What does faith mean to you?

We hear this word a lot don’t we?

I guess that it has many different meanings for many different people.

The definitions as per google is:
“Complete trust or confidence in someone or something”
“Strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof”

Well, I have to say that I really like number 1 that definitely speaks to me.

Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

I remember as a kid that I would spend every recess outside laying on the grass looking up at the clouds.

I used to see the most amazing things in the clouds, I would see animals and teddy bears and all different shapes, I felt the energy of the ground beneath me and it comforted me, and I felt the energy of “something” else when I gazed up at the sky.

In these moments I felt completely supported and safe in my little world.

I was bought up a catholic and whenever I was at church and the words were being read out it always seemed completely alien to the understanding that I already seemed to have within me.

What was being told to me was not resonating with the deep knowing that I had in my heart about the energy in the world that I felt out side of myself but within myself also.

Now I’m not going to go into a huge religious rant because it’s not all bad and lets be honest everyone needs something and everything has its place.

All that I will say is that I was bought up under description number 2 and it always left me wanting.

The “faith” that I seemed to come into this world with was not something that was taught to me from church because by the time that I was 10 I was becoming very outspoken about my displeasure at what was being delivered to me every week.

Why did I need to go to church to prove that I believed in God became my standard weekly argument.

The God that I knew would never not love me just because I did something wrong, and the God that I knew loved us all no matter what we did.

So my beautiful mum in her infinite wisdom when she could not answer my questions sent me to have a chat to our parish priest.

I will give our parish priest a huge thumbs up because as a person who held a very significant position of power he really could have squashed the curiously and independence of a 10 year old but he didn’t, he asked me to explain to him why I felt the way that I did and what did God mean to me.

I told him that God to me was everything, the sky, the clouds, the birds, the ground, the flowers, the trees, the animals and the people and that I talked to God all the time so why did I have to go into a specific place to prove that I believed in God.

I said to him that I believed that God loved us no matter what we did.

Anyway so much about not getting religious but this lovely man did not squash me, he was very kind compassionate and supportive and actually did not say anything to the contrary of what I had said.

I have confirmed with my mum that after our conversation he actually said to my mum “I could not answer her, everything that she said was right and I couldn’t tell her otherwise.”

Now this is what fascinates me, if my faith did not come from my church environment then where did it come from?

Where does faith come from, what is it, what does it look like, what does it taste like, what does it feel like?

It seems to me to be an incredibly powerful force that if it can’t be grasped or labeled or actualised or contextualised then what is it made of and where does it come from?

Have you noticed that when you are in a situation that you think that you cannot give anymore or have anymore that you have found that when you have dug deep there seemed to be another level to you, some reservoir that you were completely unaware of.

It’s a deep sense that once you have travelled through the layers of fear, panic, desperation, tears and sheer determination that there arises a place of complete surrender where you have no where else to go and nothing else that you can do.

It is like getting to the bottom of the water well and drinking the last drop of water and thinking “OMG” there is no water left I’m going to die of thirst, and as you accept this fact sitting there on your knees, thinking that’s it I’m done theres nothing else, and then miraculously out of nowhere there springs out of the bottom of the well fresh running water.

This is what faith feels like to me, it feels like when you have nothing else left available to you and from no where comes this powerful running force of energy that fills you up.

It comes from deep within you and while you know its of you, you also have a sense that it is also from outside of you.

As this energy wells up within you all of that fear, desperation, confusion and dissolution just seems to melt away and you are left with the thirst quenching feeling of being filled and sated, that all will be well and that you have no idea how, you just know that it will be.

Faith has been that warm feeling of being hugged by something unseen when fear tightens your belly and closes your throat.

Faith is seeing a situation unfolding before your eyes that could potentially ruin your life and as you sit there making a promise to this unseen force that if you could just get me out of this I promise to spend that rest of my life working in your service and the situation before you changes in a split second.

Faith is that feeling of knowing that in the midst of something outside of yourself completely controlling your whole life that somewhere, somehow you are going to be saved from yourself.

Faith is that feeling in your heart that lets you know that there is still hope, even though you can’t see it you just know that its there.

Faith is when all of the roads before you have come to a dead end and you cannot see any other way forward and all that you can do is sit and wait.

Faith is that person who just shows up literally a day after you have put the thought out there that you need someone.

