NEW BLOG

OUR LATEST BLOG & Weekly update

http://www.thelifechangeexperiment.com/featured/calm-after-the-storm-weekly-update/

IMPORTANT ----- CHANGING BLOG NOTIFICATION

BLOG UPDATE


Today is very exciting because we are immigrating the Blog to its new home on our site.

FROM NOW ON ALL BLOGS WILL BE HERE 

http://www.thelifechangeexperiment.com/blog/


PLEASE - Do keep up with the latest Blog. We REALLY appreciated your comments and have migrated them all over

INTUITION or Bust!

Do you have good intuition?
Most of us like to think we are perceptive but what about that borderline spooky stuff that lets us know who is about to call on the phone, or which route to take home to avoid an accident.

Science is slowly getting up to speed on this topic, although the debate is a hot one.

But since intuition is such a big part of personal change, especially the ‘how to’ part, I thought you might be interested in two recent studies that actually influenced our decision to start The Life Change Experiment.

The first was a study in which a group of people who were asked to intuitively pick the best of a group of items. Whilst a second group were given all the details about the items and asked to make a deliberate conscious decision. Much to the researchers surprise the intuitive ‘shopper’s’ ability to pick the overall best items, substantially outweighed those who studied the details and used their Left brain (logic, reasons, rules etc) to make their decision.

Curious? I thought so!

We’re all taught that ‘reason rules’ but clearly there is something else going on here. What exactly it is of course is open to interpretation but I thought it deserved further research.

The next study was one on psychic intuition. In other words picking up on other people’s thoughts or future occurrences. I have always been a curious agnostic in areas of the psychic, but the results were startling. It conclusively and repeatedly showed, that those who BELIEVED in the phenomena had substantially above average positive results, while those who didn’t scored only what would be expected with guessing.

This was a revelation for me!

If im busy ‘not believing’ in things that could make my life richer, happier or more fulfilled then it would be impossible for me to benefit from their effects even if they were legitimate.

I realised that over the last few years my ‘skeptics nature’ and fear of being called a fool had in fact negatively colored the quality of my life, and hence the results I was getting.

So do we simply blindly believe! Well the funny thing is we do anyway.

We blindly believe that we will survive the day, that our version of ‘normal’ is the real normal. That our life, self esteem or happiness is our lot, That our enemies are ‘deep down’ bad people. That our society is the right society. That certain people are intrinsically more worthy than others, That our kids or family are special, That money will make us happy, and millions of other daily imbibed mass illusions we simply agree on hence give life too.’

The Life Change Experiment is our leap of ‘faith’. A conscious effort to break my skeptic thinking, as well as that of the mass illusions I have let dictate our life to date.

I'll always look for science proof. It’s just something I love to do, but I will no longer right off things simply because I haven’t experienced them. Especially if they add quality and joy to the believers life.

YOUR EXPERIENCES: - Developing a strong and accurate intuition is probably the single greatest tool we have if we want a greater quality of life. So I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Especially the spooky kind (out of a scientific curiosity haha).

I would also like to do some experiments, perhaps putting out a small intuitive thought for the day of my own. On similar lines to Gaz Lowes Intuitive horoscopes. If you find these messages resonates with you let me know.

In the mean time, don’t deprive yourself the chance of experience the full wonder and mystery of life simply because you fear opening your mind a little!

WEEKLY UPDATE - Inspiration is Not Spoken- ITS HEARD

Most of us think we don’t know enough to help others or have anything inspirational to say about life. RUBBISH!!

A life changing lesson can be learnt from getting a parking ticket, watching a sunset or holding a baby, none of which you would traditionally classify as 'wise' or actively inspiring!

A single word, even a hurtful one, can change a whole life! Heck a simple silence can do the same.

So it has really NEVER been about the ‘wisdom’ of the person that gives the words, or even what they are! It has only ever been about the person that RECEIVES and PERCEIVES THEM!

The person who is ready to hear! Who's mind and heart ignite in a flood of realisation! "oohh yeah that’s true".

Fact is words outside you only act as sign posts to help you remember your own truths within, so keep your ears and eyes open, wisdom is all around you and don’t be afraid to open your moth and share what you learn!

You just NEVER KNOW who is waiting desperately to hear the very thing that’s on your heart to say.

UPDATE

Well the new website is up and starting to come together. Please check it out and give us your suggestions. Everyday we will be putting a little more on and building the resources as we travel. So your input is essential.

CHANGE: - I have been trying to quantify what is needed to help people with their changes be they career, personal, romantic, self or health. I know for me it has been about great information, and pressure free regular support, all things I am trying to build into the new site. But if you have something else you think would benefit others please let us know. help@thelifechangeexperiment.com

HUGOS 1st:- We had a great time at Hugo’s 1st Birthday in Manly. I must admit I love this place. Saw lots of old friends and took a pic with BlueBelle and our old buddy Lisa Oldfield. Bessie doesn’t miss the party scene at all but I don’t mind a little schmoozing with some old mates and a good cocktail once in a while.

SASSY AWARDS:- Had a great time at literary agent Selwa Anthony’s sassy awards. Of course it only dawned on me I had given away all my jackets an hour before we had to be there. Fortunately I managed to find one at the bottom of a box of rubbish. Every one at the open day must have thought it sucked, but thank god they did because at least I had something to wear!

