Interview with Diana Sandalwood

Diana Sandalwood is the Director of the Dreamweaving Meditation and Counselling Centre.  An adept teacher and healer, her life and work shows that we develop skills, enter into situations and create relationships that our Soul knows is best for our evolution.  We appreciate her willingness to be candid about milestones and during her own journey.  Thanks for offering examples of compassion and courage, inspiring us all to be grateful for every moment and lesson that presents itself.

Share some pivotal moments in your life that guide you to where you are today.

A radical transformation of my own Consciousness has come from my collective life experiences. Some I readily accepted, and others, I initially resisted. All of them have shaped this ‘raw gem’ that is me. All our life experiences mold or sculpt us into who we become as adults.

Sounds like your view about life echoes how Michelangelo felt when he said, ‘Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.’

You could say that. Earlier in life, during search for answers and belonging, I found great solace in the Christian Church Community.  Though I have now respectfully and lovingly distanced myself from it, I am grateful as it guided me to a solid base on which to build my life. 

Feeling gratitude and excitement reflects the knowing you have always had that destiny is on the way. Our desire for connection and love runs deep, to the point we may compromise who we are, to find belonging.  Brene Brown's book, Braving the Wilderness: A Quest for True Belonging to Stand Alone, invites us all to explore our own vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame that are tied up in the concept of belonging.  Tell us about how you come to trust yourself more...

I recall cases where I felt stretched, almost to breaking point.  Yet, I hung in there, believing answers would come, and they eventually did.  It was scary, but I developed faith and trust in myself out of necessity.

Developing trust in oneself and the unknown is part of human evolution.  Many people reach stages where they feel ready to give up, and some do.  Yet, many, like yourself, do not.  As we each  come to realize, challenges offer opportunities to grow stronger,  to tap into what we are truly made of. It is as if we let go of logic to trust other modes of operating.  We shift gears, switch focus.

Searching for Truth and meaning did bring its share of challenges, yet, it also allowed me to gain Spiritual Knowledge then access a depth of Knowing.  This process helps me sort the junk from the Truth… and shows me who I REALLY am, how powerful I am.

What you describe triggers goosebumps. As we feel positive emotions while visualizing different segments of our lives unfolding, feelings we would would feel as we see our vision happening and coming true, this is so powerful.  Meditating on our vision regularly changes everything.  As we bring in all our mind's senses, the sounds we would hear, the smells, colors and what other senses detect, we feel the light and energy of inspiration giving us all we need to go forward.

From your view, what is the REAL meaning of Christianity and Spirituality?

It is not about religion or ‘crowd control’.  Holiness and sacredness are found within.  I sense what is expected of me involves ‘how to live and BE Love.’ I would not call myself religious, but my life experiences prompt me to feel I am a combination of; philosopher, mystic, psychic, seer, healthy sceptic and Optimist.

Optimism is like a happiness magnet that draws more reasons to feel joy, guides us everywhere the Soul invites us to go.  Love that your life illustrates everything falls into place with perfect timing. We must learn patient.  Now, which dream truly motivates you to make new shifts?

My big dream is for a better world - not just a nice, fluffy one, like that described in storybooks - but a world of real Unity and Harmony. I believe we are anchoring the seeds of that in Now, with each of our heart felt activities, a world that is slowly evolving and unfolding before us.

The dream of creating and living in a better world of course, invites us, as Gandhi echoes, to be the change we wish to see.  So often, people are taught to focus on changing the external, but that turns out to be ineffective.  Please be more specific about your personal vision.

Sure! I see authenticity as heartfelt living, coming from within, not being ego-driven.  This translates into finding our own unique voices and celebrating them.  My personal vision is unfolding in the evolving programs at the Dreamweaving Meditation and Counselling Centre.

How is your view of success changing?

Ego-driven success is purely self-centered. Heartfelt living takes shape in how we contribute to the wider world. Success here involves a balance, merging into a collective pool of authentic consciousness.

What you imply rings true.  Ego seeks to be loved in return while Soul simply loves without expectations. One common, widespread belief is we can be spiritual OR wealthy. As Henry Ford reminds us, 'Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.'  Self-confidence is a powerful. The meaning of wealth varies and what people do with abundance also does.  You may be familliar with views on spiritual wealth alongisde this as well. 

As we each awaken at our own pace, our sense of wealth, abundance, and insight into our talents and how we wish to live, changes.  Individuals exist and function at differnet stages or levels of consciousness.

Could not agree more. NYT Best-selling author and teacher T. Harv Eker teaches one can be healthy, conscious and really rich.  He has helped over 1.5 million  people move closer to their goal of financial freedom. From his view, spirituality and wealth are only mutually-exclusive in the mind.

We are certainly far more than what we think. Moving from thinking to feeling-based living changes how we view ourselves and our priorities. As we discipline ourselves to do healing self-work and evolve individually, we,  as a consequence, raise the Collective Consciousness to that of Peace, Love and Oneness. THEN we will see ‘the New Earth,’ a beautiful New World.  It is in seeding THAT, that motivates me on a daily basis!

What an uplifting vision, that the New Earth emerges from a sense of heaven within ourselves. Widespread restlessness leads peopel to seek peace and tranquility.  Nina Goncharova wrote an inspiring book: Rainbow Earth: A Vision for the Future and Jose Arguelles envisioned a rainbow Bridge encircling Earth. Although unique, these visions point to awareness of the same core understanding of Love.  Imagine the world emerging as we all speak honestly about how we feel in the moment.

Wow! More people in harmony with themselves.

This brings us to your calling.  Tell us about the DreamWeaving Meditation & Counselling Centre. Why create it? What purpose and Who does it serve?

DreamWeaving is a communal, Sacred Space.  People come to feel safe to just stop, exhale, unload and detangle their thoughts and lives, to be the Observer and to allow me to lovingly ‘turn the runway lights on’ for them.  I guide them to see their OWN truth, their own Magnificence and still allow them to make their OWN choices, for their OWN life lessons, and to help them see that they DO have ALL that they need Within, that they came fully prepared and equipped for this life.

Share a piece of insight you find helps many.

