Leap Of Faith

Twice it happened!

Twice (so far) life made me face my fears. 

Third time lucky, as the saying goes, but I already think of myself as 'lucky' and blessed at the second time. This is what happened at the beginning of 2020...

Amidst all other social chaos, I found myself in a most difficult situation. In the long years (20 to be precise) leading to this one special day, I was used to going to work every day feeling stressed, worried and anxious. That I considered 'normal'. I got up every morning feeling tired before my day had even begun, depleted of energy and already fed up with everything and everyone. 

At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, a new mental and emotional state started to take hold of me and it gradually grew in intensity with every school day that passed by... Did I mention that I was a full time primary school teacher at that time?

Well, I felt trapped in that job. But it was paying my bills and one part of me was saying that I should surely just stop being silly about complaining while another part was becoming increasingly resentful for carrying on and enduring this slow, yet steady, destruction of my soul as life was being sucked out of me, daily.

How does one deal with this!? To label it as 'tough' seems like an understatement. This was the culmination of a teaching career spanning 2 decades. It started in a posh private language school in Bulgaria, and was gradually coming to an end in a primary school in Luton. 

I wouldn't describe myself as a person who makes decisions easily. For that, I tended to rely on people around me, especially when those decisions affected my life. I am also quite a patient person and can endure huge amounts of pressure before it becomes unbearable. So, it wasn't easy for me to decide to take a leap of faith and move on from the job that I hated. That is, until it got completely and utterly unbearable and taking the leap of faith was the only 'leap' I could possibly take...   

''I quit'', I said, having figured in my head that I could always find another teaching job, if I really needed to... But my heart was feeling so happy to be out of the rigidity of full-time teaching and was craving freedom really badly!

What happened next proved the words of Kandyse Mcclure who said,

''Take a leap of faith! You will either land somewhere new or learn to fly.''

Gosh, wasn't that some absolutely new place that I landed on! 

In the process of breaking free from my restricting, soul-destroying circumstances I learned a whole lot of new things but this one is the ultimate one:

Engage in activities that make your heart sing and your path will be revealed in front of you, step by step. Trust the process!

This is exactly how our 'Farm' came to be...

When I first applied for an allotment (in Feb 2020) I was told I was number 20 in the waiting list so I thought 'well, that's that then, no allotment any time soon!' and put my energy and focus into other enjoyable activities - like cycling, which I hadn't done properly since my childhood and the empty roads of Lockdown One presented an amazing opportunity. 

Let me tell you, cycling at the age of 47 is not as easy as it is at 13-14 but it is just as enjoyable (if I were to ignore the pain in muscles I didn't know I had). However, it was a great fitness preparation for September when, to my utter surprise, an allotment became available! 

Before long I became the 'owner' of a plot of land as green and lush as the field next to it! There was no plan, just excitement! 

What did I need first? Tools, of course! 

Tools became available. Good quality tools appeared, so digging began... 

For weeks and months, in autumn's drizzle and winter's chill, the ground was getting turned once and muscles ached. Oh boy, how well did my trusted essential oils work soothing the backpain, the knee pain and even the sneezes of spring! Didn't they perform miracles!

With spring approaching, the plot was taking shape and, out of the blue, a polytunnel appeared - as a thoughtful birthday present - alongside new posh Hunters Wellies! The excitement was growing and the plot was unfolding it's potential for:

Deep thinking and reflection;

Self observation and awareness;

Relationship building and deep conversations;

Bonding with nature;

Satisfaction and gratitude;

This small patch of land was transforming fears that caught up with me from time to time but most of all, it was helping me observe how my life was unfolding in front of my eyes, while my heart was happy and my gut was leading the way.

And all that was even before we had started planting any vegetables. I discovered what my body was capable of and how well it recovered and healed.

Next, we knew we needed manure. And just like that, manure appeared. I never thought I could be so excited over a pile of shit! (The last batch for the season too!)

At another time, some wheels were needed to move two pallets from the back of a local shop to the plot. And wheels, from an old BBQ, appeared in the most unexpected way. So the pallets were transported to their final destination and the wheels broke right then, at the end, when their job was done and they had served their purpose.

