We need to unstiffen that lip

I blame the rules of rugby

2011-01-26T12:30:00.003Z

Howdy ho!

In the words of Timbaland, “It has been a long time since I left you, without a dope beat to step too”.

I have been slack especially with regards to blogging; the simplest summary is that I was not in a good place.

As looking back hurts the neck, let’s just look forward to today’s reading, so are we comfortable? Well if not loosen your belt, get a cup of tea and let’s begin.

Today’s cryptic title for the blog is somewhat tongue in check, however, Rugby is a strange game for one reason and that is the illegal move of a ‘forward pass’, I am not trying to blame or slight the game, I was a mean flanker in my day (number 7) but it is a game that does tend to err on the defensive side.

Is everyone happy out there?

The recession, media, fashion, sport and music are driving us to be more introspective and retrospective with their messages as we all long for good times lost. As we all look back this can diminish any chance of hope we have for the future.

The New Year is always a time where we encourage hope and the ignite goals and vision so we can make that positive change in our lives for the up-coming 12-months. I worked this New Years Eve and watched the bells and fireworks on the TV in the Bar and was astounded that the montage of clips of 2010 that were played was of negative events or disasters.

I once used to ask a question when interviewing people for Managers roles, and that was “How do you remain positive when surrounded by so much negativity?” I suppose the answer for what happened on New Year’s Eve would be to 1. Opt out of watching Television, 2. Opt out from reading Newspapers and 3. Opt out from speaking with Negative people.

However back to reality this is of course not possible, I suppose the best we can do is to be our own light in a dark room.

The light within can only be created by the individual, however one piece of guidance is to always look forward and not dwell on the past.

So what’s in store for the future? Well maybe I need to agree with myself about that point and make a public commitment.

I will through that forward pass, collect the ball again and score a spectacular try. The beauty of this is that I can repeat the process again. Even if the pass is blocked, just get back in position and try again.

I will write more often.

Scott

Shadowy Tales ..........

2010-07-28T11:37:00.002+01:00

I have always enjoyed walking in the coolness of shadows; maybe this is a physical metaphor of a tendency towards not facing up to challenges, self loathing or worse self pity.

I have not written a blog for nearly 8-months, in that time my routine has had enforced change, my environment has changed and doing what inspired me has changed.

In that time my brain muscle has obviously gone into atrophy, the symptoms of which are obviously self pity. No reading, no development nothing has taken place. Such a personality change has been noticeable, especially within my peer group.

I like to think that ‘self help’ was a conduit to helping other people, however, recognising or devouring a literary diatribe of new age thinking from a Western cultural angle, actually made things worse. Instead of turning back to shore, I swam against the tide until I couldn’t take it anymore.

I have been in the water so long my balls are like prunes.

(Not saying these guys and gals are wrong, as there is only one secret and meaning of life, see below........)

The walking in the shadow is an important metaphor, and today did something different, or let’s change that! I did something that used to inspire me. I simply went for a walk. These walks were my ways of running themes and ideas through my mind, to see what would fit when writing.

The shadow walking is a symptom from something I used to do in the past, which was wear sunglasses everywhere. I even used to wear them indoors. I couldn’t even go outside as the light would blind me. I used to get headaches and sunburn.

The decision not to wear sunglasses anymore was a sub-conscious one; however, my baby blues are sensitive to like so my default position was the shadows, or simply not to look towards the sun. The realisation that I was more akin to Vampires probably accentuated my moods. I never liked the sun, and perservered with it too long.

I have always preferred the colder seasons, I find beauty in the landscapes and seasonal changes, as you witness and experience far more. These are where the lessons lie.

I guess if you are only happy in the sun, then in life you are only happy 25% of the time in your life. If you take out sleep then you are only happy 17% of the time in your life.

The odds of being happy are now in my favour once I have taken off my sunglasses, walk in the shadows and appreciate 75% of the seasons.

However, this is not how life should be, walk free all the time, but if the sun’s glare gets too much. Then retreat to the shadows.

Appreciate everything. (wear sunscreen)

Oh, and by the way, the meaning of life was explained by Aristotle thousands of years ago.

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”

Even if you walk in the shadows .................................................

Snow Joke

2010-01-11T23:22:00.003Z

‘And so we remained till the red of the dawn began to fall through the snow gloom. I was desolate and afraid, and full of woe and terror. But when that beautiful sun began to climb the horizon life was to me again’ - Bram Stoker

Well folks, guess who is back?

I have had a small sabbatical from writing what with Christmas, New Year and New Job and all. I kind of had to focus on the six inches in front of my face.

Talking of six inches, no, not one of my disappointed ex-girlfriends, but the snow! The natural white icy falling droplets that have managed to change Broken Britain into Frozen Britain.

I have never heard anything like it! The moaning, whining, the sheer doom and apocalyptic outlook that the chattering sheep classes who have fallen for the negative media drivel.

We almost need Simon Cowell to make a press statement telling us all that the snow is an acceptable part of nature, and I for one, am a fan. It is for this reason, snow; you are through to the next round. I am sure that some people would have been comforted by this.

I live by a giant Tesco’s (although there are other supermarkets available which also do have meagre dwellings nearby). The other morning, as per usual, I left for work at around 6am. I pop in and pick up a fruit juice or flapjack, and low and behold the place was packed. The end of days was coming – albeit a slight irony as if the end of the world is nigh why do we need food?

I will explain how this phenomena works and we can place this under the headline ‘Mass Hysteria’ my ardent followers know that I have blogged about this before, check the link http://scotteverest.blogspot.com/2009/05/tanganyika-laughter-epidemic.html.

Mass Hysteria is created in this case by the media, the infamous weather warnings, the constant references to Armageddon, the somewhat convenient panic about shops running low on stock.

Bad news sells; advertisers pay premium for publications which sell more copy.

So the panic buying leaves the shop shelves empty, prices of goods rise. The hoarding of food continues. However, when spring cleaning comes around the extra food is just wasted.

There is as well another psychological aspect and something which is becoming more prevalent.

If you were asked to think of snow, what do you think of? A chocolate box scene? A red robin? Or a Victorian setting and no doubt Christmas? What if the media representation of the snow could damage our perception of Christmas itself? Surely we cannot be turned into a consumer nation and forget the spirit of Christmas?

When we paint something in a negative light, or give it power through multi media outlets then surely we will also give negative credence to all its associations.

This can even work through xenophobia; we associate certain countries with snow, and then place a negative association with them. However, let’s not re-open wounds from the propaganda of the cold war.

There is only one tip moving forward, and that is not to eat yellow snow.

A new year is a new dawn, before light came darkness, the ground needs to harden to protect the seed growing underneath. The sun will come up across the horizon as it has done for billions of years.

I think Bram Stoker says it best, although you can worship the light or the dark even if you are not in its presence.

Blogs will continue weekly, with next’s week subject being goal setting.

Cheesy chips and Mango dips

Sensai Scott x

The belly button conundrum

2009-12-18T17:12:00.002Z

Just what WOULD you do to be a success?

I really do not like having my hair cut. When I was younger an incident occurred and the top of my ear was sliced off by careless scissors, operated by a side of the neck talking gossip monger.

I wore the proverbial crimson mask, and the image returned upon every nervous visit.

It is with some delicious irony that I saw, and understood. How a person can be successful. This came to me through my greatest fear.

On Tuesday evening I was walking home from work, and caught a glimpse of my untamed mane in a passing window. On a whim or more of a necessity, I ventured into the hairdressers.

There was of course the usual customs and pleasantries; I was shown to the chair and at that point my nerves must have shown, and she asked me my name.

This is the first key to success: PAY ATTENTION

Nerves are one thing, and a trip to the hair dressers is one full of polite chit-chat, clichés and banal opinions. I was made to feel at ease, and for the first time I was able to express what style I required. I have had in the past, dozens of hairstyles of pictures that were closest to my eye line. (Pretty glad no mullets were nearby)

My hair was rinsed, washed and my face massaged. She proceeded to scissor cut my hair, taking her time, measuring and cross referencing each side. It was pretty late in the day, and had no appointment yet the enthusiasm and energy was equal to her first cut of the day.

The second key to success: CONSISTENCY

Whilst cutting my hair, and to my embarrassment but with discretion, she informed me that there was a large spot on my scalp. The next thing however surprised me; she proceeded to separate my hair around the infected area and fully lanced the skin eruption. The seeping puss and follow through blood was mopped up and cleaned without question and we carried on.

The third key to success: BESPOKE SERVICE

The haircut was a success.

All the above does seem innocuous, but through a fear came a good experience. Life is like this and I want to shout from the roof tops about the service received.

Normally a product or service is instantly forgettable, and we have had tens of thousands of these experiences in our lives.

The devil is in the detail, the same goes for love. The yearning by middle aged woman who bemoan the small things that there young lovers did for them in the distant past such as; pull out a chair, open a door, order wine, fluff the pillow, tumble dry a towel and handing to them after a bath that they run when they came back from work ....... (A womans Number 1 fantasy)

Life is just a series of moments with forgettable fluff in-between; this fluff gets into your belly button when you are not paying ATTENTION, not washing with any CONSISTENCY and paying or awarding yourself with BESPOKE SERVICE.

In summary look after yourself and other and do nice things for people, this is of course what you SHOULD do, to be a success.

‘Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves’ - Albert Einstein

I love the above quote, it defines your life. A simple premise of how to move forward. If your are going to do something, then DO IT

HO HO HO HO XXXXXX

PS - Take a wet wipe and clean your belly button daily, constant attention will prevent build up ; )

Baby, it's cold outside........

2009-12-09T23:13:00.002Z

‘There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time’ - Malcolm X

I have made so many mistakes in my life; some have even been made repeatedly. As an adolescent you were insulated from any serious outcome, as your parents protected you from liabilities.

We often bewail our luck, and curse inanimate objects, systems, universe, companies and institutions when bad things happen. The long and short of it is that rarely we look for that silver lining in every single cloud that storms upon us.

The proverbial silver lining in every painful situation is what is called ‘the lesson’. I am not trying to patronise anyone, but the lesson is sometimes the experience itself. Our natural instincts drive the fight or flight response and our reaction is from the trigger from the issue occurring in the first place.

For example, something happens and then the issue is not the issue, but how we respond to that issue, then it becomes the real issue! The lesson is not learned or even recognised but instead of a solution an additional problem is created.

To the title of my blog, although a Christmas song from the late 1940’s, the title and melody have always resonated with me, however, my interpretation of the song, as it plays in my mind, has always been to suppress my out of control ego.

Whenever, something happens, I do have to check my behaviour, it forces me to learn the lesson. The song is my fight reflex response to negative behaviour; it does remind me that if you fight against the world, the world will win as I am attracting back my own negativity ten-fold. I could always be friendless, jobless or homeless.

As the song intimates, it is cold outside. Swallowing your pride is a fallacy, as the reaction to the problem should not have been created in the first instance.

This is the lesson you should take, as to quote Oscar Wilde ‘Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes’

I have been your Captain for today’s flight, and hope you enjoyed flying with Everest Airways and welcome you again soon.

Tally ho!

PS. Humility is now my strong point, I am VERY experienced

Take that, Mr Barlow

2009-12-01T09:00:00.002Z

They say that you become your abuser.

The wicked irony is, that my adult life vampire obsession was fuelled by the sheer terror as a child, that the very thought of Mr Kurt Barlow could bring.

I am not a recently converted twilight groupie; I find the whole Bella Swan character far too whiny for my liking. Although totally feeling True Blood.

However, I digress.

Today’s blog, is quite personal, and tend to throw these in once in a while. The theme is looser than a skater boy’s trousers, but hopefully a glimmer of a point will shine through.

The film Salem’s Lot had a profound effect on me, as a child these things do. I also used to think that Chewbacca who was on my curtains was going to kill me in the night, so I used to sleep with my Lightsaber, so Kurt Barlow was a certainly worthy of special attention.

Let’s look past the whole blue nosferatu thing he had going on, Mr Barlow was in my eyes, the first true personification of Evil. As children we are shielded from such imagery and behaviour, this is natural as all parents want to protect. However, at 5 years old, you would have hoped for a few lessened encounters or imagery of bad people to kind of lessen the blow, or the Barlow!

There you have it, my first tangible conscious fear. However, not my last, and must of spent the better part of 30-years harbouring more and more and more.....

I have spent countless nights with these fears running through my mind, awake as emotions take control of me. These emotions range from anger, frustration, morbid outcomes and total irrationality.

At the top of this blog, I stated that you can become your own abuser, or in a non-sexual way your subconscious irrationality can penetrate your conscious reality.

Why? It is because I have never faced my fear. We always put these things down to bad luck, Murphy’s Law and of course develop the paranoia that the universe is against us.

The truth is, it is! We are powerful being and we can manifest our fears to become an irrational reality. Hold on one second though, if negative and fearful thankful brings about such results surely.............

That is right folks; we know the answer for creating happiness and a positive and abundant life, but it does not answer how we manage our fears.

Feel the fear and do it anyway, Susan Jeffers did get it right with this great book, and recommend to everyone.

Now back to Mr Barlow, I have long moved on from that fear, but the penny finally dropped that instead of banishing fear all together, I just dealt with every personification and manifestation that came along. It was seem that some fears were instantly banished, some were embraced and some have been with me for decades.

Fear has affected me physically, and have been regularly been seeing a Kinesiologist, Life Coach and today even Hypnotherapy. The truth is, and an accurate summary of my fear behaviour is that I have been playing a game of eternal hide and seek. My hiding place is somewhat better than behind a sofa, but another disturbing reality is that it is still seeking me.

What am I afraid of? Shouting? Well last I check that cannot hurt me, the raising of the voice as an intimidation tool is kind of juvenile. I can scare myself more.

The break-though moment, we scare ourselves more with a morbid unrealistic outcome than actual reality.

I will never succeed with such thoughts, I will never become rich if I am scared of money, I will never grow as a person unless I nourish myself with spirituality, I will not intellectually expand with exposure to all forms of higher reasoning (This includes relinquishing my personal boycott of Satre)

I must name my fear, write it down and place the words on a wall for me to stare and absorb. Then give that fear a colour, imagine it wearing a parka coat and yellow Wellington boots. Place the fear in its rain wear and imagine it place precariously on top of a steep hill. Then place the fear on a skate board, and watch it speed down the hill to the deep lake at the bottom and watch it sink away into oblivion.

I cannot absorb or become, what is no longer there.

‘Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free’ - Jim Morrison

I truly am free; my greatest successes are yet to come, my biggest adventures have yet to be taken and my happiness will never peak and plateau it will ascend to the stars and beyond.

We turn a page a day in our lives; we need to want to read on.

Thank you Mr Barlow, you have taught me well.

Love peace and hair grease

Scott

Dreams can come true......

2009-11-23T23:13:00.001Z

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future” – Victor Hugo

I have dreams, not blow a candle out and wish real hard throwaway dreams, nor get rich quick or sudden fame or fortune type of dreams. The dreams which play out in my mind are these days more altruistic, and less selfish.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing personal wealth and fame; however, you must dream your happiness to run alongside your success.

So to truly believe and succeed, the everlasting circle certainly symbolises this.

Could life be so simple, and that dreams albeit subconsciously can themselves be self fulfilling prophesies?

A goal without a plan is just a dream!

A vision without action is just a dream?

A vision without execution is just a hallucination?

A life without dreams is like a garden without flowers?

A goal without a plan is just a wish?

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it” – Michelangelo

Ok, in the middle of this blog, it would seem that I am talking to myself, however I always find it necessary for my mind to confirm what my eyes can see in front of me, and a dream becoming a self fulfilling prophesy resonates on a positive vibration with me.

So let’s explore this, dreams, ideas, visions, beliefs, goals, ability, self worth can all suffer or prosper in what is called the ‘Thomas Theorem’

This theory states "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." So this could be all about one person’s perception in the situation they find themselves in.

I suppose that self fulfilling prophesies are always playing the protagonist in many a novel or cheap straight to DVD feature film.

Another version of this theory is called ‘The Oedipus effect’ the oracle (the protagonist or the dream) announced the ‘prophesy’ that Oedipus would kill his father for the love of his mother. The oracle, instead of encouraging Laius to break the ‘prophesy’ actually instigated it.

The legend of Romulus and Remus, Herod and Jesus of Nazareth and various others are all based of self fulfilling prophesies.

We give such credence to our own limited beliefs, but let’s make them real again and relative.

It won’t work
I am always late
I am not lucky
I won’t get that job
I won’t pass
I am not attractive
I will never be rich

This is why I do believe in affirmations, to break the cycle and turn a self defeating prophesy to a self fulfilling positive and successful philosophy.

So back on topic, and to the mystical and comforting world of dreams, it would seem that dreams are seen as wistful thinking and cannot take away planning and creative vision. This is a common view, not shared by me.

There is something in dreams, and with self discipline and living a clean conscious life, should transpire to our subconscious creative soul.

To explain dreams, I have done this with myself does require a leap of faith, and ignoring the brutal reality of someone likes Rene Descartes (I think there I am); dreams can serve as a seed towards an ultimate goal.

I heard Dr Wayne Dyer explain this best, when he describes a seed from an oak tree, it bears no resemblance to a tree, even if you cut it open and examine it fully. However, you know that inside, there is treeness. It just needs a few things to get that way.

Dreams are the same, so a seed will need luscious soil, water, sun and nurturing the same principle could be use for our most inner lucid thoughts or dreams.

The matrix does not control me, I ignore the oracle, I am not the victim of my circumstance, I am not a bad person, and I am NEVER going to highlight the negative and will ONLY accentuate the positive.

I will close my eyes tonight, and this very day will dream my happiest dream, the vision for the rest of my life will start to grow and tomorrow ................ will start to live it.

Sleep tight

Scott

Pain begets pain

2009-11-16T22:43:00.002Z

“There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better” - Oscar Wilde

Sometimes, less is more. Today’s blog is about pain and will purposely keep it short.

There are moments in one’s life, where the meaning which we all seek becomes clearer. The question is dwarfed in comparison to the answer; however, one main part is how to be happy?

Happiness is elusive to many, and hard to maintain for the few, however, some masters out there all prescribe to one of many ethoses. With one being the understanding of what to do when the body, soul or heart is in pain.

Deep thought and an innocuous line from Eckhart Tolle, has brought this idea to life, and for me summed up where I have gone wrong all of these years.

In summary, pain is additive so much so it manifests itself to become a cannibal. A self ingesting being which engulfs the host’s body, mind and soul, the taste and frequency of the pain felt needs to attract more of the same to keep going, growing and overflowing.

There is hope with pain, as it can only feed on more pain, the fatty additives become addictive and we feel pain about feeding the pain. The good news is that there is some which is quite ingestible.

Pain can consume one’s body, but to alleviate, a dose of sudden ‘joy’ can break the symptoms dead.

‘Life is Difficult’ the author Scott Peck famous opening words were in his novel, a ‘Road less Travelled’ and this is one of the truths of life. However, I am trying to convey a break in the cycle. Sure life is difficult and everyone life is beset by pain on occasions, but these episodes are always broken by joy.

My point is to choose joy to enter your life, never feed the beast who brings your biggest nightmares to the fore.

So if your feel your pain can be solved by a large slice of chocolate cake, be aware that further pain is always felt by eating that cake. Pain begets pain, joy begets joy, evil begets evil and love begets love.

Cheesy chips and mango dips

Scott xxx

PS Can every this Friday, think about me, visualise me wearing a yellow t-shirt. My face book status will remind everyone.

The Beast and the shadow

2009-11-09T22:36:00.001Z

Dark eyes and a spine of spikes, hunched with muscles tensed.
Nails pointed teeth sharp and putrid breath anticipating death.

No bad deed undone, no bad thought not followed through, the bestial belief is fear!
Though tears are shed, so private the pain for the desire for light, pierces his heart with despair

My father, my grandfather and every sired master, so the long line of learned lust brings me to this very day
The act, the evil, the flesh devoured to satisfy nourish me but peace in my soul does not allay

I am the darkness, the nightmares are light, and my presence on this path is unwelcomed by the predator himself and tasteless prey
My prey is the light, their path is virtue, yet there journey is broken and often strayed

I look upon my shadow the light of the golden sun, unattached from my body, but leaked from my soul. The master reflection is still dark
My prey, yet hero’s shadow is dark as my soul that brightens with melancholy and feeling of certainty in my heart

I desire your life, my banshee scream, directed towards my prey in a moment of confused clarity
The scared reply of pity and condemnation towards a beast’s plea of redemption and purity

This was met with equal shame from the beast; the new belief of hope was dashed by the cruelty of the light
Was there not a way, to trade our opposing souls? Righteousness, beauty can be achieved without a celestial fight

The prey pointed to the beast’s shadow pearlescent and comparatively brimming with beauty and self worth
The beast sold his shadow for the prey’s offering of his own dark soul and for eternal pain he felt deserved

The daylight rose, and the golden sun revealed the truth, hidden by the twilight’s stillness and darkness despair
Then the beast and prey’s shadows, both crept away from the body whose against their souls they have no care

The eternal truth revealed itself, through the enlightenment the beast knew and upon his shadow he did gaze
The lightness in his darkest reflection was gone and a paradox ensued and his hope was raised

He understood the dichotomy and how the truth once exposed can lead one to a righteous path
The idea that a shadow is not a reflection, but equilibrium in the universe from the soul to the body mass

PPPPPPPPPorkerface.........

2009-11-02T22:23:00.002Z

‘There is the satisfaction of providing your public with a vision of true beautology, true sytlisity, - how can I put it? – true glamorositude’ – Miss Piggy

We are not speaking about the music industry manufactured pretentious and pretend eccentric pop diva Lady Gaga, we are talking about the delightfully violent and bourgeois star of the sliver (and furry) screen Miss Piggy.

I have always been a great fan; the dry cutting remarks could cut the biggest and most respectable people down to size. She would also use her sexuality to reduce any man to be her willing slave. Although Kermit did finally receive the pork tongue, his obvious repressed homosexuality made the chase a little too long.

However, I digress. The character of Miss Piggy was one of the few 3-dimesional characters from the Muppets whilst popularity is questionable, she did become the most recognisable facet of the long running show.

Legend has it, the name ‘Piggy’ was actual shortened from the Greek word ‘Pigathius’ which literally means’ river of passion’. A lot more thought and a high political agenda was at work to creating this character, and theories range from her being a metaphor for 80’s greed, to a parody of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The character has many depths from the comical karate chopping of men who rebuff her to my favourite the undeniable self-belief that she is destined for greatness. I am sure than subconsciously there is some self-awareness, but the obvious denial she displays is quite impressive.

Now to make my point about the whole blog the metaphor of Miss Piggy has always meant to me a reminder of the phrase ‘Fake it till you make it’ a positive phrase that stops you from entering those self full-filling prophecies of self doubt, loathing and destruction.

The phrase is used a lot by the AA (Alcoholics anonymous) and newcomers are encouraged to use phrases, to talk about their present tense as if they have already succeeded.

In essence everything we say and do affects our anxiety, somewhat a contradiction to my normal line, but hope you will appreciate a different perspective.

We all have fears, this is natural. We can feed our anxiety or negativity with limited beliefs and self fulfil our worst nightmare. However, on the flipside we can trivialise those same such things and rise above with self belief and of course self fulfil our biggest dreams.

Just remember talent, like behaviour can be learnt. You may as well visualise the best possible outcome. To get to where you want to go, and have what you want to have and be what you want to be, always just needs a little belief to grow.

If you're properly attired, you're hired. And if you're not, I don't care how “Qualified” you may be – it will be a case of “clothes, but no cigar.” – Miss Piggy

A short blog today, however next Monday will be pushing myself way out of comfort zone and will writing a poem, something I have not attempted for a while.

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic’.– Miss Piggy

Speak to you all soon

Scott x

Reply from CEO Herald Tribune

2009-10-26T22:38:00.002Z

To: Samael A Tanner (S.A_Tanner@morningstar.com)

From: Godfrey O ‘Dell (G.O_Dell@heraldtribune.com

Subject: Re: It has been a long time.......

Dear Samael

I would like to take this time to thank you for your letter, and it is nice to hear how you are doing.

I appreciate your feedback with regards to the appointment of my Son, however his popularity and unique story has certainly increased our customer base and somewhat polarised us from our competitors. I do not regret that decision.

Through-out the letter you made many references to our ‘new mandate’, we are an organisation which prides ourselves on being traditional and consistent. However, some customers who have been exposed to your message have somewhat taken a different view.

I feel that we would dilute our message by constantly justifying ourselves, so we never appear defensive. We just exist.

We ask people to have faith, not unbridled worship that skews the message. I feel this is how the situation between us has gotten to this point; your drive to become my favourite is what brought about the unforgivable sin. Thus you were cast out.

There is some confusion, and that is that we are to blame for people’s actions, even if they choose negative, violent actions in my name. Surely, if anything I taught you is that you are responsible for your own behaviour. Every person is equal.

I agree with your point on morality, however we all make mistakes and our code of conduct is a just a guide. We all decide how we should live, it is just one path will always lead towards happiness. This is the path that we choose to illuminate. This is an irony that we must show as your mandate is to enlighten. However, we like to illuminate and radiate. It is all semantics.

You talk of paradox, which did make me smile. You know about equilibrium and you made mention to it. Then surely paradox itself is included and the normal to the absurd is featured between the lines of balance.

I do not think you thought that one through!

The point regarding the disaffected youth is not new. Every generation claims to have a higher knowledge or superior view point. This goes round in cycles. However, this is done because deep down they have the comfort and knowledge to know that we are always here, consistent and can be slipped on like a pair of warm winter slippers.

The accusation of propaganda is certainly interesting; I must admit that it does take a special type of person to be in marketing and Public relations. I think our combined effort cannot save these people.

Not for one moment, do I think that ‘The Dawkins Standard’ and when it comes to the crunch will disappear quicker than an X Factor finalist.

I have to admit that my nature is usually that of good nature, and most please that your two children Jon and Edward are doing so well on X-Factor. I bet you are a proud father.

It was nice to hear from you, and maybe add me as a friend on Facebook? We did have a mutual friend in Scott Everest, but we agree that he is beyond help these days. He does seem to have declared himself ‘King of the World’ and bestowed upon himself the role of a Jedi. This, I blame you for!

Anyway, Tally ho!

Godfrey O ‘Dell
Chief Executive Officer
Herald Tribune

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
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E-mail from CEO of the Morning Star

2009-10-19T22:17:00.002+01:00

To: Godfrey O ‘Dell (G.O_Dell@heraldtribune.com

From: Samael A Tanner (S.A_Tanner@morningstar.com)

Subject: It has been a long time.......

Dear Godfrey

How are you?

It has been quite a few years since we last spoke, with the last meeting as you recall ending quite abruptly. This meeting, as you are of course aware, ended with my leaving the established Herald Tribune.

I thought after all this time I had better try and clear the air, and to explain my position. I was of course upset at the time when you brought your son to the organisation; all of the staff at the Herald Tribune was upset as we all wanted that position in the office – the right of yours. We did all feel that our hard work at the time was not going noticed and the appointment of your son was pure nepotism.

I have a lot of pride, some say this led to my downfall, but at the time I felt that I had to say something. I do regret that some of my colleagues, whilst they colluded did not all stand with me. However, that says more about their behaviour than mine.

During my tenure at the Herald Tribune, I did learn a lot, and this grounding experience did put me in good stead to create my own organisation, The Morning Star.

Our businesses of course, were at the opposite end of the spectrum with regards to view points and political leanings. I purposely tried to stir up apathy towards your regime, so that we can compete equally. This of course led to a long propaganda war, for which you have endless resources.

I write today to mainly point out a paradox; the political agendas and morality of each of our messages have become blurred. Whilst I have been consistent, albeit scarred by the false hoods and your sheep-dipping of the weak willed. The actions of your loyal clients have been somewhat of a concern.

There was a time were the disaffected youth of the world were easily sold our message, however the seven step anti-morality code you preached and subscribed to has now become the behaviour of choice towards our clients and my loyal team.

Our mandate, which was always to enlighten and to test the political leanings of your clients and convert them across to us, was always a strategy which garnered us followers. However, we never persisted just existed in reflection and a viable alternative towards your intense message.

I think that would appreciate the point of the e-mail, and that is for us to return back to the status quo. All these acts that are widely reported around the world that have fatal consequences are being carried out to your new mandate. Although this has not been reported, I fear that the whole industry is in danger of collapsing because of this.

The conclusion that would satisfy our company and hopefully stabilise the industry is for both of our messages to be consistent and that each of set of clients, colleagues and affiliates all act accordingly to own code of practice.

I not sure that you are aware, that even some of your most loyal clients see us now as a viable alternative. I am not however, changing our philosophies to fit with your disenchanted followers and your disenfranchised affiliates.

Another paradox, which I am pains to point out of course follows from your propaganda, which states than any one of my followers, or people who breach your 7 anti morality codes would forever live and be tortured in eternity. This utterly laughable, however the paradox does lie when in your name, people breach these codes regularly inwardly, outwardly and to us. You seem to attack us with the very thing that should separate us. Not a very clever strategy.

You were, and still are my hero, however we both still need to make a living in this industry and there does seem to be an opportunity for the Dawkins Standard to steal the majority of the market share if we procrastinate any longer.

The greater good of this industry is in your hands.

Faithfully yours

Samael A Tanner

Chief Executive Officer
The Morning Star
“Not creating delusions is enlightenment.”

PS. I will be away from my desk for the next 7-days, my secretary Madame Lilith Blackwing, will forward the return message to my blackberry.

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The Jedi and the Force

2009-10-12T23:06:00.002+01:00

“[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.”

I was 6 years old, and at that age you are fully aware of the world surrounding you, soaking up every experience like a sponge. There is still important emotional learning for every child, to filter out the difference between right and wrong. In 1980 parental guidance and my own peer group took a back seat as the ultimate reference for me was ‘The Empire Strikes back’.

The playground legends were true, and the future battle, today, for the entire universe as we know it, was being played across our cinema screens. The thirst for this new knowledge, allowed us to absorb the first part of the sci-fi genesis as we first consulted the oracle of Star Wars.

I made my decision as soon as the wise sage Obi-Wan Kenobi presence crossed my screen and my lucid childhood fantasies; I am going to be on the good side of the force. The over merchandised world youth agreed too.