WONDERFUL HELPERS

This week we had the lovely felicity come to help out. This young lady has a rather cool high powered Canberra job but spends her spare time helping people in need. We were very lucky she contacted us and spent 3 days taking some of the pressure of us in the research and email department. Her warmth and obvious heart to help others was a wonderful inspiration and example to both of us, and I think she has given us a little bit of a reminder of the type of people we aspire to be. Thanks Felicity

SING YOUR SONG - Before the tune runs out!

I posted a wonderful quote by my old mate Amir Zoghi yesterday and it really hit a chord with me.

"From the bottom of your heart,

seek what makes you sing and once you find it,

do nothing but sing your song.

Chance everything to dance to your tune.

It says in a nutshell what my heart had literally screamed at me for the last 20 years!

Unfortunately I was a big ol' chicken! Petrified of stepping too far out of my comfort zone, risking all I believed I had built up, and worse still looking like a raving lunatic in front of all my fancy friends haha!

‘Letting go’ certainly wasn’t conducive to the lifestyle and image I was trying to portray and create! The one I ‘thought’ was going to make me happy.

Don’t you think it is strange the power ‘fitting in’ has over us? Is being seen as ‘normal’ or ‘successful’ really so important we are willing to sacrifice the happiness of our entire life, to satisfy the critical eye of the few who we call our peers.

For me I banged my head on life everyday hoping for different results. Maybe one day life would crack and I’d wake up without a ‘headache,’ I thought!

Of course in a head banging contest life always wins, and eventually as the ‘pain relievers’ and ‘distractions’ I had used to numb myself over the years wore off, there was and ever increasing realisation that, this AIN’T WORKING!

This human trait of ‘self’ preservation, to ‘stay within our box’ no matter what the price,’ has always fascinated me.

How can we want to change so much but be so terrified of the consequences.
Especially when these days the consequences are hardly being cast out of the tribe to starve to death in Jurassic park.

Our self image is a powerful thing and we defend it literally to the death.

But what exactly is it? What is pride? Fear? Ego? Self Image? – It is the exact reflection of that which we believe we are missing or will lose. (Think about that for a second)

We create our self image and defend it so passionately because it compensates for what we believe we are NOT! It is our smoke screen, our sanctuary from the scary world around us. Like the puffer fish that blows itself up when frightened to look twice its size!
Even a poor self image protects us from taking risks that might involve humiliation or emotional pain.

Like a lover with rose coloured glasses in an abusive relationship. We see only the protection it gives us and not the pain the self critic inflicts on us, or the freedom and life it is keeping us from.

So how do you Let Go of this controlling old ‘lover’ and really live?

For me its been surprisingly simple! once i figuerd it out. (Although it took 20 years I admit)

Find YOUR song. And sing it with all your heart. Stop second guessing yourself and trying to sing other peoples song’s

Just like any song it will have high notes and low. You don’t have to know how it ends, or even what the next line is, you just have to sing what is given to you with all your heart.

And you may find, as I have done much to my surprise, that others in this world will be singing along with you!

UPDATE:- AMAZING INTERVIEWS

We have already started interviewing some amazing people with some life altering ideas. We will be showing these interviews when the new Video Blog is set up, and discussing with you the topics they cover. So stick around and PLEASE be part of the conversation, so we can learn from you too.

A BREATH of Fresh air ONE step at a time

It is a VERY surreal feeling. Sitting here today with little more than the clothes on my back as possessions. I feel so incredibly FREE for the first time in years. I feel almost ELATED!!......... WE DID IT!!

This crazy, stupid, irresponsible, wonderful, enlightening, thing! My god it was a trial, but stage one is over and I REALLY AM sitting here a changed person. With a spring in my step and lightness in my heart like I have not experienced since I was a teenager.

The world is truly our Oyster! And we are open, ready and inspired to go on the journey the universe had planned for us from the beginning. The very journey we had been fighting against for the last 20 years, simply because WE KNEW BETTER. We could plan and control better. We knew what we REALLY wanted!.... Didn’t we?

Of course now I look back and realise just how little I actually did control, other than perhaps the stubbornness to not let go of the dreams of my ego, and the self deprecating voice reminding me I was useless and should not venture too far out of my box.

But today – Free of everything I allowed to define me, I don’t feel in the slightest bit ‘without’. I don’t feel poor, or less. In fact im watching commercials on TV now and seeing dust, rust and debt rather than a sparkling new product that will make my life all I hoped it would be!

I looked out the window yesterday and realized all the beauty and the sunshine, the roads, the trees, the conversation, the beaches, the experiences were 100% FREE – So I set about talking to people I wouldn’t normally stop and talk to and that opened my eyes to new possibilities. Possibilities I would NEVER have seen with my head down and bum up in my old ivory rut!

ONE STEP

My sister has been here for the past few days and we were talking about how hard it is to do things when we can only see objections and barriers to the journey.

I pointed to a large highly wooded hill and said ‘If someone said lets go to the top of that hill, from here you would say It’s impossible. To steep and thickly wooded, I can’t see any paths and it looks so far away.

But if we simply concentrated on the part we COULD SEE, by putting our shoes on and stepping out the door in the general direction, we would find after a short time that the woods weren’t so thick. The hill not so steep and the fact there is even a perfect little path helping us wind our way up to the summit.

From where we sat complaining about the impossibility of it all, none of these aids and ‘opportunities’ existed in the world we perceived.

It was a perfect example of how we felt before we were ready to put on our shoes and step out on this Experiment. However just like the little path that appeared we have had more opportunities open up in the last 2 weeks than I ever could have ever existed.

