by Lucretia | Sep 14, 2019 | change the world, create your life, empowerment, Inspiration, manifestation |
A few days ago, a fabulous
20-something friend sent me a PM with exciting news – an international
organisation had seen her commentary online about an issue she is passionate
about and were interested in partnering with her. They even wanted her to write
a blog for them.
My amazing friend was
OVER THE MOON.
This inspirational
woman is not just a great friend. She has also been a client over the past few years
and we have talked many times about putting herself out there. I’ve always
known she is here to create some wonderful changes in the world but she has often
hesitated to share her voice and opinions.
Until now.
LOTS OF 20-SOMETHINGS HIDE
THEIR LIGHT because…
- You think other people can say it better
- You’re worried about offending people (i.e. you
want everyone to like you)
- Your parents/friends/family/strangers on the
street won’t agree with you, “get it” or will think you’re crazy
- You think you’re not good enough
- You think no one really cares what you think
Does this sound like
you? If so, trust me, you are not alone AT ALL. But I have to tell you
something…it’s all BS!! All those stories you’ve been telling yourself about
why you can’t do what you want, say what you want, be who you want and go where
you want to go are NOT TRUE.
You are capable of
creating a world that is more kind, more sustainable, more creative, more
loving, more expansive, more everything that you believe is important BUT you will
have to show your light first. You will have to put yourself out there, back
yourself, take risks, be by yourself for a while, take the road less travelled,
be the one dissenting voice in the crowd, be okay with people thinking you’re
crazy, be okay with offending people.
If you want a
different life, you must change you first. You must take your passions and
channel them into things that you love, and then share them with the world so
others can hear your voice. Just like my friend, you will have to feel a little
bit nervous, terrified and excited all at the same time. And then you will need
to begin.
Because if you hide
your light, no one can see it. And the world needs to see it. Trust me.
by Lucretia | Jun 15, 2019 | create your life, empowerment, follow your dreams, Inspiration |
I took my book and
made my way into the backyard this afternoon. The sun in Brisvegas is
unseasonably warm and being a girl who loves the heat, I was keen to make the
most of it.
My backyard includes a
pool, thick green grass and a view of the river. But it hasn’t always been this
way.
A few weeks ago, I left my home of 13 years to move here. It was a big choice to sell my house and I’m still feeling the reverberations of that choice, even now. My life is different now. The way I live is different now. And the space I inhabit within the world has changed.
It always intrigues me how when we change one thing in our lives, things change around us too. When we shift so does our energy and those ripples inexorably spread out into the world affecting our relationship with others and indeed, our relationship with ourselves.
Change one thing and many things change. Change a lot of things and you can imagine the impact is little more significant.
For me, my recent big
change has led me to see much of my life through a different lens. I feel freer
because in many ways I am starting anew. How I interact with strangers has
shifted too. I am more open and I find myself feeling even more curious about
the human condition. I observe more, feel more. Certainly my psychic channel feels
much stronger, more attuned and more powerful than it has been.
My house was a home and a refuge. But eventually it became a place where I felt stuck and hidden from the world. Perhaps it was also a symbol of a life I thought I would once have that never eventuated.
So now I’m here.
As I sat beside the pool,
relaxing in the sun, I found myself asking that question we frequently ask when
seeking clarity about our next steps and where we want to go:
“If you could do
anything, what would you do?”
As I rolled the question
around in my head, I realised something that had never really cut-through my
psyche before. I had asked the wrong question. The real question is:
“You can do anything
so what are you going to do first and when are you going to do it?”
The second question is
the true question and I laughed at myself when I realised it.
So many of the reasons
we give ourselves for not doing what we truly want are mere excuses. They may
be very reasonable and logical excuses but they are excuses just the same.
And when we start the
discussion from a place of restriction with a focus on perceived obstacles, we
cut ourselves off at the knees even before we start the race.