During the middle ages the romantic notion of a young boy being a noble warrior, a Knight of the round table or an altruistic forest dwelling thief, was our aspiration. The dream mutated, evolved but continued through the late 1970’s until today.

The paradigm was the same, but the adventure fresh; it encouraged us to look forward and into the future. Coupled with Man’s successful mission to the Moon (insert own conspiracy theory here), being an Astronaut, Buck Rogers a Rebel Fighter was the playground fantasy of every adolescent boy.

There was something obvious, familiar, a repackaged paradigm designed to inspire a new generation. This was a religious concept or a way of life. This was the ‘Force’. A cosmic unified energy that was abundant in every corner of the universe. It was split between the light (Jedi) and dark (Sith / Empire). The practitioners are at the extreme polar opposites of morality.

As we always keep the ascent on the positive, we are going to look at the light side of the Force. The way is based on real aspects of various religions. The discipline of Taoist Monks, the nature and actions of Japanese Shinto, the mysticism of Sufism, Hinduism and the unifying belief of a Braham energy, the inner peace of Buddhism and the contact with the past much like Spiritualism. The truth is that all esoteric aspects of every religion have been melded into one true form.

The subject is huge, and like a lantern with infinite genies, you get a different one appear every time it is rubbed, and a different reason to rub it.

I would like to pay homage to the force by talking through three quotes by the Jedi Master Yoda, each one can provoke us to think about our lives and how we live.

“Do or do not.......... there is no try”

There are a few masters out there, in today’s reality and fast paced world. I will give you one example. Brian Tracy, I have picked this example as he has the message.

Now the message itself is a call to achieving anything you want and can, by doing three things. I will change the format of what the master Brian Tracy teaches, and although plagiarism saves time, it is lazy.

Brian Tracy does however, mocks procrastination with the story of us all visiting Someday Isle (Some day I will). His formula is unique, and would encourage everyone to invest an hour reading ‘eat that frog’

The example I will give is Imagine, Plan & Action................. To successfully achieve something you have to begin with an end in mind (Stephen Covey – 2nd Habit of highly effective people). You can do this by using the one uncensored personal entertainment system, the imagination. You have to know what it is you want to achieve, the imagined desired outcome is always the beginning.

The next stage is planning, the boring bit, the unsexy bit, the sitting down with a pen and paper mapping every move in timed sections. Sure, you can imagine something and do it! However, this rarely brings sustained success. This is the nuts and bolts, the laying out the whole flat pack assembly kit. If this part is not down, do not be surprised when in pure frustration you smashed up that wardrobe with a hammer.

The world’s worst planners are also the world’s worst diary keepers, time keepers, dieters, Christmas shoppers, Jedi Knights, parents and an endless list.
The simple truth is that more time planning will always reduce time in action. If anything energy conservation, and greater energy to achieve even more is motivation enough.

Anyone can have a dream; imagine anything that can be achieved. However trying to do it without a valid plan, is just foolish. A circle of personal error.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

I fear that I have belaboured this point over the past 7-weeks with my series on deadly sins; in summary we must learn our triggers. Once known we can master control of our emotions. We embrace every day as it comes, as we do not have control of what crosses our paths, only our reaction to it. Why curse the darkness? As its existence is the axiom and equilibrium to light.

Do something every day that scares you, is the saying. This can be as simple as showing no fear to the unknown, this is the true meaning behind this quote from the Dalai Llama.

“Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

Fear is irrational, and is held deep within us with various phobias borne from limited beliefs. It can manifest itself to such a point it can consume someone’s life. However, more often than not this fear is unspoken and the intensity builds within oneself until the phobia does overtake us.

Fear does not define you, does your name cease to exist and your fear is now you?

This is power of therapy and self healing; I have spoken of the Sedona method before and simple affirmations can help. You have convinced yourself through limited irrational beliefs and you can likewise, undo these.

Jedi is a real religion (a unified commitment to good), the last national census in 2001 in the United Kingdom, it was first officially recognised with nearly 1% of the population declaring their faith (in Brighton this is 2.6%). It is quite sad that before this census Satanists had a higher official status than Jedi.

The largest cultural phenomenon is happening today in New Zealand where in again 2001, Jedi has risen to the 4th largest religion. Although this part of a practical joke and petered out in the 2006 census.

However, New Zealand is also the home of the Jedi Church. There a support website, where for a small donation you can become ordained, online. I have chosen to do so, not to mess with the system but a commitment to live my life according to the positive aspects and natural moral code.

The church of Jedi doctrine states that all living things share a living force and we are all born with the innate sense of what is right or wrong. The existence of good and evil is necessary for freewill.

So there you have my commitment, I have said it out loud and declared my Jedi status, and I have also become ordained as a minister in another new religion Dudeism. This following the teachings of ‘The Dude’ the main protagonist in the Coen brothers film, The Big Lebowski.

To join the church of Jedi, you can make a small donation. They are a charity and any surplus funds find their way back to back worldwide charities. Click the link and see what it is about.

http://www.jedichurch.org/

Is the Jedi religion real, surely it is concept from a film?

All religions claim to be the one and only, and in summary, no religion is truth...... it is just a matter of faith.

I will be back next week, with something quite controversial and provocative. It will be a two part blog in the format of an open letter. The week after that will be the reply.

See you next week, thank you for the support and my continued efforts to introduce Jedi teachings into my everyday work.

Cheesy chips and mango dips.......... Scott xx

PS, My Religions gained so far are.... Church of England, Dudeism, Spiritualism, Vampirism and Jedism

Part VII - Anger

2009-10-05T23:25:00.001+01:00

‘Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured’ - Mark Twain

I am writing this blog quite early in the day, and I am fortunate enough to be looking after my daughter. She is coming up to two years old and is quite talkative and even though she is attaching pegs to my laptop and asking me to the whereabouts of her shoes, I am not angry.

So why do we get angry? A different answer from everyone I expect, however there are things that trigger these angry moods, outburst or regrettable actions.

I have many, which I will list. For some reason admitting those, puts them out in the open and dilutes the pent up rage.

· Slow Drivers / Walkers / shop assistants
· Old people who go shopping on weekends, who clearly have all week to shop
· Simon Cowell and any related person or TV show
· Soap Operas
· Newspapers
· Lateness

I think Freud would have suggested that as a child I had to wait too long for a cuddle, but maybe patience is not my strong point.

However, an irony is that I have stood on street corners in my youth, waiting hours for girls to turn up and remained as enthusiastic upon their arrival as if they were there on my arrival.

So this confusion as to why anger affects different people needs to be explained, but each case is full of ironic hypocrisy and overriding limited beliefs.

How to explain?

The most suitable metaphor would the case of the ‘Incredible Hulk’. The human element in this story is played by Bruce Banner, who as a brilliant scientist but totally emotionally withdrawn. He is described as a genius; however this higher knowledge led him to design a Gamma Bomb which was capable of killing millions of people.

A test goes wrong, and there is an irony that the Bomb causes an affliction which heightens the emotions that have been withdrawn for so long.

Now the very thing that Bruce Banner avoided before the accident is the very normality he craves, and now has to avoid emotionally charged situations, as fear of the monster erupting within.

Anger is a complex emotion, but for a 1000 word blog will try and simplify and look at two different types.

The first one is INWARD anger, and keeping with the theme of deadly sins one of the worst sins was to take one’s life. To be angry within was deemed as spite and suicide was the final act of wrath and rejection of god’s gifts. (As per the Catholic Religion)

This is the origin as to why suicide is classed as morally wrong and illegal, as it a rejection of god itself as his manifestation is every man. This subject can be argued and debated upon, and without having either viewpoint with this scenario, my bum with feel the splinters as I sit on the proverbial fence.

Inward anger can be externally expressed through self harm, with examples of cutting, over eating and sexual promiscuity. This list is not exhaustive.

There are many reasons but self-loathing through limited beliefs is usually the seed that sprouts into full inward rage. So before the shouting begins, there are genuine victims, however once the person makes the choice and decides that it will not be the status quo the healing process begins.

One example of this is the mother of the murdered 8-year old Sarah Payne. You will expect this woman to be raging with the authorities and the world because her daughter was murdered by a well known and released paedophile. Yet when asked she states, that she can’t hate the person as that will overshadow the love and memories of her daughter.

I for one do not have the self-control and strength to do that. I sincerely hope that is never tested and will be happy in my ignorance and my character not to be tested.

‘For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.’ - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We often have triggers that ignite our outward anger, and this emotion can stay with us for a long period. We often use the trigger as the excuse for the projected emotional trauma we put our colleagues, friends and loved ones through. We almost try to justify our behaviour.

The trigger can more often than not be a person and the most evil part of anger is the act of vengeance. It is when we act upon our anger, and the trigger is the target of elimination, is when we truly lose control.

Dante described vengeance as “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite” and we all have the warped sense of righteousness in all of us. This level malevolence manifests itself in many ways from Hitler’s, Pol Pots, Genghis Khan’s, Saladin’s and British led genocides have all been born from vengeance. These acts have all come from one place or emotional act.

They are called limited beliefs.

These are learned from your social environment, but can be unlearned.

So I sign off from this series and will be back on form next week.

TTFN

Scott

Part VI - Greed

2009-09-28T19:19:00.002+01:00

‘There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed’ - Gandhi

I do spend some time each week in-between blogs, contemplating the subject, the tone and some key points and just fill the rest with my opinions and observations.

This blog will be the easiest for me to write out of the whole series, as the vision came quite easily.

I am by nature generous, which is of course the synonym of Greed. My habits of over delegating, over empowering, and wealth sharing, do shy me away from avarice. Although there are quite a few people who do complain that I do not give them enough time. However, if I had it and could give it, then surely would hand that over too.

The overriding vision of this blog had to come from an article in a newspaper not so long ago, and the journalist proceeded to describe a scenario quite unbelievable, but summed up man’s appetite for lustful greed.

I am sure that most of you have seen the film Wall Street, a cinematic masterpiece and lives up to its hype. The central character Gordon Gecko (the bad guy) was played by Michael Douglas. It was as the film’s title suggests set in the financial district of New York – Wall Street. Gordon Gecko was a trader, with vast personal wealth and an even bigger thirst to obtain more. His catchphrase was ‘Greed is good’.

To cut a long story short, Michael Douglas was invited for a tour around the trading area of the Dow Jones stock exchange, which I believe is because of an upcoming sequel of the hit film. The moment he stepped onto the floor he was mobbed like a 1960’s Beatle, the traders were beside themselves. They had come face-to-face with their messiah, the chanting which of course is the traders and banker’s mantra is ‘greed is good’, ‘greed is good’, and ‘greed is good’ rung out uncomfortably around the trading floor.

Why was this uncomfortable?

Two weeks before the recession had seen it’s catalyst, with Bear Stearns going under, causing shock waves around the world and every financial institution.

To look at the quote from Ghandi, every man in the world in this crisis did not think that there would be sufficient abundance for their own and families needs, yet how can the world learn from this with institutionalised, aspirational greed.

It is too obvious to use this blog to dig at Bankers, so I want to look at some lower level activities that show the same abhorrence and condescension towards morality.

The first point is one that any parent can relate too. The summer is over and winter is coming closer, and thought of Christmas is never far away. As a parent you need to plan ahead, as the part which brings the most pleasure is providing your siblings with the gift that they desire.

This year my daughter loves ‘Waybuloo’ a children’s TV series on CBeebies (BBC) which she absolutely adores. She is totally enamoured with the Orange ‘Pipling’ Yojojo and verbalises her pleasure at every opportunity. As a new programme the toys have just been released, and as a father the very vision of her face upon opening the Yojojo toy will be my Christmas present.

So where does greed come into this?

There are only a few retailers with the Waybuloo range, so to my surprise (or not) when you go to purchase an item the shelves are cleared out. So as a concerned father you look for the on-line option, only to see the sheer abundance of items that are available on e-bay, however, in some cases 2-3 times the retail price.

I cannot imagine what goes through peoples mind but there behaviour can be described as rapacious. The plundering of children’s toys to sell for excess profit does not fall under the umbrella of ‘Entrepreneur’ but does sit with the more sinister parasol of Extortion.

There is another example of greed which allegedly does come from a good place, but is just manipulation of authority, hoarding and trickery. This behaviour has more negative consequences than good.

As you all are aware the world has a Swine Flu pandemic, and in the UK there has been a variety of fatalities and widespread infection. The Government has moved from an isolate to a treatment phase. There is enough of the drug ‘Tamiflu’ for 50% of the nation, which would be more than enough to control the spread of disease.

Due to being infectious there are several ways how you get diagnosed and obtain the Tamiflu antiviral. The main outlet is the Internet, and you log onto the NHS swine flu website and go through the questions, enter your details and they diagnose your symptoms.

If they match them or near to Swine flu then you are given a unique reference number and a member of family or friend (with your ID) can collect the drug on your behalf free of charge.

Now with Swine Flu the funny thing is, that during the hot spell in August reported cases were dropping but fatalities remained steady. Now with a bit of cold weather coming the cases have now doubled but fatalities dropped. How?

This is because that people are not sick but using the web service to obtain Tamiflu, just in case. At this rate, with my calculation of 8-weeks. The country will run out of the vaccine thus causing widespread panic and accusation of mismanagement.

However, the street price of Tamiflu has just gone up.

Does greed make you happy?

No, all greed does is exaggerate the positive aspects of any object. If no association of happiness is placed on said object then it is reasonable to assume that happiness can be obtained without it.

Another metaphor is someone who buys and wears more and more jewellery. It makes you appear wealthy, displays affluence, the attention to detail is all to see. However, eventually you will conclude that it is what you put inside you and share from inside you which make you happy.

Selflessness, gratitude, generosity, charity are greed’s antonyms and inevitable nemesis. It is just sad that greed battles them so hard.

‘If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble’ - Bob Hope

Last blog in the series next week – Anger!

Thank you for all the messages and comments, please keep them coming

Lots of love

Scott

Part V - Gluttony

2009-09-22T22:28:00.002+01:00

‘Gluttony is not a secret vice’ - Orson Welles

To start off this week’s blog the dictionary meaning of gluttony, is when you eat, drink and take intoxicants more than you need to, with extraordinary waste.

This is a Christian sin, and when researching and deciphering the usual associated fire and brimstone verses I came across an amusing excerpt from a Christian website.

Synopsis

What it is: Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Why you do it: Because you were weaned improperly as an infant.

Your punishment in Hell will be: You'll be force-fed rats, toads, and snakes.

Associated symbols & suchlike: Gluttony is linked with the pig and the colour orange.

Of course the above is absurd, but does not really deal with the cause and effect of gluttony, there can be many issues as to why one person over indulges for gratification, over another.

Eating feels good! food is meant to taste good, and we are meant to enjoy it. However, there becomes a line when the basic hygiene need of enjoying refuelling and nourishing your body is in conflict with the end user, who see’s this time as the only outlet of pleasure.

This is someone who now associates food with pleasure, and will continue to feed that feeling. They will salivate and gorge to the point of no control.

The signs and symptoms of this become abundantly clear, with excess weight, low self esteem, no fitness and no energy.

The no energy part comes from your body’s motor functions resting to conserve energy, for your automatic functions to work overtime to digest all the food in the system. The quality of the food is also a factor, as the sugar content gives a temporary high, which of course comes down. The end users mood darkens and can only be lifted with additional sugars or calorific content.

The viscous circle of gluttony with food can easily be substituted with alcohol and intoxicants (drugs prescribed / illegal).

So gluttony can be a cry for help, but pails in comparison (sin wise) with my next example. It would be fair to say that the judgement (dogma) with relation to gluttony does come from an order that do live, let’s say, a more Spartan lifestyle! – I am talking about organised religion

The example that we shall look at is no more than a feast, or more modern attack on what we would call a Dinner Party. This is representative of people using food (excess of) to demonstrate their social status, and the issue of waste is not considered. The security of having more than enough food has been an accusation towards the wealthy for many years.

Whilst this does have a whiff, of the first sin that was the subject of my first blog in the series, Jealousy (envy). It is the waste element and the presence of the ego that is the offensive part.

Now I am not advocating the abolishment of social gatherings of food, however to do so to the point of excess, is vulgar.

The world we live in gluttony is prevalent, we have collectively been outraged at the sheer contempt our elected MP’s have shown with expenses, coupled with the hypocritical 30% pay increases of all union leaders that highlights that gluttonous behaviour is the sickest vice of all. Sure, greed plays a part but socialising with food and liquor and searching for greater eating experiences is pure ego. The abstract idea and description of this, is gluttony.

So in summary how does one succumb? I think St Thomas Aquinas summed this up perfectly with the 6 ways to commit gluttony.

Praepropere - eating too soon.
Laute - eating too expensively (washedly).
Nimis - eating too much.
Ardenter - eating too eagerly (burningly).
Studiose - eating too daintily (keenly).
Forente - eating wildly (boringly).

We live in the Western society, and the rest of the world does see us as fat gluttonous pigs. This is the shadow that we cast, regardless of our best defense of our actions, perception is reality.

However, all is well. The good news is that we are only responsible for our own behaviour. The simple mantra of enjoying food because it is nourishing and gives us energy is the primary goal of our existence.

Food does not equal happiness; once we associate food with emotions then the result will certainly be gluttony.

My top line quote from Orson Wells was quite apt, bearing in mind that he certainly was a portly gentleman who did of course personify gluttony. It is a very droll quote, with a hint of self loathing.

The blog next week does follow on quite nicely and will be Greed.

I apologise for not posting my blog on the usual day and time, I am afraid that my health was not quite as it should be. I am sure that it is nothing that a few star jumps, ice bath and a bowl of soup would not sort out.

Toodle pip peep’s..........................

Part IV - Pride

2009-09-15T23:07:00.001+01:00

“I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hates” - Johnny Rotten

Why is pride a sin?

Surely it is an emotion that portrays someone’s self worth, which has been attained through hard work?

It is surprising however that Pride is considered the original sin, and the one which all others derive. In essence it is the desire to be better than everyone else. All you have to do is to examine its synonyms arrogance, self-importance, conceit, superiority and my favourite description smugness.

There is a Hyacinth Bouquet in all of us, but reduced down, it is an emotion that outwardly projects our temporary high position that covers our insecurities.

The old adage of being house proud is not without personal sacrifice on the portrayer’s part. I am sure the endless cleaning, mowing and dressing like a stepford wife do have its downsides. I would hazard a guess that loneliness, lack of self worth and possibly alcoholism would be prevalent behind those ever so well presented and clean doors.

There is nothing wrong in living in a clean and tidy environment, the trick is not to be smug about it.

I hate smug people (yes, need to work on that emotion) and someone who is self made, I have been looked down upon and could say that it has affected me. However, I could fall into the trap of demonstrating the same behaviour as my abuser. These blogs could be deemed that, so the pitch, tone and the place where I am coming from need to be pure and free from pride.

A wicked irony indeed.

I also need to be self effacing and not throwing newly attained internet, DVD and literature gained wisdom to everyone. and come from a personal deep place that is sincere and honest.

I like what William Penn said about pride “Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire”. There is however a caveat with that statement and it alludes to the notion that only the poor can be the enlightened. This is simply not true as there are many altruistic and truly wealthy individuals and foundations that donate lots of their time and money. I feel that it does come from a good place. This we should put aside our cynicism for.

There is however the flip side as of course there is also great truth in what William Penn says and it is summed up beautifully but quite brashly by John W. Foster “The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell”
This quote is worthy of a blog on its own as we can all see the futility in this quote, the pride is constant but you can insert most scenarios or metaphors and see the nonsense that pride can bring.

For example, looking after my family and supporting them stopped me from becoming a millionaire and such like!

The pride in being successful in a small way, and maintaining it, is of course the issue. Pride in this case is the fancy robes for fear, and they cover this four letter meanie quite well, but every sin has FEAR molecules pumping around its evil black heart.

I love the parody of middle England in the sitcom ‘Keeping up Appearances’, and the undeserved smugness of Hyacinth Bouquet does overspill towards contempt for just about everybody. There were however incidences when her pride quickly turned into fear and that was when her unwashed common (in her eyes) family visited, or someone more afflicted with pride than her crossed paths with painful insincerity.

The whole thing of course is just one-upmanship and is f life’s cruel never ending game that two individuals affected with original sin, will never give up playing. Thomas Fuller said it best “Pride will spit in pride's face”
This is something that is often confused for principles, and no doubt why millions of people have died in wars across the spectrum of time. There are other traits involved and not so clear cut, however pride is the catalyst. Maybe Johnnie Rotten in the headline quote is onto something?

So does pride make us feel good or look good? I feel the latter, and agree with Thomas Merton who states that “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real”. This is indeed a sobering thought.

Pride is an emotion (sin) that we need to let go, and the Lester Levenson Sedona method is a great example of how to do this.

First he identified what he calls the Scale of Emotions and is as follows.

Peace
Acceptance
Courageousness
_______________
Pride
Anger
Lust
Fear
Grief
Apathy

You see that there is a line separating Pride and Courageousness, this does symbolise that there is a fine line between them both and our natural happy state need to be with the first three emotions.

The information is freely available, and led by the infectious Hal Dwoskin (you tube) and in a nutshell you train yourself in all scenarios where you feel pain, are stuck, have emotional trauma to ask yourself the following questions.

Could I let this feeling go?
Could I allow this feeling to be here?
Could I welcome this feeling?

If you was to answer NO to any questions, then you re-question, and ask would and when?

Have a look at the site http://www.sedona.com/

I hope that pride does not stop you from looking, as we can avoid the FALL and not submit ourselves to such an old cliché.

I sincerely thank you for reading, and appreciate all feedback I receive. I have three more blog posts on this subject and have covered Jealousy (Envy) Lust, Sloth & Pride. This does leave Gluttony, Greed and Wrath

Toodle pip y’all, and see you next week.

Message me any feedback

Scott xx

Part III - Sloth

2009-09-07T22:42:00.001+01:00

‘Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is corrupted unless it moves’ – Ovid

Guess who is back? .........................................

I have been on a sabbatical, so I apologise for not writing a blog post last week. Today’s post is carrying on with the theme of the seven deadly sins with the topic this blog is, Sloth!

Quite ironic due to my slackness in writing last week, but apt. So what is sloth? The dictionary definition is below.

“Habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness “

I will not set of the hypocrite alert, and my own lassitude, and learned apathy towards exercise has been developed over many years.

How did we get to this stage?

Was television? ....... The schools system? ........... Was it our Parents? ........ The Government? ......... Lack of role models? ......... Or is it glandular?

I think the clue is in the dictionary description, and is habitual. I have spoken on a previous blog about habits. If you do something 12-times it can become a habit, do it for more than 30-times it can become a lifelong habit.

So what is sloth? I suppose for this blog’s purposes, someone who sits in front of the television every evening. The thought of exercise is a mere fleeting flicker in their mind, with the guilt numbed by sugary snack food. Thus a viscous circle ensues.

Ok, so without judgement and to generalise. We are all in the situation where we are carrying too much weight and have no energy to exercise. The underlying causes are irrelevant, however the viscous circle forms.
We try and get out of our viscous circle by applying artificial energy; this is usually in the form of sugar. Although the delivery system does leave some side affects which actually worsens the situation. The sugary food does give us energy but we crash quicker than before. The mind is tricked and suggests more energy. This brings us many highs and may lows – The chocolate SMACK as it is commonly known.

So sometimes we reach the point where we want to change, we have already tried quick fix sugary fixes to motivate us, and this has actually made our situation worse. The next point is to look at how we can change – there is a lot of stuff out there, which promises big change for little effort.

Atkins diet, weightwatchers, calorie counting, psychotherapy, hypnosis, support groups.........

There is the excuse as to why people get this way; glandular, genetics, injury..............

To simplify this all in a summary, is that we all have developed a habit; that is hard to break.

To stop over eating, laziness, lack of energy or the blog title, sloth, can be overcome, not by a fad diet or any shortcut.

The sloth in us is telling us all one big fat lie and that there is a magical formula out there, some miracle system, so undiscovered super food, some mystical meditation, some angelic affirmation, the secret of all secrets that is the elixir of life and path towards happiness

I can however give you a shortcut, and that is to ignore everything above, eat what you want and just read the following paragraphs and you will have more energy, lose weight and live longer.

I first want to draw your attention to Newton’s first Law of Physics, specifically motion - states that in order for the motion of an object to change, a force must act upon it, a concept generally called inertia.

The force terms is important, and hope you can appreciate why it is underlined. Force is the derivative of momentum with respect to time. What this is stating is simply, that constant motion over a period of time can force an object (you) to change.
The term inertia can have two meanings and more simply states that an object (you) will stay in constant motion or constant rest, unless acted on, by a force.

Is this a light bulb moment? You will only change, when you are constantly trying to change and in this analogy with regards to sloth. Your body and energy will change when in constant motion.

Your body does need rest, however this is the purpose of sleep. We are designed to be in constant motion. It is a fallacy that we need to be in a state of rest, and this belief is drawn from constant lack of motion. We then crave food so that the body can then create energy; however this is only burnt off through our automatic nervous system, such as the stomach, bowels etc...

The energy from this causes us to be in a state of rest and makes us lethargic, thus bringing is back to the viscous circle.

So my top tips.
1. Eat what you like! – You burn off what you eat that’s the deal. Sugary foods bring you to a high, then you crash and it makes you lethargic
2. Remain in a state of motion – You can sleep at nights. Constant rest requires greater force to restart and can make you lethargic (Do it 30-days in a row, then it will be a habit for life)
3. Eat little any often – It is better to maintain, than to refuel when empty. Eating a large meal makes you lethargic
4. Drink plenty of fluid – dehydration makes you lethargic and your kidneys cannot filter toxins and makes you lethargic

Sloth is a choice, maybe a subconscious one, but we can consciously get out of it.

Thank you for reading and look forward to next week.

Laying in bed with a bag of crisps ........

Scott xx

Lust

2009-08-24T23:41:00.002+01:00

‘Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all. Ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.’ - Marquis de Sade

We are all emotional; it is just that some of us are acutely emotional. Is that really the truth? We all have a story to tell.

Today’s blog, which will continue along the theme of the seven deadly sins, is Lust. I would like to thank everyone for the comments, and the tongue in cheek suggestions that this topic is very apt to me.

I must admit that this subject is the hardest to compose, and for that reason alone it must be the next one to write. You should never shy away from tackling the biggest and most difficult task first. Have I not taught you anything? LOL

The Theologisers or just plain devout Christians amongst my readers, all hopefully understand the concept ‘Judgement Day’ and when the rapture happens. I would be one of the many left standing. The more positive spin would also to be, that when I pass, my visit to the celestial plains and entry into heaven could be refused due to some major indiscretions. All of these more or less linked to lust.

In all fairness, I have forgiven myself, which is all that matters. All girlfriends who have been affected have all been apologised too. However the details of my naughty side are omitted from this blog.

So the meaning of Lust, which is simply, the inordinate craving for sexual intercourse. Put more simply it can be acted upon in a consensual way, or in more extreme cases the lust can cause a frenzy which can have a violent outcome.

I would like to focus today more on the consensual side, as with the extreme type the variables for why, is akin to rubbing a lamp and getting a different genie every time.

Sexual pleasure is actually still considered a sin in many new religions such as, Islam, Sikhism and Roman Catholicism. The latter religion states when lust was translated into Latin it means – Luxury.

The last word is something that struck a chord with me, and has done for quite a long time. A Luxury or allowing yourself pleasure, is not a sin. I always thought that to commit a temporary act of love is better than not committing to love at all.

There are of course the thoughts of the Psychologists, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. However with every other theory either an Oedipus complex, or latent homosexuality being the underlying reason, and a result from all childhood trauma. This does however mask the fact that both had a puritanical upbringing, and had no personal point of reference.

I can only have my own theories as to why one person suffers from lust more than another, and this to me flows simply that my parents were divorced when I was young. I would then on only derive pleasure from limited contact.

This is not in a sexual way; however the void does no doubt in your formative years, manifest with some transference towards your attitude towards your own body and to the female form. It just depends which was the dominant figure the Mother or the Father,

Or is this pure nonsense? As surely we all simply lust over the unattainable, with the visualisation of the person we want to be, in our hormone overloaded minds and raging phallus?

I want to simply suggest that lust is natural, and to make it a sin, is to deny yourself pleasure. This negates the point of existence, the meaning of life is surely to enjoy every second on Earth! There are other pleasures, sure, but the joy and pleasure of sex is what drives us to pro-create.

We could of course be Panda’s who do not seem to understand the joy of sex, so nature is of course de-selecting them. There extinction is imminent; this is not meant to downplay their plight. However, for whatever reason, their desire to procreate has gone.

To encourage denial of the flesh in the religious world does have its drawbacks, the Anglican Church does encourage its clergy to take a wife and live the family life. The Catholic Church does take an opposing view, and the build up of lust through their priests has had devastating effects. This is not glossing over the horrors of what these children faced, nor do I think that is actually justifies the original taboo they place on this sin. It does in fact highlight that it cannot be repressed so therefore could I surmise it is natural instinct?

I think we all have a perfect partner out there, someone who shares our lusts, passions and desires. This is what is sacred, and we should be free to safely express to each other, whatever our lifestyle choice with all adult consensual parties.

Sex is not wrong, failure to express ‘you’ consensually or privately is wrong. Repression leads to apathy and do kind of understand Freud’s theory about attacking your deepest desires.

The best modern day example that I can give you, is from the excellent ‘Sopranos’ when one of Tony Soprano’s Capo’s Vito is repressing his Homosexuality when in a safe environment, and instead of embracing his hearts desires he attacks his very fantasy. They do of course reconcile, but it does demonstrate and back up Freud’s most controversial theories.

Good society, and at the forefront organised religion, has often portrayed its self as the protagonist with regards to so called lustful activities of the minorities. It is however with deep thought, that these so called activists where not openly expressing their sexual preferences. There was persecution nonetheless.

The wicked irony and Freudian observation that these so called Ministers of god and parliament so often find themselves at the mercy of the newspapers in various scandals and sordid tales.

Maybe the moral of today is that you can fight for people to deny themselves pleasure of the flesh, but self repression just makes your natural instinct explode.

Or should we just listen to the top line quote from the Marquis De Sade, and finish with the thought that lust is the gateway emotion to all evil things?

If it feels good do it! As long as it is consensual, and fits with your inner moral compass.