The lesson in this for me is NEVER EVER judge your ability to ‘walk a path’ any further than the next step in front of you.

STOP trying to predict what will happen on the way to the top – YOU HAVE NO IDEA. The universe doesn’t need you to work out all the solutions, plan the whole route and solve all the difficulties you may (or may not) come across on the way.

It takes care of all that for you when you get there!. You just have to put one foot in front of the other TODAY ! So why do we make it so complicated!

P.s Can you guys remind us of this next time we fall to pieces haha

WEEKLY UPDATE - Thanks for making it a great open day

OPEN DAY - What a fantastic day yesterdays open day was. Was so nice to meet so many of you and get to put some faces to names. Thanks also to my wonderful volunteers who worked everso hard to get it all out and keep everyone in order.

Everything went surprisingly smoothly and we have finally got rid of the left over nick knacks that hadn’t been allocated to anyone.

We still have a few items left waiting to be couriered (by the wonderful guys at PACK & SEND) to the recipients up country, and a few remaining items we still haven’t chosen a home for yet. This we will do over the next week.

NEW ENERGY – There is very definitely a new energy in and around us – I woke up feeling a mix off relief, like I had taken of a heavy old dusty coat, and sorrow like I had lost a part of me. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

One thing that is really nice is to imagine how the people who have received the items must feel wearing them. It’s a strange feeling to think you have physically made a difference in a bunch of stranger’s lives!

I think sometime when we give to a charity we lose that personal touch. The name, the face, the reaction and effect your contribution makes. That’s why we have decided to put the ‘personal’ back into helping people and experiment with what effect that has on our lives and others as we go around Australia.

EMAILING EVERYONE – A few people have been quite upset that we haven’t sent out an email yet telling everyone what is happening. This is for two reasons. First up until this weekend we still hadn’t allocated anything. And second we discovered the current email system we were using would cost over $1000 to send to that many recipients. Unfortunately we don’t have that spare, so we have had to get a new system set up which is underway as we speak.

I promise within 10 days we will have an email out to everyone letting you know exactly what’s happening with the giveaway and what else is unfolding literally day by day with the experiment.

JUST BEGINNING – Of course now we are clutter free the experiment is really just beginning.

Just because you didn’t get an item does not mean we will not be coming to your area to help YOU out.

The next stage of the adventure, which you will be able to watch live on our new site, will be going around Australia, following the flow and helping people as we go. So if your email touched us you may find us rocking up on your doorstep to help out.

SUGGESTIONS – Please keep the location suggestions, needy people suggestions and inspirational people & places suggestions coming – Send them to help@thelifechangeexperiment.com

YOUR COMPANY – Would your company like to get involved, along with Winnebago, and the other wonderful companies that have come on board our national Life Change Experiment. We are looking for people or companies that may be able to offer a few products or services to allow us to help more people on our journey. Even if you don’t think you have anything to offer give us a buzz anyway because you never know how you may be able to fit in. help@thelifechangeexperiment.com

WINNEBAGO- The wonderful guys at Winnebago Australia have generously allowed us to use one of their incredible vehicles to be able to travel and continue the Life Change Experiment. Their involvement has been an amazing example of flow in action, and we cant wait to see where this leads us next.

We got our first peek at the vehicle this weekend when they brought it around for our Open Day! Wow I wish we had known about these things years ago. It is like a home from home. Youll get to see lots more of it as we go around via our upcoming Video Blog.

Special thanks to my little niece Charli for minding BlueBelle xxxxx

Ok enough chit chat – Back to enjoying the free sunshine, POSESSION FREE :-) -

What a DIFFERENCE a day makes!!

BUMPING GOOD REMINDER - Yesterday BlueBelle had her first big accident aaaahhhhhh. Poor little thing wiggled her way of the change table and onto the hard bathroom floor a meter or more down – So Bessie rushed to casualty crying more than the baby was!

I guess this brought home the reality of future safety issues, but its amazing how something like this can shake your confidence. You realise the vulnerability of the moments we take for granted. Any one of them holds the potential for life, death.

As I read the news online today, I was acutely aware of our fragility. Tomorrow’s paper will be full of people and families who are totally unaware of their fate today!

For me the news is a GREAT, in your face daily reminder, to ask the question, ‘if I knew I was to be one of those people how would I live this day differently’

CALM IN THE STORM – Ok so I admit there were a few tears yesterday. The drama of BB’s first skydiving lesson combined with the logistics nightmare this giveaway has become I honestly felt at an all time low. You may have noticed I avoided writing the blog. I must have started it 20 times but felt so detached I didn’t want to post something that felt to me so out of flow

‘Fortunately,’ and I use that word in retrospect coz at the time I was ropeable, BlueBelle was playing up so much that despite all the work, calls, organising, writing, putting out fires, blogs n everything else I was supposed to be doing I had no choice but to take her outside for a walk – Effectively she forced me to LET GO.

I was FURIOUS at the time but decided to take the opportunity to ask WHY?

I realised this was a great opportunity to find out a little more about what im subconsciously holding onto, and it worked wonders in re aligning my mood!

BIRTHDAY – So BlueBelle and I ended up going shopping for mummy’s birthday. Finding something to buy for the woman who has nothing is quite a challenge, but we settled on lots of edible Gluten free goodies and a lotto ticket! Could use the cash about now. We then made her favourite toffee sauce and poured it over a meringue and put a candle in the top. She LOVED IT!

