more detail how people can apply the principles that Napoleon discusses in his book in real life.

I spoke in detail about the importance of having a definite chief aim and how, what I do through my company Thought Cloud, can help people get very clear on this in relation to their brand. When you are clear on your values, your mission, your vision, what you do, why you do it and who you do it for, its much easier to manifest and create a business that you love and that brings abundance back to you in equal measure to what you offer to the world.

Justine spoke at length and in detail about the neuroscience, quantum physics and epigenetics that is now available to us, that supports the principles he discusses in his book. And the fact that our thoughts really do create our reality, and that we all have the ability to take control of our mind and have it work for us in a positive manner, rather than it controlling us and out lives.

Justine has studied under world renowned neuroscientist and author, Dr Joe Dispenza and is responsible for bringing his work to Australia, and there is a really great interview between Soul Session founder Eloise King and Joe which you might enjoy.

He is also about to release a fantastic new book on Self Healing entitled ‘You Are The Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter‘ which is due for release on 29 April.

And for those of you who want to get involved with Napoleon Hills work right away, before even reading the book, there is a great 2 hour long video on You Tube that you will enjoy.

 

So, in conclusion, if you haven’t bought or read this book yet, and you’re wanting to create more wealth and abundance in your life, take the fact that you’re reading this blog post as a sign and run out and get a hold of the book. I promise you from the bottom of my heart, you won’t regret it.

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Learn more

Buy Think & Grow Rich at the book depository or the Kindle Edition.

Buy Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose your Mind and Create a New One at the book depository or via the Kindle Edition.

Watch What the Bleep Do We Know? 

 

Visit  Dr Joe Dispenza’s website

 

 

Time to really love yourself

‘Rather than condemning yourself for your mistakes and failures, you can use the experience of suffering to soften your heart.’

– Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion –

Affirmation of the day – I LOVE AND ACCEPT MYSELF EXACTLY AS I AM.

So, the one and only gift that I decided to buy this year was a book, for myself, entitled, Self-Compassion. It was recommended to me, by a very beautiful friend, considering the slightly tricky time that I have been going through recently. So I decided to take his advice.

The opening quote in the book goes like this:

“This kind of compulsive concern with, ‘I, me, and mine’ isn’t the same as loving ourselves. Loving ourselves points us to capacities of resilience, compassion and understanding within that are simply part of being alive.” – Sharon Salzberg, The Force of Kindness

And I have a feeling that the theme of self-compassion is going to be something that will run through my blog posts over the next couple of weeks as I read the book, share my thoughts, feelings and learnings with you and really start to love myself, truly and deeply.

2013 has been an interesting one. I can’t complain, especially considering that at the beginning of the year I set the intention to improve my relationship with money and get a better handle on my finances.

Little did I know that the Universe had a pretty monumental way of teaching me the things that I needed to learn, coming in the form of me not earning anything from my business for the best part of 7 months, and me needing to allow my beautiful boyfriend to financially support me for the duration of that time.

However, I wouldn’t change a thing, as I feel as though I have learnt an incredible amount with regards to money and my relationship with it, and despite the fact that it will take me a little while to pay off my debt and get myself back on to an even keel, I’m much better off than where I started the year.

So, why the importance of self-compassion? I have definitely heard the voices in my head quite recently wanting to beat myself up for the fact that my business was a financial failure for the predominance of the year. And that same voice has been wanting to kick the sh1t out of me for having to be financially supported by my boyfriend, which has also left him in a less than ideal financial position. The voice that wants to blame me, that wishes I’d never had to ask for help. The voice that tells me that I’m weak and unsuccessful. The voice, that in actual fact, not really telling the truth.

Because the truth of the matter is, everything happens for a reason. And also, I asked for this. I wanted to improve my relationship with money, therefore I needed to be open to whichever way the lessons I needed to learn would show up. This is how the Universe works.

If I’m wanting to live a life of true abundance, I’m not going to be able to manifest things, money, people, businesses, customers, clients, opportunities etc. if I’m not open to receiving them, or if I don’t know what to do with them, once I have them.

