Releasing to realise – a sweet and sour experience

Jon’s View From The Ground

It’s been a while since the last View From The Ground blog and a lot has happened – some good, some not so good. It’s certainly been a time of deep thinking. It’s also been an extremely emotional time, with the sad loss of Viv’s mum. A wonderful, kind, loving lady who will be sorely missed but her legacy is her family.

In March, we had the excitement of the solar eclipse and the potential effects that would have on our energy and emotions. I must admit I was somewhat sceptical about what I was reading but, in reality, I certainly felt a change in my energy, emotions, and body in the days around the eclipse – and it wasn’t good! That has continued beyond the solar eclipse and I have to say it has been a difficult time. There’s an old expression that springs to mind – I’ve been lower than a snail’s bum!

I’ve talked through my feelings with Viv. Initially, she directed me to do some reading and as a result I picked up a book that we’ve had for some time – These Wings Can Fly. It certainly helped, and I quite liked the contribution from a co-writer, where they give a different perspective to the key personal journey of the writer. If you are looking for some inspiration, the book is available on Amazon.

The next stage that I was advised to follow was to look at releasing what was causing me to feel low. The challenge was, I didn’t know what the issue was.

So, this is where I turned to hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono). I’m sure most of you are already familiar with this practice, but for the uninitiated it is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Viv introduced me to ho’oponopono after she had read about it in Dr. Joe Vitale’s book, Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More. In the book, Vitale describes how he came across a story about a Hawaiian psychiatrist, Dr. Hew Len. For the details, this is another book that I would recommend but the heart of the story is Dr Hew Len’s process, evolved from the ancient Hawaiian spiritual tradition of Ho’oponopono, consists in mindfully repeating four simple phrases:

I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.

As you do this, it doesn’t matter whether you think you are saying them to a God, Source, Spirit, the Universe, your Higher Self, or your inner mind. It only matters that you say them sincerely, from your heart, and with complete focus.

Now, if someone told me 2 years ago that I would leap out of bed at 6:00 am every working morning and sit in our living room (lounge, sitting room, or whatever you call it) chanting ho’ponopono I would have checked what you had been drinking. Now, in reality, there is a slight exaggeration there. When I say ‘leap out of bed’, I mean stumble, but I hope you get the idea.

It doesn’t matter what order you chant the 4 phrases, all that matters is that you focus fully and you have to be brave enough to face what might be released. I have to say I have found the process a lot more difficult. Primarily, as I have been blessed in my life – I come from a stable and loving family background, and I have now been blissfully married for getting close to 26 years and have 2 wonderful children. We live in a great house in a peaceful area, we have really good friends, so what was causing the feelings that needed to be released? There’s no doubt, our financial situation is not brilliant. The causes of that have been documented in These Wings Can Fly and that is something that we are learning to deal with.

In essence, through repeatedly chanting I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, I learned my greatest challenge. I knew through the many discussions, life revolved around love or fear. There is no doubt that I am blessed to be surrounded by love, but what started to come out was that I have been controlled by fear and that fear goes right back through a lot of my life. Fear of not been good enough, always happy to stay in other people’s shadows, taking to heart criticism, which, in a lot of cases was banter. Through that, I haven’t truly loved myself.

This is probably more revealing than I had intended this blog to be but as I write, I want to use it to encourage others to do the same. It has been a longer process than I expected and it is work in progress. But the great thing is, I know that I have to love ME, I have to have confidence in me, I have to stand at the front and be ME, and be the person I was meant to be. That will then allow me to fulfil my life purpose (as revealed in an earlier blog. Another really good read, even though I say it myself).

It is a cleansing process and, as I grow to love myself, I know I will start to be able to help others. As a lot of people will know, AHA – The University of Life, has just been launched and I would like to think, in time, I will be able to support that awesome facility in helping others. If you are not aware of AHA!, please visit the crowd funding site – https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aha-university-of-life/x/8700294 – and support them. In fact, one of the rewards for kind contributors is a guided ho’oponopono guided meditation. It has certainly helped me find my direction.

So, the journey has begun and I will keep you posted of the progress. I guarantee, there will be progress!

To close, I want to finish on a good news story. In, another, previous (and excellent) blog, I discuss the need to feel and express gratitude. Well, last night, we had every reason to express gratitude in abundance. As is our routine, we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy a Friday night take away (take out). Ben is away at university at the moment, so Viv and I have an Indian and Liv has a Chinese. Thankfully, we have excellent take aways close to where we live. Last night, I needed to get some money from the machine at our local bank.

