Touching base with your Heart & Trusting your Intuition

Published 06/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Touching base with your heart and your soul, easy?…… No!….Achievable?…Yes! 🙂

Our lives are so full of madness…time, the clock, rushing here, rushing there, eating while watching tv, reading the news, checking and responding to emails….working, parenting, relationships,’…their up’s and down’s…children and our fear for their future, challenges at work, career prospects, learning, financial difficulties….Is it all doom and gloom?….Only if you let it be!

I too have been a victim of all these things, my life has been filled with education, doing better, achieving more, working hard, working harder, working more hours, doing more of everything, wanting more of everything, buying for the sake of buying, mounting debt problems, children, the worries of being a parent, relationship challenges, divorce, grieving for the loss of loved ones, changing careers, re-educating myself, starting again, fighting to survive, living on the breadline, finding new love, emerging from the flames, being born again, awakening to the realities of life, becoming aware of what is important in life, caring from the heart, wanting to see change in our world, fighting for change, being frustrated that I cannot do enough, or make change happen overnight…an on; and on the cycle goes….So now what?…Where am I and what does the future hold?

Should I give up, should I buckle down and follow the pack, work every hour god sends, chase the dreams of others, or follow my heart, live in the ‘now’, do as ‘I’; my soul, my higher self wants?….

A dilemma felt by many….., choices…which way to go?…

The choice is yours, either be controlled or be in control….

I choose life, I choose to live in the now, to work in ‘Mindfulness’ of the other sometimes more important things in my life, for my family, for our future, for humanity, for our environment, for Mother Earth, for others less fortunate than I, I choose to serve for the betterment of my self, for my soul. My heart is now free, free to choose which way to go, I listen to my heart, I trust my intuition, I listen with Empathy to others with the intent to understand, and I place my feet firmly down on my own spiritual pathway, the journey which leads me through life with a smile; not a burden of weight placed upon my shoulders by others who want to control my destiny.

Be ‘Mindful’ my dear friends, live your life according to your own destiny, allow yourself the luxury right to enjoy your life to the full, take time out for yourself, connect with your heart and soul through meditation, free your mind from the distractions of modern life, see life as it really is and start enjoying each and every day to the full, see the blueness of the sky or if your sky is grey; see the blueness of the sky up above the clouds, watch the sun rise and set, see the smiles of the children around you , reconnect with your inner child, smile, always smile and breathe….just breathe 🙂

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

 

 

Love, She Keeps Me Warm

Published 05/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Love….It is in everyone, sometimes we just need to find it….Love, has no limits and it does not discriminate….’Love Is’

I Can’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to…Love, She keeps me warm 🙂

My Heart does not see race

Love has no age limit

Love has no gender

Love has no disability

Love is Love

Love has no race

Our family is no less than any other family

Love has no religion

We have universal love

Namaste with Love

Always
Mark

Spiritual or Religious, Which are you?

Published 04/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Interesting graphic from Ken Wilber and one in which I am sure is and will continue to be a very controversial topic.

I would love to know your thoughts and which side of the fence you personally sit on so here is a short poll for you to complete.

Do You Know Your Yin from Your Yang?

Published 28/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Living in China and having a long personal history of martial arts, Chinese history, culture and my own spiritual practice embedded in China for the past fifty years, has; over the years made me very interested in Daoism/Taoism, Lao Tzu/ Lao Zi, the Dao De Jing/Tao Te Ching, I Ching..there are so many ways they are represented globally 🙂 The difference between Daojia 道家 , Taoist Philosophy and Daojiao 道教, Daoist Religion brings even more confusion to the western world let alone understanding the I Ching (The Book of Change), the oracle of fortune, a guide to success and a dispensary of wisdom. The ancestor of all Chinese philosophy, it is the primary source for the pragmatic mysticism of the Tao Te Ching, the rational humanism of Confucius, and the analytic strategy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and of course the wonderful Yin 酓 Yang 昜 in traditional Chinese and Yin阴Yang 阳 in modern simplified Chinese.

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Yin is the black side with the white dot in it, and yang is the white side with the black dot in it. The relationship between yin and yang is often described in terms of sunlight playing over a mountain and a valley. Yin (literally the ‘shady place’ or ‘north slope’) is the dark area occluded by the mountain’s bulk, while yang (literally the ‘sunny place’ or ‘south slope’) is the brightly lit portion. As the sun moves across the sky, yin and yang gradually trade places with each other, revealing what was obscured and obscuring what was revealed.

