Cherie Roe Dirksen

Templeton Universe Officially Releases Album Art

Have You Got $10 For Switched-On Music?

How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?

Do You Want INSTANT Fame and Glory?

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

As many of you may know already, my band — Templeton Universe — are doing a crowdfunding campaign to raise $1000 for the production costs of our latest album, ‘Between Lies’ (you can CLICK HERE to hear and see what we’re about). We are so thankful to have raised 43% of our total goal over the last 3 weeks but we need some help in the final push.

We’ve just headed into the last 7 days of our campaign and we had an epiphany! We decided to add the FAME AND GLORY package (please click on the picture below to read all about it).

Why You Can’t Miss Out on This – Only 2 Available!!!

Suffice to say, this package gets you your name/business name/brand on the inlay or back of our physical CD for life! Plus you get ALL the perks of ALL the other packages (which includes 5 instant album downloads and a physical CD). If that wasn’t enough — you get 10 shout-outs on our Facebook page (which is also linked to our Twitter account — another added bonus) as an amazing sponsor and supporter of the arts! We have over 12 000 fans on Facebook — check it out HERE.

If this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for, please act now before it’s too late!

Here’s an acoustic performance of us doing ‘Anticipation Frustration‘ of the last album, ‘Headspace‘:

Other articles you may enjoy:

Have You Got $10 For Switched-On Music?

Truth Seeking Through Music

Templeton Universe Officially Releases Album Art

How to Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

10 TOP Tips to Keep You Happy!

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

With so much going on in the daily life of the average Joe, it is hard to stay motivated. We sometimes feel beaten down by society and all the things we occupy ourselves with, voluntary or involuntary.

This can range from commuting, work, school runs, to housework, helping the kids with homework, cooking and finding precious time to unwind — which usually ends up with us watching TV. But how can we manage our time better to incorporate the things we long to do but feel we have no time for?

Here are 10 tips to get you excited and keep you motivated to enjoy living another day:

1. Quality Sleep

This is one of the most important things you can gift yourself and your family with. Make space in your night-time schedule to start winding down at least 1 hour prior to going to bed. You can light some calming, soothing essential oils, such as lavender and chamomile — will assist in good, sound sleep. You can have a warm, milky drink or some herbal tea. Switch off all radios and TV’s that are keeping you engaged in noise and ‘action’. Instead, you can read that book you’ve been promising yourself or listen to some relaxing music. All of these things can aid you into an alpha brain wave state, which allows your mind to relax and disconnect. You must avoid falling asleep on a full stomach or, even worse, falling asleep with the TV on. Your mind still takes in everything it hears, even whilst asleep, and having the TV on will not only disrupt your sleep but possibly cause you to have nightmares.

2. Berry Boost

With a good nights sleep tucked safely under your belt, what better way to start your morning off with than a berry smoothie? This is quick and easy to make and will give your system a boost of sustainable energy. These smoothies keep me going for about 4-5 hours. They are great for your skin too, berries have anti-aging properties and the calcium is good for your bones, ladies! A quick recipe I use is (for one 500ml serving): Take 2 handfuls of mixed, frozen berries (or fresh if you like, I like the frozen ones because they give a kind of ‘crushed ice’ effect), 2 squirts of Stevia, 4 tablespoons of plain yoghurt and top up with some milk. Blend and drink your way to vitality and well-being!

3. Time Productivity

Use your time wisely. If you commute to work by public service, take this opportunity to meditate or read. Make it ‘you’ time. If you can, it is great to shut your eyes in the morning and the evening (could be on your way to or from work if you are traveling by public service) — for just 10-20 minutes at a time — to meditate and clear your mind. This will benefit you in more ways than you can imagine. It also gives you a break from the mind chatter or what I like to call ‘white noise’. This allows more productive thoughts through instead of the useless and incessant worry that can clog up the mind.

4. Breathing

Huh? Don’t I do this automatically? Yes, but most people are in the habit of shallow breathing. You need to oxygenate your body for optimum productivity and chi (vital force). Try to, at least every hour, breath in to the count of 5, hold it to the count of 5 and exhale to the count of 5. This will give you a boost during the day.

Read related article:

5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)

5. Let Loose

This is an integral step for you to de-stress after a long day. Explore an activity that is tantamount to letting the ‘inner child’ out to play. I find it really helpful to put on some upbeat music and have a sing-song and dance around the house. Get your groove on and invite your family to join in. You can do this for just 30 minutes and it is a really fun way to get moving and to unwind. The best part is you also get a great workout — physically and vocally! Let your inner diva shine!

6. Keep it Clean

This is a macrocosm/microcosm thing — it affects the inside and the outside world. When you have a neat, tidy and clean home and/or office, you are happier. When you have a clean, refreshed body, you are happier. I have to tell you about my dog. She hates her bath, as do so many of our canine counterparts, but after she has been through this torturous activity, she runs around the garden like a dog-reborn — smiling, barking and just generally frolicking like a pup. Bath-time also equates to going for a walk (which she does regularly) but when she walks after her bath, she has a spring in her step and a wag in her tail that is much more noticeable. This is a great metaphor for how we feel when our bodies are bathed (make your bath-time a treat too — get some nice smelly soaps and bubble-bath and make it an event) and our houses or offices are spic-and-span and organized.

7. Eat Well

Another part of keeping it clean, is keeping the inside of your sacred body clean and invest in a detox every now and again. Or better still, make it a daily habit to eat healthy fresh foods. You know the kind I’m talking about so I’m not going to go into detail. This is a no-brainer, you are what you eat. Keep it fresh, colourful and simple and your system will be alive and vibrant, leaving you feeling energized and ready to take on the world. Have you noticed how sluggish you feel when you’ve pigged out on a burger and chips? Yeah? Well, you need to get real about what you are putting in and perhaps compare that to what you are getting out! You may have a Porsche but you can’t run it on horse manure.

8. Creative Space

This is really important. We all need to express ourselves creatively, no matter if it takes the form of art, writing, decorating, drawing, constructing/ building, etc. It is hugely beneficial to give yourself some time and a quiet space to be creative. If it is once a day, that is great. If you can’t fit it in daily then at least allocate yourself a good few days of the week to squeeze in 2-3 hours of creative expression time. You can even make this a family activity where everyone gets time out to do something fun. It will teach you and your family the benefit of taking care of your own needs in an unselfish and productive way.

Read related article:

9 Great Reasons for Getting Creative (No Artistic Experience Needed)

9. Gratitude

Take time out, especially with your family, to give thanks for all that you do have in your life right now. This can be over a meal, as is commonly practiced in the saying of Grace. I am not a religious person but I do see the benefits of giving thanks. This could also be done in your quiet time in the bath, or whilst you are commuting, etc. You can explain the benefits to your family and encourage them to also find a quiet minute or two to reflect on being grateful. This feeds positivity and will nurture your good feelings ratio.

10. Reflect

When you find the space to reflect on your life, your goals and your dreams, you can keep the picture of your destiny clear and precise. When you don’t take time out to ponder and to re-align with your intentions, you may lose sight of where you are headed. You can sometimes slip into a stream that does not fit the destination of your dream. Make a vision board where you can pin all the things you desire and all that you would like to manifest in your life experience. Make sure you hold yourself accountable for taking action towards your goals and keep this board somewhere where you will see it every day.

What is most important of all is that you enjoy your journey, this life is precious and special and you can make each day an enjoyable experience.

If you catch yourself falling into boredom or despair, simply remind yourself that you can make a choice to re-align to a more joyful outlook — run through this checklist and see if there is anything you can do or improve on to bring you into a state of balance and fulfillment.

In the wise words of Eckhart Tolle, you can either be enthusiastic about what you are doing, enjoy what you are doing or accept what you are doing. When you do not fall into any of these 3 categories you set yourself up for feeling resentment or frustration.

What do you find lifts your spirits? Please share it in the comment box below.

Original article was written by Cherie Roe Dirksen for Purpose Fairy: 10 Tips Designed to Keep You on Your Toes.

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How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?

Have You Got $10 For Switched-On Music?

Lyme Disease: What They’re Not Telling You

Why You Need to Pay Attention to Synchronicity!

5 Fundamental Steps to a Thriving Relationship

12 Things Successful People Do To Excel

Have You Got $10 For Switched-On Music?

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Ever feel you’re alone in your awakening experience?

I remember when I first had my wake-up call — I scouted for music to help me through. After all, music speaks where words can’t go, right?

I recall stumbling across bands like Muse — who opened my eyes to MK-Ultra and HAARP — and Radiohead that spoke of the insane society we live in.

All these songs got me through a rough time and I still turn to them on a daily basis.

When I agreed to join Templeton Universe (indie rock band) as the bassist, I did so because I totally believed in his music. This man writes from soul and about things that MATTER.

Don’t take my word for it though, take a listen — click on the pic below (we’ve got a load of videos you can watch to get a feel for what we’re about). We’re closing in on the end days of our crowdfunding campaign to release our new album, ‘Between Lies’, out into the world. The theme of the album is ‘the truth will set you free but it will piss you off first’. I think you’re going to like it…$10 gets you an instant download of this new album, $25 gets you the 3 albums and $50 gets you all 5 albums with a bonus gift.

Read related articles:

Templeton Universe Officially Releases Album Art

Truth Seeking Through Music

Can Music Jump-Start Humanity’s Awakening?

Templeton Universe Officially Releases Album Art

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Our (TU) latest album, ‘Between Lies’, has a cover!

The official global release is set at the end of April 2017 but YOU get to hear it first when you CLICK HERE.

The cover art has been taken from the beginning stages of my painting, ‘Guiding Light’ (see further on in article).

Here is the cover:

What do you think?

The albums theme is along the lines of, ‘the truth will set you free but it will piss you off first’. Savvy? I think a lot of us feel this right now.

Get the album HERE and sing out your frustrations!

Here is the painting in its early stages (which is what we’ve taken for the album cover design):

Here is the finished painting…see the difference? The original is still available for $360 (incl. shipping) – prints are available too (CLICK HERE):

We’ve still got around 2 weeks of our crowdfunding campaign left – please help us to reach our goal of $1000 to help with the final production stages of our album (every pledge gets you the new album!). Click on the picture below to read all about it 😀 – we want you to become part of our journey:

Truth Seeking Through Music

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

I guess this blog will be my official announcement that I’m the new bassist for Templeton Universe! You can see more of what we’re about HERE (YouTube) and join our happy little musical flock on Facebook HERE.

We’ve just finished our new album called, ‘Between Lies’. It’s due for release at the end of the month.

The theme of the album is summed up in the quote (no-one knows who said it first — Gloria Steinem or Joe Klaas or maybe some other anonymous source?):

“The truth will set you free but it will piss you off first”

Or along the lines thereof.

Activists and truth-seekers like to use this phrase and we’re no different ’cause it holds so much validity in today’s world. We classify ourselves as ambient yet raunchy rock and we’re pretty confident you’re going to love the vibes. Take a listen to the tune below (from the last album ‘Headspace’):

How Can I Download this Album Today Before it’s Official Global Release?

We are an independent band and we self-funded the recording of the album. We’ve released our first Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise $1000 (every pledge gets you our latest album download IMMEDIATELY plus there are loads more perks with differing packages on offer) for the finishing touches which we explain in this 1 minute video:

33% and Going Strong!

As of today, Wednesday 5th April 2017, we have raised $325 of the $1000 and we’re so grateful to all the people who have supported us on this journey so far! Wow, the response has been epic.

CLN Being EPIC as Usual!

What’s more is we’ve had an advert sponsorship from Conscious Life News (that awesome site that brings conscious living to the fore-front) which means our campaign will pop up on every article on their site for a week.

How fabulous is that?

If you haven’t joined their community of over 1 million yet, please do so by clicking HERE for their Facebook page or HERE to visit their site.

If you would like to take the journey with us and support music with soul, please visit our campaign by clicking the photo below and please share with family and friends 🙂 Thank you!

Other articles you may enjoy:

Can Music Jump-Start Humanity’s Awakening?

How to Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?