Faith is when the world is doing its best to strip all hope from our hearts through fear and despair but there’s a stubbornness within you that refuses to give up hope.

Faith is when you have absolutely no clue where you are going but if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other then a miracle might show up.

Faith is the witnessing of man when he comes to the rescue of his fellow brother with no thought to his own safety.

Faith is all you have left when the world seems to have gone crazy and you keep believing in your heart that all will be well even when you have no proof.

Fatih is not having a clue what it is that I’m supposed to do or where I am supposed to go but knowing deep down inside of me that, if I just follow this or keep doing that it will all reveal itself to me.

My life has shown me over and over again that no matter where I am or what I am doing there is a presence that flows within me and outside of me that is forever guiding me, supporting me and protecting me.

I have a faith that I cannot explain that we, all of us are one, that we all of us are loved, that we all of us are not just random acts within a chaotic Universe.

I have faith that ALL OF US have come into this life with a deep knowing and a deep connection to the force and the fabric that holds this Universe together and that it is available to us and through us always.

Blessings
Kerryn
xxx

Why can’t I permanently live in my bubble of bliss?

Meditation for me has been one of my saving graces on my healing journey.

Of course there is so much more to me than just mediation as I have spent nearly 30 years (OMG) on personal growth, understanding and development.

My quest for what makes people tick, why do people do what they do, why am I the way that I am and how can I change the world around me and If I can’t change the world around me then how can I change myself so that my world can be my happy place of rainbows, unicorns, magic and love.

Truly I am 100% deadly serious, in 2014 I made the choice to turn off all radio and TV.

I also made the choice to never look another magazine or newspaper.

Mind you this drove my Dad completely nuts, he just could not fathom how it was ok for me not to be abreast of all of the crappy, horrific, stressful and menacing things that were happening in the world that those outlets presented to me.

He thought it was terribly irresponsible of me to not “KNOW” what was going on in the world lol

I lovingly explained to him that “Dad, if I”m about to get annihilated I don’t want to know about it anyway, and if there is something major in the world that I need to know about somehow the message will find its way to me”

I am happy to say that he is now more than comfortable with me living in a bubble of complete and utter ignoramus bliss and he is also my favourite fan who sits and watches the work that I do each week.

Lets all take ourselves back to when we were kids, back when daisy chains were as magnificent as diamonds, when the clouds played hide and seek with the sun and may have even given us some magical teddies or animals in the sky,

A time when the sounds of the lawn mowers outside made you feel safe and warm and that all was well in the world, back when you believed in magic, when you believed in fairies, when you walked through the bush or trees in nature and pretended that you were in a magical fantastical forest.

Back when you believed that you could be anything that you wanted to be, back when you could run and skip and jump and play and make up stories in our head and play for hours.

Do you know where your sense of wonder is?
When was the last time that you looked up at the sky and looked for magical creatures in the sky?

When was the last time that you saw a rainbow and wondered was there really a pot of gold at the other end?

When was the last time that you took yourself on a walk through an enchanted forest.
When was the last time that you let the idea or even the slightest little feeling into your heart that maybe there really is magic in the world?

Over 20 years ago I read a book called the Celestine Prophecy, and from the book a vision of a perfectly evolved human world was born.

My life has taken many downward spirals and random turns since then and at times I lost that vision of how this life on Earth could really be.

I am so happy to say that regular mediation has allowed me to reconnect once again with that sense of child like wonder in the world, it has awakened within me the belief and the faith that there is so much more “Out there” and to “Us” than we could ever imagine.

Meditation has given me the space and the permission to surround myself in my beautiful, joyful and pretty bubble of bliss.

I don’t live here permanently however I have permanently changed my view of the world.

I believe with all of my heart and my soul that we are the creators of our own reality, I believe completely that what we choose to see in the world is exactly what the world will give to us.

What I know for sure is that Meditation has steered me back to that enchanted forest, to the world of magic and to a place of Love.

Such a happier, healthier and more joyful place than the world of fear, lack, stress, anger and confusion that I played in for so long.
What have you got to lose? Nothing right!!

Start your meditation practice today, check out my free mediations on Youtube  or join my growing group of online live meditators here:

Oh and if you are looking for me I’ll be waiting at the end of the rainbow, or riding my unicorn, or floating amongst the clouds in my bubble of bliss.