So, now is not the time to beat myself up internally or berate myself. Now is the time to be kind and compassionate to myself. To be unconditionally loving and allow whatever feelings and emotions to come up that need to surface. To feel any pain, disappointment or sadness that I need to feel. But then not to be mean to myself because I’m feeling these things. Instead choose to comfort myself, just as I would a friend who would be going through the same thing. In short, to be the best friend that I could possibly be to myself.

In her book Self Compassion, Kristin Neff starts the book by clearly stating how we can be more compassionate to ourselves,

‘To stop judging and evaluating ourselves altogether. To stop trying to label ourselves as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and simply accept ourselves with an open heart. To treat ourselves with the same kindness, caring and compassion we would show a good friend, or even a stranger for that matter. Sadly, however, there’s almost no one whom we treat as badly as ourselves.’

And it is my mission and promise to myself to treat myself with the same level of love, kindness and compassion that I show to all of the beautiful people in my life. And I have a feeling that this will become the theme for 2014 for me. SELF COMPASSION and time to really start loving myself, truly, madly and deeply.

If you’d like to start this too, I can highly recommend writing a love letter to yourself. I did this yesterday, and it was definitely a very lovely experience. I also came across this beautiful video on finerminds.com this morning and it really inspired me and compliments the sentiment of my post today perfectly.

It’s rare that we sit down and write a letter to ourselves outlining all of the things that we love about ourselves, but I feel as though now is as good a time as any. There isn’t really anything to lose.

I’m really looking forward to seeing through the last remaining days of 2013, savouring every last one and preparing myself for an even bigger and better 2014. One filled with unconditional love for myself and others, and a life of effortless flow filled with abundance in all areas, business, relationships, love, health, finances, emotions and spirituality.

Sending you love and light,

Kat x x x

To learn more

Read 88 ways to love yourself from viendamaria.com

Buy Self Compassion – stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind by Kristin Neff

Download Self Compassion for your Kindle.

Image gratitude – http://www.viendamaria.com/2012/12/88-ways-love-yourself/#sthash.UwpJMIJX.dpbs

Everything will be OK (Part 3)

‘Keep giving me hope for a better day
Keep giving me love to find a way
Through this heaviness I feel
I just need someone to say, everything’s okay’

– Lenka –

After Parts 1 and 2 to this series, welcome to Part 3.

. . . . So, even though I was always earning, generally, whatever I earned, I spent. So I had a break even approach. And this approach fell down for me this year, because I didn’t earn, and therefore I had nothing to spend. A perfect way (although it didn’t seem so at the time) to learn that I needed to find a better way of managing money.

And during these last 7 months I read a fantastic book that has changed my life. Secrets of the Millionnaire Mind – Think Rich to Get Rich by T.Harv Eker is a book about money with a  whole bunch of awesome spiritual messages and philosophies trojan horsed into it. And despite its title, it’s a book as much about how to get your mindset in the right place in order to become a millionnaire, as it is about changing what he refers to as you ‘Money Blueprint’, which he believes we are all born with. He helps you to become aware of limiting beliefs that you might have around money and he gives you specific and practical exercises that you can do to start to shift and change them.

However, the MOST helpful piece of advice that he gave in the book that has helped to completely and utterly change my relationship with money is this.

For every amount of money that comes into your bank account, whether it is $10, $100, $1000, $10,000, $100,000 or $1,000,000, split that amount in 6 different ways.

50% goes into a necessities pot – this is for all the essential things in your life like rent, bills, food etc.

10% goes into a fun pot – this is for doing (funnily enough) fun things in life, anything from going to a gig, out to dinner with a friend or rock climbing

10% goes into an education pot – this is for furthering your personal education and development. It could contribute to training courses you’d like to do or books you’d like to read.

10% goes into a long term savings pot – this is pretty straightforward.

10% goes into a financial freedom pot – this pot is for investing. Ultimately, the investments that you make with this money will mean that your money is working for you, rather than you working for your money. Some good sound investments here could significantly change things in your life for the better.

10% goes into a giving pot – the idea of tithing has been around for a long time, and put simply, it is the act of giving 10% of what you earn to a good cause.