A miracle after miracle has been happening. I'd call it lucky if I didn't know better - it's not luck, it's something else. It's living life from a happy place and letting the Universe deliver what you really need, in its mysterious, unknown ways.

Now this 'Farm' of ours is turning into an oasis of goodness, in any aspect of the word. With the new sitting area under construction, the idea of which defined itself gradually, as we finished planting the vegetables, I look back/over our plot of land in awe and gratitude. 

May this Farm be a source of love, inspiration and food for thought in the years to come, not just for me but for everyone else who gets to experience it and who gets touched by its grounding, healing and nurturing power. This is an invitation for you, my dear reader, to come along and sit with us, under the trellises, surrounded by the fragrance of roses and jasmine and share thoughts and ideas. 

With love,

Desi

“Things don’t happen before or after, they happen at the right time.”

Mother Nature has the Original Instructions on how we can evolve in harmony and permanently shows us multiple examples of the divine synchronicity with which life occurs: seeds germinate in the spring and mature as plants in the summer; then they create more seeds in the fall and remain at rest during the winter until they germinate again in spring, completing the cycle. A seed does not germinate without completing the cycle it requires, and a plant evolves to another stage at just the right time. There is no death – only life that transcends from one stage to the next.

From Mother Nature we learn the wise patience with which everything happens at the right time as part of an exquisite and intelligently designed plan. The seed transcends to become a fruit or a flower; when the egg opens a bird is born; when the caterpillar thinks it is dying, it becomes a iridescent butterfly; the tree falls to the ground and becomes fertilizer for new trees; night becomes day; summer gives way to autumn. A storm gives rise to new seeds; a fire renews the forest; an earthquake opens space for new opportunities; the hurricane moves what was still and when the sun comes out again, everything is clean and starts to renew.

Humans invented time, yet we lost sight of the timely management of this resource; we became slaves of time, living in a constant “rush”, in which we are accompanied by the permanent fear of not getting somewhere in time, of not having enough time, of not completing a project in time. We developed faster processors, applications, devices and, we have accelerated the need for everything to happen faster: fast food, fast meetings, fast messages, fast relationships, everything fast! We want it all yesterday, or better yet, the day before!

We no longer have time to stop and breathe; no time to let things mature; no time to be ourselves; no time to just be; no time to enjoy the presence of those we love; no time for a phone call; talking in person and even talking on the phone are considered “old fashioned” habits. There is no time to eat and much less to express our gratitude for the blessing of having food on the table; no time to look another human being in their beautiful eyes because ours are hypnotized by ever-present screens; no time for anything, no time to LIVE. We are afraid that we will run out of time and die before we get every THING we think we need to be happy!

Acceptance of Divine Timing is essential to find the much patience for a new idea or project to bloom, for the loving construction of a healthy relationship, for finding the right moment to say something, to trust that the next step appears in the perfect moment and to allow ourselves to stop and smell the flowers, or to simply BE without doing!

Hand in hand with timing also come the miracle of synchronicities. Those fabulous experiences in which we realize how certain things happen, impeccably, so that others will have the right time to happen. For example, consider everything that happened in perfect timing so that you could meet your current partner; maybe, that day you forgot something at home and went out 5 minutes later than planned and met this person in the elevator. Or, that time when took longer than expected to sell something and then you realized it was perfect because a better alternative came along. Or, the day you missed a flight, and it was perfect because on the next flight was the person you needed to contact for a business deal. How many experiences like that have we had, and at the time, we were frustrated, yet later on we had the time to understand that it was a perfect synchronicity, because the time of the Universe works in ways our human mind cannot always grasp.

Being in tune with Divine Timing, is an essential element in creating sustainable success. How would your life change if you had the “key” to transform the energy you have been using in frustration, confusion and discomfort, into awareness and gratitude for the perfect synchronicities of life?

This is where PSYCH-K® comes in, as the “key” that will allow you to access your subconscious mind and transform in a very simple, easy and fun way, the self limiting programs and perceptions that keep you in the “victim” mode. We learned these limiting programs from the collective culture which is why we forget the perfection of Divine timing, creating a hurried life that ignores the beauty of “allowing” the natural rhythm and the precious effects of the results that occur when the “gods of synchronicity” are activated.