Big Love
Kerryn
Xxx

Grace

What is grace, how do you know you are in the presence of it or how do you know that you have it already within you.
Grace comes from when you fully surrender yourself to a power greater than yourself, if that is your Source, Your God, The Universe, Mother Earth, Divinity, Spirit, All That Is, Higher Consciousness or Divine Intelligence.
It is whatever the name is that you use to describe your Higher Power.

Grace is that feeling of energy that is otherworldly that flows through you when you feel compelled to do something for another human being.

That moment that your mental mind gets out of the way and you just take the action as it is flowed through you.
That could be helping another person in a time of crisis, helping someone cross the road, seeing someone in trouble and going to their aid, giving a friend a call right at the moment that they perhaps believe that no one in the world cared about them.

The list of these inspirations can be endless and I am sure that you yourself have felt this inspired action on many occasions and have sat back in wonder afterwards thinking “Wow that was the most amazing sense of fulfilment that I have ever experienced and what if I hadn’t listened”

I once heard a story of a person who was inspired to stop and say hello to a person who was standing on their own on a street corner, no biggie nothing huge they just smiled at this person and said hello. What this person later came to know was that the person that they were inspired to engage with was actually planning on taking their own life that very day.

This one small and seemingly insignificant action literally saved a persons life.

Now imagine if the person delivering this incredible gift had gone into the ego mind of overthinking and overanalysing and did the whole – they will think I’m crazy or they may react negatively.

This person did not do that, they simply followed the feeling and the intense urge that flowed through them to take the action.
This is Grace

Being inspired to reach out and touch someone just randomly as you speak to them could be the only human contact that they may have had in a very long time.
This is Grace

Reaching out to help another with the lessons that you have learned without expecting anything in return.
This is Grace

Surrendering to your Higher Power when you have gotten caught up in the Being, Doing and Having of life and it is no longer helping you to move forward.
This is Grace

Acknowledging that you can no longer “do this” from your own power and asking your Higher Power to please show you the way, to take this burden from you, to show you how to clearly see a situation.
This is Grace

The act of being on your knees in surrender to your Higher Power and asking this power to flow through you so that you may be of service to others as well as yourself.
This is Grace

Accepting where you are right now and surrendering to this moment that you cannot change or control.
This is Grace

Grace is getting out of the way and allowing the Divine to flow through you.

Blessings
Kerryn
Xxx

Stillness within

There is a space within you that is similar to being the eye of the storm but not the storm.

This is what I have come to know and understand through my regular meditation practice.
There is a space deep within you where no harm can come to you.

It is a space where life in all it’s craziness and chaos can go on around you.

Its the space where it is filled with compassion for the person that you are.

It is a space in which only love resides.

It is a space filled with a benevolent force that knows every aspect of who you are, it sees into the very heart of your Soul.

From deep within this space comes the unwavering knowing that somehow everything is going to be ok.

It is a place deep within the ocean where there is only silence as the waves roll and crash above.

From within the deepest crevices of your Being is the essence of who you truly are.

The essence of you that was here long before you arrived in this physical form and will remain long after your physical form leaves this physical world.

The essence of you that is connected to the Infinite intelligence of the Universe.
The essence of you that knows only love is real.

The essence of you that understands that fear is the greatest illusion that we as human beings are hear to learn and understand.

The essence of you that still remembers that there is no separation and that you are and always will be as one with the supermen consciousness of the Universe.

When you turn your attention inward, when you allow the thoughts of your mind to be like the leaves on the wind, from where you can watch with quiet curiosity as they move past you in your field of awareness and not feel the persistent desire to reach out and grab hold of them.

When you can drop deep into the ocean beneath the thoughts that are like the crashing waves on the surface you will find that still place within you that can withstand any storm.

Begin your journey inward today, start each morning with your hand on your Heart Centre.

Follow your breath all the way into your body and all the way out of your body, do this for several minutes.

Feel deeply into your heart centre and bring to your mind all that you are grateful for.
Notice the sensations as they arise within your body, notice the energy as it begins to move within your body.

Allow yourself to completely fall into these sensations as they arise to meet you from deep within your awareness.

Blessings
Kerryn
Xxx

Perfect what is this?
Do you know what it feels like?
Do you know what it looks like?
I certainly don’t but there is a part of me that continues at times to strive to be this idealist perception of perfection.