I started doing this in July when I read the book. You can do it with as little as $10, but it has completely and utterly changed how I am interacting with and dealing with money. I even went to the extent of setting up separate savings accounts with my bank, so that I could separate my money into each of the pots.

To read the last instalment of this 4 part blog post series, tune in tomorrow.

Here’s a beautiful song called ‘Everything’s OK‘ to make you feel good today by the lovely Lenka.

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Learn more

Read Everything will be OK – Part 1

Read Everything will be OK – Part 2

Buy the book Secrets of the Millionnaire Mind – T. Harv Eker

Download the book from Apple iBooks or for your Kindle.

The 10 Rituals of Radiant Living

‘Act as if failure is impossible and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, and set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.’

Robin S. Sharma – The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

I’ve just read a fantastic book called ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari‘ by a guy called Robin S. Sharma.

While I have been on my voyage of spiritual discovery this year I have read a tonne of books in this space. Everything from Louise Hay’s ‘You Can Heal Your Life’, to Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘A New Earth.’

I’ve always loved books, I learned to read at the age of 2, was reading about 8 books a week by the time I was about 10 and still have the appetite and love for reading now. However, it’s a different type of book that I read these days. And the stuff in the metaphysical, esoteric and quantum space really interest me. I can’t get enough!

So, I wanted to share with you the 10 Rituals of Radiant Living that Sharma talks about in his book. I think they are great and they concur with how I try to live my life in general.

So, here they are . . .

10 Rituals of Radiant Living

1. Ritual of Solitude

Spend time by yourself every day. Try to practice this at the same time every day. Meditate or commune with nature (walk, water plants etc.). Aim to spend between 15-50 minutes doing this every day.

2. Ritual of Physicality

Invest at least 5 hours a week in physical activity. For me, this would tend to be yoga 3 times a week and a 2 hour bush walk or trek every weekend. Enjoy breathing in the fresh air.

3. Ritual of Live Nourishment
Eat a live diet of fresh fruit & vegetables & grains. Aim to eat live foods created through natural interaction of sun, air, soil & water. According to Sharma, meat is dead food. Red meat is hard to digest & since your digestive system is one of the most energy-consuming processes of your entire body, valuable energy reserves are needlessly depleted by this foodstuff.

4. Ritual of Abundant Knowledge

Read for at least 30 mins a day. A book is the best friend if the wise. This is a very easy one for me. According to Sharma, every answer to every problem you have ever faced is in print. Lifelong learning & expanding your knowledge base for the good of yourself & all those around you. Applied Knowledge is Power. Become a student of life. Don’t be bound by your schedule. Focus on things that your conscience and heart tell you to do

5. Ritual of Personal Reflection
Enjoy inner contemplation. Stop making excuses and just do it! Spend time each day to reflect on the things that you’re grateful for, the things you have achieved in the day and the things you would like to achieve tomorrow.

6. The Ritual of Early Awakening

Get up with the sun. The average person can get by on 6 hours sleep. Quality of sleep is more important than quantity. Never eat after 8pm. If you struggle with falling asleep, meditate before you go to bed and be conscious of what you are putting in your mind at the end of the day. And if you meditate at the beginning of the day, meditate on the thought of ‘what would I do if today was my last?’

7. The Ritual of Music

Listen to music every day if you can. It will energise you and lift your spirits.

8. The Ritual of the Spoken Word

It’s good to have mantra’s and affirmations that you say to yourself regularly. A mantra is a collection of words strung together to create a positive effect. A phrase designed to free the mind. In Sanskrit ‘man’ means mind and ‘tra’ means freeing. Your self-image is a self-fulfilling prophecy and what we think we become. So when you change your inner world, you change your external world.

Here are some mantra’s or affirmations that you can use throughout your day:

– I am inspired, disciplined & energised
– I am strong, able & calm
– I am healthy, wealthy & wise

9. The Ritual of Congruent Character

You sow a thought, you reap an action. Reap an action, you sow a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, you reap your destiny.

10. Ritual of Simplicity

Less is more. Simplify your life as much as you can. Only surround yourself with the possessions that you absolutely need and love. Only fill your wardrobe with the clothes that you actually wear. Only buy the food that you’re going to eat.