How to Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Disappointment: Your Passport to Greater Things

“Sometimes when you get disappointment it makes you stronger.” — David Rudisa

Some existential theories suggest that the Universe or our current reality is impartial — it’s neutral, like Switzerland. There is no meaning to life except that which we give it.

Now before this article starts to sound like a downer, I want to interject that this is actually an outrageously great opportunity and here’s why:

If the Universe has no meaning (impartial, neutral, etc) and we are the ones giving it meaning (after all, it is our playground — our realm of freedom to choose) then we can change the game at any time which is cause for massive celebration!
If we truly are creating our reality (as states the Law of Attraction — which, coincidentally, is also impartial. Read more about that here in this 4 part Law of Attraction series: LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling), then we are endowing meaning to our existence all the time whether we’re conscious of it or not. How about making a conscious decision to make it a good one, eh?
We are at a tipping point when we are faced with disappointment — we can either choose to see it as a negative experience or choose to see it as some kind of Divine timing and fall into the arms of the Universe and Trust (with a big T) that the Universe has our backs no matter what.

Let me explain: When you trust with a big ‘T’ is simply means you know there is a bigger picture than the one you are experiencing. When someone breaks your trust (little ‘t’) you still Trust that there is a greater lesson for your soul in there. When you can do this, you’re going to put a positive spin on your life and all the situations you find yourself in. I learned this pearl of wisdom from Vicki Howie’s and her wonderful Chakra Boosting Course, which I highly recommend!

Choice — Your Gateway to Opportunity

“Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the signal that things are moving into transition in our lives.” — William Throsby Bridges

If life is indeed meaningless and you give it meaning by your choices, you’re in the drivers seat! Every choice you make could be steering you to positive outcomes, if you allow yourself to charge your life in this new way.

My Recent Disappointment

I was recently very let down by someone that I trusted. I thought they were impeccable with their word and — long story short — they weren’t.

At first I vented out my anger and had a good rant. You know the type, ‘how could they do this to me?’, ‘what an asshole!’, ‘why do people act this way — don’t they have any scruples?’. I’m a huge advocate of letting out your emotions. Think of it like a kettle boiling on the burner with the lid on — you’ve got to relieve the lid at some point to let the steam out, right?

When I’d done my venting and had let out of my system all that needed to be — I started to ask myself these 2 important questions:

What was my lesson? I concluded that this person I was dealing with was not impeccable with their word and that I needed to be cautious with them — which is why I got this ‘little burn’. In fact, by heeding the warning signs of this first let down, I may have prevented having a kettle full of hot water poured down my front by their actions. Rather a little burn than being scalded.
Is there perhaps something better around the corner that this fallen through agreement has made space for? Yes! I believe so. I don’t know what it is yet but I’m paving the way to give this situation a positive meaning. I trust that everything happens for a reason and that the Universe has my back (‘big T’ Trust in action). The timing is indeed Divine and I’ll curiously await either a better opportunity than the one on offer or keep my eyes peeled for an crisis I may have averted.

Read related article: How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (How to Turn Disappointment into Opportunity) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

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Lyme Disease: What They’re Not Telling You

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How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

There are 3 main definitions of funk:

A foul smell or odor,
A type of music that combines elements of rhythm and blues with soul, percussive vocals, strong bass and heavy down-beats,
A state of great fear, panic or fluster. A depressed, sad or sorry state of mind.

I’m going to be discussing the latter form of funk.

Funky Town

Any musician would give their eye teeth (what a strange old saying) to get a good dose of the funk — the kind that separates the wheat from the chaff in the music industry. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are doused with the funk and have had a long and lucrative career because of its incredible mass appeal.

However, when life throws us a curve ball and we get stuck in the quagmire of that smelly, crappy kind of funk — that just ‘aint worth singing about.

Thing is we all have a choice.

Bad Taste in Your Mouth? Suck on a Mint

We all have our moment in the sun…and in the shade. When the cloud of despair rains down, there’s no judgment in having a pity party. For a while that is (some people’s ‘while’ lasts a bit longer than others. In fact, some folks’ ‘while’ turns into ‘wile’ and they try to pull others down into their stratagem ’cause they don’t want to shovel out. Misery enjoys company, don’t you know?).

Problem is, many people get stuck at the Mad Hatters Time (and Tea) Guzzling Pity Party for a lifetime not realizing that at any time one can get their Alice on and leave the table to join the path of great adventure again.

Funk, Flunk or Flank

Getting stuck in a funk has its ups too, you know. Nothing happens to you without good reason (here’s where I get pelted with tomatoes ’cause I know everyone loves a cliché). Read more here: Plot Twist! 3 Things You Desperately Need to Know About Game Changes

If you’re brave enough to mine your downs, you’re going to shovel out of the funk ditch without flunking out on life. Even if you flank out of it by fringing around the border of the funk, you’ll make it through to the other side.

Seeing that this article is heading more for a play on words than any philosophical feat (and I’m not to sure where it’s going), let me end on this:

At any given point (you’re never too old, too late, too weary, too ‘far gone’ or whatever other excuse you can conjure up), you can make another choice and completely change direction in your life. Don’t let your circumstances define who you are — only let your choices do that.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (How Long Are You Going to Stay Stuck in the Funk?) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

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Lyme Disease: What They’re Not Telling You

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Lyme Disease: What They’re Not Telling You

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

What the…?

A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease and she shared a documentary called, ‘Under Our Skin‘ (which I will embed for you to watch at the end of this post). I just had to share it with you all as I was totally gobsmacked after sitting through, what I have to call, a reality check — yup, one of those ‘every human being needs to watch‘ type-things.

It didn’t make it any better that I’m currently rereading Stephen King’s, The Stand (about a runaway strain of the flu that brought down humanity and brought on the biblical Apocalypse).

All jokes aside, I had heard of Lyme disease but wasn’t really clued up about it and was totally unaware of the whole controversy surrounding chronic Lyme disease and the treatment thereof (amounting to the level of ‘conspiracy theory’, I might add!) .

You can read more about this conditions overview and clinical trials at the NHS (UK) site here: Lyme disease.

What is it?

In a nutshell, it is a bacterial infection spread by infected ticks to humans. If detected in its early stages, it can be treated quite effectively but if it is left undiagnosed, it can lead to chronic Lyme disease, which can only be managed at the moment (and to great financial cost and physical suffering).

The sad thing is, not enough research is being done or deemed necessary as to whether it can be spread as a STD or if it is passed on to the unborn fetus in the womb (although the documentary I’m about to share is pretty convincing that it is).

The Unbelievable Divide

For those of you who don’t know, there is a split in the medical field over chronic Lyme disease — some doctors deny it even exists whilst others try their best to treat patients suffering with this debilitating illness. Treatment is hard to come by in certain countries and some doctors even brush the disease off as being psychosomatic.

The doctors who are ballsy enough to treat the conditions are often sued and lose their license to practice medicine (paper trail leading back to frustrated medical insurance companies who aren’t too happy about paying for long term treatments).

The most common symptoms (although the list is as long as your arm!) are:

extreme pain and swollen joints,
nervous system conditions such as numbness, pain in limbs, memory loss and paralysis of facial muscles,
heart problems,
sensitivity to light, migraines, stiff neck due to inflammation of the membranes surrounding the spine and brain

As I said, the list is long, and can also include rashes and shaking. There are reasons to believe that this bacteria could indeed be linked to MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer, fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (to name a few common biggies).

But don’t take my word for it, please watch the documentary below — it’s a real eye-opener! And please share it with family and friends so we can all have a broader range of compassion for the souls who are dealing with this or have a loved one who is. Thank you.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Lyme Disease: What They’re Not Telling You) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

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A ‘Must See’ Guide to Feeling Good

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A ‘Must See’ Guide to Feeling Good

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Tuning Into Your Favorite Station

It’s a kind of magic (thanks Queen, it sure is!) — not only does this Universe work purely on energy and everything in and of it is energy (which can’t be destroyed only transmuted) but we are also working fundamentally with vibration or frequency — we only think we’re in this physical form.

Focusing all your attention on matter and material things is like thinking you are only a solid galumphing mass when you’re actually, according to quantum physics, 0.1 % matter and 99.9% pure nothingness (or everythingness/pure potential — it’s up to you which you’re going to choose).

Just remember we are made up of cells which are made up of atoms and each atom has a nucleus (made up of protons and neutrons) and electrons which constitute only 0.1% of the atom.

“If you removed the empty space of the atoms in every person, the entire human race would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.” ~ Institute of Physics

Point is, there is much more to our existence than what our 5 senses are telling us. We’ve got to step out of the box that confines us to thinking that our material reality is all that matters (no pun intended).

The realm of all possibility has turned blue in the face trying to beckon us to come play in the quantum field of all possibility by freeing our automated emotional responses that create a future from our past. How about stepping out into the infinite realm and creating a new life — one that’s full of possibility and wonder?

Quantum Tongue-Twister

Quantum physics has a wave-particle duality phenomenon that states that all particles have both wave and particle properties….and behave, in accordance with the observer, in either fashion. When a camera observes, they act as particles. However, when there is no equipment used to observe, they acted as waves and particles simultaneously.

“…the tree falling in the forest with no-one to hear it makes no sound but also dances the fandango if it feels the urge?”

Does this mean that everything in the Universe is guided into manifestation based on what or who is observing it?
Does this mean that not only will the tree falling in the forest with no-one to hear it make no sound but also dance the fandango if it felt the urge?

So what does this have to do with feeling good?

Pretty much everything.

What’s the Magic Word?

Every thought pattern that you conjure up in your mind has a certain frequency. Is it lower or higher? Are you thinking ‘good’ thoughts or ‘bad’ thoughts? Whatever you are thinking you are calling into creation. Remember I wrote an article a while ago about the magic word ‘Abracadabra’ and how it means something truly astonishing? You can read that article here: 3 Ways to Use Magical Words to Create Miraculous Lives

You can master your life experience with just the information that whatever you project energetically (action), emotionally (through strong feeling), vibrationally (through thought) or verbally (the powerful word), is shaping your life experience.

For example:

Your girlfriend leaves you. For weeks you are feeling a pit in your stomach (solar plexus chakra) and you can’t eat, sleep and feel depressed. This is a ‘grieving’ period and it is appropriate.

But sooner rather than later (or never at all!) you are going to have a choice to move that feeling from your solar plexus to your heart chakra (middle of the chest).

How?

You need to master the transmutation of energy. Sounds difficult, doesn’t it? It really isn’t.

Moving the Energy Up

When you are feeling stuck in your negative emotions you can always choose to shift your feelings. It may not be an instant 0 – 100 but you can slowly usher the feelings to better vibrations. You can do this by playing your favorite music, burning essential oils that you love (I always find jasmine, orange blossom or neroli make me feel happy) or getting up and moving your body — do a little dance to get that solar plexus energy moving in a positive direction.

Expansion and Bliss

To experience the feeling of love, joy, elation or bliss we must draw from the positive experiences of our lives to help align ourselves with feeling good.

How?

Observe how you feel when you think of something wonderful. Some examples would be:

Holding your child for the first time,
getting your first puppy,
getting that job you wanted so bad,
watching a magnificent sunset,
falling in love,
the great time you had with your friends last weekend,
sitting watching the sea on a beautiful summer evening — these are all triggers to get you to feel ‘bliss’ and this is usually felt in your heart chakra.

When you find the one thing that can immediately make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, you have your trigger to activate the heart centre/chakra.

This is extremely important as it is a tool to help you to elevate yourself and your well-being. It is empowering to know that whenever you are feeling out of alignment with your true state, which is bliss, joy and/or love, you can use a memory to help guide you back into your center.

Practical Steps to Feeling Good

Practice this whenever you can:

Just sit quietly, close you eyes and think of that one thing that brings you joy, feel it, observe it, expand it until your whole chest is tingling and opening. Can you feel that the more you expand this feeling, the more it permeates through your entire body — every cell seems to ‘vibrate’? Congratulations! You have found your good vibration!
Go one step further and make it a daily routine (say, while you have your first cuppa in the morning) to declare out loud: “This is going to be a super fantastic day. Everything is going to go smoothly and I’m going to laugh a lot and have so much fun today. There are also going to be some really awesome surprises for me today — I can’t wait to find out what they are!” (you can phrase this however you want, this is just an example). Really feel into it and see yourself smiling a lot today — visualize having a great time.