I often wonder when we look at people and perceive them as being perfect what is really going on in their heads.

Is where they are at good enough for them, do they see themselves as being the ideal perfect or are they continuously striving for something more.

Are they fulfilled, are they happy are they healthy?

What I have noticed in doing this work and putting yourself “out there” is that you become very reliant on the number of likes and comments to determine your own self worth.

Then when you don’t get the amount of interaction that you perhaps thought you should have you then go into why wasn’t that good enough, was the message not right, did it not make sense blah blah blah.

Your whole self worth becomes dependant on the opinions of everything outside of yourself and nothing to do with your own internal knowing and intelligence.

Crazy right but how many of you actually do this in different areas of your life?
Do you seek outside of yourself for approval, validation and worth?

These are all stories of the ego mind to continue to keep you small but it is so common in so many of us.

We look at others peoples perfect lives and compare our own and often come up wanting and not feeling good enough.
We look at pictures that are posed, cropped, filtered, and probably the one photo out of 100 that were taken and compare ourselves.

We learn and strive for more and more knowledge never becoming the teacher because we need to do one more courses in order to be good enough to speak the language of the Universe that is running though our veins.

We need to have more life experience or even god forbid we need to go through more suffering in order to be able to share our story with others.

We fall into the trap of,
If I just have this certificate and that degree then I will be worthy of and good enough to put my truth out there.

Perhaps with all of those “things’ those certificate and degrees people wont judge me and be cruel to me for putting my words out into the world.
If I have all of these learnings and teachings then I will be respected and taken seriously.

All of these things will one day make me smart enough and safe enough to be seen by the world.

I love this from Brene Brown and I hope that It serves you as well as it has served me.
We are our own biggest and harshest critic we all know that but when it comes to the critics outside of ourselves this is what she says.

“Unless they to are in the Arena with me, sharing their creativity, sharing their truth and stepping up in the world, then I am not interested in what they have to say”

How powerful and liberating is that!

We are only limited by the beliefs that we have about ourselves, we are only limited by the judgements that we make about ourselves and we are only help back and play small due to the belief that we are not worthy of anything else.

Why is it that we spend so much time trying to be someone else, there is no one else that can be you, the gift of who you are is unique only to you.

This is what I know to be true from the eyes of Source/Universe/Angles/Gaia and any other deity or Element that you connect to.

We are all exactly perfect in the eyes of Source just the way that you are right here right now.

Source looks at you and sees the magnificent beauty that you are.

Source looks at you in the body that you are in and feels that you are the most perfect example of its creation.

Source looks at you and see only the brightness of the light that you are.

Source sees you as being more than enough because the Divine created you in its essence, in tis love and in its image therefore the the Divine can only know the perfection of you.

You already are FKN perfect exactly as you are.

Spend time being you instead of trying to be somebody else’s version.

You were born to bring contrast, newness and individuality into this life.

Look yourself in the Mirror today and say thank you to the Spirit within you that is having the best time creating life through you.

Blessings
Kerryn
Xxx

The moment that you turn and face your fears is the moment that your fears turn to dust
(Kerryn Slater)


We all know this feeling very well don’t we. 
For some of us it is the underlying force that runs continuously within us no matter where we are or what we are doing.


This is a feeling that I have experienced for as long as I can remember in my life.

It is that constant whirring in the pit of your stomach, nothing that you can really put your finger on but like the hair on your head its just always there.

It’s the sweaty armpits and hand.

The increased beating of the heart.

It’s the choking sensation in your throat.

It’s the sick feeling at the pit of your stomach
Its not being able to catch your breath.

And even worse it’s the crazy thoughts and images that are running out of control in your head – logically you know they are not real but you cannot stop them.

That moment of waking up in the middle of the night feeling as though someone is sitting on your chest
Or waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath because you couldn’t breathe.

It’s the clenched jaw to the point that you can hardly talk its so sore.

Its choking on your food as it goes down your constricted throat – I once nearly passed out from this, I actually had a moment of thinking OMG I am going to die and I cannot tell anyone I am in trouble.

It’s not going to a function because you cannot bear the thorough of trying to make decent coherent conversation with people that you do not know for fear that you will sound stupid.

It’s the crazy over analysing of every word that was spoken in a conversation and finding fault in every little thing that you did and said.