However, frustratingly, the machine was out of order. The dilemma – walk for 10 minutes to another cash machine or ask the take aways if we could give them the money the following day. My vote was to walk, whereas Viv walked brazenly into the Chinese take away, explained our plight and they were more than happy to agree to a later payment. The same was then agreed in the Indian take away. The happy ending, however, is that as we walked past the Chinese take away, the owner was driving away. When he saw us, he stopped, smiled, and said that the take away was on him and they did not want any money! Wow! Thank you! The feeling of elation and gratitude was incredible. Such a wonderful gesture. So, Liv enjoyed her Sweet and Sour Chicken Cantonese Style courtesy of the take away owner.

It’s a great world. We just need to realise it and look after it. We need to love ourselves and understand that, by loving ourselves, just what we can achieve. Just believe!

Much love to all.

Jon

#Leap4joy

  

A view from the ground – The journal from Jon

I am lucky to be surrounded by people who effectively guide me towards what to write. I have already talked about the cast of stars who have encouraged me to contribute to Viv’s book, and then to launch into ‘view from the ground’ blogs. Well, it’s happened again – and this time I have to thank one of my brothers, Robin.

Okay, there needs to be a back story – there’s always a back story!

We took last week as holiday, but as we are concentrating a lot of effort on getting the word out about These Wings Can Fly (available as a paperback or kindle via Amazon – merciless plugging is permitted!!!). We have therefore enjoyed a few days travelling around – going to the beautiful city of York, and then cruised the mighty Ocean Highway and Route 55 to the West Coast of England (to those who know better, that’s the A59 and the M55 to the Fylde Coast).

As Viv, Ben and Liv will quickly say, I am obsessed with taking selfies and just general photos with my mobile phone. In fact, the picture that we used for the first View From The Ground blog was a selfie, taken one Saturday afternoon after a couple of glasses of wine. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not vain – with a face like mine, I could not be vain. But I like – good – pictures for posterity and Facebook purposes. In addition, in line with the section in the book which discussed releasing the inner child, I like to have some fun, use my energy positively, and hopefully put a smile on people’s faces. Life is too short and I have spent too many years being a grumpy person. (I can hear the deafening sound of many people agreeing with that last comment – thanks!).

Whilst in York I was taking general pictures around the magnificent Minster, and for reasons that I can’t remember I started taking pictures of Viv and Ben; Ben and Liv; Viv and Liv leaping around outside the Minster.  Good harmless fun, which caused much amusement to us and several bystanders. In all honesty, I had a go at leaping, but a) I couldn’t get off the ground; and b) I looked like a Sumo wrestler going into battle – so those pictures were deleted as the photographer’s prerogative.

Since commencing this journey with Viv, the realisation that you should squeeze every last drop of fun out of life has become more and more apparent. I love every minute I get with family, and friends, where we can just laugh and be daft.

So, we got on to discussing these pictures with Robin during a family meal out, and we were just saying how great it is to have fun whilst standing close to famous buildings or monuments. Out of the blue, Robin questioned why not set up a #Leaping campaign as part of the These Wings Can Fly blog. Genius!!!!

This fits in with so much that we want to encourage – fun, laughter, uplifted spirits (literally!) and togetherness and sharing these things with everyone else.

Here’s what we want to do. We want to encourage everyone to join in with our campaign to have fun. We are going to launch it as #Leap4Joy and we want everyone to send us pictures of them leaping as high as possible and as daft as possible, preferably in front a a famous building or monument. But ultimately, it can be anywhere. If you can’t leap, then punch the air (careful not to punch a passer-by), or nod vigorously. Basically, it would be great to go viral with #Leap4Joy.

The overall plan is to collect enough pictures so that we can put them on the blog site, but then to create a motivational video and possibly a book. However, this can only happen if people join in. Let’s have fun, and have uplifted spirits. It’s your life to lead it the best way possible.

I hope you get the picture – and then you send it to us.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/ThseWingsCanFly

Facebook – TheseWingsCanFly

vivienne.duke@peoplehelppeople.co.uk

Jon

 

 

 

The Elephant In The Room (Don’t mention the ‘S’ word) – A View from the Ground

A View from the Ground – The journal from Jon

I mentioned the ‘S’ word once but I think I got away with it. Am I going mad? Is this a mid-life crisis, or even a distraction from worse things in life? Is it wine o’clock yet? Whoops, well at least the last one was reality.

