~ Albert Einstein

If Einstein was right, and I believe he was (about oh-so-many things) then exercising our imagination daily is one of the most powerful things we can do to create change in our world.

The question is, what are you imagining? Are you listening to the disaster-mongers and imagining Armageddon? Are you worrying about all the ways your plans might go astray? Is your imagination in overdrive picturing worst case scenarios? Are those really the “previews” you want to be seeing?

While awareness of the world around us is useful, and being prepared for how things might go wrong can help keep us safe, I’d like to suggest that it may not be the ideal place for our imaginations to dwell.

I invite you to set aside some Imagination Breaks every day. It can coincide with a coffee or tea break you already take (just to make things really easy!) and needn’t be more than 10 minutes long.

The key to making Imagination Breaks work is purposefully focusing your imagining on positive possibilities.  If negative thoughts are dogging you, use your Imagination Break to turn them 180 degrees.  For just 10 minutes turn off the inner critics, the cynical world view, the disaster scenarios and imagine how it might be different.

This isn’t about how to – this is about what if? This is not brainstorming for solutions, this is picturing different outcomes. This is about using the amazing creative POWER of the human mind to imagine a better future; on a personal level, locally, regionally, for the world– take your pick.  Imagine something different each day, or re-imagine the same thing in more and more detail.

It’s been said that if the human mind can imagine it, it can be done.  We can neither prove nor disprove that – yet.  However it seems to me that believing in that costs us nothing and could gain us the world.

Imagine the change you want to see. Mahatma Gandhi told us  “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”  I suggest there is a step before that;  you must imagine the change you want to see in the world, starting with imagining the changes you want to see in yourself.

You owe it to yourself – to explore the possibilities, to imagine that you are exactly where you need and want to be, to imagine that you are doing your best work, helping people, sharing your brilliance, living fully and joyfully.

Invest 10 minutes in imagining a better world – what have you got to lose?

(c) Paula Swenson ~ Positivity Bubbles guest author

Article originally posted at Creative Spirals, Paula’s own website

(c) The Happy Movie

Are you HAPPY?

What … really, REALLY happy?

A friend of mine shared today that she is off to see a screening of The Happy Movie next Tuesday : alas, I cannot make it, but I was tickled pink to find out more about The Happy Movie movement.

Especially I am drawn to the idea of making happiness a priority …

So please do go have a looksee at The Happy Movie’s website and find out where the next screening is happening near you (it’s a worldwide movement) and take some time to make happiness a priority in YOUR own life!

www.thehappymovie.com

I am thrilled to share an article from Victoria Moran’s wonderful new book, Main Street Vegan, which launches today, April 26th 2012 … hallelujah! A book for people just like me who would love to make real changes in their diet (for whatever reason), that takes all the scariness out of it and makes it feel so DO-able! Enjoy … and then go grab your copy from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

~ Callie

Decide that you can do this

Sometimes, the thought of going vegan just plain scares people. It can seem complicated. Impractical. Exotic, but not in a good way. In reality, however, you’ve eaten vegan food every day of your life (unless you were ever on Atkins and consumed only roast beef and hard-boiled eggs until your best friend told you, in confidence, that you were starting to smell funny).

Think about it. Let’s say you get up and have for breakfast a glass of OJ, whole-wheat toast with peanut butter and strawberry jam, and Earl Grey tea with lemon. At lunchtime, you go to a salad bar and serve yourself a mixture of romaine and spinach, grated carrot, tomatoes, scallions, garbanzo beans, and black olives, and top it with a drizzle of French dressing; you grab some rye crackers and sesame breadsticks and a bottle of lime-infused sparkling water.

In the late afternoon, you eat an apple and what’s left in that little bag of roasted almonds you bought yesterday at Starbucks. For dinner, you open a bottle of red wine and let it breathe while you pour out baby greens from a bag and toss them with balsamic vinaigrette. Then you boil angel hair pasta, heat up a jar of marinara sauce, and steam a bunch of broccoli. There’s peach sorbet for dessert.

Guess what? You just spent a day eating as a vegan – without shopping at a health food store, or consuming anything unusual or derived from a soybean. Almost certainly you will, as a vegan, want to take advantage of what a natural food store has to offer and, unless you have a personal reason for avoiding soy, you’ll have a great time experimenting with the various “meats,” “milks,” “ice creams,” and “cheeses” made from this remarkable legume. But for the most part, vegan dining is built around foods with which you’re already familiar.