It’s knowing that you are not happy in your current situation yet choosing to sit in unhappiness because the fear of moving forward into the unknown is to great.

It’s that moment when you think Oh I have something to say and then your heart starts racing, your chest tightens and your throat constricts so you just swallow it back down again rather than risk putting yourself out there to be judged.

Believe me I have experienced all of these and so much more.

I know fear inside and out

It is debilitating and so many people go through their lives never actually having lived because it was so much easier to stay within the safe confines of fear.


Fear once worn regularly becomes like your favourite coat, its all worn, its probably faded and beginning to fray around the edges but because it is so comfy and you have had it so long you just keep wearing it.

What I have learned over the last four years is this. 

Fear has its place, it has a very important role and that is to keep us safe at all costs.

Even at the expense of experiencing life it would rather keep you small than see you shine and risk being hurt in anyway.

Fear is there to send that shot of adrenaline through your veins so that you can outrun the lion that is at your heels.


Fear is there to let you know that something is not right in your environment and to be on alert 
Fear is there to ensure that you don’t step out onto the road the moment that a car is hurtling past.

Fear is there to inform you of when you or your children are in danger.


At what point though did we all give fear the keys to running our whole lives.

Fear also is like a small child that is trying to get your attention, the more that you try and ignore it the louder and louder that it becomes.



Now we all know that the majority of the time that our fear/s never come to fruition, we project this image for example of the lion chasing us, as we imagine this our bodies instantly react and activate our fight or flight response so that we can outrun the lion. 

Fear also = Fantasised Events Appearing Real

As you are imagining all that could possibly go wrong in your life your subconscious mind because it does not know the difference between real and imagined activates everything in your body to keep you safe.

If we are always in a state of fear we are continuously producing the stress hormone cortisol and potentially will experience adrenal fatigue.

Just as any of our other emotions deserve the right to be heard so does our fear.

I love this from Florence Scovel Schinn


“Someone has said that courage contains genius and magic. Face a situation fearlessly, and there is no situation to face; it falls away of its own weight.”

“Fear is misdirected energy and must be redirected or transmuted into Faith”

My statement for the last 4 years has been feel the fear and do it anyway and I can tell you honesty that no matter how hard my fear has tried to stop me, the outcomes were all better than I could have imagined and I felt amazing afterwards.

In fact I was more than alive I was exhilarated and on top of the world.


Buddha teaches that we should invite fear in, we should welcome the fear and in doing so the fear loses all of its power. 

Here are just a few of the techniques that I use that help me significantly in my life.

Fear is a very real sensation in your body
.

1.Sit and physically place your hand on the area of your body where you feel the fear,
Breathe into the fear,
Feel the space around the fear where it sits in your body
Repeat the word, Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.

In this moment you are giving the energy of fear in your body your fullest attention and in doing so it space, you are bringing conscious awareness to it and in this moment it can begin to dissipate from your body

2. Write in your Journal
What am I most afraid of right now in this moment
If my fear to speak to me what would it want to tell me right now
What do I need to know
What action if any can I take right now
Thank you fear for revealing to me what I need to know right now, thank you for always doing your job of keeping me safe so brilliantly, I am grateful but thanks I’ve got it from here on in.

3. Bring your attention to your breath
Follow your breath all the way into your body and all of the way out of your body.
Noticing where in your body your breath flows into, does it flow into your chest or your belly.

Feel the rise and fall of your chest or the expansion and contraction of your belly
Do this for 5 full rotations

4. My favourite from Byron Katie

* Ask yourself this question over and over “IS THIS REALLY TRUE”

I hope that these serve you as well as they have served me


Blessings
Kerryn
Xxx


Teachers don’t teach by preaching, they teach by being a living example of what they have learned.

I have always believed in this concept so strongly.

At our core we are all energetic beings and we have an inbuilt bullshit meter that will fly off the Richter Scale when coming into close proximity of it.

You know those people, the ones that go on and on about all the super awesome “stuff” that they know or are doing and yet you can feel and hear the lie beneath the words.

And this by no way means that they don’t know “stuff”, you just aren’t going to place any value on it or in them because you know deep down that they aren’t walking their talk.

I find this particularly frustrating, as an Empath all of my life and a highly intuitive person I have always been able to tell when someone has been bullshitting me, what was most annoying though was that there was never really any way of proving this as there was no “evidence” to support such a feeling, it was just undeniably there.

