Hello!

How are you?

I’ve just returned home after spending a few days in Sydney to speak at a parenting and homeschooling conference.

I have so much I’d like to share with you about it ~ I’ll just share a couple of things with you this time so that this is not as long as a book!

I stayed with my dearest friend Helena, and the day before the conference she showed me these workbooks she had from Leonie Dawson. She’d accidentally bought two, and I asked if I could buy one from her.

And we went through the review of 2016 together.

 

And it was SO interesting and revealing.

When it asked be to celebrate my business accomplishments over the last year, the two things that were actually MOST important to me (although I celebrated a lot of other things too), were creating more BEAUTY and making more of a difference to more people.

I was really interested to realise how important beauty is to me!
 

The next day was the day of the conference, and when I was shown where I’d be doing my two presentations, my heart sank.

It was in a University, and it was a lecture hall – dark and dingy, with hierarchical rows of green seats.

Outside it was a beautiful day. Blue skies, summer day.

I cried. I was so grateful that Helena was there to listen.

And of course this was my history. I spent 10 years in a University setting – first as an undergraduate, then a Ph.D. student, then a Postdoctoral Fellow and then a Lecturer and Tutor of M.A. students.

And although I loved so much of it, one of the reasons I left academia was because of this same thing – the lack of beauty, and the belief that learning just includes the mind.

 

Back to 2016, and I wanted to take my workshops outside – I found a little door and went outside and found a lovely green square of lawn under a tree. 

And as we came back into the lecture hall, and I was crying saying, “Learning is SO much more than this – it’s not just about the mind,” then synchronicity of synchronicities – Tamara, the beautiful woman who helped me with our homeschooling this year, who had also travelled some distance to get to the conference, walked into the room.

For me, learning is NOT just about the mind. Learning is about ALL parts of us – our bodies, feelings, mind, soul and spirit.

And I am SO passionate about that. And about beauty.

And that university environment reminded me of a limited way of looking at learning.

 

When it came to my Inner Loving Mother workshop, most people wanted to go outside as per my suggestion, but not all of them, so in the end we formed a circle on the floor at the front, and I did the workshop like that.

I also drew lots of hearts over the whiteboard and blackboards at the front!

In the afternoon, I ran my Power and Powerlessness in Parenting workshop, and there were too many people for us to have a circle.

 

I brought in lots of humour, and self-reflection exercises, and there was laughter and crying, so I was glad to have brought more to that environment.

But by the end of the day, the whole thing had taken its toll on me. 

I felt drained and disappointed.

I realised HOW important beauty is to me ~ and how important it is for me to be in beautiful spaces when I’m offering workshops! 

I made a commitment to myself that from now on, I will only do workshops in beautiful spaces, because for me that is SO important.
 

The last thing I want to share was about the journey there and back. 

I’d decided to drive rather than fly, and it was the best decision ever.

I had so many hours to reflect and connect with myself.

I see what a change has happened in me this year.

Before my Inner Loving Presence Process, I would have needed loads of entertainment and snacks to distract me on the journey.

This time, I loved all of those hours to connect with my Inner Loving Crew.

It was profound. At one point all of my Inner Loving Crew were there as I was connecting with being ready to meet my outer beloved.

And I was actually in rapture as I was driving along!

After 11 hours of driving, where in the past I would have arrived exhausted, aching, with a headache, I arrived connected, and really energised and invigorated!

 

On the way back I was contemplating this whole beauty thing, and I connected to memories as a child where my Dad in particular, just really couldn’t understand how important beauty was for me.

I’d acquired judgments that beauty is just superficial or “frippery,” but what I connected to was how painful it was for me to be in spaces where beauty wasn’t acknowledged.

I spent most of my childhood drawing. I wanted to be a fashion designer. I loved beauty.

And my Inner Loving Father went to meet those younger versions of me and really HEARD how important beauty was.

Beauty is a deep passion of mine. It is meaningful. It’s soulful. It’s not just frippery.

I found myself in tears of joy as He acknowledged all of that.

 

And then I was reflecting on that as a parent.

How as parents, things that we may judge as superficial or unimportant might be our child’s soul passion.

 

I wonder if any of this resonates with you.

Is there something that you were passionate about as a child or as a teen that wasn’t valued in your family?

And if so, do you value that passion and love in yourself now?

And what about your children? Do they have passions that you find it challenging to value?

And if so, do your own memories of not being quite understood help you see how important it is to find ways to value their passions and soul-callings?
 

And of course, as always seems to happen, this is so relevant to my next project, the Inner Loving Presence Process for Entrepreneurs, which starts in December.

If you are an entrepreneur and you haven’t already filled in the questionnaire about what you are wanting to help you take your next steps, and you’d like to, please CLICK HERE or on the image below.

 

 

Also, the doors are closing in a couple of days on my extra Aware Parenting Instructor Mentoring 9 month course intake.

If you are interested in joining in and want to learn more, CLICK HERE or on the image below.