Even so, it’s not always easy to take this plunge. Most of us are used to eating animal foods and mass-produced foods that have a lot of their nutrition stripped away, but they come in packages we recognize and that make us feel safe. As a vegan, you’ll be eating a lot of fruits and vegetables – no packaging at all – and many of the prepared foods you’ll try come from small companies you may not have heard of before. This can be disconcerting because it’s unfamiliar. But those corporate giants that want to addict you to their greasy, salty, sugary, chemical-laced products aren’t old friends: they’re just old! These are the guys who want you to think that Twinkies are normal and artichokes are weird.

We vegans comprise only a tiny segment of the population, but our numbers are growing rapidly, and legions of other folks are trying to eat healthier and cut back on animal products, without eliminating them entirely. This means there’s more food for us to eat in more places than ever before, even though the world at large isn’t quite set up for us yet. Although eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet can keep you thin, safeguard your health, and give you a new lease on life, it can also make you something of an oddity at the family reunion. That’s the price of being a trailblazer, but when you think about all it’s doing for you – not to mention the animals and the environment – that price is pretty darned low.

Decide, then, that you can do this, because you can. You learned how to drive a car, program the DVR, and use your iGadgets; compared to those accomplishments, going vegan is a piece of Wacky Cake (see the recipe at the end of this chapter). The biggest obstacle most would-be vegans face is feeling different from other people, but you can change how you see that by replacing different with pioneering.
People who worked for the abolition of slavery in the 1700s and 1800s were considered different, extreme, and out of touch with economic realities. Suffragists in the US and the UK were seen as hysterical and out of control because they believed that women should have the right to vote. Both blacks and whites who were part of the American civil rights movement in the mid-20th century were called radical, even criminal.

You’ll be in good company, then, when some benighted soul tells you to stop being a “health nut” (I’d rather be a healthy “nut” than a sick something else), or a “bleeding heart” (vegan Chloë Jo Davis of the fashion site, GirlieGirlArmy.com, recently tweeted: “Better a bleeding heart than no heart at all” – cheers to that!). Let’s face it, being ahead of one’s time is always inconvenient; but if nobody forged ahead despite inconvenience, nothing would ever change for the better …

Somebody way smarter than me said that we reap what we sow, and in living as a vegan, you sow the seeds of an amazing life. People who live on unadulterated, plant-based foods, and who make some effort to take care of themselves in other ways, tend to be trim, attractive, energetic, and effective. If this is what you want – and you must, since you’re reading this book – hurray for you! Decide that you can do this. And prepare yourself for a grand adventure.

Article from MAIN STREET VEGAN: Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and Live Compassionately in the Real World, by Victoria Moran with Adair Moran

Reproduced with consent by (c) Victoria Moran 2012 – All Rights Reserved

Web site: http://mainstreetvegan.net
Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/7hfv4ox
BN.com: http://tinyurl.com/6lvjq8t

Well, I was doing that earlier this week as I read an email from a dear friend … all about Global Love Project.  So what is the Global Love Project?

The Global Love Project is a platform and opportunity for people experience, share and celebrate more love in their life, with numerous facets, from the fun to profound.

The transformational force of love is universally accepted across countries, races, and religions, and is the common thread that joins us all. Its unifying power dissolves barriers, heals divides, and bridges differences, uniting one and all.

The Global Love Project’s vision has a number of elements outlined below:

Personal Transformation: Healing & Empowering the Self

Global Transformation: Creating a Better World

Spiritual Perspectives

(c) Global Love Project

What really, really tickled me ‘tho, was a blog post about Global Anonymous Love Letters – and as I read this, I thought of how much fun it would be to write these anonymous love letters and leave them sprinkled around my local village!

Here’s a really short video clip to tickle your tastebuds …

Visit Global Love Letters to spread the love!

Where would YOU like to share your Anonymous Love Letters?

This month’s New Moon is on 21st April 2012 at 07.18 UTC – please check your timezone for further information.