Again as energetic Beings, and we are this because “EVERYTHING” in the Universe is energy, we process not only the tone of someones voice, we process the emotions that they are feeling, we process the thoughts that are twirling around their head, we process every nano muscle movement that occurs, we are creatures of constant data processing.

So even if you can’t quite put your finger on it, or if you just get a weird vibe, a gut feeling or as I used to say “My spidey senses are tingling” then on some level you are “Getting” that the person that you are watching, listening to or interacting with isn’t really all that they are saying that they are.

I have come across this so much in my life and in all honesty it has been by biggest “pet hate” strong words I know all of my life.

Once upon a time the quickest way for me to lose respect for someone or to be able to just completely cut a tie with someone is when they don’t behave in the way in which they are saying everyone else should, or OMG even worse when they are judging others for how they are behaving and then they go and do exactly that behaviour.

Today I still walk away because this is not the environment in which I want to live in, the difference being that I can be more forgiving and understanding that we are all doing the best that we can with what we have.

As a person who has had several positions of authority in my previous working environments it was a huge part of my integrity that I would not ask of someone what I was not prepared to do or could not do myself.

I felt that it was incredibly important that I myself had either previously achieved what was expected or could still pull my sleeves up and get in there and do it myself.
I have always felt that it is important to be who you say you are, to come from a place of honesty and integrity and if you can’t do it own it and if you can then do it.

So for me if you can walk your talk then don’t talk it, if you can’t own your shit then don’t expect others to, if you can’t be the change that you want to see in the world then stop expecting the world around you to change and if you can’t do the work that you ask others to do then don’t suggest the work.

• I am a constant evolving work in progress.
• I meditate religiously morning and night.
• I lose my shit occasionally and then I go within to figure out what on earth is going on and what it is that I need to do about it.
• I journal often – not everyday but at least once a week.
• I put foods in my body that promote wellbeing. 
• I exercise most days. 
• I seek external beautiful practitioners for regular healing as well as giving myself healing every night when going to bed.
• I talk to my team in Spirit everyday. 
• I express gratitude for all that I am and all that is in my life everyday. 
• I focus on happiness, love, acceptance and joy as often as I can throughout my day.

So instead of my focus being on how I can teach others, my focus instead is on living all of the above so that when someone comes to me for guidance or healing or help I can offer them solutions based on practices and learnings that I use in my everyday life.

I do not ask any of my clients to do anything that I have not already done or regularly do myself.

So if you are expecting the people around you to change based on what you are perhaps advising them to do and you aren’t actually doing it yourself, they will energetically pick up on this and most likely not do what it is that they really could do to help themselves because the truth of the results will not exist within you.

Live your truth, breathe your truth, sleep your truth and be your truth and others will benefit 100% because of the commitment that you have made to yourself first

Blessings
Kerryn
xxx

Do you know who you are?
Really deep down inside of yourself who you are?

I really do feel that we spend all of our lives just trying to figure out who the hell we are. As a child our identities are given to us by grown ups around us and it can be so confusing because we learnt to be who we think we should be so that the reactions around us are positive, for example, good girl equals praise and happiness in grown ups, naughty equals anger, disappointment and confusion.

So as children we are constantly assessing the environment and figuring out how we should act in order to stay safe, it really is basic survival and please don’t get me wrong I grew up in a great environment but I remember these feelings vividly, and maybe that had a lot to do with being a highly sensitive Empath.

But it makes sense doesn’t it? Children are vulnerable so in order to maintain the highest level of safety they adapt to their environment. So during these years our identity comes to us from those around us, parents, siblings, teachers, grandparents.

Every time someone says, “Oh isn’t Johnny this or that” another label has gone into the structure of who we think we are. At this stage of our lives we have no concept of “Who we are”. Then we hit the oh so awesome pre-pubescent teenage years, Lord isn’t that when we all just want to crawl under a bed and not come out until it’s all over. During these years our identity is influenced by how well we will be accepted and fit in with the seemingly “popular” kids around us. We are again in survival mode trying to adjust ourselves to either draw the least amount of attention to ourselves or to try and be seen by anyone. Are we wearing the right brand of clothes? Is our hair the right style? Do we look the right way?

I grew up in a large family and while we always were provided with what we needed there wasn’t money for extras.
So my beautifully talented mum made a lot of our clothes and she was my only hairdresser until I got my first part time job.