I was sitting there in that beautiful setting because I made some difficult but necessary decisions to change my life. To be honest, the Universe in many ways brought me to metaphorical knees before I would make those decisions, but I still made them. And I don’t regret them for one minute. Because once you let go of what you ‘think’ your life should look like as you move towards your goals, you allow whole new perspectives to show up that will take you to places you never expected to go (and sometimes resist visiting) and soon after you will realise you are exactly where you need to be.
I never thought I
would end up living somewhere like this, but it’s perfect. So as I settle in, I
now know what question I should really be asking.
Are you ready to ask
it too?
by Lucretia | Oct 26, 2017 | create your life, empowerment, Inspiration, Intuition |
There is a saying that we teach what we need to learn. This may seem confusing. Shouldn’t the teacher already know what they are teaching?
Yes. And no.
At the university where I teach public relations, I am constantly learning new things as I read up on new approaches and hear the fresh perspectives from my students. I’ve been working in the industry for 20 years but yes, there is still more for me to know and often my teaching itself reminds me of things I’ve somehow forgotten.
This occurs in my work as a transformational teacher where I help women connect to their intuition and manage their psychic gifts so they can live their Purpose. I am a psychic channel and, as such, I’m highly attuned to my intuition and energies. I’ve also accumulated a huge amount of knowledge about how to use my gifts and how they manifest for others. But nevertheless, there is still more for me to learn and often my clients, or the words I prepare for them, teach the teacher instead.
Tonight I did a video about indecision and the patterns of behaviour that no longer serve us. I talked about spending the first 30 years of my life being incredibly indecisive because I didn’t trust myself. I also mentioned that we frequently have negative patterns of behaviour that we repeat across all parts of our lives.
Imagine my surprise shortly afterwards when I realised I had a negative behaviour pattern repeating in my own life. I also discovered I was being indecisive about a particular issue because I wasn’t trusting myself.
Oh, the irony.
My pattern is something a lot of people can relate to: the need to be doing something all the time in the hope that it will hurry the Universe along. My mind has a timetable it would like to be adhered to but it’s not happening. There is universal timing at play but I’m resisting that by trying to push things forward when I actually need to pause, take a breath, and wait for a sign to proceed.
Can you relate to this?
We’re taught that we have to push, push, push and work, work, work to get what we desire. The thought of things flowing (and simply doing what we feel called to do when the timing is right) is almost a foreign concept to most people. But in my experience, when you feel like you’re forcing something through the eye of a needle and nothing is moving, then you need to stop and wait for the timing to be right or pivot your direction.
Wise words, huh? What a shame I’d forgotten them over the last few days when I was trying to force an outcome that either just isn’t ready or perhaps isn’t in my best interests.
When a good friend said, “Maybe you don’t have to ‘do’ anything” I shook my head in amazement at the simplicity and complete accuracy of her statement.
When you’ve tried everything and you don’t know what else to do, pause for a moment, regroup and know that it’s okay to do so. You will move ahead when the time is right.
Tonight I received a reminder that I had slipped into an old behaviour pattern that wasn’t serving me and it was exactly what I had shared on video early in the day. The teacher became the student and taught what she needed to learn.
And so it is.
PS. The picture is of the beautiful arena in Verona – something to take your mind off trying to force things. x
Lucretia Ackfield is a published author, psychic channel and a transformational who helps women reconnect to their passions, own their intuitive power and uncover their Divine Purpose so they can create change and serve humanity. If you’d like more information about her programs, you can find her on Facebook under Lucretia’s Words or join her private Facebook group Rock Your Inner Channel.
by Lucretia | Oct 12, 2017 | change the world, create your life, Dreams, empowerment, Inspiration, Intuition |
Whenever I speak to someone who is passionate about their Calling in life – their Mission or Purpose – it is in those moments that the now is transcended and instead a light is shone upon what is possible (not what is probable).
I am sitting in Italy as I write this – a country that has called me back again and again – and one of its most magnetic features is the passion of its people.