This sets your tuning fork to hone in on a fabulous day and you’re going to attract cool experiences and a doo-dah day.

You don’t even have to get specific if you don’t know what you want to manifest. I usually always just say, “I’m going to have so many wonderful surprises today”, and 9/10 I do. It could be getting a bunch of flowers to receiving a letter from an old friend in the mail. I leave it up to the field of all possibility as to what they’re going to be. When I recognize these surprises are being delivered, I give thanks ’cause gratitude is REALLY important — it’s a feel-good frequency too. Read related article here: Giving Thanks: Why Does Gratitude Make You Happy?

Now you can use this to steer your life in the direction you want.

Just remember, if you fall overboard, you can throw yourself a life belt by either moving it up a notch or reminding yourself that ‘this too shall pass‘. Then when you are feeling a little better, you can start your heart chakra meditation and start redirecting your cosmic vibration to match your desires again.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (A ‘Must See’ Guide to Feeling Good) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

5 Things I Would’ve Told ‘Mini Me’

2 Things People in Relationships Forget About that Lead to Disaster

Supercharge Your Life Today by Switching Off!

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

It’s a brand new year and Odyssey Digimag (which is a free conscious lifestyle online mag, by the way) is out again with Issue no.1 of 2017. To check out my article below — go to pages 74-76.

It gives some great advice about how to balance your time (not give up on it entirely) on any electronic device for more inner peace and tranquility instead of being constantly wired and stressed by too much info!

Now I’m sure we can all relate to that, yes? Please leave any comments you have in the box below — I’d love to hear your opinion/view on this.

To read the magazine (or this article on pages 74-76) click here: Odyssey Digimag Issue 1 2017

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Other articles you may enjoy:

5 Things I Would’ve Told ‘Mini Me’

2 Things People in Relationships Forget About that Lead to Disaster

If You Love Trees, You Simply Can’t Miss Out on This New Painting!

5 Things I Would’ve Told ‘Mini Me’

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Move Over Moses

If you had a time machine, what would you go back and tell your younger self? What important advice could you give your child right now?

For me, I’d chisel these 5 things onto a stone tablet (just to be sure it would hit home) and hand it to my ‘mini me’:

Conforming is nuts, weird is way cooler — Don’t try to be who you are not. Everyone wants an original not a copy — thinking out of the box is not even good enough…heck, burn the box! Most people who truly make it in this life have brought something truly unique into the world. If non-conforming get’s you the nickname ‘weirdo’, wear it with pride and read this article to prove how spectacularly awesome being weird is: Why Being Weird is Unusually Cool!
Don’t take things personally — Being young certainly came with inadvertently taking on the opinions of our peers and family. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and tastes but there is no ‘blanket’ rule over what the truth is as there are over 7 billion different perspectives on earth right now. You’re never going to have universal appeal so be happy with the unique you. Read more about throwing out things that don’t serve you here: 8 Tips on How to Stop Caring What Other People Think of You
Don’t hold a grudge — to forgive literally means to release from a debt. If only I had known back then that to hold a grudge means extra baggage for you! Read related article: Want to Live Longer?
Make good choices — our choices define who we are more than our abilities (paraphrasing here from J.K. Rowling’s character, Dumbledore, from the Harry Potter series). We make big and small choices daily and, let’s face it, those choices carry weight as they affect our lives. If you take a tumble from the bandwagon, there is always a solution to any given problem — that’s if you are quiet enough to hear the innate wisdom that is always inside your heart (read related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom). Life doesn’t just randomly happen to you if you take responsibility for your choices — good and bad.
Your thoughts are uber powerful! — How utterly cool would it have been to know — back in the day — that your thoughts are the catalyst (along with your feeling frequency) to manifesting whatever you want in your life!?! Damn, all the things I could’ve done with the Law of Attraction in my youth…alas. Good news is, it’s never too late to start taking the bull by the horns and direct your life with new thoughts and feelings that serve you (instead of work against you). It’s truly incredible that you can do or be anything you want to be by aligning your feelings with where you want to be or with what you want to achieve. Read related articles here: LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling, LOA – Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?, LOA – Baby Steps That Snowball! and LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best 2017 Possible!

I hope you enjoyed the list — what advice would you have imparted to your younger self?

Other articles you may enjoy:

2 Things People in Relationships Forget About that Lead to Disaster

Zombie Apocalypse: Avoid ‘Team Walking Dead’ with these Simple Tricks

If You Love Trees, You Simply Can’t Miss Out on This New Painting!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (5 Things I Would’ve Told ‘Mini Me’) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

2 Things People in Relationships Forget About that Lead to Disaster

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

As I began to wake up this morning and my dreary, sleepy eyes adjusted to my surrounds — a thought popped into my head.

In fact 2 thoughts managed to creep in there.

I wondered why I was having these thoughts — as they seemed totally unrelated to the happy dream I was having about a monkey, an umbrella and a packet of crisps — and then I remembered, it was writing day today and I guess the field of potential wanted you to hear this.

“You’re not in competition with your partner, you’re supposed to be a complimentary team.”

I’m going to jump right in and say that, in my experience (and I do feel somewhat qualified as hubby and I are celebrating 21 years of marriage this year — proving that I’m an applied romantic and not just a theoretical one!), there are 2 key expressions (that we often overlooked) that we need to show our partners without hesitation:

Awe
Compassion

Let’s take no.1

Awe — there’s a reason you chose your partner. What was it? Remind yourself of what makes you revere your partner. What brought about those butterflies in the beginning? For example: What attracted me to Michael was his raw talent, his kindness and tenderness, our shared sense of obscure humor, his ability to always be the container for me and hold a space when I’m venting and, of course, his dashing good looks don’t hurt either. Never let this spark of awe die out. You’re not in competition with your partner, you’re supposed to be a complimentary team.

Compassion — compassion covers a lot of things like empathy, understanding, non-judgement and love. It’s vital in a relationship because, at some point, one of you is going to go through something that the other needs to hold a space for. Sometimes this requires that you put your own problems aside for a moment to allow your partner to work things out. Too often I see people in relationships compete for who’s problem outweighs the other persons woes. For example: If your partner says he/she feels like he needs time out today cause he/she’s just worn out. Instead of throwing your toys out your cot because YOU’VE had a far worse week than him/her, rather allow him/her to rest without guilt or justification. Maybe this has interfered with your plans but try and see things from their perspective. Can you put your plans on the back-burner for now? 9/10 times you can. Another important tip is to learn how to listen without always having to give advice — try just being a sounding board for them (unless you really have something to offer of value).

Often we slip into competition with our partner, as mentioned above, who’s had a worse day, who has more problems, who’s better at what — instead of seeing it in duality, try seeing your situation as a whole. How much appreciation do you have for this person in your life? A lot? Then tell them (awe). How much do you care for this person in your life? A lot? Then learn to identify when they are going through something difficult and help them through it without judgement or comparison (compassion).

If you do this and show the person in your life how much they mean to you — by giving them genuine compliments of appreciation and by showing them you truly care — you will improve and sustain your relationship exponentially.

Related article: 5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (2 Things People in Relationships Forget About that Lead to Disaster) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Zombie Apocalypse: Avoid ‘Team Walking Dead’ with these Simple Tricks

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

What is Dopamine?

It’s the kick-butt chemical that charges the motivation/reward center of the brain and it could be the reason for the zombie apocalypse we find ourselves facing today.

Studies have now shown that excessive device use (smartphones, iPhones, iPads, etc) release this chemical. It’s no wonder that people get sweaty palms when threatened with having their smart phones taken away from them! It works in the same way as going ‘cold turkey’ in the world of narcotics.

When we’re addicted to checking our texts, feeds, e-mails, ‘likes’, etc we are feeding the continuous loop of dopamine which ends up having us in a carrot-donkey situation.

The more information we glean the more we want.
The more ‘likes’ our posts get, the more selfies we take. This attention-seeking activity finds youths (and adults alike) trying to find some kind of self-esteem in the number of ‘likes’ and comments they can clock up on various social media platforms (such as instagram and facebook).Y?

Society’s addiction to devices has become a disease.

Death by Selfie

Did you know that according to the Washington Post, 2015 saw at least 27 reported people die trying to take selfies in dangerous areas or situations? And, although the majority are of a younger age group 24 years and under, there were reports of older people in these statistics too. India is the country with the most reported ‘death by selfies’ in the world.

The race for fame and glory is on and everyone wants in on the action — well, at least it seems that way when you’re walking through a mall and most peoples noses seem to be glued to their screens. Take a look at this video clip:

Yeah, it’s funny and no, it’s not.

I took a trip to a mall last year (yip, I don’t get out much living out in the sticks and about 200km’s from the nearest shopping center) and was amazed that at least 70% of the people mulling about in the mall were on their devices — literally walking and surfing at the same time. I was amazed that no-one fell down the escalators!

This Sh*t is Real

We’re in big trouble, folks. Our addiction to these devices is gob-smacking. I value the internet and the opportunity it brings but I’m very aware of the insidious downside.

Try answer these questions honestly:

Are you neglecting hobbies you used to engage in (such as reading, drawing, writing or cooking) because you’re spending oodles of time on your phone?
Are you neglecting family or friends because you keep in touch over your apps, so you feel you don’t need to physically go and visit them?
Are you ignoring your immediate family because you’re too busy online to go outside and play ball with your kids or cook and eat a meal together whilst sharing your tales of the day?
Do you constantly check your phone for messages or spring into action to check it when it goes off?
Even worse, do you constantly check your phone or allow unimportant interruptions while you are visiting or meeting someone who’s taken the time out to be with you?
Do you feel you don’t have enough time in the day to do what you want to do but you have enough time to sit on your device checking your feeds every few minutes?
Do you break out into a sweat if you’re phone has been left behind somewhere, or the battery is dead and you’ve no instant way of recharging?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, it’s time for a reality check. I’m no angel, I constantly rein myself in and do the check. I often find I’ve fallen prey and try to realign myself to the below suggestion list. do we reclaim our power and take back control?

Consciously Limit Your Time — if you have to check your facebook feed or if, indeed, you run a business and need to post something — have a time limit. Anything from between 20 minutes (casual) to an hour (business). Any more than this is dangerous, in my point of view. You can get caught up in feeds and waste a lot of valuable time.
Walk in Nature — this is a combo-deal as you get fresh air and exercise. Nature and exercise also makes us feel less stressed, anxious or depressed. Ditch the phone though, make it a device free venture.
Garden — get in touch with the earth and grow things. Gardens give us hope for the future and make us happy. So what are you waiting for? Why not take on a fun project like growing your own vegetables? You don’t need your phone in the garden, put it down for a couple of hours and go acquaint yourself with the fresh outdoors! Read related article: Gardening Your Way to Zen
Read a Book — remember those hard-cased objects stuffed full of paper with black ink on every page? Get reading again, it’s character-building. Turn your phone to silent mode when you read — far less distracting.
Space to Relax — turn your device off and just zone out. Put your feet up and daydream or meditate. Get in touch with yourself and who you are — know thyself. Our devices stop us from being in the now and have us always looking for ‘stuff’ to occupy our minds. Give yourself time to unwind without being on call. Read related article: Harvard Scientists Found Something Surprising About People Who Meditate
Meet and Greet — make contact with real people (the bona fide, fleshy ones). Engage in real conversation with eye-to-eye contact and don’t forget to turn your phone off!
Get Cooking — make delicious home-cooked meals prepared with love. Invite people over and share in laughter, good food and company — nothing beats it!
Device Free Sleeping — don’t leave your phone next to your bed so it can ping all night long. Put it in the next room and have a device free sleep.

Doing these things might just save us from an insidious Zombie Apocalypse. What is your greatest pet peeve when it comes to our new age of technology?

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Zombie Apocalypse: Avoid ‘Team Walking Dead’ with these Simple Tricks) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

If You Love Trees, You Simply Can’t Miss Out on This New Painting!

