Eat, pray, love a journey of spiritual excitement

Do you feel the calling deep inside for a good dose of spiritual spring cleaning? A total shake out of your web covered spiritual being, a re-think as to whether you are plugged into a journey you need to be on at the moment or simply have a need to hear your inner wise voice a bit more clearly and little more often.

Then look no further for in less than 2 days in my own home, full of boys, over a typical weekend I managed to take myself of on a spiritual retreat without leaving home. It may not have had all the trimmings of your usual spiritual retreat but the journey and the end result where none the less the same.

I didn’t plan it, it just happened and those are definitely the best kind of spiritual retreats to have. Spontaneous, no traveling involved didn’t have to organize the kids and cost me zip. My mind never got involved at any stage, it wasn’t invited and I knew it would only spoil things anyway. It surprisingly sat quietly on the side never once interrupting me with boring complaints or objections.

Click here for Eat Pray Love

All weekend I had spiritual excitement that totally tingled and connected to my inner truth. My inner wise voice spoke often and clearly. Yep, that’s what you need to be doing right now, Carole. The only complaint my mind kept coming up with was why hadn’t I read this book before. Why hadn’t anyone told me about it?

It’s not a self help personal development, how too book as you might well think. The book is called Eat Pray Love, one women’s journey across Italy, India and Bali by the fabulous Elizabeth Gilbert. After a traumatic divorce Elizabeth decided to travel the world in order to re-claim her personal truth back.

I have been on a fun spiritual journey for more than 20 years, I even travel regularly to Ubud in Bali with my children for this very purpose and then sometimes something comes along in a simple little package called a book and sweeps you away. The many insights and aha moments that unraveled during my personal journey with this book certainly got my spiritual juices flowing and created new and long forgotten awakenings.

It’s a very easy to book to read for its humor, fun and inspiration. The Italian part of the adventure is all about Elizabeth’s passion (eat), India all about devotion (prayer) and living in an ashram whilst Bali is all about balance (love); This book is fabulous and is a must read, even if you don’t read. It will shout to you, inspire you and speak to you on many different levels.

The promise of a blank page:

There is only one question you need to be asking.

Each morning for the last two weeks I pull out a piece of paper first thing in the morning and begin to write a question like. “What do I need to do today” “What is it you want me to know today” or “What is my purpose” but for the first time ever in my life the questions I’ve write down just don’t feel right. They don’t fit. Something is missing.

And now, this weekend after finishing reading Eat, Pray, Love the question I needed to be asking jumped right out at me saying hello, here I am, look at me. I am on a roll as my hand freely responds writing page after page about stuff that I mostly wasn’t aware of. And the question is:

What do I really, really, really want?

What do I really, really, really want?

What do I really, really, really want?

Elizabeth says you must say really three times to truly get it so I’d thought I would even write it down three times just too really really really make sure I got it.

Words of advice from a Balinese Healer aged somewhere between 65 – 110 yrs:

Another fabulous spiritual excitement in the book for me was the advice from a wise Balinese Healer Ketut Kiyer about meditation. As Elizabeth helped him with English he would teach her Balinese meditation styles.

Ketut Kiyer says “To meditate you only must smile” “It’s that easy”

That’s it.

“Smile with face, smile with mind and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. You can call the good energy with a smile.” Ketut Kiyer

How beautiful is that, smiling will clean away dirty energy. You can call good energy anytime with an internal or external smile.

For the past few mornings while lying in bed first thing in the morning I smile into my body, smile into my face, smile into my mind, and smile into my organs. I see my whole being filled with smiling faces and the smiling energy.

What’s interesting in the short time I have been doing the “smiling meditation” practice is there are some parts of my body totally resisting the smiling energy. The smiling energy I am trying to infuse just won’t stick. I’m sure though as Ketut says eventually it will clean away the dirty energy meaning over time my entire body will gracefully and willingly accept smiling energy. I’ll keep you posted.

When the boys and I are in Bali next year we’ll definitely be taking a visit out to Pengosekan an outer village of Ubud to visit this inspirational healer. He also apparently read palms with amazing accuracy, clears bad energies and spirits from the body and performs endless ceremonies which are the norm in Bali.

How to keep your body strong by Ketut a Balinese Healer:

Ketut talks about keeping his body strong by meditating every night before sleep and pulling the healthy energy of the universe into his core. He says that the human body is made of nothing more or less than five elements of all creation. Water (apa), fire (tejo) wind (bayu) sky (akasa) and earth (pritivi) and all you have to do is concentrate on this reality during meditation and you will receive energy from all of these sources and you will stay strong.