Ever since I left the UK to go travelling I have spent the last 2 and a half years simplifying my life and I have never felt better. Less is definitely more!

If you want to read more about these and be inspired, I can definitely recommend picking up a copy of the book.

Sending you love, hugs and light,

Kat x x

To learn more

Buy a copy of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

or download it from Apple iBooks or for your Kindle

Image gratitude – http://www.slideshare.net/Ani77789/ten-rituals-of-radiant-living

You’re an eagle not a chicken

‘To live and let live is to live and live free.’

– Eldon Taylor –

I’ve just finished reading a fantastic new book by a lovely guy called Eldon Taylor called Choices and Illusions and it is a fantastic explanation of how we have unwittingly taken on beliefs that are not ours and that have been fed to us through the media, advertising and other channels (the illusions) and explains that we do indeed have the ability to make conscious decisions about how we would like our lives to be (the choices).

And there is a great story in his book, which demonstrates that despite the fact that we are all born with the ability of an eagle, we are raised with the limitations of thinking that we are chickens.

I found a YouTube video of Eldon telling the story too if you would like to watch it.

 

I started to have the realisation that I was indeed an eagle, rather than a chicken when I did a weekend seminar in Sydney last year called Live It Now. It started to shine a light on a whole set of limiting beliefs that I didn’t even realise I had been carrying around with me. And I started to realise that a lot of the things I thought about myself, others and the world weren’t in fact my own thoughts, but programming that I had subconsciously picked up throughout my life. Nothing that I had done wrong, but that I had been in a hypnotic trance for the majority of my life, believing that I wasn’t good enough, clever enough, knew enough, the list goes on . . . .

It was during this weekend that I began to connect more with my true self. The self that is a limitless being. A spirit having a human experience. The all-seeing and all-knowing. Someone who has peace and love in their hearts and who only wants to good in this world. And in order to really be that true authentic self I needed to start to become aware of the illusions, let them go and start making my own choices.

At the time I was working for Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited Group and within 3 months of taking the course I left the company to start my own. I no longer watch or read the news, nor do I pay attention to mainstream advertising or marketing.

I decided that I wanted to take everything that I had come to know about marketing and branding and use it for the Greater Good, helping people who have a product or service that is going to benefit humankind or the planet tell their story and attract people who think and feel the same way they do.

I am also writing a book that compliments what I do and shines a light on conscious brands all over the world who exist to make a positive difference.

I have had to smash through illusion after illusion, limiting belief after limiting belief, including those around whether someone would even want to read a blog I have written or a book I have put together.

Now, I can’t even imagine not having started my blog or my book, because I have had such positive feedback and love from the Universe.

Eldon’s book serves to bring our awareness to the illusions that are present in our lives and have us realise that we are indeed not a chicken, but an eagle. And once we have realised we are an eagle, his book then serves to educate and inspire us as to how we can settle into that which we have always been and make conscious choices so we can live the life that has always been available to us, we just didn’t know it. He encourages us to ‘live into ourselves‘ which is something I strive to do in every moment of every day.

A quote from Eldon’s book –

‘You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.

You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.’

– Woodrow Wilson – 

So my thought for the day is this. How much of your life are you spending as a chicken or an eagle? How much time do you spend listening to other chickens vs finding other eagles to soar with? How aware are you of the choices available to you in your life vs the illusions and limitations that have been programmed into your mind by others?

I realised that I was an eagle about 18 months ago and I have been spending every day since learning to fly with other eagles and letting the chicken lie go. You’re an eagle not a chicken, all you need to do is choose which life you’d like to live. 

Learn more

Visit Eldon’s website – http://www.eldontaylor.com/

Buy Choices and Illusions

Eldon Taylor is a New York Times best-selling author and is considered to be an expert in the field of subconscious learning. He has made a lifelong study of the human mind and has earned doctoral degrees in psychology and metaphysics. He is a Fellow with the American Psychotherapy Association (APA) and a nondenominational minister. Eldon has served as an expert witness in court cases involving hypnosis and subliminal communication.

