I have been at the entrance to this bridge for a while, wondering how to cross it without falling off into the depths below.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I really “got it”.  I really realized how to cross the bridge.

I am a huge fan of the movie “the Secret”, for me “the Secret” contains alot of truth, it also profoundly moves me everytime I watch it.  “the Secret” though focusses on how if we change our thoughts we change our reality.  I have been trying to change my thoughts ever since I saw “the Secret” back in 2006 and with some success but not to the magnitude that I know is possible.

Yesterday I was reading a book called “Spiritual Marketing” by Joe Vitale (one of the Secret teachers) and something clicked.

There is no use trying to change our thoughts, we have to change what is beneath our thoughts, which is our beliefs.  Our beliefs are the source of our thoughts.  Change our beliefs, which are the source of our thoughts and our thoughts change automatically.

So I have a whole lot of beliefs about myself and the world including “You have to work hard for money”, “Noone buys my album” and “When I get back to Sydney I am going to have to take an I.T. job because I could never make a living from music” etc etc.

But there is a belief that underlies all of them: “I’m not good enough”.

So today in the forested Andes of Venezuela I shouted “I’m not good enough” several times really loud.  It just made me laugh.  Now that I am at ease with not being good enough, I can replace it with “I am so good enough”.  I can cross the bridge.  And who cares if I fall off into the depths anyway, as Randolph Stone said “We are as afraid of the depths as the ancient mariner was of falling off the Earth at the end of the sea”.  Maybe the sign at the bottom says “Where all your dreams come true and more cause you just let go”.  Letting go, what a concept.  I am letting go now, really I am.  Sometimes I see images of a big hammer (gods hammer) smacking at my fingers.  God’s love in a hammer – let go my child I am trying to give you more than you could ever imagine.

I will.

Tomorrow.

I just want to suffer in my drama and mediocracy for one more day.

Why?

*sigh*

I can choose lasting bliss in an instant by changing my beliefs and letting go.

It is there for the taking on a silver platter.

My wife and I are putting together her application to immigrate to Australia and I had to find out where the Australian Consulate and Argentine Embassy were in Caracas.

Finding the Australian Consulate was easy and took me 2 minutes.

I “google mapped” the Argentine Embassy and it found a street way outside Caracas.

So I tried again and I found the same street, but on the other side of Caracas.

A little voice said “You don’t have to go to the Argentine Embassy”

I ignored it.

I kept looking.

I searched on other map sites with no luck.  I went back to google maps and tried to find the street manually (on a map of Caracas with thousands of streets!)

Google maps then did a big scroll off the page and I ended up in the ocean.

So I went back to google maps.

And it did the big sroll off the map again and I ended up in another ocean.

The I started yelling “F^&%$$£ Google Maps”

My wife said “You know, maybe you should leave it”

I said “I know but it is so frustrating”

So frustrating, that the universe is trying to save me work. hahahahaha

So I went to Caracas.

And everything went so smoothly…

I even found the Argentine Embassy.

They informed me that they could not help me with the matter I was there for.

And without going into it, that made life alot easier for us!

When will I learn?

That the Universe is always working in my favour?

I even write songs about it.

Those songs are still my teachers, everyday.

Something very funny happened though…

When I was in the office of the Argentine Embassy oficial, at one point she asked if she could see my wife’s passort in order to determine whether she could help with our request.

I was carrying my wife’s passport in my money belt.

So I stood up, and loosened my pants to get the money belt out.

To get it out I also had to put my hand slightly into my pants to grab the money belt.

Well, the poor Embassy official, absolutely freaked out.  Her whole body went stiff, she had a look of horror on her face and let out a stifled shreek.

I don’t know what she thought I was going to do!

I think she thought I was going to pull out my wife’s best friend (thankyou Monty Python) rather than my wife’s passport!!

When she saw the money belt emerge from my pants other than something else, she took a big sigh of relief.

Perhaps I should have been a little more discreet.  But it made for a funny story!

It certainly brought bliss into my day, I am not so sure about the Embassy Official!

Have a blissful day all.

Stop.

This afternoon I felt about as negative as I ever could.  My wife too.  We love each other so much but have been feeling under so much stress about our situation and the question “What are we going to do” that we have been a bit disconnected.

So at some stage today, we were driving along at I saw a beautiful plaza.  I said to my wife “Gee love, isn’t that a beautiful plaza”.

I then realized that I saw something I liked.  I thought “What if I just focus on the things I like about Venezuela and our situation? Wouldn’t that be more constructive?