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

I literally downed my brushes yesterday!

This is my latest creation called, ‘Celebration (Tree of Life Series)’ and is an Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas. The size is 75cm x 75cm x 4cm (nice and big!!!).

If you’re interested in purchasing the original — it is available at SaatchiOnline (CLICK HERE) or as prints and paraphernalia at RedBubble (CLICK HERE).

I just did a recent commission of something similar for a client — you can read the blog and see the picture here: PAINTING A FUN COSMIC COMMISSION

So without further ado, here is a picture of ‘Celebration‘ half way through:

This is the finished painting below:

Here are some close up shots (spot the mice!):

And here is the painting hanging on my wall with my other colourful art 🙂

If you like tree paintings, come check out ‘Guiding Light‘ (original available HERE) another painting I recently finished: How I Got to Paint ‘Guiding Light’ — Photo’s Included

Other blogs you may enjoy:

Make Money Creating Beautiful Recycled Goodies Today!

3 Thrilling Remedies to Reinstate Your Motivation

Rocking Art Exhibition and Musical Show Photo’s (You Won’t Believe Who Turned Up!)

Ditch the Resolution, Start a Revolution! Odyssey Digimag Issue 5 Now Out

Make Money Creating Beautiful Recycled Goodies Today!

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Garbage for Energy!

I want to start this article off by giving Sweden a big pat on the back for being huge trend setters when it comes to effective recycled waste management. You can read more about their initiatives here: Sweden Is Recycling So Much Trash, It’s Running Out

Turning Trash into Treasure

I’m a big fan of upcycling and getting people to reuse things they would otherwise throw away (which either leaves our streets dirty, our oceans polluted, our tips full to brimming or — the lesser of the evils — recycled into something else via a recycling depot).

But how about actually earning an income selling your beautiful recycled wares? It’s cheap as you don’t have to lay out much money for materials and the finished products are amazing!

I started running a weekly craft class at the beginning of last year at our local youth upliftment center (called ‘Net vir Pret’ — Afrikaans for ‘Just for Fun’) here in South Africa and it’s been a great journey of discovery. Not only is it a pleasure working with these talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds but I’ve discovered loads about turning trash into treasure (picture to your right is my class making beads out of magazines)!

They are now selling their wares at our local market and this is how you can too!

Life’s All About Learning, Caring and Sharing

We’ve got a bit of a problem here in South Africa with litter. It’s a subject close to my heart ’cause, let’s face it, nobody thrives in an environment strewn with garbage. So, I wanted to offer these kids a fun way to, not only clean up the environment, but to make money with the crafty things they can do with it.

Pinterest was my saviour! You can check out some of the ideas I’ve collected on my board HERE.

I’ve been scrolling the many ideas on Pinterest, in my free moments, gathering a treasure trove of ideas to implement. I want to share these ideas that I’ve tried and tested with all you creatives out there wanting to make a bit of extra cash whilst letting the inner child out to play!

Below I’m going to share some of the crafty recycled tit-bits I’ve been making in my classes to give you some quick and easy ideas of how you can turn your garbage into gold. Not only can you sell these but you can give them as gifts or make useful things for around your own home.

Polystyrene and Magazines

These cards were made out of magazines and polystyrene.

Find a picture you like for the main focal point of the card and glue it to some polystyrene.

Then cut it out and glue to the card for a great looking raised effect.

These really look super in real life and a great way to impress friends and family at birthdays!

Bottles and Bottle Caps

Old soda, beer or wine bottles are great for making these vases or candle stick holders.

(Left photo) I apply my design with an acrylic glass paint tube — let that dry — and then fill in the color with acrylic paint. When that is dry I use an epoxy to glaze over the bottle (now you can safely hand wash it).

These are good sellers and make excellent gifts.

(Right photo) This project is done using any glass jar (this one happened to be an empty olive jar).

You glue the entire bottle with craft glue and then wrap twine or string around the bottle.

Then, to decorate, get some old bottle caps and cut out pictures
from magazines, old cards or wrapping paper — stick them inside the caps and glue them to your jar.

I use a bit of varnish or epoxy to glaze the pictures inside the bottle caps — it gives it a nice finishing touch.

The card is also made using bottle caps.

Magazine Craft

This is an old trick I learned when I was young — recycled magazine beads (see photo to your left).

This is done by cutting magazine pages into strips. The strip is done from the top to the bottom of the magazine page — start cutting at 2cm width and taper to a point.

Apply glue to the one side. Now take a match stick and — with the widest part of the strip — start rolling the strip onto the match stick. Keep guiding the strip towards the center as you are rolling to give the bulbous ‘bead’ shape.

You can dazzle your mates with the fabulous jewelry you can make with these super easy beads.

The white bracelet (also in the picture to your left) is made by braiding a plastic bag and then taking a glue gun and sealing the edges to form a bangle. It doesn’t get easier than that!

Plastic Bottles

This is by far my most favorite thing to make — flowers!

I stick these in my garden and use them in vases.

They are made by cutting a plastic soda bottle in half and then cutting leaf shapes and bending them to form a flower.

You use both sides of the bottle to accomplish this and then glue them together. I also use the bottle cap for the center of the flower. You practically use the entire bottle! How cool is that?

I then use acrylic paint or spray-paint to decorate.

That’s all the recycled stuff I’ve done to date. I hope I’ve given you some ideas about turning your trash into treasure!

Happy crafting!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Make Money Creating Beautiful Recycled Goodies Today!) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

3 Thrilling Remedies to Reinstate Your Motivation

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Flatlining

This last week has literally seen me on my behind with zilch motivation to do nada (yeah, I know, double negative! Tell me about it :/).

I write from experience, that’s my thing. So, even when my mojo takes a trip to Timbuktu, I know I’m learning something new (or repeating a past mistake).

“If you’re going through a bad patch, just let it happen. Allow yourself time to regroup in the void. Things will bounce back if you expect them too.”

The problem was compounded by the blessed monthly women’s visitations. I was flat out with no energy. I’m a doer so a situation like this (doing diddly squat) is dire to me and my anal Virgo ‘go go go’ attitude.

It Pushes Back!

I pushed against the energy and got up to do things but just felt progressively worse, worser and worsest (don’t you just love bad grammar?) still when I got all emotional about stubbing a toe or crying over an ant biting me (literally happened — the bite and the tears over it!).

After declaring war on all ants (or at least the soldiers in my patch of land), I cajoled myself to just relax. I let the anxiety of all I had to do just dissipate.

Easier said than done.

I was up and at it again in no time.

Again, the energy pushed back until my hubby said, ‘Oh for pity sake! You clearly need some down time!’

Got There in the End

He was right. I totally surrendered and gave myself permission to do absolutely nothing.

So what reinstated my motivation?

Gifting myself with the much-needed down-time. My world (as I’m sure you can relate) can get frantic with ‘to-do’s’ and I get lost and then anxiety sets in. However, it’s really easy to just take an hour or two (or if you’re lucky enough, a day or two) to realign with your soul. Most of the stuff we think needs to be done now just isn’t worth your sanity.
Meditating on my life. My fuzzy thoughts needed some direction for this new year. I wrote down my goals so that they’d cleared out of my head and sat in permanent ink for revisitation at any time.
Total isolation. Literally. I would go into a room, close the door and curtains and reflect. So many weird little things would come to me in that space like: Read more, meditate more, schedule your time better, put that damn time-guzzling iPhone down, you zombie (when I’m on my device for longer than 20 minutes I can actually feel the petrification take place)!

After doing this for 48 hours, I got my moxy back.

Mastering the Funk

I was having some real nasty post Mercury Retrograde gremlins with computers and devices…that all stopped too.

I’m convinced my consciousness and the hectic head-space I was in was wreaking havoc in my outer world. I was definitely only focusing on that half-empty glass and I know better than that! But it was still happening…

What’s the moral?

Patience, I guess. And to know that ‘this too shall pass’. That phrase is really helpful even if it has become a bit of a cliche (a bit of cheese is soooo good!).

Deep breaths and being mindful of staying calm are also great practices to help diffuse the monkey mind.

If you’re going through a bad patch, just let it happen. Allow yourself time to regroup in the void. Things will bounce back if you expect them too.

Your mind is a powerful tool. Switching gears may take some time (hence the down-time that’s needed) but if you know that the gear can be changed, you’re half way there!

Other articles you may enjoy:

Rocking Art Exhibition and Musical Show Photo’s (You Won’t Believe Who Turned Up!)

Ditch the Resolution, Start a Revolution! Odyssey Digimag Issue 5 Now Out

LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling

LOA: Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?

The Impartial Law: Trump vs LOA

Rocking Art Exhibition and Musical Show Photo’s (You Won’t Believe Who Turned Up!)

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Goodbye 2016! We Rocked You Out…

Last year (2016) was — numerologically (gawd…that was a tongue twister! Does that word even exist? It does now) speaking — a year of cyclical endings (2+0+1+6=9 and 9 is a number of completion). So, it was befitting that my Rocking Art Series was to finally be exhibited in all its glory!

The event took place on the 23rd December at the funky Karoo Art Hotel and we all had a blast!

Big Shoes to Fill (I almost didn’t make it to my own show…lol)!

A big THANK YOU to my gorgeous, Templeton, for agreeing to do the aftershow with me — we rocked out to a song from each artist in the exhibition (unfortunately no video footage was taken but see the photo’s at the end).

The list was a tall order to fill but we somehow made it through and played to a packed-like-sardines audience.

The playlist went like this:

Come Together (The Beatles)
Yard of Blonde Girls (Jeff Buckley)
Young Lust (Pink Floyd)
Lately (Skunk Anansie)
On a Plain (Nirvana)
Anticipation Frustration (Templeton)
Karma Police (Radiohead)
Heroes (David Bowie)
Uprising (Muse)
Ending off with a Queen Pastiche consisting of We Will Rock You, We are the Champions, Radio GaGa, The Game and (because we are musical masochists) — you guessed it — Bohemian Rhapsody (can you see why I almost bailed!?)

Here are the photo’s of the evening starting off with the exhibition:

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And here are the shot’s of the show 🙂

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To recap on the whole Rocking Art Series — please CLICK HERE

To view the originals still available and print catalogue list — please CLICK HERE

Here’s a YouTube clip of Templeton and me playing ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ — just so you can get an idea of what we sound like 🙂

Other blogs you may enjoy:

Ditch the Resolution, Start a Revolution! Odyssey Digimag Issue 5 Now Out

‘Exploding This Reality’ with Queen — The Last Rock(ing) Art Painting in this Series!

Be the Inspiration You Seek (Odyssey Mag – Issue 4 – Out Now!)

David Bowie: Painting no. 9 of My ‘Rock(ing) Art’ Series — When Synchronicity Reveals Ludicrous Revelations

Did You Know That ‘Abracadabra’ Really is a Magically Loaded Word?

Ditch the Resolution, Start a Revolution! Odyssey Digimag Issue 5 Now Out

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

It’s easy for us to make big plans for gargantuan change on New Year’s Eve but not so easy to stick with the program come January. Especially when, in the words of Robbie Burns, “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley” or, in plainer English, have a tendency to go slightly off the rails.

Resolutions can be monotonous affairs with ones inner struggle to become happier/healthier/or whatever your intention may be. Trouble is, the only resolution that’s going to work and stick is more of a revolution.

The definition of revolution is:

A forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system.
An instance of revolving.

I love the latter definition as we lean towards making these ‘resolutions’ at the end of an Earth’s revolution around the sun. Drop the ‘r’ and you’ve got evolution — even better! The definition of evolution is the growth, rise, expansion or advancement of something. Now we’re cooking!

Changing Perspectives

Let’s look at definition no. 1 — overthrowing the old, outworn structure to bring on a new, rejuvenated system. That’s really what resolutions are about.

Instead of making unreasonable vows to never eat carbs or ice-cream again (let’s face it, it’s a grim prospect) or to spend 3 hours a day at the gym — why not pledge to make a lifestyle change that is gradual and attainable?