We need only 'be Still and Quiet’ long enough to hear, and to then follow that intuition, for it is the Soul and it knows the way home. Sometimes life gets so busy and we get so distracted or overloaded that we can no longer tune into that ‘wee small voice Within’, and we just need someone to help us hear our own song again.  Stepping ‘off the merry-go-round’ and breathing is always possible to unburden and listen.

So, how would you describe your passion?

My Passion, my Purpose and my Joy… is seeing people have that ‘a-ha moment’, and to ‘awaken’… and then even better when they ‘pay it forward’… THIS fills my cup.

You may recall "My Cup Runneth Over" is a quote from the Hebrew Bible (Psalm 23:5) and means "I have more than enough for my needs.  You remind us we can each choose to see goodness and blessings, to see the cup half or more than half full, just as easily as half empty.

Let us in on some of your mentors.  Who are they? How do they guide you?

I have been blessed with many beautiful Mentors along the way, I firmly believe in the saying, “When the student is ready the Teacher arrives.” For it seems that when I have been at my spiritual hungriest, someone walks into my life that has all the right answers and wisdom, I have a ‘growth spurt’ and go on. One of those was moments was at age 11-12 when I was visited by Jesus Himself. In a moment of desperate loneliness, He heard my cry, sat with me, comforted me, and has walked with me ever since.

Anything else?

Another pivotal experience was when my husband was away at sea with the Navy, I was at home with 2 small children, with no money due to a pay mix-up, and had come to the end of our food supplies after breakfast one day, with no money and no-one to turn to. I had recently started visiting a local church and felt impressed to call one of the women on their phone register and go around for kids playdate. I also felt impressed not to mention any word of our dire situation, just to trust. So after a lovely day with this lady and her friend who visited also, several cups of tea and a lovely fruit platter, a fun day for the kids, (who also were provided with a sumptuous afternoon tea), as we were leaving her husband arrived home and after a few moments I was asked if I could ‘please take home the fish he had caught today as they already had a freezer full and didn’t need them”… imagine my relief - at the eleventh hour, once again, my trust was rewarded… not only did our pay come in to the bank account the next day, but also - we had beautiful fresh red emperor and sweet lip for WEEKS. 

This touching example reminds us that the more we trust, the more the universe comes through, the more we have reason to strength and deepen our trust in life and the unknown. 

My life has been a series of these types of experiences, challenges, stretching of my faith and trust, and often right at the last moment a bounty arrives… so, as the old saying goes… “I walk by faith not by sight.” “I LIVE this stuff!” THIS is why the Universe uses me to teach this principle.

What advice would you offer people in the process of responding to huge changes in their lives? 

Change is motion, movement is good. There is a beautiful saying, 'The comfort zone is a wonderful place, but nothing ever grows there.'

Embrace change, allow it to have it’s perfect work in you. Look for the gift - there ALWAYS IS one.  Hang in there - never give up on your dreams.

How can you relate?

Based on my experience, with wisdom, discernment and great compassion, I would remind people that this is what they “dialled up” for themselves for this lifetime, and that they are exactly where they are meant to be, to look for the lesson and the beauty in every situation, to be flexible and to embrace change.  To change and grow, I call on my own life experiences to paint a picture of how life brings us the very experience we need for the evolving of our consciousness and personal empowerment. Nothing is ever wasted or for nothing - everything is our teacher. “Everything is Perfect.” Nothing is ‘right or wrong’, it “JUST IS.”  Release the need to control or to understand and just Trust and allow.

The power of acceptance and being non-judgemental is often underestiamted.  What prompts you to laugh and have fun?

It’s often the simplest little things… doing something silly or childlike, watching animals or children at play. Sometimes I just stretch my arms out and ‘fly’ down the supermarket aisles and giggle at people’s reactions, have a swing at the playground or dance in the rain. We’re WAY too concerned about the judgement and opinions of others. Don’t take yourself or life too seriously, lighten up… a wise lady once told me, “If it isn’t life threatening, don’t stress about it.” Enjoy your life.

What can you say about interacting with family and friends?

Spend quality time with them - they’ll keep you grounded! :) Make sure you take time out JUST FOR YOU!

Share one or more big challenges you have encountered and what you learned about yourself.

In the early days of our marriage, I used to get all het up about what ‘he’ was doing wrong, and all HIS faults and how ‘he’ should change, but after getting some very wise counsel I realized that ‘he’ was not my responsibility, and that ‘his’ journey was actually none of my business.  I could not change ‘him’, I could only change MYSELF… and that over the years, as I did that, as I did the self-work, ‘he’ and all those around me often but not always, changed also, or at least responded differently… even at a sub-conscious level, they reacted more positively.

How is your sense of gifts and blessings changing?

Over a lifetime I now know that ‘he’ is my gift, my balance, my teacher and the catalyst that I have always needed to mirror to me and prompt me to see in myself, that which needed working on… and I am now grateful not resistant or resentful.

Share your greatest lesson learned to this point in your life.

The greatest lesson I have ever learned is that, “Everything is Perfect”, to release the need to control or to understand, and that regardless of what the outside picture looks like in any given moment, that there is a powerful work of metamorphosis going on INSIDE, and to trust and to ALLOW this process to have it’s perfect way… and that NOBODY else’s life was my business… hands off! Because by interfering, I might just be depriving them of the very catalyst experience they needed to make a better choice in their life… you never know what’s going on the inside… remember the butterfly story… don’t try cutting butterflies out of their cocoons, you might disable them - or worse!

The metaphore of ourselves each undergoing the metamophosis is very powerful and humbling.  After all, a caterpillar does not consciously know what is happenign, it simply surrenders to the transformation unfolding, allows turning into the chrysalis, and liquid form before becoming the butterfly.  That it is to only live a brief time does not evoke fear. The insect simply lives moment-to-moment in joy, not fear, a valuable lesson to us all.

What's something you're really proud of? Why?

My Children. Both adults now and with their own families, I have watched them grow and go through life and emerge the amazing parents and people that they are. Scarred and wounded, but wiser for it all, I have seen them both bloom into beautiful, strong people… still with a long way to go, but with an amazing start. Makes my heart glow.

Anything else stand out here?

Doing volunteer work - paying it forward. I’ve immensely enjoyed working the Entry Gate at the Conscious Life Festival and the Discovery Festivals each year, as well as other things I like to be a part of as they come up.  