Then I thought, ok whenever a negative thought comes up, I am just going to chant one of my favourite mantras.  So I started chanting the Gayatri Mantra, then later Om Namaha Shivaya then Sede Campalete etc.  My wife started too.

A few hours later I turned to my wife and said “I feel great now”.  She replied “So do I!!”.  Funny that.

I had been feeling so negative and more stressed than any time I can remember.  Now I was feeling great.

I remembered a concept that Randolph Stone the founder of Polarity Therapy covered in one of his books.  The concept of the “Diamond Soul”.  The pressures of life are what create the diamond soul.  For the creation of diamonds, the pressure is immense.

I related that to the stress we were under, our living situation, not wanting to be in Venezuela, trying to get to Australia.

I thought, I can let myself be crushed by this stress or I can allow the pressure to catapult me into positivity.  I can become a diamond.

Today I chose the latter! Tomorrow is Round 2!

I believe mantra chanting is a great tool.  When the negatives come, just start chanting.  When I was a little boy, I used to ridicule the Hare Krishnas like nearly everyone else in Australia.  Now I know, those Hares, they are onto something HUGE: Natural Highs from chanting.

Chant and be happy.

Don’t worry be happy.

Happy happy happy happy happy.

Say that 100 times and see what happens.

)

Here is one of them that I posted on www.pathstobliss.com

http://www.pathstobliss.com/newearth/index.php?id=750

Many more can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/goodnewsteam

I for example I am in the process of stopping overeating because I know how much better I feel when I eat light.  So for a few days I tried to stop overeating and it didn’t work.  Then I decided that I would create a new habit of “Conscious eating” eating slow, taking breaks, chewing my food etc.  It is working, I am doing it.  By creating this new habit, the old habit just falls away.  “Conscious eating” and “Overeating” just can’t exist in the same space.

In building new habits that build your life energy and health there are two companions that are like gold.  Number 1 is a partner or friend to remind you of your new habit when you forget.  Number 2 is the Humility to accept the reminder.

My wife Rosarmy and I have been together for over 3 years now.  Rosarmy is a very disciplined person with very good eating habits and habits in general.  She is absolutely delightful to be married to.  For a while now she has been trying to help me eat consciously, reminding me to chew well and enjoy my food.  For a long time I resisted the advice.  I would say things like “Just coz I’m eating fast doesn’t mean I am not enjoying it” or “I have an excellent digestive system, it can take it!”.  At times I was even openly hostile and possibly even told her to “shut up and mind your own business”.

Then I started this blog to track my own path to bliss and indentified “Conscious Eating” as one of the habits I wanted to form.  I was humbled to realise that what I now REALLY wanted my wife was trying to help me with a looong time ago.

So now my wife says “Hey love, enjoy your food, chew well” and I say “Thanks for reminding me”.  There is no resistance any more so now I can build a habit of conscious eating.

I think sometimes we just have to listen to others more.  Especially those close to us.  Especially our wives, boys!! Women are powerful, sensible and intuitive and know whats good for us most of the time.  Especially if the relatioship is loving.

Humility is the key, If we can just see that most of the time (constructive) criticism is really a signpost leading us back to our path to bliss we can be grateful and say “Thankyou” rather than getting into resistance with the other person that just keeps us stuck.

Sometime in September 2008 my wife Rosarmy told me that she thought she was pregnant.  I thought “How?” but then remembered that one day when we thought the “timing” was safe we were a bit shall we say “relaxed” about things.  Lo and behold, the first time we ever did that, we got pregnant!  Anyway, at the time, we decided there was no way my wife was pregnant and she went off to a 10 day vipassana retreat in Buenos Aires.  A Vipassana retreat is basically where you don’t talk to anyone or have eye contact with them for ten days.  You are just fully and completely with yourself and mediate about 10 hours a day.  When the retreat had finished my wife did a pregnancy test and then called me crying.  She was indeed pregnant and had just given our baby a very peaceful start indeed!

So Rosarmy returned to our home in Capilla del Monte looking very radiant after 10 days meditating 10 hours a day and with new life inside of her.  She announced that if she was going to be pregnant, we would have to be by the ocean.