Like for instance: I’m going to make healthier lifestyle choices

The above statement doesn’t enforce depravation of any kind. It’s harder to break a new way of being if restrictions are not stringently placed upon it. Use this as your mantra every morning and become more mindful of what you’re putting in your mouth every meal-time — you’ll start to develop an awareness of healthier foods and you’ll begin making better choices on your sojourns down the aisles at your local grocer or market. Baby steps make strong foundations for change.

Go one step further and start a veggie garden or a vertical balcony garden. If you have absolutely no space — approach your local council or community representative and start a communal garden.

Start making better activity alternatives like taking your bicycle into town to buy that bunch of bananas for your fruit salad or climbing the stairs to your apartment instead of taking the lift. Carry lots of pure drinking water to wash away what the body doesn’t need and to keep you hydrated.

If it’s happiness you’re after start pledging to do more things that make you happy. Make a list of all the things you’d like to try, do or devote more time to. If you don’t have time, start affirming that you’ve got all the time in the world and then start cutting out hour-guzzling activities like social media and staring at a box with flashing pictures on it (as much fun as it is, 2 hours a day is ample time to spend watching the telly).

5 Simple Steps You Can Take to Thrive in 2017 and Beyond…

Read more by going to pages 70-73 in the latest ODYSSEY magazine Issue 5 (or click on the pictures below). The digimag is 100% FREE and there are other great articles in there. Paulo Coehlo always ends the issue off with his words of wisdom.

Other articles you may enjoy:

LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best 2017 Possible!

LOA: Baby Steps That Snowball — How You Can Join the Sleigh-ride!

LOA: Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?

LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling

Be the Inspiration You Seek (Odyssey Mag – Issue 4 – Out Now!)

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

Feature: Odyssey Magazine — Get Your Free Copy NOW

LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best 2017 Possible!

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

It has been an exciting and, at times, hair-pulling 9-year journey of Law of Attraction discovery for me. For the last 3 weeks, I have discussed the ups and downs and how to soldier on through.

You can recap on those blogs by clicking the links below (they are in order of release):

In this blog I want to simply give you my tried and tested keys to using the LOA in all its glory.

“Using the LOA is a life-long COMMITMENT. If you want to see the changes start to roll in, you’ve got to stick with the program!”

Please remember that:

The Law is Impartial. Don’t think of it in terms of being fair or unfair, it just is. How you use it will determine your success.
It’s not a competition. If you take longer than someone else to manifest something — don’t take it as a sign of defeat. Never give up!
Always be 100% honest with yourself. If you’re not manifesting something, get real about how you feel about it — not just what you’re thinking and affirming. And question yourself if you’re taking appropriate action and using synchronicity to your best ability (read related artilce: Why Synchronicity Can Change Your Life and How Weird, Little Synchronicities Can Actually Be the Bomb!).

Now, let’s get to the juicy bits:

Get clear on your thoughts. Negative thoughts will not manifest positive lives. You can brush up on your thoughts by tackling them one at a time. If you have a barrage of negative inner dialogue then just start by becoming aware of it. Then you can begin to filter them out one by one. It takes time and practice — persevere because it’s worth it! Every time a little gremlin thought tries to pay a visit to the watering hole to multiply, extinguish it by being aware that it doesn’t serve you and that you can change any negative thought stream into something positive and beneficial. For example: ‘I’m always tired, I feel terrible’ can instantly be changed to, ‘I am healthy and am going to align to feeling great, energetic and full of life’.
Abracadabra — speak and it shall be done! Find out the real meaning of this magical word HERE. Verbalize your affirmations aloud, it gives them more vooma. You can also meditate on your goals and dreams — gift yourself with a really nice long lucid dream about what it would be like if you had what you’re asking for now.
Feel ‘dem vibes. If you’ve got to fake it to make it then do it! If you’re not feeling abundant and you want to manifest wealth — visualize, daydream and project abundance as much as you can. Start out small, like trying to manifest $10 and then step it up and up and up a notch. As I mentioned in the last blog (READ HERE) you take baby steps until it snowballs. Inject as much feeling as you can into your affirmations — smile, giggle, dance and do what it takes to truly imbibe your desire. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fake it to truly make something happen. Even if you have to tell a different story as to what’s really happening — do it (as long as it harms none)! For example: You hate where you live. Instead of reiterating to everyone you see how much you dislike your abode, rather talk about how happy you are in your space. Watch how things change in unexpected ways!
Leave it to the LOA. You’ve got to relinquish (I can’t STRESS how important this is!) the how’s and what have you’s. Don’t try to control how you manifest something. Speak your desire and let the LOA take over. It will get you to your goal in the quickest way possible. If you try to manipulate it, you will probably just delay or hamper your progress. For example: You want to get tickets to the game but you’re low on cash. You want your brother-in-law to give you his spare ticket, the one he mentioned he had. You ask the LOA to arrange that he gives you his spare. You focus on his ticket only (as if that were the only channel available). You didn’t realize he promised it to someone else and you just missed the ticket your neighbor would’ve freely given you because he couldn’t make it but had no idea you were interested in going. Moral: Just ask for the ticket not who and how you are going to get it.
Speak as if it is, thank as if it is. When you think and verbalize an affirmation, phrase it in the present and with heartfelt gratitude. For example: ‘I want a car’ will only bring you more of the wanting of a car. I want is not a strong affirmation — it’s a transition word that brings perpetual longing. I AM or I HAVE are strong, manifesting words. ‘I have a great car’. ‘I love my new car’ and ‘I am so grateful for my new car!’ ‘Dem is manifesting words, buckaroo! Practice phrasing your mantra’s right and watch those dreams become reality! Try and be as succinct as possible — no room for airy-fairy, wafty wording. I verbalize out loud all the things I want to manifest when I do go for a walk. It’s a great way to keep the flame burning. There is a massive hill I hit the moment I leave my neighborhood, so that is my cue to start speaking my mantra’s and affirmations out loud. Try phrases like, ‘I am healthy’ or ‘I am abundant’. I also give thanks for all the wonderful things in my life after I’ve done my affirmations. Using the LOA is a life-long COMMITMENT. If you want to see the changes start to roll in, you’ve got to stick with the program! Be dedicated and, soon enough, using the LOA will be like brushing your teeth. It will become second nature.
Get it down. Make a vision board and write down your goals on a regular basis. Sometimes we change our minds about what we want to manifest, so make sure you keep on top of it! I have a vision board I made at the beginning of 2016 and I’ve manifested 9 out of the 13 things I had on there so far. You should put your vision board somewhere you will see it on a daily basis — good places may include putting it on your fridge, bathroom mirror or computer desktop. Don’t see this as a chore — look at it as something exciting. I put small and large things on my vision board (from a dress I may want to an overseas holiday). Making goal lists is also a great way of decluttering your mind. When we feel we have no focus it may be because there’s too much going on upstairs. Making lists is a great way to get on paper what you want to see manifest and to hone in on what you truly want.

May your cup spiilleth over now, in 2017 and beyond!

Share the Love and Create More Abundance and Joy Worldwide!

When you master the LOA and start creating a life that you love, don’t forget to share the experience with others! Tell people about what you’re doing and how it’s working for you. Let them know what is possible.

Silently cast blessings of abundance on random people in the street, fling ‘safe passage’ affirmations at cars that pass you by on the road, pray for a peaceful world — let all your good thoughts be hooked upon the sky to start dowsing the flames of the old, fearful energy we have had for millennia.

No thought goes astray. Make them good thoughts.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best 2017 Possible!) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

We Desperately Need to Abandon the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship

LOA: Baby Steps That Snowball — How You Can Join the Sleigh-ride!

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

I’ve been dissecting the Law of Attraction over the past 2 weeks (to recap, please read: LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling and LOA – Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?).

This week, I’d like to share some of my own personal experiences and hurdles over the past 9 years. I hope it convinces you to keep trying to manifest and co-create your reality.

As I’ve said previously, I had some trouble with my belief. Not only with believing in the LOA but believing in myself. It all boiled down to my self-worth. I think many of you will probably have the same problem.

I’m an artist, writer and a musician. I love all 3 of my passions and couldn’t pick one so decided to do all.

I believe, now, that it is more than possible. But my road has been bumpy.

Major Self-Worth Issues

The world of art is a tricky one. How does someone sell a painting for $50 whilst another gets $50 million?

A lot goes into it, of course. It’s not all about luck and hob-nobbing with the right people (although it’s of great importance to meet the right people — synchronicity will help with that! Read more: Why Synchronicity Can Change Your Life).

It’s about having a clear goal, having talent, applying yourself (always doing your best), having infinite passion and drive, believing in your message, not being scared to bear your soul, etc…I’m sure you get the picture (pun? Indeed!).

I started out selling my paintings for $10 on eBay 13 years ago. I thought it was great that someone would actually pay for one of my artworks (low self-esteem)!

Last month I sold one of my painting for just under $2000.

If I had told my past self that this would happen, I wouldn’t have believed it. However, now it is very believable to me.

You see, every time I sold a painting and that price progressively went up, my self-worth went up along with my believability factor. Some people may be able to manifest a $10 000 sale on their first painting but this clearly wasn’t my path!

I won’t lie, it’s taken work (although work is the wrong word because I love what I do) and determination to get me to this point. I still take ‘believable-to-me’ steps and set new goals almost on a monthly basis. It’s like playing a pac-man game…those goals get gobbled up and I move to the next level. It’s really exciting!

Why Do I work This Way?

I do my LOA manifesting this way because it is in alignment with my intuition — you may work it entirely differently. A friend of mine once asked me why I don’t sell my paintings for 10 times more, to which I replied that it simply wasn’t believable to me at the point I was at. You just can’t work against your grain — you’ve got to do what works for you.

The baby steps I took have now lead to a giant snowball tumbling down an embankment and I’m now in a position to sell my paintings for 20 times what I started out at. Don’t you just love how this works?

I’m enjoying the journey and know, in my heart, that things will only go up from here. I look forward to seeing how my art career unfolds with joy and appreciation.

But I’m grateful for the time lapse as it has taught me patience, self-worth and perseverance. Now other things I’m trying to manifest don’t seem that hard or ‘way out there’.

On That Note — Believability Turns to the Stage

This year of 2016 saw me pick up my bass guitar again— after 15 years — to play in a band. Something, I have to admit, I didn’t see coming.

It has been a wonderful year of rediscovery for this lost passion of mine. Since my first gig in March, our band has become fully booked until April 2017. It’s been a roller-coaster ride and I’m loving every minute.

We are even thinking of taking this act on a nationwide tour next year — something I’m really excited about.

I don’t think I could have, after all these years, got back on stage if it wasn’t for the journey of self-discovery the LOA took me on. It has opened up doors I thought were closed, locked and nailed firmly down.

The Beauty of Unconscious Creating

I started writing professionally back in 2010 when my first book came out (Divine You — Redefining Love in the New Earth) . It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve met some wonderful and inspiring people along the way.

It was truly a memorable day when I became a permanent writer for Conscious Life News. It’s been an amazing experience writing for such a progressive site and having colleagues of such immense talent, integrity and drive.

I, recently, was invited to become a columnist for SA’s top holistic magazine, Odyssey (alongside Paulo Coehlo — who also writes a blurb for their issues). I can’t tell you what a shock it was getting the e-mail from the editor out of the blue!

The reason I was so taken aback is because I normally don’t buy magazines but I have a stack of Odyssey mags in my studio (along with a magazine called ‘Simply Green’ which, to my surprise, was run by the same editor team!). It was the only magazine that I really liked and kept, when I would purchase the occasional copy.

Subliminally, I would see these magazines lying on my shelf every day when I would go into my studio to paint.

I never consciously asked to be a columnist for the magazine, it just happened. But, on reflection, it was a dream of mine since I started writing. I’d daydream, every now and again, of how cool it would be to have my name in print in that magazine!

I believe in the LOA 100%. I think it’s incredibly empowering and exciting to be able to sculpt your reality.

In the next blog, I’ll outline some key aspects I’ve come to understand about the LOA, so stay tuned.

Read PART 4 HERE: LOA: Getting Ready to Manifest the Best 2017 Possible!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (LOA – Baby Steps That Snowball — How You Can Join the Sleigh-ride!) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Gardening Your Way to Zen

Be the Inspiration You Seek (Odyssey Mag – Issue 4 – Out Now!)