I love the theme of what you describe here. It reminds me of the inspiring movie Pay it Forward as well as what people in communities across the globe are intuitively doing because it feels right. When disaster strikes, people drop everything to help strangers not because they have to, but because they can.

Tell us about one or more mood or mind- altering experiences that shifted your focus and priorities.

Almost losing my Son in a motorbike accident back in 1999. Learning that I could not control things, nor shield him from life’s experiences. That there comes a time when you, as a parent, have to “take your hands off” and ‘let them go’, trust them to the Universe and allow them to lead their own lives, have their own experiences, learn their OWN lessons and live out their OWN purpose… and to trust in that.

If you discovered the opportunity to live forever (immortality), would you want this? 

We DO. I believe in reincarnation and that life is simply a serious of ‘acts’ in an ongoing ‘stageplay’… we just re-enter ‘stage right’ in a new ‘costume’ (body), with a new script (life),  and start again.

I LOVE that we get to work on each lifetime or facet of our eternity, authentically, (via the spiritual amnesia upon each incarnation.) The lessons are profoundly deep and immensely fulfilling.  I’d much rather do it like this, in bits, than all at once in one long lifetime.

Indeed. So many views and visions exist about immortality.  A lingering feeling, intuition and also recurrent vision in future (hynotherapy and breathwork) regressions is that humans are evolving from physica carbon body to crystalline form.  This would definitely prompt review or discarding of physical time and complete transformation in the nature of existence!

What advice would you wish to leave with our audience?

Let your dreams direct your sails, listen to your own intuition and FOLLOW THAT… be like a leaf on the water in the flow of life, don’t fight the ‘current’, do not be ‘distracted by glitter’, the demands, expectations and opinions of others, (no matter how well meaning they may be)… and do not allow the fears of others to extinguish your inner fire! JUMP AT EVERY GOOD OPPORTUNITY & LIVE WITH NO REGRETS!  Tomorrow isn’t promised. Life is not a dress rehearsal - LIVE IT TO THE FULL!

Reflecting and living life more fully in the moment is certainly something we can all benefit from doing and being.

NO-one knows the answers to all the questions and the guidance that you seek, but YOU… it is all Within - go there… seek the silence and the wisdom of the Presence Within… TRUST THAT EVERYTHING YOU NEED WILL COME TO YOU AT THE PERFECT TIME… and above all - ENJOY THE JOURNEY, EVERY MOMENT OF IT!!!

 Any quotes stand out?

A favorite quote of mine is:

“I alone cannot change society for the better. But I can radically transform my OWN Consciousness,

overturning the conditioning that limits my potential. We can all do this, one by one.

Over time we can change ourselves to the degree that society changes from the inside out… Giving birth

to a new way of being. Manifesting our birthright of living in a peaceful and abundant world. Have no fear.

Trust yourself. Live your full potential.”

 Thanks so much Diana for this mind-blowing conversation.  You raise lots of issues that resoante deeply.

Add anything else you wish.

Here at DreamWeaving we offer “Intuitive Colouring Mornings”, Journey-Boarding Workshops, LifeBook Workshops (for keeping you in step with Moon Phases, Important Dates, Astrology, Numerology and much more), Oracle Reading Workshops, Ajna Light Therapy (Activating the 3rd Eye & DMT type experiences), WayShower Counselling and Liquid Crystal Therapy. Read more on our Facebook pages: Diana Sandalwood  and  DreamWeaving Meditation & Counselling Centre

We are located at 29 Arthur Street, Woody Point and Diana can be reached on 0412 429920.

Encourage everyone to connect and deepen relationships, make their own heartfelt contributions to the world and create lasting impact.

7 Tips to Bend Reality

Recently, I was guided to a Masterclass on Bending Reality by Vishen Lakhiani, the Founder of Mindvalley. He is the must-read, best-selling author of Code of the Extraordinary Mind.  These are highlights of what I observe happening in myself that echo what he is saying continues to happen to him and others who make the conscious decision to be open to evolution in consciousness.  Ponder these 7 Tips to bend reality;

1. Start feeling luckier

As expansion of awarenes happens, we notice more coincidences and shift to see synchronicities.  We realize we can choose to create what moves us forward, closer to realizing a heartfelt vision.   In my case, this takes shape as one interview and relationship guides me to another, as resulting connections deepen my understanding of myself. 

2. See things differently

As we see through conditioning, we access the part of ourselves that sees beyond victimhood and patterns that hold us back.  Being open to seeing differently triggers massive breakthroughs.  We are no longer influenced by forces around us. We know our self-thought shapes our beliefs and experience.  It hits that what we believe about reality must align with our inner vibration to bend reality.  We must make the unconscious conscious and heal what prevents us from being in harmony with our highest possible reality and manifesting faster.

3. Engage in meditation

Awakening helps us recognize the spiritual compenent of transforming our reality.  We engage in meditation, shift from thinking and reacting unconsciously to consciously tuning into our energy and feeling reality unfold.  Exploring ancient spiritual wisdom enables us to access abilities that are not taught by the moderrn (Western) education system.  It dawns that accessing higher states of mind is the key to understanding in practice what it is to create and change the world from the inside out.

4. See the nature of illusion

As we explore altered states through meditation, we discover the nature of Maya (illusion) and that we can shift the flow.  This involves setting goals and activating the power of intention.  We visualize ourselves shift, see the power to change is within. We are each our own magician.

5. Realize life can happen to you or from you

In The Matrix film, Neo asks the spoon boy how he bends the spoon. Neo wants to make things happen. Yet, Spoon Boy says; "Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth...there is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, itis only yourself."

6. Recode Your Inner World

As you take personal responsibility, you realize something The Secret teacher Michael Beckwith says: we can learn through Kensho (pain and suffering) or Satoris (sudden insights).  Unless we listen to our own Satoris, it seems we create adverity to learn lessons. As we reach the stage where we are recoding ourselves from the inside out, we trigger our own ah-ha moments, consciously create the unforeseen opportunities.