We are influenced by our idols, pop stars, tv stars, movie stars.
Did you or didn’t you have a boyfriend/girlfriend and if you didn’t then there must be something wrong with you?

Then there were the awesome 20 somethings and back when I was 20 it was normal for everyone to be getting engaged and married which of course they all were so again there was an attachment to your identity of whether or not you were doing what everyone else was doing.

I still had no clue who I was.

Then I did get married and had children so then my identity was still not my own…
I was a Mother
I was a Wife
I was a Daughter
I was a Sister
I was a Niece
I was a Granddaughter
I was an Employee
But who was I – Who really was Kerryn, without all of the labels and the name tags who was I.

As I look back over my life I can honestly say that the greatest burning questions that I have been asking for as long as I can remember and yes even from childhood have been:
Who am I
What am I doing here
What is my purpose

I have been on a quest forever to try and answer those questions. I have read books, I have self assessed and inwardly reflected on almost every decision and action that I have ever taken just to try and figure out what makes me tick and what drives me.

What makes me who I am, what is it about me that is individual and created out from something other than the labels and roles that have been given to me over all of these years.

Throughout my life I had been painfully aware that I was a little different to everyone else around me. I was always super sensitive to peoples thoughts, feelings and emotions. I have always felt that there was some reason that I was here. I had always felt that It wasn’t random that I was here. I refused to believe the we were all just ants randomly running around on this planet as some big guys amusing joke who sat up in the sky and looked down on us all laughing at us struggling to figure out what the hell was going on. And yes there were occasions where I considered that maybe I needed to be assessed psychologically because no one else around me seemed to be doing their heads in thinking about all of the stuff that I had thought about forever.

My identity or acceptance of all of the parts that make up who I am has really only happened for me in the last 4 years. From the moment that I started mediating every day, to be exact. During my meditation practices I began to let go of all of the labels that I had placed upon myself. As my mediation practice continued I began to become more aware of the thoughts, the judgments and the labeling that I was giving to myself and everything that I observed in the world around me.

My meditation practice showed me that I was desperately relying on the people outside of myself to tell me who I was, I was placing all of my value and my worth as a human being on how well people made me feel accepted and valued.

Meditation revealed to me how much I was still after all of these years adapting who I was to who I thought people needed me to be in order to feel loved and accepted.

Meditation helped me to see that its ok that I am a highly sensitive being who has a weird and quirky sense of humour, it revealed to me that its ok that I laugh when no one else is laughing, it revealed to me that its okay to own my abilities as a healer and a psychic.

Meditation opened up my heart to the loving energy of the Universe but in order to fully do that I had to first open up my heart to myself.

Mediation was like a mirror to my soul, it reflected back to me the truth of who I was, and its not just one answer.

There are so many layers to who we are, but at the core of all of us Is an essence, an energy that is more than our human bodies, its a feeling of deep love that has no name, label, face or body, its an essence that lets you know that it’s okay for you to feel what it Is that you are feeling.
It’s an essence that lets you know that it’s okay to be thinking whatever it is that you are thinking without judging yourself for doing so. It is an essence of complete acceptance of all that you have done and all that you have been and all that you are.
There is no one identify that is revealed to you in meditation, but what DOES happen is that all of the need to have an identity is melted away.
There is a powerful essence that moves through all of the brick walls that you have erected
There is a space of complete and utter peace that you can float in, and here in this space there is no need for a name, there is no need for acceptance, there is no need for labels or titles,
There is no need for roles,

There is only IS

From within this space is “ISNESS” or “BEING” there comes complete acceptance
You begin to accept the all of who you are, you let go of expectations, you let go of needing approval, you let go of needing anything outside of yourself.
From this beautiful space comes a confidence to embrace your strengths, to love yourself, to be your best supporter and cheer leader,
From this space comes a deep inner knowing of what Is really important to you and what is just bullshit,
From this space comes a deep inner acceptance that you are perfect exactly as you are
From this space comes a clarity of your worth
From this space comes a deep insight as to what your values are
From this space comes a deep and endless sense of YOU ARE PERFECT just as you are.

So in losing the need to have an identity you gain the greatest clarity and insight into who you really are.

You begin to accept all aspects of who you present to the world in any given moment, you no longer have the chains binding you to an image of who you think you should be.

