Moving On

Well. This has been a long time coming, I know! But it doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.
I have been starting a new, bigger, brighter blog here at
How to Happiness. This is a sight about practical ways to gain more happiness.
Although I am very involved with my spiritual development, what I know is how to clear negative and unnecessary emotional baggage. I have done so much of it myself, and have an empathy and understanding for those caught up with life dramas and negative thought patterns, because I have been there. But having cleared a lot away, I have now come to a place where spirituality actually has some room to grow. It is creating that room/space that I want to pass on. So, that is where I am now.
Except when I am working on my spirituality! I am meditating twice a day now, and I am very lucky and blessed to have little enlightened moments regularly. Just this morning I felt myself to be a small shining light out in the universe, part of the Supreme Consciousness - or whatever!
I should probably get back here to share my spiritual moments, they are fun and exciting, and I am always looking to share (in fact, it is one of the things that holds me back from great meditation - always trying to work out how I can explain it to someone else!) But right now, time is short, and I have a lot of emotional baggage clearing to share!
Buy for now. Paula

Shining like the sun.

I still work toward seeing the light in others around me. Sometimes I see a glow in my children. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be to see the world in its full color, without interpretations, names, commentary, expectations and criticisms piled on top of it a lot of the time. However, I have had enough lovely moments of shining treasures that I can glimpse it.

Below is Thomas Merton's words, written in mid 1900, about the revelation he had one ordinary day:

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. … This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. … I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. … At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak his name written in us … like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. . . . I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere." (Shining like the sun)

Can you see the light?

The universe speaks!

Can you hear the universe conversing with you? Do you spend time in quiet and stillness giving the universe the opportunity to let you know its secrets? What would you think if you heard its whisper? Would you take a step in a new direction if you heard the universe speak?


"Every one of us is a mystic. We may or not realise it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring, compassion, and wisdom. Existence summons to the eternal journey of the sage – the sage we all are, if only we could see."
(Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, By Wayne Teasdale)

Take some time to Be, and see where it leads you.

A Year of Wonders

It is over a year ago that I read A New Earth, and a short time after that that I began the Silent Meditation Group in Sutherland.
In a spiritual sense it has been a huge year.

~Last year I could sense the life tingle in my hand, as directed by Tolle. Now I can stop and feel my whole body alive.
~12 months ago I might have the odd moment of peace, and now can have entire days of presence (school days only!)
~Back then I loved to look at special trees and be awed by them, now I can feel a buzz of life connection with trees and flowers, clouds and waves.
~Once a different dimension was just a science fiction concept, now I see it
fleetingly out of the corner of my eye.
~Last year I had no belief in God, and now I think I share his source, and feel his pure patience and faith in me.
~I never believed I was good at learning languages, but this year I learnt a new language, and found others who speak that language, too.
~A year ago I could be irritated, and bored, frustrated and annoyed, and now a mantra seems to have developed in my head of its own accord, "You don't have to feel like this." And it hits me over and again, This is the Good News.
~I would spend days, weeks at a time getting lost back in thought, and now it is rare not to connect with presence at least several times a day.

And all this is Good News for anyone else starting on the spiritual path. For all I have done is to simply get back to Presence/Now/Being/Stillness whenever I remembered to, and now I see that that is enough. Eventually this brings about a more conscious you than unconscious.

I wonder what I will be able to say next year!

Postscript: I should mention that finding Eckhart Tolle as my teacher, and making a regular time commitment to his guidance, which I do through running the Eckhart Tolle Silent Meditation Group, has been an important part of my Year of Wonders. If Eckhart Tolle speaks to you, check out his website for a local meditation group to join, or do something radical, START YOUR OWN.

Introducing Rob Bell

I think in many ways christian beliefs and Eckhart Tolle's teaching are compatible. However, I have struggled to find a church that I am able to sit comfortably in with my Tolle ideas in my head. So, it seems, in theory I could be both a christian and spiritualist, but in reality I feel I need to choose. That was until I was introduced to Rob bell. It is my good fortune to have met a man struggling with his faith after reading Eckhart Tolle. He discovered the American pastor Rob Bell and shared him with me. Rob Bell is a young, energetic, passionate christian. He seems to believe in the adaptability of the bible and faith. Rob Bell encourages his church goers to express their doubts, believing that it is not possible to never have some. Bell looks at changes in the bible, and varying interpretations of it to support the idea of versatility of the bible. And frequently Bell will encourage us to be present in the moment we are living. All this either allows a place for the spiritualist in christianity, or positively encourages it. Rob Bell helps me have faith that Christianity and spirituality can be interconnected. In fact, he makes the claim that Everything is Spiritual.
Check this snippet out:

Change Your Life!

When it comes to Lifestyle Design, Timothy Ferriss must be the master. He lives very consciously, ridding his life of what is not necessary, productive or fun, and reducing to a minimum everything but the exciting.


I found Timothy Ferriss in a bookshop, in the pages of his best seller The Four Hour Work Week, and you can gain a huge shift in your approach to life by reading it. However, the book lead me to his website, and a world of amazing lifestyle changing information, and how to's. At www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog you can learn the art of letting bad things happen. The formulas for more output and less overwhelm. How to loose 20 pounds in 30days. How to change bad habits. How to learn a language in 3 months. The best swimming style. How to be more productive at work, and get more time at home.
Ferriss is constantly experimenting and logging his findings in lifestyle design, and it all makes for very entertaining and inspirational reading.

Find something to inspire you today, perhaps something from The Spiritual Journey Guide for Single Mothers.

Dont Panic - it's an Economic Downturn!

It is easy to get caught up in the panic and fear that is running rampant through the media about the economic crisis. After all, heads of countries are meeting to discuss....... It's the worst downturn in.......... But there are ways to avoid the hype, and steer clear of the panicking stampede.
Take 3 steps to stop worrying about the economic downturn.
1.Face/name your fear.
2.Take action.
3.Have a back up plan.
ONE. Here is what you do. Read full article.