I hope you had a lovely long weekend. We had our very first Retreat this weekend and it was just gorgeous. The theme was EAT PRAY LOVE. It was about making peace with food and nutrition, we did some beautiful meditations and discussed ideas about manifesting and living from the heart along with some powerful processes to connect with our heart and clear old negative emotions and patterns. We had a beautiful group of women who were incredibly supportive and the venue was perfect. While planning and running this retreat I realised that I have had a broad range of interest in a lot of subjects over the years and it was really nice to be able to gather those ideas together and present them over three days. I loved every minute of it and plan to run it again in September if you missed out this time.
One of the big things we discussed and worked on the during the retreat was the idea of living “above the line” or “below the line.” Let me explain. When our thinking, conversations and attitude to life is “below the line” it will be negative. We might blame other people, make excuses, feel resentful, gossip, focus on how bad the state of the world is, how hard life is, discuss all the things that are wrong with our government, schools, hospitals, our partner, our boss or family. All the negative emotions like guilt, anxiety, jealousy, wanting revenge and hopelessness are “below the line”. “Below the line” thinking will tell us that people are victims and they need to be rescued, or that perpetrators need to be punished. “Below the line” thinking is judgemental and believes that something or someone is right or wrong.
When you live “below the line” you can easily feel like a victim of circumstances and life can feel very unfair. On the other hand, being “above the line” means you take 100% responsibility for yourself, your life and your emotions. You let go of judgement and instead of spiralling down into “poor me” thinking or criticism of others you begin to elevate your thoughts, your self-talk, your conversations and your actions. You begin to look for solutions rather than getting stuck in the problems. “Above the line” thinking is empowering and positive. It will focus on what you DO want rather than what you DON’T want. You begin to look for the good in any given situation and trust in your own or other people’s ability to learn and grow from life’s challenges.
I once heard of saying that made quite an impression on me, “Be bigger than your problems.” It may be difficult to do it at times but the truth is…. the bigger the problem the bigger it causes you to grow. “Above the line” is also where love, joy and gratitude reside along with peace, contentment and enlightenment.
So how do you rise above the line and stay above the line? Well, step one is to become the observer of your thoughts. Last week I talked about suddenly realising how many negative thoughts I had about my husband as I was painting our bedroom windows one day. It was definitely “below the line” thinking. I was feeling like a victim, blaming, criticizing and feeling angry. Even though I was doing it all silently inside my own head I was definitely depleting my energy and lowering my vibration.
As soon as I made the decision to stop entertaining those negative thoughts and start looking for the good in him and in our relationship I moved “above the line.” It felt so much better. I realired I was 100% responsible for my own emotion state and I chose to feel better by choosing different thoughts.
In any situation you can decide to be above or below the line. You can get angry in a traffic jam and curse every other driver on the road or you can put on some great music and enjoy the extra time to relax. If the queue in the bank is a mile long you can rant and rave about poor service and banks not having enough staff or you can call back later when its not as busy. When people around you are talking negatively and discussing the terrible state of the world you can ask them to consider how they would like things to be different and what they could begin to do to create change, even if it was only one tiny action.
I couple of weeks ago I attended a breakfast meeting for The Hunger Project. This is an organization that is successfully ending hunger in lots of countries around the world. We’re proud to invest a percentage of our profits in this organisation because they always play “above the line.” At the meeting we were told a story of a village in Bangladesh where food was scarce and hunger was chronic. The Hunger Project run workshops educating and inspiring villagers to visualise a better future and consider the possibility of getting themselves out of poverty. As a result of one of these workshops a small group of women banded together and decided to take one small handful of rice from their daily allowance (which was already meagre) and give it to the group. Each week one of the women received the collected rice and sold it at the market. This gave her cash to begin a small business.
When it was her turn, one of the women spent the money on two chickens and began selling the eggs. With the proceeds of the eggs she got a goat and generated income from the milk. She eventually owned her own small farm and was self-sufficient. She elevated herself, her family and her neighbors out of poverty and hunger. Without initially thinking “above the line” this would never have happened. By the way, this small group of empowered women ended up lobbying local government to stop a child marriage.
If you understand the Law of Attraction then you its helpful to remember that everything on your wish list is above the line. Let me repeat that… EVERYTHING you want is above the line. You simply cannot attract it when you are below the line.
The other steps to elevate yourself….
EAT – Make peace with food. Choose foods that give you mental clarity and chi energy. Clear all guilt around eating, eat with gratitude and avoid foods that contribute to anxiety and depression.
PRAY – You don’t need a religion to meditate daily. Develop the art of choosing your thoughts and being mindful. Spend time in nature. Take care of your soul. You might like to join our next Mindfulness Meditation Course starting at 7pm this Thursday
LOVE – Stay connected to your heart. Move out of your head and into your heart space as often as you can. Listen to and trust the wisdom of your heart. Have a private session with Kara, our Queen of Hearts. She ran the most profound session for us on Sunday morning!
If you would like to further explore some powerful ways to elevate your thinking then there are a couple of other great options. Take a look at our Rewire Your Brain 6 Week Course starting on Thursday July 14th or our Modern Day Alchemy Workshop with the remarkable Geraldine Teggelove on Saturday June 25th. Both of these will give you powerful strategies to live from a much more positive and empowered state. (By the way, Geraldine is doing readings for us this Friday)
I also want to let you know that I am now offering a FREE 60 minute HEALTH and WELLBEING CONSULTATION to clarify your needs and design a strategy to help you achieve your health and wellbeing goals. Just call us to make an appointment. 98427033.
So now take a look at the Right Hand column to learn more about our upcoming classes, events and special offers. As always we have some awesome events coming up. >>>>
Have a great week,
Warm Regards,
Alison Burton
Health and Happiness Guru
Simply Natural Therapies
41 Tunstall Square
East Doncaster
VIC 3109
03 9842 7033