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!!

Giveaways are Exahusting

Exhausted – If I had know giving everything away was going to be such hard work I’d have sold it all haha

Today Tonight asked if they could do a piece on the Giveaway. So we had to take everything out and arrange it on the balcony of the house we are staying in. It was like moving all over again.

Fortunately the lovely Cindy looked after bubby which was a huge help.

We have had over 2,000,000 hits and some incredibly inspirational emails which have made this whole process that much more rewarding. People from as far afield as Mexico, Japan, Borneo, Thailand, USA, England, Greece all offering places to stay, stories or things worth checking out.

We are so touched by the emails it makes me wonder what else we can do. But I guess that’s all part of the “WHAT NEXT”

Already the universe has been percolating. Will clarify when things solidify. Must say as starts to this experiment go it has far surpassed my hopes.

Thank you all – PLEASE keep contributing quotes, stories, thoughts anything in the spirit of LETTING GO & LIFE CHANGE

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Life-Change-Experiment/148424474987

A Mate With A Mission

Today a very dear old mate Amir came around with his lovely girl Pamela . I think they wanted to see if we had gone nuts.

Finding us in fine form, i was reminded that it was Amir that taught me one of the most profound things i have ever learnt.

There are only ever 2 questions you need ever ask about any decision in your life.

Am i doing this out of FEAR

Am i doing this out of LOVE

Fear of failure, humiliation, pain, the future, the past, loneliness, loss, hurt, lack, not fitting in, opinions, success, responsibility, inadequacy, exposure, judgement……. The list is endless.

I used to love arguing with Amir about this. I thought it was over simplistic and kinda schlocky haha

Not so long ago it dawned on me, with a painful THUD, that it was my fear of what this profound statement would reveal about the choices I had made in my life, that saw me running a mile from it.

In the cold hard light of this question I realised most of my choices were motivated by fears of one sort or another.

Now I try and start every decision with the question – Am I doing this out of fear or love! It is one of the most powerful tools I have ever come across to guide you right back into flow!

Amir runs a fantastic course caller ‘The quest for truth’ I highly recommend it.

Email Nightmare - My Lesson in Letting Go

WOW what a challenging day. Bessie did an interview this morning just as our whole email server crashed – Fortunately The Life Change Experiment emails weren’t affected, but all our personal stuff was lost. And many of the offers of house sitting and places we should visit L

To be honest for a moment I literally felt sick thinking the very responses our future depended upon were bouncing around cyberspace un answerable

It made me acutely aware of a part of me I still needed to let go of. That part that likes to CONTROL and push forward results, rather than let them flow and accept.

But it dawned on me, as I grumbled and stressed about not getting back to people in proper time and lost opportunities, that the person who didn’t get the job at the world trade centre thought that day was a BAD day, at the time!

I realise learning new ways to deal with things is EXACTLY what this experiment is all about – weeding out the personality traits that stop us living life to the full.

Just like the movie ‘sliding doors’ – I need to remember that every alternate ‘reality’ has just as much potential as the next, if you let it go and get on with the business of living it, rather than bitching about it.

Let’s hope I get the lesson quick – I have a feeling it wont be the last time I deal with this ol chestnut!


NOTE – Some of you asked if we would add a facebook site since you prefer it to twitter. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Life-Change-Experiment/148424474987

(See. I wouldn’t have had the time to build a facebook page if my emails had been working :-))

Overlooking my Life so far

This was sent to me in one of the many fantastic emails we have recieved, and i thought it was well worth pasing on - Its from a cartoon called 'Overlooking my life so far'.........

"In my life I had accumulated many things in my head - too many things.

Memories, tunes, facts, fears, visions, loves, etc., etc.

As many as possible. In a fertile mind, such things will interbreed. Mongrel visions are born; hybrid memories; inbred memories, idiot love. It gets very confusing!

I decided it was time for a good clean-up, so I emptied all this out of my head and pushed it into a big heap to sort it out. There is was - everything that was me, all in a big jumbled heap. I walked around it. What a mess!

Then suddenly I saw it in silhouette and realised what it was. It was a heap. A simple heap. You don't sort it out, you climb it. You climb it because it is there. Excitedly I clambered to the summit and raised a flag. I was now looking beyond everything that I knew. The view was simply magnificent."

CHANGING YOUR MIND IS OK

Another thing I have noticed is I am slowly learning to stop myself from judging when I ‘change my mind’.

I think we are all brought up to believe we are supposed to stick to something. Have our beliefs, defend them to the death. Don’t be a flake. Have an opinion. The recent American attitude has epitomised this. Appear to be ‘strong’ resolute un waving in your attitudes!

The more I reflect the more I realise that this is the hook that claws us back when we really want change.

“If I am seen to change my mind I’ll be viewed as less reliable, uncertain, flaky, weak minded etc.

Its simpler to do whatever it takes to stick to our guns. Pills, alcohol, Self loathing, judgement on others, work like a demon, get high, bury your head!

Just don’t acknowledge what your heart has been telling you all along:-

“Stop! Change directions!- This aint it”!!

This experiment is about finding ‘the flow.’ The path of least resistance. We forget that while water changes its course every second it gets exactly where it’s going in the shortest possible time. There is nothing soft or week about water and yet we are not willing to apply this mighty forces most basic lesson to our own lives!

