After months of happily floating along, suddenly September had a real sense of urgency, of a need to get things done and dusted. Now!  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that October is my birthday month and it was the Universe’s way of telling me to move my butt, and get ready for a new year.  One thing’s for sure, the message was loud and clear: Get on with it!

And so in my normal fashion, I decided the best approach was to take the pruning shears to my life.  I literally spent the next few days cleaning, culling, shredding, filing and sorting through all my stuff, busily trying to tick off all my ‘to do’ lists.  By the end of it I was exhausted.  Exhausted by all the doing.

Feeling organised wasn’t the same as feeling complete.  Why?  Because in that moment I realised completion is more about undoing than doing.

For me completion seems more akin to a process of metamorphosis than it is to any final fixed state.   It is merely a point of transition in the continuum of our lives, where little by little, we can let go of any attachment we have placed upon a person, idea, or thing.  It takes time.  It’s not just one step.

In the days that followed, I looked at my life in a completely different way.  I looked at all of those tasks that hadn’t been finished; at all those ideas that hadn’t reached fruition; at the relationships and at all those old parts of me I’d long since outgrown.  And I made a decision to keep what I knew in my heart was important to me and to simply let go of the rest.  Suddenly my list was done and I was free.  I was lighter than I’d been in weeks.

I believe it’s only when we can truly be, that we can know who we truly are. 

And that’s complete.

But sadly, ten years on the world is still so much the same. My country, like so many, is still at war; ‘we’ are still fighting our so called enemies in the name of peace; there is still hatred and prejudice amongst opposing religions; there is still the fight for power and control by crazed dictators; there is still the untold suffering of innocent victims; and still the struggle for life’s simple freedoms. Famine, poverty, disease, violence, conflict, unemployment, racism, religious persecution and sexual intolerance. The same old problems. Ten years on. They’re all still here.

So I ask myself, What have you done Louise Laffey, over these past ten years to change the world? What have you done to make this world a happier, more loving and more peaceful place?

Well, believe it or not quite a lot. I decided to dedicate my life to living with conscious awareness. Every day I choose to see life as my mirror, reflecting back to me everything I need to learn. I know and believe that this one act is the most important thing I can do to effect real change in the world. And why? Because when you take full ownership of your own life and everything that is (or isn’t) in it, you understand that you, and only you can change your world and that you and only you, have the power within you to create and live your happiest, most empowering life.

If every single one of us chose to live with conscious awareness, we would stop blaming others for our problems and hardships; we would learn to manage and let go of our anger; we would become more tolerant, more understanding and more patient; we would become more accepting and most importantly more loving. We would, as Ghandhi said, Be the change we wish to see in the world.

Imagine how different our worlds will be when enough of us decide to change our minds for peace, for love, for kindness, for harmony, for good, for all, forever.

It’s time for a change.

Louise

You might remember a few weeks ago I wrote about my experience in learning to go with the flow. What that white water adventure taught me, was I needed to appreciate there are many different parts to a river, and each one would challenge and teach me in its own unique way.    

Like the river, life has its fair share of rapids and rocks that pose us great threat;  its fast flowing sections that propel us forward; its moments of calm meanderings;  of its painfully slow trickles; and of course its spectacular waterfalls,  being our life’s greatest achievements .  It’s how we choose to deal with each part of our lives that will determine not only our life lessons but also their outcomes.

Learning to go with the flow is about being able to work collaboratively with whatever energy is in this moment in your life, rather than trying to resist or fight or control it.  It is about learning to let go and trust in a Higher Power, and I mean really let go, no matter the circumstances you’re facing.    

With practise, being in the flow becomes easier and easier.  Eventually we come to a place where we can truly accept ‘that’ which we cannot change.  

And that’s called the sea of love.   

My inbox has been flooded with the most uplifting messages from Global Wish ~ so many beautiful souls from all over the world sharing their stories of love and kindness on Global Wish day.   There were touching moments of openness and vulnerability with friends and strangers alike; of tears and laughter; and most importantly, of powerful shifts in awareness, from the head to the heart.

That journey from the head to the heart can often take us a very long time. And yet on the 08.08 so many of us remembered we could take the short cut to get there!  All it took was a clear intention and a willingness to connect.   

With one simple wish, we suddenly remembered that we were always in our hearts.  We had never left.   

For one full day we reconnected to our Truth.  We reconnected to Love. Imagine if we could live life like this every day.  Imagine what we could do, imagine who we could be.

Thank you everyone for embracing the message of Global Wish with us and for making the event such a success.  You made a huge ripple!

In love and gratitude

Louise

I am delighted to be able to share that our small, but obviously very powerful, community has managed (in a matter of weeks) to organise for Wish games to be played in 18 countries including New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, India, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, England, Ireland, the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Brasil!  Just imagine all those ripples of Love energy spreading out across the world.  

