WholeHearted You Counselling Busselton

Who Sets The Benchmarks For Us? Who? No Really, Who?

CRITICAL AWARENESS  101. When you look around at your family, your work or your social circle, who are the pacesetters? Be it fashion, lifestyle, relationship or money earned, who are they? Are they worthy of your attention?  Are they great authentic examples of the virtues or wisdom they preach?

A big beware if they are not… They may simply be on the same bandwagon as others who are keen to profit from us, lord it over us and keep us how they want us. They use a lot of hot air and have no more idea about how to live well than you do.

If you want to live an authentic life, a life with connection and meaning, then go find people who live an authentic, connected and meaningful life… and follow them.

It’s In The Sitting

Resisting the urge to evaluate the importance of  just sitting in nature somewhere is in itself healing.
Letting the defiant mind be soothed by the rhythm of the sun, the waves, the clouds, the birds, the trees, the whatever of the moment in front of you,  can, in some small way, help reinstate the core of you. Follow the rhythm –  it will return you home.

Happiness – Short Film

They say that a picture can be worth a thousand words, well here is a fantastic example of that.

My clients and I spend hours looking at ways to express and unravel the discomfort of life now and how helpless it can make you feel sometimes. Well here in just over 4 mins UK animation artist Steve Cutts paints that picture satirically, beautifully, chillingly, desperately and accurately. Well done Steve.

If you feel like you are on a similar treadmill and want to try and find a way out make an appointment and come for a chat. There are ways to pull back from the insanity of it all without losing all that you have.

A Stormy Winters Metaphor

As I was walking along the bay the other evening, after a full day of stormy freezing squally winter rain, I was struck by the moodiness of the moment. I’ve always loved a good storm and the way that it can remind me that I am a living, breathing, thinking being.

The other evening, I had this real sense of how many parts there are to me, how many stories I have lived through or created – the library of me, so to speak. Some autobiographical, some high adventure and escapism, some read like a Greek tragedy, some are hilarious, some have been badly written, some beautifully, many have been written by others. Then there are the murder mysteries where I’ve killed off those ugly parts of me only to discover on a night that will be as dark and stormy as this one that they’re hiding in the hallway cupboard or under my bed. Then there is the epic love story that makes nights like this seem like all the waiting, distance, heartache and anguish were perfect… meant to be. (I’ve read Wuthering Heights!)

But in the main, I can now see looking back, that most are sturdy works of pure fiction, not based on fact at all. However, like all great fiction stories, they were well-researched and at the time very convincing, so convincing that at times I lived, breathed and ate nothing but their well-constructed storylines, believing them to be the passport to my enlightenment.

Back then, I would be seen nowhere near a beach on a windy, stormy night for the fear bordering on terror that a squall of wind would scatter my library to the four corners of the world, exposing me like the rocks on the beach the morning after the storm. Now I can stand there and shout “BRING IT ON!!!”, rejoicing in the knowledge that the pages in my books are written on the same templates that are handed to us all as we inhale our first breaths.

Standing there the other evening as the night closed in, extinguishing the last remains of the day, I felt vindicated for all the time I have spent attending to my library, re-reading, editing, deleting and then filing the remainder of the books in their correct time and place.

I think the thing I love the most about huge changes in our weather is that it can, if we are paying attention, provoke us out of our daily stupor and remind us that we are evolving beings with seasons just like the rest of life and land here on this earth and that the more we are separated from these, the more we pine for them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

There are more books to come and more walks to be had in winter storms no doubt, and all will be informed by the same brave heart and reckless courage that have kept me company in all that’s gone before.

The Invisible Power of Words

The Invisible Power Of Words

Last weekend I took part in a Pecha Kucha evening in Dunsborough. If you’re not familiar with Pecha Kucha (look it up) it’s a fantastic way  to test your comfort zone about public speaking in front of your local community. The deal is that you are allowed 20 photo’s in which you get to speak to for 20 seconds so 6 minutes and 40 seconds in total. Yikes!!!

My talk was on the invisible power of words a topic that I am passionate about and one that really has the ability to change your life.

Check out the video and I apologise that the lighting wasn’t too good for the speakers but then again the message is the point of the exercise and you can certainly hear me.

 

Suicide:The Ripple Effect Documentary

Sometimes as an individual and as a community we can be completely overwhelmed by the subject of suicide. We don’t know what to do or say or how to help others and the community around us who have been affected by suicide.

Suicide: The Ripple Effect is a documentary that addresses this issue. Made by Kevin Hines, a suicide survivor himself, it chronicles his recovery over the last 18 years and his mission to use his story to help others stay alive and to make us comprehend the vital importance of building an understanding community for the mental well-being of all of us.

We simply can’t do this on our own, and neither can our medical/health/government systems. This is a crisis that ripples across every area of our community and it needs the collective wisdom and power of this community to join in the conversation. Our hope in screening this film is to create a space for every member of our community to know that they are not alone in their overwhelm and that somehow, collectively, we can be the catalyst for change.

There will be a Q & A session at the end of the film with a panel consisting of a GP, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a mental healthcare educator and a number of other practitioners.

The film is brought to you by the Holistic Healthcare Practitioner Network, which is a network of over 200 practitioners here in the south-west of Australia. It is a fundraising evening for our free Wellness Festival in Busselton on Sunday, 28th October 2018.

WHEN: Saturday, 28th July. Doors open at 5:45pm for coffee, tea and other refreshments as part of the fundraising, and the film will screen at 6:30pm sharp.

WHERE: Georgiana Molloy Anglican School, Multi-purpose Activity Centre (MAC), 2 Hawker Approach, Yalyalup, WA 6280

COST: $23.00 AUD admission + $2.00 AUD booking fee = $25.00 AUD

Online bookings only, through Fanforce: GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

Knowing Things

Knowing things. The older I get the more I know important things like… I know nothing compared to this old beauty… I know that I often find myself envious of what trees know and what they have seen… I know that I am completely jealous of just how unflappable they are with all their secrets… I know that my heart whistles a tune every time I go by. I love knowing these things.

The Importance of Belonging – Brené Brown

It’s all about belonging. At the end of the day, knowing that we belong to our families and our communities is perhaps our most primary emotional need.

In this sermon Brené Brown talks about her research findings on belonging and how a lack of belonging leads to loneliness and disconnection. Here she puts it in the context of what she wants from her church. She also puts it in the context of the state of the world at the moment, and I couldn’t agree more.

In this increasingly disconnected world where blame is the easiest weapon and fear has taken up residence in the bottom of our guts, our craving for belonging has never been greater. But I’m not sure we identify that discomfort with our need for belonging.

Brené does, and she is on a mission to wake us up and make us aware that we have the power collectively and individually to change the trajectory of our communities.

And I say “Amen” to that!

Healing Circles Return for 2018

WholeHearted You is once again hosting Healing Circles on the First Tuesday of the month.If you are longing for a deeper connection with yourself, others and the universe, then come along.

You will find the evening uplifting, inclusive, relaxing, informative, spiritual and reinvigorating. Take the risk, listen to your heart, and if it feels right join us on Tuesday, 6th March

Tickled Pink – Kevin Kling

Nothing speaks to the heart quite like a poem or a song.
Kevin Kling is a master at observations of the heart.

Tickled Pink
By Kevin Kling

At times in our pink innocence
We lie fallow
Composting
Waiting to grow
And other times we rush headlong like so many of our ancestors

But rush headlong or lie fallow
It doesn’t matter
One day you’ll round a corner
Your path is shifted
In a blink something is missing Continue reading Tickled Pink – Kevin Kling

Genevieve Morrissey