I love this simple approach.

Prayers to the universe from her time in India:

Following is an excerpt out of the book from Elizabeth’s whilst in an ashram in India.

“If I want transformation but can’t even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I’m aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don’t have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift. So now I take the time every morning to search myself for specificity about what I am truly asking for. If I don’t feel sincere that I will stay I until I do. What worked yesterday doesn’t always work today. Prayers can become stale and drone into the boring and familiar if you let your attention stagnate. In making an effort to stay alert, I am assuming custodial responsibility for the maintenance of my own soul.”

The last line in this small piece I absolutely love. Take responsibility for the maintenance of your own soul.

Personal words of wisdom from Elizabeth:

• Start a journal and answer this question every morning: What do I really, really, really want? “You have to say really, really, really three times or else you don’t believe it. And answer it truthfully and do it again the next day and the next and the next,” she says. “Because you can’t set your journey if you don’t know what you’re for.”

• Write down the happiest moment of every day in a happiness journal. “It’s a way of reminding myself what really makes me happy and what doesn’t,” she says, “and learn and study and look back and see what is it consistently.”

• Refine your mantra. “I say refine, not choose, because we all actually already have a mantra. We just might not realize that we do. Whatever you repeat constantly in your head is your mantra whether you know it or not, and that is leading you on your way,” she says. “So if you’re repeating, ‘I’m a moron, I’m an idiot, I’m a failure, I’m a jerk, I’m a loser,’ it’s your mantra. So decide whether that’s working for you. … Maybe it’s not and then maybe you might want to choose a different thing to try to say whenever you remember that you’re thinking what you’re always doing.”

Do yourself a favor buy or borrow this book, empty a weekend and take yourself off on a spiritual retreat right in the comfort of your own lounge room.

You can visit Elizabeth’s web site here

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Positive Changes to Sexual Assault Laws in NSW

From 1 January 2008 juries will have a clear and complete definition of what is meant by the word ‘consent’ in relation to sexual offences committed in New South Wales. But some lawyers are worried the Crimes Amendment (Consent-Sexual Assault Offences) Act 2007 will lead to the conviction of more than one defendant who believed he had the consent of the alleged victim at the time of the offense.

The Crimes Amendment (Consent-Sexual Assault Offences) Act 2007 defines ‘consent’ as:

A person “consents” to sexual intercourse if the person freely and voluntarily agrees to the sexual intercourse.

But what has defense lawyers worried most is the requisite knowledge a person must have before engaging in sexual intercourse. Under the crime amendment, a person must reasonably believe the alleged victim was not: substantially intoxicated, under age, cognitively impaired, unconscious, or asleep.

In a move which is likely to meet with the approval of both women’s groups and sexual assault services around NSW, the amendment also states:

“A person who does not offer actual physical resistance to sexual intercourse is not, by reason only of that fact, to be regarded as consenting to the sexual intercourse.”

In an article that appeared in the Sun Herald yesterday, president of the NSW Bar Association, Anna Katzmann was quoted as saying:

“…it could introduce a new system where ‘yes’ can mean ‘no’ if the woman decides the next morning she must have been drunk to have given consent”.

The old “buyer’s remorse” defense has been used in court rooms for many years leading to more than one defendant in a high profile case being acquitted. Although I’m sure there are the rare exceptions, women do not cry rape just because they have regrets about who they had sex with the night before. Most of us are well aware of the further trauma experienced by a rape victim in the court room. So to say that any woman would subject herself to that for something as trivial as “buyer’s remorse” is ridiculous. The comment by the bar association president also suggests to me that defense lawyers are deluding themselves if they think women do not take accusations of rape seriously.

The changes to sexual assault laws in New South Wales is a positive step forward for women who have experienced the trauma and personal devastation of rape. By providing juries a clear and complete definition of ‘consent’ in relation to sexual assault offenses, the government has demonstrated they have some level of commitment to resolving the problem of low conviction rates in these court cases. For too long women and children who have been sexually assaulted have had to endure the final humiliation of being screwed by the justice system and it’s about time something was done about it.

More Criticism of Tsunami Relief Organisations

Ean Higgins of The Australian newspaper has launched yet another attack on Tsunami relief organisations, calling international aid workers arrogant, ignorant and incompetent. The article, Tsunami aid effort ‘incompetent’ appeared in The Australian 24 hours after another article, criticised the aid effort for attempting to address gender inequality in the region.

In his latest attempt to damage the reputation of aid organisations based in Australia, Higgins quotes from a report by the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) to attack Save the Children, Oxfam and World Vision. The report by TEC did not single out these organisations in it’s report which criticised the international response to the Tsunami disaster.

