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

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/ 

Life is awesome when you live in the moment

“If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

– Lao Tzu –

I’m just pages away from finishing The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and I cannot recommend the book highly enough. At the tender age of 32 I have read thousands of books in my time and this is, by a country mile, far and away the most incredible, life changing and re-affirming book I have ever read.

I bought it via amazon.co.uk this time last year and got my parents to send it out to me, because books are so darn expensive here in Australia. And for some reason, even after it had arrived, it didn’t feel like the right time to read it, so I didn’t.

After coming back from the most incredible Christmas and New Year holiday in Queenstown and the South Island of New Zealand with friends and family, I started reading it this January and it has taken me the best part of 3 months to finish it.

I have savoured every last word. And I know when I’m reading a book that I really truly love, because I don’t want it to end. It was the same with Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s ‘The Shadow of the Wind‘ and David Nicholl’s ‘One Day‘.

I am literally pages from the end, and part of me doesn’t want to finish it at all. And another part of me can’t wait to finish it, so I can get started on the follow-up to it ‘A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose’. And I guess that is what life is like really. Part of us wants to hold on to the past and things that have gone before. Songs, people, times, places, etc. And another part of us can’t wait to get moving into the future. And this can happen positively and negatively.

Perhaps some of us hold on to things from our past unnecessarily, unable to let them go. Past relationships, people who have passed, pets that are no longer with us, bad feelings, tricky things that have happened, people or things that have hurt us. And this causes us pain and suffering, that if we just decided to let them go, from a place of love, and live in the now, we wouldn’t feel.

And some of us get scared or nervous or anxious about the future, which paralyses us from doing really awesome things. I remember that I was so scared to even book my round the world ticket, because I was so scared about travelling by myself, worried about getting malaria or sick, nervous that something bad might happened. In fact, I had pretty much convinced myself that I could quite possibly die on my trip, so much so that I made sure that I spent time with all of the people who I loved the most back in the UK before I left. They didn’t know it at the time, but I was secretly saying goodbye to all of them, in case I never made it back to the UK. Strange but true.

The danger of thinking thoughts like that is that what we think, we become. So it wasn’t very clever of me to have such a fatalistic view of my trip! As it happened, I did get pretty sick, was hospitalised and was taken from the backpacker trail for 6 weeks after the first few months of travelling. But I got better and made a full recovery.

And, as it happens, I never did return back to the UK (permanently), because I fell in love with Australia along the way, and this is where my heart is now. I still love the UK and everyone back home, but in a funny way, I guess I was right.

The big learning for me through all of it though, was the importance of living in the moment. There was no point in looking back to the UK, missing my friends and family, because it meant that I wasn’t enjoying the time that I had travelling. And there was no point worrying about the future, the unknown and what could or couldn’t be, because again, I would be missing out on the amazing travelling experience by not being fully present to it.

So one of the biggest things I learnt and continue to instil in every day that I have on this beautiful planet is to live in the moment. Life is too short and the world is too awesome to put your energy and attention into anything else.

My goal now, every day that I wake up and in every moment that I have is to be as present as I can and my life is continuing to transform and produce more and more incredible moments. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Inspiration for this post –

The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle