by Lucretia | Jun 4, 2019 | business, change the world, create your life, Psychic, speak your truth |
I met a young guy
today – let’s call him Mickey* – who is going for what he believes in. He is
establishing a business and believes he can make a difference to people’s lives
through what he does. I believe he can make a difference too.
What was interesting
is, as I thought about my appointment with him (which was for a personal issue
of my own), I found myself picking up information about how he could promote
and market his business more effectively. This is one of the ways my psychic
channel often works – I seem to be good at picking up how people are blocking
themselves from achieving their next level, and then I tune into the way forward
and up. Sometimes this happens without any intention from me – being psychic
means I’m a bit like a giant antennae and will sometimes just pick up stuff
because that’s how I roll.
Although we have a
mutual friend, I had never met Mickey before today. But I could feel his energy
and passion for what he is creating long before I walked into his office. So
when we met in person, I shared the insights I had felt with him.
As so often happens in
these situations, he had been thinking about some of the things I mentioned but
had been stopping himself from following through. He also shared that others
had made some suggestions but yet, still, he had not moved forward.
This made me laugh because it is exactly how the Universe works when we are preventing ourselves from shifting.
The Universe will send us the same message over and over again, via conversations, books, movies, signs, random thoughts and other ways to try and get our attention. We humans are often slow learners and don’t like the unknown so I guess the Universe knows it has to ‘stay on message’ to get through our resistance.
Mickey and I talked a little about what was getting in the way and I gave him a few new marketing ideas to think about. I hope he actions them because he has a lot to give but people won’t hear about it unless he pushes that edge of his comfort zone just a little bit more.
When I was about to leave Mickey mentioned a topic he is passionate about. He has a slightly controversial perspective and when I noted this he said, he believed it and wanted to talk about it.
I said, “Go for it”.
I believe you should take your conviction and passion, stand on it and use it to lift you up so you can share your story with the world and create the change you want to see.
I look forward to seeing how Mickey’s business grows in the future. His willingness to back himself and speak his truth will help him to forge ahead and create the difference he wants to see in the world.
I hope if you’re
reading this, you take a chance on sharing your story too.
by Lucretia | Jun 2, 2019 | career, Intuition |
I’ve worked in a few
high-pressure projects over the years where it was imperative that you do your
job well and you put in all the hours you need to get it done. I can’t say they
were always enjoyable roles but I certainly learned a lot about myself and
other people in the process. And for that I am profoundly grateful because I have
grown exponentially as a result.
In those kinds of
environments, people who are energetically sensitive and empathic (yes, you can
definitely count me in this group) but unaware of how they respond to energy can
often experience ill effects but be unaware of the true cause. This can lead to
even more heightened stress, emotional responses, tears, anger and dysfunctional
teams in already challenging workplaces.
Energetically
sensitive people frequently feel the emotions of others keenly and when they
couple that with the challenge of managing their own stress levels (and
sometimes, perfectionist people-pleasing tendencies), it can become very messy
indeed. After all, if you know the people around you are in pain and you’re in
pain too, how can you find a way through?
It is important to
understand how to manage your sensitivity in these environments so you can buffer
out the energetic turbulence of others and keep yourself in balance. If you are
consumed by their stuff you won’t be able to deal with your own or, in the end,
provide any useful assistance. I understand this is often easier said than done
and I am not suggesting you need to become some cold-hearted robot. But if you’re
going to do more than just survive in these environments and you want to be
there because you feel it is part of your calling, then you will need to do
things differently.
So, where do you start?
Begin to notice how you respond to the energy of the people around you. Does being around someone make you feel less or more stressed. Can you somehow know when they are upset or anxious or happy? Notice how that feels in your body and in your emotional state.
As you do this, you
will be raising your awareness and becoming more conscious of how energy works
for you. Keep in mind, that other people aren’t responsible for your response
to their energy, you are simply picking it up because that is one of your
gifts.
When you are sensitive in this way, other people’s energy can wreak havoc on your internal state of being. So how can you manage that?
One of the most useful
and simple techniques I have learned (and now teach to my clients) is as
follows. If you find yourself feeling overcome by emotions that don’t feel
quite right, ask yourself, “Is this mine or someone else’s?” Trust the answer
that comes up for you intuitively. Don’t question it, just accept it. And if
the answer is, “It’s someone else’s” then simply acknowledge that and say to
yourself, “Okay, I’m letting that go and releasing it”. You don’t need to know
who it belongs to or why it exists. Just let it go.
This simple practice will help you begin to understand and manage your own energy more effectively and in healthier ways for you.
Of course, there is
much more complexity to this topic. Energetic sensitivity is a multi-layered gift
that shows up in a multitude of ways. But this practice is a great first step
towards helping you to harness your gift so you can live the fullest expression
of you and not become a burned out mess in tough work environments.
by Lucretia | May 31, 2019 | Bad behaviour, change the world, empowerment, feminism, Men, politics, women |
“She’s a cougar,” he
said, smiling with amusement.
Davy* (not his real name) was dismissing the romantic interest of a woman at the speed dating event – she was an attractive 52-year-old.
“How old are you?” I
asked. Davy looked like he might be quite close to 50 himself.
He looked surprised
for a second then answered, “I’m 47.”
“But you’d go out with
a woman five years younger than you, right?” I queried.
“Yeah, of course,” he
said offhandedly before changing the subject.
Of course.
Davy’s comments shouldn’t have surprised me but they did. I keep hoping that when it comes to gender politics, we will have evolved more. But too many men seem to be stuck in some weird dimension located around the 1950s where double-standards are still in residence and remain quite comfortable, thank you very much.
Over the past year or
so, I have watched:
- Tony Robbins (a supposedly evolved thought leader) disparage the #metoo movement and use his physicality to push a woman back (into her box?) at an event in front of thousands of people
- legislation be passed in some southern states in the United States to control women and their reproductive choices by preventing their access to abortion (even in the cases of rape and incest!). No surprises that the legislators have frequently been white men and religious doctrine has played an influencing role.
- increasing commentary on social media about how abortion shouldn’t be permitted in Australia either – once again with a lot of men and religious rhetoric leading the discussion (men + religion often doesn’t always work out so great for women’s rights)
- Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius (following the murder of yet another woman in Melbourne this week) state, “The key point, is this is about men’s behaviour, it’s not about women’s behaviour. Every time I hear about woman being attacked – for me as a man – it gives me some pause for reflection about what it is in our community that makes men think it’s okay to attack women, or take what they want from women”.
Some public commentators subsequently bleated the same old “but not all men” statement in response to Luke’s words instead of doing some of their own reflection and saying, “Well, yeah, I can see that men are doing this and I’m a man, so I guess I have a role to play. What action can I take?”
- Tanya Plibersek pull out of the Labor leadership race stating she could “not reconcile” the “important responsibilities I have to my family with the additional responsibilities of the Labor leadership” (Sydney Morning Herald, May 26, 2019) clearly indicating that perhaps Australia’s parliament isn’t the most family friendly or supportive place for women
- Australia’s prime minister give a speech on International Women’s Day saying “We don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.” In other words, women can’t rise if it means others [men] will be displaced. Despite the fact that many women haven’t risen because they haven’t received the same advantages as men.
Let’s just say, as a woman, a feminist and someone who supports equality, these events have been disappointing to say the least. We’re not in the 1950s anymore, so why does it feel like we’re still there?
I understand these are tricky times. Men don’t always know these days what their role is. Most want to do the right thing but there is, I’m afraid, a large degree of apathy when it comes to standing up and saying to other men, “Mate, that’s not how we do things anymore. Women deserve our respect. We don’t control them. And we don’t dismiss their opinions just because they don’t align with our beliefs about how things should (and have always) been.”
There also seems to be a degree of reticence by some men to genuinely reflect on their own behaviour and consider that their ‘normal’ treatment of women is no longer acceptable (not that it ever was). Instead of being calm and less emotional (as they often tell us women to be), some men jump to angry defensiveness at the very mention that they may have a role to play in addressing the issues women are experiencing at the hands of men. It’s much easier it seems to point back to women and somehow blame them for being the problem than take a look at their own behaviour.
Some don’t like the thought that they may not hold exclusive power for much longer and are using their influence to try to retain the status quo. I think this explains the swing to the right we are seeing in the US particularly, and also in other nations globally where governments are increasingly seeking to stifle women’s voices and rights.
For example, a woman’s right to decide if she is going to use her womb to procreate is one of the few things that men cannot directly control – it is one of the few things women have exclusive power over. Yet, we are seeing moves in some places to remove our rights to this body autonomy. If we ever needed a sign that some men were very fearful – then this is a big one. Let’s not delude ourselves. If those men were really concerned about unwanted pregnancies, they would be legislating to make it unlawful for men to have sex without birth control (vasectomy anyone?) or legally ensuring they had to be 100 percent involved post-birth (both financially and in person) and provide adequate flexibility in workplaces, etc. But of course, they’re not doing that. Forcing birth control on men (which would definitely prevent abortions because their would be no accidental pregnancies in the first place) is out of the question yet forcing women to procreate against their will is acceptable, apparently. Double standards anyone?
Women are standing up and demanding more. And I won’t lie, a lot of us are angry about the way things have been going. We’re angry because things aren’t changing and, in fact, sometimes it feels like we’re going backwards.
I believe that when we
work together, women, men or however you identify, we can achieve great things.
But at the moment, many men are sitting on the sidelines and allowing the
status quo to be maintained through their silence.
You need to get into the game gentlemen. We need you there. We want you there. We want to hear you standing beside us saying things like:
“It’s not good enough. Women deserve to have autonomy over their bodies, just like I have over my body.”
“Mate, don’t speak about women disrespectfully. No means no and she doesn’t have to stroke your ego and worry you might become abusive just because she hurt your feelings by saying no.”
