Today I wanted to write to you about Compassion. Compassion is such an important part of loving. I imagine that it means with passion. And of course when one has compassion one feels love or passion again for someone. But if I judge someone or see them as different or wrong I am suddenly separated from them and the oneness of life and I feel cut off and can feel alone and also judging of myself. But when I can love someone as they are and see that they may need to behave as they are behaving for reasons I may not know or not understand then I can also love myself and my ways of being and my quirky ways. When I judge I also judge myself-it is always two way. Discernment is also important, if I know that someone has difficulty doing something then there is no point expecting or wanting them to do that. But I can still have compassion for them and still love them however or whatever they are.
I feel that I learned compassion from my darling Mum who, as anyone who knows her will tell you, is the epitome of egoless compassion. When I grew up she volunteered tirelessly for Amnesty International, writing letters and fundraising. We had a big house and she welcomed all kinds of people who needed help a refuge and often a bed. We were brought up as Catholics but she got my sisters and me to deliver the newsletters for the local Anglican Church. We were a little confused as to why we were doing this at the time but now I can see that she was teaching us that we are all connected, we are all one, one heart, one love (in the words of Bob Marley) and I thank her deeply for that. As teenagers she drove a bus for the homeless and we helped give out food and soup. Like I said sometimes I did not understand why we were welcoming so many different people into our lives but now I have work that takes me to meet so many people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. And I love it, and love the diversity and I do feel it was growing up like this that has helped me to be open to different individuals. I love being in a mixed society and would not want it any other way. Of course I can have judgements and I can be rigid but when I work with my groups my judgements are melted away for when you come to know someone in a connected way then all there is your humanity and their humanity.
A beautiful group I have worked with for many years is my dance group at the Bromley By Bow Centre in East London www.bbbc.org.uk
In this group I have young and old, disabled and non disabled, black and white, Indian and Bangladeshi, African and Jamaican, working class and middle class, men and women, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian, workers and volunteers and each week we dance share the love and pray that others in the world may be looked after in their hour of need and feel the love they need. In this group we have difference and yet we find also our commonality and our connection and oneness. It feels like it is a great model of the possibility of peace in the world. We also have a beautiful cafe at Bromley By Bow which is open 9am to 2.30pm Monday to Friday so if you want to come and visit a wonderful arts community centre please do.
Wishing you love and joy in your heart and courage to be you
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Letting go of the Form of Love
The Formlessness of love
I wanted to write to you today about letting go of the ideas of love. I wanted to write about the idea of welcoming love in but focussing of welcoming the feeling in rather than specifying exactly a list of what love should look like.
What I mean by this is that I have people on my workshops sometimes who would like to meet Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie as a partner. Apart from the fact that they are not free to be anyone else’s partner, the idea of being so specific about who the love partner should be automatically sets up a block to love. For what a person has done is define love as Brad Pitt. Love is so much bigger and wider than that. People do it with other things and other people too when they decide that an unavailable person is the only possible love partner for them or a particular job that has not taken them on is also the only job for them in the world.
If for a moment you could see the bigger picture you might see that love or God has so much more to offer you than you could possibly imagine and to limit it by putting so many blocks on it is to reject love.
The key is to learn how to receive love and be open to unconditional love. When people say love happens when you let go what I feel is really meant is that love happens when you stop judging and declaring what love should look like. If you focus instead on learning how to give and receive unconditional love and what you actually want to feel in your love relationship or job or family or wherever you want to bring love in.
Allow yourself to contemplate the quality of what you want to feel. Would you like to feel an authentic soul connection, with faithfulness and commitment, humour, delight and service in a loving partnership? Think about what you might really like as a true desire in love and in life and focus on the feeling-that is the key.
I wanted some specific help with my web site and my work a while ago and when thinking about it I knew that I wanted someone who would work with me and my ideas and help me to build a web site where I could be at their side and part of the decision making process. I also wanted help on other areas of my work and I prayed for these but in a way that was person centred and constructive for me. And amazingly 4 different people have come into my life to help and support me in the way I wanted and needed.