Italians for the most part are passionate about life. They are compelled to express themselves verbally, emotionally and physically. The man on the mobile phone, waving his arms around as he sits in the front seat of his car, parked for a moment to better carry on the conversation. The lovers entwined in the parks for all to see. The sister gesticulating and loudly telling off her brother while gathered at a restaurant with family and friends.
It is all passionate self-expression. It is not constrained by sensibility or what others believe you should or must do. No. It is the opposite. It is an all out, hands waving, emotions flowing, words crashing through the maze of any pretense of mediocrity.
It was this passion that first pulled me into Italy’s grasp. Like a sorcerer’s potion, it was the passion for life and expression that bewitched me and held me fast. And as I wandered around town today I remembered my initial attraction, the spell I was placed under oh so many years ago. I recalled why passion is significant, transformative and so incredibly important.
When you have passion, you can transform the impossible into the miraculously self-evident; you can find a way through that others do not see; and you can move a person, a community or the world to an entirely new level of consciousness about an issue.
In so many ways we seem to avoid this passion. It has no real place to reside in a world where we seek to control what we do, what others do and how we live. Control is the enemy of passion.
But passion is the engine that transforms indifference to compassion. It is the lifeblood that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Passion has stopped repression, lifted scientific discoveries beyond the known, and has created change where there was only stagnation of hearts and minds.
For me, passion resides in Italy. But I know it is elsewhere too. I have seen it; glimpsed it in random conversations with strangers, new acquaintances and friends who want to change the world and make it better. But too often it is dampened down by desires for acceptance, fear of judgement, a simple lack of emotional support or devaluing of self.
But the ones with passion are the ones I am passionate about. I see you all. I feel your desire for change and the stymying of your gifts as you try to twist yourself into molds of another’s making.
I call ENOUGH!!
Enough of making yourself small. It’s time to let your Soul fly and your Passion breathe. It’s time for you to change your world. Start small, think big. It is possible if you believe, if you try, if you unleash what resides within you.
Your passionate self-expression is needed, craved by a world that sometimes seems to be sliding into an abyss of mediocrity, ignorant leadership and a compassion deficit of epic proportions. When I look around, I see what is wrong and I ask, “Where are they? Where are those who are willing to rise up and change the world? When will they start?”
You are the “they” I speak of. If you read this and you feel the call, it is you.
Cast out all the pain and suffering and rejection of before. Pull out every single arrow that has pierced your heart and throat and self-worth. Pull them out and throw them to the ground to be absorbed back into the earth.
It’s time for you to show your passion again. It’s time for you to rise and do what you came to do. Your Soul is ready and the Universe is calling you on.
It’s time for your passion to fuel the changes we need today. Not tomorrow, not next week, next year or the next decade. It’s time now.
Bring your passion, bring your desire, bring your love and let all else fall away. It is time.
It is you.
It is now.
If you are ready to vanquish those obstacles that have been blocking Your Path and Your Calling then it’s time for us to work together. My intensive, three-month program Rock Your Inner Channel, is designed to help you clear out your energetic blocks and the negative, untrue stories that are holding you back, connect to your intuition and step into YOUR DIVINE LIFE PURPOSE.
ARE YOU READY TO LIVE YOUR PASSION?
by Lucretia | Jul 13, 2016 | Cool People I Know, create your life, follow your dreams, Inspiration |
Guest post by Ellie Chadwick for the #coolpeopleIknow series.
One thing you’ve got to know about me is that I’m an over-doer, or I used to be. During my time at uni I was the vice-president then the president of a club, I signed up for a few programmes including Business Advantage and Leadership, Development and Innovation (LDI) from which I gained a new volunteer role with Volunteering Qld designing social media graphics and assisting with event promotion. I was also a full-time volunteer state manager with a youth based non-government organisation tackling extreme poverty and I had a part-time job as the general manager’s assistant at a hotel in the city. During my summer breaks I traveled, mostly for volunteer work in Cambodia, first as a participant and then as a leader. Now not all of these ran smoothly for me and on a daily basis I would run into problems where I’d have to deal with a work issue during a lecture, or a volunteer issue at work and so forth. At the time I thought being busy was a sign of success and I always wondered why I had no time for things like drawing or going to the beach. I definitely took on too many responsibilities and didn’t focus on achieving one stepping stone at a time. The biggest lesson I learnt was quality over quantity and learning when to say no.