Outspoken aid critic, Don D’Cruz was quoted by Higgins yet again, in what can only be described as a campaign by the journalist to damage the reputation of international aid organisations in Australia. But I guess Higgins needed something new to scare the public after his campaign to kill great white sharks was dead in the water by Christmas.

Related article:
Australian Newspaper Criticises Tsunami Relief Organisations

Parental Child Abductions on the Rise

The holiday season sees a sharp rise in the number of parental abductions in Australia.  With emotions running high between separated and divorced parents during the Christmas/New Year period, a small number of parents will take the drastic step of abducting their own children.  Most of these children are eventually recovered, but a small number of parents will experience the agony of never seeing their children again.

According to an article published today by the Daily Telegraph one single father’s group has actually advised their members that due to court closures over the Christmas/New Year period, now would be the ideal time to abduct a child from a custodial parent.  Although the article did not name the group, there are several men’s groups in Australia who have deliberately flouted Family Court rulings in the past.  However, it must be acknowledged that almost half of all parental abductions are perpetrated by women.

HUKO International advises parents to be alert to the threat of parental child abduction over the holiday period.  Statisically, half of all threatened parental child abductions are acted upon, with children aged between 2 and 11 making up the bulk of those affected.  HUKO International assists those whose children have been abducted by the other parent.  You can contact HUKO via their website.

This is an issue close to my heart.  I personally experienced the agony of parental child abduction back in November 1992.  My youngest son was taken by force from my arms when he was just 13 months old.  My then estranged husband (now ex-husband) and his parents were British citizens and I knew they wanted to return to England.  So my greatest fear was that they would take my young son overseas.  Because his father and I had recently separated and there weren’t any custody orders in place at the time, I was told by both the Local Court and the Police that there was nothing they could do.  Thankfully, his father did return about a week later, but for that period of time I didn’t know whether I would ever see my child again. 

I cannot adequately describe in words just how it feels to be the parent left behind when your child is abducted.  What I can tell you is that the incident did leave a permanent emotional scar on both myself and my older child who was only 4½ at the time.  I thank God my youngest child was too young to remember the incident.

Statistics of Parental Child Abduction

• Every year 650+ children are abducted by a parent or other family member in Australia. 
• 15% of abductions involve the use of physical force or violence.
• 75-85% involve interstate transportation of the child.
• 50% involve failure of a parent to return a child/children after an authorised visit or stay.
• 25% occur before the relationship between the parents ends.
• 50% occur more than 2 years after the relationship between the parents has ended.
• Most (but not all) abductors have a history of violent behaviour, substance abuse, or emotional disturbance.  46% abductors have a criminal record.

source: HUKO International

Say G’Day to Family and Friends with Free Video, Voice and Text

Product Review

This holiday season stay in touch with family and friends over the internet for FREE with ooVoo video conferencing, chat and instant messaging software.

We all know young people are more likely to take up new software and technology in greater numbers.  But the creators of ooVoo are also targeting their product to older adults as a cheap means of keeping in contact with family and friends living overseas. 

ooVoo allows you to talk with up to 6 people at the one time with superior picture and sound.  But you can also record video messages and send them to family and friends who don’t have the software installed.  Video and voice messages recorded on ooVoo can saved and played on any computer.

Features:

Video Conversation

• Talk with up to six people at one time over the internet

• 3D picture display and clear sound

• Leave a video, voice or text message for unanswered calls

• Different ring tones available for incoming calls

Voice Messaging

• Record and send voice messages to any number of recipients

• Voice messages recorded on ooVoo can be saved and played on any computer

Chat

• Chat with up to 6 people at one time

• Invite people to join a chat

• Record and send invitations to those who are offline

Add/Share Contacts

• Search for people in ooVoo community

• Import contacts from your email address book to your ooVoo contact list

• Send contact list to friends

Privacy

• You can decide who can contact you

• Block strangers and other undesirables from contact you

• Display your picture only to those on your contact list

Other Features

• Send large files up to 25MB

• Send up to 20 files at once to as many people as you like

• Favourites bar can hold up to 6 contacts

• ooVoo contact link can be added to any website or email

See a Demo

Arianna Huffington from the very popular blog the Huffington Post interviewed chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers using the free ooVoo video conferencing software.

All you need to get started is a web cam and an internet chat headset which you can purchase at any electronics store.  If you live in North America you can also purchase these from the ooVoo website.  You will also require a fast internet connection to experience all the quality of the picture and sound available on ooVoo.