Based on the above, we invite you to reflect on which areas of your life are out of balance because perhaps you want things to happen faster than they need to, or perhaps there are other areas in which you are going at a slower pace than you need to and are failing to take timely actions. This is an invitation to remember your “natural rhythm”, which happens as a result of returning to the Principles that Mother Nature presents us with such simplicity and elegance.

With proper time management, it would be easier to choose the right moment to act, to know what to say and the right time to say it, as elegantly simple as the sun sets at the end of the day and the moon rises every night.

Can you imagine how your life would change if these concepts were present and manifested in your day-to-day life, in a natural way?

Anxiety – A contagious dis-ease for which we have the antidote!

If you listen around you, and particularly within yourself, you will realise that anxiety has become a highly contagious dis-ease. We have become a characteristically anxious society.

The dictionary defines anxiety as a mental state in which a person has a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. When we are not in control but we like to be in control because that brings us the perception of safety, we feel uneasy. It seems that this human condition of wanting to be in control ("Controlitis”, lol) is the mother of anxiety. Controlitis, in turn, is the child Fear, which originated in the uncertainty of not having clarity about how things will turn out in the future, are we going to be able to cope, avoiding the possibility of feeling helplessness...

Does this sound familiar to you?

This powerful triad of Fear, (need to be in) Control and Anxiety generates a pressing need to manipulate events in life, and we become obsessed with wanting to know when, where, with whom or how a certain outcome will occur. However, life presents us with challenges in which, despite our resistance towards and our hardest attempts to control the circumstances, uncertainty consumes us, and the resulting anxiety amplifies the insecurities with which we have been programmed from childhood.

What kind of fear I hear you ask... Well, here are a few examples:

• The fear of not being enough;

• The fear of being rejected by family, friends or work collaborators;

• The anguish due to not having the necessary skills to face challenges;

• The fear of not being as good as the next person;

• The fear of pain... in all of its possible shapes and forms...

My grandmother used to live in an anxious state. I picked it up from her. I used to be anxious all the time, even after the 'event' had long finished.

But then I challenged myself with a question: Why was your grandmother anxious all the time?

And the answer surprised me (well it was also so true, so not surprising really...)

That is how she showed she cared. Anxiety was her way to say that things mattered to her. She got 'addicted' to feeling anxious and that addiction lead her to creating a constant circle of difficulties to feel anxious about! It was so powerful, it 'infected' me. The constant transmitting of messages associated with anxiety and fear on a daily basis can be very contagious.

For years, that was my reality, until I found an antidote.

An easy, simple and effective way to recognize that this addiction to anxiety was based on limiting programs I had at the the subconscious level of my mind which generated the need to control everything driven by fear of being not enough.

The antidote is a process called PSYCH-K® with which we can reprogram the system and understand that it is possible to experience life with more peace, with more joy and serenity.

With PSYCH-K®, we easily, quickly and effectively access the subconscious mind to give it new information, and in addition, we find guidance in the Principles of the ancient wisdom of Mother Nature, to support us in aligning our lives.

For example, how do you think your life would change if you could:

• Change your perception of uncertainty and chaos and see them as a bridge to harmony. (Principle of Nature: Harmony)

• Accept that doing more is not always better and that from stillness and inner peace, we have access to all the resources, gifts and talents that already exist in us and achieve results in a simpler and more effective way. (Principle of Nature: More is not always better)

• Understand that challenges are precious messengers that allow us to shed light in areas of ourselves that were in darkness; When we see them, we find qualities that strengthen us and make us more creative (Principle of Nature: Resiliency)

• Release the need to control the expectations we have about the results of life events to look at them with curiosity and in a more balanced way (Principle of Nature: Balance)

PSYCH-K® is a precious spiritual process that comes to you when you are ready to transform the learned limiting ideas that maintain the addiction to anxiety, and begin to create a more aligned life in which you discover your greatness, remember your divine essence and be the peace you seek.

If it is your time now to become a more authentic version of yourself, get in touch and I can help you change what you choose to change about your patterns of limitation.