So my new stance is to accept everything today and allow each new moment to mould new conclusions. Sometimes I will ‘appear’ to be right and sometimes I will ‘appear’ to be wrong,

But Lets face it, if Vegas let you move the chips on a roulette board right up until the ball sat firmly in the slot do you think you’d worry about the wrong numbers you put it on in the beginning.

G

G - Whats so important

The more im out of my old life the more i wonder what on earth i thought I was doing.

One of the coolest things I have discovered is the clarity and insights that come from ‘letting go’. Decisions seem easier to make and answers don’t require 2 bottles of red to coax out of my fuzzy thick skull.

I almost feel foolish at the things that i let define me and stress me out. You know! Like ‘important stuff. .. Stuff I have GOT TO do……NOW!! Stuff like…..ummmm ……Well it was important at the time, else I wouldn’t have had to do it… RIGHT!!

If you had asked me then, i would have defend these things, and my need to let them dictate the terms of my life, to the death (literally, perhaps in some peoples cases)

But suddenly it’s like someone turned the lights on in a dark night club just as the beer goggles subside............ "Damn did I really stay up all night trying to impress these people!!... What was I thinking’, as you leave sheepishly out the back door wishing you’d thought of it before you lost most of your hair ‘trying’!

Well as i step out of the club of 'Social expectations' that i spent most of my life trying to be 'someone' in, I am discovering there is a whole world of other people outside the club I had never really noticed before.

Some of you have emailed us and told us your amazing stories of letting go and change, and they are truly inspirational.
I now wonder WHY so many people are cuing to get their 15 minutes in the club, when the freedom it promises is a laugh and there is a whole life to be had in the sunshine outside!!

G = Geoff's blogging B = Bessie blogging

Eye opening

There are so many people who need things!!! Im wondering if i should try and find a way to get some more stuff to distribute. It just feels wrong only meeting one persons needs out of so many !

It's also sad how many people believe there lives will be better if they get this stuff! To be honest I cant wait to pass it on. Its just a reminder of what’s NOT real about mt life!

Does this mean i wont have new or nice stuff anymore?? Hell no!! Just that i wont crave or feel ownership to it any longer. Kinda pointless when you consider where it, and we, will all end up anyway haha

This project has already become a HUGE eye-opener for both Bess and I. Only 4 days and I feel like i have learnt so much. I cant WAIT for the next 6 months.

Sounds of smiling

Got the web radio on today sitting here at my computer. It’s is just devine.

I had totally forgotten the power of music. When i was a kid i never had the radio off but as i got more into work it seemed pointless.

I am just rediscovering how much it can set the mood of your day. WOW. Ok so it’s not set on MMM. I do have it on a rather girly easy listening station that plays non stop uplifting kinda sounds, but I really had no idea how much just doing this would effect my whole day.

All those years staring at the computer screen in the morning with a scowl DOH!
Actually it kinda feels like its playing the backing soundtrack to my life. I half expect Elvis or cliff Richard to pop over my computer screen.
Dag - yeh i know but it seems the inner dag is a much happier person than the outer dude was. Who knew!!

Considering all matter vibrates, and your brain waves are electrical fluctuations, it makes perfect sense that the right music would bring it into a less chaotic state! Not sure why I didn’t think of it sooner.

Feeling in the FLOW

What a beautiful day. Had a walk with my two babies (Bessie n Bluebelle) in the sunshine. I feel like I have left a part of me behind that I have been fighting with for so many years. This is what the experiment is about. Finding those moments we would have missed with our heads down in the rat race.

Im so happy at the responses we have been getting. People are really getting into the spirit and passing the details on to their friends.

We would REALLY appreciate if you PASS ON THE DETAILS http://www.thelifechangeexperiment.com/ we have a LOT of stuff and not much time.

In 2 months we have to be out of this lovely country style place in Mona Vale. We have NO IDEA where we will go then. But that’s the whole point - ANY IDEAS?

Thoughts for the day

I'm typing this the day before the BIG GIVEAWAY.

To be honest I had no idea it would be so terrifying giving away everything we own and throwing ourselves at the mercy of the gods!

We have only the clothes we could carry, our computer and no idea where we will live or what we will do when we get there.

I once read of the ancient army that ordered its soldiers to burn the fleet when it reached the shores of their enemy. That, in a nutshell, is what I intended.

Change, growth, a fresh and deeper understanding of life - or die trying!

At the moment we're lucky enough to have been offered a place to stay for 2 months whilst the owners are overseas.

But this is just the first step off the diving board of our life into the unknown.

Of course I wonder if selling our stuff would have been a smarter thing, but it would have dragged us both right back into the mindset of fear & social conditioning we are desperately trying to break free of.

Of course this adventure REALLY is very exciting - And in many ways I'm really looking forward to giving our things away. It feels like the perfect start to this leap of faith. Letting go of the energy of the past by giving it to others who can use it to better their lives.

Anyway, as always we would love you to join us as we embark on this adventure – Hopefully travelling around from town to town. We would love to hear how YOU have brought meaning and inspiration to your life or others.

Don't know why I chose the picture above - Just felt it was the essence of the beauty of change.

THE BIG GIVEAWAY

We are giving away EVERYTHING we own for FREE

Our cars, bikes, clothes, computers, jewellery, the entire contents of our house, our 2 businesses - a celebrity contact brokerage & a PR agency, knives, forks, furniture, cameras, shoes................ YOU NAME IT

If you would like to claim an item for yourself or if you would like to benefit from our live research in the 'Life Change Experiment' - Then join our Blog here and check out our website http://www.thelifechangeexperiment.com/