The more I live this experiment the more im convinced that stress and worry are nothing more than guiding hands trying to bring us back into flow. Not emotions to be battled with, buried or ignored!

HUBBLE – And this morning as almost a reminder to me how trivial any of my earthly dramas are in the big scheme of things, I was greeted by news of NEW images from the upgraded Hubble space telescope. Why do I love this so much?

Just have a look at the images and put yourself and your problems in perspective http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/09/hubble-wows-with-new-images/

Every single pin prick of light is a giant sun with an entire solar system of its own trillions and trillions and trillions of miles away. With Cataclysmic storms and explosions bigger than our whole solar system, eco systems, night and day maybe even life. And here is lil’ ol’ me sitting at my computer thinking my little universe and problems are so big and important …. WHAT A GREAT BIG COSMIC JOKE hahahahahhahahaha

WHY ALL THE FUSS? & Giveaway UPDATE

A few people have pointed out that if we were REALLY interested in enlightenment, change, a new life, etc we wouldn’t be spending our time blogging, organising a public adventure and letting as many people know about it as possible!


I thought about this a lot and the truth is I have spent 20 years trying to break out of my rut. I have read everything under the sun, practiced many disciplines, been to more seminars and workshops than you can shake a stick at. Yet despite a huge and costly effort on my part something was always missing.

In the end the things that made the most difference to me was the inspiration and help of a few ‘angels’. People with a passion to help who, despite my rude resistance, sceptic’s indignation and manic depression in the early years never gave up on me.

These were not family- not even people I knew as friends in the typical sense. They were people who were just there. Sharing the wisdom they had in good times and bad.

Without them to bounce my thoughts off I may never have come out of the dark places my life was going into.

So you ask ‘WHY do we make such a public declaration of this ‘Life Change Experiment’ – two reasons.

1) Not everyone is lucky enough to have the angels we had. My hope is for a community of like minded people – Helping facilitate the old saying “When the student is ready the masters will appears”.

Books just don’t cut it on their own, but free, live, day by day, community, research, collective wisdom, inspiration and support can make all the difference.

2) This is after all an experiment and experiments need data. More people = more data and better results. Personally I want to learn as much as I can about how people improve their lives and overcome their hurdles. And I want to share that with as many people as want to know.

Finally the joy we are receiving from doing what is so out of our comfort zone is indescribably liberating and fun. So rather than worrying about WHY we are letting people know about it – Perhaps you should wonder why you AREN’T!

BIG GIVE AWAY FINAL OPEN DAY

On another note - Would you like to come along to our BIG GIVEAWAY final open day in Mona Vale Sydney.

We will be letting those who come rummage through the remainder of the substantial amount of stuff yet to be claimed and Today Tonight will be here to film some winners

We would love to see you and say hi. Email us if you would like details me@bessiebardot.com – This is invitation only so PLEASE don’t pass the details on to anyone but direct family.

Busy Busy Flow NO!!!!

I couldn’t sleep this morning. It’s not like I hadn’t been up twice in the middle of the night with loulee (BlueBelle). I should have been knackered but I just woke with a million fresh ideas and things to do.

Now ‘things to do’ feels GREAT doesn’t it. And I bounded out of bed with all the enthusiasm of a three legged frog on Bastille day!

I whisked past Bessie and Bluebelle, franticly trying to cling to my thoughts, before the neurons holding them remembered the past 10 years of abuse and went back to sleep. – Damn my memory is bad!

TO DO...

• Upload Gaz’z NEW INTUITIVE HOROSCOPES on our site for everyone to benefit from (done)

• Start a page where people can post there FAVOURITE MOVIES. Inspirational, life lessons or heart warming. So we can all benefit (thanks for the ‘Pay it Forward tip’ guys it was great)

• Start a ‘GO WITH THE FLOW’ page – documenting each thing, person or oppertunity that comes into our life via this experiment, and where it flowed from, and to.

• Put together a proposal to get corporates and individuals excited (generosity wise) about ‘HELPING PEOPLE REAL TIME and physically rather than just with words and good intentions, as we go around

• Start working out route and logistics. Hmm not as easy as I had thought!!

• Prepare for next, Today Tonight interview and actually MEETING the recipients. Invite others to come and help themselves to anything left.

• Interview several young people who have volunteered to help, by traveling around with us, minding BlueBelle and assisting with making video blog as good as possible.

• Put together our ‘one on one workshops’ hopefully to be able to cover petrol, food and expenses on the way. Think of alternatives – We gotta eat!!!!

• Write this blog, update facebook, twitter, find great quotes, contact possible transportation options, contact recipients………….etc etc etc

You get the point!!

But then half way between making coffee, blowing off my usual meditation, kissing the baby and looking for my Ipod while I still have it to enjoy, something inside yelled….

STOP!!!!!

It took all my strength, but I begrudgingly plonked myself on the couch outside, put some earplugs in and sat there until, eventually, the ‘must do’ subsided and I realised how totally unimportant ALL of my 'AMAZING IDEAS' and PRESSING TASKS really were in the scheme of things!

Worse I realise how my enthusiasm had secretly tricked me into believeing my own hype! Like i knew exactly what to do.
So my fellow travellers. My lesson here today is. VIGILANCE!!

It’s not at times of misery or trouble that we fall out of flow, it’s our times of elation and apparent purpose, when we think WE are more important than that silent little voice saying............

 ‘SIT geoff. Sit be still and LISTEN’!