If you would like to be involved in Global Wish, it’s not too late to join a game or host your own.   Details of our game hosts and locations are listed on our Facebook and website events pages.  It’s so easy to play Global Wish ~ you play like a normal Wish game and the only difference is that everyone plays for the same wish:  “I wish to live from the heart.”

I am asking everyone who joins us for a Global Wish game to send in photos of your event so we can post the images on Facebook and the website and share this beautiful energy with others.  Remember, people will be able to connect into this higher awareness simply by seeing you.

When we consciously choose to live from the heart, we are empowered to embrace life through a win-win perspective.  All of our daily interactions become life lessons that expand us.  

We begin to truly understand what it means to Live to Love and Love to Live as we experience the transcended states of acceptance… bliss… compassion… detachment… eternality… flow… forgiveness… grace… gratitude… humility… impeccability… joy… patience… quiescence… surrender… tolerance… trust… truth… unconditional love… unity… wisdom.

When you live from the heart you need for nothing in life.  You are full of love. You live to give.  Love becomes a well within us that feeds our soul. There is no end to it. It is the essence of the Universe.

Living in love means you can see life from a centred perspective, without judgment or emotion. You let go of choice and step out of the limits of thinking. You hand over to a higher consciousness, to a greater reality.  You ascend from duality to oneness and a new way of living.   

Enjoy connecting into the energy of 08.08!

I look forward to sharing your Global Wish stories.

Louise

I really came to understand this concept the first time I went white water canyoning, which is like white water rafting but without the raft! You jump into a fast moving river in a life jacket and hope for the best! It looks like it’s going to be an easy ride but it’s a lot like life: you’re in for a bumpy ride.

It was remarkable how much I learnt about myself in those first few moments in the wild water. Straight up the river showed me just how much of a control freak I was (and am) in life. As soon as I came up for my first breath I wanted to gain control of my environment, to be the boss of this river. I tightened my body, determined to stay upright and head face forward as I went over the rapids. Pummelled by the power of the breaking water and the strength of the current, I struggled to stay in charge, uncomfortable being so out of my comfort zone. I couldn’t let the river get the better of me. I had an overwhelming fear of hitting every sharp protruding rock in my path or of being slammed into the side of the bank, so I spent the next 20 minutes fighting off anything that looked dangerous, which ended up in me inflicting way more cuts, scrapes and bruises than seemed humanly possible! By the time my instructor floated past shouting instructions on how to relax I was ready to kill him.

In the end it was the fatigue that made me let go. I had little energy left in me to keep on resisting.  And there it was. I finally surrendered. I allowed the river to carry me along as it had done from the start.

As I floated down the river I continued to hit some bumps but they became few and far between. The natural course took me through the deepest parts of the river where the water was smoother. As the tension in my body started to release, I began to notice my surroundings and I started to enjoy the free ride. Before long, I found myself laughing and having fun. I felt so free and happy.

Life is like the river. When you finally learn how to go with the flow, you realise life really is meant to be easy.

The fear seems to be that if we let go, we can never go back!  And if we don’t know what lies ahead, we hang on to what we think we know, because better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.  

But that’s where we are mistaken ~ in our thinking.  We forget that we do know what lies ahead of us.  When we let go and change our minds, we change for the better.  We become lighter and most importantly we become freer.     

But as I said, that’s often easier said than done.  So what to do in practical terms?  Well this week, I decided to let go of the inward focus on me and to turn my focus outward:  I asked the Universe to show me how to be in its flow.   

The Universe never lets you down.  You always get exactly what you asked for!  The lessons started when I tried to buy an ipad.  I thought I knew exactly what to do.  Mistake #1!   After wasting several hours on the phone trying to find a store in Sydney with stock, I felt frustrated.  My body was tense.  I felt really annoyed with myself.  This was not flowing.  I immediately went into my head: ”maybe I’m not meant to get one of these ipads.  Is this the Universe’s way of telling me this is not the way to go?  But I really want one and last week the Universe showed me this was the solution.”   And suddenly it hit me!  The Universe was showing me how much harder it was doing it ‘my way’.   So I stopped and asked the Universe to show me how to be in the flow.

In a matter of minutes I received a call from the guy at the Apple Store advising me to buy on line.  Guaranteed delivery to my door in 3 days with free shipping.  The order literally took me minutes to complete.   I felt calm and happy and relaxed.  Now I was in the flow.        

Sometimes we forget that we have 24/7 access to the most powerful tool we could ever wish for!  It can be as simple as asking for guidance and before you know it, you’ve let go of what’s blocking you.

So let go and let God!  What have you got to lose?