Eldon was a practicing criminalist for over ten years specializing in lie detection and forensic hypnosis. Today he is president and director of Progressive Awareness Research, Inc. Since 1984 his books, audio programs, lectures, radio and television appearances have approached personal empowerment from the cornerstone perspective of forgiveness, gratitude, self-responsibility and service.

Dare to dream

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

– Paolo Coelho, The Alchemist –

I’m currently re-reading The Alchemist for the second time in my life. Reading books twice is not something that I have tended to do, however I have just re-read James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy and Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince. These are all books that I first read in my mid-twenties. And it seems that now I am reading them with fresh eyes, noticing things and meanings that were not apparent to me before.

And so, the inspiration for today’s blog post is about the importance of dreams.

At the beginning of the year, I had a dream to write and publish a book this year.

For me, it was a pretty wild dream. Exciting, but a little scary at the same time.

What if no one wanted to read it? What if no one cared what I had to say? What if people didn’t like my writing style? What if I couldn’t find enough words to fill enough pages to make a book? What if I ran out of ideas? What if it just wasn’t good enough?

I could go on . . .

However, it was the dream, the idea, the desire to write a book, that spurred me on. It’s something I have never done. Most people talk all their lives about writing a book, but never actually do.

So I found a course that would help me to write a book. And I started the course back in March. And I started writing the book. Then I stopped. It didn’t feel right. So I started writing another book. The beginning of that book didn’t feel right either, so I changed direction. Now I am 12,500 words into my second book and I haven’t written anything for weeks. Why? Because I haven’t felt to. Why? Because I couldn’t remember why I was writing the book.

Was I writing it for the prestige? No. Was I writing it to benefit me in business? No. Was I writing it because I wanted to write a book? Maybe. I couldn’t work out why I was writing the book, and so therefore, if I wasn’t clear on the purpose of writing it, why the heck should I write it?

And then I watched the beginning of a talk that David Icke gave at Wembley Arena a few years ago entitled ‘Remember Who You Are‘. Now, it might be a little confronting to some people, but in essence he has a powerful message about the importance of taking back your power and deciding to raise your consciousness. This comes in the form of making better decisions about how you live your life, interact with the reality we have created and what we put in our bodies and our minds.

And I felt a very strong urge to start writing my book again. I was reminded that I wanted to write my book, for no other reason than to spread the good word and message about the importance of being conscious. And quite specifically, being conscious in how we set up and run our businesses and create brands.

I remembered that the entire reason I have set up my business is to inspire and educate people about the importance of being clear on your WHY and the importance of living a conscious life, and (if you run one) having a conscious business. And my book aims to shine a light on all of the wonderful beings on the planet who are doing just that, to act as beacons of inspiration for others. To show them that there is another way of doing things and being.

And I was also reminded that writing a book has nothing to do with what comes at the end, because really there is no end. You write a book, you publish it, you make it available for people to buy, you hold a launch party, you tell people that it exists, and that’s that. Then what? Write another? Wait for everyone to tell you how amazing you are for having written it? Make lots of money, because people think you’re more credible now that you have written a book on a subject? Then what? If you’re writing a book for any other reason than the fact that you would love to, then you’re writing it for the wrong reason.

For me, I have realised, it is about the message and it is about the journey. Which is what essentially every experience in our lives is about. It’s about ‘the possibility of the dream coming true that makes life interesting.’

It’s the possibility of writing and publishing a book that makes life interesting for me. Therefore, the only reason I should write a book is if I feel to do so. If it would bring me happiness and joy in the moment and in the process and the journey of writing a book. And I believe it would.

At the same time I would get to interact with some pretty amazing people, I would enjoy the very process of writing (which I do), the process of getting the cover designed, the book edited, the entire thing laid out and then printed. And that is the reason to write a book. For me. And if anyone else benefits in the process (which I hope they would), then awesome. And in essence, I am everyone, as I am an infinite being in the Universe, so we all get to enjoy the journey.

Now, that I am clear on my WHY, I feel inspired to finish my book. And furthermore, I hope I may have inspired others through the truth of this post who may be considering writing a book, or are struggling with writers block with a book they have already started.