Well I freaked out a bit.  I was still finishing my album and said to her “There is no way I can leave here until I have finished my album”.  She agreed, and I got my arse into gear and stopped procrastinating and finished it around Christmas day 2007.  A few days later our second Ultrasound showed a Two-headed monster.  “Why are there two heads?” we exclaimed to the doctor.  “Because there are two babies” he replied.  I put both hands on my head and yelled “Holy Guacamole!”.  I will never forget that Ultrasound!  So we had one shot-in-the-dark so to speak and we now had two babies.  We were afraid to have another ultrasound because at the first ultrasound only one baby showed.  At the second there were two! So far we had added one baby per ultrasound!

So we were faced with two choices, go to Australia and be by the ocean and my family there or go to Venezuela and go and be by the ocean there.  Then I had a bit of an Aries moment.  I said “Lets go to Brazil!!”.  I had been to Brazil in 2005/2006 and loved it.  I had friends there, places to stay, it would be great.  Romantically, I declared “If I open this Atlas to the Brazil page, we’re goin’”.  I opened the atlas to a Brazil page.  I started jumping around the room like a kid yelling “We’re going to Brazil, We’re going to Brazil!!”.  I was so happy to be going back to Brazil.  I closed the Atlas and opened it again just to check and again I got Brazil.  Then I did it again and again I got Brazil.  3 times I got Brazil by opening the Atlas to random pages.  So it was decided, we were going to Brazil.

So we sold a few of my guitars (sniff sniff) and a few other things to get the money to get there.  We went to Brazil, pregnant with twins with just enough money to get there and live for a month or two.  “It will all work out” we said.

I had to go to Buenos Aires to get a tourist visa and then headed up by bus to Florianopolis with my friend Chello.  Rosarmy went by car directly from Capilla del Monte, driven by our friends Ana and Andre.

We settled in “Barra da Lagoa” a beachside, tourist haven that attracts travellers from all over the world.  Chello and I hit the streets and the bars as a duo playing our music.  The first night out we made 150 Reals (US$100)  in 20 minutes and thought “Wow this is amazing”.  We came back the next night with expectations and made about 20 Reals in 1 hour! The first night we were just having lots of fun and not expecting anything.

Lesson #1 from Brazil: The universe loves it when you just have fun, and rewards you for it (what a nice universe).

Chello and I dabbled in the bar scene a bit, busked, played table to table, whatever we could really.  We sold our CDs, t-shirts and passed the hat around.  Rosarmy came along too for support by night and got to swim in the ocean and look after her growing belly by day.

Carnaval was coming to Florianopolis at the end of February and we were told by the owner of our accomodation that we had to be out.  We had two days to find a place to live.  Rosarmy was 5 months pregant with twins.  In the afternoon of the day before we had to move out, I went everywhere to try and find us accomodation.  Everything was either full or way too expensive.  I had just been to about the 10th place and a voice came into my head and said “Go home and rest, it’s done”.  So I did.  I went home and had a sleep.

By the evening we still didn’t have a place but we were going to meet a friend of a friend of ours in the center of the city.  Claudia was a friend of our friend Rebecca who we met in Argentina.  So we went to meet Claudia and she came to pick us up with her mother whose name was Elishi Tami.  Well Elishi Tami was one of the most radiant and smiley women I have ever met and her daughter Claudia also had a well and truly nice vibe about her.  So we got in the car and they decided to take us to their house for dinner.

They asked “Where are you staying”.  My wife replied “As of tomorrow, we don’t know”.  So then and there, Elishi Tami and Claudia who had just met us, told us that we were staying with them, indefinitely.  We arrived at their place and it was beautiful.  I took a big sigh of relief and we were very refreshed by a big jug of fresh passionfruit juice.  We had an unbelievable time with Claudia, Elishi Tami, Julia and the rest of their family and friends.  They even took us to their place in the mountains called “Sitio dos Sonhos” (the site of the dreams) which was breathtakingly beautiful with waterfalls and ample places to swim and relax.  We had a great time in the evenings singing songs, chanting mantras, dancing and generally having a great time – something that Brazilians are very good at.

Through Elishi Tami and Claudia we met dozens of wonderful people many of which are now very dear friends of ours and have been a very important part of our 12 months here in Brazil.

Lesson #2: If a voice comes to say “Go home and relax, It’s done” listen to it! Imagine if I had found a place for us to stay?  The Universe gets high on giving us more than we ask for.