LOVE TO KNOW :- If you experience the same and how you deal with the subtle art of staying centred  busy!

THE SCEPTICS CONFESSION

Some of you may be surprised to know I spent most of my life a huge and vocal sceptic of all things spiritual or self help. It makes me chuckle a little that others may now look at me with the same contempt I once had.

To be honest it wasn’t that I dismissed it all without thought! Quite the opposite! I had literally spent most of my life researching everything I could get my hands on, and simply found that most of it just didn’t stack up to basic fact based scrutiny .

I had seen my fair share of hypocrites, charlatans and plain gullible idiots! And I did not intend to be one of them.
It used to piss me off that the ‘faithful’ would ignore such blindingly obvious facts rather than admit their belief system was WRONG! I just didn’t get it!

BUT WERE THEY WRONG? Or had I just missed the point.

Most of my life I suffered depression and a gnawing sense of dread and un-fulfilment. My inner dialogue reminded me daily that:-

I had done nothing with my life, I was usless!
Let down my parents and friends. Not lived up to expectations,
Let myself down by wasting my chances and being lazy and un motivated
Was a failure in the eyes of society, and would be humiliated, if I even tried to step out of my comfort zones and make more of my life. – Sound familiar?

One day in a mess of booze and misery I tried a thought experiment. I ran through all the things I knew to be 100% TRUE about myself and the world around me.

To my amazement I realised (from the literal scientific perspective) VERY LITTLE is 100% PROVABLY TRUE or FALSE. It ALL depended on where you were standing and your perception at the time! Einstein new all about this paradox. .

In that moment I GOT IT! The quality of our lives is based on the perception we project onto our world, rather than the so called 'facts.'
Suddenly i realized, happiness and misery have NEVER been provable ‘facts’ any more than love, right, wrong or worry are. They have only ever been perception based belief system I had CHOSEN to implement!

WOW!! That changed so much of what i had 'always thought' and allowed to colour my life!

I realised that all these multitude of new age, spiritual or self help belief systems I had dismissed because they couldn’t be ‘proven’ were not there to be proven.

It was the 'experience' of 'believing' that counted and changed lives, and that could only ever be proven, by the individual, too the individual.

SO HOW DOES THIS WORK? - Well one explanation is, like Movies, Hobbies, Sport, Sex an emergency and other situation that focus the mind and cut out intruding thoughts - Strong beliefs do the same. Giving us hitherto unrealised strengths and courage to move forward relatively unhindered by our usual whinging, fearful subconscious!

That’s how a die hard sceptic no longer has a problem with discussing the more ‘enlightened’ side of life. If its true to you then, just maybe that is all TRUTH is!

At the end of the day I realised, since the thoughts that made me unhappy were no more 'real' than the ones that would make me happy, I really shouldn’t give the bad ones so much power to determine the quality of my life.

WHAT ARE YOU PROJECTING INTO YOUR WORLD TODAY

Hope this helps. It utterly changed my quality of life almost overnight :-) SO ENJOY messing with your preconcieved beliefs a little this week!

Im looking fwd to expanding my understanding of this, as we meet and experience other people’s belief systems on this Life Change Experiment. - Love to hear your thoughts!

WEEKLY UPDATE

- Geoff Blog--------

GIVEAWAY CLOSED – Finally we can get down to the mammoth task of sorting out who gets what. PLEASE be patient as the logistics are a nightmare. We will LET YOU KNOW BY EMAIL if you are to receive anything – PLEASE don’t contact us to find out as it only makes more emails to respond to.

MORE FREE STUFF – It looks like most people went for the obvious items. That means there are lots of things left that no one has claimed. We are going to have an OPEN DAY on Friday the 11th September at 11am where anyone can pop around, say hi and choose what they want from the unclaimed items.

UP COUNTRY – Don’t panic, anyone up country who won, we will NOT put your stuff out. We will arrange bulk pick up from an area close to you or direct if you prefer.

JUST THE BEGINNING - Now the adventure and experiment REALLY begins.

• Will the ‘universe provide’?
• Will I stay in flow or end up a blithering mess at the bottom of a bottle of voddy like the old days haha.
• Will we end up begging at a soup kitchen or meeting people like you and having a blast?  Your guess is as good as mine. But I can’t wait to find out :-)

 - Bessie Blog- ---------


VIDEO BLOG – Coming Soon. An old mate has loaned us his very, very cool camera (Thanks Paul). So we are hoping to put together some really up-close n personal video blogs of our journey. Documenting the experiment, the people we meet (you) and the things we get up to in our quest.

HELP – Don’t forget if you guys know any weird, wild, wacky, wonderful or enlightening people, practices or places LET US KNOW. help@thelifechangeexperiment.com

THIS WEEK – Geoff’s Mum & Dad came down to look after BlueBelle while we went for a bit of a farewell night out in Sydney (Thanks Ma). (see pix) Was strange to be in clubs like the old days. We felt great though. Ready for the new chapter – I’m sure we will still get to have lots of fun, boozy and barnstorming nights. After all life is for the living, but at least now they won’t be to mask the underlying sense of un-fulfilment, boredom or social expectation!

BABYSITTER Thanks to the wonderful ladies who have offered to babysit. This week Paula and her cute son Ashton gave BlueBelle a lovely hour in the sunshine whilst we got some much needed work done & Jean from next door – Thanks for the break

Its Not As Easy As That

Just got a comment from one of our Blog regulars who is having a hard time. Their comment to my last post about, 'thinking out of the box', was

 "its not as easy as that'.

 THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT COMMENT - So despite the fact im going cross-eyed from staring at emails for the last 16 hours i thought it important to address ASAP.

 You’re right! As long as you are around and doing the things you usually do, it’s REALLY hard to think out of the box – Why on earth do you think we made such a drastic move. To give our brains a chance to think different thoughts. So to expand your thinking try to :-

• Listen to different music
• Eat different foods
• Go different route to work
• Talk to different people
• Read different magazine
• Do different exercise 
• Drink different drinks

Act differently – Literally, be really nice or really nasty – ANYTHING to remind your brain it has more than one option!

Thinking out of the box is hard when your brain is put on autopilot everyday.

Naturally we like autopilot because it’s comfortable, safe, familiar, relatively efficient and no effort!

Unfortunately its also soul destroying, brain decaying, boring, unsatisfying and the greatest cause of depression in society today.

So its your choice - If you want more out of your brain, give it a different perspective – I have been ABSOLUTELY STUNNED at the alternate perceptions and solutions my brain has come up with since I got our of my routine. I have solved issues in 1 week I had not come near to fixing in 10 years.

 Hope this helps

Thinking like Einstien

Poor Bessie has been forced over the last week to endure copious Einstein documentaries due to it being ‘Einstein week on fox’. Fortunately she has plenty of emails to respond to thanks to all the amazing responses we have received.

Anyway in watching Einstein’s life I realised the HUGE and varied hurdles he had to overcome to become the ‘genius’ we all know and love.

What he proposed was so vastly different to, not only what the top minds of the day said, but what logic dictated. So from the very start he was batting being called nuts from both without and within.

I really stoped to wonder how he was able to take such gargantuan leaps in thinking as to propose, and later prove, things like time slowing with speed and matter being concentrated energy.

Thinking/ living outside the box is what this Life Change Experiment is all about. Allowing your mind the freedom to roam and explore ideas and possibilities it would usually rule out.

It’s only in these moments of non judgment of our thoughts that we find our own genius & flow.

Unfortunately most of the time we are so fearful of loosing control of the familiar, we never give our real creative an opportunity to flex its muscles.

To be honest, I find the thought of who I might be, if I totally let go my inner critic and stepped fully into flow, physically scary. Yes I admit it. Full flow scares the pants of me.

I mean what would be expected of me if the comfort zone police in my head suddenly took a day off from keeping me 'safe' with comments like, ‘ohh I cant do that’, ‘No one will listen to me’ and ‘who are you kidding, your nothing special’.

Frightening stuff! But none the less stuff I intend to find out!

Truth is our brains are the most powerful pieces of matter on earth (and likely the universe), Yet rather than treating them like the creative Ferraris they are we use them to potter around like a bicycles, too afraid to put our foot down in case others laugh at us.

Thank god, Einstein, Edison, Picasso, Newton, and all the other creative geniuses that have shaped our lives had no quarms about stepping on the gas!

A little at a time I intend to re wire my inner critic and see what sort of horse power I can get out of this ol gray matter.

Its not that any of us lack genius, Its simply we lack the courage to be wrong on the path to expressing our genius!

Give yourself permission to be wrong, screw up, make mistake, get miserable, feel hurt – Then let it go and get on with the job of living n learning with no regreats.

Make My Day

Had a wonderful weekend. My parents came down from brissy to babysit BlueBelle while we went out to have a bit of a farewell party, and an early birthday celebration for Bessie. Thanks to all of you who came along.
Also thanks for some really encouraging comments on our posts. One thing I have learnt is that inspiration is very much a 2 way street.

So something I have been considering since we started this is the fact that by YOU getting out and bringing a little spontaneous inspiration into someone else’s life you get it reflected back in spades.
You don’t have to be a guru, or know everything about the universe to change someone’s day, and hence your own. It seems there is literally a magical property to brining a little light to others.
Im quire interested in exploring this further. Love you to do the same and see what our results are.
Takes so little effort to verbally make someones day better. Not like you have to help them move house. Just open your mouth and tell them something you have learnt or noticed about them that might make there day better :-)

By the way did i mention - 'You look MARVELLOUS today' -  haha

MIGHTY MOMENTS!

This came to me this morning after a long meditation. So in the spirit of sharing the 'wealth', i am urged to pass it on to you.


Every MOMENT, if we let go of our distraction for a second, there is a quite awareness of something tiny you could 'DO', in that moment, that would resonate with your 'soul'.

It may not appear to be part of a big hourly or daily or weekly picture. You may not see its relevance.
It may seem insignificant, or appear to be an annoyance to the pressing matters at hand, like getting the kids to school!
But when you feel it, don’t wait, don’t second guess, don’t dismiss, or say, ‘ill do that right after I’ve done this’!

DO IT NOW in that moment it belonged in.

And each tiny step of congruence, that maybe as small as picking your socks of the floor to save your partner, or calling a friend, will unravel before you a hidden trails, your own secret path. Like cookie crumbs through a forest, brining you one clue at a time closer to an ultimate sense of daily fulfilment.

Think about it. If we don’t act on our intuitive sense of purpose in the moments, how can we ever expect to experience it over the period of a lifetime?

What is your core trying to tell you in this moment? Mine was to write this down for me to remember.
Now I am quietly excited about what’s next. I don’t have to look for big meaning or perfectly thought out master plans.

I don’t even have to know where I am going. I just have to do the tiny little things I feel congruent to do, as and when they pops up in that moment.