The key was not just the wish but the quality of the feeling around the wish. You may want a kind soulmate but how do you want to feel around them?
If you start to become open to love, to the expansion and light of love, to beauty to kindness and to compassion then you will also go on a journey where you come across and find out what is blocking you. This is so good because as you find out what blocks you, you can also start to clear it and keep opening more and more to love. As you feel the pain and the heart ache it can actually start to melt and to clear. If you suppress it and avoid it it stays stuck. It is the way it is.
The beauty of this journey to opening to love and unconditional love is that you learn to love and you learn to love yourself. As you learn to love yourself you become love and you become the ONE in your life and you become whole and complete as you become whole and complete the ONE whoever they are can subtly and oh so beautifully come into your life (like attracts like) and you may not even notice as they may be no drama and they may have been there all along all the time but you only just noticed them as you came into love.
Thank you for the wonderful workshop. I have no words to describe how I felt, it was wonderful, inspiring, I felt bathed into the ocean of love. Your loving words dived straight into my heart, melting it away. It was indeed one of the happiest days in my life: for a long time I had wanted to feel much much love like I had never felt before and you made that happen, I put the wish out to the universe and you turned up! that must confirm to you that you deserve the title of Love Goddess.
Everybody's heart was so open and pouring out its beautiful beams onto everybody else. I used to think that I was the only one to need love so much, well I am glad to have realised that the whole humanity probably does, some are just more aware than others.
It was lovely to meet you, I am so grateful that I did, and you will see me again, that's for sure. Thanks for being a love beam in this world, you are very special and very blessed. Keep doing the wonderful precious work that you do, you are contributing enormously to making this world a much more 'awaken' and loving place and I want to thank you for that. Claudia Carlet after the workshop at The London College of Spirituality
I wanted to write to you today about letting go of the ideas of love. I wanted to write about the idea of welcoming love in but focussing of welcoming the feeling in rather than specifying exactly a list of what love should look like.
What I mean by this is that I have people on my workshops sometimes who would like to meet Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie as a partner. Apart from the fact that they are not free to be anyone else’s partner, the idea of being so specific about who the love partner should be automatically sets up a block to love. For what a person has done is define love as Brad Pitt. Love is so much bigger and wider than that. People do it with other things and other people too when they decide that an unavailable person is the only possible love partner for them or a particular job that has not taken them on is also the only job for them in the world.
If for a moment you could see the bigger picture you might see that love or God has so much more to offer you than you could possibly imagine and to limit it by putting so many blocks on it is to reject love.
The key is to learn how to receive love and be open to unconditional love. When people say love happens when you let go what I feel is really meant is that love happens when you stop judging and declaring what love should look like. If you focus instead on learning how to give and receive unconditional love and what you actually want to feel in your love relationship or job or family or wherever you want to bring love in.
Allow yourself to contemplate the quality of what you want to feel. Would you like to feel an authentic soul connection, with faithfulness and commitment, humour, delight and service in a loving partnership? Think about what you might really like as a true desire in love and in life and focus on the feeling-that is the key.
I wanted some specific help with my web site and my work a while ago and when thinking about it I knew that I wanted someone who would work with me and my ideas and help me to build a web site where I could be at their side and part of the decision making process. I also wanted help on other areas of my work and I prayed for these but in a way that was person centred and constructive for me. And amazingly 4 different people have come into my life to help and support me in the way I wanted and needed.
The key was not just the wish but the quality of the feeling around the wish. You may want a kind soulmate but how do you want to feel around them?
If you start to become open to love, to the expansion and light of love, to beauty to kindness and to compassion then you will also go on a journey where you come across and find out what is blocking you. This is so good because as you find out what blocks you, you can also start to clear it and keep opening more and more to love. As you feel the pain and the heart ache it can actually start to melt and to clear. If you suppress it and avoid it it stays stuck. It is the way it is.