Yin is characterised as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity , and nighttime.

Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.

Yin and yang applies to the human body. In traditional Chinese medicine good health is directly related to the balance between yin and yang qualities within oneself. If yin and yang become unbalanced, one of the qualities is considered deficient or has vacuity.

Anyways, I could go on forever trying to explain Yin Yang, The Dao/Tao so I thought I would share with you this very short cartoon animated Ted Talk video explaining Yin Yang, I hope you enjoy it and that it will inspire you to learn more about Daoism 🙂

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Prioritising Solutions to Your Problems

Published 27/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Chinese Wisdom:

Once there was a man walking along a empty road. Suddenly he heard a feeble cry. He looked around but saw nothing. Thinking he heard nothing, he continued to walk along. Once more he heard the faint cry. This time the call was nearby. He searched high and low, and found the sound was coming out of a little fish lying in a drying pond, his mouth was bubbling.

That fellow looked at the fish strangely and asked: “Was that you who were just calling me? Did you need my help? “

The small fish looking suppliant at the man gasping and breathless said, “Please save me quickly, I am dying, I need water. I am not a normal fish, rather I am the eastern sea dragon’s official.  Please give me a little water.”

That person hearing this quickly nodded his head and said: “I understand, I will immediately go to the south and let the southern king direct a river to here so that you can swim and return to the eastern sea.”

The fish angrily cried out, “Can a fish live out of water? I am only in need of a little water. Your idea is pointless. I think that the next time you see me will be in a shop that sells dried fish. “

Moral : Sometimes an “ideal” solution isn’t practical because it requires too much time in a time-critical situation.

Enjoy your weekend and don’t overthink too much, sometimes the solution to your life’s problems is easier than your mind will allow you to believe.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Connecting With and Understanding Yourself…. Enjoying Your Life To The Full

Published 26/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Understanding Self:

Getting to understand yourself, is an art form that many never achieve in their lifetime, many people believe they know who they are but actually they don’t have the slightest clue!

How often do you shut your self away from the world, and by shutting away I don’t mean going to the top of the Himalaya’s and sitting in a cave by yourself for ten years 🙂 What i mean is; do you switch off from the world each day, do you set yourself time each day to have no interruptions, in a room with just you, no tv, no radio, no newspapers, books, magazines, no phone, no computer,no electronics, no people, no children, nothing to disturb your time with yourself?

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It’s not easy at first, setting aside time in what you probably believe is already a fully scheduled day, getting up, shower, breakfast, dressing for school, work or getting yourself and or your children ready for your day, attending back to back meetings, dropping the kids to school, picking them up, taking them to after school activities, checking homework, making dinner, eating dinner, bathing and dressing the children, putting them to bed, watching tv, reading a book, getting yourself ready for bed…etc, etc, the list is endless, or so we all believe!

We just don’t have any time in our lives for ourself!

Wrong!

It’s your life, you can make choices re your life, you are the master of your schedule and you, only you can make the time! After all, it’s certainly in your own best interest to make time for yourself, your body needs this time, your mind needs this time and your heart certainly needs this time! So why is it we are so bad at setting time for ourselves?….Well, we feel guilty, that’s why! We feel that we are being self indulgent by setting ‘valuable’ time aside just for ourselves,…..Bullsh*t (sorry for the bad language my dear friends)……., take it from me…STOP IT, NOW!, Set up time each and every day to give yourself quality time on your own, start small, it can be 10 minutes per day at first, try this for a few days then increase your time slowly to 15, 20,30 minutes, or even better 45 minutes or an hour, but make sure you set your schedule, set your time, your phone whatever to remind you to go and enjoy time with yourself, don’t give up on yourself, keep the commitment to this time each and every day and I guarantee you will start to know yourself so much better than you do right now, you will have no external influences, just you, your time is your own for you, only you and your meditation, reflections on who you are, where your life is right now and where you want to be, this quality time will enhance your levels of understanding for others, you will be more empathetic towards yourself and to others, your life will benefit from the quality time you give yourself…TRUST ME… give it a try, if you need help, I’m here to help you, if you need help with meditations, just let me know and i will send you some to help you along the way, but please, please my friends…get in touch with yourself and start to enjoy the rest of this life 🙂

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

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The Lie We Live…..

Published 25/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Please watch this short video and please, please share it with your friends, your social networks….The message is so important and so true, we need to make a change…NOW!