The free ooVoo software is available for both PC and Apple Macintosh

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OOVOO

Katherine Sampson and Healthy Habits

I first saw the name Katherine Sampson on the cover of My Business magazine.   The founder and Managing Director of Healthy Habits, a chain of nutritious sandwich bars was positively beaming on the cover, after being named the winner of the ActionCOACH Award for Outstanding Excellence in the magazine’s business awards in November 2007.  Sampson and Healthy Habits also walked away with the Cisco Award for Best Young Business on the night.  Ironic when you consider this entrepreneurial mum opened her first store way back in 1992.

After leaving school at 16 and marrying at 19, the mother of two discovered her entrepreneurial spirit at the ripe old age of 25.  Sampson says her children inspired her to take a chance on establishing an accessories business.  Two years later Sampson was ready to move on to bigger things.  She borrowed money to purchase a sandwich bar, re-branded it and so began a passion for promoting healthy eating to the average suburban shopper.

Healthy Habits certainly was a big hit with suburban shoppers and over the next 7 years, Sampson opened another 3 sandwich bars in Melbourne.  By 2004 Sampson had taken the concept nationally with a franchising model that has sprouted 28 stores in the eastern states and South Australia.  2008 will see Healthy Habits expand into Western Australia and possibly New Zealand.   The company has also received expressions of interest from as far abroad as Dubai and the United States. Read more

Australian Newspaper Criticises Tsunami Relief Organisations

The Australian newspaper may have damaged the reputatition of leading aid organisations today by featuring a story that criticised their handling of donations received during the Asian Tsunami appeal. The article Tsunami Aid ‘Spent on Politics’ accused World Vision, Caritas and Oxfam of using Tsunami donations for what it called “social and political engineering”.

The charities were criticised for spending a small portion of the money earmarked for Tsunami relief, on community education addressing gender inequality in the region. Although only a small portion of the money received during the Tsunami relief appeal has been spent on promoting better opportunities for women and girls in the affected areas, Ean Higgins from The Australian saw it as proof the charities are using donations from Australia to further a left-wing political agenda in the third world. I wonder if Higgins would have bothered with the whole affair if the charities used the money to build a cricket pitch, or a football field? I think not. How dare they use the charitable donations of men to improve conditions for women and girls!

Since when is the fair and equitable treatment of women been purely a left-wing political concern? Shouldn’t we all be concerned about the treatment of women and girls in developing countries, even those right-wing commentators quoted in the article? After all, it’s not like the charities used the money to vacation in the South of France. The money was spent on a worthy cause.

Andrew Hewitt from Oxfam said it best when he responded to these allegations by saying:

“Women, like it or not, fare least well when it comes to resources and political power, including within a village community, and those who are disadvantaged often suffer most when disaster hits.”

What the article in The Australian newspaper failed to mention is all the relief work organisations like World Vision, Caritas and Oxfam performed in the months immediately following the Tsunami disaster in December 2004. These organisations continue to work with affected communities to this day and I have no doubt they will stay for as long as they are needed, rebuilding shattered lives.

Of course what concerns me most is the affect this type of publicity is likely to have on the number of donations received by aid organisations in the future. Although Higgins stopped short of labelling the charity projects as misappropriation, the inference is clear and may discourage some Australians from donating.

All I can say it must have been a slow news day if Ean Higgins and The Australian had nothing better to do than scare off donations from hard working aid organisations.

Advertising Standards Gives the Green Light to Raunchy Advertising

An article published on news.com.au yesterday has highlighted the problem of advertisers embracing raunch culture to promote products and services to the wider community.

The Advertising Standards Bureau dismissed complaints about an advertisement for Nando’s Restaurants that featured a pole dancing stripper (pictured above). The advertisement shown on tv during prime time, received the most number of complaints from viewers this year. But the ASB found the advertisement didn’t breach the Code of Advertising Standards.

In a decision that will surely anger parents around Australia, “The Board considered that poledancing was not incompatible with family values.”

In response to complaints that the advertisement vilified women, the ASB stated:

“The Board considered that the depiction of the woman pole dancing was not a depiction of a sleasy or overtly sexual woman and that there was no suggestion that the woman was a prostitute. The Board also noted that poledancing is becoming more mainstream with it currently being a popular form of exercise. While noting the change in attitude towards pole dancing the Board agreed that this change was probably not widespread in the community. Regardless of this the Board considered that this depiction of pole dancing was fairly clinical and not overtly sexual and was therfore not vilifying of women or inappropriately sexual.”