The beauty of this journey to opening to love and unconditional love is that you learn to love and you learn to love yourself. As you learn to love yourself you become love and you become the ONE in your life and you become whole and complete as you become whole and complete the ONE whoever they are can subtly and oh so beautifully come into your life (like attracts like) and you may not even notice as they may be no drama and they may have been there all along all the time but you only just noticed them as you came into love.
Thank you for the wonderful workshop. I have no words to describe how I felt, it was wonderful, inspiring, I felt bathed into the ocean of love. Your loving words dived straight into my heart, melting it away. It was indeed one of the happiest days in my life: for a long time I had wanted to feel much much love like I had never felt before and you made that happen, I put the wish out to the universe and you turned up! that must confirm to you that you deserve the title of Love Goddess.
Everybody's heart was so open and pouring out its beautiful beams onto everybody else. I used to think that I was the only one to need love so much, well I am glad to have realised that the whole humanity probably does, some are just more aware than others.
It was lovely to meet you, I am so grateful that I did, and you will see me again, that's for sure. Thanks for being a love beam in this world, you are very special and very blessed. Keep doing the wonderful precious work that you do, you are contributing enormously to making this world a much more 'awaken' and loving place and I want to thank you for that. Claudia Carlet after the workshop at The London College of Spirituality
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Living from the Heart
For me Living from the Heart is about doing what I love and one of the things I love is running my community arts workshops. One of these groups is a homeless and mental health group I run at www.baronscourtproject.org.
I teach drama, dance and coach people there regularly and have being doing so for the last 5 years. I have a few people who have regularly come for the whole time I have been there and I really value their commitment to coming and to trying new things out. Sometimes I have wondered whether I can make a real difference to people when the goals might not be about getting a job but might be more about feeling steady in your life or doing a creative project or even having a weekend away (which can be a very brave thing to do for some) or learning how to speak up for yourself. But I have learned so much from this lovely group of people that I can make a difference and I have learned about the importance of love, commitment and consistency. It has felt, to me, that if people have a safe place to go or be when they feel vulnerable then they can have an opportunity to get some steadiness and from this place they can grow their wings however small or big. And it does not matter how big the wings are. What matters is that people are loved and accepted and have a safe place where they can feel this.
I feel that we all need a safe place to go and that safe place is ultimately coming inside ourselves and into relationship with ourselves. So what is it that helps you feel safe enough to come inside yourself?
I know for me that my workshops and connections with others are very important, my community arts grounds me and takes me straight into a feeling of soul love but I also need Turkish baths, I need to melt in the heat of a sauna and really let go, I need to dance and feel the flow of the divine and I need to see the sea and my beloved Welsh Mountains in South Wales where I spent my childhood holidays with my Welsh family. For me the key is to know what grounds you and keeps you safe and connected, to make sure you do this regularly and then from here to allow your dreams to flourish.
The Barons Court Project is one of these safe havens for people. It is a lovely house in West Kensington and has the feeling of coming into a home. People can come have a delicious meal, sit in the garden, shower, wash their clothes, get medical advice and attention, learn computors, watch television, talk to other people and the fantastic staff.
Email me if you have any questions.
Wishing you love in your hearts, communion with your dreams, ability to share your gifts and opportunities to share who you are
I teach drama, dance and coach people there regularly and have being doing so for the last 5 years. I have a few people who have regularly come for the whole time I have been there and I really value their commitment to coming and to trying new things out. Sometimes I have wondered whether I can make a real difference to people when the goals might not be about getting a job but might be more about feeling steady in your life or doing a creative project or even having a weekend away (which can be a very brave thing to do for some) or learning how to speak up for yourself. But I have learned so much from this lovely group of people that I can make a difference and I have learned about the importance of love, commitment and consistency. It has felt, to me, that if people have a safe place to go or be when they feel vulnerable then they can have an opportunity to get some steadiness and from this place they can grow their wings however small or big. And it does not matter how big the wings are. What matters is that people are loved and accepted and have a safe place where they can feel this.
I feel that we all need a safe place to go and that safe place is ultimately coming inside ourselves and into relationship with ourselves. So what is it that helps you feel safe enough to come inside yourself?