Scott

New deadly sin next week..... from Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Pride

Jealousy Part 1

2009-08-17T23:54:00.002+01:00

“The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves” - William Penn

Rose....... A fragile flower, which is notoriously difficult to grow, and requires a lot of attention and maintenance, to look their best at all times.

So what is the topic of today’s blog? Well this topic is vast; and will touch upon the very essence of it; however I do not want this to consume me. It is primarily about the people who look down at you when they have themselves been put up on a pedestal.

There are labels that people are given when they are in the pubescent stage, and one of mine would be the cliché of ‘he will not achieve much’. In reflection it could be said by these same people, that I overachieved.

I do not look at it like that; my view is that I did not reach their low expectations of me. However many people do live up to their assigned monikers of low level roles of criminal, drug addict and benefit scrounger.

This does irk me, and I love reading on facebook and being in contact with friends from my past, who have done the complete opposite, and I am not even shocked to see that achieved what they have, they have not listened to the negativity that was supposed to label them for life.

These ‘people’ that I speak about are what we call ‘The Dream Stealers’ most commonly known as the British civil service, who have an anal obsession of labelling everything.

Everything must be measured (imperial only!); also to allow the possibility that every now and then and to quote Tupac Shakur ‘A rose can grow from concrete’.

However, a rose is fragile as you know and the expert gardener can easily crush this flower. It is unfortunately better known these days, and every past day, as the class system.

The class system! The colonial administrators of the vast Imperial Empire. I have said before that if there is such thing as Heaven or Hell, the British will run the reception desk and you will have to endure countless forms and protocols before entry.

We do enjoy making things difficult, try purchasing a Train Ticket, a meal from Burger King, Coffee, telephone a call centre all of which are met with multiple choice questions and a baffling array of selections.

Now apply the logic to today’s blog, if you are out of the Class system and you seem to have “in their eyes” over achieved and gone above your pre-assigned social status panic and immediate re-labelling is required.

Lol

I do not really believe this for one moment, it is an urban myth that is often perpetrated by the very people who subliminally oppress there selves and others. – The Upper classes are not out to get us!

This can boil down to one pure raw emotion, and that is jealously. A deadly sin that can be summed up quite simply by William Tell in the opening quote,

“The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves”

How true that quote is, and can be kind of a breakthrough moment when you stop to think and absorb it. We allow jealously to eat away at us from both sides, and in some respects we could both be the victims.

Another way to appreciate jealously and its connotations, is to look at the dictionary meaning as below.

Jealous (adjective) unhappy and angry because someone has something or someone you want, or because you think they might take something or someone that you love away from you:

There could even be Freud’s conclusions that all jealous behaviour in Male & Female relationships bore down to latent homosexuality. A thought maybe?

This of course is a complex and emotive subject and without getting into the intricacies of relationships, the key essence of the blog is really about the jealously of success.

Allowing jealously projected towards you to consume you, allows your dreams to be stolen. The behaviour of the projection also results in deep unhappiness for that person.

Successful people are those who are single minded enough to go for their dreams and at every turn, unwaveringly assured that will achieve their desires.

So where are you? Where am I? My path is never straight, and the only person who has control of my guidance system is me.

So the burning question is, “Am I the jealous type?” Personally and emotionally the answer has always been NO. Professionally however, my frustration at times was a symptom of underlying jealously. The key thing is my behaviour has been modified. This does come with experience, and have grown as a person and evolved into a parental figure, kind of like Yoda.

I suspect that when Yoda was a teen, he was out drinking and publically arguing with his girlfriend. The lack of sleep and self loathing may have caused a scene or two.

So in summary, jealously leads to self loathing. Having a victim mentality to jealously will cost you your dreams. I made reference to social labels and the class system, this was merely to demonstrate subconscious jealously of people who have their lives in front of them, only to be judged in those few short seconds and opinions of others whose lives have passed. The sad thing is, they suffered the same fate. The abused always become the abuser.

I will be exploring over the next 6 blogs the seven deadly sins, and to remove my penchant for the dramatic my conclusion is that every sin or vice is the result of a flawed ego.

The control of the ego is the secret behind the secret, the forgotten secret of the hidden secret to the new secret and old secret.

My advice and without ego, is for everyone to live in the six inches in front of their faces by using the best moral compass available. Sometimes this can be helped by religion, spirituality, nature, family or just being.

Finally you never need anybody or anything to complete you, eliminate that need. You are already whole, be part of the collective not the jigsaw.

Thank you

“Sometimes I feel like dancing........................”

Scott

The Montana Syndrome

2009-08-10T21:29:00.002+01:00

“Who put this thing together? Me, that's who, who do I trust? Me!” – Tony Montana

A growing trend and a favourite broadsheet soap box topic, is the continued decline of young males with regards to examination results. This fact is often misconstrued as girls doing better, but the hard fact is a decline in academic results. This is even across all the classes.

However, could this even be false thinking? Hysteria created by the inane chattering British press. A young male is meant to fail, his future is already written according and the only way this path can be changed is through hard work and luck.

Although there is always that caveat, that if success does come, then the test was too easy in the first place.

So what the context of today’s blog? As you noticed the title is reference to Tony Montana, and will be giving you my entire take as to why young men not only fail, but fail to even try.

Tony Montana is a classic anti hero, an infamous figure of fictional opulence and success. The portrayal by Al Pacino became an aspiration to many, not to be emulated, but as a cautionary tale of making it.

Now is this fear of making it? No, it is about fear about when you do someone taking it off you, and you fighting to the death to keep it.

The film plays out as many other theatrical releases do about similar subject matter, however the haunting electro soundtrack, which encapsulates the drug fuelled confusion, intensity and irrational anger and apathy that the anti hero has enraging in his ego and maniacal mind of portrayed sociopath.

Tony Montana starts off as someone with a dream, but the fork in the road showed one easy path and one unknown. As he was in a new country, familiarity and ease will always win.

The story is familiar; however there is the one part of the film that I can personally relate too. The feeling that he had sitting in that chair towards the end of the film; watching his life collapsing all around him. The look and the drooping of his jaw, the scowl that his ego did not allow to invert, but pierced the soul of the world who dared not give him what he wanted and felt he deserved. Ironically life did give him what he deserved.

I have had that feeling, watching your life unfold. Even to the point of the dark overture playing to a crescendo thumping away in your mind, the choir and drums gathering tempo towards the inevitable explosion. You have always two choices. 1. Snap or 2. Run.

I ran, and sincerely hope that no-one ever gets to that position, and my literal atonement, is my soul and words that lays before you today. When you can feel the tendons of sanity tensing in your mind and the pain is so intense, that you feel that its immediate rupture would be a release, and the downward spiral could be so intense that you will not feel the pain of dying.

So what did the fable of Tony Montana do to my generation? It mostly alluded to the fact that the greater the persons self made success, will result in the hardest and fatal of falls. All the good times, the sex, the money, the drugs and the power, meant nothing. As you realised that your own death with not be a glamorous finale, worthy of your life and accomplishments.

Did the film stop people from daring to dream? No, it just stopped people from daring to achieve anything other than having just enough to get by.

The manner of business that Tony Montano was is irrelevant, and hopefully you can see through this and apply the appropriate metaphor.

Your dream should not be someone else’s life; your aspirations should not be those of others, your peers or your hero’s. You are responsible for your own actions, your own dreams, and your own outcome to all the hard work you put into making it a reality.

The Montana syndrome is my metaphor for those young men of my generation, who chose not to be great and the fear of having it all and losing it, was greater than not having it in the first place.

I slid down that well, but with every ounce of my sweat and through grit and obstinate refusal, I will claw my way out of that deep shaft and bask in the warmth of the sunlight on my face, even though my eyes are hurt by the light, the pain will reduce to reveal the observation of beauty all around us. Wealth, health, happiness and spirituality are all a by product of actually taking the first steps on your journey.

We can all feel helpless, but the biggest paradox of the universe is that there must be balance, as the greatest gift is to give two parallel experiences. As it all boils down to my friends, that this is the equilibrium of the universe.

So who put this thing together? Us, that’s who, who do we trust? Us!

Surely life is not this simple is it?

Thank you once again for reading, today’s blog is not fluffy or meant to be comical. The oft used quote of “I will not die with my music still left in me” is totally relevant.

When did we develop into having such low expectations? Is this not the biggest plague and risk to our planet? The planet has so much benevolence, if only we asked for what we wanted and dared to dream and dared that little further into actuality.

My name is Scott Lee Everest, and I have enjoyed being your host this evening....... remember to always wear sunscreen.

Check out this awesome website from Declan Lestat, one-stop shop for all your development needs http://fullcontactliving.wordpress.com/

I wonder if a ghetto has a heaven

2009-08-03T19:41:00.002+01:00

“I think there's an element where people get very comfortable in their ghetto. Which is fair enough” - Neil Tennant

I grew up listening to a lot of gangster rap, my favourites being 2Pac, Ice-T, NWA and every associated stereotypical artist.

One of the reasons was my ability to identify with their situation of being surrounded by drugs, drive-by’s and hopelessness.

Aspiring and identifying with hopelessness, no doubt stunted my emotional and spiritual growth for many years. This however is another blog; the one thing that did amuse me about rap music was the soft mantra that was always a theme on every album by the above artists.

That was “I wonder if Heaven has a ghetto?”

Even as a disaffected teen, I could see that there perceived situation was so bad that they even wished the same in the afterlife. That right there is some very low expectations.

That my friends, is a ghetto state of mind. I remember at school, that there were teenage girls who used to discuss that they could get a flat from the council on the local tower blocks (amongst drug addicts and prostitutes) if they got themselves pregnant. They could set themselves up for life!!

Thinking back, we all aspired to be ghetto superstars, our role models were the drug dealers, with the nice cars, great sound system and every gadget a man can have. It only occurred to me recently that all of these guys still lived with their parents. I suppose the income streams did not hold up for regular mortgage payments and bank scrutiny.

This is not the theme of today’s blog, but the premise that there is a heaven in every ghetto. You can even go as far as say that “ghetto” is just a metaphor of a world that scares us, and the only way to survive is to purvey a cold tough exterior.

We all know the phrase, ‘that you cannot polish a turd’ this has been used to describe the youth from urban areas but as we all know is not the case.

There is beauty all around us, and we can see that once we affirm our own vision of heaven we can start to see beauty and experience true bliss. We all understand the idea of heaven, but one question we never ask our self is how can we live in heaven today?

So what is your vision of heaven as a concept?

Spending time with loved ones, deceased family and friends, BBQ’s, live in big castle, surrounded by sexy angels and living the rock star life.

So what is it that stopped us from us enjoying this on Earth? Oh yes our circumstances and the ghetto.

I have thought on this for a while, and my concept of heaven is a continuous collection of those moments that make us smile and love unconditionally.

These moments to me are plentiful, the first bite of a delicious meal, eating chocolate ice-cream (doing that now), a kiss from your children, watching your efforts being appreciated, validation, a sunset, a sunrise, the rain nourishing the ground, the smell of flowers, your sports team being successful, a long walk, the countryside, time with your parents, a wedding, winning on bingo and much more that I can list but you maybe understand the concept.

The true irony is; that I would rather accept that there is no concept of heaven, and enjoy all of the above in my life today.

There is no point of spend all of your real life in misery, in hope of redemption in heaven.

However, if you had the keys to paradise, would you rather let in people who have lived and enjoyed their lives or those who lived without pleasure?

If heaven is a party, having Mother Theresa looking over your shoulder will kind of suck balls. So I can understand the ghetto mentality, as of course the concept of heaven it is just a collection of good times with your friends.

I am a kind of a seek forgiveness, than ask permission kind of guy. We are all animals at the end of the day, and the strongest should always prosper.

This is what Darwin was alluding to with Natural selection.................no, I have gone too far!

Ok, I apologise for the Mother Theresa comment, but the point that I would like to make, is not to ponder the concept of heaven, as it should not be your aspiration. This should be of course to live, be happy, love, and do things that bring that smile and unconditional love bubbling in your tummy.

In the unlikely event that there is a heaven or associated spiritual plane, it would no doubt be run by deceased British civil servants. I can imagine the forms and protocol now (shudder). The weather would be a slight drizzle, and there is a dress code for most places. Tea served at 11am and 3pm and Fish on a Friday.

Heaven as a metaphor is all around us, we can see it once we accept its reality.

Like licking the spoon from the cake mix, can taste better than the cake itself. The little things in life are the ingredients; time is what cooks it all together. However, let’s not wait until we die to eat the cake! (Wheat free though)

More Tea Vicar?

Scott

PS. Today’s blog is just my thoughts, we all think things and once we agree and something affirms that though it becomes an opinion. As I have said, nothing has affirmed my opinion and just my meandering mind wandering though nonsense.

So What Now?

2009-07-27T20:41:00.003+01:00

What a week, first of all thank you for all of your kind messages and support for little Johnnie. I am sorry for not getting back to you directly. I read every message, and comment made on his photos, you are all so kind.

The operations were a success, and little Johnnie bounced back straight away and is recovering well. It does not fail to amaze me with him, that even when his favoured right hand is bandaged and beyond use, he immediately found a way to adapt. No complaining, just 15-20 seconds of experimenting and it was done.

How many adults do we all know, who would milk the situation and adopt a victim mentality?

Well the first night we all went to stay at the Great Ormond Street patient Hotel, and the environment did of course bring about the usual excitement for Johnnie, bed bouncing, shrieking and a general fun time was had. He was throwing around his comfort toy and could even make out Grover from Sesame Street looking at me and mouthing “Help me” as his fate was sealed.

The next day, bright and breezy, Johnnie had to be on Dinosaur ward, as his operation was first up. Naturally, this brief stint was met with the usual carnage, controlling a bag of eel’s is easier than getting Johnnie to sit down. Every opportunity was taken to head for the exit or to attempt to bounce of the wards beds.

There were parents on the ward, who were obviously a mix of old hands, and new parents, with children down for their first or many operations. They all had one thing in common, and that was there silence shattered by a shrieking Johnnie running around in circles in maniacal a state, reminiscent of a blond Gnome on PCP.

The next stage was the check up by the surgeon, followed by the technical world renowned NHS procedure, of marking the site of the operation with a biro arrow.

We walked Johnnie to the operation theatre, like the big boy he is now, he was ever so brave (or unaware), he sat on Julies lap whilst he was administered the gas, after a short struggle he went to sleep. This is the part that always upsets me, as my position at the back of the theatre is one of helplessness. You fight against your protective instincts and allow the doctors to do their jobs.

So what now?

The above is the title of today’s blog as there is always the dilemma of what do you do next. Every usual action, cliché, obviousness of pacing back and forth on the ward, clock watching, is actually futile.

What next? Breakfast! It is important for Johnnie that his carers do not fail in their duties, and being emotional without nutrition believe it or not, does not aid in some ones recovery.

There was little Hotel Brassiere nearby, which served an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast (£6.95) they had some premium products and was of a high standard. For those who do know me, would be amused that during the breakfast my time was spent mentally calculating the margins, and concluded that they must be desperate for business as they were low. Also much to my horror this was compounded by the high volume of wastage at the end of service, which would only add to further reduced profits.

This cheered me up, as for those who know me, know better than to mess with my margins. I actually, and quite worryingly, get a bit of wood every Thursday at work, when my weekly margin results come through. That moment of reading that your wastage, is under the threshold, and you have made overall gains, is the most satisfying a non-sexual experience a man can have within the workplace.

Afterwards, we went to a local bookshop and browsed, then made our way up to Johnnie’s room, which would be on Peter Pan ward. We read for a bit and we were called to the recovery room just as he was coming around. The whole thing lasted only 3-hours.

The operations as mentioned went well, and we kissed, hugged and looked after our little boy through-out the night. We took him home later the next day, with suggestions of placing carrier bags, with elastic bands when eating and bathing so that the bandages stay dry.

We are back for the dressing to be removed under general anaesthetic in two weeks time.

In every situation you have to take a positive, and through-out the experience my mind was racing. There were some good ideas for my book, and the ending that had eluded me for so long was crystal clear in my mind.

The best lesson was of course for me to come to a conclusion about life, and to best explain will give you my own metaphor.

“Life is like an unfinished cartoon, with us the artist. What is happening in life is what is on the page now, the colours, the people and our behaviour. There is no point worrying about what is on the next page, as it has not been painted yet”

I am a big fan or Dr Wayne Dyer, and would recommend his first book “The Erroneous Zone”, this does highlight the futility of worry.

To finish the blog with a quote there is no one better than the great benefactor of Great Ormond Street, who bequeathed the rights to Peter Pan for an eternity – JM Barrie.

‘Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves’

That quote is for you Johnnie, I love you.

Next week I will be back on track, but would like a challenge. So would like some topic suggestions, this does help me practice researching.

So see you all soon, love to all xxxxx

Scott

The Curse or the candle

2009-07-20T10:27:00.004+01:00

‘Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear’ - Mark Twain

‘If we fear the unknown then surely we fear ourselves’ - Bryant H. McGill

Pinned onto my office door is an adapted quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt, it states that before you enter you must be optimistic as you have two choices either 1. Light a candle or 2. Curse the darkness. (Abridged version)

The meaning of the quote is simply to stress that rather than complain about a problem, come into the office with an open mind to discuss a solution.

The quote is quite apt, as on Tuesday my Son (Johnnie) is having a series of hand operations to bring him into the five fingered crowd. (Gloves for Xmas) and to be truthful, I can be Mr Worry guts. : (

Like most parents, my time has been spent, and wasted, on what could happen. I am entering the room and cursing the darkness, or more simply put.... I have a fear of the unknown and creating a scenario in my mind of what could happen.

In thinking about our future, our current lives, we all need to light that candle and give ourselves a break. We are pre-conditioned to fear of the future as this encourages us to consume.

I remember one of the most cynical advertising campaigns several years ago by Heinz, it announced that due to low sales it was axing ‘Salad Cream’, low and behold, outrage, panic , and then Heinz wanting to play the hero, decided that they will buckle under public opinion, and shelve plans to axe the cream.

To be the cynic, and in the style of Dave Chappelle.

‘Word?’

However, we trick our own minds all the time, if only on a subconscious level, but this does drive our behaviour. Whatever we imagine is the worst scenario possible, and how it affects us. We even create how our emotions control us, and even paralyse us.

What we need is a dose of courage.

Before Christianity swept across Europe, and especially Britain, we were a mix of Pagan warrior and farmers. We worshiped many gods and only feared their actions, which they witnessed in the manifestation of misfortune and natural acts. It only become later that the rise of Christianity brought along fear of the church’s Dogma, and man-made doctrines.

No longer could the strongest man simply take what-ever they needed, some say this is evolution. Strength was measured about how rigorously you stuck to the teachings of the bible out of fear, and a moral code that restricts natural instincts for fear of the ‘unknown’.

I would even go as far to say that courage became elusive, not all but gone, but the precursor was always fear of the unknown. When you fear an invisible entity, would be wrong to say that you could also fear your emotions if they did contradict Dogma.

The moments before battle the ancient Pagan warriors used to bang on their chests with a war cry, this point of the body increases courage and used to inspire the warrior into victory. This stimulates adrenalin around the body.

Let me see you war face, was something that I used to do as an ice-breaker when training Lifeguards in a previous life.

I was of course taken aback by this, as last week my quarterly visit to my Kinesiologist suggested that there was some fear, with regards to Johnnie’s operation. She gave me a technique to help me overcome this.

This is similar to The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but was more simple and direct and involved me taking my first two fingers and constantly tapping my sternum for over a minute. I bring my fear in the open, and tap away stating that positive and courageous statements.

I appreciate the cynicism, and not that long ago would have joined you in mocking condemnation. However, I have seen the results of these tapping techniques and urge you to at least read about EFT. (light the candle, and do not curse the darkness of what is the unknown)

So, courage can help me hold a candle whilst in the darkness. Surely this should be for everything in my life.

Keeping the accent on the positive, feeling the fear, banging my chest and go roaring in knowing that all I need to do is see the six inches in from of my face.

These six inches, this space does have a word, and that my friends, is called NOW!

Now is the place we live, there is no fear in Now, as we cannot emotionally predict and see beyond now. We have to live in each passing moment, and enjoy each solitary second.

I read once a beautiful poem by William Blake, and believe that it encapsulates everything that I am trying to say.

‘He who binds to himself a joy’
‘Does the winged life destroy’
‘But he who kisses the joy as it flies’
‘Lives in eternity’s sunrise’

There are lots of meanings, but binding to a joy could be living in denial trying to recreate a good time from the past, maybe even love? We do not live in the past, only in the now. So we must love everything that passes by us by. As this will only give us eternal happiness.

Puss Puss

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PS - I will update about Johnnies operation next time, take care. All the pictures will be up on Facebook

The Re-Up

2009-07-13T20:33:00.002+01:00

‘Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.’- Voltaire

‘A happy family is but an earlier heaven’- George Bernard Shaw

All we need is a stage, dawg! He’s back……………………………..

Every now and then, despite our best efforts, the books we read, the company we keep, we just cannot help but get back into that routine of being unhappy.

The state of unhappy is akin to being an ex-smoker; we never really recover and will always class ourselves as an ex-smoker rather than a non-smoker. This is predominately down to the bigger badge you get for giving up a bad habit, rather than ever starting one.

Now in reflection this is wrong, and just highlights even at our lowest ebb, the ego still rules. Adoption of the victim mentality really does get us some mileage; we judge our self worth by the amount of suffering we have been through. We compare to each other and form a social status with this information.

I am becoming more aware of this. Last week someone phoned me at work and the usual greeting of how are you by the caller, was met by me telling them about how great I am feeling, what my lunch consisted of, even my food intolerances could not stand in the way of the fabulous risotto consumed only an hour before. I then asked them about themselves.

‘Not bad’ came the in-depth reply.

The conversation on a subliminal level had moved on, the caller was not impressed with my cheerfulness, and considered that I took advantage of an insincere salutation.

So moving onwards and upwards, like a flower to the sun we all grow up as one. The subject of this week’s blog is the re-up, in narcotic circles this means to redistribute oneself with more drugs for means of retailing.

However, the metaphor is me re-supplying myself with a shot of happiness and will distribute to all you kind patient readers.

Now my blog’s have been considered lengthy, so my devoted audience, you will be pleased that today and all future writings will not be war and peace, maybe crime and punishment, but certainly not a strain to read.

Happiness to some is like football, it does not matter how much Real Madrid spend on players this year, and their defence will still be subjected of constant mugging off by opposition teams. I feel like this at times, but life is like that. The trick is to let the scores against you go, but using skill, teamwork and dedication the objective is to score more goals that are let in.

So what could we really do about goals, for and against us?

Nothing really, we just have to uncover the joy of happiness. Just like the tortoise and Hare parable, aggressive running and ego caused the hare to sprint off, and the arrogance of ego thought he could rest before the joy and happiness of the Tortoise overtook him.

The following table is the re-up, and will list (non exhaustive) all pleasure things that you can do, Pleasure will always lead to contentment and will ultimately lead to joy

PLEASURE - Happiness of the Body

CONTENTMENT – Happiness of the World

JOY – Happiness of the Spirit

Pleasure – Walking in the woods, long baths, sexual gratification (no matter how bizarre), listening to music, cooking, eating, painting, dancing, singing, writing, exercise, pumping iron, beauty therapies, cheese making, wine tasting, being with family, fishing etc……

So how simple is this theory if you keep doing only things that give you pleasure. The quote by Voltaire does stress that not trying anything does lead to unhappiness and happiness cannot be found by doing anything or nothing with excess or abstinence.

The quote at the beginning of the blog by George Bernard Shaw, does stress that one thing can bring you heaven on Earth, and that is family.

I have so much gratitude for my kids and love spending every Monday with my daughter. This has been called Daddy and baby girl time. I am enjoying taking my daughter Lilith to play centres, the zoo, the beach, swimming and for food. Who knows this could get me a better retirement home when I am old.

; )

So to finish, my new stream line blog hopefully has delivered. In summary be a friend to yourself and fill your head and subject your body to and with pleasure. This will in turn fill your heart and soul with contentment and joy.

Finally, some wise words from Kurt…………………..

‘I'm so happy because today I found my friends - they're in my head’ - Kurt Cobain

See you again

Scott xxxxx

Fade to Grey

2009-07-06T20:36:00.002+01:00

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter” -Mark Twain

“Love cannot save you from your own fate” - Jim Morrison

“It's better to burn out, than to fade away” - Neil Young

We are all aging; however like plants, many of us do not flower.

Why?

A complex question, and every person out there has a different answer, but my theory is that we, they, them, all reach what is called “the comfort zone”. This comfort zone is a treacherous land and we spend most of the time teetering on the edge balancing on one leg.

We spend our time frustrated that we have fallen out of it, and with resentment that it is hard to get back. When we do get back, we made a solemn vow never to venture out again.

To quote the wise Homer Simpson when highlighting the morality of trying to improve there situation came up with this gem “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try”

So we never try, and we just ‘Fade to Grey’.

This week, as part of the Scott Everest random season, Leopardwoman and I, went along to Steve Stranges 50th birthday party in Punk nightclub in Soho Street London. Now for those who do not know Steve Strange, he was one of the founding fathers of the New Romantic Movement in the late 70’s early 80’s, and was the promoter of ‘The Blitz Club’ which is situated in Queensway, Holborn.

He was also in a pop band called Visage, and they had a successful hit called ‘Fade to Grey’.

Now my life is really all about midgets, vampires, writing, swimming and reading. However sometimes, with all the interests, you can sometimes forget that life is to be enjoyed.

Now, we have all heard the WVMM ‘white van man mantra’, all I need is 3 square meals a day, money for fags and a beer, curry on a Saturday Night, watch football on a Sunday and my health and I am a happy man.

If this does genuinely make him happy, then all power to you, and the three top quotes actually validate that.

It’s just…………………………………………………………….. I kind of do not want to die with my music still in me. That is a metaphor for regret, and to re-visit Homer’s quote of just not trying, it’s just not me.

I have been to many self help seminars, which cynically and quite obviously are sales pitches. They want to exchange their work + your money x fingers crossed + dedication = accidental result.

The above is not a criticism of the guys and gals out there earning a living this way, whom I have a tremendous respect for. It is more a poke in the eye to people like me.

I had an epiphany, and this inspired the whole blog and put me at ease with myself. When we get into a comfort zone (whatever size) to stay there we develop habits. If you are a multi millionaire or a coach potato, your behaviour is relative.

However, not changing up, the comfort and enjoyment begins to fade…………….

So what do we do?

Well, my happiness is fading and from watching ‘The Wire’ and to think of love, happiness and wealth as a drug, then I am going to have to call up Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale and ask for a ……………………………………….

Re-Up!

This is the title for my next blog, an intravenous shot to the arm that can be taken again, again and again. It never runs out, but it is very addictive.

I am to give you the answer to happiness, love, wealth, cheese and good skin.

A bold statement and a personal challenge!

Please click on the survey to say you have read the blog.

Scott xxx

Shamone

2009-06-29T21:11:00.003+01:00

“And still I see no changes, can't a brother get a little peace, It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East” – Tupac Shakur (Changes - released posthumously in 1998)

Shamone,

In 1997 I found out that Princess Diana died, when one morning stretching and awaking from my slumber on a sticky August morning there was the ritual of watching TV for a bit to get myself in the mood for the day.

I reached and switched on the television and was aghast with horror of the events that were unfolding before my eyes.

We all have our stories, be it the premature deaths of JFK, Marc Bolan, Terry Scott, Keith Moon, Lord Sutch, Sal Mineo, Chris Benoit, Ronnie Barker, John Lennon, Tony Hart, Mr Perfect, Tommy Cooper and more recently Jade Goody. Everyone is affected in different ways, from denial, to hysterical screaming to being totally numb.

I was messaged quite late last week and Julie told me Michael Jackson had died; I immediately went on-line and it suggested that he had a heart attack and he was being treated in hospital. I decided to call it a night, put on my Spiderman pyjamas and went to sleep under my Spiderman duvet.

The next morning, I awoke and carried out the annoying 21st century OCD of checking my phone and saw that there were numerous messages. Now I have told all of ‘Girls Aloud’ to stop messaging me after 11pm pestering me for sweet loving.

I proceeded to do what every man does in the morning, and that is spend the 20-minutes after you have risen to listen to music on your I-Pod and check messages on your phone whilst sitting on the white porcelain throne evacuating your bowels.

It suddenly became clear that Michael Jackson had died, not by reputable information from a reliable source, but by text jokes. I did chuckle, and wont lie to you all and feign outrage but all of the jokes alluded to lets say, the more controversial alleged pastimes of MJ.

I did love Michael Jackson and to me the “Bad” album was it. Anything after that period just did not do it for me. My Mum had the album in vinyl format (Wikipedia that one kids), and I remember spending countless hours listening again, again and again. The album was one of the first that had all of the lyrics inside, and used to sign along (in my mind) to every song.

There was one song however, that was my favourite. I was reminded of it not so long ago when driving to the beach with my daughter, when it started the volume went up to full; I began to sign along and without grabbing my testicular region may have even hit one of the falsetto notes. (My daughter laughed at me)

I love that song, and appreciated more this time around on a different level as the lyrics made me think of what a good theme for a blog it would be. I made a note of it and was going to come back to it some time. (You just have to pitch Michael Jackson themed blog’s just right)

That time is now, and the song and theme of today blog is – ‘Man in the Mirror’

I want to add below all of the lyrics and my thoughts, as with some art you just do not need to add. They speak for themselves.