I’ve just launched a Facebook page for the View From The Ground, because I felt the need for a platform to interpret a lot of the amazing messages that Viv talks about in the books, These Wings Can Fly and Awaken Your Inner Hero (do I need to mention these are available via Amazon?). Well, actually, if I am to be absolutely honest, I have been guided to interpret these messages.

Now, whilst I accept that I am writing this just after the wine o’clock chimes rang out, I ask that you bear with me as I attempt to show the elephant the exit door.

Viv and I have talked jointly and separately about the journeys we have travelled over the last 2 years, and feedback we have had during that time has ranged from how amazing it must be, to pure scepticism.

However, the reality is amazing. The transformation is incredible. The future is bright, the future is………….. EE (damn these corporate brand changes).

Last weekend, I took a significant step along my journey of self discovery. I have been holding something in for a while but I couldn’t hold back. I had to tell Viv. It was tough, I was worried how she would react, but I said it…………..“What is my role in life?”

There, it was out; I was out! And that set Viv on her quest, and following a shamanic meditation, I was told that my role is to interpret the messages that Viv receives. Thus, the Facebook page at the start of this blog. A small step, but a start. To be fair, the meditation provided more guidance that just that I am an interpreter, but I am proud that Viv will publish the full meditation in a future blog. I will then follow that with a View From The Ground interpretation of it.

However, that got me thinking – how do we get these messages out to a wider audience; to people who could be interested. I accept, not everyone will want to hear. Many people already have their own sources for messages, and places to find inspiration and comfort.

People might be put off by their ‘fear’ of the ‘S’ word. Let’s do 2 things – 1) deal with the word ‘spiritual’; and 2) clear up that this is just a name, a reference point.

The fact of the matter is, I believe in myself; my being; that I should be grateful for life; that I should, and do, love and protect those around me – be that the inner circle of family, or the outer circle of those that I come into contact with. Does that make me spiritual, or does that make me an all-round good guy. They’re both the same, so I am happy to wear either badge.

So, now my quest is to reach as many people as possible with a View From The Ground and look at how we can form and grow as a collective, a tribe, into just being better people. It’s not a weird thing; it’s not a ‘born again’ moment (but I admire and respect those who do experience that ‘born again’ moment, what ever their belief). It’s more down to being given the opportunity to stop myself in my tracks, stop being grumpy, self absorbed and ungrateful. Now that I have gone through that part of my personal journey, through using Viv’s messages, I want to help others.

Anyone who wants to reach out – even if it just for a chat, by all means drop me an email to jonlduke@sky.com. As I have already said, the Facebook group is up and running, alongside the These Wings Can Fly group. We have Twitter pages set up – @ThseWingsCanFly; @jonlduke62, or @vivienneduke67. Get in touch.

Okay, for now, I will leave things there. There’s an evening meal to cook. As I am the View from the Ground, I am closest to the kitchen. Viv is somewhere in the sky – as her wings can fly and she’s off on another hero’s quest.

Prepare yourself for the next revelation – meditation; more than just about Jon sitting like a little fat Buddha, chanting and hugging trees. Maybe the title will be The Fatty In The Room. Be happy; be grateful; share the love; stand in your truth.

 Jon

Laid bare (Leap Of Faith) – A view from the ground

A view from the ground – The journal from Jon

 

After the last View From The Ground observations, I thought I was spent of ideas for a few weeks but, as said before, Viv has told me to ask and wait. To be fair, I need to remind Viv I did ask where my favourite socks are and I’m still waiting. However, if I look towards the feet of any one of Viv, Ben, or Liv, I can pretty much guess where they are. It’s not that I am possessive about my socks, but every birthday, Christmas, and Father’s Day, I excitedly open a packet of socks, with the promise they are mine – not a chance. On the last Father’s Day, Liv bought (Viv bought; Liv gave) socks for each working day of the week. Brilliant! In all honesty they are a tad bright to wear if I am attending a formal meeting at the office, but a wonderful present and surely no one would use those. Wrong! One Thursday evening, I cast an eye over a bright yellow foot stuck out by Liv at the dining room table, emblazoned with ‘Monday’. Bless! You have to laugh, and no, I’m not complaining so I don’t have to switch my bracelet.

So, on to laid bare. The inspiration for these words came from a conversation with my brother, Noel, and his wife, Juliet. The blog didn’t come to me during the conversation, but as I have come to expect, the flash of inspiration was as I lay in bed this morning. Something resonated. A couple of really powerful observations were made to us in relation to the book, These Wings Can Fly. It was quite rightly observed that Viv had been very brave to effectively reveal all – she lay bare what she had experienced. But also Noel commented what surprised him the most was what I had written. This was not a side he had seen, and to be honest no one had. Remember, I still have a Mr Grumpy mug at the office.