Guilt, Resentment and Shame — Three powerful brothers who keep us tied to the past!

From the day we are born we are learning about the world - what is good and what is bad, how to act so we are accepted and what not to do to avoid being rejected. Our self-esteem has been shaped and programmed by daily experiences in which we were either praised for our actions or criticized for them, lovingly shown how to modify our behaviors, or harshly and coldly punished and judged.

Shame is a perception we learned from childhood, and it is the feeling that everything about us is wrong. This affects our self-esteem in a profound way and makes us feel inadequate and incapable all throughout our life.

If the environment in which we grew up was characterized by many moments of “tough” love, aggressive words and constant criticism about our way of being, or by the total absence of interest on the part of our parents, we create a self-image based on limiting beliefs about being inadequate, inferior, insufficient and undeserving, i.e. ashamed of who we are. As we grow older, we become more sensitive to what feels like criticism, even if it isn’t, causing us to feel rejected by others, reaffirming the perception of self-loathing and worthlessness. The consequence of feeling this deep “shame” of who we are, may be the origin of behavioral patterns of self-aggression and self-punishment, where we become violent, depressed or turn to alcohol or drugs.

As a consequence of feeling this deep shame, throughout the various stages of our human experience, it is highly likely that we have had moments when we have hurt other people or ourselves with our actions or words or when we have felt attacked, betrayed or abandoned. The stories related to each of these events generate additional feelings of guilt and resentment, which, of course remain deeply stored at the subconscious level of mind, as powerful imprints with which we continue to re-create similar situations in the present and we feel powerless due to the perception of not having a way to change these patterns or letting go of the resentment that poisons us daily.

So we now we carry guilt as well as all of the previous shame and resentment. Guilt for what we did or said. We continue to feed that resentment daily as we create more instances of the same - people come to our life that we perceive to have hurt us. And, while we remain tied to the past, we are the victim of each of those events and we find ourselves repeating the same patterns in a circle that seems to have no end.

Now here is the good news!

It is possible to free ourselves from these 3 powerful brothers.

While we cannot change the events of the past, we can change how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive the environment in which we grew up, how we perceive our parents, as well as each person with whom we have interacted during those events. As Rob Williams, the Originator of PSYCH-K® likes to say, “With PSYCH-K®, it’s never too late to have a functional childhood!”.

The bridge to re-signify the past and create a more harmonious, balanced and compassionate present is to access the subconscious mind and give it new information about how we perceive what happened.

For example, consider how your life would change if you could have these new beliefs or perceptions at the subconscious level of mind:

• Believe that you are a source of peace and joy for yourself and for everyone around you (Principle of Harmony) instead of sustaining the addiction to creating situations of pain as a way of self-punishment

• Accept responsibility for the choices you have made in your life and for the results (Principle of Cause and Effect) instead of feeding the guilt and resentment that keep you in the victim mode

• Act consciously, choosing how to treat yourself and others, with the clarity that we are all connected (Principle of Interconnectedness) instead of sustaining the reactive or aggressive patterns learned in childhood.

• Find harmony, even in difficult situations (Principle of Harmony) to recover your personal power and re-signify the past based on forgiveness and gratitude (at the subconscious level of mind instead of trying to forgive, which actually leads you to not forget!)

• Honor and respect the feelings of others as well as yours (Principle of Interconnectedness) to understand that the people you consider have hurt you or who you have hurt in the past, acted from what they knew at that time. This gives you the power to learn the lessons, grow and be grateful and as a result, stop being the victim and free them from your mind.

If you are interested in learning how to go from being a victim of the past to being an architect of your daily destiny, get in touch!

Having Self Worth issues? - You have the solution within you

School, parents, society, everyone forces upon us an 'interpretation' of what our self-worth and self-image should be. How we see ourselves and how much we value ourselves is being heavily dictated by our environment. In our current state of society there is a constant and powerful bombarding of conditioning and solidifying (propaganda-type) of what our perception of ourselves should be: advertising, media, news, shop windows, government rules and regulations, how other people look, speak and behave.