Ooh ooh ooh aahGotta make a change
For once in my life
It's gonna feel real good
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right

As I turned up the collar on
A favourite winter coat
This wind is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the street
With not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind
Pretending not to see their needs

A summer's disregard
A broken bottle top
And a one man's soul
They follow each other
On the wind ya' know'
Cause they got nowhere to go
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change,
yeyNa na na, na na na, na na na na oh ho

I've been a victim of
A selfish kinda love
It's time that I realize
There are some with no home
Not a nickel to loan
Could it be really pretending that they're not alone
A willow deeply scarred
Somebody's broken heart
And a washed out dream(Washed out dream)
They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see'
Cause they got no place to be
That's why I'm starting with me

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearerIf you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make that change
I'm starting with the man in the mirror(Man in the mirror, oh yeah)
I'm asking him to change his ways, yeah(Change)
No message could have been any clearerIf you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make the change

You gotta get it right, while you got the time'
Cause when you close your heart(You can't close your, your mind)
Then you close your mind
(That man, that man, that man)(That man, that man, that man)
(With the man in the mirror, oh yeah)(That man you know, that man you know)
(That man you know, that man you know)
I'm asking him to change his ways(Change)
No message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better placeTake a look at yourself then make that change
(Na na na, na na na, na na na na)OohOh yeahYeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah(Na na na, na na na, na na na na)

Oh noOh no,
I'm gonna make a change
It's gonna feel real good
Sure mon(Change)
Just lift yourself
You know, you got to stop it yourself(Yeah)
OhMake that change(I gotta make that change today, oh)(Man in the mirror)
You got to, you got to not let yourself, brother ohYeahYou know that(Make that change)
(I gotta make that make me then make)
You got, you got to move
Sure mon, sure mon
You got to(Stand up, stand up, stand up)Make that change
Stand up and lift yourself, now(Man in the mirror)
Make that change(Gonna make that change, sure mon)(Man in the mirror)
You know it, you know it, you know it, you know(Change)Make that change

Happiness, change, love, peace and health are just a conversation away with yourself. (Quite profound from me, even shocked myself)

All you need is the mirror.

Rest in peace Michael Jackson, you were right. I only wished that you listened to your own wise words. You will live on in everyone, as there is not a soul alive who has not been touched by your music.

I envy that, and you did not die with your music inside you.

“And though you fight to stay aliveyour body starts to shiveryour no mere mortal can resistthe evil of the thriller”

Scott

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Gnome man can handle

2009-06-22T21:57:00.003+01:00

“I don't take myself seriously any more. Sometimes I just garden in my knickers and platform shoes” - Kim Wilde

Both of my Grandparents have died within the last year; with my Grandmother only passing recently. As we all met at their home before the funeral procession, I took the time to spend time in the garden as did all the grandchildren.

My Grandad was an avid gardener, amateur wine maker and in his sculptured creation was the centrepiece of a man made pond. This stretch of water that was ruthlessly guarded by some battle hardened, Ninja Gnomes.

As a child, whenever there was an opportunity to visit my Grandparents I would make my way to the garden to seek counsel with the wise sages.

I had a private fantasy world whirling around in my mind, where I was king of the gnomes and they were my private army. My Grandad also fuelled my imagination by telling me stories of what they got up to at night and all the magic things they were capable of.

It came as no surprise that when it came to clearing the family home by my Mother and her sisters, that the one requested item to be bequeathed to me was the gnomes around the pond. My Mum has secured 3 cheeky chaps and hope to be re-united with them soon.

I love the idea of gnomes and how they stimulate a child’s imagination, a little make-belief as a child is a natural thing and should be encouraged.

I dread the time when my daughter becomes a stressed SAT test victim of government thinking in the state school system, where her imagination has to comply within a pre approved syllabus from the latest strategy ‘de jour’.

Maybe the lack of freedom of imagination causes children to be only able to express themselves with computer games, attention seeking behaviour and other non-social acts just to be noticed, as they are not allowed to think anything that is not deemed policy.

“Now stop ranting Scott!”, and I do hear you but my role as a father is to drink endless cups of imaginary Tea, served from a tea-pot that would melt if hot water ever touched it and listen to every story the kids tell and watch every made up dance routine.

When did it become a parent’s job to maintain the manifesto of an ever changing education syllabus, which places political correctness first and demonises free thinkers?

I had a bad experience last week and this incident has brought me to discuss this in my blog today, and all because of Gnomes.

I would like to highlight the incident first, and then will proceed to explain.

I have a job that can afford me some flexibility, and through out the week my work is in London, the commute is hard but financially worthwhile.

Several weeks ago it seemed a good idea for me to take every Monday off so that I can spend quality time with my daughter, and over the past month we have been to the Beach, Parks, Zoo and swimming.

It was the latter that took place last Monday (15th June), now having arrived quite early we decided (well me and my 18-month daughter) that we would have a look around the garden centre next door, to prevent libel I have change the name of the famous garden centre brand to ‘Question Valley’. Whilst in the garden centre the idea of purchasing a gnome had crossed my mind.

I wheeled my daughter around in the pushchair with some difficulty, as the premises did not seem child friendly. We looked high and low but could not see the gnomes; there were china butterflies, cast irons Buddha’s and replica badgers but no gnomes?

I did what any normal person would do in this situation and that was to ask one of the store assistants in ‘Question Valley’.

The following is an accurate transcript of what transpired next, the names of the guilty have been changed, and a certain creative license has been added for dramatic purposes.

The opening sequence was myself (Scott) approaching with a pushchair and speaking to the assistant of ‘Question Valley’.

“Excuse me; I wonder if you can help me, do you know where the gnomes are?” – Said Scott

The shop assistants turned towards me with fire in her eyes and vengeful fury and with tone of condescending bile that has been vented on only the pure hated and lower classes.

“We do not sell gnomes here; this is not that kind of establishment” – The shop assistant face twisted in a hateful fury as she spat out that bile.

Suddenly as the hated comment resonated in the atmosphere, another creature older in appearance was drawn to the scene. The smell of prey was driving them into a mutual sexual frenzy and a righteous stand point.

Suddenly like a pack wolf the old man turned to Scott his face screwed up and displaying his teeth and lashed out at him with a verbal whiplash “There are no gnomes here it is not THAT sort of place”

Now Scott was astonished, but was quite calm. He already knew that he had won this battle even before he knew aggression had reared itself. He had encountered institutionalised snobbery before and was well aware that a little verbal Aikido can resolve this situation with a cheeky dash of linguistic bitch slap.

“So, would you happen to know where we could possible get a gnome” replied Scott as he implied that he and his daughter were seeking a gnome

“Why would we know, gnomes are just awful and they do not belong in a garden” The old man bellowed with the shop assistant nodding and affirming every aggressive syllable.

Scott was an educated man and knew that the two older people in front of him had obviously made a judgment about him.

He was dressed in combat shorts and a t-shirt in reflection to the scorching weather, and it was a Monday. No doubt they viewed him as a single parent who did not have a job, and took his daughter out to day trips to a garden centre as he was too poor to go anywhere else. They had reduced his status down to a common working class layabout the sort that the Daily Express and Guardian newspapers had warned them about.

However he was not going to live up to the label and alleged stereotype and responded.

“That is a shame as I love gnomes, and as a child I remember going to my grandparents, and my granddad telling me stories about the gnomes. I developed a fascination for nature and helped me with my imagination. I was hoping to pass that gift to my children”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Scott thought that maybe he had touched on a nerve as the old man and shop assistant looked up to the left sharply then down as they pondered what they had said. The still has disdain for Scott as they viewed him as weed that should be removed with physical violent weed killer.

Scott then made an assumption, and with this immediately forgave the two people in front of him, maybe they had grandchildren and grown up children. The relationship with one or possibly both is not as warm and joyous as it could be as they have always viewed children as chaos in an ordered life.

They also manifested there hatred of disorder onto gnomes as within their class they were deemed as tacky and gaudy and representative of simpler folk. They obviously made a translation of simpler folk to the working class; they had no room for either with their own sculpted creation of a calm Eden.

This Eden created with personal sacrifice will earn them validation within their chosen class circle.

The validation was far more important than a joyous relationship with there children and grandchildren.

Scott pondered some more and decided that he was not the victim here, people can sacrifice so much of their own happiness with regards to relationships in the vain attempt to attain perfection.

The mist then came rolling into the store and engulfed Scott and his daughter and just like “Keyser Söze” they were gone.

The incident was true, but was soon forgotten as I took my daughter swimming. This was followed by a picnic.

We took the picnic outside ‘Question Valley Garden Centre’, and whilst watching my daughter devour Prawn cocktail skips the following story entered my mind and immediately centred me.

The story is about Mother Teresa and how she was often invited to anti-war rallies. These were always turned down as she always believed that campaigning against something always brought about even more the thing that they campaigned about. Now she always said that if there was a peace rally then she would always be there as that was can only be attracted.

I knew that negativity of the situation must be turned around, and that my energy should not be for fighting against the system for gnomes, but for the peaceful promotion of them.

I shall now comply with my inner wisdom.

One of the most beautiful things that have ever been told to me is what Gnomes meant to Victorian England; the world gnome was cleverly turned into an acronym of Guarding Nature On Mother Earth. The simplicity of this truly captures there esoteric essence.

Gnomes were brought over from Germany in 1847 by a gentleman called Sir Charles Isham and were no doubt introduced to the occult loving high society to add a certain playful daring to there dullish lives, they were considered risqué and garish.

However there is a paradox, as they originally were a symbol of neatness and tidiness in the garden and represented order. This is completely the opposite of the elite class view and particularly the Royal Horticultural Society.

Gnomes are usually happy and have an inborn sense of security and joy. They know no fear, and they know when something is unsafe and when to stay out of the way.

The touch of a gnome also transfers their love to the thing they lay their hands on. Like healing baby birds, helping plants. Gnomes are tree huggers and often pat and converse with the trees. Tenderness is a huge part of life. It shows warmth and respect to ever living organism.

While males are often out working, learning the ways of the male gnomes, and copying the secret book, females are learning to. They learn how to treat animal’s wounds, fractures, and other injuries in the Veterinary Hospital.

Some females run bat reserves, in which they help the bats and make sure of their survival. (This part is dedicated for my daughter)

Some help fish, butterflies, or any other type of animal. Every endangered animal species is tried to be cared for by the gnomes, so they can ensure their survival on mother natures green earth.

The gnomes have no need for politics, and are a peaceful race, and never fight. They like to administer first aid to hurt animals or sometimes people. They do not hunger for power because they threw out power politics long ago.
Gnomes also don't desire material possessions, a nice house is good, but happiness is more important, they don't thrive for money, happiness is all that matters....

Are we all just trying to be gnomes?

I implore you all to place a gnome in your garden, also to tell all children wonderful stories of make believe, and how the gnomes help tidy up and nurse all the injured animals back to health.

We have recently (well Julie did) paint a Vampire gnome called ‘Vlad’ for Johnnie’s special needs school. Who have sectioned off a large part of its grassed area for a giant gnome land, we hope that they will take care of all the injured animal’s and help out where they can.

I understand now (maybe not even intended by the school) that the gnome area is a giant metaphor, and is a symbol for helping all of the children with special needs, physical disabilities and learning disorders to have peace within nature.

I will hold that beautiful thought.

In the meantime we are blessed with in Colchester a magical kingdom called “Gnome Magic” a free attraction that houses 500 + gnomes, and will be visiting soon.

If you have any gnome stories or want to mention about pixies, elves, fairies and other mystical creatures then drop me a line.

Gardens are meant to be a family sanctuary, and a place for fun and socializing. The top line quote from Kim Wilde was perfect for this blog, as we take ourselves and our gardens a bit too seriously sometimes.

Namaste

Ram Dass Part II – Moments of infinite Significance

2009-06-15T21:05:00.000+01:00

“(S)he who dies with the most love wins!” – Michael Neill

I am writing this blog today amidst a storm the violent thunder against a green hue sky with flashes of electric blue lightening cracking across the air like a lazy strobe. I have not experienced anything like this for years, the electricity is racing through my body, my hairs are standing on end, and there is a feeling in my midriff that has awoken my primal desires. Should I let myself go and my suppressed urges to explode? I could create an uncontrolled moment of infinite significance!

I have chosen instead to write my blog, have a nice cup of tea and talk about part two of my blog – Moments of infinite significant.

Now concept is akin to Newton’s 3rd Law 'every action has an equal or opposite reaction' and our old favourite the Law of attraction. However it is much more pure than that as it alludes to a subconscious decision of thought and action combined and probably in the majority of cases your intention is just circumstance. This is where the two laws of attraction and Newton’s third law come into effect.

For example; you are run over by a car. Now the scientific side (Newton) would measure the impact and decide that you being in that place at that time as a variable. The metaphysical side (Law of Attraction) would state that you put out an intention and the universe conspired to have you ran you over. There is even a case for someone to throw the old Karma chestnut in there and would suggest that you deserved to be run over.

Now let’s look at this from a moment of infinite significance. For arguments sake, you survive albeit with serious injuries and you do the following one thing from a moments in recovery that you can create infinite significance.

You forgive who ran you over; ask to see them and tell them. You ask only one thing in return, that to everyone they speak to about the accident they talks about the forgiveness from there victim. Also to express how they felt before they came to see their victim, and that indescribable feeling of guilt.

A strange scenario and extreme; but could you imagine the feeling of the victim letting go of their blame, hatred and revenge? Do you think this would help their recovery?

Now imagine how the driver would feel? Relief would be natural but there would be intent for their actions not to be repeated and maybe a second chance to help prevent from re-occurring?

A life could be saved?

The life that was saved could have had a purpose to bring good to this world and their demise could have turned the course of the universe.

Star Trek was flawed with regards to the ‘Prime Directive’ as we can change history all the time, although this could be a paradox as maybe that was meant to happen! Although the style of Doctor Who, a Time lord who generally did change history albeit for his own sense of moral purpose.

So let’s get back to keeping it light, below is a list of things and they do seem somewhat small but as in the film “Sliding Doors” the moment could have infinite significance or consequences as the two are not mutually exclusive.

1. Not handing in your homework
2. Not studying for an exam
3. Not going to a party and missing the partner of your dreams
4. Not buying a book from world renowned author Scott Everest
5. Being late
6. Going home early
7. Being in a bad mood
8. Never walking in the rain
9. Not smiling back at a nice looking stranger
10. Eating cauliflower then going to the movies with your dream date, and farting all night
11. Eating Garlic then going to the movies with your dream date, kissing and putting them off
12. Not cleaning your shoes
13. Not holding a door open for a stranger
14. Not speaking up

I hope you all see how our lives could have been different if all we did was ‘Zag’ left instead of ‘Zig’ right. However we cannot live with regrets and maybe we are where we are because of subconsciously that is the place we want to be.

We all do things we do not want to do, but why? I have been thinking about this for a long while and was not until reading a beautiful quote this week has examining what I do become a focus.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away” – Anon

Whoa! Life is just a series of moments and really is the six inches in front of our face. If we are not regretting our past mistakes then we are worrying about the futures and guess what?

The breakthrough statement……. WE CANNOT CONTROL EITHER!

We must create our own moments of infinite significance, by the attitude to how we approach everything and what we expect everything to be. The following quote sums this up perfectly and another little tribute to my daughter.

“Please don’t give me anything or do anything for me unless you can do so with the kind of joy a little child has when it feeds a hungry duck”

I take this quote as someone speaking to themselves in the second person and put simpler ‘Do what you love, and love what you do’ is there any other mantra for life?

The list we made earlier is not exhaustive and has not included much about the things we have already. We can be so focused on what we want that we seem to forget about what we have, and the moments of infinite significance are ever more of consequence. These always happen, but sometimes not for the development of the relationship.

Now my headline quote “(S)he who dies with the most love wins!” does tie up with the mantra of simpler ‘Do what you love, and love what you do’ and is the result of many moments of infinite significance. I think just simply they had the most because they gave the most.

To finish off and to explain how to create more moments of infinite significance you must do one act to everyone you meet.

That is to project unconditional love.

Scott - I love you xx

Until next week where my blog subject is to be ‘Gnomes’.

Ram Jam - Part I

2009-06-08T21:19:00.002+01:00

“Our intention creates our reality” – Dr Wayne Dyer

Are we really in control of our lives?

The answer is of course NO, as we listen and take our opinions from all forms of media, friends, and colleagues even to some degree strangers. To the majority of the world’s population (95%) we are not what Dr Wayne Dyer states “Free from the good opinion of others”.

Let’s just say that you want a cup of coffee?, now this probable fictional parable can play out in many ways.

1. We go and get one when the desire comes into our mind
2. We really want one but wait until we walk past a coffee shop or until the opportunity presents itself
3. We crave coffee but never get one
4. We drop hints and hope that someone will get you one as we got them one the day before
5. We do nothing but silently crave one, and become annoyed that no-one noticed your thoughts

Let’s just sit and think for a minute, it could be said that 4 out the 5 scenarios we probably end up the loser. We want something and we intend to have one but the majority of the time we end up without!

So what feelings can come out from the original intention and the conclusion of “lack”? Let’s list them.

· Anger
· Frustration
· Annoyance
· Peeved ness (is this a word?)
· Vengefulness
· Lack of self worth

So a snapshot of some of the feelings or a veritable noun sandwich can bring about some pretty negative feelings from a basic need. The coffee is just a metaphor and can easily be replaced with love, car, house, job, kids and money.

There is however one common denominator and is what rich, famous and successful people have been doing since recorded time. If there is something they want, they get it. It all starts with intention.

Intention has lots of meanings but just listing its synonyms would help you to appreciate where I am going; they are meaning, goal, objective, plan, purpose, aim and target.

My intention today is not about wealth, not even about coffee it is about offering you a glimpse into my mind and what I think about. Today’s blog is about infinite significance and a gentleman called ‘Ram Dass’. (Formally known as Richard Alpert, are you paying attention at the back Dave Steele? Another Lost clue)

Now Richard ‘Ram Dass’ Alpert was a Jewish / American who rose to prominence in the early 1960’s as a Professor at Harvard University. To cut a long story short he hung out with Dr Timothy Leary (LSD inventor), the Grateful Dead and Aldous Huxley, he took a lot of magic mushrooms and was kicked out of the campus due to his experimental ideas.

During this time Dr Timothy Leary was preaching to the newly found Hippie Community the Mantra of “Tune in, Drop out” Dr Alpert was leaning more towards the Hindu ethic of serving others.

Now to the point of the blog and not a biography ‘Ram Dass’ as Alpert who would later change his name too, wrote a best selling book called “Be Here Now” where his main themes along with other topics were that “ we are all manifestations of God” and that every moment was of “infinite significance”.

Now, I have been thinking about this blog for a long time and have put it off for months but had a breakthrough thought the other day which would go someway to explaining this.

Every conscious thought creates a feeling and every subconscious thought creates a belief. Now this is quite an esoteric statement but want to refer back to the original intention question about the coffee.

Now we could have had an experiment where we actually had 5 free thinking individuals and all of them had the desire for coffee.

How many do you think would have gone straight out and purchased one? How many would have chosen the other options? Or how many would have relied on other people to play a part in their decision as they were not able to make the choice alone?

Do you see that life is like that? We all have the same pure thought or desire but each has different outcomes. The need for other people to validate your opinion or you to passively offer them a role in controlling your destiny is what of course the problem is.

I have been a Manager for many years and is still amuses me to this day that people see my role in controlling them or to control their destiny. I always try and confuse people on occasion and ask them, “So what do you want to do?” Which of course is always followed with “So why did you not do it then?” It is a common human trait to want to be validated and some people see a Manager as a surrogate parent. However how many of these people who want a coffee, would go out and get it?

To have great intentions and to re-quote Dr Wayne Dyer you must be “free from the good opinion of others” and going back to Ram Dass and what he meant by the manifestation of God in all of us, which I feel should not be taken literally.

What he meant was, and this is my opinion. Is that we are our own creators and only our intentions can bring about our destiny, and every single moment towards that is of infinite significance. Whether it is our thoughts or actions, we change the world around us.

A simple smile at a stranger could calm anger that would have been directed at someone else, offering someone in need, some water. When that person could bear the child of a future pioneer and curer of diseases. Every step we take, every thought we think, every smile we make, every object we touch all could have infinite significance.

Examples such as Archimedes and his Eureka moment in the bath, Newton whilst sitting under a tree and observing a falling apple and Gordon Brittas when a new plan comes across his mind all have infinite significance.

This all leads into how we can clearly develop our sense of intention and of course creates positive moments of infinite significance, this is where we can learn from the Eastern esoteric practices and two of which are Yoga and Meditation.

I have battled with these concepts and it is plainly obvious the benefits that Yoga and meditation would give me, but yet I still resist. As you may of guessed it, if I desire a coffee that is all it stays. A desire!

But something has inspired me, and it took an 18-month old child and the BBC to bring this all to a resolute calm in my mind and to show me the way.

Now even though the BBC collects £3 Billion each year from the enforced TV license scheme and the majority of it is wasted on current affairs and numerous programs on antiques and car boot sales, there is some money invested into the world famous Children’s programs.

There has been some good output in recent times, Bob the Builder, Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Fimbles, Tweenies and Balamory. These are loved through-out the world but the new creation of one of the most profound yet beautifully simplistic and spiritual programs has caused a bit of a stir between the vicars and spinsters and The Guardian readership of middle England.

The very thought of a program called ‘Waybaloo’ which teaches kids to be in touch with their feelings through meditation and kiddies Yoga (Yogo) would of several years ago resulted in the burning of its creators as heretics and witches.

Although there could be rank ling’s of a modern day Witch finder General if we allow the broad sheets too much editorial airtime (ask Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross)

Yet my daughter is transfixed, and on her own volition copies the Yogo moves and remains in a state of awe and joyous rapture whenever the characters are on screen.

So the moral is that even the so called emotionally undeveloped are more intelligent than us, and can see the attraction and benefit of yogo and can easily express their emotions. I would bet that if my daughter continued with these beliefs that when she has an intention for a coffee, that she just goes and gets it. ***

This is one of my moments of infinite significance and the realisation that meditation can calm the mind and can help you make your intentions clear. The sitting in a lotus position is also not necessary but just sitting and being quiet is enough to guide you.

The theme of infinite significance is continued in the topic of my next blog, I have been avoiding this subject for a while and to be honest there was no need to be. We all beat ourselves up some times and have self doubt but the general advice is to forget about it and forgive your self.

I so NO, we do not forget, and to quote the charismatic Les Brown. The key to happiness is not to forgive and forget, it is to forgive and remember without resentment. That is the key to happiness.

A break though moment of infinite significance right there folks!!

So good night all xxxxx

PS: There have been four clues now in recent blogs about the ending of Lost. The hidden code is something that I am practicing for a future book. I would love to hear your theories.

PPS. *** = Just like Sawyer (that was the fourth clue?

The Final Countdwon

2009-06-01T21:59:00.000+01:00

“I am not a number, I am free man” – Number 6 (The Prisoner)

This week’s blog was a request, and the subject is numbers.

We are a media driven society, and every advertiser out there wants to try something quirky for us to memorise there product. A lot of this is done by the use of numbers; whether is 118 118 for directory inquiries to “1664” for Kronenburg Lager.

However I have a theory; my idea is that over a period of time we have become so saturated that we have reacted in four different ways. This, I believe is the whole cause of the credit crunch.

First set of people are called the “Spenders” these people do not fear numbers, they watch over the average amount of television, they are more sociable and of finally they are in debt. (45% of people)

The second set of people are called the “Scrooges” they fear they are not getting value for there money, they deny themselves luxuries, they shop in budget stores, they do not indulge in holidays and they are not that sociable and have a low paid job that does not change. (45% of People)

The third set of people are called the “Spirituals” they give lots of there money to good causes along with there time, they eat minimally and rely on community. They get very frustrated at the world’s ills and wish they could do more. They are blind happy, but have no resources. (5% of People)

The fourth set of people have it all; spiritual connection, they can spend at will and have all of life’s luxuries. They have a high paid job, great social life and are totally debt free. (5% of People)

You all think that I’ve obviously had too much sun, but living a fulfilled abundant life is a journey and one of the first steps is of course, no fear of money. The numbers do not play a significant role in their lives, and they use them for there actual purpose. A tally system, designed to measure where they are in achieving there goals.

Ok, that is very esoteric and me telling you about all this is very hypocritical, (the alert is flashing above my head) but what if we realise that numbers or in its greater role as mathematics is the language of the universe.

So why would be afraid of numbers, or have an irrational favour towards some?

I think we should look at some of the mythology behind some, let’s talk about 7, 8, 13 & 23.

The number seven; in Western culture this is deemed a lucky number. 7 is what we called neutral between Acid & alkaline, there are seven visible planets from Earth in the solar system, seventh day God rested, there are seven chakras, seven wonders of the world, seven bones in the neck erm…….. That is pretty much is it? Disappointed?

The number eight; this number is considered lucky in Eastern culture and is associated with prosperity and wealth, the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life he is circumcised erm….. That pretty much is it? Disappointed?

The number thirteen; this number is considered unlucky in western culture. There were thirteen people at the last supper and Judas was the 13th person to sit down. Thirteen steps to the gallows and thirteen turns on the noose. Loki was the 13th god in Viking Folklore erm….. That pretty much is it? Disappointed?

The number twenty-three; this number has the conspiracy theorists going. Sportsman Shane Warne, Michael Jordan and David Beckham all wore the number 23. One of the sequence of numbers, in the code in “Lost”. In the Matrix 23 people are required to repopulate Zion. In Jeepers creepers the creeper comes out every 23 years to feast on human flesh for 23 days. Dr Pepper has 23 flavours. Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. John McCain was shot down on his 23rd mission. Shakespeare was born and died on the 23rd April. Psalm 23 is in the 23rd Book of the Bible.

The fear of numbers is irrational, and just encourages neurosis and paranoia. Our heads are full of phone numbers, pin numbers, house numbers & account numbers. We are constantly reminded that if we give away or not protect our numbers we would be cloned, our cash and identity gone.

Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear, the numbers are bad the numbers could ruin us. Let’s get rid of the numbers as quick as possible. Spend, Spend & Spend. Let’s distract ourselves from these numbers and watch television, Oh no the cycle starts again….. Fear, Fear & Fear.

Do you see where I am going?

Numbers are our friends as they help measure currency which can help us achieve our dreams and inner most desires. We will never deny ourselves what we want as numbers will continue to come to us with open arms.

As a culture we are not unique is fascination with numbers and each one has connotations in different countries from the number 21 in Vietnam meaning prostitute, to 69 being descriptive of a sex act, possibly representing Yin and Yang (A whole different blog).

Einstein said it best when asked if he remembers his phone number, and replied that he does not waste space in his mind for such things.

Maybe Number 6 was right, this not a number and a free man thing, could catch on?

Tally Ho!

Aurora Borealis

2009-05-24T20:10:00.000+01:00

“Hippies, terrorists all the same thing” – Eric Cartman

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions” - Albert Einstein

Quantum Physics tell us that as an entity we are made up of cells of pure energy; and that we are really not solid. If we look at ourselves under a microscope you would see movement and would cause you to think how do we stay together?

Energy can be described in 8 different forms; Kinetic, Potential, Thermal, Gravitational, Sound, Elastic, Electromagnetic and Light. It is the latter which is the subject of today’s blog.

The title of the blog is Aurora Borealis; which is better known as the Northern Lights, a phenomenon which can be seen twice a year between September and October and March to April. The lights can be seen throughout the Northern Hemisphere but are clearer and more prevalent the nearer you are to the North Pole due to the longer periods of darkness and magnetism.

The Aurora Borealis are known in the region by “the Cree” a local Indian race in Canada “The Dance of the spirits”. The sight of the bands of green, oranges, purples and all spectrum possibilities and combinations bounding across an icy vista would of inspire a worship system that is more tangible than written words 2000 years ago, as the dancing spirits are actually witnessed and their faith would be restored bi-annually due to there regularity .

So what is light? Well it is radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the eye. Of course the radiation can be invisible but let’s just concentrate on the reality of what we can see. Light has three primary properties namely, Intensity – frequency – wavelength. To break it down further it is Brightness – Band (Colour) – Speed, Distance.

Our imagination tells us that all light is white and can only be changed by the introduction of what we call a prism or concave lens. When light is placed through a prism it refracts and through this a whole spectrum of light is visibly formed.

I am sure you are all very much aware of prisms but how did it changed metaphysics? The most important work with light was by John Locke the British philosopher who influenced Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, Kant and of course the American revolutionaries whose influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. It just so happens that they are all also characters in the American Series “Lost”. (Cue twilight zone music, I have figured out the ending)

However today we are looking at the metaphysical qualities of Light and the refracted colours from prisms. Now Western Physicists Goethe and Newton did research and publish the colour range from various prisms in the form of colour wheels; however what is quite amazing is the co-incidence and similarity the Eastern religions that all practice the awareness of the Chakra or Ki and the relationship of the colour to vitalize the body.

Now a chakra in short is one of seven colours that were also associated with seven parts of the body. Each chakra and colour was in place to control certain organs of your body, personality and potentiality. It was also felt that any illness, malady or situation could also be associated to any colour chakra and by applying focus could reverse the situation with wearing the colour or with treatment – as described later.

Now treatments was more or less most of the time meditation, but the ancient Egyptians who also believed in this in a different format used to sit its subjects into light rooms and the coloured glass panels (The Egyptians invented glass thousands of years before the west) used to bathe the affected person with light.

Light therapy is become more common and is especially used with the treatment of skin conditions such as Acne, Eczema and Psoriasis. This comes via a light treatment which has medically proven to reduce bacteria in the pores by 99.9%. The light is of UVA standard and is not too far aware from a tanning salon tubes but with the cancer forming properties associated with the latter.

Light therapy is also used to cure depression which is sometimes brought on by the winter seasons; this condition is usually called Seasonal Affective Disorder. When bright light is shone onto the patient the melatonin levels increase and creates serotonin, this of course is one of the chemicals released by the brain and assists happiness.

Now the above of course can be cured by spending as much time outdoors as possible, and a good walk can cure all ills but the benefits of light therapy is simple but let’s now look at the evolvement and also bring us back to the prism, colours and chakra and exploring Colour therapy.

We all have favourite colours however have we ever thought about the psychology behind this? My favourite colour is orange and was shocked to learn that this chakra colour was based in the pelvic region and kind of explained a lot to me and a lot about me for of all you who know me.

Red: First Chakra: Located at the base of the spine. Used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.
Orange: Second Chakra: pelvis area. Used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.
Yellow: Third Chakra: solar plexus. Used to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.
Green: Fourth Chakra: heart
Blue: Fifth Chakra: throat. Used to soothe illnesses and treat pain.
Indigo: Sixth Chakra: lower part of the forehead. Used to alleviate skin problems.
Violet: Seventh Chakra: top of the head

Modern day colour therapy is often known as Chromotherapy and is branded as a pseudoscience, but the tools for treatment are gemstones, wands, candles, prisms, coloured fabrics and coloured lenses. They can be combined with hydrotherapy and aromatherapy for maximum therapeutic affect.