 

7. Be receptive to limitlessness

Inspiration or intuition leads to your intention.  A perfect example is my family's intuitive move from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.  Our sense of direction is coming through us. We have a gut feeling about where to go.  We moved before the house was sold because we know where we are meant to be and  go wtih that, knowing details are falling into place. This is about shifting energy vibration into a state of openness and receptiveness to limitlessness.  It is when you feel connected to all life. You are tapped into intuition.  Inspired action guides you to goals.  As you listen to this inner voice, synchronicity is more noticable. Whether or not you were taught reality is illusion before now, adopting this belief empowers you to create and realize what might otherwise seem impossible before now.

 Access advanced states of mind

Approaching self-mastery involves conscious control of your thoughts and brainwaves.  As you realize you determine how you respond to the world, you become an active participant and can retrain the mind. The key is to align both brain hemispheres so they generate the same high brainwaves at the same time.  Matthieu Ricard, and other monks have had their brain waves studied during deep medtiative states. Reaseach shows that forgiveness allows people to access similar high states as well as tap into incredible abilities. Forgive everyone who has hurt you, and this shifts you into higher vibrations of love. The authentic love vibration is the key to bending reality.  Boosting alpha brain waves increases your access to inspiration.  Boosting even higher theta waves gives you more frequent access to psychic abilities so you sense what to do, who to contact and it happens, as if by magic.  Yet magic is only a term you use when you do not understand that you transform your life energetically from the inside out.

12 Dimensions of Success

Over the years, I am repeatedly asked for steps or advice to assist people to feel more fulfilled or attain greater success   This guided me to create the inspirational mentor interview thread and inspirational mentor articles to encourage connection, dialogue, encourage transparency so more people gain insight from unique paths.  Over 5000 self-development articles exist here. Contact us to submit article topics and seminar ideas. We appreciate all your valuable contributions.

In addition, I also offer workshops where I explore the process of optimum living in more detail.   This draws on insights of my 13th book now in process. Take your life to a whole new level by participating in one of our group events in 2019.  The life shifts you experience speak for themselves.  I share huge shifts I have experieced as the result of healing unconscious patterns, shifting perception, and retraining the mind.

For now, as a gift to yourself, ponder these 12 dimensions that shape your experience of success:

1. Clarify your version of success

Be as detailed as possible. Its sets the stage for the journey. Notice little is accomplished with tears alone or complaining about where you are not or, being frustrated about what you are not doing. Get practical: look at multiple life areas: personal, professional, spiritual, community, and others.  (Refer to: Self-Disclosure: Changes from Within for sample questionnaires). Where do you ideally envision yourself? What do your loved ones say? What are you willing to choose or what drives you over everything? What if you could be a pioneer? Do what your heart years for? What is it that truly stretches and inspires you? What do you wish more than anything else? Maybe this takes shape as a bucket list: things 2 before you leave this world. Next stage make three columns in terms of priorities (A=short term, B=medium term, C= someday)

[***during my workshop, I reveal my lists, how visiting 65 countries and doing unique and daring things has happened as well as what remains for me to create, manifest and download to translate in this world] 

2.  Empty the Mind

While reflecting on your response to the above, empty the mind of negativity. Do a brain dump of what limits or prevents you from moving forward.  We tend to adopt beliefs of people in our midst, unconsciously decide what is and is not good for us, all unconsciously before taking action. Write all examples of self-defeating or self-sabotaging thoughts running through you that discourage you, echo self-doubt, cause you to feel unworthy or to forget everything is possible. Take a close look at beliefs you are allowing to run you.   Every time you lie to yourself, decide to call yourself on it. Grow aware of the lies. Its the only way to transcend them.   Jot down examples where you transcend your own self-sabotage.

3.  Think less, Feel More

Following the title of one of my ebooks, I invite you to feel your way to your own solutions.  If money was not an obstacle, if your perceived doubts and mental clutter dissipated, how would you feel the way into new contributions to this world? What does this revised version of success look/ feel like? Imagine no limits, being heart-centred and service-driven. You can create your own fairytales by feeling the way into blessings and all that uplifts you. Notice the focus on feeling energy shapes your life. Allow yourself to feel the way into optimum living, well-being, and clarify new peak experiences. Create a new point of reference for yourself. Raise the bar higher. Why tell yourself you must work toward intermittent peak experiences? Why not instead convince yourself everything is part of the same peak experience you fragment with the mind?

4. Access hidden genius

Regardless of your evolving vision of success, inviting external guidance helps expand awareness so you reclaim inner power.  Mentors, coaches, inspirations, teachers,  all empower you to recall what matters, encourage you to push the limits of your talents and access your hidden genius.  This is about listen to the heart more closely. As you shift your understanding of what is possible and go for it, do what people do not expect, you have no reason to give up.  Sometimes people seem to stand in your way as if to discourage you. Take note of who does this, how it makes you feel. Do not allow them to hide you from your larger self. Remind yourself these are projections of your shadow. As you make the shadow conscious, self-defeating patterns no longer control you. You laugh at your genius.

5. Align with your Soul

Although we may identify what it is that nurtures and energizes us inside, we are often conditioned to talk ourselves out of things.  It can seem hard to take the steps necessary to be true to yourself, listen to intuition.  To live in harmony and inner peace, your thoughts, beliefs and actions all align.   As you grow aware of how you hold yourself back, it hits you can retrain the mind. Affirmations, mantras, meditations and other techniques assist you to feel what it is to be authentic.  Then, step back from what you are doing, and recognize how authentic you feel where you are.  You know better than anyone how you feel. Be brave: listen, act on the heart. 

6. Connection

Sometimes blood relatives support and encourage us in our heartfelt pursuits.  Other times, they discourage us, do not understand ius or, cannot relate to our motivation. We each choose who to listen to or ignore. Edna Buchanan echoes: Friends are the family we choose for ourselves. Most of us know what discomfort or restlessness feels like.  It is part of our journey to grow more discerning of external opinion in relation to our own intuition.  We choose role models and mentors. Be like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, who says, Sometimes I believe in as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast! (See Transform your Life: 730 Inspirations) Maybe nobody has done what you dream? Who inspires you to connect  with yoruself and the world in ways nobody has done before?  