Pause for a moment to reflect on the amount of precious time and energy we spend entertaining the need to meet the criteria that others have imposed... And we do this blindly, lead by the subconscious fear of being judged and shamed etc. This fear of being judged (of which we are not even aware most of the time) makes us go through life looking to satisfy the cultural criteria about how we should look or behave, and there seems to always be a need for something else, nothing is ever good enough, and consequently we are never really happy.

Let´s consider some questions:

– Does being thin and wrinkle-free improve the perception about your body?

– Does wearing certain clothes and accessories boost your self-esteem?

– Does having a new car or a big house make you feel better?

Whereas the answer might be yes for these examples, the point is to find out what is the starting point, what is it that truly motivates and drives our behavior.  Do we act based on a loving and accepting self-image and as a consequence we create a life of wellbeing or do we believe our joy and happiness depend on how we look, how much money we have or the things we can buy with it, as well as on the external/social approval we receive based on these? Are we coming from a happy loving space or do these desires fulfil some neediness and fear of lack?

Mother Nature is a beautiful source of inspiration with very simple and effective examples on how easy it is to create a joyful way of being: a lavender plant would not dream of changing its aroma to smell better in the eyes of another lavender plant, a cow would not think of losing weight to please a partner, and certainly you’ve never seen a dolphin want a speedboat to go faster in the water.

These examples could serve as an invitation for us to realize that over the course of our life we have involuntarily learned and stored in our subconscious mind a series of perceptions, behaviors, attitudes and habits from the people and environment around us. And because they are subconscious, first we are unaware of them and second, they create our life. We downloaded these while we were very young and could not properly discern. In other words, we are actually a series of programs that others have believed to be right for us, and now we run them automatically. Certainly, many of these programs are useful and functional for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being, while others are at the root of our daily limitations, barriers and difficulties.

Here is a practical experiment, in order to recognize if you are running automatic programs that condition your self-image. Let´s think of the last time you bought new clothes, a new phone, or a new tv, and ask yourself some of these questions:

• Did your self-image improve? Did your life improve in significant ways? Are you satisfied with the time and energy you had to put into obtaining this? Did others change their perception about you?

If the answer was “not really”… then you know that the “need” for these items is a program, a way to fulfill our lack of self-worth through material things.

Here is how Mother Nature can provide us with the perfect antidotes to the lack of self-esteem, the distorted perception of ourselves and the feeling of not being enough, along with some of the Principles that make it such a wonderful example of sustainable success.

• Adaptability: recognizing when a change is necessary for us and being able to adapt in a natural and effortless way. 

• Balance: the ability to use the masculine and feminine aspects of your life to achieve a balanced view of things, including the time devoted to work and to your personal life. 

• More is not always better: being able to recognize that you already have enough and that you can make better choices by selecting quality products that last over time.

If you are ready to take charge of your life and change the subconscious programs that keep you from seeing yourself with the eyes of “I am enough” and “I love myself”, so that you can enter a new level of expanded awareness and sustainable wellbeing, you can consider choosing PSYCH-K® as a way to internalize millions of years of Mother Nature´s wisdom.

Why doTERRA? - Pursue What's Pure

They say that becoming a mother is a defining point in the life of a woman. This certainly was very true about me! From the moment I became a mum my entire focus was on the little life that was growing in front of my eyes. “Is this the right thing to do? What if I make a mistake? I want to care for my child’s health properly… ” were some of the thoughts that kept coming to me. Motherhood put me on the path of a truly remarkable journey to self discovery through holistic natural healthcare to a totally new view of us humans as spiritual beings.

I wanted to stay home and be a mum but I had to leave my baby at nursery in order to go to work. Life was difficult. Hard work, long hours spent teaching other people’s children how to speak English. So I started an MLM business to support my income. It didn’t work. I used the products for my family and myself and we had great benefits but I made no money out of it.

The leaders of this MLM company were all successful and smiling doctors with huge patient following so who was I to compete with them?! I was not medically trained so I could not repeat what they did in this business. Furthermore, I did not have many friends as I had recently moved to this town. My family was making jokes about my meticulous use of the supplements and I had to constantly explain why nutrition was so important.