Write a book for you. Write a book because you would love to. Write a book because you feel you have something to share. Write a book because you know you will enjoy the experience. Because the moment you make it about anything other than that, the meaning will be gone, as will the impetus to write it.

Hope this is helpful to you all my darlings.

Sending you lots of love and light,

Kat x x x

Read more of my blog posts on writing

View all of my posts on writing

Read Write 750 words a day (Part 1) 

Read Write 750 words a day (Part 2)

Read Do what you love (Part 2)

Awesome books to read

The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The Alchemist – Paolo Coelho

Image gratitude – http://pakhandipandit007.wordpress.com/ 

Follow the White Rabbit

“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Choosing to follow the White Rabbit has become a theme in my life over the last few months. Rather than making decisions and choices with my mind or my brain, I have become much more attuned to following my heart and allowing my intuition to guide me.

Of course, this is quite a leap of faith, but in actual fact, it means that I am living my life, by following a feeling, rather than doing what I think I should be doing, and more simply, just allowing things to be.

At the moment, the feeling has taken me from Sydney to LA. There is no logical or rational reason as to why I should have come here, other than the fact that I felt to.

And I know that trying to understand why I’m here, and what it means is irrelevant. And it is rather more important to enjoy the experience and trust that everything happens for a reason. And the reason why I have come, will be revealed at some point.

So my question to you today is this, how much time do you spend making decisions and choices from a place of necessity? Or from a place of need or want? How much time to do you spend thinking a little too much about what you should do next? And how much would it take to start to connect with the feeling? The feeling that you would love to do something, go somewhere, be with someone? Have you had an urge, or a feeling that you would love to follow lately, but something has held you back? What was the thing that held you back? And what is the worst that could happen if you did listen to your heart or your gut instead of your head for a change?

Maybe you should start to follow the white rabbit . . . .

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

A spray painted graffiti that I saw on the pavement in Manly a month or so ago (see top of this post)

Take care of the pale blue dot

“Heal the world, make it a better place.”

– Michael Jackson –

Image gratitude – Georgia – chrisroberson.net

At the moment I am working on my book ‘A Brand New World – 25 ways conscious brands are changing the world for good.’ and interestingly I am manifesting some really beautiful things to inspire me in my writing.

Today I watched the most fantastic TED talk from the brilliant Mr Brian Cox, which I can highly recommend. He puts forward a case for why we need explorers. But more profoundly draws our attention to the importance of taking care of planet earth. By the end of the talk I was in tears.

Brian closes his TED talk with reading a quote from an astronomer, astrophysicist and cosmologist, Carl Sagan’s book ‘Pale Blue Dot‘. Sagan wrote the book after being inspired by a photo taken of earth from 4 billion miles away.

‘From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.’ – Carl Sagan

And it is this idea of taking care of the earth and it’s inhabitants that is at the centre of what my company ‘Thought Cloud‘ and my new book ‘A Brand New World‘ represents.

So the thought for the day is very simple, what are you doing in your every day life to take care of the pale blue dot?

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Brian Cox’s TED talk – Why we need explorers

Carl Sagan’s book ‘Pale Blue Dot – A Vision of the future in space’

Image reference – Georgia Roberson – http://www.chrisroberson.net/2008/04/save-earth.html

An abundant mind = an abundant life

“The moment you concentrate the focus of your mind on a singular purpose, extraordinary gifts will appear within your life.”

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – Robin S. Sharma

I’m reading a couple of really great books at the moment and there is a common theme that is coming through both of them. If you seek abundance in life, it starts on the inside, and with your mind.

I have known for a while that your thoughts create your reality, and what you think, you become. This is why, I now know that it is so very important to think positive thoughts and focus on the things that you would like to have happen in your life, rather than thinking in the opposite way.

In T. Harv Eker’s book ‘Secrets of the Millionaire Mind – Think Rich to Get Rich‘ he talks about the fact that ‘your inner world reflects your outer world’ and ‘what you focus on expands’. And therefore if you want to get rich you need to focus on making, keeping and investing your money. If you place daily attention on your objective of becoming financially abundant and free, it is much easier for the Universe to help you achieve this. Of course, there are lots of other things that need to be in place for your to be able to manifest money, one important piece of the puzzle is being able to receive. However, it remains that if you want an abundant life, you need to have an abundant mind and abundant thoughts.