 

These observations got me thinking, and really what rang out loud was that yes, Viv has been very, very brave, and yes, my bit to those who know me is a surprise – a significant change. But, there is not a day that goes by that we don’t express our gratitude for what we have done.

 

For Viv, writing the book, and everything that has followed, has been the most important thing she has done in her life. Apart from marrying me, of course!

 

The journey Viv has been on, and continues to travel has been life changing – but not just for her, but for many others. Now, this is not another merciless plug for the book, These Wings Can Fly (available via www.amazon.co.uk / www.amazon.com and other on-line distributors) but I strongly recommend you visit our reader review page. This page includes the wonderful comments from people who have read the book and who have been truly positively moved by Viv sharing her experiences. If Viv can help people who have experienced or are experiencing the same appalling treatment she received – job done. The whole idea is to provide inspiration and support to others.

 

I’m not sure where to start when reflecting on my contribution to Viv’s book. Those who know me are quite right to be surprised by the shift that I discuss throughout the book, as I joined Viv on her magnificent journey.

 

I have openly admitted previously to my previous grumpy persona; half empty; angry so on and so forth. My nearest and dearest family and friends (and colleagues), would confirm this. Don’t get me wrong, I have always enjoyed a laugh, have a ready(ish) smile. However, I have always been easy to criticise others who annoy me.

 

However, every word I contributed to the book, and subsequent blogs, is true. The change; the shift is significant and life altering. Why? Well, simply put, we have 2 choices – we can celebrate each and every minute of life and be grateful for everything we have, or we can complain about everything, and grumble about what others have but we don’t. I choose the former.

 

The book maps out how I arrived at this place and future blogs will include excerpts to help anyone who wants to understand the journey.

 

The bottom line is – I’m still me. I drink (may be a little too much) red wine, I go to concerts and festivals, I watch rugby league, I love time with family and friends, and I experience regular bouts of flatulence (too much information?) – I always have.

 

However, I now just make sure I love life, and am truly grateful for everything I have. I recommend it.

 

As for my next blog. That’s already taking shape following a few days away at our UK spiritual holiday destination – North Devon. We were lucky to be able to stay at our favourite guest house in Woolacombe, and we visited Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor. Plenty of opportunities for additional #Leap4joy pictures – have a look at them. Maybe a bit of rainbow spotting? More on that another time.

Take care, and don’t forget to truly believe that you can manifest what your really, really believe in. It’s all about being able to live, laugh, and love.

Jon

How Finding Your Inner Child can Boost Your Resilience

“..Dance like there’s nobody watching you

Love like you’ll never be hurt

Sing like there’s nobody listening

And live like it’s heaven on earth”

WILLIAM W PURKEY

In my first blog on Resilience, I used the analogy of a child and a ruler to explore how we can be more resilient.

I have discovered that finding our inner child is a good strategy to adopt to enable us to take a happy and carefree outlook on life, which in turn helps us to develop our resilience in times of challenge and change.

This is a concept I explore in the ‘Happiness and Discovering Your Inner Child section of  These Wings Can Fly so I thought it would be good to share some extracts from the book with you.

 Happiness and Discovering Your Inner Child

……….. By now I had realised that happiness comes from within.

No one else can make you happy.  Happiness is a state of your own mind and sometimes when you are in a difficult environment and have a lot of worries and concerns it does seem almost impossible to be happy.

I often used to think, “How the heck can I be happy with all this negative stuff going on in my life!”

What I found was that there were some things I could do really quickly which would begin to lift my spirits and act as a foundation for everything else I was doing to re-discover my natural state of positivity, optimism and resilience.

I acknowledged that it would be unrealistic to expect to be deliriously happy every second of the day when there were negative things going on around me.  However, I knew that if I could come at things from a slightly happier and more positive angle it would have huge benefits in helping me to cope with the pressures I was facing.

Physical responses

If you are like me, you will probably have experienced that ‘sinking feeling’ countless times.  This is a physical manifestation of your unhappiness.  I used to get this feeling all the time and there were a lot of occasions where I just felt permanently ‘low’.  This wasn’t just because of what was going on in my mind and outer environment.  It was actually the physical effect it was having on my body.