7. Build confidence

Some where along the journey, we come to believe we are inadequate or do not have what it takes to realize our true potential. On some level, this invites yo uto get in touch with the undelrying reasons for your fears so you can access more of your own innate fearlessness. Identify events, experiences, conditions that ingrained your fear.  Where do you recall becoming a coward? Make this conscious and change the energy. 

8. Deal with fear of success

Deep down, you may fear people may be jealous of you if you realize dreams.  You may already have examples of where those you encounter do their best to criticize you and tear you down.  This draws attention to issues of self-worth, superiority and inferiority and the underlying fear of vulnerability.  Now is the moment to get in touch with yoru shadows on a whole new level.

9. Be congruent

Incongruence is allowing yourself to live and act based on fear.  Congruence is acting based on love. As you act from a place of love, you grow aware of a Soul purpose.  Act from this place, and what you offer the world is service-oriented rather than (ego) self-serving. You trust yourself more deeply and people and opportunities in the world naturally show up.  Synchronicities are easier to see.  As you grow aware of unconscious blocks and clear up what is out-of-alignment in your life, your evolving vision can manifest with much more ease.  You understand the energy flow behind change and dreams happen/ manifest quicker.

10. Follow intuition

You may find yourself intuitively drawn to focus time and energy into endeavours that do not make conventional business sense, but resonate and strike you as something that is part of a larger picture or transformation. You may also feel criticized for listening to your heart and not following the status quo.  You may feel called to download or share what feels daunting to you.  Freedom means feeling hiow you want to feel and knowing it feels perfect.  It means wearing what you want to wear, expressing what means the most without fear of persecution, punishment or repercussions.  Sometimes followign dreams, leads us to leave country of birth, entourage or environment to a more suitable place to allow freedom of self expressions.  This is a reminder that what and who you need always comes to you.  Its up to you to take the next step.

11.  Exercise the imagination

Notice the imagination has no boundaries but those you choose to create. You may brainstorm or free draw that which comes to you about yourself.  Have no preconceived ideas of the meaning.  Allow that to arise within you later. Notice Thomas Edicon was inspired by something to create the lightbulb.  he nearly flunked out of primary school and was repeatedly told he was stupid before later being called a genius. Some people believe Alexander Graham bell downloaded the idea for the telephone from the ethers in a dream.  It takes courage to  stand up for what you feel is right.  Yet, if you do not believe in yourself, why would anyoen else?

12. Do the unthinkable

Seize this moment to design the world you imagine existing in.  Go further than simply thinking up a career change, new relationships or environments that match ego desires. Challenge yourself to re-imagine the world from the inside out.  Imagine no karma.  What is unfolding as you are Mastering Time? The building blocks are love and compassion rather than fear and anger. Go further than simply being the conductor of the Sunrise and Sunset like in The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. As co-creator, all is possible.

The power of the universe will come to your assistance if your heart and mind are in unity. -White Buffalo Cat Woman

Interview with Karen Joy

Meeting Karen Joy is an eye-opening experience. As a former ten year columnist for the Courier Mail (Brisbane), and versatile hypnotherapist specializing in regression, her work and books on relationships invite us to recognize patterns. Our thoughts and behaviour compel us to go deeper so we grow aware of the bigger picture.  This interview is packed with synchronicities, and confirms we are always in the right place, right time, to get what we need to transition into the next phase of our lives. Thanks for being open and willing to share these powerful insights.

You have had a variety of careers. What prompted your shift to hypnotherapy?

During the 1980’s, I felt the urge to start taking courses in hypnotherapy…

It is said we always receive what we need. Usually something unconscious triggers an urge. Which specific events led up to this?

Well, my husband at that stage of life was almost always late. I was emotionally reactive.  I got upset and did not like allowing my emotions control me.  I heard about ‘anchoring’ in neuro -linguistic programming (NLP).  As it happened, I met Richard Bandler, the co-creator of NLP and decided to take some of his courses.  His expertise in hypnotherapy amazed me.  At one point, I accessed a key childhood memory of my dad.  Due to his extreme drunkenness, our family missed out on attending an annual event that greatly disappointed me. I released a lot of repressed emotions. This course triggered more revelations.  It was a turning point. Still, I was frightened about looking deeper inside myself. And yet, doing so helped me a lot.

The personal regression you share, illustrates that releasing troubling emotions linked to our past has a positive impact on our current life. It is a wake up call, an option to heal and eliminate repeated situations of high drama arising.  Please continue...

Gaining insight into past lives helps people make sense of current dilemmas or blocks.  Age regression is deliberately used to help clients heal unconscious childhood traumas.  It brings the energy to the surface. 

Sounds like its a means of accessing our blocked wisdom, guidance for the next phase of life. 

Exactly! 

Love that you echo Julius Caesar who said, Experience is the teacher of all things. The turning point you describe has universal relevance. We, as humans, are evolving from being controlled by fear-based beliefs and negative emotions to allowing intuition and courage to guide us. Its an inner shift to trust our feelings.

Yes.

Describe your work then.  How did your NLP experience affect that?

At the time, I was working for the ATO as a tax investigator.

Were you unhappy in this institutional role?

No. I am always happy with my work, but I do like learning and change. While I was in the ATO, I studied Law and Corporate Management and moved into management and team development. During that time, technology was changing and the work environment was not keeping up with the changes. Over a decade or so, I outgrew the ATO and my role there. As I was already a registered psychologist, I decided to set up my own business in counselling psychology.

Wow! That’s a huge career shift; from ATO tax auditing to traditional psychology to past life hypnotherapy. Please share more about how this came about for you.

I spent 20 years as a private practising psychologist.  Yet, as time progressed, I did not really fit into the professional paradigm. Clients often went into their past lives even without hypnotherapy. I was an effective therapist, and the business grew, but accessing past lives, even inadvertently, is not considered appropriate in conventional psychology.

It sounds like you felt restless in different environments at different life stages. Listening to yourself seems to have compelled re-evaluating your life. What did your feelings tell you?

I was not being completely transparent or true to myself.

So many people relate to this and yet, be unaware. Its like a journey to greater congruence with our true selves. We all need love. Being authentic is perhaps the ultimate example of loving ourselves. Your life choices remind us we access untapped power by being vulnerable, by doing what feels right.  You echo even if it does not fit a paradigm, listening to ourselves is not something to fear. Why do you sense self- honesty is so important?