I know for me that my workshops and connections with others are very important, my community arts grounds me and takes me straight into a feeling of soul love but I also need Turkish baths, I need to melt in the heat of a sauna and really let go, I need to dance and feel the flow of the divine and I need to see the sea and my beloved Welsh Mountains in South Wales where I spent my childhood holidays with my Welsh family. For me the key is to know what grounds you and keeps you safe and connected, to make sure you do this regularly and then from here to allow your dreams to flourish.
The Barons Court Project is one of these safe havens for people. It is a lovely house in West Kensington and has the feeling of coming into a home. People can come have a delicious meal, sit in the garden, shower, wash their clothes, get medical advice and attention, learn computors, watch television, talk to other people and the fantastic staff.
Email me if you have any questions.
Wishing you love in your hearts, communion with your dreams, ability to share your gifts and opportunities to share who you are
Tuesday 3 February 2009
How to Open Your Heart
Gladys Knight, of Gladys Knight and the Pips, put it so beautifully when she said "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me". For the reality is that YOU are the best thing that has ever happened to you. You are the one who can heal your heart and open your heart and allow new experiences into your life. No one else can open your heart for you and if you do not wish to open your heart then it will remain firmly shut. This does not mean, of course, that it is not extremely helpful to have friends, allies and assistants to help with opening your heart it just means that ultimately it is your choice and your decision as to whether you open it or not.
Many people have suffered with different issues in their lives and have closed their hearts down (perhaps without even realising it) with very good reason. Somewhere along the line a decision was made, maybe unconsciously, to close down the centre of emotions and never allow the person to be hurt again. The reality is that a closed heart is a heart in pain, it is actually no protection at all. It may be in trauma, sadness or shock but once you have closed it off it can be difficult to let people in, to receive from others and to be aware of your deep truth, desire and passion. A closed heart is also closed to the person who's heart it is and that is no use at all. What is more desirable is to have a sense of possibiliy of having an open heart and access to your heart's feelings and sensations but with the choice of boundaries.
This is really about becoming more of an adult, being able to be open with awareness and sensibility of where and how to be open, what is safe what is appropriate and picking and choosing from this place.
But let's say that your heart is closed in anger, protection, heart break or fear. Where would you begin to heal your heart or even start to open your heart?
The starting point is always with what you love. What you love will help you soften and open almost immediately and if you do more of what you love more often it will help to soften even more. So for me if I am stressed if I take myself to the Turkish baths and have a steam and sauna I find myself restored back to love and softness. Equally if I am near a Waterstones bookshop I can take myself to the New Age section and I am immediately calmed by the effect of looking at the books and the titles (and perhaps reading a few wisdoms). Also when I run workshops in community settings I am always given a big "Hello" and after we have danced together I feel loved, grounded, centred and connected to love and life. For my work with others I am deeply grateful.
Each person will have different ways that will help them come into a softer more loving place, for one it may be meditation another walking, for another it may be being with animals. What is important is what is the key for you? What helps you come back or return to a state of love.
Once you can recognise what are your special keys and what helps you centre in love then you can always come back into love and opening your heart, no matter how lost or far away you may feel. Find your keys and you can come back home.
Many people have suffered with different issues in their lives and have closed their hearts down (perhaps without even realising it) with very good reason. Somewhere along the line a decision was made, maybe unconsciously, to close down the centre of emotions and never allow the person to be hurt again. The reality is that a closed heart is a heart in pain, it is actually no protection at all. It may be in trauma, sadness or shock but once you have closed it off it can be difficult to let people in, to receive from others and to be aware of your deep truth, desire and passion. A closed heart is also closed to the person who's heart it is and that is no use at all. What is more desirable is to have a sense of possibiliy of having an open heart and access to your heart's feelings and sensations but with the choice of boundaries.
This is really about becoming more of an adult, being able to be open with awareness and sensibility of where and how to be open, what is safe what is appropriate and picking and choosing from this place.
But let's say that your heart is closed in anger, protection, heart break or fear. Where would you begin to heal your heart or even start to open your heart?