There are a number of chemicals that are produced in your body when you are in a stressful situation and these are fine if you are just about to run away from a man-eating tiger or fight a dinosaur.  I was not doing either of these things.  I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out how to deal with life!  Unfortunately these chemicals can do serious damage if left to fester, so I discovered that to relieve these physical symptons I almost had to replicate the physical activity that the chemicals were getting me ready to embark on i.e. get up from behind my desk and do some energetic activity.  For me this meant walking or dancing.  Mainly walking and I became known as the Forrest Gump of the family.

There are also other things you can do physically which give you an instant pick me up and make you feel a little stronger than perhaps you were previously…………….

Music and Laughter

Smiling and laughing are great pick me ups for making you feel happy.  It is impossible to smile and not feel better.  Laughing brings the added benefit of a physical release aswell, which is great to get rid of those unwanted chemicals.  I purposefully stopped watching anything miserable on TV (including the news).  If the news came on the radio, I would switch it off.  I know this might sound a bit selfish in a way but I realised that listening to more bad news in other people’s lives just wasn’t helping me.  It was programming even more negativity into my mind.  I made sure that everything I watched on TV was positive and if it was humorous and I could have a good old belly laugh then that was even better.  Young  children don’t like watching or listening to the news, they like to watch funny things.

Music and dancing have always been my saviours.  I have always loved dancing with complete abandon at family parties, much to Jon’s embarrassment (he has been known to call me ‘Skippy’ on the dance floor!).  Dancing is such a fantastic release and if you can do it ‘like nobody is watching’ then even better because it gives you a huge positive workout.

I would also combine it with ‘singing like nobody is listening’ for a turbo boost of positivity.  This really did give me an instant pick me up and drive everyone else out of the room!

Jon has made me a number of playlists on his IPod which I play on a regular basis when I am at home and dance around the dining room with as much vigour as I can.  I do think the next door neighbours are getting slightly concerned now at this mad woman careering past the window every now and then waving her arms around.  You see – even when I know people are watching me I dance as if they aren’t!  Children can do it so why shouldn’t we?

Live music is even better.  You have a license to jump up and down waving your arms wildly, whilst screaming when you are at a concert.  That is the norm…isn’t it?  Again, I do seem to have a knack of embarrassing my family at concerts.  There is usually a bit of a battle as to who is going to sit next to me (the further away the better for my lovely husband and children!).  Joking apart though – my enthusiasm usually rubs off pretty quickly on the rest of the family and they also abandon their inhibitions…….

Living in the Moment

Have you ever watched young children play?  They are usually laughing and skipping around and completely living in the moment.

I wasn’t living in the moment at all – I was mulling over the past way too much and worrying about the future in equal measure.  I realised I was wasting my life away and I really did need to start living in the moment and opening my eyes to everything wonderful around me.

Losing those Inhibitions

Young children have no inhibitions.  They are not weighted down with the worries of the world on their shoulders and they love every minute of their lives (well apart from when they don’t get that toy or chocolate bar they wanted!).  They view the world almost with awe.  I remember going out for a walk one day and there was a mum and her young children ahead of me.  It was spring and one of the children ran over to a tree and his little face lit up.  He shouted “Wow – look at these flowers – they look like yellow church bells!”  His mum did have to make a swift intervention to stop him picking all those daffodils from under the tree but it was like another light bulb moment for me.  I had walked past those daffodils so many times and not even noticed them.  In an instant I saw them through the eyes of that child and they took on a whole different perspective.  I resolved to try and rediscover my inner child.

Now when I am out on my walks it is like a whole new world has opened up and I am viewing everything with a fresh pair of eyes.  You cannot help but be happy when you are living in the moment out in nature – it is truly awesome!  Focussing on seeing everything around me whilst out walking is almost meditative and I find it incredibly uplifting.

The Inner Child Bucket List

I began to think back to my childhood and some of the things I really enjoyed doing.

*Walking through piles of leaves and kicking them all up in the air (sorry Jon – more embarrassment when you have been out on walks with me!!)

*Blowing dandelion seeds

*Making daisy chains

*Colouring in

*Getting to the top of a hill on my bike.  Setting off and kicking my legs in the air and shouting “Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

*Splashing in the sea and being bowled over by massive breakers

*Making sandcastles

*Dressing up

*Playing make believe

*Having an imaginary friend

*Being a super hero

*Cutting out, gluing and sticking

*Trampolining (sorry – more embarrassment for my family although it is well hidden at the bottom of the garden.  Hope the neighbours can’t hear my ‘whooping’)

*Fun fair rides – you can’t beat a good old scream with a reasonable excuse to do so

I recently ran a workshop for professional people seeking to find their inner selves.  In the last session we got out a big box of chubby crayons and some colouring pencils and gave everyone a Mandala to colour in.  I have never seen a room full of adults slip so quickly into complete and utter concentration and enjoyment.  It was a wonderful sight to watch and one that reaffirmed to me just how important it is to not forget your inner child.