“We need more flexible
work arrangements so parents can work and take care of their children, so I’m
going to make that company policy.”
“Being violent towards women is never acceptable and if I know that you are intimidating or being violent towards a woman, I’m going to pull you into line, report you and let you know very clearly that it’s not acceptable behaviour.”
Good men, we need you to do this because a lot of your peers don’t seem to be listening. We need your help. If you want to know what your role is nowadays, this is a big part of it. This is how you help provide for the safety and rights of the women and society you care about – you make sure women have a non-negotiable, equal voice at the table.
This is how we work in partnership to create a better world.
Men, this is your cue.
#metoo #feminist #menthisisyourcue #equality #equalrights
by Lucretia | Apr 27, 2019 | create your life, let go, Life |
My house looks like a rubbish tip and not a well-organised one. I’m moving and my previously ordered (mostly) belongings are now strewn haphazardly around the place as if thieves ransacked my home last night. But there have been no thieving visitors, only me and my random packing methods over the past few weeks.
It’s a strange feeling to be putting all my stuff into boxes. When you live in one place for 13 years, you accumulate a lot of memories and items to go with them. I’ve rediscovered artwork from my childhood and travel documents from my first solo overseas trip. I also found three small figurines tucked into the back of a sideboard. I can remember proudly buying them at Paddy’s Market with my very own pocket money when I was about 12 years old. As I held them in my hands I was transported back to a time when my life felt softer and gentler somehow.
As things are moved, packed or given away, my emotions tumble this way and that – just like I hope the boxes won’t do in the removalist’s storage container on Thursday.
Anxiety, optimism and
fearfulness have paid a few visits. Tears have been shed as I’ve recalled a
fond or painful memory. I’ve pictured my two cats SuperPuss and Mirabel, now
passed, wandering then hallway and keeping me company, showing me love and lifting
my spirits. I’ve seen again in my mind’s eye, my body on the floor sobbing with
heartbreak over more than one man who did not deserve the love I offered.
I wrote and published
my first anonymous blog post in this house – terrified that someone would know
it was me. I also wrote and published my first book here too and began my first
business enterprise.
When I move into my
new home, it will hold no memories for me. Instead it will be a clean slate; a
new place to create a different life.
The thought of that newness
and letting go of the known of this place is scary and enticing in turns. But
before I reach that place, I must first navigate and bring order to the chaos I’m
currently surrounded by.
And get my hands on
some more boxes!
by Lucretia | Apr 26, 2019 | Books, poem, poems, poetry |
I’m not a very
consistent writer. I never have been. To sit down and write at the same time every
day doesn’t come naturally to me. Whether I’m working on a book, drafting a
blog or creating copy for a client, there are times when the words will not come
no matter how long I stare at the computer screen. I can find myself writing,
then rewriting the same sentence to no avail. It will still be crap until I finally
abandon the exercise and stomp off to another part of the house, muttering with
frustration.
But there will be
times when the ideas simply flow through me and onto the pages so quickly there
is almost a word pile-up as my fingers struggle to keep up. That’s when I am
thankful for the strict edicts of my year 10 typing teacher Miss Dunn who taught
me to touch-type on an electric typewriter back in the 80s – yes, I am that
old.
Those times of natural
creative flow are so effortless and when it’s done, I always know it is good. Or
at least, it meets my own exacting standards of good.
My Muse is annoyingly
elusive though and can disappear for hours, days or weeks. But she has
vehemently demanded my attention when I’ve been in the throes of abject misery –
recovering from heartbreak or struggling with anxiety and despair. She often
thrives in those environments of emotional turmoil and my creativity can feel almost
uncontrollable. I once felt her call every night for a few short months. More than
200 poems, some several pages long, were the result.
A colleague once showed
me pictures of the huge, beautiful canvasses she would paint when depressed. “When
I’m happy, I can’t paint a thing,” she said. A lot of artists will tell you
their creativity thrives when they are in emotional pain. Perhaps that is the
Universe’s way of giving us a helping hand in difficult times – giving us something
to cling to as we ride the glutenous seas around us and try desperately not to
drown in the darkness.
Pain has certainly
sparked my creativity many times but living a life that is inspiring has done
the same. I can remember years ago, leaving my Monday night university class
where I taught a bunch of smart, eager students who couldn’t wait to learn, travelling
home, walking in my front door, grabbing my laptop then hurrying out to my back
deck where I would write a blog in 20 minutes or less. The energy of my
students was so inspiring that my Muse was jumping with joy.
Over the last few
weeks I have started to hear the whisper of the Muse in my ear once again. I
was afraid she had died or disappeared forever. I’m thankful she has not.
Half-formed ideas now occasionally
bob to the surface of my consciousness before disappearing once more. But
knowing they are there, is enough to make me feel hopeful that the creative tap
is beginning to drip.
I am not struggling
with despair but I am consciously seeking out the inspirations of books and art
and passionate conversations. Perhaps this shift has heralded the Muse’s return?
Only time will tell.
When does your Muse
visit you?