I know that I am fulfilling my purpose in life. As I look back, I can see that all my experiences have prepared me to do this work.

So if I get what you are saying here, the more honest we are with ourselves, the more confident and fearless we become, and the easier we ease into our destiny?

Yes. I also decided to train in past life therapy and life between lives hypnotherapy because of the dramatic positive changes I observed in my clients. I left psychology when I moved to Maleny (Queensland) a few years ago. It was a relief to release the restrictions of the psychology board that oversees the profession.

It is said everything we do here, every choice we make in other lives, every experience we have in this life, is preparing us for the unforeseen. 

Indeed.  Milton H. Erickson, M.D. says, Allow yourself to see what you do not allow yourself to see...

So many ways exist to shake us up, to shift and expand our perception. This is highlighted by investigations into human consciousness by Michael Newton and his work through The Newton Institute, Robert Monroe and his legacy at The Monroe Institute, as well as work of individuals like Bruce Lipton, Raymond Moody and Delores Cannon.  I am reminded of The Tao Te Ching, where it says when a student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready...the teacher will Disappear.

Well said. we each grow from the wisdom of many teachers.

What unique insights do you gain into yourself through the regressions you have undergone as part of your training or therapy?  

My first regression was in 2009. During this regression, I discovered I was a German soldier in both WWI and WWII. There were many challenges in that life that I had to come to terms with. I also connected to All That Is and felt so much love my circuits nearly exploded.

In Conversations: Redemption & Lessons of Love, a conversation with Raymond Moody, MD. and Melvin Morse, MD, they speak of a deeper spiritual centre that is guiding us. How do your regressions relate here?

In later regressions, I discovered some of the places and dimension I’d experienced before I came to the Earth System. I also learned about the themes I embraced during my incarnations on Earth and how that has unfolded. I have been into the dark night of the soul in many lives and emerged with a deep understanding of what separation feels like.

How have your own regressions shifted your experience in your current life?

The regressions have enhanced my life in many ways.  My perspective of the universe and the earth system has expanded. I have let go of self-criticism and increased my self-trust. I know now that everything happens for a purpose. Also, I am less judging, more accepting and more discerning.

I feel very comfortable on Earth now and I am confident I will pass gently when it is time to leave my body. As well, I know where I am going and what I will be doing after I leave.

How exciting to be open to receiving and accepting such insight. We can feel your peace of mind. This reminds me of Esther Hicks and the Teachings of Abraham.  Years ago, I intuitively participated in one of their cruise seminars.  That experience opened my perception enromously.

Dr. Brian Weiss was a traditional psychiatrist/ psychotherapist before an experience with past live regression prompted him to change focus. You may be aware he wrote the best-seller, Many Lives, Many Masters and makes efforts to bring the benefits of hypnotherapy into the mainstream in his way. What do you feel is necessary for more people to consider it a valid, legitimate form of healing?

If by valid you mean effective, hypnotherapy already is. But being outside mainstream is fine in my view. Mainstream professions are always restricted and regulated.    Institutions are founded on formalized protocol.  The result is that the role of intuition and innate wisdom of the healer is minimized or even obliterated.

It is often assumed that healing practices are viewed “mainstream” or legitimate when widely accepted and thus, fully rebated by government supported Medicare.   Does this imply it is necessary to lose the power and influence of the intuitive self?

I have a strong belief that those people who will benefit by having a regression are guided to do so, and also guided to the appropriate healer. Asking your higher-self for guidance at such times is always worthwhile.  Everything we need comes to us when ready. This requires being open to that.

Some well-known magicians are also often described as hypnotists. Consider Franz Mesmer, James Braid, Uri Geller, the Amazing Kreskin and others. How do such individuals or others inspire you?

My favourite comic strip as a child was Mandrake the Magician (1934) by Lee Falk. He was a super hero who used hypnosis. Richard Bandler, mentioned earlier, could put random people into trance in a few seconds. Richard had modelled Milton Erickson, the famous psychiatrist who was a powerful healer and helped to have hypnosis accepted as a therapy.

Love that you observe conventional and unconventional therapies are complimentary and also that even our popular culture symbols are giving us messages about our own untapped potential. What do your magician and other inspirations invite you to do?

I was inspired and intrigued by all these people and wondered, “how did they do it?” I guess I have dedicated my life to finding the answer and understanding human nature. And it has taken me all the way to the stars. I have many answers, which I am writing about. And I continue exploring.

What similarities are you aware of/ or do you see between breathwork and hypnotherapy?

I have to admit I know little about breathwork in a formal sense, but I think I have been inadvertently and intuitively using something like it for years.

Tell us how awareness of the power of breath and came to you directly.

Thirty years ago, I had a major breakdown that was so debilitating I couldn’t work for many months. I distrusted medication so I had to find a way to cope with the pain.

Its worth noting that pain is felt physically while suffering is mental. Sometimes we experience both at the same time and are consciously unaware.  How did the breath help?

Through trial and error, I stumbled on the effectiveness of deep slow breathing while holding an attitude of acceptance. I really had nowhere else to go apart from suicide, and I knew that wasn’t a solution.

I am sure that is one of the reasons I have grew into an effective healer. When needed, I use a breathing technique with my clients. It always works. But I never learned that through psychology or hypnotherapy. The wisdom came naturally to me when I required it myself. I simply share it.

What is the breath come to symbolize for you?

To me, the breath is all about accepting and letting go. We cannot survive without the breath and we cannot move forward physically, emotionally or spiritually without accepting and letting go. The words inspire, aspire, expire all relate to the word “spirit.” The breath is fundamental to all life and fundamental to healing.

It also means that you do not have to put clients into a trance to do hypnotherapy. This is connected to the breath. The mind cooperates in a divine way. Call it the imagination, the higher self, inner being, whatever fits your paradigm or understanding of the world.

As you imply, we are always co-creating with energy or the flow, cooperating with forces beyond our physical selves to awaken to more of what we already know.

Share a few examples of clients whose lives have been changed by past life regression.