The starting point is always with what you love. What you love will help you soften and open almost immediately and if you do more of what you love more often it will help to soften even more. So for me if I am stressed if I take myself to the Turkish baths and have a steam and sauna I find myself restored back to love and softness. Equally if I am near a Waterstones bookshop I can take myself to the New Age section and I am immediately calmed by the effect of looking at the books and the titles (and perhaps reading a few wisdoms). Also when I run workshops in community settings I am always given a big "Hello" and after we have danced together I feel loved, grounded, centred and connected to love and life. For my work with others I am deeply grateful.
Each person will have different ways that will help them come into a softer more loving place, for one it may be meditation another walking, for another it may be being with animals. What is important is what is the key for you? What helps you come back or return to a state of love.
Once you can recognise what are your special keys and what helps you centre in love then you can always come back into love and opening your heart, no matter how lost or far away you may feel. Find your keys and you can come back home.
Aligning with Love
Also I have been thinking a lot about the concept of aligning with love and what that means. For me when I am aligned with love I feel happy and in the flow with life, I have intuitions and I follow them with ease, things seem to come towards me and are offered to me and even when things do not come my way I can find it easier to have perspective and to be soft and allowing of what happens knowing that what is for me. I realise recently that I am completely passionate about putting on my Heart workshops. Somehow I have no doubt that I should be doing these workshops and I follow my passion to do them. And, of course, as I do them I grow and mature and I hope I help others to do the same. For me, when we are aligned with love we are connected with our truth and we know how to follow it. It make take some time and some practice (and some great people to bounce ideas and thoughts off) but as you follow your truth and your heart you will be lead on a wonderful path of love and abundance.
Some people come to me and say that they do not know their truth or their next step in life and what can they do to find it. I feel that your truth and your knowing is with you all the time you just may need to find ways to soften and listen to your heart. This is often about slowing down and taking time to go within. For me I love to sit in a cafe and write my thoughts, or go to the Sauna and Steam and thoroughly and totally melt and relax. Whatever helps you relax and soften and go within is what also what will help you listen to your heart and help to heal your heart. If your heart is very closed you may need to do a few things to help it soften and melt and you may need to have someone who can help ask you the questions about what you truly deeply want. You can also do this for yourself and ask yourself what you really want. Once you get there to a place of softness and love, in this place you can begin to trust and to know life is good and that you are beautiful within and without.
If you would like assistance with coming into this state of love why not come on a workshop and see if it can help.
Also I love telling manifestation stories. I have a wish and a dream to put hearts into the world so that they can put smiles on people's faces and spread the idea that it is safe to open your heart and love others. I have exhibited in many places and have recently had greetings cards made (if you are interested in some email me) for friends and shops who would like them (like Alchemy) and a big organisation has asked me today for two images to make into posters which will go all around the country. How excited am I! So keep making your wishes and prayers! If you ask you may be answered!
Some people come to me and say that they do not know their truth or their next step in life and what can they do to find it. I feel that your truth and your knowing is with you all the time you just may need to find ways to soften and listen to your heart. This is often about slowing down and taking time to go within. For me I love to sit in a cafe and write my thoughts, or go to the Sauna and Steam and thoroughly and totally melt and relax. Whatever helps you relax and soften and go within is what also what will help you listen to your heart and help to heal your heart. If your heart is very closed you may need to do a few things to help it soften and melt and you may need to have someone who can help ask you the questions about what you truly deeply want. You can also do this for yourself and ask yourself what you really want. Once you get there to a place of softness and love, in this place you can begin to trust and to know life is good and that you are beautiful within and without.
If you would like assistance with coming into this state of love why not come on a workshop and see if it can help.
Also I love telling manifestation stories. I have a wish and a dream to put hearts into the world so that they can put smiles on people's faces and spread the idea that it is safe to open your heart and love others. I have exhibited in many places and have recently had greetings cards made (if you are interested in some email me) for friends and shops who would like them (like Alchemy) and a big organisation has asked me today for two images to make into posters which will go all around the country. How excited am I! So keep making your wishes and prayers! If you ask you may be answered!
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