My mission today is to notice the little voice and catch myself from submitting to the argumentative and demanding conscious distractions.

WOW I wonder what my life would be like now if I had acted on every one of those quiet intuitive thoughts. I guess it’s never to late to find out

HELP:- Let us know how your life has been affected by a tiny intuitive thought you stepped out of your destractions to do! Today or in the past!

What are we MISSING

You may have seen it but well worth repeating!
Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning.

He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace.
He collected $32.1 hour:He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

• No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.
• He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written,
• With a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
• Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston
• where the seats averaged $100.
  

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour,

do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ....

How many other things are we missing?

The Real Self Help Guru - YOU!

A very wise women came to my house today. I have been working with Gaz for years now in my quest to ‘distil’ the ‘meaning of life,’ for want of a better phrase.

She reminded me of an often forgotten fact. Everything we need to know is all around us all the time. Your whole life is one giant self development seminar, and you are the ultimate Guru. Seriously who knows more about you than you. So why do we defer our power to others out side ourselves?

The reason is because we don’t trust ourselves, and we don't really want to know the truth!

Our bodies have the most amazing and profoundly accurate system for getting us completely congruent and into the flow of life, without the aid of a single self help book. It’s called ‘PAIN’!

Every time we feel pain, fear, hurt, anger, indignation, worry, criticism and all those other ‘negative’ emotions that throw us out of whack, it’s like a great big hazard warning light going off in your head.

BEEP BEEP – LOOK – HERE – LOOK – HERE – THIS IS WHERE IM UNBALANCED!!!!!!

The amount of pain or discomfort you feel is directly proportional to the distance your life is, (at that moment), from the one your true core is trying to focus you on living.

This is very much the reason we took the leap and started the Life Change Experiment. To address our pains front on and realign our actions with a more natural flow!

Unfortunately most of us run the other way when we sense some form of discomfort!
How well do you think your car would run if every time the brake light went on you drank a bottle of wine and burried your head in work, cursing the stupid warning light for being rude!

Yet that’s exactly what we tend to do when we are confronted with problems in the real world – Blame the symptom rather than the cause, as Frankenfurter so aptly pointed out in Rocky Horror. The truth is! Your pain Your Problem!

After all if you looked in a mirror and saw a mark on your face you would be mad to try and rub it off the mirror right!

So my mission today is to START NOTICING! What ‘gets my goat’, frightens me, worries me, annoys me, angers me!! What am I criticizing, dismissing, disliking, avoiding, begrudging etc

What do I see in ME that makes me reacts like that to them! And how might that incongruence be affecting my quality of life in other areas

The world is one big life change seminar if you care to learn the lessons – You are your own guru, with everything and everyone around you reflecting little pieces of who you really are ,(or are not) being, like it or not!

It’s our choice to blame the mirror or address the mark where it is. ON US!

Thankfully now we have you guys as wonderful additional mirrors on our journey. I hope we can return the favour here in our own little way :-)

LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

I LOVE THIS STORY!

A student of a wise master asked him one day, “Master when will you teach me about enlightenment”, and the master said, “Tomorrow when your ready.”

The next day the student asked the same thing and the master replied, “Tomorrow when you are ready.”

This happened for a number of years – Finally the student was fed up and said, “Master I want to know about enlightenment NOW”

So the master takes him down to the water and says hold your breath and put your head under water. The student complies.

As he holds his breath the student waits for the answers he has been seeking.

Slowly his air runs our and still no enlightenment so he starts for the surface only to find his master holding his head underwater.

Panicking now he struggles and tries to reach the surface, but to no avail. His lungs are bursting and every part of his body is screaming for air.

Suddenly the master releases his student and he burst into the air taking an almighty life giving breath.

“What are you doing?, are you crazy”? The student said, “You nearly drowned me”.

When you want enlightenment as much as you want that breath you are ready for me to teach your! Said the wise master.
-----------------------

I think about this story everyday. It’s a great reminder that no matter how much I think I'm tring I am never as fully committed to it as I would be to my last breath.

Yet that power resides inside us at anytime we want to apply it.

How easy would your life change be if you acted like your life depended on it!

Falling out of Flow

Must admit I felt a bit overwhelmed yesterday. So much has been going on! The huge quantity of people in need, the inadequacy of our ability to help and the logistics of our future have really hit home.

It’s reminded me how hard it is to stay in the flow when you are bombarded with 'practicalities', other people’s opinions, distractions and fears.

Of course this is clearly the next lesson on our journey and I accept that.

How do I know? Because it seems all really worthwhile lessons come, at what we would consider, the most inappropriate times.

And right before we have to decide the next step in our journey, is about the most inappropriate time I can think of, to not be able to feel the flow! So I take some form of perverse comfort in this fact, haha

A good friend of mine who is a little too psychic for her own good, Rang me tonight to say she was sensing that I was disconnecting, and to remind me to re centre. She was right! As she usually is.

Why am I sharing this with you? To become accountable!
It would be easy to always write upbeat, ‘we are so enlightened, take our advice’ blogs. But that’s not what this is about. It’s an experiment. Which means:-

1 It MUST be truthful else the results are flawed
2 It will go wrong and it will go right – Both are equally valid lessons
3 It is all about dealing with the warts and all of reality, not detached Ideas in a book.

I have worked amongst many of the most well known personal development people in the world, and my biggest gripe is that few ever admit to having bad days.
It was a huge weight of my shoulder when I realised that ALL of them did, and not just a few! So ‘perfection’ was not the goal.