If raunchy advertising like that described above is acceptable perhaps advertising standards in this country are too low. In effect, the ASB decision gives the green light to advertisers in Australia to use raunchy images to promote their products and services during prime time. But do we really want to see more of this sleaze encroaching on our daily lives? I don’t know about any of you, but I am sick of hearing the phrase ’sex sells’.

Far from empowering women, the rise of raunch culture in our society is a giant step backwards for women. At the risk of being unpopular in some circles, I have to say there is nothing liberating about being viewed as a sex object.

The Advertising Standards Bureau in Australia receives more than 4,000 complaints a year about advertising. The vast majority of these complaints are dismissed by the board.

Comfort on the go with legs up wall:

Exhausted, tired and depleted. Been on your feet too long from shopping, cooking, chasing kids or work then you will be thrilled to know I’m about to share with you one of my favorite restorative postures of all time.

No skills or knowledge of yoga needed just your good self, a wall and perhaps a few cushions or blankets to get yourself comfy. I guarantee this posture will restore your energy reserves in no time.

Comfort on the go is a weekly feature with the sole purpose of encouraging you to collect your own favorite well being tools that you can easily use in times of high stress or high exhaustion. This weeks healthy living tool is no exception and I just know once you try it you will absolutely fall in love with it.

In fact in all the years I’ve been doing yoga classes I often see participants just stay in this pose for the entire class. That’s one great thing about yoga it never teaches you to extend and push the body if it doesn’t want too. Sometimes all the body needs is to restore itself. I must say it’s a very common site at yoga classes this time of the year with Christmas approaching.

Children particularly love this one and will easily copy you. I think it may have something to do with them being allowed to put their legs up the wall.

I encourage you to try “legs up wall” and notice even after a short 5 – 10 minutes how much more refreshed your sacrum, legs and energy levels are.

Getting into the posture:

• Lay on your side, on the floor with your buttocks against the wall.
• Roll over onto your sacrum swinging the legs up the wall.
• Place your hands on your belly and breath into your tummy for at least five breaths.
• Let your arms rest beside you and relax for at least 10 minutes, 20 minutes is better.

It’s important to feel comfortable so use blankets or cushions under your head, back or sacrum. If you are anything like me and have tight hamstrings you can either come away from the wall a little or use a chair instead. Eye bags if you have them are some how magically soothing in this pose.

Thanks for reading my article.

Peace, love and restful energy to you all, Carole.

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New Law Protecting Aussie Kids Online is Not Censorship

One of the nation’s largest news sites was wrong to call new legislation restricting access to adult content on the internet ’censorship’.  As a parent I applaud the government’s attempt to address the problem of kids having access to adult content on the internet and via mobile phones.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced yesterday it will force all internet and mobile phone content providers in Australia to restrict access to their MA15+ and R18+ content.  From 20 January 2008 the new Restricted Access Systems Declaration will require all content providers to confirm the age of their subscribers before granting access to mature and adult rated content.

Legislation passed in parliament in July 2007 gives the ACMA the power to force internet and mobile phone content providers in Australia to either restrict MA and R rated content, or remove the content entirely.  And if you think this new law was unnecessary, you obviously didn’t read a story published by the Daily Telegraph last month in which the Telstra owned website WotNext was allowing members to upload soft porn videos on the unrestricted site.  Telstra, which was granted a Family Friendly ISP rating by the Internet Industry Association, has now removed all the soft porn videos from WotNext.  But this occurred only after the story broke in the media and only after the website had been peddling this smut to young people for ten months.

An article that appeared on news.com.au yesterday called the new rules ‘censorship’.  But I don’t consider restricting adult content to ‘adults only’ as censorship because the content will still be available to any adult who wants it.  As a parent I applaud the government’s efforts to address the problem of kids being exposed to adult content on the internet and via mobile phones.  Parents cannot monitor their kids 24 hours a day and even if you can take steps to restrict a child’s internet access in the home, what’s to stop them accessing a computer elsewhere?  Furthermore, new technology has made it even easier for kids to access mature and adult rated content via their mobile phones.  So unless you are prepared to follow your child around all day, it is impossible for a parent to ensure their child isn’t being exposed to smut and other inappropriate content.  That is why this new law is so important and why the media should be reporting it, not labelling it.

I seriously doubt news.com.au will find many parents in this country who are willing to support their view that restricting access to porn to those over the age of 18 is ‘censorship’.

If you believe a content provider is not adhering to the new rules on restricting mature and adult content, I urge you to lodge a complaint with the ACMA after the new rules come into affect on 20 January 2007.

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