LOA: Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

To pick up from last week’s blog — LOA: Aligning with How You Are Feeling — let’s explore believability.

It took me 9 years of excavating my own thoughts and creations (after finding out about the Law of Attraction via The Secret DVD and book by Rhonda Byrne) to get a clear and workable understanding of the Law of Attraction (LOA). I’m now in a pretty good place thanks to my own revelations of the law and how it works.

How did I get here?

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Yes, literally.

Not that your journey has to be anything like mine. We are all different and our life experiences and wisdom will usually dictate how quickly we ‘get’ something.

My biggest problem to conquer with the LOA was belief and it’s taken me these 9 years to get to a place where I’m really getting it.

I’m sure most of you who saw or read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne all those years back, got a shiver of excitement as she revealed the secrets of the Universe with regards to manifesting our reality.

You probably resonated with what she was saying and cast your mind back over your life up until that point to discover that you were, even inadvertently, creating your experience.

The Bad Sh*t

As I said in the previous blog, gravity is impartial and pretty unfair to a person who just got pushed out of a ten story building.

But you may say, did that man manifest his murder? And, if so, why? Who would want to manifest something like that?

I don’t think anyone would consciously manifest their murder and I can only speculate the possibilities of what may happen in an instance like this:

What was that person’s soul contract? A very personal and controversial topic that covers karma, soul groups (why souls volunteer to help other souls work through their karma or soul lessons/growth) and would take a book to explain.
What was that person thinking and feeling? This would usually be over an extensive time period and not just a flippant thought stream. People who are constant worriers over vast epochs have a high probability of manifesting something unpleasant. If you have a fleeting bad thought, it may only manifest itself as a stubbed toe.

If you constantly worry about your safety or constantly complain about crime or how unfair and violent this world is — you’re setting the stage for some pretty grim feedback. The LOA only picks up on what vibration or frequency you are emitting and sends you more of that.

Author Disclaimer

Now before I get jumped for saying that, I would like to say that I’ve had some pretty horrible things happen to me in my life (as, I’m sure, most of you can claim) and I accept that there are some things that we just can’t explain. Especially when it comes to the loss of our loved ones. It’ll do your head in to try and work out why bad things happen to good people.

We can only resort to finding comfort in that none of us know the bigger picture. We can only trust in the law of cause and effect — that everything will be balanced in divine time and has some purpose we may not be aware of.

We can do our bit by trying to take heart in assuming responsibility — from this point onwards — for our thoughts and what we create on a daily basis.

Back to Our Emotions

In my experience, it is very unlikely to manifest an accident if you are a cautious driver who only emits thoughts of safety and protection on the road. However, if you are someone who has a hot-temper and believes that you should be the only one allowed on the roads and everyone else is in your way — then, again, this is a recipe for disaster.

I can attest to this as the only minor (thank goodness) accident I ever had whilst driving was because I got into my car in a steaming hot temper — I hadn’t even got out onto the road before my collision, it happened virtually on the edge of my driveway.

I am, otherwise, a fairly passive driver and always shield my vehicle with white light. I’ve also had my license for over 23 years without incident (except for the above example).

I didn’t know about the LOA when this minor bump occurred — I only had my ‘a-ha’ moment upon reflection and I distinctly remember being very cross when I got into the car.

Getting Brutally Honest

To figure out things like this takes a lot of honest introspection.

We are creatures who immediately want to wash our hands of blame, this is a natural instinct of self-preservation and defense usually instilled at an early age.

Try to be as compassionate as you can when looking for key factors as to why something unpleasant may have happened to you. If you truly can’t find a reason, you may need to take solace that your soul wanted you to have the experience to grow.

Never judge other peoples bad luck or experiences — you have NO idea what another soul is going through or trying to achieve.

Disabilities and Dolphins — a Story of Sheer Determination Against All Odds

For example: I know a courageous, amazing man who is in a wheelchair. He was an extremely talented artist and musician but can’t really do much in that arena as his illness has affected the use of his hands.

Instead of slipping into self-pity and despair, this man has elevated himself and is helping others in his position to achieve great things. He has become a deep-sea diver and is now one of the directors of a NGO. He makes videos of his excursions which include swimming with sharks, whales and dolphins — it is truly magical what he films and photographs!

You can see the passion and zest in his eyes when he relays one of his dives.

One can only speculate that had he not found himself in this situation, would he have gone on to accomplish so much? I don’t know the answer, all I can say is he accepted his situation and moved on to create a life full of adventure and desire whilst helping others too.

Next week, I’m going to look more at what changed my believability factor from 0 to thrive.

CRD

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (LOA – Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Change: One Thing You Can Rely On and Use to Your Advantage

LOA: Are You an Accident Waiting to Happen?

LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Don’t Believe in the Law of Attraction?

I happen to believe — 100% — in the power of the LOA (I’ll be divulging, in more detail, about why I believe so vehemently in next week’s blog).

I believe in the LOA as much as I believe in the force of gravity. Some people say the LOA isn’t fair. Well, neither is the law of gravity if you’ve just been pushed out of a 10 story building.

But it’s one of the laws that govern the universe whether you like it or not. Problem is, if you don’t believe in it, so shall that be according to the law. If you believe that we are victims of circumstance, then that is what you will create.

We are all self-fulfilling prophecies.

Frustrations Over Injustice

I saw a question the other day that went something along the lines of ‘Why do starving children not manifest full bellies when, surely, all they are thinking about is food?’

The way I understand the LOA is that to merely think of something isn’t enough. You need to think, verbally affirm and FEEL it.

How can these poor children possibly feel full when their bodies are telling them they are starving?

The only feeling they are able to emit — in that dreadful position — is lack. When you are thinking of what you want but feeling the lack of it (and they have very little option to feel anything but) that is all you will be attracting.

It’s not fair but, that’s how I understand the LOA works — it is impartial just as gravity is impartial.

What Can We Do?

If the starving child got a good meal and was taught to anchor that feeling of having a full belly and keep emitting that thought pattern — then the LOA should respond by giving that child more food (or the sensation of being full or satiated).

Unfortunately, that child may never get the opportunity, however, I also believe in the power of our thoughts (or prayers/mantras/affirmations or whatever you feel comfortable calling it).

What you can do, besides physically going to help or supporting a charity that benefits a cause you feel drawn to, is pray/affirm or meditate on all the children in the world having full, content bellies. Try and ground the affirmation by feeling that it is the truth — try to stay in that space for as long as possible.

You Can Help No Matter Where You Are

Same goes for animal abuse or anything else that vexes you about the world we live in — if you feel helpless then that sends out a negative vibration into the ether and, in my opinion, compounds the problem.

You can’t put out a fire by adding gasoline.

Try to catch yourself every time you slip into despair over something that seems insurmountable and turn it around by sending out a positive affirmation (preferably verbally) or meditating on your positive mantra for at least 3 minutes.

Even if you don’t believe this will make a difference, you have to admit — it’s worth a try. If everyone did this it would expedite a positive energetic shift. If people were speaking and thinking good thoughts, we would be living in a different world.

Besides, what skin off your nose would it be to try something new? Do you really think naysaying or bitching is going to solve anything? Why not try something different then? I think it’s worth a shot.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

Just remember, it is not going to work if you are saying one thing and feeling the opposite. There is immense power in your thoughts and words.

Read the next part below, where I explore the believability factor:

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (LOA – Aligning with How You Are Feeling) was originally written for and published byConscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

4 Effective Ways to Say ‘No’

Gardening Your Way to Zen

The Impartial Law: Trump vs LOA

‘Exploding This Reality’ with Queen — The Last Rock(ing) Art Painting in this Series!

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Drum-rolls, Violin Strings and Champagne!!!

What a journey this Rock Art has been (now calling it ‘Rocking Art’ so as not to confuse intuitive painting to rock music with Bushmen Cave Art).

It’s only taken me 4 YEARS TO COMPLETE! I set out to do this whole series within a year but the Universe had other plans (as usual). Read the entire process here: Rocking Art Series.

rocking-art-poster-5 Before we get to the photographic process of this Queen painting, I’d like to make the first blog announcement that the Rocking Art Series Exhibition is going to be held on the 23rd December 2016. It will be at the funky Karoo Art Hotel in Barrydale (see details in poster to your right).

I am SO excited about this as Templeton and I are going to perform one song from each band after the meet, greet and viewing has taken place.

It’s a tall order and we’re both literally shitting ourselves as the songs aren’t easy…lol. It sure is brown-trouser time!

We’re going to hopefully have someone recording a bit of the live performance and I’ll post it here after the exhibition.

I’m both happy and sad (it’s been on my lounge wall for so long now!) to announce that the Muse painting has been reserved by a wonderful couple from South Africa. However, it will still be on display at the exhibition before it makes its way to its new home in the Cape.

If there is any piece you would like to reserve before the exhibition, please feel free to contact me (cheriedirksen@yahoo.com).

The Show Must Go On!

Without further dilly-dally, let’s look at the painting process slideshow of the last piece in this series —the Queen painting — which I have titled, ‘Exploding This Reality’:

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Here it is — in all it’s glory 🙂 Specs are below:

‘Exploding this Reality’ (Queen) by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

28″ x 28″ x 1.5″

Don’t Stop Me Now!

And what would a Rocking Art painting be without the emotions and feelings that came up during the process?

When I paint one of these intuitive pieces, words and emotions filter up and out of me and I write down — on the side of the canvas — what’s surfacing.

Here are the keywords and phrases that came up with Queen:

Symmetry
Flowering Consciousness
Interconnected
Balance
Healing
Positive Discharge
Creative Energy
Balancing of Masculine and Feminine Energy
Sexual Energy
Dark Strings (?) — ‘Angels Bridging’

I Want to Break Free…And Then Some

Okay, so, the list is pretty self explanatory. But let’s look at them in more detail.

Symmetry is, I guess, why there are so many patterns and codes in this painting. It’s an expression of sacred geometry and divine symmetry.

The flowering consciousness was an interesting one and made me take a step back to really analyze the painting as I was working on it. I saw that the painting looks like it is split into 2 hemispheres (like the left and right brain). There also looks like 2 eye-ball sockets (at the bottom of the painting) with the pineal gland in between. A symbol of the third eye and the awakening consciousness.

I know, it’s VERY abstract but I see it there and this to me represented the balance and especially the balancing of the yin and yang/masculine and feminine principles (right and left brain). Read more about that here: How to Heal and Unite Your Inner Feminine and Masculine.

When you get this, yes, the painting is very interconnected. Because then you have the ‘healing’ that needs to take place in society between the male and female energies which would encompass the Sexual Energy that came up. The Universe works primarily on this Sexual, Creative Energy.

On the left-hand side of the painting — there is a web of strings and when I wrote ‘dark strings’ I was referring to those. I think it’s trying to represent the woven codes of the Matrix? I’ll leave that up to interpretation though. The ‘Angels Bridging’ seemed like the forces of good are working on that.

In the Lap of the Gods…

And, on that spectacular note, the Rocking Art Series concludes. I hope you enjoyed taking this intriguing journey with me and I thank you for all your encouraging words, shares and interest in this body of work.

Who knows, maybe there’ll be a Rocking Art Series 2 down the line!

TO RECAP ON THE ENTIRE ROCKING ART SERIES — CLICK HERE!!!

Gardening Your Way to Zen

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

gardening-zen

It’s Time to Go Green!

Are you a gardener?
Do you like to be in nature?
Did you know it can be one of the most beneficial things you can do?

I was never really into gardening until we bought our first home. The garden (all 900m² of it!) was a bit of a wreck and there was (and is) much to be done.

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.” — Alfred Austin

Two years down the line, hubby and I are still landscaping, planting and enjoying our time outdoors.

Instead of slipping into complete overwhelm at the task ahead, I took my father-in-laws advice and began small — doing one square meter at a time. Eating that elephant one bite at a time really worked and the benefits of seeing my garden now — in all it’s glory — are astounding!