This sentiment is echoed in ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma, another fantastic book that I’m reading at the moment. In the story, a character called Julian Mantel (a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance-life) shares the wisdom and lessons that he has learnt from spending time with a group of Sages in the Himalayas.

He talks about how ‘mind management is the essence of life management’ and that ‘the way you think stems from habit.’ He explains that ‘most people don’t realise the enormous power of their minds’ and that ‘your mind is nature’s greatest gift.’

He goes on to say that ‘mental mastery comes through conditioning and when you dedicate yourself to transforming your inner world, your life quickly shifts from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary.’

And this is something I am definitely experiencing in my life at the moment. The more control I am gaining over my conscious mind, the more I’m connecting with my intuition, the more I’m learning to turn the volume down on any negative thoughts or feelings and replace them with those that are positive, optimistic and helpful, the more amazing things are happening to me in my life.

The biggest project that I have on my plate at the moment is a trip to LA at the beginning of August. I have no idea why, but the feeling of needing to go to LA has been coming to me for a few weeks now. I recently started to take action and put my feelers out to friends who have connections there and live there, and I’m getting a lot of positive feedback that I should go. So, despite the fact that at this stage I’m not entirely sure why I’m going, what will happen when I’m there, where I will be staying, where I will find the money for the flight. One thing I know is certain, I will be in LA between 5th and 15th August, to talk to people about my company Thought Cloud and the book I’m writing at the moment on Conscious Branding (A Brand New World – 25 ways conscious brands are changing the world for good).

And I’m trusting that the Universe will help and support me along the way and give me all of the things, people and resources I will need to make the trip a success.

And so on that note, what would you like to create in your life to make it more abundant? And what beliefs might you need to let go of, or flip on their heads in order to think more abundantly? After all, an abundant mind = an abundant life. What we think we become. 

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Secrets of the Millionnaire Mind  – Think Rich to Get Rick – T. Harv Eker

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams And Reaching Your Destiny – Robin S. Sharma

Alone is good

“Spend some time alone every day.” 

– Dalai Lama –

Sometimes we don’t spend enough time alone. This is normally for a number of reasons, but a big one is because we don’t like our own company and fill the need to fill it with other people.

Understanding that spending time by yourself is important and learning to love my own company, was something that I experienced when I went on my Round the World Trip in 2011.

It was interesting, because I had never taken a big trip just by myself, for any great length of time. Sure I’d go out for a walk or a bike ride by myself. Sure I’d jump on a train or a plane and go and visit friends for a long weekend or a couple of weeks in another country. But I had never travelled just by myself, ever. And boy was it an experience.

The best thing was that I realised that I really am my own best friend, and that everyone else is a bonus. I realised that if I could love my own company and go places and do things that I loved to do, there would always be other people to share those experiences with me, if I wished. But if I was just by myself, that would be just fine too.

This understanding was also anchored when I was reading Eat Pray Love while I was travelling, as Elizabeth Gilbert had the same realisation. She learned to love her own company. Because when you do this, you don’t actually feel alone, because you always have yourself.

I stumbled across these two videos from a stand up show by a British Comedian called Simon Amstell the other day via a daily newsletter that I have just signed up to from a fantastic website called the Elephant Journal. It’s from his show ‘Numb‘ which I actually went to see last year at the Sydney Comedy Festival. It’s interesting to watch both clips, first the one with the laughter and then the one without.

With laughter

Without laughter

And I also came across this beautiful video made by two fantastically creative bunnies. Film maker, Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis. It is a poem, put to music about how wonderful and important it is to spend time alone.

How to be alone – Being along doesn’t have to equal being lonely.

Enjoy!

Sending you lots of love, hugs and light,

Kat x x x

Inspiration for this post

Elephant Journal – dedicated to the mindful life

Simon Amstell

Elizabeth Gilbert’s – Eat Pray Love

My Round the World Trip

How to be alone – You Tube video