After I graduated I traveled to the Mediterranean and the United Kingdom. I actually skipped my graduation ceremony because it wasn’t about receiving that piece of paper, it was the experiences I had during that time and the person I grew into which I found most valuable. I’m not perfect, I’m still working on being a better sister, daughter and friend and I also know I have a lifelong journey of learning ahead of me. But I’ve found travelling has made me a part of the world not just the town I grew up in; I’ve met and learnt from people, history and culture and learnt new things about myself.
Returning home was difficult because I was back to reality. After having the job at the hotel and seeing my more mature co-workers stressed and complaining about their jobs, I decided not to apply for any but start my own instead. I applied for an ABN and became my own boss just like that, providing graphic design and communication services to small businesses and social enterprises in Australia from my van. Yes, that’s right, my van. The idea came to me after meeting my boyfriend. As a musician he travels a lot for gigs and I enjoy travelling, change and I had no idea where I wanted to base myself. So now I live in a van, travel Australia and freelance for work. It’s great because I’m combining all my passions into one, including my passion for being a global citizen leading a low-impact life, buying Fairtrade and organic, travelling and exercising my creativity through photography and design.
I got so fed up with consumerism especially fast fashion trends and people believing they needed the newest products. I have a keen interest in organic and sustainable living, using natural remedies over artificial and harmful chemicals, and creating less waste. I’m still to try dumpster diving but I truly believe we consume and waste too much so I want to be part of a counter culture which goes back to basics. I’ve always had a thrift mindset, limiting the amount of plastic I use and re-using, upcycling and fixing my possessions. So I cleaned out my bedroom and kept only what I truly needed: clothes, toiletries, laptop, camera and kitchenware. You’ll be able to find all the things I own in one place, my van.
My van has a duel battery system with two solar panels which run the fridge, pump for the tap (you don’t realise how important running water is until you don’t have it), lights, fan, a USB plug, lighter plug and an inverter to charge my laptop and camera battery. It’s fitted with a queen size bed, pantry, plenty of storage and a pull-out table.
So far I’ve travelled extensively around Tasmania and Victoria as well as visiting Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane multiple times. Along the way I take photos and notes about the towns and natural wonders for my own travel blog, Girl vs Van. My focus is on van travellers providing tips about living or temporarily traveling on the road and travel tips and insights about Australia’s beauty.
Living on the road is no picnic all of the time. There’s limited cooking facilities which means we eat a lot of one-bowl meals like rice, pasta, wraps and canned foods but I see it as a challenge to create yummy food with one saucepan. Also I’ve learnt a lot about how the van works because clocking up those kilometres requires a lot of tending to the engine and wheels. On rainy days there’s not a lot of options for activities apart from reading on the bed or retreating to a café. Another weakness of ours is to visit the local café for a coffee that turns into breakfast some mornings while trying not to spend over the weekly budget. The cost of living on the road is reasonably cheap compared to renting although luxuries such as a bathroom are exempt. To compensate for this we stay in free campgrounds and make friends who willingly invite us to their homes to share their company and utilities. I don’t feel like I miss out on anything instead I feel it’s more liberating to make do with limited stuff and it encourages more creativity for problem solving.
In the near future I’ll be travelling up the entire east coast aiming to reach Cairns by the end of August and have a wealth of content to write about. Eventually I’ll make my way around the country, a few times probably. I need to maintain my communication business to be able to live this life. I don’t miss being busy at all, I have found contentment in taking life slow and enjoying the simple things. With time on my hands, I get to work on my own designs and artworks which I had no time for while at uni. I sometimes miss having friends nearby but I enjoy meeting new people and seeing new sights. Living in a van is a challenge but it comes with complete freedom to go anywhere and it creates a sense of blissfulness that I love.