6 Reasons to Get Your Shovel On

Not only does gardening give you a sense of:

accomplishment
joy
peace

But it also has several even more outstanding qualities in this helter skelter, fast-paced life we find ourselves fumbling in. Here are some of the main benefits:

Creativity — you get to flex that creative muscle. You get to build garden beds and choose the right colors/plants for it. You get to plan and build water-features, walls, create bird-baths, pathways, stepping stones and a host of other fun things. I’ve started doing recycled garden projects too — you can find some great and easy ideas on Pinterest.
Meditation — gardening is a great form of meditation — you don’t have to don a lotus position to meditate! Meditation can come in the form of weeding (weeding is like cleaning out your house/cupboards/garage — you get a great sense of relief as you declutter that lawn or veg patch), raking and pretty much any monotonous, mind-clearing garden activity. When you’re done clearing the yard — you can make a good, old-fashioned bonfire to burn the debris. There’s nothing more therapeutic than to have a cleansing, trans-inducing fire and watch those flames licking away at they sky. Why not write some new intentions/goals down on paper and offer them to the flames?
Grounding — if and when you can, try garden barefoot or take your shoes off for a minute or two and stand on the grass. You connect with Mother Earth and it’s a great grounding exercise. Read more about grounding and its importance here: 8 Methods of Grounding and Connecting to the Earth’s Frequencies
Exercise — gardening is an absolutely fantastic fitness activity. Heavy yard work (landscaping, moving rocks, hauling dirt) burns about 400-600 calories per hour. Raking and bagging leaves incinerates 350-450 calories per hour. General gardening like pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. sears 200-400 calories per hour and mowing the lawn: 250-350 calories per hour. Not bad, eh?
Zenning Out — when you’ve finished up your gardening and you relax in a deck chair with a cup of tea, there is a tremendous sense of ‘zen’ that washes over as you look out on your landscaping canvas of creation. You get to know all the creepy crawlies and birds in your space which gives you a real feeling of being in touch with nature and your surrounds. It get’s your heart chakra all riled up and pumping. Read related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom.
Nourishment — gardening will not only nourish your soul, boost your vitamin D levels (if you’re lucky enough to have a bit of sun) and sense of well-being but can nourish your body too if you start a veg/fruit patch and/or a herb garden. There’s nothing better or more worth your time and effort than to start growing your own food. Revolution starts with everyone becoming self-sufficient in some form or another.

Don’t have a garden?

Start window box/balcony gardening. Here’s a great way to get you going — READ HERE and HERE. Or why not start a community garden? Go speak to your local representative and start your gardening revolution today!

You can even make use of your friends garden — they’ll love it if you come over and weed their garden! I’m forever inviting my friends to come and weed (haven’t had a taker yet though…don’t know why :/).

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Gardening Your Way to Zen) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Be the Inspiration You Seek (Odyssey Mag – Issue 4 – Out Now!)

Change: One Thing You Can Rely On and Use to Your Advantage

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

We Desperately Need to Abandon the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach

The Impartial Law: Trump vs LOA

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Let’s cut to the chase. Yes, I am considering a run for president. … Unlike candidates from the two major parties, my candidacy would not represent an exercise in career advancement. I am not a political pro trying to top off his resume. I am considering a run only because I am convinced the major parties have lost their way. The Republicans are captives of their right wing. The Democrats are captives of their left wing. I don’t hear anyone speaking for the working men and women in the center.”

— Trump, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 30, 1999

Blowing My Trumpet

Well, well, well…who could have predicted that presidential outcome?

I’m pretty much Switzerland when it came to choosing a ‘favorite’ — excuse me while I jump on a fence. To me there wasn’t really a choice, I wouldn’t have picked either (as I’m sure many American citizens felt too).

Watching the election news from my side of the globe (I’m South African, as most of you may not know) was riveting.

Even we South Africans — with our very own dubious, polygamist president (with his 4 wives, acquitted rape charges, literacy problems and corruption debarcles) hitting the news virtually every day with a variety of distasteful, scandalous incidents — felt sorry for the voters of the USA with that questionable selection of presidential candidates.

The Trump Card

However, we have to give the man credit (Trump not Zuma!). Since his first mumblings — back in the last decade of the millennium (and probably further back in Trump the Young’s own head) — he did assert that he wouldn’t have a problem being elected.

I smell a man with an extraordinary belief in himself (key to manifesting what you want) and ‘sky is the limit’ capabilities, who also affirms out loud what he’s going to do and how successful he will be at it.

What I’m trying to get at here is: the man is a walking, talking example of using the Law of Attraction!

I was going to write this weeks blog about the astonishing amount of manifestations I’ve been experiencing in my life using the LOA lately. I’ve been manifesting left, right, center and instantaneously too — it’s been way cool. The more you believe it works the more it works and near impossible things become totally believable.

I was going to give you all my examples of what’s been going on in my life just this last week — then I ran into a meme of Trump on my Facebook feed and stopped dead in my tracks.

All I saw was a prime example of how this law works — whether you’re a good person or a total asshole (I’m pointing no fingers – Switzerland here, remember?).

“The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial and impersonal as the law of gravity is.”

— Rhonda Byrne

As we know, the LOA is impartial. It only reacts to the energy you are sending out via your thoughts, words, feelings and actions. Trump defied ALL odds and became the president of the USA!!! However, he planted seeds decades ago and never gave up. Kudos, Trump.

Wasn’t Hillary also affirming her presidency? Of course, look how close the elections were. Did she truly believe she was going to win? I can’t answer that — all we can do is look at what transpired.

Please read related article: 3 Ways to Use Magical Words to Create Miraculous Lives

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (The Impartial Law: Trump vs LOA) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Be the Inspiration You Seek (Odyssey Mag – Issue 4 – Out Now!)

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

There are simple yet effective habits that free-thinking, progressive people adopt to raise their vibration and stay in a place of joy, creativity, serenity and love. If you’re feeling lost or disconnected from your life purpose, passion and spirit, then Cherie Roe Dirksen may have some helpful tips to keep you pointed in the right direction as well as being an inspiration to others:

The Many Distractions of Modern Day Life

Many of us mere mortals find it difficult to keep our motivation in a constant, healthy flow — sometimes our muse takes a vacation to Ibiza and leaves us holding the fort back home without ink in our wells or paint in our palettes (or Chardonnay in our fridges).

It also doesn’t help when life throws constant distractions our way — the good, the bad and the downright despicable.

We tend to fall into the trap of circumnavigating what’s really important in lieu of catching that new mini series that everyone’s been talking about — and being sucked in for a season or six — or endlessly perusing sites and social media in an attempt to get nowhere in a slow and time-consuming manner.

Time is precious, use it shrewdly.

What does it take to be inspired?

If you feel like you’ve lost the plot and your inspiration levels have ground down to zero then there is a solar powered light at the end of your tunnel. There is great wisdom to be gleaned in the enlightened words of Lao Tzu who penned:

“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. “

Let’s take a look at the ways you can bring this concept into your life. You too can stay grounded and connected to source and that infinite supply of inspiration by:

Feeling Your Spirit — when you tap into your innate, you’ll find the peace that dwells within. Engaging in that peace (through meditation, breath-work, yoga, prayer, being in nature, etc.) will bring about more and more harmony. Being in this space not only brings you closer to Source but it’s the breeding ground where all bodacious types of magic and inspiration are born.
Paying Close Attention to the Natural World — when we ‘live close to the ground’ we engage and interact with Gaia — the spirit of this physical world we were born into. When we literally get dirty and immerse our feet in the soil, breathe in the sweet and fruity fragrance of the spring blossoms, dip our hands into a cool brook, study the busy activities of the birds up above and contemplate the majesty of a delicate flower — we step into awe and wonder at a system we cannot fully comprehend but are full of respect for. Paying very close attention to the natural kingdom can show us meaning and understanding in our own personal struggles. Become more aware when you are outdoors — look, listen, learn and drink in the beauty that surrounds and wants to interact with you.
Seeing Divinity Everywhere and in Everything — it’s easy to forget that Source is omnipotent. When you remind yourself and experience the verity that the God-force is in every living thing, you can begin to shift your perspective to align with gratitude. Source is ready to commune with you — are you willing to receive the blessing?
Aligning Your Thoughts with Spirit — our thoughts can steer us in the right or wrong direction. Don’t forget to check in with your innate, on occasion, to monitor if your feelings or gut instincts are in vibrational alignment with your spirit. If you’re veering onto a path that feels wrong, you can always change your destination by choosing new thoughts.

Read the rest of the article by clicking HERE and selecting pages 84-86 and get FREE access to all the other fabulous articles in this latest edition of Odyssey!

Other articles you may like:

Change: One Thing You Can Rely On and Use to Your Advantage

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

Feature: Odyssey Magazine — Get Your Free Copy NOW

Change: One Thing You Can Rely On and Use to Your Advantage

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” — Winston Churchill

You guessed it, the only constant thing is this mortal coil is change. It’s the definitive dichotomy of our existence.

Now — seeing it’s the only thing you most certainly CAN rely on — let’s look at how we can use change to our benefit:

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

1. Perspective

When the earth around you shakes, the only thing you can do to keep your head above water is to adapt. When you allow yourself to see change as a prelude to something greater, you can learn how to cope with it more easily.

Changing the way you look at something will ultimately give you a bigger picture and more coping skills. Staying stuck in rigidity will only make you less flexible and fearful.

“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” — Frederick Douglass

2. Progress

When the earth was terraforming, it must have been an awesome sight to behold. Continents shifting, mountains being pushed up from the depths of the ocean and molten lava spewing out of the earths core to create new land. It must have been sheer chaos but without the changes the earth experienced, we would not have the beautiful planet we experience today.

Sometimes things seem harsh but, in the long run, can be leading to a more exquisite conclusion — something you couldn’t have expected in your dizziest daydreams.

Exercise your mind to embrace reformation and to expect the world around you to keep evolving to an even better state of existence than what you are experiencing now. When you do this, you are always laying seeds for a positive outcome.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw

And, finally:

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan Watts

3. Prepare

Play with reshaping your environment — gracefully accept the dance and move with redirective flow. You can take small steps today to train yourself in accepting change such as:

Rearrange your home decor periodically,
experiment with your wardrobe,
shuffle things about on your office desk,
plan a new jogging route,
attempt a new zesty meal plan for the week or test out a different restaurant,
try something new this weekend instead of doing the same old same old — inject change into your daily life and break up stringent regimes.

The human race is fixated on routine and stability and, although those qualities sometimes have their place, we could do with learning to accept and even instigate transformation once in a while to build that flexibility muscle.

Be the master of change and see how life becomes easier and more joyful.

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” — Jim Rohn

Read related articles:

Great Changes That May Be Coming in October and What You Can Do To Prepare for Them

25 Small Changes To Be A Happier Healthier Version Of Yourself [VIDEO]

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Change: One Thing You Can Rely On and Use to Your Advantage) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

David Bowie: Painting no. 9 of My ‘Rock(ing) Art’ Series — When Synchronicity Reveals Ludicrous Revelations

2 Dire Growth Problems Our Youth Face

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

The iPhone Generation or Zombie Apocalypse

I was listening to a radio program where a psychologist was talking about the problems this new generation face — one being a high rate of teen suicide due to lack of coping skills or ability to communicate with others.

The expectations (and most are fake or supremely fudged over) that the young adults of today face are insurmountable — the ‘look like this’, ‘have a body like that’, ‘look how happy we are’ statuses and the constant flood of societal dictation of what beauty, brains and normal is.

God forbid if you think for yourself, dress how you want, love your body for what it is or stand up for others who are being ridiculed by their peers and not follow this preordained trend.

Read related article: 9 Truths to Stop You From Caring What People Think

To the trained eye and savvy social media peruser, it can even be a difficult task to filter out the fake from the true. Can you then imagine how difficult it must be for a developing adolescent to figure out what’s going on? The pressure and high intensity of our current techie age must be daunting to an impressionable mind!

Calling it What it is…

We need to help guide the youth to trust their instincts, follow their dreams, think for themselves, question everything and be comfortable in their own skin.