Chromotherapy is known to help with a range of illness and injuries and certain behavioural conditions such as ADHD, ADD and Autism. This is a genuine offered treatment as is Photobiomodulation which is basically A low level laser concentrating on an area on the body with different wavelengths for a desired effects.

To date it has been medically proven to heal soft tissue injuries, nerve regeneration, tinnitus, wound healing, bacterial infection and chronic pain.

The power of light is very profound and as we are reaching the crescendo of a spiritual renaissance, the thought of nature being able to cure all of our ailments by possible walking naked in the sun should liberate us.

This knowledge should lead us to become more Agrarianism, and live out our wild free dreams. Maybe Ralph Waldo Emerson was right after all, it was not him however who inspired me but the fictional K-Paxian Prot, who in a soliloquy described to all of us that his mode of travel was an invisible wavelength of UV light that he used to transport himself across the universe. We of course believe this as we all were inspired by the Agrarianism and his innocent endearing nature. (Watch K-Pax – Kevin Spacey is excellent)

To appreciate light we have to look for and appreciate natures striking phenomenon’s with examples of rainbows, sunsets, sunrises, lightening all of which change with the seasons. There is beauty in looking at water and if there is a thin layer of oil the light refracts and you can see the full spectrum within the pollution.

Light also governs the nature of all animals especially birds; there is a couple of ironic circumstances such as people who complain of birdsong along with campaigning for brighter street lighting. Also a sad irony is people who keep birds but silence them by blocking any light source from there small cage by placing a dark cloth over it.

A profound metaphor for the above is that if you do not like birdsong, do not keep birds. Think about that, an original quote. All birds should be free, they have wings for a reason.

So why was Light and it variations the subject of today blog? Well my Grandmother passed away recently and Thursday was her funeral. During the service your emotions are heightened as is awareness and in these circumstances the smallest things become relevant and part of your lasting memories.

My lasting memory of this service was the rays of light penetrating the chapel and bouncing of the silver handles of my Nan’s coffin. There was a point when the coffin was lowered to be cremated that the beams of reflected light were the last vision before being committed to the incinerator.

The light in the chapel was also of a yellow hue and in chakra terms is associated with fire, thus creating a greater sadness in the subconscious.

After the service it seems somewhat traditional to view the flower arrangements that were sent in respect of the occasion. These were placed in a piazza surrounded by low level buildings which all had ironworks surrounding its perimeter. This created a natural shade and a shadowed blue hue smothered the area of reflection which of course is the chakra colour of the mind.

The Indigo chakra is also a reference for the western phenomena known as Indigo children.

Upon returning home that day seeing my son Johnnie whose recent 5th birthday yielded him a special toy? This toy is a wooden turnstile, with hanging off every arm long strips of mirrors, with red and blue backs and below then are bells. When you spin the turnstile the noise of the bells and movement of light places the child into a state of calm.

I wonder whether the blue and red reflections into the mirrored light can cause any changes? Or would a toy that encompasses all four elements of Water (blue), Fire (red), Air (movement & bells) and Earth (wood, mirrors) and the creation of a spectrum from the mirrors can put anyone at peace.

I will finish with a medical term, a test that shows we are at the full level of consciousness. This can be shown in the acronym P.E.A.R.L – Pupils Equal and Reacting to Light.

React to light, the colours from light and bask in its healing benefits and emotional healing properties.

To bring us back to the original top line quote from the eminent Eric Cartman one man’s Hippie is one man’s terrorist. My greatest crime and gift is imagination, as it will guide me to fulfil my dreams.

Peace and groovy Man!

Scott x

Making your Mind Up

2009-05-17T22:34:00.002+01:00

“A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser” - William Shakespeare

If you are like me, (a camp, frilly, Pop Queen) then Saturday you would have been watching The Eurovision Song Contest live in Moscow.

Now for some, this annual event is met with derision and the inevitable indignation towards every country that do not vote for us and places us dead last. I have before fell into the trap of conspiracy theories, block voting and general bitterness towards us and assumptions of jealousy.

Before we even started there was a campaign for us not to vote for Norway (eventual winners so did not work) because a referee from the aforementioned Norway decided to display the worst ever officiating performance that has ever graced a football match and left Chelsea lets say “Peeved” as the injustice and suggested bias towards Barcelona.

Now before you all wag your finger accusingly at me of being a Europhile and a sympathiser lets take a minute to possibly look at this from their point of view.

Firstly we have to accept one thing, and would like you to think about this. Just because one country likes something different, it does not make it wrong.

So let’s start with the title of the contest, The Eurovision song contest. The premise is that a song that is widely regarded as the most popular by a combination from every voting country wins. The conspiracy is that all Scandinavian, Balkan and Ex USSR countries all vote for each other and is known as block voting.

I think that after the fall of the Berlin wall, the break up of Yugoslavia and the USSR with all the countries fighting for their right to be recognised, and in some cases engage in civil war. That maybe not voting for your neighbour in the Eurovision song contest is not a catalyst for further military action. I do believe that Georgia voted for Russia.

They flipping invaded them last year, I do not believe that the military withdrew on a promise that they will use there vote wisely or air strikes will reign down upon them.
I think that the conspiracy theorists, which there are plenty of, need to probably let this go as laying all the blame at “the bloody foreigners” as we say is just not acceptable and actually racist and xenophobic at least.

I think that Eurovision is a beautiful thing and when a country enters with a traditional song, whilst wearing there national dress they do so to promote the beauty and arts of their homeland and open themselves up to the world.

We take this as beneath us and possible even sneer at them with a superiority complex, as we would not demean ourselves to this level.

I would love nothing more than at the next Olympics than to be represented by Pearly Kings and Queens and jingling Morris dancers, as this is us. Alas more disjointed street dancing free-styling with no substance it is to be : (

It is the sneering culture amongst us all, and it is not just the UK as there are elements all across Europe and it is in the guise of Racism, Homophobia and Religious intolerance.

I would like to take this back to the UK now, as it is my point of reference and would like to revisit the “Bloody Foreigners” attitude which seems to be prevalent and fuelled by the “British Jobs, for British People” political proviso and The Daily Express attack on every immigrant in the UK.

Let’s look at our attitude or one that is regularly portrayed, “Bloody foreigners, come over here and take our jobs!”

Now lets look at that statement and assume that he is referring to a job that he has held or not held and also lets assume that his paymasters or job centre have overlooked his output or potentiality and went with a foreign worker. Why do you think this happened?

Firstly we are in Europe and it is perfectly legal, the same opportunities are available elsewhere. Secondly possibly the job went to the best person due to attitude, reliability and experience.

Thirdly they were prepared to be 100% flexible.

Now I am not saying that all British people are like this, far from it. However the loudness of their voice is what political parties use as there background manifesto and newspapers push their propaganda and create a fear culture. We fear what is different; we produce a defence mechanism of being superior to all and sneer at everyone who is basically not us.

We live in an Island and we are very insular which maybe causes some people to display paranoia and to be defensive. The only connection to the outside world is via the media, whether it is Radio, Television, Internet or Newspapers all of them with one agenda and that is to create more readers, viewer ship and listeners so that it can earn revenues through advertising and other streams of income. The easiest way to do this is to run a commentary about the outside world which you need to be informed of the newest danger.

I like the idea of Europe, and was thinking about this blog and recalled a book by Plato, called Republic. Now I have made reference to Plato before and one idea that stuck with me was the idea of Utopia. A land that was governed by Philosophers and wise men and every person in the Republic had a place in society and every role was equally important. In the book Plato did explore other ideas and with some contrasts, but the idea itself is beautiful.

This of course could have inspired Karl Marx who had the same vision in communism, but the vision was corrupted. The thought was that we could live in a classless society does appeal on a base level. There was one flaw and that man is inherently selfish and would always crave more, it is just a primal desire!

So maybe sneering is a primal desire or it could be a defence mechanism, but whatever you feel it is we need to control it as one thing we must have towards our fellow man, and that is tolerance.

Tolerance is looking at something from another point of view, from the Eurovision entrant who wants to promote their country and culture and consider it an honour, to the migrant worker who has a desire to have better things for his family, and as the primal desire kicks in as a hunter and gatherer he will swallow the sneering as his circumstances will improve.

I do however love the stiff upper lipped, stoic, foppishly dressed, chinless English aristocrat and do not need to go any further than Noel Coward’s performance in “The Italian” job. This represented the English attitude and the audacity that an English team will drive into the heart of Turin, under the noses of the police, the army and the mafia and steals millions in gold bullion.

Ironically the only way that the situation turned, was down to the brazenness and celebratory arrogance by the English when they were clear and free. This of course alludes to the premise that only an Englishman can beat an Englishman.

We can win the Eurovision and there is a way to do it, firstly what music does Europe like? This is important as essentially it is a popularity contest and the clue is in the title. What is Popular?

Secondly when we carry out analysis and test the market, take feedback in an open and honest way and act upon it.

Thirdly, does it satisfy our home audience? This is imperative as a sense of association will only help but drive more interest.

Finally, appreciate other performances and be honest about what you like and don’t like. It is only your opinion and during each day we have around 20,000 thoughts. When the result comes down essentially they may not agree with 1 thought. All in all that is not a bad ratio.

I really liked Greece and Germany’s performances this year but they did not do so well, but that’s what Eurovision is and some acts in some cultures polarize opinion. I have seen some crazy things over the years and boy have I been surprised at some of the outcomes.

Thank you for reading and keep up with your feedback and see you again x

The quote in the start of the blog put simpler means, it is the taking part that counts. That all life is, that is all of society is and humankind just taking part is enough x

It is what it is xx

Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic

2009-05-11T20:21:00.002+01:00

“On stage, we just want to generate hysteria. We don't care about looking cool or posing” - Adrian Edmondson

“Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear” - Douglas Macarthur

I would like to talk today about Hysteria especially the Mass Hysteria that we buy into on a day-to-day basis. We could talk about different levels such as Susan Boyle to Swine Flu all of which have been generated from the one same source – The media.

If you are long time readers of my blog you will know that I do not engage and participate in the mass media and mass hysterical work of Newspapers, Magazines and gossip columns who all do there bit to generate an emotional response to a news item.

It is widely thought that if you engage someone emotionally they will be more likely to return to hear, read and surf your take on any topical subject that arises.

Yes, I can see the irony of writing this blog too.

So Mass Hysteria or other terms it is known by such as Herd Behaviour or bandwagon effect is most likely a primal throwback designed to protect our evolution.

We, unlike other species (although subjective, granted) have an intelligence to communicate with each other to warn of danger.

A Nice Parable to illustrate (albeit longwinded) my point
There are three cavemen in a field; two walk off to capture and take some tusks off a warthog as they look like good digging tools.

So let’s set the scene, and call these ancient cavemen Dave, Fred and Randy.

“Hey Randy, me and Fred are going to the woods as we have noticed an animal called a warthog who just happens to have tusks that would help us tremendously in digging out post holes to put up our new pergola” – Commented Dave

“Ok Dave, look after Fred as he is young and needs guidance from a wise caveman such as your. Would you mind awfully to be back for supper at 7pm as tonight we are having cous cous salad and it dries up something terrible if left?” – Lamented Randy

So the intrepid travellers made there way into the jungle to seek the warthog, two mighty warriors seeking their destiny. They were Dave the wise elder whose bravery was legendary and the young Fred who was strong as an Ox, but his sense is yet to come to fruition.

They tracked the warthog and by using strategies straight from the teachings of Sun Tzu (gained from a visit from Doctor Who in his Tardis, who accidentally left his DVD player behind) they flanked the animal and went in to kill him and collect there bounty.

At the crucial moment Dave went to pounce on the fearsome beast but tripped on a trailing piece of leopard skin cloth from his shoes and fell flat on his face.

The fall and the force of his landing frightened the warthog; so that he rose up on his short squat legs about turned and ran in the opposite direction.

There was silence, only after the sound of the warthogs coveted tusks had pierced through the abdomen of young Fred. Even with his strength, he was as fallible as all men born with human flesh that can so easily be broken.

As Dave regained his composure and re-tied his giant leopard skin shoelaces, he sat and cradled the dying Fred in his arms and vowed to him that he will talk about his braveness to all the others in his tribe.

Fred died cradled gently in Dave’s arms, which he then closed his eyes for the last time and kissed him gently on the forehead and said goodbye.

Dave rested Fred on the jungle floor in front of him and thought to himself

“Shit!”

The situation was not as straight forward as he had hoped, he was a well revered and wise man within his tribe so.

“Maybe an alternative story would be more fitting for Fred” thought Dave as the actual chain of event could prove embarrassing for him.

So David pondered this for a while, conscious of the time and the effort Randy was obviously putting in preparing his Cous Cous salad, an idea was struck.

The were some keys elements to the story that Dave needed to include such as people convincing, frightening enough so that no-one comes to the jungle and also could do some good in the long run.

The story was confirmed in Dave’s mind, he then buried Fred in a shallow grave as his supper time was approaching and he made his way back to the tribe to tell his story.

The sight of Dave stumbling from the jungle alone and with a look of fear and personal tragedy on his wise features caused all the tribe to stop what they were doing and run to assist there wise, strong elder.

Randy had been one of the first to see Dave stumbling from the jungle and quickly rushed to the scene. He was frantic as Fred was not with him.

Although Fred was the strong silent type, Randy had fallen for him and they were inseparable. They were in love and they naturally want just to exist like the fall and rise of the sun and moon. There love had to be suppressed due to the narrow thinking ways of the tribe.

Randy and Fred had often dreamed about moving to a secluded cave in the mountain, were the two of them could be together and they would raise quails.

Dave had reached the centre of the tribe’s communal area, out of breath and clearly distressed he was folded over hands on his knees head forward trying to gain his composure.

“Where’s Fred” Randy asked in a strained high pitched panicked voice

“Fred has been taken, he was taken by WITCHES” replied Dave to an astonished crowd who all gasped with the revelation

Dave explained further

“A group of witches approached us in the jungle, and they took Fred. They used there wicked magical powers to take all my strength from me. They wanted Fred for a mate”

“They said that if we ever went back into the jungle they would kill him, they let me go so that I can give you this message”

The tribe was outraged and all talked furiously between each other; there was tears and Mother’s taking there children and hiding them in the caves and covered by religious symbols.

Randy fell to his knees and started beating the bare earth; he was crushed as his lover and soul mate had been torn away from him. In an uncharacteristic show of strength and resolve he rose to his feet and climbed onto a nearby rock to address the tribe.

“I stand before you a broken Man; Fred was dear to me and to all of us. He dedicated he life to protecting us all with sensitivity, devotion and discipline. If this happened to anyone of us then Fred would be the first to go into the jungle to rescue him. We owe it to him and to all of our futures and safety to rescue him. Who is with me?”

A roar of approval and the tribe was united and committed to rescue Fred with the unlikely figure of Randy leading the vengeful mob who were all fully intent in dishing out justice to these witches. They made there way towards the jungle.

Dave was swept up in the euphoria and was asked to take them to the last known location of Fred.

“That did not go well” Dave thought

Dave led the mob through the jungle; careful to take them as far away from the freshly dug shallow grave of Fred.

“All this because of a Leopard skin shoe lace and my desire for a pergola” Dave chastised himself

They travelled for hours and rested in a clearing in the jungle to take on water and to speak with Dave so more.

Suddenly around 150 yards ahead a young girl approached the nearby stream, Randy noticed her and beckoned Dave to see him and asked.

“Was that one of the witches you sure?” Randy asked

“I am not sure, as witches can hide there true selves and live amongst us” Dave replied, almost instantly wishing he had not said a word

A small radicalised group from the mob were dispatched to capture the witch; the group were the self pro-claimed Guerrilla Unit of the outfit and the formed G-UNIT did not make mistakes.

They snatched the young girl; they asked her the whereabouts of Fred and she denied all knowledge so they silenced her and took her back to the tribe for judgement.

There was no doubt that the conscious of Dave was heavy but now the lie had escalated so much that revelation would certainly signal his own death by the mobs hands. He was not concentrating and followed the mob as they made there way back to there settlement, he was oblivious to the fact that they were heading in the same direction as to the final, albeit shallow resting place of Fred would be uncovered.

The area of the covered up crime was approaching, and by some cruel fate Randy signalled to the mob to rest on the very spot.

The sight of Fred’s corpse being pulled apart and feasted on by wild animals had done one thing. It had sealed the fate of the captured woman.

The rage within the tribe delivered the most cruel of deaths to the young girl, they burnt her alive and asked her to confess so her soul would be saved.

Over many years, mobs and smaller hunting parties have gone to the jungle and captured witches. It was apparent when anybody took ill or the crops failed then the presence of witches were blamed and even sought within their own tribe.
*************************************

The ending is how you can imagine. The picture you really have to paint yourselves and manifest your own Horror, my interjection cannot affect your fears any more successfully than your own subconscious.

So “Mass Hysteria’s de Jour” are as follows;

Swine Flu - This is originally the direct result of pigs being infected by Human Flu. So there is a wicked irony, when it is given back via an inter-species germ tag match.

I over heard a conversation on the bus the other day which was unintentionally flawed genius and wrong on every level.

I often listen to conversations, and liken this to being the third person in a crazy world, made up of poor reasoning and mass hysterical judgement.

I kid you not; this is verbatim between two students.

“All this swine flu happened for a reason you know” Person 1 said

“Really, what do you know about it?” came the reply from Person 2

“Well, you noticed that Muslim’s and Jew’s have not caught it?” Person 1 incorrectly stated

“Nah, really why do you think that is?” Person 2 said aghast

“Because it is an unclean animal and against our God, Pigs were poisoned by spiritual elders to kills all the infidels and anti-Semites” Person 1 stated, whilst proud of solving the mysteries of the universe

I think no comment can really be made after that.

Susan Boyle - I was watching Television the other day with a friend and a there was a clip of some woman singing on an advert. We paid it no mind and made no comment and carried on with the conversation.

Then suddenly Simon Cowell came on the television and lavished praise and made some powerful validating comments.

The person who was watching TV with me then responded,

“I agree she has the best voice I have ever heard. She was something special” They said

I did not comment, but thought that this person would not have made that validating statement unless Simon Cowell praised her.

Has any heard of the fable of the Emperors New Clothes?

Some other examples of Mass Hysteria - Taken from Wikipedia

Dancing mania was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 18th centuries; it involved groups of people, sometimes thousands at a time, who danced uncontrollably and bizarrely, seemingly possessed by the devil. Men, women, and children would dance through the streets of towns or cities, sometimes foaming at the mouth until they collapsed from fatigue.
One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, Germany, on June 24, 1374; the populace danced wildly through the streets, screaming of visions and hallucinations, and even continued to writhe and twist after they were too exhausted to stand.

Fan death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria, or mass psychogenic illness (MPI), rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania near the border of Kenya.
It is possible that, at the start of the incident, a joke was told in a boarding school, and that this joke triggered a small group of students to start laughing. The laughter perpetuated itself, far transcending its original cause.

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic is sometimes understood as implying that thousands of people were continuously laughing for months. However this may not have been the case. Other reports tell that the epidemic consisted of occasional attacks of laughter among groups of people, occurring throughout the vicinity of the village of Kashasha at irregular intervals. According to reports, the laughter was incapacitating when it struck.
The school from which the epidemic sprang was shut down; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area. Other schools, Kashasha itself, and another village, comprising thousands of people, were all affected to some degree Six to eighteen months after it started, the phenomenon died off. The following symptoms were reported on an equally massive scale as the reports of the laughter itself: pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes, and attacks of crying.

Mass Hysteria is still prevalent in our society but it is now managed in a way called Marketing, Media and Spin. A lot of you guys out there understand the Law of Attraction and there are a lot of people teaching it. There is always someone who has a new hidden message, new easier ways, new secrets, the hidden secret and the hidden secret easier way. This is marketing my friends plain and simple.

Everything that I have purchased in my pursuit, I could have got free. Every secret that was revealed was a re-packaged truth. There was one thing and one thing only that you should buy, and that is the energy and enthusiasm they deliver the truths.

The self development and motivational world is just like Disneyland! When you get off the ride you have to walk through them merchandising shop.

The moral of this blog is to think for yourselves, do not be part of the herd, and be the leader of your own independent mind. I want to help, motivate people and inspire people but financial gain is not my lead thought but part of my harmonic plan.

“This above all; to thine own self be true” - William Shakespeare

I love the rain on my scars

2009-05-04T15:37:00.002+01:00

"'There's no use trying,' said Alice, 'one can't believe in impossible things.'
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen'When I was your age I used to practice for half an hour a day.Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go”– Oscar Wilde

I have now been writing my blog for over 3-months, the main purpose was to help with my burning ambition to become a writer.

Over time I have been experimenting with my writing style and subject matter, choosing difficult subjects and different research methods. I have tried writing in the morning, afternoon and night, with exercise and without exercise, with music and without music. I have eaten before and after writing and feel now that I have discovered my own winning formula.

With this formula my first novel is well on the way the being completed, and everything is on course for my book to be fully edited and a publish date ready for its launch. How do I know this? Well I believe it will happen it is just that everyone involved just do not know it yet.

I am know longer little Alice, doubting all her surroundings who would rather give in to her fear than believe what is front of her eyes. I do believe, and have witnessed my daughter fall down 99 times when trying to walk but on the other side she rose 100 times and succeeded.

My son Johnnie, who you may be aware has various disabilities and has trouble walking down slopes, yesterday he tried yet again this gargantuan feat. Even though half way through he shouted and screamed in frustration, he never gave up, and carried on going until he completed this task. There was a look of satisfaction and achievement on his face as he tasted success.

The title of this blog is “I love the rain on my scars” a ‘Streets’ lyric that encompasses the contents and topic of my weekly blog.

We all go through personal journey’s some positive, some that are not but along the way some self created limited beliefs.

I know that my journey has taken me to a better place, none other when I get negative feedback from my blog. I am not talking about the usual grammar and spelling mistakes (grateful for them) but the personal attacks or what is known in the blogging world as “flaming”.

There is no point in lying to you all, a few months ago this would rile me to a point where I would not be able to sleep with the rage that would build up inside of me, and would have usually reacted by publicly abusing them back in a personal, aggressive and more insulting way.

Now I just let it go, it does not matter. The only person who can affect my behaviour now is me and those who I allow to do so. However some of these messages have although negative have inspired me and can see a positive message from them all, and will expose them to you all and to feel “the rain on my scars”.

The subject on a few of them, was in general to get out and be positive not to sit and write blog’s and do things like skydiving etc.. I will single out skydiving as cheesy metaphors can be derived from it.

Now the suggestion was that to experience life fully you should try something new like skydiving, which actually I agree what a rush that would be the experience of your body resisting against the air current then suddenly pull your cord and you rise sharply as you view the eternal vistas of the land before you as you spiral towards the earth. You land and execute your little tuck and roll, gather your parachute and make your way back.

So that took let’s say 20-minutes, so what next? The adrenalin from that jump is addictive; the dopamine released has created an unbeatable euphoria and you cannot wait for the next fix. However when you’re breathing returns normal along with your heart rate the euphoria starts to dissipate and is replaced by a highly emotional state that is in contrast to the experience several minutes before.

In short, what goes up must come down.

Now replace the act of skydiving with some other activities which can create temporary euphoria such as shopping, gambling, spending, eating, fighting, stress, drinking, drug-taking, sexual acts, television programmes, winning, gossiping and of course asserting power over people.

All of these acts give you all temporary highs with the associated crashes when the feeling from act has dissipated. The cycle of addiction starts when you depend on repeating the original euphoric act to release you from the crash. Then guess what?

The cycle repeats.

So what is living without the above? I am not saying that we should not skydive as everyone should try this once and other acts as the feeling of the adrenaline is natures high. The thing that you need to be careful is not to become an Adrenalin Junkie.

There are people who are not comfortable with the term Junkie but let me put some things into context for you; people drink constantly because there happiest memories have been whilst drunk, people overeat because they associate food with feeling good (self hatred also, but another blog) we gamble higher and higher as the feeling of winning against betting everything they own creates such stress that the high is so much more powerful. (Only examples, majority of issues are more deep rooted)

I am sure you can take what you will with the above, but the original question put to me was why don’t I go out and enjoy life. I do! seeing my children grow gives me such a sense of self worth and contributing with there development balances a man as it is their primal purpose. This is the same feeling as cooking and bringing them food.

There are occasions when going out drinking socially is great as a good night is had by all without comparing it against constant depressive episodes of the withdrawal when it is over, thus no negative connotations are associated with it.

However, what ever comments that were made, do have there origin from sound reasoning (although poor examples). I do believe they are well intentioned, and what they do encourage is for you is to not sit in what is known as your comfort zone, and you can only leave your comfort zone by doing “something everyday that scares you”.

Positive thinking is not enough as thought is not action, and action is the missing element for most of us. If this was simple for us then it would be easy to do, however we do have to push ourselves through the barrier and the phrase “Do something everyday that scares you” is the mantra we should all live by.

A lot of you may not realise that April was the world stress awareness month; stress is created by developing limited beliefs for various reasons. They can be related to an addiction created before or after the action / behaviour. Stress is more often than not a cog in the cycle of addiction.

“I have a poster behind my desktop PC, which depicts a man climbing up a vertical ice stalagmite without safety ropes. I purchased the poster as it suggested to me that man can achieve un-limitless things when he puts his mind to it, at the time this was a powerful visual to have when working on the PC. Now, I find myself asking why was he climbing that ice stalagmite was it a sense achievement? Was it ego? Or was it because it scared him?

Whatever he did, it was the right thing for HIM to do. I did think that if it was the last two of ‘ego’ or that it ‘scared him’ that he would be a single man or a family man that was selfish and an adrenalin junkie.

So what have I done every day that has scared me? Well there have been many little things, there was a time when I would not even answer the phone and used to screen every call – I no longer do this.

I used to have a fear of the hairdressers, as when I was young the tip of my ear was cut off by a hairdressers – I am no longer afraid to have a haircut

I used to spend every night frustrated and angry about the day’s events, as never used to say anything when things annoyed me – I no longer am afraid

I used to think that there was never anytime for me to relax – I now make time

I used to think that it was everyone else’s fault that I was not happy – I now truly accept myself

I used to be affected by other people comments and actions towards me – I no longer grant permission for anyone to affect me

I no longer walk around without a smile on my face and smile at everyone – OK a bit of work needed, but will do this

I no longer ignore or do not talk to strangers – I aim to speak with everyone whom I make eye contact with, even if it a good morning

So here I am, 34 years old stripped naked and standing before you all and singing “I love the rain on my scars”

To quote Oscar Wilde and using his dying words to describe my previous limited beliefs and fears.

“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go”

The wallpaper is just a metaphor for the coverings we put up in our life through stress, ego, limited beliefs and vanity.

Lots of love, Scott xxxxx - who just wont sit idly by, with a tut and a sigh

NB:
I have written this as an afterthought, when thinking about Oscar Wilde who was the purveyor of many quotes, some with such cutting wittiness. We should not be afraid to poke fun at ourselves at times, as life is fun and should not be taken as serious as sometimes the media portrays or I do at times.

I am reminded of one of Oscar Wilde’s later works ‘De Profundis’ and the self-depreciating quote aimed at me, so will ironically quote it.

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”

Seriously, the blog is my mental Sudoku and by taking quotes, ideas and interpreting and expanding them helps me.

Life is what it is – First and foremost it’s YOURS!

Timbre

2009-04-26T09:40:00.001+01:00

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it” - Mark Twain

One of nature’s seasonal wonders is spring, and has spoken about re-birth and how the cycle of life turns its wheel and this time of year it is abject beauty.

I was walking yesterday through a residential area and the path way was lined with aged trees. There was suddenly a gust of wind and the trees shed there pink treasure and showered me with blossoms head to toe, kissing my body and sprinkling the landscape with its overwhelming and unconditional passion.

Nature unconditionally loves us; this is her way of affection.

The thought of blossom to me symbolises love, and with every symbol in my life it sparks a memory, a manifested vision which I would like to share with you.

The thought of blossom regresses me back to feudal Japan and from cinematic masterpieces the visceral display of two proud Samurai fighting for the love of the blacksmiths daughter in a cherry orchard at spring time when the blossom is starting to fall from the tree.

The two samurai, like life has one man that is just and had loved the daughter of the blacksmith since he was a child and they made a vow that they would be together but his social status would not heed him to claim the hand of this fair maiden. The other fighter who is consumed by lust must have his prize and is consumed by rage that his power can not easily claim what his heart and body desires.

The fight scene ensues and with swords swishing through the air and the striking of forged metal against each other, one with the force of love and one with the force of rage cause a metallic sonic boom which disturbs the blossom which surround them.

The outcome is always for the hero but the blossom plays it’s part, you see when you thrust your blade towards blossom it cannot be hurt as blossom symbolises love, the flowers even though delicate remain unharmed. However the blossom can blind and cover a black heart rendering it impossible to see or function. You see this is the paradox, and why there is such symbolism with Japanese cinema and this demonstrates the balance or equilibrium of the universe. The love of the blossom cannot be harmed by the violence of man, but when called upon can cease the fighting.

I believe this is done by blossom demonstrating its own beauty, thus allowing forgiveness

The title of the blog is Timbre, which for the continental amongst us is French for stamp. The key behaviour we will talk about is what is called “stamp collecting”.

Stamp collecting is behaviour where someone, like a colleague, spouse, friend, neighbour or pet. All do something which affects you emotionally; albeit it could be small, the generalisation of this will be emotional. All these small instances are then saved up in a mental stamp collecting book, when, only when it is full and emotionally you cannot accept any more you either burst emotionally or cash all the stamps in.

Some instances of things that you will collect, lateness, belittling comments, not calling, snoring, watching TV (Sports or Soaps), not making you dinner or a drink there are lots of examples.

The idea of stamp collecting is something we all do subconsciously, as we are afraid to challenge them at the time because they are so small. However everything that is “stamp collected” was probably derived from a behaviour that was also subconscious

So how do we prevent us from “stamp collecting” and the inevitable outcome when the book is full?

The answer to everything is forgiveness, such as the blossom tree showers us with unconditional love and kisses we need to do this, not to others but to OURSELVES.

I bet you thought that this would be something that other had to change huh? Well holding a grudge is your behaviour it always was. Once you accept that there is not one thing you can do or say, that will change a person’s behaviour or how they think then you are on the road towards a happy life.