So today my mission is to start to reconnect, and listen to the flow again. There is too much at steak to let my ego or fears screw things up now.

See now I feel better already. Wow you guys are great – Thanks for the talk :-) – (the power of reflexion )

Poem from Bernita

THE ODYSSEY
Geoff and Bessie are to be free,
Of super ?fic- ia- lity.
With little BlueBelle they will flee,
Embark upon their odyssey.
　
　
?WHAT INSIGHT!? ?DARING!? ?CLARITY!
?HOW BRAVE!? ?HOW BOLD!?- we?ll all agree.
　
　
Bar all the ?plastics? of Sydney (fingers moving manically),
Whilst ?Googling? your page with glee!
　
　
?Safe journey? is the wish from me,
As you find what is your destiny.

(Sent to us by Bernita - Thanks Bernita :-)

WEEKLY UPDATE

What a busy week. Sorry if we have not responded personally to your email yet - We have received over 20,000 requests and emails. We will look at them all but responding might take a little longer.

Was hard not to spend all day buried in the computer but we were determined to get out and enjoy the world a little, catching up with good friends Andy & Kellie to reminisce about the old days.
Now there are two ladies who stepped out of their comfort zones and totally re invented their lives.

We will be on the Morning Show tomorrow at 9.am having a chat about the giveaway with Larry and Kylie. Hope BlueBelle behaves live on air J

Still don’t know what we are going to do next. Really don’t want to think about it until our lives are clear of the stuff. Will let you know as soon as we do.

If we can arrange transport we would like to travel around Australia and come and meet some of the wonderful people who have contacted us. - But we shall see!!

As John Lennon says:- Life is what happens while your busy making plans

Pic:- Geoff Meditating in his beloved Snuggie. Andy, Kelly and me. Balcony where we are house sitting as the sun goes down. Loulee (BlueBelle) pretending to be grown up (no she didn’t actually get any champagne)

SECRET TO CHANGE

Ok.... Here it is... You’ll never need another self help book or seminar again. :-)

1) MOST IMPORTANT: - Dont try and change what you are truly not fed up with - If you secretly enjoy it just accept that it is serving a purpose in your life. Let it be

Trying to push things out of your life only heightens your craving for them - Anyone who has ever been on a diet knows that. Accept! You will tire of it naturally if you stop reenforcing the craving by denying yourself.

I realise this goes against everything you have been told but it is by FAR the most important. You do the thing you do for a good reason! It supports an emotional / chemical connection that your subconsious believes it NEEDS for survival. (Hence the reason its so hard to give up). Unravel that reason and try to find alternatives but DON’T fight your subconscious. You’ll lose.

2) Small is BIG - People forget the power of a single drip of water. ITs not all about massive obserbvable changes. Its about tiny constant re programing until the flood gates eventually break. REMEBER change is often not even observable to you. Just trust it has happend one neuron at a time

3) Stack the deck - If you want things to happen faster throw yourself in the deep end so you have to sink or swim. Nothing re wires the brain faster than survival. That’s one of the reasons we did the 'Giveaway". Survival! To shock the brain into rewiring old patterns & ruts we have found hard to break.

4) Tell everyone - Why do you think you know about our giveaway! We needed to make sure we stuck to our plan so we let everyone know!

Your brain HATES looking bad. It’s a natural survival mechanism to ensure you don’t appear weak. Make use of this HUGE natural focus aid to keep you on track

5) Be that person - Its all about growing new neural networks in your brain and thats all about perception. Rather than being the old you who's trying to change. Just decide you are already the new you, who occasionally enjoys old behaviours. No big deal!

REMEMBER Both the Old and New 'you' are made up by your brain (illusions) so why not pick the one that doesn’t make you feel like crap. And gives your brain a chance to wire constructive rather than destructive thought processes.

6) Silence the inner critic - Sounds harder than it is. Actually its just noticing it and not allowing your thoughts to follow through any more than is necessary. It all comes back to retraining the neural connections. NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE - You dont even have to really do anything. Just noticing your behaviour patterns alters your perception and hence the connections over time.

7) If you cant seem to get around to doing #2,3,4,5 or 6 - DONT PANIC - Refer again to #1 and ENJOY!

You'll notice we used all of these :-) Of course there are many other perfectly good ways but this i have found the most effective. Love your suggestions on making changes.

WOW Great Response

What an increadible response from Today Tonight.

Just imagine if people were as enthusiatic to have a great life as they seem to be to own a free TV .

Will be interesting to watch how many people look past the free stuff and join in the REAL fun.

Must admit i was nervous today about how they would present the experiment.

Nerousness is a fab reminder that your subconciouse has an agenda. A great time to take my beautiful bubby BlueBelle for a walk. stare at the massive, powerful uncompromising ocean and rememberd how silly my pathetic little agendas are in the scheme of things.

Nothing like nature and a newborn to bring perspect.

Thanks to the wonderful Sean from http://www.gethitched.net.au/ who helped us out today when we got snowed down with responese. Bussed it miles to help out.

Liv'n The Dream---NOT

THE 'BAD' DREAM????

Work hard doing something you dont want to do.

For someone you dont want to do it for

To buy things you dont need

To fit in with people you dont like

That get you in debts you cant pay

To companies you don’t know

Making you work at jobs you don’t want..…for someone dont like....etc etc etc etc

ITS YOUR LIFE. Take it back!!