Very soon it became obvious that this MLM company was not going to do much for me financially. The teaching job was only paying a small salary and I desperately wanted to have a bit more financial freedom such as being able to afford a new (second-hand) car or a better flat. I kept looking…and life continued to be difficult. Looking back, it’s obvious how my programs of limitation and scarcity were the reason for all my financial and other struggles…

Twenty odd years later, I had gradually forgotten that my desires existed. I was a mum entirely devoted to her family. Homeopathy, reiki, energy healing and herbal medicine were my ways of dealing with ailments. I identified myself with being a wife and a home-maker who kept the house clean, the children well looked-after and well-behaved, delicious dinner cooked from scratch every day and all the other trimmings that come with a model super-woman who looks after the others but not herself.

This is when the unthinkable happened - my marriage broke down…

I found myself in the deepest darkness of my life... Financial survival was my biggest demon. A single parent with a single income, half of which paid on the rent, no wonder I reached rock bottom. I wanted to die… But I had my children to look after…

Becoming a mother is a defining moment in a woman’s life, they say. So is divorce, I say.

Through the pain of a broken heart, through the doubts and fears, through the confusion and limiting beliefs of worthlessness, hopelessness, lack of confidence and all the rest, some glimmers of hope twinkled occasionally, increasingly, in my darkness-dominated existence. Through holistic practices I did survive to tell this story today and once I picked myself up after lots of intensive mindset work, life started to look bright again. I began paying attention to my own desires, my wishes and I experienced for the first time what it felt like to truly love myself, unconditionally.

Money blocks were being released as well so space was created for new opportunities to appear… This is when doTERRA came into my life, attracted by my love for holistic natural health support. I welcomed it open-heartedly and it brought me a financial opportunity beyond compare! 

I have been using doTERRA oils and supplements (as well as I get paid for sharing my experience) for nearly 3 years now and still get amazed at how quickly these oils support my health and the health of my loved ones.

The most amazing transformation so far has been on emotional level. Because of the essential oils I have been able to forgive, to move on, to delete the left-over traces of resentment, to let go of worry, to transform anxiety, release anger and to fill my soul with light, to embrace freedom and to live fully. My next goal is to leave my teaching job and to focus entirely on helping people achieve the same transformation in their life by spreading the knowledge about these amazing doTERRA oils and the business opportunity that they carry.

It is possible to heal the world, with the right tools, one drop at a time! If you are someone like me, or if my story resonates with you, I'd love to get in touch.

Will the Memories You’re Making Today Be There Tomorrow?

Just the other day, I listened as a someone was telling a story about his neighbor, Kathy. She started showing signs of memory loss and forgetfulness almost a year ago. Her husband quit his job, and they took to traveling before it got worse.

That person who was telling the story hadn’t seen her for several months while she was away. Now that she was back, she couldn’t remember his name.

Her husband kept interjecting, “Honey, this is Andy... No, this is Andy... Remember Andy, he lives next door… It’s Andy, honey.”

It pained me greatly to hear this. It pains me greatly each time I hear a similar story, and they’re becoming more and more prevalent.

You’ve heard it before, but to refresh your memory…

> Dementia starts 30-50 years before symptoms appear
> Every 3 seconds someone gets diagnosed
> 10% at age 65, 25% at age 75, 50% at age 85 will be diagnosed

In 2017, about 50 million people worldwide were believed to have some form of dementia.

THIS NUMBER  WILL DOUBLE EVERY 20 YEARS - unless we do something about it!

That’s roughly 150 million people with dementia in 2057.

150 million people is the ENTIRE population of Russia, or the combined populations of Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

It’s A LOT of people -- too many, in fact -- and doubling every 20 years.

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

The good news is, it is never too late to act!

We could start by assessing our lifestyle by starting with looking how healthy our diet is, how toxic our environment is, what thoughts we think daily, how stressed we are, how much synthetic medication we use, how much we move our body etc. If we are not happy with what we discover and commit to make the necessary changes, start living a cleaner life, sort our subconscious beliefs, eat the foods that actually nourish, use herbs and supplements for brain health, and much more, how much happier would you be?!

As adults, it is our own responsibility to look after our own health. Who agrees with me?