Playing ‘make believe’ is also a great one.  Day-dreaming has got itself a bad name.  I think sitting quietly and imagining your perfect life is a great way to boost the spirits.  There is a whole industry that has set up around this – to help people ‘visualise’ their dreams and manifest them into reality.  I find this kind of activity an instant pick me up.  Just sitting quietly and imagining what would be my perfect life and trying to get it as detailed as possible.  This can be done on a deeper level in meditations and hypnosis but just thinking about what you would like, and imagining that you have it does make you feel happy.

I also released my inner child and did a ‘vision’ board.  I absolutely loved cutting out, gluing and sticking.  It was really therapeutic.

Happy Memories

…………………..Another technique I learned was to have some ‘mood shifters’ up your sleeve that you can call on in any given moment when needed.  It feels to me a bit like the 5^th emergency service and I have called on these many times over the last couple of years.

It is basically a number of memories of funny things that have really made you laugh or feel happy.  I wrote these down and the process in itself was a positive one which made me laugh and smile while I was doing it.  I just went for five memories to start with and I tried to jot them down in as much detail as possible so that I could really imagine them when I needed them.  Even better, if it is people that you love it will give you an even warmer feeling when you remember them.  I found that I came up with quite a few memories of the kids when they were younger and some of the funny things they did.  When I am in a situation where I feel like I need a ‘mood shifter’ I imagine myself talking to the person involved in my memory and saying “Ha…do you remember when……..”  It instantly makes me feel better and evokes all those lovely memories of happy times, fun and laughter.

In re-discovering my inner child I almost feel like I have created a new version of my bucket list.  To heck with visiting the Seven Wonders of the World.  I want to do some colouring in!

 

 

View from the Ground

I would have to admit to this being one of my favourite sections in the book. Inwardly, I have always loved the concept of retaining the inner child but, once I started this wonderful journey with Viv, I found that showing your inner child externally is even greater – it is liberating.

I love the quote by William Purkey and of late I guess I take this literally: –

“Dance like there’s nobody watching you” – my kitchen has been transformed into my own personal disco (there’s a clear indication that I am an old timer). I love to put on a great tune and spin around like a whirling dervish or, in my mind, Chris Martin from Coldplay.

“Love like you’ll never be hurt” – to be fair, this is something I have always held close to my heart, but I guess I am more able to express that love now. That should serve as a warning to the trees in our local park, because I have developed a love of hugging.

“Sing like there’s nobody listening” – this is where I worry that someone someday may put a surveillance bug in the car. There’s nothing quite like belting out a support vocal to a great song – or, in fact, the main vocal. A word of great caution, try to avoid the hand gestures that accompany the song whilst driving. More than once I have got a little carried away and found the car moving in a sideward direction.

“And live like it’s heaven on earth” – this really is where my journey with Viv has been a real jolt into the realisation of the sheer beauty we have around us and that we are blessed for every day that we are alive.

 The great thing is to lose those inhibitions. So, in closing this view from the ground, I would like to say to those people who watch or listen in amazement as I release the inner child into the outer world, come and join in. It’s fun, it’s liberating, it’s life. Live it!!

Jon

 

Another great way to give yourself instant happiness is to think about all the great things you have in your life and that you have received throughout your life and to be truly grateful for them.

In my next blog in this series I will be exploring ‘gratitude’ and how we can harness what we already have in our lives to help us stay happy and resilient.

If you enjoyed this blog, you will enjoy These Wings Can Fly – Discover the Power of Your Mind – available now on Amazon.

How have you re-discovered your inner child?  It would be lovely to hear your stories

Just updated Vision and Values on Home Page – love to hear your thoughts!

Here they are.

This is what we are all about.

Our Vision

To see a time when we all live harmoniously with uplifted spirits!

Our Values

.  We aim to help you lift your SPIRITS through:

• Smiling and Happiness
• Positivity and Optimism
• Inspirational Content
• Resilience & Open-Mindedness
• Inner Strength & Courage
• Trust & Integrity
• Support & Caring

 How important are these values to you?  We would love to hear your comments.  Please do share before you leave.

Vivienne Duke 05 May 2014