Blessings
Kerryn
xxx

How many times have you had someone say to you, hey take a minute, catch your breath, chill out and breathe?

Have you ever wondered why the first thing that we say to ourselves or to each other when we are stressed, overwhelmed and in a state is to take a breath?

Our breath is the first thing that we experience when we arrive in this life and the last thing that we experience when we leave this life. So to me its pretty damn important to our health and wellbeing.

We are infused with the Spirit of Breath, the Universe breathes life into us:
“breath” The word “spirit” derives from the word “breath,” (spiritus in Latin). Literally breath gives life.

Have you noticed that when things get tough your breath gets rough? You know that shallow quick breath, not really taking the breath fully into the chest or the belly. The normal respiration rate for an adult at rest is 12 to 20 breaths per minute. This is a general indication of how rapidly you may or not be breathing, for me I was less than 12 but I meditate everyday and I was feeling very settled at the time that I did this.

The breath is a tool that can be used for so many things in your life.

Taking 3 conscious breaths
Feel your breath as it moves in through your nostrils, notice the temperature of the air is it cool or is it warm?
Then follow that same breath into your body, where in your body does it flow to?
Does it flow into your chest or into your belly?
Now notice rise and fall of your chest or the expansion and contraction of your belly.
Now follow your breath all the way out of your body.
Doing this for as little as three rotations in and out brings you instantly out of the crazy mental mind activity and into the present moment.
Slowing your heart rate, deepening your breath.

Some amazing health benefits to deep breathing are:

• When you learn to breathe into their lower abdomen/gut you improve and calm your digestive system
  Increases circulation of lymphatic fluid
  Increases oxygen to the heart.
• Blood circulates, relieving congestion throughout the body.
  Helps tissues to regenerate and heal.
• Creates more energy for the body to heal and detoxify.
• Anxiety can be reversed by deep-breathing habits.
• You may start to see balance in the two sides of the brain.
• Relieves muscle tension.
• Stress on organs is lessened, allowing the body to naturally cleanse.
• You become more “Present” resulting in Mental observation and concentration is improved, Greater productivity and learning.
• Better decision making.
• Beautiful looking skin, reduced signs of aging.
• Breathing deeply relaxes the body, reducing feelings of stress.
• Releases endorphins, natural painkillers that create a natural highs and easy sleep.
• Creates more awareness and self-love leading to a healthier life.
• Self-love can help to have greater compassion for others.
• Deepens meditation.
• Intuition increases when you’re relaxed.
• Creativity increases.

Having suffered severe anxiety throughout most of my life I can tell you exactly what shallow breathing has done for me first hand:

• Unable to catch my breath
• Numbing of the feet and hands
• Numbing of the face
• Unable to focus – loss of vision
• Panic Attack
• Chest tightening and pain

These are just a few of the effects on your body that shallow breathing has, primarily though shallow breathing causes your body to be in a constant state of stress the long term effects of which are not roses and potpourri.

It’s not rocket science right?

I know exactly which option I choose to take in my life and that is to get really friendly with my breath, to notice throughout the day what it is doing and how I am feeling.

Deep belly breathing or Diaphragm breathing is easy and simple to learn and is ideally our natural state of Being.

To practice breathing from your diaphragm, lie on your back with one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest. Breathe in deeply while pushing out your stomach as far as you can. The hand on your stomach will move out and the hand on your chest will remain still. When you exhale, you will feel your stomach pulling back in. Both your chest and shoulders should stay relaxed and still.

To add a spiritual dimension to your overall wellbeing and happiness why not incorporate this little gem while practising any of the breathing techniques above.

1. As you breathe in, imagine or visualise all of the blissful wonderful qualities in the Universe that you would like to bring more of into your life: Eg: Happiness, Love, Positivity, Abundance, Compassion, Gratitude, Joy, Fun, Excitement. Really feel the essence of these emotions as you breathe them deeply into your body, feel how your whole body fills with all of those qualities as your continue to breathe deeply.
2. As you breathe out release anything that no longer serves you: Eg: Fear, envy, anger, criticism, old patterns, old hurts, judgment, unforgiveness, pain, suffering. Continue this for as long as you feel conformable and more than 5 minutes each day.

Your breath has the power to transform not only you but your life also.

Blessings
Kerryn
xxx