Yvette was an engineer attracted to narcissists in this lifetime.  She was aware of patterns but did not know why the pattern persisted.  During hypnotherapy, she recalled she had been a male slave trader selling white people in an Arabian country. She sold a young girl to an awful old man and enjoyed knowing the young girl would suffer.  The slave trader himself had a three- year-old daughter. He kept having nightmares of the slave girl’s eyes before she was sold, as if imploring, ‘how could you do this?’ The slave trader was killed in a marketplace fight and goes to the Other side (he did not pass over completely in previous lifetimes). While on the Other side, he experienced love and reconciliation and forgiveness with the while slave girl who had died at the hands of the awful old man the slave trader had sold her to. After 2000 years of perpetrator lives, it was possible to become joyful. The revelations that came as the result of hypnotherapy sessions led Yvette to shift her patterns in this lifetime. Among other things, she grew in compassion and changed her career to work with children.

That is a fascinating example of an inspiring life shift as the result of regressions.

Consider also aanother case.  In his current life, Ayaan came to a regression feeling lost. He was stuttering at times and arguing with his wife. He was a migrant and felt he didn’t belong.

In the first scene of the regression, Ayaan is with his mother and he feels the power of her love which is totally unconditional.

Ayaan then goes to a past life in medieval times where he is a soldier who marries a high-class woman. He is loved by his wife and her noble family, and accepted by others, however he doesn’t feel comfortable.  He feels like he doesn’t belong.  He leaves his wife and home, wandering to a village where he teaches the peasants how to get out of poverty. He enjoys being admired and appreciated as a learned man.

During these years, he misses his wife. Eventually he returns with much trepidation. He never told her he was leaving, instead just suddenly disappearing.  When he arrives, she embraces him and is completely forgiving. He weeps as he is lovingly welcomed back into the family.

In his life between lives, Ayaan learns he that he has been carrying shame. He has felt shameful in many lives and it is time to let it go. He recalls the unconditional love from his mother and sees the love between himself and his current wife. He realises he only stutters when he is speaking in public, a manifestation of his fear and shame. He is given advice on how to let it go.

Ayaan is told he will progress in his career and become well known. He will learn how to stop hiding and be able to express himself clearly in public. This is his purpose and his destiny. His relationship with his wife will improve and he will help her grow, just as she will help him become stronger.

After the regression, he feels much more settled. He now appreciates his new country, admitting that money comes to him easily here. He has a great job and family and knows now how fortunate he is.

As this example attests, we can all gain lessons from the regressions of others as well as our own, when we are brave enough to explore this path.

The examples you share also remind me of a book called The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.  It is about lessons in guilt, love and forgiveness.  There is also a movie. We are all reminded that it is so simple to forgive but we can only each do it or deny it from ourselves.

I must look into that!

Valentina was another case worth mentioning here. She had 40 hours of regressions.  The initial trigger for her visit was her irrational emotion and stress that would arise when her child cried.  Turned out, in one key past life, she was married to a chauvinistic partner.  They lived in the same room with the baby and that baby cried repeatedly and severely irritated her violent partner.  She wanted to keep the child quiet and accidentally suffocated it.  In the current lifetime, she wanted more children but was afraid.  After significant emotional release due to what she learned during her sessions, she allowed enough guilt to dissipate. The guides said she would have a girl and she did.

Gosh! That series of sessions clearly had quite an impact. Perpetrators seem to explore emotional numbness and repression and how to come to terms and heal with that. How does a client know when enough negative energy is shifted for a current life change to materialize?

It’s not up to us to control or define that.

Consider a third example: Kathy came to me with an illness (IBS-irritable bowel syndrome) During her sessions, we simply asked the guides to take us to past lives which are most relevant to her healing.   In one scenario, she had a lot of kids and they all died in a car accident when she was driving and she was left alone. She progressively lost her home, material things and all else that was supposedly important to her.  Homeless, destitute and exhausted, she finally fell asleep in a meadow. She died there and felt light-hearted. This experience opened this client to love, oneness, light-heartedness. In this lifetime, she had always been serious and tense which she came to sense contributed to her illness. 

Love how you pinpoint that the way experiences flow in our lives, the order they come, the timing of each one, is all orchestrated, based on our evolving level of consciousness. So as we learn lessons, our health, life conditions, and the pace of our manifestations change.  It reminds me of a quote by Einstein who echoes: “problems cannot be resolved at the same level of consciousness they are created”

Exactly! My role as a hypnotherapist is to orient clients during their regressions: “i.e. ‘where are you? What is happening now?’ The impulses that drove these people to seek regressions were active remnants of past lives that were no longer needed. The clients were guided to have the old programming deactivated, although they didn’t realise that at the time. It made a huge difference to their lives. They have all changed fundamentally.

I will be explaining how this process works in my next book, Twilight of Souls.

When is this to be released?

It will be available when completed. 

Of course! Everything has perfect timing!  You have helped so many people over the years. What prompted you to become an author?

I am so privileged to meet with high level spiritual beings every day through the regressions. They share so much wisdom. The stories of my clients’ journeys through their many lives in the earth system are exhilarating. I know why we are here and why we suffer. Even though I know how we can minimize suffering, I also know it is part of the journey, and more important for some than others.

From childhood, I always knew I was to write but for many years my writing just didn’t come together. I felt blocked and I struggled. But once I began doing regressions in 2012, I felt I had to write. I had to share what I was discovering. Finally, it flowed as I communicated the stories of my clients and the wisdom of the spirit guides. 

What steps have you recently taken to focus more on your writing?

I left the Newton Research Institute Committee to be more balanced and focused on my new book.  A key shift in mindset occurred in 2013 when I was sick for a year. When I came out of the illness, I saw it as a wake-up call to focus more on my writing but had to reduce my commitments and shift my priorities. I was a columnist for 10 years and my husband is also a writer. This contributes to the writer I am and continue to evolve into.

Who is the intended audience of your books, Other Lives, Other Realms and Llewellyn’s Little Book of Life Between Lives? 

Both books are written for people who want to understand what it is like to have a regression and the benefits of doing so. The cases in the books are inspiring and illustrative and easily resonate with readers. That can be healing in itself.  Anyone interested in better understanding the world as it is, including the darkness, from an individual and collective point of view, would benefit from my books. 