For full details on how to write your abundance cheque – remember you can do this anytime within the 24 hours AFTER the New Moon has appeared – AND receive a free Inspiring Abundance Calendar 2012 (PDF), please visit our page

ABUNDANCE

Adjective: (esp. of a person) Thinking about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom

Planning the future with imagination or wisdom OR how about both?  Doesn’t that sound fabulous?  It’s plain to see how being a visionary could take you to amazing heights and depths.  “But,” you murmur, “I don’t have huge aspirations, I don’t have a plan to save the planet, create world peace, cure cancer . . . I don’t need a vision.”

Oh, yes, you do!  YOU need a vision because having a clear vision makes every single choice easier. Wouldn’t that be nice, to have a filter though which you could view your choices and see the right one every time?

Vision is that filter—YOUR Visionary Vision – the one that shows you how you’d really like to show up in the world, everyday.  A clear vision provides momentum; it gives you a compass and stars to steer by.

Having clarity of vision doesn’t mean you need to become a single-minded workaholic machine.  On the contrary, it gives you the latitude to play and explore, secure in the knowledge that everything you chose to spend time on is somehow feeding your Vision.

Becoming a Visionary harnesses your unique combo of acquired skills, knowledge and innate talents to the power of imagination and wisdom.  With vision you are able to make stronger choices and more meaningful connections; you are able to take action and find balance.

Grab some clarity and start Vividly Imagining Spectacular Innovative Outcomes Now.

(c) Paula Swenson ~ Positivity Bubbles guest author

Article originally posted at Creative Spirals, Paula’s own website

As our regular readers know, this series is where we share news of Positively Inspiring People who make the world an infinitely better, brighter place just by being in it – and this is most certainly the case when it comes to Marney Makridakis.

Marney K. Makridakis

Marney is an inspirational creative genius who has taught me so much about feeling free to create as my heart desires, and how I wish to see my business develop. Marney is one of the most awesome people I have ever been gifted the opportunity to meet and work with and so it gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce her to you, too.

Marney has been busy these past few months, not only developing and coaching others through ArtellaLand‘s range of programs, such as ARTbundance™ Certification Training, Mapping & Mentoring with Marney and MAIN (ARTundance™ Mentoring and Inventoring Network) but setting up her new website, Business Bohemia and writing an amazing book, entitled Creating Time.

Creating Time: How to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life is published TODAY (yes, today – hurrah!!) so I am thrilled to share an article from Marney where she introduces us to the concept of ‘reinventing time and balance’ …

Reinventing Time and Balance

One of the most prevalent comments I’ve heard about time is the idea that we need to “balance our time” to live a more “balanced” life. I think the concept of balance is, sadly, often misunderstood. We often feel that if we are focused and disciplined, upbeat and positive, loving and generous, healthy and energetic…then we will be “balanced people.” And if the pie chart of our daily life has just the right ratios of work, life, family, health, spirituality, and service, then our time will be “balanced.”

The problem with striving for balance is that most people’s understanding of this state swerves away from what balance actually is! Balance is not about walking around with a bunch of “positive,” happy qualities; it’s about walking the tightrope between the poles within us and the circumstances outside of us. True balance, ironically, means that we accept the parts of ourselves that can be pretty lopsided. Balance means we can embrace and love the most topsy-turvy parts because they offer gifts for full, authentic living.

Even though we measure time in a linear way, time is and always will be asymmetrical. One moment is not like another, just as each day is different and each tide that rolls in is different from the next. This is why it is impossible to “balance our time” by some objective pie-chart formula in a time management book. Exploring nonlinear, asymmetrical time allows us to move in tandem with an inherently lopsided time and thus regain our relative balance. If we stop constantly measuring ourselves against the standards of linear time, we can accept ourselves more fully. New possibilities emerge as we tango with tenacity and disco with uncertainty.

~ By Marney Makridakis, author of Creating Time

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at www.artellaland.com.

Based on the book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life ©2012 by Marney Makridakis.  Published with permission of New World Library www.newworldlibrary.com

Creating Time is available from today at all good bookstores

Available at Amazon.co.uk

Available at Amazon.com

♥ ♥ ♥

Marney is one of our regular contributors and is one of our Beaming Chieftess Blogger for Creatives ~ Authors Page

Would you like to nominate someone as one of our Positively Inspiring People?  Please drop Callie an email here:  Positivity Bubbles

Debbie Atkinson is a gifted healer, a channel, a writer, a teacher and she is mostly at the beck and call of her naughty Sri Lankan dogs. I recently received two amazing channelled readings from Debbie and so am thrilled to share news of her new website, Nature’s Message, and her positively inspiring story …

Nature’s Message

Three years ago, when I first began to receive channeled messages I was terrified.  Convinced I must be losing the plot, I told it all to go away and pick on someone else.  I shut my ears and feelings and pretended it never happened.  Hiding under the duvet proved a quite effective method too.