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Freezing Homeless Child (Social Experiment)

Published 25/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Please take a few moments to watch this short video and think about what you see, it literally broke my heart to see literally hundreds if not thousands of people in New York walking past this young boy in the freezing cold of day with no one stopping to see how he was, let alone offering him any help. Until the one homeless man walked up and offered not only help in the form of his own coat, but also the little money he had whilsy he also offered his advice and comforting support for what he saw in this young boy!

I love the words of this homeless man…“Im homeless too and We got to look out for one another”

Remember my dear friends “If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody, you’ll end up doing nothing for nobody”!

Let’s together make changes to our world, let’s bring humanity back together where we actually care for one another, where we don’t chase money and things, where we don’t turn our backs on the needy, where we start loving one another and we listen to each other with the intent to understand…

We can make a difference, we can make change happen…but we have to stand up and say…… “I will”

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Happy Chinese New Year from Shanghai

Published 19/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

Xin Nian Kuai Le 新年快乐…Happy New Year from May and I here in Shanghai China

I hope the year of the Sheep will bring you love, happiness, peace, good health and good fortune

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Some pictures of the fireworks from my window at Midnight 🙂

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The Gayatri Mantra, Meditation & Mantra for the Soul

Published 17/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

The Gayatri Mantra.

Its Meaning: ” We meditate on the glory of the creator, who has created the Universe, who is worthy of worship, who is the embodiment of knowledge and light, who is the remover of all sin and ignorance, may he enlighten our intellect.”

Listening to this Mantra especially under meditation gives you Peace.

This is what Swami Sivananda had to say about this supreme Mantra. ” Gayatri is the mother of the Vedas and the destroyer of sins. There is nothing more purifying on the Earth, as well as in the Heavens than the Gayatri. The Japa (chanting) of Gayatri brings the same as the recitation of all the four Vedas together.”

I hope this Mantra brings you Peace my friends.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Going with the Flow of Life

Published 16/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Do not struggle with life.
Go with the flow of things,
and you will find yourself
at one with the
mysterious unity of the universe.

Self observation brings man to the
realisation of the necessity of self change.
And in observing himself
a man notices that self observation itself
brings about certain changes in his
inner processes.
He begins to understand that
self observation
is an instrument of self change,
a means of
awakening.

and remember..

You are never alone or hopeless
during your life’s journey.
The force that guides the stars
guides you too.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Happy Valentines Day My Friends

Published 14/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

 

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My Dear Friends,

Today is February 14th, Valentines Day, so I thought I would send out this short message to remind you all that ‘You Are Loved’!

Valentines day is not just about a relationship from one person to another but its also about remembering that ‘You are Always Loved’ by someone, it may be a friend, a colleague, a pet or a family member, it may also be that you are loved for what you do, what joy you bring to someone’s heart through your blog, your charitable work, your artwork, you are an inspiration to someone…so please remember

You Are Loved..

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Dormant Seeds Ready to Sprout

Published 10/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Excerpt from Grist of the Mill Ram Dass

There is a story about an old Zen monk who was dying, who had finished everything and was about to get off the wheel. He was just floating away, free and in his pure Buddha-mind, when a thought passed by of a beautiful deer he had once seen in a field. And he held on to that thought for just a second because of its beauty, and immediately he took birth again as a deer. It’s as subtle as that.

It’s like when we begin to see the work that is to be done, and we go to an ashram or a monastery, or we hang out with satsang. We surround ourselves with a community of beings who think the way we think. And then none of the stuff, the really hairy stuff inside ourselves, comes up. It all gets pushed underground. We can sit in a temple or a cave in India and get so holy, so clear and radiant, the light is pouring out of us. But when we come out of that cave, when we leave that supportive structure that worked with our strengths but seldom confronted us with our weaknesses, our old habit patterns tend to reappear, and we come back into the same old games, the games we were sure we had finished with. Because there were uncooked seeds, seeds of desires that sprout again the minute they are stimulated. We can stay in very holy places, and the seeds sit there dormant and uncooked. But there is fear in such individuals, because they know they’re still vulnerable.