The end of summer came and we bid Chello farewell as he headed back to Argentina to be with his daughters.  We were on the move again as Elishi Tami and Claudia were moving to Brasilia.  With Rosarmy 6 months pregnant we really didn’t want to be hunting for accomodation again, but there we were.  It was low season now so there were plenty of places.  We found a lovely little apartment about 100 metres from the beach at Barra da Lagoa.  Ah Bliss …

To be continued…

“Grow deep roots. The more deeply you are rooted in spiritual practice, the more you can sway without losing your center”

I thought that is the key to Bliss.  Get yourself deeply rooted in habits that build your life energy and health.  The more deeply rooted you are in Blissful practices the more resistant you will be to anything that life throws at you.

Well in my first blog one week ago, I stated that I would be working on the following:

I am working on eliminating:

1) Overeating, Eating more than my body needs, eating too fast.
2) Unfocussed, unproductive time in front of the computer (writing this blog certainly does NOT fall into that category!)

And habituating:

1) Swimming in the ocean twice a day (its like hitting a reset button!!)
2) Singing/Playing Music.  This is my main Bliss
3) Being present in what I am doing, especially when I am with my baby twins. (Being present is a challenge for me I have a very active mind

One week later, I have to say, I am doing pretty well.  I wrote in an earlier blog that I was changing the way I looked at drains.  Instead of “eliminating overeating” I am habituating “Conscious Eating”.  The first few days were a big test, my parents are over from Australia visiting me and my wife and kids in Brazil, so we are eating out alot.  When there is great food in front of me, it is hard to limit.  I find if I just slow down, chew and take pauses, it becomes easier and easier.  In building the “Conscious Eating” habit, the first 2 minutes of each meal are crucial.  The last few days it has become easier and easier! I feel great for eating light.  When I eat light I feel light.

The gains, “Swimming in the ocean twice a day”, “Singing/ Playing Music” and “Being Present” I am doing well too.  Not perfect but definitely and improvement.  I still have been getting way too sucked in to the computer at times! It is like a vortex! With all these things Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, etc it can be hard to not get sucked in to the vortex.  But even with this I am getting better, I find if I declare why I am turning the computer on before I turn it on and just stick to the task I have chosen, it works pretty well.

So I guess the big question is, after the first week of my own Path to Bliss, how do I feel? I feel good! better than last week for sure!

Another thing I have noticed is that concentrating these specific gains and drains, the other things that drain my energy have become much more conscious! I know what I am going to choose to eliminate and habituate next month.

Oh well I hope you are all having a blissful week! Till next time.

After writing the blog I wanted to change the title from “Overeating – the Big Test” to “Conscious eating – the Big test”.

It is important that when we want to stop doing something and create a new more blissful habit, we must focus on creating the new habit rather than stopping the old one.  I want to stop overeating but really I am creating a new habit of  “Conscious Eating”.

“Conscious Eating” is being fully present while you are eating.  Concentrating on what you are doing, enjoying the food, savouring the food and being grateful for where it came from.  It is also eating slow so you know when you have had enough for your needs.

So I guess eliminating the “drain” to bliss of Overeating is the same as starting the practice of “Conscious eating” which for me represents a huge step towards bliss.  When I eat consciously and light I feel great.  When I don’t I tend to feel heavy and lazy for the rest of the day.  It is a question of giving up short term gratification for a higher pleasure or bliss.

What “quick fix” or “short term pleasure” can you give up today in order to move towards long term bliss?

I currently live in southern Brazil and my parents are over visiting from Australia to help my wife and I look after our baby twins for a while.  Today we were deciding what to do for lunch and the idea came up to go to one of the local “all-you-can-eat” places that are so common in Brazil.  I thought to myself “Danger!” I remembered my commitment to myself and to you, the readers of this blog to “practice what I preach” but decided to take it as a great opportunity to put my will power to the test.

So we went to the all you can eat place and I did pretty well.  I still ate a bit more than I needed but I didn’t stuff myself either.  It was a step in the right direction. They say it takes about 28 days to create a new habit, so on day one I made progress.  Tomorrow I will do even better.  That is the point, you don’t have to be perfect straight away, taking small steps towards your goal gives you a better chance of success in the long run.

Another things that really helps is when people close to you remind you of your goal.  I am lucky enough to have an amazing wife (who has very healthy eating habits and rarely overeats) who is always there to remind me to eat slow, chew my food and reconsider seconds.  In the past I was resistant to her comments, sometimes even openly hostile and once even accused my wife of “trying to control me”.  But now I just say thankyou, because I know that she loves me and is always just looking after my best interests.  Humility is an essential companion on your path to bliss.

So I guess in closing this blog entry I will reemphasize why I want to eat less.  When I eat light, I feel light.  I need less sleep and am more creative.  Eating light is a huge contributor to my bliss.