I am not sure how much of this was connected with my decision to leave behind my work as a Natural Health therapist and teacher, sell and give away everything I owned and to leave the UK for a rather different life in Sri Lanka.

I have always been an animal lover and when I first visited this beautiful island I was horrified by the treatment of stray dogs and how many of them there were, they were everywhere in varying states of illness and injury.  It seemed the only thing to do, to pack up and get back there for a longer period of time and try to help in some way.

Escaping? Running away? Hmmm! Not sure but definitely a very needed journey!  Living in a hot, humid, dog sanctuary in the middle of the jungle with only 300+ dogs, some seriously dodgy snakes and scorpions for company was an experience and a half.

The heartbreak was astounding and despite having been on a “heal myself” quest for many years and shedding a lot of tears along the way, I never imagined it was possible to cry that much!  Every day bought another shocking scenario to tear at the heart strings and every day I thought “Why does this not get easier? Why am I not immune to the suffering by now?”.

The tears, however, were in equal measure to the laughter.  Dogs are great levellers and teachers.  Watching them sort themselves into packs, play together, fight each other and then curl up together in a big heap to go to sleep is joyful in the extreme.  The biggest effect though was the dogs that arrived in such a pitiful state, some with no hair, emaciated and wounds from being beaten.  So petrified they would not look a human in the eye and would stand, tail between their legs, head hanging as if ashamed to look at you.

Within half an hour though of being touched, probably for the first time in their life, being given food and cuddles, they would change and become themselves.  The head would rise, the tail would take a tentative wag.

They live in the moment, they love unconditionally and they express exactly how they feel from moment to moment.

Dealing with many aspects of living in another country with a different culture was quite testing at times to put it mildly.  However, I learnt so much from this and have come out the other side so much stronger than I believed to be possible.  With that strength has come bravery and when I decided to leave Sri Lanka and return to Europe, I asked “Well what next then?”.  The messages began to come through again and I was not so scared.

Slowly, I accepted that I was not going mad.  I was, in fact, hearing messages of love and compassion for humanity and that really it was time to get on and do something with this.

So, upon returning to Europe with my naughty Sri Lankan dogs (not all 300!) I began to work out what it was I wanted to do with this gift, how I wanted to share it – and so I have created my website: Nature’s Message – www.naturesmessage.info

It is all a learning curve, for all of us, my work continues to grow and change.  I am writing a book about my healing journey from the troublesome childhood I had to the present day, this in itself has bought so much clarity and I come from a place of walking alongside those who are also on a healing journey.  I feel we are all in this together, we are all connected and there is no separation, we take a step forward holding on to a hand in front of us as we reach back to grab the hand behind us, we all move forward and help one another.

I channel messages from the spiritual and angelic realms through writing.  It works quite simply: you send me a photograph so I can see your face and you send me any questions that you have.  In response to your questions I sit and write – the answers come through as I write.

I am quite in awe of this between you and I, it is such an amazing thing to be doing and fills me with joy, makes me feel very humble and also full of excitement at the possibilites that are available for us all.

With love,

Debbie x

www.naturesmessage.info

It’s almost that time again … abundance cheque (abundance check!) time!

This month’s New Moon is on Thursday 22nd March at 14.38 UTC – please check your timezone.

For full details on how to write your abundance cheque – remember you can do this anytime within the 24 hours AFTER the New Moon has appeared – AND receive a free Inspiring Abundance Calendar 2012 (PDF), please visit our page

ABUNDANCE

Bring patience, stories and color for sharing.

Add food, water, sunshine, moonlight, mist and faith.

Listen. Listen to yourself, to each other, to the ramblers and the sages. Listen to the silence.

Question everything you think you know. Keep the bits that ring true, no false or hollow notes. Discard the rest to make room for what you will gather as you go. Accept all that is offered in good faith. Observe synchronicity. Embrace serendipity.

Create magic!

(c) Paula Swenson ~ Positivity Bubbles guest author

Article originally posted at Creative Spirals, Paula’s own website