Ellie Chadwick is a freelance graphic designer, writer and amateur photographer born in Tasmania. With a BA Mass Comm (Med, Com & PR) she started her own Communications business focusing on graphic design and copywriting. She lives a minimalist life in a solar powered van writing a travel blog, Girl vs Van to help others explore the best of Australia.
by Lucretia | Jul 11, 2016 | Cool People I Know, create your life, follow your dreams, Inspiration |
Have you ever felt so happy that you could literally skip along the street? That is how I felt so many times during my recent trip to Italy. I felt playful, childlike and overwhelming joy for the moment and place I found myself in. Italy often generates these feelings for me and I find many of its inhabitants also create the same response.
On the day I arrived for my stay in a small town called Montefalco, my host offered to collect me from the nearest train station in his little black VW beetle.
Filippo was the epitome of the creative Italian – a furniture designer, painter, musician and writer, his enthusiasm and passion for life simply bursts from his every pore. With kisses on both cheeks and a warm embrace, he then somehow crammed my huge suitcase into the back seat of his car and we were off.
During our drive up the hill, his conversation covered Brexit, refugees, Syria, Libya and Gaddafi, Germany (their policies and the fact they would face off against Italy in a football match that night – clearly they were the ‘enemy’) and so many other subjects.
I liked immediately.
Filippo invited me to join him, his girlfriend Martina and some friends to watch the match at a bar that evening. Of course, I said yes. I’ve never watched Italians watching soccer before but it certainly lived up to all the stereotypes you could imagine; it was an emotional, dramatic and engrossing experience. We sat on plastic picnic chairs watching it on a big screen television. The bar was in a suburban street and drivers would often beep their horns in solidarity as they travelled past while my fellow match-watchers yelled their approval in response.
One supporter had brought along an Italian flag about the size of a Queen-size mattress and every now and then he’d stand in the middle of the street, waving it this way and that (while making way for the occasional passing car and lady on a bike).
As an observer, it was the passion of these people that struck me the most. Passion seems to be a way of life for so many Italians. They are passionate in love (you only have to walk down any street to witness the frequent public displays of affection to know this), passionate in argument and discussions (it’s never about restraint and control), passionate in their expressions (witness the hand gestures that accompany many conversations) and passionate about their football.
Passion for life is a way of life, not an exception. It’s this passion that I find inspirational and my trip to Italy also reminded me of my passion too.
I’m always inspired by people who are passionate about what they are here to do on this planet. I’m inspired by those who take chances and take the roads less traveled. I’m also inspired by those who, simply by getting up every morning and doing the best they can, make a difference just by showing up.
It is passion that is at the foundation of creating change, growth and the diversity of our experiences. For me, passion is the key.
My trip to Italy and meeting inspirational people like Filippo reminded me of my passion and my purpose. My passion is stories; the stories about how we live, the decisions we make, the challenges we face and our willingness to just keep going when we’d honestly rather give up and go back to some place that’s more safe and mainstream. And it’s my purpose, sharing stories to heal, that supports my passion.
I believe that everyone has at least one (usually several) inspirational stories to share. It is only by sharing our personal stories that we enable others to see what is possible; reduce individual isolation and create connections; and ‘normalise’ our diverse life experiences so that others understand that although our journeys are unique, there are always commonalities, challenges and shared experiences (no matter how seemingly unusual and unexpected).
This Wednesday I will begin sharing weekly stories of #coolpeopleIknow on my Lucy and Life blog. The contributors will share their personal stories to help inspire others. They will be my friends or friends of friends who are seeking to make things better through living a heart-led and authentic life underpinned by their passion (whatever that might be).
I’m really looking forward to publishing these stories and I hope that in doing so, readers will be inspired to begin living their passion today.