However you are in control of YOU, there are things that you can do to prevent the subconscious stamps even being presented to you from other people in your lives. This of course is to change you.

So how do I change me? Well first things first do you recognise some of the statements below, have you said them to yourself?

· I am so stupid, I always drop things
· I look so ugly / fat they would never like me
· I am so not good enough for him / her / job / activity

We have all said these things to ourselves at one stage in our life, we are so hard on ourselves and every piece of emotion of self doubt, self loathing and self demeaning we all manifest ourselves.

So where do we start? We forgive OURSELVES.

I do appreciate how this may sound, and have received more negative e-mails about my blog’s than positive ones so know what cynicism is out there. What I am about to tell you has worked for every person who has highly achieved, every person who has beaten illness such as cancer, every person who has been so disabled but an injury that a miracle could even described there recovery.

Every one of them did one thing and one thing only and that was used the power of POSTIVE AFFIRMATIONS.

Let me draw a line under something before we move on, as affirmations work in other ways if you spend all your time stating “I want ……” you will spend your entire life in the state of wanting. I am talking about “I am”.

So onto Positive Affirmations, the purpose is to use what ever you desire in your life and use it in the present tense. (Or as I like to call it – The Cat Food List)

You need to develop your Cat Food list, shall we call it IAMS. These are the phrases that you will repeat to yourself over and over again in the bathroom mirror in the morning and evening and throughout your day.

IAMS List

1. I am a great person with a loving family and lots of friends
2. I am a healthy person who loves life
3. My job is great, fun and bring financial stability to my life
4. I am sexy, good looking with a body of a Greek god (this is my one)
5. I truly accept and love myself – I recommend this one to all

I think you all get the gist of what we need to do. I have read the testimonials of hundreds of people who have, with the power of affirmations cured them selves and it would take an emotionally devoid human not to be affected by these stories.

Affirmations also lead you towards every goal you want in life, as it has the power to heal inside it also has the power to put a desire into play or force an action for your dream and vision.

I highly recommend and if this does interest you and you want to bring into your life the power of affirmations then you should read one book by one person, this book you have never heard of but has sold 35 million copies world wide. It is written by Louise L. Hay and is called “You can heal your life”. I try not to push other peoples ideas as we must all go on our own journey, but I am just giving you a little nudge on this one.

I love the quote “Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself” by Suzanne Somers and we should treat ourselves to this one.

The headline quote from Mark Twain who is developing into a personal favourite of mine just needs to be absorbed. He has no peers when he writes his prose, which is full of melody and beauty and sums up the essence of my blog.
I leave you with a Powerful affirmation for you all to use; “I now go beyond people’s fears and limitation. I create my life”

Do you?

The Divine Wood's

2009-04-19T21:57:00.003+01:00

“He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it” – Voltaire

Personal development happens everyday on a sub-conscious level, however when you consciously develop, epiphanies and moments of clarity happen without warning, and in some cases make 34 years of existence, make sense.

I do say that we develop sub-consciously and this does include absorbing the negative environment you visit, create and absorb.

This week, (twice) an old habit was re-discovered a habit that developed over 25 years ago.

So we begin the story, I lived in a place called Belvedere, which in short in an industrialised town near the Thames which is not, one of the let’s say focus borough’s of our capital city. Belvedere is split into two halves (Upper & Lower) and in Italian translates as “pleasant view”. This is somewhat an oxymoron as Upper Belvedere was the more affluent, overlooking the industrialised valley, were the indigent shook their fearful fists at the continued investment and services provided to our lofty neighbours.

I lived in Lower Belvedere.

The East side of Belvedere however did have a juicy green sandwich filling of ancient woodlands called Franks Park. This is the background for today’s blog; my Street where I resided for my childhood, led to the far west lower entrance to the woodland where the majority of my childhood was spent.

Thinking back, I was probably what you would call an “Indigo Child” although my presence could also have the affect of maybe if they boiled me down my bones they could make glue. However I was quite an earth loving child and loved nothing better than walking through the woods. It came as know surprise that as every child, a special place was found by me to visit.

This special place as remembered was only reached by a journey, which consisted of entering at the top of my road by turning left onto the worn country path, this path skewed further into the woodland. The next landmark was a naturally formed 30 foot quarter pipe, this part of the journey could be treacherous and gypsies where known to drive stolen mopeds down the mud quarter pipe, so always approach tentatively and be prepared to detour if required, as the outcome would usually to be robbed and going home with no clothes on, as the robbing of dignity was our only personal value.

Once you reach the quarter pipe you climb carefully until you reach its apex and then walk directly ahead into the dense woodland until the ancient path stops. Then in front of you about 20 paces you will come across a large crater which has about a 100 foot circumference and 50 foot deep, there is a little clearing near the edge and this is an area for you to sit.

In the crater there floor is always covered in natural growing flowers, and my memory always showed Bluebells. The crater was encircled by tall silver birch trees which were supporting the weighty baritone calls of the owls and providing the spring board for foraging and playful squirrels.

This hidden oasis always reminded me of a wooded themed inverted snow globe, and to me represented nature as it should be. I also fantasised about bringing people from throughout the world; that lived in deserts, remote islands, undiscovered planets and other spiritual realms to witness the paradise amidst the furnace of Earthly Hades.

My special place never disappointed no matter what season we were in, as when it rained the canopy protected me and kept me dry, when it is was summer it kept me cool and the haven was more special due to the rays breaking through live yellow hued beams, when it was autumn the wind could not penetrate the natural breaks, but the most special was the spring when you actually did not care what happened, as the spectacle of nature laid before your eyes energised your soul.

So why did I come to this place? It was because when young I knew there was an obvious benefit on having some time alone, and allowing you to be re-energised. Some of my deepest thoughts occurred in this place, and my views on the universe are now aligned to my thoughts as a 10 year old boy.

I did discover something in this place amongst the classic elements of Earth, Wind, Water & Fire, and that was the glue that holds all of this together, and what is known as the quintessential element, Spirit.

I knew at 10 years old that you need to take time out for yourself, observe nature and re-energise yourself. This gave me as a 10 year old, spirit, and assisted in my development through my formative years. I went on a quiet spiritual journey like a toe rag Dalai Lama for the next couple of years. Then it stopped.

The reason it stopped could be explained by a number of clichés that every pre-pubescent and teenage boy goes through and this maybe is another story. The indigo child’s did not burn out, it faded away.

I forgot how to re-energise myself, and those heady days nearly 25 years ago, when we were scolded for running upstairs are distant memories, compared to me being out of breath walking up two flights of steps

I will admit that my inner hand was raised, and asked myself the question of why I do not have energy. The answer was literally staring at me.

Like everyone, I have goals and a plan on how to live my life fully. On my Harmonic Wealth plan (Shout out to James Arthur Ray) one section which was of course coded under Physical, was titled go for a walk in the woods!

This has now been changed to spiritual, but for that day chose the physical aspect of it. I packed up my crystals (been trying everything for more energy, even meditation but got lost – another story) and went for that walk.

I currently reside in a hamlet of Colchester called Highwood’s, so the woodland is not too far away. I started my walk past Highwood’s Square, past the Swedish Dentist’s and towards Eastwood Drive via a tarmac cut through. It was this point when my memory was jimmied open by the crow bar of realization. This bolt happened as I walked, as either side of this tarmac my senses were overpowered by the scents of blossoms and sweet Rosemary wafting through the proud owner’s front gardens, astride the black asphalt highway to my destiny.

With my senses near climax my journey continued towards the park, the approach to the park is through a nest of 1980’s mock Tudor large family homes and could almost feel the negative equity oozing from the soul of the abodes.

As you enter the park you are astounded by the vista of ancient Colchester which is the oldest recorded town in Britain, but below in a valley, is Highwood’s park. I start my descent down towards the lake, I stop and look at the Ducks and appreciate them on behalf of my daughter Lilith, who is mad on Ducks. I take a seat on a bench on the far side of the lake and take in the beauty and the symbiotic relationship all of the insects, birds, fish & mammals have with this lake. This is very powerful and humbles man to such a degree that his soul must be damned if he creates any harm towards nature.

I take my leave and make my way towards the adjacent woodland and find a trail and follow the woodland path. At around 100 metres on the left there is a dead tree that has another dead tree entwined, was this a symbol? Maybe, but as my fallibility as a Human is my only true fixed behaviour my walk continues. The path is followed until you come to a cross roads, and do an about turn as there does not seem to be any road that I want to follow and make my way back.

On the way back but to my right this time, the landmark of the two dead entwined trees appears on my horizon. I approach as normal as this sight has not been paid any conscious mind, when I stop to check my phone (phantom buzz). I then look up and to the right of these two dead trees were a circle of trees and these trees happen to be silver birch.

I stop in my tracks admiring the phenomenon as have only ever seen silver birch grown in a circle before. This moment is like a single man standing in front of the Hoover dam when it breaks, however the metaphor is me versus the flood of my spiritual youth and how the energy refreshed me. I walked into the circle.

The energy was there, but it was always there but the symbolism had brought it back. The feeling was hard to put into words but imagine clarity of thought followed by your head feeling warm, then the heat pulsing through your body out of your hands and feet and leaving behind skin so cold that you are head to toe with goose bumps.

The clarity of thought in that one moment answered a lot of my questions, but one thing needed validation. I reached into my pocket and took out a crystal which has only been used once before (to predict the sex of my daughter). This was a powerful dowsing crystal on a chain and had been in a nest of four other crystals. I needed to ask one question, this one question is always a closed question.

“Am I on the right path?” turn clock wise for Yes, and anti clockwise for No, I then asked the question again “Am I on the right path?” turn anti clockwise for Yes, and clockwise for No.

The blog was written today to highlight something to three people that I am currently coaching, and can be summed up by the quote from Voltaire, “He, who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it”.

This is simply to me, stating that if you adopt the misery of Now then you can not find the spirit of Now. A good place however to start to find your spirit or inner happiness is by asking yourself the question, “where am I the most happiest?”

This place is maybe where you can re-energise yourself to take the journey or stop one that you were not meant to go. So if it feels right do it!

Sometimes you have to trust yourself as we all veer off course especially when we can’t read the signs.

So what did the crystal tell me? Well it told me what I already knew, that is what ever feels like the right path, then you take it. However, you are helped along the way, all you have to do is to read the signs – just follow your subconscious Sat Nav.

Divination may take you off course, now that is a metaphor!

Scott x

I write this Blog with a secular outlook, and everything in a spiritual sense should be taken as a metaphor, as it is from my own experience.

The purpose of this blog is mainly to help with my writing style, and have purposely portrayed myself between self depreciation and arrogance. The reason for this is to gain feedback from my mentor to develop myself as a character as the 3rd person in my new writing project.

Feedback, including negative is very welcomed.

Pringles

2009-04-12T21:41:00.001+01:00

“Don’t fear the robot, let the robot fear you” – Smithy, speaking to Peter Crouch (England Footballer)

Happy Easter to you all and hope you have all spent time with family today, so let’s take an opportunity to think about what this period symbolises.

You all know me by now, so of course my own alternative view will be offered and will start with Easter’s origins in Pagan England and Europe.

The festival of Eostre, who was the Goddess of Spring, was held on the vernal equinox of the 21st March. The essence of the festival was to worship the “re-birth of the earth” this festival was quite popular with the farming communities across Europe so it was easy to identify how the symbolism was adopted by the early Christians.

Of course the festival was fused with the date of the resurrection of Jesus, however the exact date is governed now by the Lunisolar calendar, however the ecclesiastical date is now fixed to the 21st March (I have seen that date somewhere before).

Now onwards to today’s blog; the theme is re-birth and the period is not just about fresh starts, for me it would be to face my own fear. I have read through my last few blog’s and it would seem that the negative comments concerning chat magazine and Pringles would be the perfect subject for me to “face my fear, and do it anyway”.

The idea for this blog came from a wonderful coincidence, which have been happening a lot more since starting this blog and my voyage on my Spiritual journey have been littered with them. This will be a subject covered in one of my upcoming blog’s however this coincidence was manifested from my own subconscious.

The manifestation came by the way of a visceral idea that consumed me whilst was coaching someone last week and a shopping trip, the idea on the surface, is childish but perfect and embracing my two nemesis’s Pringles and Chat Magazine’s Top Text Tips.

The manifestation of that idea was inspired from my greatest fear, this fear was communicated to you all via my blog’s and what struck me, was how my subconscious bit me back, this moment was like when Luke Skywalker saw good in his father Darth Vader and when he saw it, the power he gave to that thought lit the spark within Vader which in turn fired his good side, and it spread all over his beaten, mechanical body until goodness consumed him.

Now back to the idea, which has probably been over dramatized, but that’s how I roll baby. The idea was simple and it involved me gathering the following elements, these raw materials of nature are precious so be careful.

You will need;
· 3 Empty Clean Pringles Tubes (if not empty then stuff yourself with contents immediately)
· Sticky back plastic (cello tape)
· Angle Grinder
· Wrapping paper (plain, non festival related)
· Scissors, child ones (don’t run with them, really I mean it!)
· Pipe cleaners
· Coloured pens / pencils / crayons / pens / glitter
· An old shirt inside out so that you do not get paint on you (if we did use paint)
· 3D Glasses – because they look cool
· Shiny things
· A happy face with obligatory jazz hands
· Large block of memo pads, multi-coloured if possible

Now once you have all the ingredients you will be able to make the vision created by vengeful subconscious. You will be making and decorating three tubes and they are to be as colourful and aesthetically pleasing as possible because they will be used daily.

So what is the purpose of these tubes?, well we have all heard of vision boards, life plans, law of attraction and expensive self held tools that are designed to help you go reaching your higher self whilst along the way manifesting abundant wealth (that rhymes J ) These tools will guaranteed will achieve exactly the same results as if you purchased these items from the “Guru’s” (sometimes for a lot of money)

The selection of tube are what will now be know as “Attitubes”, I am English so Pun’s are a way of life for me.

The first “Attitube” is what we call the “Gratitube” this shiny tube will have the aforementioned name emblazoned across it. The purpose of the tube is to every morning write on a memo pad sheet things that you are grateful for. These will include your siblings, your partner, your cappuccino maker or your replica Legolas Bow and Arrow. The art of saying thank you is an important part of our nature and on our path to become truly altruistic you must thank everything in your life.

The second “Attitube” is called the “Magnitube” this sexy little tube will have it’s name in shiny things as it will the tube that will attract all the of things that you want in life. This is the Ask, Believe and Receive tube. As above you also have to place a note when you want to ask the universe to manifest your dreams. These will include the spiritual elements you want to bring to your life

The third “Attitube” is called the “Aptitube” this clever little tube will be the tube to place all of your inspiring thoughts and idea’s. Those little nuggets of genius, that flash across our minds, which sometimes we don’t have belief in ourselves to act upon. This tube welcomes all ideas and planting them in the tube they will organically grow and enough belief with a vision and a plan will allow it to manifest.

Now all the above come with a Gremlins style warning, you are responsible for your own “attitubes” you can only attract things into your own life and cannot attract things into the lives of others. However you could always help them to help themselves by convincing them to ask for themselves. All these tubes will give a home to your thoughts, thanks, visions and dreams. These will organically grow and prosper if you give it the correct nutrients and food. Theses are of course belief and a clear vision of how you want these into your life.

And finally….

Place these attitubes in a place you will be every morning, as the habit of feeding these tubes will help you bring abundance, health, wealth, dreams and manifest your creative genius.

Now my manifestation, which used a reference by Smithy came into my head quite vividly, and was brought on in quite a normal day to day experience, the experience of shopping in Tesco’s and my wandering mind using robot moves to remove items from the shelves and placing them in my trolley. I do this a lot when shopping by myself. I am 34 years old and will shop like a robot.

Now the quote is a gentle ribbing about Peter Crouch refusing to do the robot dance every time he scores, must to the dismay of the English nation. We as a nation all love a loser and Peter Crouch represents everyone who has a dream but just don’t quite fit in and is quite like the Billy Elliott of football. He is 6ft 7in, skinny, gangly and awkward looking and to quote Smithy “everything about you, tell me that you should be rubbish at football, but your not, you are brilliant”

The quote though resonated to me on another level and what my manifestation brought forward in my conscious mind.

You see the Robot is us, our conscious self and representation of society which allows us to be pigeon holed due to our appearance and ability. The YOU is our subconscious self and the quote to me says that the Robot is not to be feared and the robot should fear us, our subconscious or maybe our higher self!

Now the above concept when you fully embrace it is quite a powerful statement, it is the blind person who chooses to see again, it’s the terminal cancer patient who cures themselves and go into complete remission, it is the feats of athletes who overcome injury and reach the highest pinnacle in their sport, it is the triumphant underdog who was given zero chance, it is the Buster Douglas’s, the Nelson Mandela’s, the Charles Darwin’s, The Albert Einstein’s, The Stephen Hawkings, the Isaac Newton’s and Scott Everest’s of the world who all did not “fear the robot, they let the robot fear them”

This can also be translated into our day-to-day fears, and my inspiration from Susan Jeffers great book “feel the fear, and do it anyway” coupled with the Easter holiday of re-birth means that you can get your greatest inspiration from facing our fear, overcoming it and using it to our advantage. (A bit of Sun Tzu thrown in for good measure)

I am off now to write a quick note to chat magazine and take some pictures of my “Attitubes”, there is £50 for every story published.

“Scottitube”

I would like to thank everyone who has joined my GLAD friends exchange; this is a concept that will be further explored with a GLAD charity planned, which will offer respite and play centres for children with disabilities and there siblings to play and be in a safe environment.
Also to offer parents coaching and motivation sessions with the intention of topping up there spiritual well being and create a network of support. All of the above will be accompanied by my second book, which a rough outline is already written.

Pollyanna

2009-04-05T20:10:00.002+01:00

“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars” - Henry Van Dyke

This week has been a veritable success for me as something was said to me that I have longed to hear, not consciously but my hidden self that had been fighting to get out needed to hear that validation.

A colleague said to me “I hate your type of people, your always so bloody positive”

Wow, I thanked him for his feedback and apologised for ruining his mood, naturally the comment was not meant to be malicious, just made out of frustration on his part.

This did make me ponder for a few moments and it was concrete evidence of how far I had come.

Several months ago, I would have talked jive with him, validated his conspiracy and generally after the conversation not feel that great at all.

Now inside my mind flashed, like an arc light searching for a hidden piece of knowledge or metaphor that could help me out chatter my potential next negative thought and it dropped into my head, POLLYANNA!

Now Pollyanna, for all you guys who are not familiar with American children’s literature from the pre World War 1, was a book written by Eleanor H Porter. The book was about a little girl (Pollyanna) who could only see the positive side to every situation and called this the “Glad Game”

The premise of the book was that she was sent to live with a wicked Auntie but was so positive she affected everyone around her. One day she had an accident and lost the use of her legs but all the people who she had touched returned the “Glad game” and Pollyanna was happy again.

The whole idea of the “Glad game” is to find something positive in every situation and to be gleefully excited about every challenge that came our way.

What if we all live our life this way?

I can hear the cynics at the back (I am putting on a deep monotone voice to condescend you know)

“You cannot be happy all the time”

“Life is not like that”

“You have no idea what I have been through”

“Are Ewok’s, midget wookie’s?”

“This is unrealistic”

So what would be the outcome if all of Mankind played the “Glad Game”?

1. No world wars?
2. No famine?
3. No conflict?
4. No Jeremy Kyle?
5. No Chat Magazine, Top text tips?

Of course this is unrealistic as one characteristic that separates human beings is there individual ability to be altruistic in nature; however this can only be measured by extreme egotism.

You see for the universe to maintain its equilibrium you need to maintain the status quo of good & evil, positive & negative, night & day and light & dark. This is a sobering thought but the “glad game still holds it relevance.

So let’s get back to the “glad Game” for everyone who sees the best in everything you have someone who sees the “worst in everything”. I am not saying that this is even purposeful as a reaction. The Antonym to “Glad” is of course “Sorry” so what if we played the sorry game”
It would sound like this;

“SORRY DON’T likes it really”
“SORRY BUT what about this ……”
“SORRY HOW can we do that….”
“SORRY MAYBE, don’t know”

Now for the “Glad game”

“I am so GLAD you showed me and I really like it”
“I am so GLAD and grateful you told me, and it sound a great idea”
“I am so GLAD we have an opportunity to figure that out together”
“I am so GLAD you asked me that, I will work so hard to find you an answer”

We are all unique individuals and we all have great ideas, dreams and burning ambition within us all. How often have you met someone who you shared your idea that was either playing the “Glad Game” or the “Sorry Game”?

I think if we are all honest with each other we don’t all have a cheering squad all spelling out “GLAD” with Pom Pom’s all of the time, this of course is the whole point of my blog today.

This is because the “Glad Game” cannot be played alone and we all need someone to play it with, a society or fellowship who will cheer your every move unconditionally. This is what we all search for with every relationship, every job, with every colleague, every friend and family member.

This week one book that I had avoided for quite a while but is a must for everyone who wants to self develop was “Feel the fear, and do it anyway” – Susan Jeffers. I can also see the irony of the situation however the blog today has been inspired by the book.

One part in particular was about a guy who used to be criminal, Gangster and drug addict and was one day shot in the gut and was paralysed from the waist down.

He was disabled by the bullet and during his recovery no doubt was playing the “Sorry Game” and lashed out to the world, he did through positive thinking and the realisation that he was responsible for his own happiness changed and started to leave a positive life.

The crux of the story which was one of my inspirations for the blog was a scenario that was described when he was helping out as a volunteer and looking after all the kids. The kids were of course attracted to him because of his personality and they all felt comfortable enough for him to facilitate lots of questions.

One of the questions he asked to the kids was, “what they thought a handicapped person wanted most”?

Without hesitation one of the children shouted out “Friends”, he answered “that’s right” then all the children spontaneously jumped up and all hugged him all saying “I will be your friend”

That did get me and choked a bit when reading that part of the book as we can all relate to that and the endearing nature of the children who all were playing “The Glad Game” but did it subconsciously.

This did get me thinking and an old idea popped back into my head, something that I had thought about at the beginning of my journey and was originally put down as a frustration thought. (I should trust my instincts) The idea was that I wish that I had a friend who thought in exactly the same way as me and wish that there was a network of support that could help.

The idea was a website that you could advertise oneself and looking for someone similar that you could mutually be each others cheering squad, someone who you could text, call, e-mail, instant message or meet with and discuss your ideas and like-for–like thoughts.

Now to develop you have to be altruistic, but you got to want to do it. I am taking action and have developed a Facebook group called the “Glad Friends Exchange”
Click to join.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=79946562541&ref=mf

The mission statement for the group is to provide a meeting place for people to selflessly advertise themselves to join a circle of “Glad” you can add the person as a friend and then help each other through as each others cheering squad.

Now for those who know me, I do love an acronym and to focus on the purpose of the “Glad Friends Exchange” an acronym is as follows;
G – Giving
L – Love (unconditional)
A – Abounding
D- Direction

The opening of blog was me seeing “Glad” in a negative experience and we all have to look at everything in our life as an opportunity.

I am so glad of every bad thing that happened in my life, as then I did not know how to be happy and learn through it, but do now. J

“When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will” - Abraham Lincoln, Inscription on Pollyanna's locket, a gift from her father

If you did like the above please leave a comment, I am so happy you are reading this.

Waiting for the beat to kick in........

2009-03-29T19:22:00.002+01:00

“Action is the foundational key to all success” - Pablo Picasso

Waiting for the beat to kick in……..

I spend a lot of time thinking about my blog’s and the subject matter, sometimes a simple thought would pop into my head or in this case a memory, that thought would inspire me to plan and formulate some kind of sense and hopefully you can feel my personality come through into my writing, which is the main objective of all these postings.

The thought recollected was from probably around the Summer of 1994, myself and some friends had driven down to Lydd Airport in Kent to attend world dance, this was just a mega line up of all the worlds best DJ’s, with the event held in a large hanger with 10,000 like minded people.

If you have ever seen the film “The Butterfly effect” you will appreciate that some times even the most innocuous moments of your past which you noticed at the time but dismissed will become clear some 15 years later.

The moment which I recalled was a Euphoric song that started off quite slow, with a soft beat and a piano synthed intro, and my body was between swaying back and forth and my particular favourite move was bouncing and my tip toes up and down waiting for the beat to kick in, because then and only then I will dance.

So back to the present this moment made me think that maybe all of my life I have been waiting for the beat to kick in, but it never does. So maybe the key to becoming a success was not to wait for anything to have but to make my own beat and go along to that.

It was quite a powerful moment, which did prompt me to stop and think and make a decision that the pace of my life will now be dictated by me and me only, and the pace that will be chosen will have a beat that I will dance to and never stop.

I have spoke about love in quite a few posts so feel it is time to speak about wealth, and how to achieve a sustained harmonic and balanced wealthy lifestyle.

Becoming wealthy in all areas would include, what James Arthur Ray would call Harmonic Wealth in five areas; Spiritual, Mental, Financial, Physical and Relational.

I do believe that the same behaviour would help you achieve all of the above, so how can you do this and what should you do?

I cannot possibly know this and your circumstances, however I will talk you through my views and some parables which you may be able to relate to and maybe take something out of it.

The Ask, Believe and receive mantra has been a theme in previous blog’s which is the basic foundation of the Law of Attraction but this is now not being achieved by the fear generated by today’s media with the credit crunch, murder, terrorism, corruption, Knife Crime, Tesco’s and the worst offender of them all Chat Magazine.

Now how is Chat Magazine destroying harmonic wealth across the nation and world?

Of course this is only part of the problem and can only speak about only a small fraction of the issue, but hope you will see the underlying theme.

So back to Chat Magazine and the public enemy No 1 soul destroying column that is called “Top Text Tips!”

The offending column is an opportunity for readers to text in there top tips in saving money within the household due to the economic climate. Now one item drew my attention and was an idea to re-use a Pringles tube as a replacement for a Spaghetti Pasta Jar.

Now you will wonder just what my beef is, I have no particular issue just what this represents, but the behaviour it encourages.

Now let’s get this straight, a recession is when banks do not lend money and is linked to property – stay with me on this. An example of a recession was the start of the great depression in 1929 in America. This era is particularly interesting as more Millionaires and Entrepreneurs prospered in this time than most.

This phenomenon was created by there behaviour and that their focus was solely on creating wealth, whilst everyone else’s focus was on thriftiness and the disparity of the situation.

Now energy flows where attention goes and the attention then was on creativity.

Now back to the offending Pringle Tube, this act of thriftiness was created by one thing and one thing only and that my friend is called FEAR!

Now previously my mantra has been keeping “the accent on the positive” and will put a different spin on the whole scenario.

Now lets have two people, both have exactly the same income and roughly the same outgoings. To save time let’s just say they both have magazine subscriptions for the same amount of money but one subscribes to Chat Magazine and the other subscribes to Fortune Magazine.

They both take an active part in following the articles with the person who subscribes to chat is emotionally charged by reading about gruesome murders, sad stories about children and ways to re-use household items in pure thriftiness fashion. This person is also exposed to advertising that would appeal to their demographic.

Now the other person is reading Fortune Magazine and is exposed to institutions which offer the best rates of compound interest and opportunities to invest. The positive stories about like-minded people, who have made a success of their life, really inspire their own situation.

I believe the latter will become wealthier quicker; this will because of the investment they give themselves which will create a harmonic wealth of Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Financial and Relational.

Something that I heard many years ago which has stayed with me is something by the eminent Tom Peters which is an open question. “Do you spend each year more on your Car, or your education?” – A powerful statement.

Now the above can help with waiting for the beat to kick in but fundamentally I believe it will only kick in if you were to rid yourself completely of all negative influences.

There is an example that I will use, that will make you reconsider something that we call in England a “National Treasure” that is the sitcom “Only Fools and Horses”

Now the premise of the sitcom, which ran for decades was two brothers, one older (Del Boy) who was put in a situation to look after a younger sibling (Rodney) when his Mother died. There were supporting characters in the unique family unit firstly “Grandad” then “Uncle Albert”.

Now the business of “Del Boy” was that of Entrepreneur of let’s just say goods of questionable origin. The audience showed quite an affectionate empathy towards him as he had such a positive outlook on life and was outgoing, extrovert and personable to everybody he encountered on a day-to-day basis, a classic lovable rogue, the anti-hero and underdog.

He had a strap line (one of many) and he often quoted “this time next year we will be millionaires” we all kept our fingers crossed that this would happen.

Now this was in contrast to his younger brother “Rodney” who was reflective of his age group and came across as moronic, depressive, work shy and the opposite in every way of “Del Boy”. For every positive quip was met by a sarcastic damp squib response.

Del Boy saw as his duty to raise and protect his brother as it was at the behest of his dying mother, even if it meant not achieving his dream at pace as he often slowed down to challenge and listen to the negativity and become involved in or perpetrated an absurd situation.

Although there was a happy outcome towards the end of the sitcom (many, many years later), I often thought to myself what would have happened if he removed the negativity from his life and just went for it?

My suggestion would probably been a shorter run of the sitcom and the character may not of been as well loved as he was.

I use this as an example as when you are waiting for the beat to kick in, having negative people around you may cause you to either;

· Miss the beat

· Forget about the beat

· No longer care about the beat

· Find a different beat that could be negative

I hope you understand the above, and one simple method and one that has been revealed to me through my self education, is to remove negative people from my life, even if I love them. Just spending less time around them would improve my situation.

A simple way is to write down several lists of names one with family, one with friends, one with clients and one with colleagues. Against every name mark either a negative or a positive symbol. Then agree with yourself to spend more time with the people with a positive symbol against spending less or no time with people with a negative symbol.

I think you life will change dramatically just carrying out the above.

The last action to help you with “waiting for the beat to kick in” is something that my son Johnnie has recently inspired me to think about, and will now make a firm behaviour in my life.

This was revealed last week, and was made in an innocuous statement by the Speech and Development consultant at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. As you know Johnnie has Apert Syndrome as is quite high on the Autism spectrum, and we were discussing that Johnnie does not really like to play with small toys, but he really enjoys bouncing, dancing and swimming.

This was explained to me and Julie that it is because he is more interested in full body experiences and that stimulates him more, I must admit that Johnnie throws himself into these physical experiences a lot and he was always more animated and creative when I was bouncing him on my knee and throwing his around the room like superman.