Nothing goes under the rug. We can’t hide in our highness any more than we’ve hidden in our unworthiness. If we have finally decided we want God, we’ve got to give it all up. The process is one of keeping the ground as we go up, so we always have ground, so that we’re high and low at the same moment – that’s a tough game to learn, but it’s a very important one. So at the same moment that if I could, I would like to take us all up higher and higher, we see that the game isn’t to get high – the game is to get balanced and liberated.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Feeling Unwell Today

Published 09/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Feeling really unwell today 😦

Well, I guess it was inevitable that at some point this winter I would succumb to the Flu, I have been surrounded by friends and colleagues these past few weeks that have one by one gone down with this years flu virus, I thought I was out of the woods but then… It took me as a prisoner….BAM, my head aches with a migraine to beat all migraine’s, I’m coughing like a seasoned smoker (and i don’t smoke), my ribs feel as though I have gone 10 rounds with Mohammed Ali, my body aches from head to toe and I have 0 energy 😦

Send me some loving healing energy if you have some to spare my friends, I could do with your support right now 🙂

I best do a mind and body scan meditation now and take control back from this nasty virus…and If you too are suffering from the same as me, my heart goes out to you my friends.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Published 09/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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A massive thank you goes out to Shelah over at http://theopenjar.com for her kind nomination of my humble blog for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

I do not take part in blogging award responses due to the time it takes to participate but I am very thankful for the nomination 🙂

Namaste with Love Shelah
Always
Mark

Love and Happiness Music Video with Lyrics

Published 08/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends

Here is a little Love and Happiness for your weekend, the music is by Mark Knofler and EmmyLou Harris

Namaste with Love

Mark

Here’s a wishing well, here’s a penny for
Any thought it is that makes you smile
Every diamond dream, everything that brings
Love and happiness to your life

Here’s a rabbit’s foot, take it when you go
So, you’ll always know you’re safe from harm
Wear your ruby shoes when you’re far away
So, you’ll always stay home in your heart

You will always have a lucky star
That shines because of what you are
Even in the deepest dark because your aim is true
And if I could only have one wish, darlin’ then
It would be this, love and happiness for you

Here’s a spinning wheel, use it once you’ve learned
There’s a way to turn the straw to gold
Here’s a rosary, count on every bead
With a prayer to keep the hope you hold

You will always have a lucky star
That shines because of what you are
Even in the deepest dark because your aim is true
And if I could only have one wish, darlin’ then
It would be this, love and happiness for you

And if I could only have one wish, darlin’ then
It would be this, love and happiness for you

You Look So Much Better When You Smile

Published 07/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

I know I have posted this Kirk Franklin video ‘Smile’ before but I thought I would post it again because the message is so strong, and it certainly makes me ‘SMILE’ and all I want to do is make you HAPPY 🙂

Have a great weekend full of love and smiles

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Fear and Love

Published 03/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Fear and Love

Life can be unpredictable, so we worry about things going wrong, and sometimes our worries can become sever anxieties. We fear possible accidents and imaginary disasters, even though they will probably never come to pass. In extreme cases, such fears can be debilitating.

There is an answer put forward by Lao Tzu in the Tao. Fear is like darkness in the mind. When it grows out of balance, it becomes a terror that can completely warp your thinking. Fortunately, it is not difficult to counter the power of this darkness by turning your awareness to love.

Love is the illumination of life. It brightens your world, warms you up and gives you strength. You can do anything you set your mind to, when its brilliance energises your thoughts and actions. There can be no darkness or fear when you walk the Tao with love lighting your way. Always walk the light.

Whenever you feel the darkness of fear closing in on you, turn to the light. Who do you love? ‘ Fix that person and your love for them in your minds eye and hold that love in your heart’ It is that essence of love that is at the core of your very existence, and that is what makes it infinitely more powerful than fear. Use its illumination to banish the darkness from your life and live with joy and love in your heart once again.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Moganshan Mountain

Published 02/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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My Dear Friends,

For the past three days we have been at the top of Moganshan Mountain in Zhejiang Province China, meditating and enjoying the fresh mountain air in the snow and bamboo forests. Its been a joyous weekend up high in the mountains, connected with mother nature and at peace with the world, filled with happiness, smiles and laughter one in which I will remember for a lifetime:) I have attached a few photos from the weekend, hope you enjoy them.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

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Versatile Blogger Award

Published 02/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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A massive thank you goes out to Purnima over at http://delightedsouls.wordpress.com for her kind nomination of my humble blog for the Versatile Blogger Award.

I do not take part in blogging award responses due to the time it takes to participate but I am very thankful for the nomination 🙂

Namaste with Love Purnima
Always
Mark