I have made much effort to make the books easy to read, and many have told me I have succeeded.

It strikes me like your books invite readers make connections in body awareness and emotions as a gauge for what is going on inside. 

What do you feel is the purpose of expanding awareness of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) or other mystical experiences?  How, in your view, does this help or empower people?

The guides tell us that the purpose of all mystical experiences is help us discover who we really are. Earth and our bodies seem so real and concrete, we think that is all we are. Even though our physicists know all this “solidity” is really 99.999% space, it just doesn’t seem so.

If I understand your point, during regression, we are experiencing ourselves, just like in OBEs.  Interview with William Buhlman offers further insights on OBEs.  Growing more conscious of how and why we think and feel is the journey of soul growth.

Yes! Knowing who you really are, is tremendously empowering. You connect with your greater self, your fears dissolve and you become wise, humble, loving and compassionate. Of course, you are still human with human foibles but you begin laughing at these instead of taking them so seriously.

What do you feel is the purpose of recognizing the existence of and interacting with Soul walk-ins?

Sensing or knowing they are a walk-in can relieve a lot of confusion for an individual.  One’s life purpose does not necessarily require being born and going through the early journey. 

I have had a few clients who have been told they are walk ins. It seems it is always arranged with both souls, the one leaving and the one coming in. We have been told that it happens for various reasons. Some souls are of such a high vibration, their frequency is incompatible with being humanly birthed. Other souls have bitten off more than they can chew and want to leave. This is often anticipated before they are born. They agree to leave and make way for another soul. It is beneficial for both souls.  The incoming soul can clean up some of the karma of the outgoing soul.  This can be part of the soul-level agreement for the switch.

Share something about yourself few people know.

In my twenties, I spent 10 years in a relationship with a well-known criminal in the Sydney Underworld. I was a mess when I met him, having just left a violent marriage and my two young children. People were very scared of my live-in partner but I wasn’t. He was kind, tolerant and protective of me. I met many Underworld figures (characters in the TV series, Underbelly: Tale of Two Cities) and learned a lot about these people, some of whom were psychopaths.

Incredible! This invites us all to realize each of our lives contain potential motive script material. Whether or not we are familiar with the tv series you mention, we can each relate to themes of polarity in our lives.  As we awaken, we grow aware of wider lessons we are invites to learn.

If you have a piece of advice to offer, some wisdom gained from your life, what would it be?

If you feel disturbed or distressed, look within yourself and expect the answers. If it feels right, seek external guidance, healers or therapy to assist you to grow more conscious and trusting of yourself.

I agree. Many people might find the courage to ask themselves questions but not be ready to accept or integrate the answers. Humans are often unconscious and, like Robert Monroe suggests, a technology that some are not always ready or willing to understand.

Share anything else you would like to add

Website: LifeBetweenLivesRegression.com.au (Sign up for my blogs)

Facebook Page: Life Between Lives

Oneness Maleny (OM) holds a talk in Maleny each Sunday at 4 pm (beginning again in January). Email me at Karen@LifeBetweenLivesRegression.com.au and I will arrange to put you on the OM mailing list.

For more Information on hypnotherapy go to my website or my books for my take on hypnotherapy. They are Other Lives, Other Realms and Llewellyn’s Little Book of Life Between Lives (co-author). Any books by Milton Erickson are interesting and informative. He really was the Master.

Thanks again Karen for the intimate reflections you choose to share here.  May many people grow more open to the insight available to them and also find the courage to face whatever seems to hold them back. invite everyone to check our Karen's website and books. She is a gem.

Expect the unexpected and whenever possible, be the unexpected- Lynda Barry

7 Tips to achieve individual potential

Everyone has the innate capacity to realize individual potential. This can include transcendent moments of joy or peak experiences, in the many unique ways they take shape. While prolonging pleasure and minimizing pain may strongly appeal, the path to clarify and live more consistently in a state of joy is not always straight forward for everyone.  Consider these 7 tips;

1.  See everything as a teacher

Being open is about being attentive, recognizing every situation and encounter is a teacher that offers lessons to help us evolve into more of our unrecognized potential.  The process of growing and developing as a person is different for each of us.   The desire for self- growth arises as physiological needs are met, as basic safety and security are covered, and we sense something more  exists to life.

2. Uncover Talents 

Sometimes teachers, parents, colleagues and your nearest and dearest point your talents out to you.  Even strangers may share their observations and encourage you to move in certain directions. Often you naturally take steps to develop strengths and see where this guides you.  Putting talents to practice shows you what you are made of! 

3. Listen to the heart

The more you listen to your heart, the more you act from a place of love rather than a place of fear.  Acting from a place of love allows you to tune in and act on intuition and notice synchronicities. more of your potential to blossom. Your choices echo what you feel inside. 

3. Identify fears

Part of the human experience involves growing aware of your fears and why they arise. Fears and unconscious shadows are self-limiting.  So long as you do not place yourself or anyone else in harm's way, the best course of action involves facing your fears so you stop believing they define and constrain you.

4. Be unconcerned by external opinion 

Working through what holds you back is about reaching a place where you are unaffected by what people think or say about you. You are no longer motivated by how many likes or followers you get or do not get on social media.  This is about beginning to view yourself as your own authority. It requires you love yourself on a whole new level.

5. Live in integrity

Living in integrity is about being honest with yourself, being impeccable with your word. Taking personal responsibility for how you think and feel and knowing you may not control everything that happens but, you control how you respond.  You decide if you allow emotions and moods to control you or not.

6. Trust in yourself

Trust that your urges to make choices have perfect timing. You may feel inclined to change professional  course or change your entourage.  Whatever changes you feel ready to embrace, they relate to feelings, gut instincts, that are guiding you to let go of what you outgrow and evolve into more untapped potential.  This may involve a shift inside, a changing sense of prioirities, the 

7. Surrender

Let your life shine. Believe in yourself and let go. Tune into the light inside you.  Surrender to those dreams that you feel your way into right now. Step back for a moment. What happens as it hits that your innate potential is not fixed in time or space.  Your limtis are shaped by your beliefs and your level of confidence.

Most people spend their lives reacting to feelings rather than creating with them.

- Neale Donald Walsch