Louise

How many of us have had the pleasure of experiencing those profound moments of growth, when we let go of the old Self and become someone new?  We stand back and marvel at those amazing shifts, knowing that without any doubt, life somehow got just that little bit sweeter and a hell of a lot deeper!

I have always known that numerology plays a big role in The Wish and for a long time I have understood the importance of the 1 and 7 numerology in the game.  1+7=8.  You (me) the individual Self  (1) combining  with the Universe (7) creates the flow of life (8).  And I have always understood that it is Us, and not the Universe, that always and all ways causes the blocks to our flow.

But this week I was shown another layer in that message: if it’s always me that stems the flow, then the Universe must always be in the flow.  And if that’s true, then the best thing I could ever do to maintain the flow, is to get the hell out of the way of the Universe!! 

And in a flash I heard the messsage: LET GO !! Let go of everything Louise. Let go of every little bit of control you think you need to have in your life.  

So I did. Bit by bit, I let go of my control.  I started with simple things, like letting go of old possessions I had been holding on to for sooo long.  And as I let go of the material things I very quickly realised I needed to let go of the more fundamental things in my life:  like my expectations around my relationships, my beliefs about where I should live and how I should work, my judgments about money and success.  I even had to let go of my perceptions around The Wish.

What happened over the coming days was astonishing.  The Universe showed me the most amazing path; a path that flows with ease and grace.   

When we finally decide to get out of our own way, we allow the Universe to play its true role in our lives.  And that role is magnificent.

As I sat and thought about my questions, it suddenly dawned on me!  It doesn’t matter why I do this, it only matters that I notice that I do it. It’s a matter of ‘awareness.’   

So I asked myself how aware am I in my life?

I realised in the moments of my out of control ‘busy –ness’, I tend to lose my Self awareness.   I get lost in my head, in my thoughts about the past or the future.  When I remember to stop and come up for air, I become more aware of what I am doing (or more importantly, what I am not doing!).  In those moments of awareness, it’s easy to see, whether I am living my life with purpose and passion or whether I’m drifting along, filling in time.  

I’m not surprised that the Universe has delivered me this lesson in April, in my month of ‘direction’.  Why direction? Because it’s the fourth month of the year and for me, the number 4, is all about direction in life.  For me, 4 represents  the 4 cardinal points on the compass ~ north, south, east and west.  Seeing it always prompts me to ask myself the questions, where am I going? and am I on track?

I know my life is generally heading in the right direction, but this week it started to veer off course!  Working too hard and losing myself in the process is not in line with me living my most powerful life.  Time to change direction and to refocus on what’s really important to me.  

Today I’m off to Melbourne to run our Level 1 Facilitator training course with The Wish Team.  This is what I love to do. This is what makes me happy !

I invite you to make April your month of direction. Set your course and set sail for a happy and fulfilling life and remember “if you don’t change direction, you’ll end up where you are going!”

Louise

Why? Because over the last two weeks, I have been held captive by the upheaval taking place around the world. Firstly, by the ongoing images of the flood and cyclone devastation in Australia and the earthquake in New Zealand; by the unbelievable footage of the earthquake and tsunami wreaking havoc in Japan, not to mention the scenes of pending nuclear disaster; and lastly, by the pictures unfolding of thousands of people taking part in uprisings across the Middle East. As I watch so many lives significantly affected by these events, I cannot help but feel the Earth is shifting to a new vibration, to a higher level of consciousness.

And through all the misery and suffering I have noticed the most powerful of themes emerging ~ that of people reaching out to one another, seeking genuine connection in these times of ‘crisis’. Without hesitation, complete strangers offer comfort and care to those needing love and support. And suddenly it seems, people remember who they really are ~ human beings filled with endless love and kindness and compassion.

When I see this my heart sings, because this is who I know we truly are.

Each and every one of us shares the same thoughts, emotions and experiences no matter our ‘so called’ race, colour or creed. Underneath all the stories and underneath all the masks of fear and judgment, all we really want is to love and be loved. We are all the same.

And so I ask myself, why do we wait for a crisis to show the power and grace of who we truly are? Why wait for the so called life changing events to take loving action in our lives?

We don’t need an excuse to be loving.

On 8 August members of The Wish community will be hosting the inaugral Global Wish Day. This is a simple initiative where we invite people to come and play a game of The Wish with us, so we can connect with friends and strangers alike within our own communities. By sharing heartfelt conversations over a wish, we know we will create genuine bonds of love and friendship that will change people’s lives! You’ve played the game! You know what it can do

Of course we are inviting you all to be a part of Global Wish by hosting your own games events within your communities! Details on how you can be involved, will be posted on The Wish website and Facebook pages in the next few weeks.

I hope you will join us!

Best Wishes

Louise