Some of the biggest leaps in Johnnie’s life have come from full body experiences and this continues to be his greatest outlet and opportunity of learning more skills as his gets older.

Now let’s just think about this more a moment, surely the above can be used for a metaphor for our own lives, our own experience and instead of “waiting for the beat to kick in”, we just start dancing!

Now did Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Alan Sugar all wait for the beat to kick in? Or did they all start dancing before everyone else did? Maybe everybody stopped and stared at them and made negative comments as to how stupid they looked, or that they would never be caught dancing without music.

The fully body experience, the removal of negativity and focus purely on wealth is what separates everyone who just sits and waits for the beat to kick in, to the people who create there own beat with imagination and creative vision.

Snap, bang drop the bass! The music has started and the beat has dropped and this signals everyone to dance; we are back at World Dance in Lydd Airport and it is 1994 and 9,999 people start dancing because the beat has kicked in, but guess what, the only one (me) had already started dancing before the beat.

I have the license to change my past; you have too and just did not know it, until now.

There is a lot children can teach us, However, will refrain from falling asleep with a face caked in Petis Filou and Fish Fingers – Love you Johnnie x

Now the quote on the top line; “Action is the foundational key to all success” so do not wait for the beat to kick in, kick that beat in you positive dancing wealth seeker.

Peace out.

I posted a blog this Wednesday, so click to read if you missed it. http://scotteverest.blogspot.com/2009/03/five-star-apology-and-validation.html

Five Star Apology and Validation Experiment

2009-03-25T21:32:00.002Z

“And I felt sorry, and I have felt bad about what happened”. - Monica Lewinsky

Something occurred to me today, that it was 20 years ago that one of the most shameful episodes of my life transpired.

It was April 1989, I was 14 years of age and of course, was a bit of, let’s say a clichéd teenager.

My sister (who was 10) and I were watching Saturday morning television and enjoying Going Live, when to my horror Five Star was appearing in the phone in live. Now why was this to my horror? At the time Five Star, were my sister’s favourite band and proved to be quite annoying to a pubescent teenager.

A bit of history, or even some recognition of my plight with other older siblings, my sister, if she liked something her main tribute to it was to watch it daily (repeatedly , we are talking Grease 1 & 2, Dirty Dancing or Care Bears the Movie! I have lost count of the times when I have been subjected to such things and still very emotionally scarred. (Will EFT this later)

However back to the story, I thought that this is an opportunity to get back at my sister for my torment and then to transfer my anger towards Five Star, the proverbial two birds one stone jobbies.

I dialled the number; then to my amazement go through and was put on the spot and was asked my name and where I was from. The where I was from part is something that I do not recall saying, but my name was derived from the boy from ET (Eliot) and Dexter (Fletcher) from press gang. (I am amused every time one of his films comes on TV)

I put on a young accent for the phone in on the show so that everything would appear normal and the moment came and was put through.

I urge you all to click the link as it is immortalised on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_s6aOp23M

I did panic for a bit, my sister ran upstairs crying and threatened to tell Mother, and thought that the police were coming to get me. My Mum was working so I was at the time the responsible person in the house looking after my sister Stacey and my 5 year old brother Dean, who just used to talk and play with himself all day, so was not much trouble.

The point at the time was of course to take pleasure in abusing someone, and some kind of sibling revenge on my sister but in all honesty I did not feel good after it at all.

I have regaled this story across the land and revelled in the legendary status that it afforded me within my peer group. So when this behaviour is validated by your friends what do you do next? Yep you carry on that behaviour because you think it is acceptable.

I have touched on this subject before in a previous blog and my journey to my success but now of course, is my apology.

Dear Denise, Doris, Lorraine, Stedman and Delroy (Five Star)

I “Scott Everest” apologises and am deeply sorry for my behaviour, the opportunity to be on “Going live” was to promote yourselves to a young audience and to entertain and brighten your fans lives.

This was ruined by me, because of my juvenile behaviour and in retrospect there is nothing that can change what has happened.

However in your honour and to preserve your legacy there is an experiment that will be carried out in your name. This is called the Five Star Validations.

I and others who want to heel negative relationships will validate Five things about them and to demonstrate how we feel and the positive things we see about them.

I trust that everyone who reads my blog’s will provide some validation to any person who they want to re-heal a relationship with.

My five Star Validations (one for each of you)

1. Stedman – I admire the dedication and effort you take on your appearance

2. Delroy – The melodies that you provided when producing the music inspired a generation of young people to dance

3. Denise – Your performance in the new west end musical – Thriller is a combination of your hard work, dedication to song writing and talent

4. Doris – As a choreographer you brought the medium of dance to a whole generation and inspired many with your innovative movements.

5. Lorraine – As the spokes person of the group you were the public voice and your new career as a writer will carry your voice for generations to come.

So although even this still amuses me to this day my behaviour still does not make me feel good about myself. These are two different states.

I have released the negative feeling that was experienced but to write the above validations has drawn the line underneath and can now move on.

There is so much to apologise for in life but one of my affirmation is “Scott, just don’t beat yourself up about stuff” the best way to apologise is to live my life better each day and create more positivism.

The link, for the Five Star Validation Facebook group is below. So invite your friends, as would love to read about your validations.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59927528228&ref=mf

I did promise a lighter posting today so hope you enjoyed this short but hopefully powerful blog.

Releasing negative emotions is something that is of primary interest to me and two methods I have used are;

Sedona Method – click link http://www.sedona.com/html/What-Is-the-Sedona-Method.aspx

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique – click link http://www.emofree.com/

Hope the above works out for you, there is lots of free materials you can get on emotional release. Let me know how you get on and please leave feedback on the blog.

“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation”. - Michael Jordan

Cancer

2009-03-22T22:43:00.002Z

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't” – Richard Back

A quick note for everybody who read my last blog; a Christian fatwa may not be necessary as I concede you are right. Everything that you believe and everything that I believe is correct! Our own individual perception is reality.

Let’s just be friends : ) put all your hateful energy towards love xxxxxxxx

Cancer; a nice cheery subject, but due to today’s news with Jade Goody sadly passing away it was time to bring forward a planned blog.

Information on Jade Goody, for my international readers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Goody

I would like to state that what Jade went through (cervical cancer) I can never understand how she felt, or how anyone feels or experiences. All that I can do is talk about my own experience.

“My own experience”, what? now you are all intrigued well let’s get this party started.

It was spring 2000 that I finally worked up the courage to speak with my doctor, like all men my limiting belief was that Doctors only care about the Elderly, Children and Female adults. You see I was 25 years old and suppose to be in my prime so a visit to the doctor would in my mind be met with the usual disdain.

The reason that I had to see the doctor was that I had a lump on my right chest; this lump had been there for around 3 years. I of course had become quite conscious of this lump and developed a nervous tick whereupon I would pull upon the material of whatever top that I was wearing between the breastbone as the lump was quite pronounced.

The doctor examined me and quite surprisingly did not send me away but referred me to the breast care clinic in James Pagent Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Naturally of course this was kept very private as there does seem to be quite a stigma with this sort of thing with men, and assumed that my situation would be aptly mocked by both friends and colleagues alike.

I kept the appointment and attended the surgery at the hospital, the waiting room as you would expect was full of a wide age range of female patients with the exception of me. There was high volume of nurse support on hand to assist emotionally where required.

My name was called, even if my appointment was 2 hours prior there were of course cases of a higher priority before me. I was asked to go to a cubicle and not the private consultation room as every other patient had been invited too. The cubicle has a consultant surgeon awaiting me with an added gathering of student doctors. The pleasantries were exchanged about if there presence would be a problem, naturally you dare not disagree.

The examination took place and the surgeon showed concern about the lump and again asked my permission if some of the students could also examine me and he invited them to examine me. I did find this humiliating.

An open quiz then ensued with a star prize (the surgeons respect was the bonus) all were invited to guess what the “man” has. I listened to opinions from cysts to fatal tumours and man boobs to excess fluid. To my joy no-one was right as the surgeon pulled a swerve on them all and stated that there was no way of knowing and that my age and gender suggested that it was probably not cancer but he needed a biopsy or removal of the lump for further investigation. He also kindly suggested that he will book me in for surgery within the next 12 weeks.

I did appreciate that after a few minutes he addressed me personally, the conversation began to feel like an out of body experience so the following explanation (dumbed down) was of course sarcastically received.

After hearing my diagnosis from the fastest buzzer game show, I was led from the cubicle and informed that a date for the operation would be sent to me in due course and that a week before the operation would be required to have an ultrasound in a pre op clinic.

I was in a daze and quite frightened and isolated, my journey past all the nurses and volunteers who were on hand to counsel the recently diagnosed with family and to offer support was quick, and quite glad that no one reached out to help me, stop me or advise me on what to expect.

I am a Man and this should be easy to handle, right?

So what did I do next? You guessed it. NOTHING!

I told no-one, this was not for want of trying as desperately wanted to speak about it, but the stigma of the situation would have brought me derision, this was my limiting belief.

This went on for 6-months, until one day which cannot be explained the urge to live was overwhelming. In reflection now 9 years later, I feel that this was probably the time that I let go of the negative emotions attached to my experience and the loss of this feeling was immediately replaced with a lease for life. This was the start of my own personal mantra of “keeping the accent on the positive” this has been in the metaphor of a wave in my life for many years and will conquer this and will have a calm sea to journey across when I choose too.

I made the call and accepted the situation and an appointment was made for my operation, for September 14th 2000.

I attended the pre operation clinic and the ultrasound warranted an operation to determine what was there, although there was a low risk of cancer no additional treatment was deemed necessary.

The night before the operation I was supposed to shave the right part of my chest to assist in the surgery. All those who know me may of notice that I am quite hirsute. My chest hair makes Chewbacca look like Yul Bryner, so this was a challenge.

The next day was the operation and was admitted to the ward, the surgeon came around to visit me and to my annoyance brought with him the posse of acne scarred, middle England, socially inept future of our country to molester my dignity.

The examination went true to form and the surgeon kindly drew on my freshly shaved chest and proceeded to circle, in a blue Biro the “lump”.

The humiliation will hopefully soon end, so in the next hour went into theatre.

This part of the story is of course missing but the result was awaking to find that the surgeon had given me a full mastectomy of my right chest and removed a large section of muscle in the same area. Also attached to me was a large chest drain which was full of flowing blood.

The nurse who explained this to me had of course had the spirit of Florence Nightingale ground out of her soul and was just going through the motions.

The situation had kind of escalated, I was alone, frightened and craved even for a Kathy Bates character out of misery. I would have accepted the sledgehammer to the legs just for conversation.

The vision of me leaving the hospital within the proposed 24-hours seemed to be unlikely; my current girlfriend had expectedly fell apart and sought solace in drink (found out a year later that she cheated on me that night as well). I of course lay alone and did not have any visitors.
The next day was Friday and still had a drain full of blood that had not shown signs of slowing down so the nurses informed me that will have to stay over the weekend. The bad news was that the ward was closing over the weekend so will have to me moved to a general emergency admissions ward.

On Friday afternoon the surgeon finally came to see me on his ward rounds and explained the process and that he removed a lump which he sent for a biopsy but he removed everything just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately during the operation they found it necessary to fully remove my nipple and reattach without the majority of nerve endings, this was of course mentioned jovially that “breast feeding” is now out! The drain was inserted due to bleeding in the surrounding area but will subside within the next 12-hours.

There were some more pleasantries mostly involving the Olympics and was walking out of the door then came back to mention that I will never be able to have 100% dexterity in my right arm again due to the muscle being removed. He then excused himself as he usually does a second ward round for patients in his care.

That was my only visit and was discharged on the Monday morning 18th September 2000, my drain had cleared and the nurses asked me to count to 3 and on 1 pulled the 5 inch drain from my chest. I had gained some strength and was determined to convalesce at home. I could not lift my feet but shuffled determinedly out of the hospital, my back stooped with my right arm in an elevated sling and head tingling after my prescription of pethidine and antibiotics.

The first day I had to be helped on occasion to the toilet and needed help to wash all the dried blood and iodine from my chest and arm, a task that could not be done with a trembling arm.
I was signed of work for 3-weeks and quite fortunately had the pleasure of resting in a bed settee in front of the Television watching the Sydney Olympics.

There were some visitors and two colleagues from work came to see me, and appreciated that (Paula Randall and Sue Griffiths) sadly not one of my so called friends came, I don’t blame them, as the stigma attached to what my condition entailed, made it a complicated social situation to deal with. I did not encounter derision but something worse, Apathy.

I returned to work 10 days after my operation, the need for social acceptance did seem to be more of an overriding issue that the pain I was in. The humiliation had to be confronted although the most painful was yet to come.

I was phoned by the Head Office of the company of my employment to question my sick note; they intimated that it must have been fake? as how can a man have a mastectomy? My defence of my situation which I had lived through had to be acknowledged and my curt reply reinforced its validity.

A few weeks later a letter explaining the biopsy results came back with “Benign” an expected outcome as never thought it would be anything else.

The reason for writing about the topic and especially something that is personal to me is that Cancer (not in my case) could happen to anyone and you have a duty to look after yourself, get tested regularly and act immediately.

My story and its tone was not to draw sympathy, the lasting side affects is only 99% mobility in my right arm, a caved in right chest and the inability to breast feed from my right nipple which has no feeling whatsoever.

It was a life changing experience that was not appreciated at the time and did not learn any lessons, as the very next year almost to the day on September 11th 2001 was held under house arrest in an Egyptian Hotel due to the 9/11 incident in America. The area was bordered by Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The home office arranged for me to be transported to Eilat in Israel and to be flown home. (Note to self: if you visit multiple Arab countries, have two passports)

The above is a whole blog in itself and the crazy things that kept happening every year until I realised what my life purpose was.

I am here today, because it is what I'm supposed to do! The opening quote kind of reminds me of the dignity that some people have in death and what you can achieve.

Whatever you feelings are towards Jade Goody and she did polarize opinion, just what would YOU do?

Cancer can happen to anyone, it can cut between class and in my case gender so be happy, be healthy, do something new everyday and enjoy life.

My next blog will be lighter, and a quite comical admission.

Faith V's Religion

2009-03-15T23:18:00.002Z

“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe”. Voltaire

“He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife”. Douglas Adams

“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”. Mohandas Gandhi

Let’s get things right, this blog is not an attack on your God, just my view and inane ramblings on the universe.

The theme of this blog is Faith V’s Religion; the same thing you will probably say?

I would like to summarise my conclusion now at the beginning of this writing so that I do not polarize you all or antagonize.

Faith is the personal view you have, on how your moral compass should be set, which has been influenced by your parents, peers and environment.

Religion is a view enforced by someone’s teachings and interpretation of events with the same message slanted according to whatever denomination your parents, peers or partner belongs.

A quote to bridge these two together was by the eminent Dr Wayne D Dyer who said we should lead our lives being not so much Christian but being Christ-Like. This of course is re-enforced by Ghandi’s quote above.

To describe faith you have to use the model of Jesus, and feel that in the context of this blog he is a good of example as any.

Now this dude was bowling around the manor about 2000 years ago, basically in short telling everyone about the message of love and forgiveness. He seemed a pretty non threatening happy guy who was dripping head to toe with empathy.

To bring Ghandi back into the equation he was once asked is he has a message he replied “my life is my message” this of course is what Jesus intended that if he lived his life as his intended message of love, tolerance, empathy and forgiveness then this would inspire others.

I believe we are all born with a natural ability to know what is right and wrong, we of course are fallible but the laws of man will act as a visual reminder and guidance towards the morality of our actions.

This of course leads us to religion.

I suppose because man is fallible that there is religion; the relevance of large pointy hats, robes, incense and ceremonies is lost on me. However I do see the irony that every act, costume or places of worship have been borrowed from so called Pagan religions.

I am a hypocrite as do of course love visiting churches for there architecture and pomposity (I love the eccentricity), my favourite Cathedral has to be Norwich in Norfolk, this is because every pew is decorated with pagan inscriptions and it send the whole building into one contradiction after another. This explains my desire to lead a complicated life to hide the simplistic things from my own subconscious.

Western Religions are of course mostly based on the bible including Mormonism which a guy called Joseph Smith Jr. pulled out secret seer stones from a stovepipe hat.

The bible describes a series of events from the creation of the universe in Genesis to the revelations and end of days.

I will now attempt to document from memory the events from the bible and including some modern events.

· God create the Earth and surroundings in 6-days and on Sunday he kicked back and chillaxed
· He put Adam and Eve on the Forest Moon of Endor with an apple tree and a serpent
· Eve ate an apple because of the serpent was banging on about it, and died.
· Erm…….
· Noah gathered up some animals because there was going to be a flood because Cornwall county council still have not done anything about defences. The flood was caused by the Death Star blowing up nearby Alderan and the shockwaves knocked out the moons orbit.
· Moses went up a mountain and received the 12 commandments; on the way down he tripped on his sandals and dropped one of the stones. It was ok as the two commandments were 11 – Do not start pointless drawn out ceremonies in my honour 12- Do not start wars in my name
· Ben Hur, Spartacus, and Maximus took on the Roman Army and ended up dying
· The nativity story and three kings gave Jesus some presents; a donkey and a virgin were involved. Also a lunatic called Herod killed every first born male baby
· A bit of a gap!
· Jesus (the only sensible one in the book) got his game on and spread love and the message of positive thinking.
· Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and nights and the horrid visions of Beezlebub tried to tempt him.
· Palm Sunday and Shrove Tuesday happened and Jesus ate pancakes.
· People started getting jealous of Jesus and Judas stitched him up, and some dudes (even I won’t go there!) put him on some jumped up charge, and to quell the mob Pontius Pilate decided to crucify him alongside “Brian” of the Peoples Front of Judea.
· Jesus come back from the dead and rose to heaven
· Loads of his disciples wrote dozens of conflicting stories of what happened.
· The crusades where armies fought there way to reclaim the Holy Land to destroy all political enemies of the Pope.
· The Spanish inquisition and torture and murder of all non converts
· The Witch finder General burns all supposed witches
· World War II which religious drive is similar to the past two events (I did pull Hitler and Catholicism from blog)
· The world will end and the Rapture will release all the righteous to Heaven, this is judgement day when the Cylons destroy the Earth and everyone escapes on Battle-star Gallactica
· The end

I apologise for being flippant but the above was intentional, as one thing we cannot change is that perception is reality, this is for every individual in the world today. Wars happen when people with similar or exact views conspire to change someone else’s view and do this with force.

Religion has been the basis for most wars and the willingness to defend the faith of each side involved has led to loss of life on a massive scale.

We have to break it down to the original message, Christianity was derived from the teachings of Christ and these teachings surely about love, empathy and forgiveness.

At this stage please click the following link and listen to the song; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcGB7dJY0Vg

In the previous posts my journey has been documented towards becoming a better person, I have read Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion” which was all well and good but I do understand that the metaphor of God is in the centre of our internal moral compass. This brought me to remember what Voltaire stated about faith (quote on first line). The attached video or song was first heard after reading “The God Delusion” makes me think.

I do believe that “God” is our own subconscious self, this is just a metaphor but one that does conjure up a romantic notion and a feeling of security (Faith). If this feeling develops into Fear or not being accepted into a reality as detailed from an ancient book then you turn to religion.

My previous posts talked of Comfort and silence and these states are free from fear as you have great faith in your own self.
Religion is not evil but it is not a contusive part of your life when the practice, teachings and ceremonies leave you in a state of fear. The real goal of religion is to encourage you to live in accordance to the moral teachings.

I am not advocating becoming an Atheist; I tried this one for a while and decided that actually I did believe in one deity which was me! Not with ego but with an assured belief that my destiny is controlled by me and me alone.

Alongside religion there is also a growing denomination that has afflicted the youth and indigent conspirators and that is Nihilism, which will feature heavily in my next post.

These guys believed in nothing, no laws and even state that morality does not exist this of course is characterised in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche who advocated such things. This was backed up by what we call Platonism and his version of utopia in his book “Republic”.

All the above concepts will be explored in my most ambitious blog of “social conditioning”

So in summary the title of the blog is Faith V’s Religion, in all but name they both have the same purpose but Faith is something that is based on your own experiences which turns on your inner moral compass.

Religion in my eyes has been taken out of context and the original well meaning message lost amongst pomp, corruption and over complicated ceremonies.

I guess that you are interested in what my beliefs are? Well being a modern day Jedi is not truly accurate and in reality, practices more “Secular Spirituality” and very interested in “Transcendental Idealism” but as always on a journey and will explore all sources. In the past have moved between Agnostics to Nihilism but guess that makes me unpredictable. The cross denomination teachings of Dr Michael Beckwith are also a sense of inspiration parallel with the acceptance of English Spiritualism which to all my kids has all been christened.

I do however believe in The Universe; sometimes known as Ziggy Stardust and his messenger “The Star man” The 1972 Doctrines resonate within my soul and base my life on its message.

Click here for musical accompaniment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XanKGvr3w

“Star Man”

Goodbye love

Didn’t know what time it was the lights were low oh

howI leaned back on my radio oh oh

Some cat was laying down some rock n roll lotta soul,

he saidThen the loud sound did seem to fade a ade

Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase ha haze

That weren’t no d.j. that was hazy cosmic jive

There’s a star man waiting in the sky

Hed like to come and meet us

But he thinks hed blow our minds

There’s a star man waiting in the sky

He’s told us not to blow it

Cause he knows its all worthwhile

He told me:Let the children lose it

Let the children use it

Let all the children boogie

I had to phone someone so I picked on you ho ho

Hey, that’s far out so you heard him too! o o

Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two

Look out your window I can see his light a ight

If we can sparkle he may land tonight a ight

Don’t tell your poppa or hell get us locked up in fright

Chorus x 2

This week Julie, Johnnie, Lilith and I are in Great Ormond Street Children’s for Johnnie’s annual assessment. I would love your feedback and will get back to you as quick as possible.

PS. If you are happy and your life is filled with love and abundance then carry on ; )

Silence

2009-03-08T21:48:00.002Z

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music”- Aldous Huxley

“Gods only voice is silence” – Anon

Well it’s that time again huh! So why silence?

A good place to start is the inspiration behind this essay (I am calling my meandering thought’s essays now!), was on the train to work, an intercity train with moulded tables and trolley services.

The train was full, which is not unusual and was full of commuters getting ready to work early in the City and in today’s climate of fear and recession, the mood was already tense to say the least.

In amongst the grey depressive suit wearing banking fraternity, naturally minus me and my flamboyance with camp frivolity were two young ladies who were aged around 19-25.
The scene was a total contrast and was not a well received oasis in the Sahara more of a fly in the ointment, although there presence was of great amusement to me as one of my most loved pastimes is people watching.

Lets just say the girls were loud, I knew a lot of intimate details about there “friends” as gossip was served back and forth between each of the girls like cat tennis. I did take great pleasure in listening to every detail and then something happened, it struck me that I have maybe worked out some part to a human’s psyche that has previously eluded me.

The volley of viscous gossip was intense but it just stopped, this moment was quite uncomfortable as both of the girls just broke each others gaze looked down towards their feet reached for the inevitable comfort blankets of all under 25’s – the mobile phone and began to text away. After several minutes they re-fixed each others gaze and one served a juicy gossip ball and then a rally again ensued.

So what was my thought? Well it is that some people are scared of silence!

This is surely irrational but what can cause this?

Silence when acknowledged can be very useful, for many years my studies have included body language and handling customer complaints. It is amazing what you can achieve or say by holding your response for an extra 2-3 seconds.

This of course is mild manipulation or what Neuro Linguistic Programmers (NLP) use in something called “re-framing”.

There are two experiments that are part of this blog Essay and the first one is something that has been used by me in the past.

However have re framed this, “it is my theme du jour” , my favourite Shakespeare play is Midsummer’s Nights Dream and love the notion that you can enter the fairy land under the light of the moon and want to adapt this with silence.

Take your partner or loved one up to a place where you can be together (preferably in the moonlight) and sit down and ask them not to make a sound, sit opposite each other and hold each others hands. Then proceed to look into each others eyes for a period of time (2 minutes will suffice).

Then after that period of time tell them that you love them with all your heart, and then ask them if they feel the same?

Two things will happen;

1. If they look down / up to the right and answer and every muscle on the face is full and expressing there answer then they are telling the truth when they say yes!

2. If they look down / up to the left and when they answer the face is stiff and frowning then maybe we need to resolve and heal.

This is not about exposing people but we all want to be on the path to happiness and being in a loving relationship is part of that. Looking down to the left may not mean that they are cheating it is just that they have not falling in love with you on every level, do you remember the love equation Heart + Soul + Body x Commitment = Love

The previous essay about comfort does compliment the falling in love process but want to talk about how silence is equally important.

Lets go back to the two girls on the train, now if they were comfortable with silence do you think they would of spilled all the gory details about there friends? The answer of course is NO; the conversation would always therefore be on the accent of the positive.

I want to forget about the details of how we got to this place whether it was too much Television, bad parenting, computer games or mobile phones but concentrate how to achieve the happy state of using silence for our benefit.

Over thinking does play it’s parts in this, I have an office poster (been removed) that listed the difference between a Man and a Woman and one line stated that “A man can sit in a room with his buddy for hours on end in silence without thinking that he must be mad at him!”

Although it is a veiled sexist comment let’s just break down the gender aspect as there is a lot of truth in that statement.

Lets although look at it from another angle, as adults when we are not getting attention we do revert back to childish behaviour and do things to attract attention to ourselves.

All because we can cannot accept silence.

To truly master silence is of course the destination of long journey and can best be achieved through Yoga and meditation.

We can start to achieve this with “baby steps” the little things you can do to ease your journey, the first thing you need to do is to every day dedicate 10 minutes to yourself.

If you are busy or have something on your mind then write it down, it will be there when you return.

So how does this work? Well get yourself into a comfortable place where you cannot be disturbed, once comfortable and your legs are shoulder width apart, your arms by your side then close your eyes.

Take a slow deep breath over five seconds and hold for two seconds, at the point then slowly exhale over five seconds. Repeat this up to 20 times.

You will feel empowered and re-energised after this and the trick is to make this a habit and a fact that if you do something 12 times it because a habit, if you do something 31 times then it’s a habit for life.

There are some behaviour’s that also compliment this, and would concrete love between two people by choosing to commit silent thoughtful gestures to each other. The little things are the building blocks for True Love.

These are special things between two people but could include for example when a partner is in the shower you tumble dry a towel so it’s warm when they get out. When you get up early on a really cold morning you re-set the central heating so that your partner is warm when they rise. You partner has an important job interview or meeting with a client, so the night before you do all the cleaning and washing up so that they don’t have to worry about it.

The most romantic image my mind can conjure is that when I am in my declining years I’m sat on a bench overlooking the Sea, eating Fish and Chips with the woman I love, not saying a word and we both know that we are totally comfortable with each other, and the silence is so powerful, it is almost deafening.

It would appear that a religious quote was used at the start of the essay and in my own context love this quote “Gods only voice is silence”. I believe God is a metaphor for our own creative subconscious and we only truly listen to ourselves when we are silent.

“All of my best thinking has come about, when not talking” – Scott Everest

My next Blog, it is a blog and not an essay! Will be; Religion V’s Faith.

This will polarize a lot of my readers but hope that I will provide a balanced informed opinion.

"My delivery is smooth like a fountain, that's why I can move any mountain" - The Shamen

Comfort

2009-03-01T20:29:00.004Z

“Just because you look good don’t mean you feel good” – Elvis Presley

I write this post this evening, wearing Elvis glasses and a drinking a tall glass of Gin & Tonic.

Comfort is a word which could be interpreted differently, by every person alive. The interpretation is not even a slight variance on its synonym, people view on comfort can be a totally dichotomy.

So we must always be tolerant.

My own experience of comfort is cooking myself cheese on toast (expensive mature cheddar) with some rashers of smoked bacon on top and them smothered with hot baked beans. Naturally white pepper is shaken all over the burnt orange haricots. All this is served with a hot sweet tea.

My seat on the sofa is cleared and before sitting down undo a couple of buttons from my jeans and let it all hang out, I then proceed to eat this from a tray sat on my lap, whilst watching generic football/other sports/action films or program on cars.

This is my comfort position and every one of you will have there own, and would love to hear them as will use them (credited) in my new book so email scotteverest@btinternet.com.

When we identify our own definition of comfort, the state of being will bring us to a place that we wish we could be all the time. Our own personal Narnia, with the subconscious mind fetching us out of our slump like Mr Tumnus, cloven hoofed along to our inner adventures.

However comfort is something that we need to experience more of, how special would our lives be if we could achieve complete comfort of the mind within 5 seconds of a Negative thought entering it?

I am not claiming this as an original idea and this exercise is adapted from the teachings of Bob Proctor and Michael Neill, although not my delivery of it he he he………….

When a negative thought enters into your mind a bad mood would ensue, as we are annoyed or frustrated that it got there, and you pre determine the rest of the day because of it.

I am now going to tell you about a new scientific two-step method that was developed by NISA (corner shops) and all the ancient Ninja Monk’s of Lidl’s, it is called the “Tribbiani” method. The method is to greet the negative thought and acknowledge it like an old friend or someone who you desire to be close to in an intimate fashion. This is done by reciting the powerful mantra or affirmation “How you Dooooing!”

I do jest, but the reason is of course to acknowledge these thoughts, a familiar blast from the past who you know will one day come. This method is meant too help you face your fears.

I recall reading about people who have had horrific personal stories and when suicidal thoughts enter into there mind learn to change that thought around, by a similar method.

The “how you doing” method is something that I have used for years, and all those who know me well, have all caught me smiling and giggling at a most inopportune moment. I have laughed in court, at a funeral and mostly every time an authority figure challenges me, or put simply, at times of stress. I have driven family, friends and ex partners mad. (I am happy, get over it!)

The main reason for the above is the second step, and that is to change the negative thought after you have greeted it with a new positive thought.

I used to do this by thinking of something humorously insulting about the person challenging me or changing the situation that has a painful outcome for that person. This although changed my mood did not put me in a state of comfort.

The new second stage is to change the negative thought to a happy thought, and to be corny is to create “your happy place”. (These days my outlook is rather to be corny and happy than cool and miserable)

Your happy place is something that can change but a powerful enough emotion to put a smile across your face and increase your heart rate a little faster.

This is best achieved by having a trigger; with mine being a picture of my cheeky daughter in a bath which is saved on the screen on my phone for quick access.

The thought that is generated is watching my daughter eating, which as a hunter gatherer male is my primeval conditioning, and feeding my young is comfort to me.

So find your happy place, get a trigger and every time a negative thought pops into your mind, just greet it say hello ask “how’s it doing!” then let that happy thought enter in.

The word comfort as explained from the Oxford English Dictionary is as follows;

Comfort
• Noun 1 a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. 2 (comforts) things that contribute to comfort. 3 consolation for grief or anxiety.
• Verb cause to feel less unhappy; console.

This blog is a tribute to the word comfort both as a noun and a verb and its derivative “comforting” but my research did bring me back to its Latin origin “Confortare” this literal translation means to “strengthen”

So achieving the state of comfort is to strengthen, so if it makes you happy and puts you in a good place then carry on doing it and it does not matter what anyone says this is YOU.

My original quote from Elvis “Just because you look good don’t mean you feel good” was made around the same time as he also quoted that he enjoyed sitting on his porch in Graceland and thinking back about all the good times.

I just hope that he took the time when those good times were there, that he enjoyed moments of comfort.

Life is now, get comfortable and enjoy it, it will make you stronger!

“ya'll betta check yo'self before you whack yo'self, cos negative thoughts are bad fo ya'll health"

Next blog; Silence and my new experiment

Journey to my success part 4

2009-02-24T00:16:00.003Z

“You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it” – Albert Einstein

I love the above quote and heard it again last weekend, which actually underlines my life so far and is the my main reason for change. This will be the last blog on my personal story until the next chapter has unfolded.

Last weekend my attendance was required (albeit self driven) for an introductory course into personal coaching. I wanted to see first hand if there were like minded individuals and also if my path is righteous or if I’m strange.

Over the weekend I met some cool people especially Daksha, whom I spent a lot of time with, practicing coaching techniques. She had a great soul and powerful personal energy.

It did confirm one thing to me and is that I am on the right path, the right path for me. The message was positive and the validations received from becoming a trial client overwhelmed me, this inspired me to write the most powerful and specific affirmation for me.

If you could take 1000 self made Billionaires / Multi- Millionaire all of them powerfully affirmed to themselves every day making reference to their goals in the present tense.

So it’s been a long time… I shouldn’t of left you, without a dope beat to step too………………………

Its 2008 the international year of hate, we have all been guilty in the bizarre celebration of the “Paranoid Earth Mardis Gras” I do know what went wrong for me and what caused my behaviour and will talk about that in a moment.

Firstly just think about this for a moment, you are stuck in traffic, cars are bumper-to-bumper, it’s a hot day and it’s just not moving!

What is your emotional state? Could it be Angry, frustrated or a Victim? Is the Government to Blame? Are Terrorists to Blame? Are Unions to Blame? Are lazy road workers to blame? Are Lorry Drivers to Blame?

Well what if I was to suggest that the cause of all the above is not them IT’S YOU! As you are actually contributing to the problem just by being there, if you are not being passive then you are part of the creation of more negative energy which naturally attracts even more.

Would of the Traffic of been there if you were there? The probable answer is YES, but you did have a choice to whether to become part of the problem.

I did one simple thing in 2008 and that was to remove myself from negative influences and just stopped reading Newspapers and watching the News. The purpose of this was not to become ignorant as News in unavoidable, I did however choose to opt out of the hype to frenzy whipped up by the papers just to sell copy.

I still did hear of the credit crunch, Baby P, the various wars but chose not to devour every printed word.

You may think that this is being heartless but let me explain. Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see” to paraphrase this would be put in my terms of living your life simply, without judgement, without fear, without a victim complex and always with the ascent of the positive.

In 2008 this was my big change, and guess what? Not reading about rape, murder, knife crime, credit crunch, Amy Winehouse, Kerry Katona, Iraq War, Drugs, Peaches Geldof actually made me feel better.

Becoming positive is quite addictive and you start to seek out other strange people like you, and guess what there every where! We have a secret hand shake, a club, a Vision Board and we all meet laugh and enjoy ourselves. You are all member’s right?

I do jest but the above is not a bad place to be, however in all seriousness it did trigger my quench for knowledge and have such an extensive personal library and DVD collection all saying the same thing but in a presentation style that my social conditioning would label “uncomfortable”

We do evolve from a culture of maintaining “A stiff Upper Lip” you can imagine the scenario of little Tarquin tucked away in a Harry Potteresque Boarding school being called into the House master’s office. The office is a musky pipe stenched library and the tweed wearing inbred, with a multi coloured handle barred moustache bellows like Brian Blessed after 30,000 woodbines.

He summons the Boy and informs him without even having the decency to look at him that his parents have both died in a car crash and that he is now an Orphan. The boy begins to sob and this raises the ire of the house master who demands that the boy immediately pull him “Pull yourself together lad and go and report to the nurse.

You can see why that maybe the presentation style of Harv T Eker would blow our ordered and repressed minds. (I love Harv T Eker by the way, check out the link http://www.millionairemind.com/ he became a multi millionaire by borrowing $2000 from a visa card, WOW!)

I always had a dream of being a writer but dismissed my dream because have always felt that I was either not good enough or it would displace my role in my peer group.

So what changed in me? Why am I pursuing my life long dream? What helped me release my fear?

I did, because “I think I can” my focus changed from what could happen in the detail to the goal itself, the finish of the goal.

This is simply; VISION, PLAN, PERFORMANCE.

So I am now writing my first book, and the book is live and up to date, as it’s documenting my journey and my principles (all original) the book is self help but very much aimed at the repressed social conditioned British Psyche. It will retain the ingrained cynicism, dry humour and practical tool’s that can be easily used, associated with and finally empathy minus the patronisation.

So where am I? Well I have written the first draft outline and 60% of its actual content. The outline summary is currently on its way to five lucky publishers

Let’s revisit my opening quote from Einstein of all people, if you are long time reader of my blog’s then you know where I’m going with this.
However on this occasion it relates to my personal journey and how my mind has changed. I lost my victim story (Dr Michael Bernard Beckwith) whatever happens its not my fault or anyone else’s fault just focus on the vision, the goal, the outcome, this always comes with a plan and the plan is usually our behaviours to avoid then finally the performance.

My next blog will be on Sunday night, which will be interactive as have been planning an uplifting experiment that hopefully you will all join in and make a success.

Please provide feedback as it really helps, and any topics that you like me to cover then e-mail me on scotteverest@btinternet.com or leave a message on my Facebook Page.

Namaste - The light in me honors the light in you,"

Journey to my Success Part 3

2009-02-20T21:36:00.002Z

“I think I can” – Watty Piper

Well it’s that time again! Thank you all for your comments and the emotions felt from my postings, I hope the overall feeling left, was that of joy and hope.

All the feedback did remind me on the Rolling Stones Song – “Sympathy for the Devil” and the opening line “Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste” (which is also the closing line of Interview of the Vampire – cheap Anne Rice big up)

The song also made the quote that “Made dame sure Pilate, washed his hands and sealed his fate”

These need some explanation, the first line is not of course in context but I associate with it because of my belief in faking it, before making it as it quite presumptuous of me to offer advice and push my thoughts and feelings out there especially on the fear line between Good and Evil most of you would of slid me towards the left hand side when you had to make a snap judgement when gauging my heart and affinity.

I am in love with the thought of being righteous and it’s a nice place to be and the line will continue to play through my mind when offering advice.

The second line is the main body of this post and of course the weakness of an individual when trying to please the masses by going against what he feels is right in his heart or looking for the easy option.

So how is this relevant to my journey towards success?

We all have life changing moments and one of mine was the birth of my daughter Lilith, well to be precise about 3 weeks after her birth.

I was a smoker, and have smoked since a young boy. I remember the day it was Christmas Eve (2007) and was outside having a cheap Mayfair cigarette leaned up against the wall in Jules back garden the only light was a halogen security light from the next door neighbour shone across my eye line. The yellow hue was rippled by fine rain covering all parts of non shadowed space with a static like covering. There was nothing but silence and of the silent raging noise of my mind.

This was an opportune moment for my brain to select a thought track one that would the most appropriate, the thought began the play…. The thought selected was either from a programme / article / person which is now not relevant but it just made that statement and hung there for a few seconds……

“The biggest cause of baby cot death is the chemicals still emitting from the smoker mouth nearly after one hour after exhaling the last drag”

So Christmas Eve 2007 around nine PM, I became a Non Smoker as the desire for my daughter not to die and live a full life was greater than my desire to smoke.

The next act was to throw away the cigarettes and lighter, walk back indoors wash my hands and rinse out my mouth and scrub my teeth.

I have not smoke since that date and calculated that I had actually smoke 2/3rds of my life to that point and the reason that I had not given up till that day was that I never had the desire too.

So if you smoke too much, drink everyday, eat more than you should or do not exercise it is because your desire to stop is not as great as the fear of failing.

So this is the point the biggest difference for me in 2007/8 is that I will no longer focus on failure or to calculate the risk so to reduce the level of failure. I was going to focus on success and if I failure did occur then it will act only as a bump and I would bounce back into focus for success.

You see we all encounter this but how many people when they hit just ONE bump decide that it is too hard and just stop announce to the world that they cannot do it and sulk and return back to the state when they were less judged for that kind of behaviour and that was when they were a child.

So let’s take the idea of becoming a child and apply it to another realisation for me in 2008. I used to get serious frustrated and impatient, strangely enough my Kinesiologist issued this too as a set up statement for my Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

I deal with a lot of people day-to-day and I used to let people’s behaviour affect me, I used to have sleepless nights running through the issue and constructing new scenario’s in my mind which made me more angry and frustrated and they haven’t even happened! We talked about this in my last blog “over thinking”

It came to me one night and from that point not lost one moments sleep and think that this was my second revelation of 2008 and Mike Dooley actually puts this best when I received one his wondrous daily emails sign up now http://www.tut.com

“When you can look beneath their behaviour that hurt you, Scott, and you can see the frightened child - it becomes nearly impossible to be angry and carry a grudge.
And you so can.
ILY, the Universe

Besides, Scott, your happiness, abundance, health, and friendships are not dependent on how others behave

As a writer you just can’t add to such a beautiful statement as the one above and I so much enjoy getting these everyday. They arrive on my blackberry between 09:04 -09:43 and my day starts from that point.

The thing is,you can not let behaviour stop you from doing anything you want or desire to do as the feats of man are so magnificent that they actually need the dichotomy of total fear and weakness demonstrated by the majority.

I was reminded not long ago of the children story “The little engine that could” and can relate this story to the strength and determination that my son Johnnie has shown over the years.

It was not than long ago that turning himself onto his front was a celebration event. The fact that he went through his journey of shuffling, sitting up unsupported, to crawling, to cruising and finally taking his first steps at the age of 4.

He was that little blue engine fighting to go up that mountain and he had the heart and vision to just keep going, although it took such a long time in his mind he was saying, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can and he did he completed every stage and after every success said “I thought I could”

How many of you out there reading this blog started with I think I can! Then didn’t?

I really would like to hear your excuse why!

Click and watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_lb_PlJJw

I want you after watching the above video to make a promise to yourself, that every time you think that it is too hard, that you remember that clip and even though Joey had no glasses and could not see, he tripped twice, he had cuts to his knees that at least he finished the race.

So what is your excuse?

Or what is my excuse? I do not have one as I am still on my journey and can see the white lines and if I hit a bump will go back between and follow through to the finish line.

So the top quote “I think I can” is my belief for every one of my goals and when I achieve it will be replaced with “I though, I could”

This, my friends is the beauty of the Law of Attraction; ASK, BELIEVE & RECEIVE.

Next blog will bring you up to date with my journey before I tackle some more heavyweight subjects.

Ciao x

Love Part 1

2009-02-15T18:52:00.002Z

"Approach both love and cooking, with reckless abandonment" - Dalai Llamha

"I am not going to tell you how to love or be loved, as you get a different genie every time that lantern is rubbed " - Scroobious Pip

Love.......................

A couple of days ago my daughter Lilith, took her first steps, this overjoyed me and clapped her achievement whooping uncontrollably, she didn't understand but was happy about the validation and she thought it was due to her previously attacking the television, so she did it again!

That is a memory that will validate my unconditional love for my daughter, a love we all have inside us.

Now to explain love, the love above is a combination of Heart + Soul x Commitment = Unconditional Love. This never needs explaining and is just is as my belief in my daughter is without fear or question.

I do want to talk about is the other Love or the equation of Heart + Soul + Body x Commitment = Love.

Now although this is being approached by using the Einstein method of explanation, it is all my thoughts and you can take it or leave it, laugh at it or just read it!

Heart

A powerful muscle favouring the left side of the chest that pumps blood around your body, that blood is oxygenated from the gaseous exchange that takes place from breathing (controlled via Co2). The blood is carried away from the heart by arteries and they flow back via Veins.

This organ has nothing to do with love but off course when love is lost can be the organ that fails as its the supposed life force.

In this instance the Heart will be the metaphor for the one thing that everyone alive does have, so everyone who has a heart has the ability to love. It is the building block, the foundation that we all build upon. No Heart = No life.

Soul

I have read that several years ago that when a person died a physician weighed a body before and after death to calculate the weight of the Human Soul. I understand the concept that energy cannot be created and destroyed it is and always will be, and that quantum physics has explained this fact. (Dr Fred Alan Wolf for additional reading)

The soul or lets just for kicks call this spirit, I believe that this is what we call DESIRE, the soul could be your moral compass that guides you. I also know that we CHOOSE our behaviour so the soul must be the MIND so lets for arguments sake call the soul Spirit + Desire + Mind = Soul.

The soul is incomplete and is always looking for stimulation or to find its match or some cases its direct opposite.

The direct opposite although can be attracted when the desire and Mind does not love itself. WHAT!!! I am saying now that the Soul is responsible for loving you, YOU have to love YOU.
(You have to forgive yourself, so you can fall in love, get on with your life and be free)
This is what your soul is for, its purpose its primary objective. Once it has achieved its primary objective then it can move towards its secondary objective which is searching for its mate, its likeness the last piece of the puzzle.

Souls are magnetic and once two are together they magnet become more powerful.

Body

We all have carnal desires, the need to pro-create is our most basic instinct especially with the male half of the species and the desires of the body will make any man spin a line they mean or don't mean with only the vision of capturing that body.

This is not just limited to the male species, despite propaganda. Lets just say that when cave woman was walking past cave mans nice new cave, was she surprised that she got banged over the head with a club?

I heard a fact the other day that in the balance of life with all species that the Female is more likely than not be the aggressor. I think evolution is favouring that fact.

The body is a vital part of the love equation as it the vessel which maintains the soul, it increases desire it keeps the mate from not leaving and has its primary objective to maintain a life long monogamous relationship.

Commitment

Does this matter? of course as the Heart is the building block the desire to be with that person and the validation of the need for the body can only be held together and circled by commitment. Every civilization ever recorded has a commitment between a Man and a Woman, man and a man and woman and a woman.

The ring does symbolise the commitment and the love from the Heart + Body + Soul. The ring is a symbol and even when "Marriage" is not carried out a symbol of commitment has always been exchanged.

So why does it go so wrong for so many people?

Lets dismiss the heart as that is a constant and start looking at the soul.

Love has forever been lost mainly due to just not being able to communicate, allow me to use a great metaphor. Have you seen the comedy film "The Mystery Men"? well there a character in the film who has a superpower. His power is the invisible man, there is a catch though as he can only become invisible if no one looks at him. Think about that for a moment.

You can have all these thoughts in your head but without communicating them how can you attract your soul mate? Thoughts of course control your actions (Mike Dooley "thoughts become things!".

In my experience this is how I lost 50% of woman in my life, although this will be explained more later.

Next explanation as to how it goes wrong is because of your thoughts, and will start by explaining this as over thinking!

There is visualisation and there is over thinking, the law of attraction teaches you that you should ASK, BELIEVE and RECEIVE. Over thinking causes you to question everything and could lead to what is known as jealousy.

You partner kisses you goodbye as they leave for work, this one day they are in a rush and shout goodbye as they fight to get to work on time. There are some of you who will take this as a sign "are they mad at me?" "what have I done?" "is this relationship breaking down?" "Are they gonna to leave me?" or "They have been seeing a lot of that person from work?" "who was that on the phone?". Sounds familiar..............................

Lets just say that over thinking leads to more break ups, the jealously, the paranoia, the low self esteem and guess what!!!! you attract more of it?

I will admit it, on occasion I have been jealous and my imagination painted a sordid, in detail, blow by blow, paranoid fantasy that of course resulted in a confrontation and the end of the relationship. There is many personal experiences that you all have had with similar or probably more extreme outcomes.

Over thinking is the direct opposite of the Belief side of the Law of Attraction, you could even call it faith or the commonly known noun, Trust.

This is the one thing that will let you grow is belief but trust in your beliefs. Your instincts your natural ability to love, procreate and be abundant.

So lets talk about the body, there is one thing that I know for sure and from experience has made me and countless men, most commonly known as bastards do what they do.

This statement is from The Karma Sutra and Vatsyayana says "men are apt to despise things that are too easily acquired"

To build love you need Heart, the soul has to have time and if you move straight to pleasures of the body then natural reaction with be for the other person to be despised. This is due to mans primal instinct to find a suitable mate and due to being weak in Mind (soul) he over thinks and believes that the female will do this with everyone she meets so his final conclusion is to not allow any further connection.

I think that alcohol, which has been imbibed since the dawn of time has reduced clarity of thought at anytime desires of the body or position of the moon stir our natural inclination towards pro-creation.

I do have a theory as to why love also is not found and we need to go back to my Darwin and The Theory of Evolution & Natural Selection.

The above is something that we probably do not have awareness of and the universe is showing us that maybe this is not the life partner for us.

I will give you my first example, and this is the most common way love is lost with the young and maybe not so young.

Close you eyes...err no open them up sorry, wait for the audio version of this blog. Just imagine the metaphor that two people start as two seeds and grow into shoots, they share roots, share nutrients and rely on each other to survive they need each other and feel each other needs and the soul confirms this need against the foundation of the heart.

There is a time when the shoots bloom and requires something else to survive, but flowers grow up as one and they find there own route to the sun and that's exactly what they have done, they have grown up separately too.

This however hard it is to understand and however painful it is to hear it is merely evolution, your souls just grow apart, you are not one any longer and together you are not strong.

However deep the above is there is just the idea that some people are not suited too each other and this is the whole purpose of the equation as the Universe it about balance and true love cannot have no opposites and is the merging of two beings into one.

Heart + Soul + Body = Commitment.

Of course there are countless examples when I am wrong, my favourite is that when people state that we are not married but we don't need to have a piece of paper to show our commitment. That is the most beautiful commitment of all as each others souls have validated that. My point precisely.

There is the question as why people stay in abusive relationships, well there strength will be gained when they have forgiven themselves. The primary function of the soul is self validation and self love.

I placed the Dalai Llamha quote up about reckless abandonment as surely with everything I have said, just go for it anyway!!

Summary

Love yourself first
Take it slow and love will grow
Build desire by denying the flesh (not too long, just long enough)
Make a commitment

The above is just my first thoughts and meanderings for my second book and would appreciate your feedback.

A lot of my blog has been borrowed from a song called "Look for the Woman" which if you want to hear click this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqnKbdqjh2I

This week I will bring you all up to date with my journey.

Future Blogs will include subjects such as; Social Conditioning, Religion V's Faith and the topic of my first book "The Fear Ceremony"

Love, peace and hair grease! xxxxxxxx

Journey to my Success Part 2

2009-02-10T17:53:00.002Z

"Always have the feeling I could never be the villain, because the villain in the films were always back lit" - Scroobious Pip

The year is 2006, for those of you who know me it is quite obvious that I have missed something out, but will be addressing that in my 3rd post.

Anyway..............................

The Law of Attraction is a funny thing and when understood your past behaviours become clear. One thing is clear that I had an interview for a great job, the top one in my company and decided that I was going to take it and be successful, the point was that I was the only one who knew that.

I went for the interview and was supremely confident (this faking it before making it works), in my mind I had the job and my behaviours all led to me being the ideal choice.

So after this what did I do next? well the answer is NOTHING, I let it go....

The above is important and although I did not understand the significance of it at the time but guess what? two days later I received a call and was offered the job and wait for it! a whole £20k increase in pay...

I still had my financial situation from the previous post but my behaviours have led to me attracting more money more wealth. I had no money to buy a ticket for my first month but borrowed what I could and started work. For the first month I worked hard but with no money I did not eat out for the first month or during the day, I couldn't take a packed lunch as it went bad due to the length of my commute but it did not matter.

The law of attraction tells us to ASK, BELIEVE & RECEIVE or Vision, Plan and Performance but this happened faster than I thought.

I was on a roll, right? NO!

If you are to "go on a roll" this usually means gathering momentum but what I recognise now made a fatal error... I though I'd made it!

The first few months were exciting and adrenalin kept me going but having endearing qualities and what was to become a cynical outlook on life would steer me towards difficulties.

To put it into context the behaviour that I developed was similar to what you witness from the City Boys the stockbroker the whole "Masters of the universe" mentality. This consisted of spending the day bitching, complaining, putting others down. It was not even with a select few it was myself being the fulcrum between two waring parties.

My reading matter changed to such novels as Machiavelli "The Prince" to Sun Tzu "The Art of War", sure other books were read but not for the intent of doing good but for one up man ship and not for the purpose intended.

Let just put this out there, I behaved like a cock!

Lets clear things up, my shadow cast for all my peers showed me in that light, but had a different persona within my team which was totally opposite a total dichotomy, which caused my inner conflict.

My career started very well, the results were initially achieved by me being bullish but could not be maintained. So the Law of attraction kicks in and guess what I attract? more of the same.

How did I break that cycle? well not one person challenged my behaviour not one!

One by one peoples behaviour in my peer group caused them to not be in there positions no more so what changed?

Did I become more reflective, well the answer is, Johnnie!

Johnnie is my son first and foremost, without any debate, he has a condition called Aperts Syndrome, it is usual that at a certain age a procedure is to be carried out that removes the top part of the skull from the cranium and leave spaces in between so that the brain can grow inside. This is called a vault expansion. (put back after of course, d'oh!)

Johnnie in the March was scheduled for his operation at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London.

I don't think words can really describe the emotions of that day but carrying him down to the operating theatre in my arms with him laughing and giggling is a feeling that will stay with me forever. The sight of his Mum (Julie) holding him as they anesthetist placed the gas over his mouth and gently placed him to sleep was a tough thing to see.

We were led back onto to the children's ward by the nurse to await the outcome of the Operation and found the experience so traumatic that I had to walk two steps behind.

My eyes welled up and my body shook uncontrollably and fought with the emotion as I had to remain strong, I knew that my pain and anguish was selfish and that Johnnie WILL be OK, however we can all reach a point in our lives were the course of our journey can change at a split second.

That second, every remembers that second you are at a multiple crossroads with insanity the destination alone the majority of paths and as quick as you at that point of panic the quickness of the decision is vital.

Some people let it out, explode in rage or in emotion, but I had to suck up every piece of pain, anguish and fear throbbing violently in my body looked dead centre and concentrate on walking .

I heard Jack Canfield explain this in some way in the film "The Secret" and the metaphor reminded me of this feeling, maybe not verbatim but the gist of the story was that life as a journey is like travelling down a highway at night with the headlights on, sure the headlights only show the next two hundred yards and life is really like that.

In times of stress you can only see the next two hundred yards as in every journey, but do we really need to? this could be describe as Baby Steps!

Julie spent the whole operation reading a Jo Brand book and in her mind she decided that she had already ASKED for Johnnie to be OK, she BELIEVED in it and just waited to RECEIVED.

I just read discarded beauty magazines and the only thing I took out of it was knowing more about Kerry Katona and the secret life of Katy Holmes. I also had a random book called "Why do penguins feet freeze" random facts that will have no use to me.

I developed a siege mentality and this was due to my social conditioning and when things did not go right in my life was the behaviour that was the most likely outcome. (Social conditioning is a future blog)

The Operation was a success and Johnnie was fine so much in fact that the very next morning he ate the entire breakfast that I brought in for me and Julie and did some serious damage to the Jaffa Cake population of the world. (See Pics)

Johnnie recovered fully and is doing great.

Here was a child who had the top part of his head removed been in surgery for countless hours and upon awaking was at first bewildered but was happy, giggling, stuffing his little monkey face and generally enjoying life!

So what was my excuse? NONE I had no excuse whatsoever. What surprised me was the total compassion showed to me by my Manager and my colleagues and even though I had acted like a dick unconditionally supported me.

I was not going to use my social conditioning as an excuse any longer.

So what was next for me? well I retreated into myself and completely lacked vision. I did not even know what I was going to do when I walked into work, there was zero planning.

My stress levels were very high and was feeling quite ill.

The universe (my metaphor for God) did guide me and show me a way to resolve my issues, I was introduced to Kinesiology. I had hoped that seeing the Kinesiologist would help me with my ill feeling, little did I know.......

I made a decision and went to see her half expecting a wrinkly Mystic Meg character who smelt of Cats, but was surprised to find a woman of similar age to myself and basically normal!

The letting go part happened within 5 minutes of the session starting, you just have to let go. The admittance of being quite ill was hard to admit and lots of healing had to take place. Personal issues had to be resolved and finally the coup de grace my intolerance to Wheat & Cheese.

I admit it now, when I arrived home my eyes welled up with tears as the kinesiologist did say that this is my true beginning to my journey. I can count on one hand the amount of times that I have cried in the last 25 years;

Optimus Prime dying in Transformers the Movie
My first real Girlfriend dumping me
My first long term relationship ending (not well) with lots of debt (see First post)
Kinesiologist healing my life time of pain

In reflection and reference to my opening quote, no one ever thinks they are the bad guy because of there circumstances does not show it. The metaphor of "Back lit" means that you cannot see your own shadow so how can you be aware of how you are perceived.

I am no longer back lit......................

My next post is all about Love and will bring you closer to NOW so that is why some people have been left out especially a little bat girl. The next post is going to be the premise of my second book which will be the definitive explanation of Love.

Thank you for your comments either on Face book or the Blog, do not feel sorry for me as I have totally forgiven myself and concentrate on the future.

I write this blog to help me develop my writing style and emotional content for my dream to become a novelist so bear with me.

Journey to my success Part 1

2009-02-08T17:01:00.001Z

"If you cant forgive and forget, then how's this? forget forgiving and accept that's it! "- Scroobious Pip

This blog is about my journey to the attraction of wealth into my life, to attract all of my goals and finally my dreams. All of which will be shared with you over the coming months, I will get there!

I was inspired to write this blog about my journey because of something simple that I noticed yesterday which gave me inner peace.
The United Kingdom has been battered by snow, ice and rain and I stepped out of the car and noticed in between the ice and snow on a patch of grass a shoot from a daffodil starting to force its way through.
This struck me as a poignant in explaining my journey and gave me an epiphany that every year this flower starts the same way and regardless of the conditions will always try to grow. The flower each time may be better than last year or it may be worse but it will always go through the cycle.
This could be applied to each one of our lives and maybe if we seek the sun we will grow organically, but the equilibrium of the universe means that we need the rain to nourish us and the snow is a warning that it is too early to flourish and we may die.

Surely life cannot be this simple, but of course it is!

I will try not to bore you too much with my personal life and circumstances but will start of the beginning of my journey and hope that you can find similarities and guidance for getting round the roadblocks.

2004-2005

It was late in the year and was about one month into my new job as a Cluster Manager for a well known hotel chain, it was a new experience to me as previously worked for my past employer for 13 years which was most of my adult life. I was with my peers but of course was "fronting it" I had know idea what I was doing or how I was going to do it. (Later this will be revealed to me as Faking it before making it).
I attended a meeting, which was the first one with my peers and overheard someone talking about a book they read called "Who moved my cheese" and it talks about handling change in your life.

This was relevant to me as a few months previously a long term relationship that I was in ended pretty badly, I was left to pick up all of the pieces including a mortgage bills and an ever increasing debt. I was at my lowest ebb, head buried firmly in the sand and did not know where to turn. I had to sell the house, arrange the debts and get out of the situation. The phone calls increased about payment and the situation was desperate. In the midst of all this front has to be firmly in place but without travelling down that African river Denial.

The turning point came after about fifty sleepless nights, hundreds of hours of watching pointless Television to block out my reality, the endless stream of debt consolidation commercials begging me for there business (my cynicism is a strong point of mine), I made that call.

So who did I call? well the National Debt helpline and explained them my situation, the guy on the phone was my angel he did not judge me and told me one thing and that was that my priority was the pay utilities and that anyone who I owed unsecured debt to was not to be paid and that I was to advise them that unless they accepted my offer of a repayment plan that I will consider insolvency. The confidence and the power this gave me back, transformed my life. The preceding phone call to the newly monikered "Creditors" was good and felt that all of there threats were now to no avail and they resided themselves to now helping me.

So what changed?

I no longer had FEAR! and no longer was going to be a VICTIM! I have always had this power but it took something of this magnitude to bring me back.

In reflection and to quote Bob Proctor "If you have debt just set up a debt repayment programme and thing about wealth generation, if you think debt you attract debt"

So back to meeting, now the book that I read was by a guy called Dr Spencer Johnson, and it was called "Who moved my cheese?" I listened to to my peers and the next day went to Waterstones and purchased it. How about that for action!

The book lit a fire inside of me, I had already been exposed to teaching of Edward De Bono and Tom Peters but this was different. The parable and the metaphors which can be adapted for your own personal circumstance resonated within me and my mind spun, spun with what I can do, what I can achieve.

Something also validated the story of "cheese" and that came in the unlikely guise of the film "Donnie Darko" which the part where he is speaking with the psychologist talking about god and the conclusion that he is agnostic.

This is the point of the quote on the opening line...

I did change, I did begin to just accept things and moved to Colchester from a 3 bedroomed country house to a one bedroom flat in Colchester. The date was 7/7/2005 bad Juju went down that day! my thought will always be with those who lost there lives.

Little did I know that my new theme tune would be "London Calling"

Next blog........ coming next week will talk about 2006 as predictably my newly found knowledge stalled.