We also have a duty to warn them of these 2 inherent dangers that are about to stunt their personal growth, as I see it:

Lack of Humility/Modesty — this new social media age is breeding a monster called ‘selfies’. If I see another duck face on my Facebook feed I think I might take a long walk off a short plank. I fear, this syndrome has not only captivated the youth and teens — it has some adults in its firm and fierce-some grip too! To continually post photo’s of yourself (as taken by yourself and not to be confused with good ‘ol holiday snaps or ‘capturing the moment’ snaps as taken by others) on any social media platform is just darn-right vain. I have some acquaintances who do it several times a day and they’re adults! I can’t actually believe this kind of behavior and cringe when I see my whole feed taken up by fish faces. I don’t even think one a week is healthy (which reminds me of a status I saw: ‘I didn’t have time to take a selfie but you can rest assured that I still look fabulous!’…he he). Some people find ANY excuse to take a pic of themselves and don’t hesitate to hit the share button…again…and again. It shows either a massive ego at play or a very small one (lack of self confidence hence wanting constant affirmation of ones beauty/relevance). I saw a quote the other day that sums it up nicely: “Never before has a generation so diligently documented themselves accomplishing so little” (credit on photo: http://www.thefreethoughtproject.com). If we don’t nip this in the bud, we will be breeding a world full of egocentric individuals more focused on what other people think of them/their abilities instead of just getting on with the job quietly without pomp and ceremony (‘Dare, Do, Keep Silent’). Our children need to be made aware that to be humble in service to others and help our fellow human beings builds immense strong character — to be of service only to self whilst blowing your own trumpet creates none. Selfies could indeed paint a more grim picture than we might have imagined. Our children need to be taught that relevance, appropriateness and subtlety is key.
Lack of One-on-One Communication — the other problem our youth face is not being able to effectively communicate with others. With faces firmly glued to screens for most of the day, it’s little wonder that this generation lacks proper social relations. This is more of a problem than it may appear on the surface. Of course, it’s annoying (and bloody rude) when people are constantly checking in on their phone apps whilst with you (read related article: Stop (Wi)Frying Yourself — Starting Today (Especially Family Units!) but the more inherent problem is when these youngsters really need help and to talk about their problems but have no skills to relay or open a dialogue to discuss their issues either with their parents, elders or peers. Communique with others predominantly via electronic devices leaves out the imperative one-on-one contact you get when corresponding in the flesh. You don’t get to develop your skills at body language, eye contact and a host of other things. This can lead to faulty judgement and/or complete lack of confidence when corresponding in the outside world. Our youth will need this kind of report when seeking employment or any other grown-uppy kind of thing and how are they possibly going to manage when they have no clue when it comes to physical interface?

We all like the comfort of having the world at our fingertips via our phones but we also need to be aware of the downside and curb excessive and unnecessary use — and that goes for all, young and old.

Limit your time on your phone and have a cut off point where you pack it away and spend quality time with your friends or family — phone free. Do this and you will be an example to your children (and/or other peoples children).

Related article: How Balanced Are You?

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (2 Dire Growth Problems Our Youth Face) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

—extract from the article

David Bowie: Painting no. 9 of My ‘Rock(ing) Art’ Series — When Synchronicity Reveals Ludicrous Revelations

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

The Long and Winding Road

First off — I am pleased to announce that my Rock(ing) Art Series is about to come to full fruition as I am almost done with painting no. 10 (Queen)! I have already booked the exhibition space at the Karoo Art Hotel for 23rd December 2016 (5pm ’til late).

We’re going to have a rocking party afterwards, with myself and Templeton performing one song, from each artist featured in this collection, live! So, if you happen to be in the area — do come and join the festivities and see these paintings in the flesh.

You can view the whole ‘Rocking Art’ process HERE. For those of you who don’t know, my Rocking Art Series — in a nutshell — is about subliminally painting to music (individual artists/bands) to see what emerges from sound to vision and emotion.

Back to Bowie

Being the absolute mampara that I am, I unfortunately deleted most of my process photo’s from my smartphone before uploading them to my computer. So, the result is I have only got photo’s of the last stages of the painting…sorry.

I will be diving into the emotions and key phrases that came up whilst painting this at the end of the photographic process below. Need I say, this one was very strange and opened the doors to many a question.

Here are the photo’s (some close ups included):

bowie-2

bowie-1

20160718_110514

And…ta-daa…the final product (as hung against my freshly painted green lounge wall):

bowie-painting-against-my-wall

Quite a lot to process in this artwork, isn’t there? Here are some close ups of the finished painting:

001

002

Full view:

Click on picture above to take you to print sales. The original will only be available on opening night of the exhibition at the end of the year. If you wish to reserve the original, please inbox me for price and information (cheriedirksen@yahoo.com).

Now for the emotions behind the art/music:

Having a Bowie Movement

The painting’s name is Unhinging Society — pretty apt for the late great Mr. Jones.

The keywords that came up while I was painting were:

Anarchy — definitely no playing by the rules!
Disjointed (Bowie? Surely not! 😉 )
Wyrd (read more about being Wyrd HERE — indeed a Bowie trait)
White Blood (?) not red…I got a very vivid indication that I must use NO red whatsoever in this painting. Strange, no?
Mantis (I shit you not) — perhaps why the green hue was a very big theme throughout.

Riveting Revelations: Where’s Wally?

Can you spot Wally? He is in this picture 😉

A while ago, we got a visitor — a praying mantis — that made its home on our bathroom windowsill. We named him Wally because he was such an evasive character! He would literally play hide and seek with us.

Every morning we’d come into the bathroom for morning ablutions and say, ‘where’s Wally?’

One day, when I was getting vexed because I couldn’t find him, he jumped into the basin from the blinds where he was hiding as if to say, ‘Ta-daa! Got you!’.

Bear with me…this does have relevance to my painting.

I made the sign (in the pic to your right) because a nature-loving friend of mine used my bathroom one day and I saw him carrying something out my front door cupped between his hands. When I asked him nervously what he had there, he showed me and it was Wally!

He thought he had strayed into the house and that I might kill it for fear of creepy crawlies. I had to explain to him that Wally was kind of my dearly beloved pet.

Time to Say Goodbye

Needless to say, I loved Wally.

He disappeared one day and I was heart broken. He used to go out of the window occasionally but he always returned.

Two weeks later he crawled back up our bath plug. I knew it was him as he had a distinctive mark on his back. He looked worse for wear and I held him in my hand. He managed to slowly lift his head and look up at me…and then he died.

I promise you, this is 100% true — I couldn’t make this stuff up.

This happened about 6 months prior to me beginning this painting.

To My Insectoidal Prophetic Surprise

This Bowie painting is crawling with mantis-like creatures. Yeah, I know some of you will say it was Wally subconsciously ‘praying’ (he he, couldn’t resist!) on my mind but maybe Wally was a prelude portend to this painting?

He came to stir up some cosmic knowledge.

Maybe the Universe (or at least, Mother Nature via my garden) brought me Wally for a bigger picture (pun most definitely intended) of what was to transpire — after all, stranger things have happened.

Wally was an omen.

Loving the Alien?

These mantis beings issued out of the painting by themselves — I just helped define the shapes I saw.

It is also interesting to note that in South Africa we have a race of people called the Khoikhoi/Khoisan/San/Hottentot (the originators of Rock Art albeit in a different form 😉 ). These people have worshiped the praying mantis for centuries as a shape-shifting god named Cagn/Kaggen/Kaang. Read more HERE.

Maybe there’s a little something ‘alien’ to all of this? Read more about the alleged Mantis Extraterrestrial Race HERE. What I loved about looking up this information is that it states in this article that this particular alien race’s main focus is ‘weaving color and sound to create and enliven the light web of the universe’. I promise, I only looked up this information after the painting was complete.

The article also states that star seeds of the mantis race born prior to the 90’s had a hard adjustment period in life (very Bowie-esque).

“They felt that if anyone really knew what they are like, they would run, so they hid their inner truth in some way. It has been a difficult task for their angels and other guides to get them to open up and share what they came to share. Once they do open up, their intensity, art, and ability to know what needs to be done to create the perfect environment is uncanny. They are usually artistic in some way. They are writers, musicians, poets, designers of space and events. They have a knack for bringing pieces of a puzzle together and making it sing. Their gifts lie in bringing energy, aesthetic appeal, and vitality to whatever they do. They are here to use these gifts to infuse higher frequencies into hearts and environments through form, sound and color.“

Perhaps David Bowie truly a space oddity — the man who fell to Earth. He certainly wrote a lot about aliens.

“The Mantis beings are masters with vibrations of sound and color. They use this mastery to heal and create. They are artists of universal light. They dance through frequencies and alter their surroundings as they do so.”

“Sensitive to sound, color, and vibrational nuances, luminous, spiritual, healers, graceful, fluid, artistic, penetrating, influential.”

—extracts from the article

Maybe I’m grasping at straws here and the appearance of the mantis in the painting are just remnants of my short love affair with Wally…but imagine if there was more to it?

I also got a great sense (from the painting) of bucking authority (showing the bird!), the freedom of unreservedly expressing yourself no matter how strange, going against the norm and of trying to inject abnormal into society just to bring about a bit of normality (if that makes sense?).

Thanks for coming on the journey with me!

Disclaimer: I’m allowed to be loony — I’m an artist!

Dedication: To my dearly departed Wally and the main inspiration of my youth, David Bowie (Jones).

Other articles you may enjoy:

10 Bands, 10 Paintings…Let the Rock Art Begin!

The Grand Band Reveal is Today!

Radiohead — A Teaser Pictorial ‘Rock Art’ Peek

What Radiohead Looks Like Through The End of My Brush

Song Playlist — Radiohead Albums That Made The Art

Rock Art Series — The Beatles

What The Beatles Look Like From the End of my Paintbrush

Rock Art Series Painting no. 3 — Jeff Buckley ‘Raw’

How I Got ‘Raw’ With Jeff Buckley

‘Dancing in the Void’ — Pink Floyd Rock Art Painting No.4 Photographs

Painting Pink Floyd — Soldiering Through the Minefield of Emotion

‘Dangerous Love’ — Skunk Anansie Rock Art Painting No. 5

Rock Art Painting no. 6 — Templeton: The Photographic Process and Grand Reveal!

What on Earth is a ‘Chaoskampf Demiurge’? You Seriously Need to Know This!

The Resurrection of Muse — Rock Art Painting no. 7 Photographs

Decoding Muse (Rock Art Painting no. 7) — ‘Resurrection’

Cold Burn to Nirvana? Rock Art Painting No.8 is Something Different (Photo’s Included)

Get Me OUT Of Purgatory! The Emotions Behind the Nirvana Painting, ‘Cold Burn’

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Feeling Down For No Reason?

Let’s cut to the chase — are you experiencing any of these symptoms:

drained of energy/feeling low,
always getting sick,
feeling depressed,
feeling drained after being with or talking to certain people,
lacking good sleep or feeling uneasy,
attracting negativity or negative people into your life,
feeling thwarted in your personal life or career?

Yes? You may be under psychic attack or have some kind of negative entity in your personal sphere/energetic field. Have no fear because help is at hand and you are not alone!

Many people experience this kind of phenomenon.

There can certainly be circumstances when one feels one has done everything to become more spiritual, self-aware, make better food choices, think good thoughts, meditate and, yet, some still feel stuck in a rut or experience severe blocks.

It can be really frustrating to hit a wall and not find any door to pass through. This obstruction could indeed be caused by a pesky or even insidious ‘space invader’ (alien/dark entity/not-so-alien-type-being) — a presence that has been stealing your chutzpah or just plain wreaking havoc in your life.

What Can You Do About It?

There are many energy healers who can help you to overcome such negative influences — such as the uplifting Margo Mateas (who was recently featured on Coast to Coast). Her site is called Freed By The Light and is well worth perusing.

However, if you feel you want to act now — here are some pointers to help you protect yourself and get your life back on track:

Declare that you are sovereign. Read more here: Here’s Your Crown — You Are Sovereign!
Protect yourself by envisaging a white, healthy, glowing, impenetrable aura. Do this in the morning and in the evening. Read related article: 12 Great Ways to Cleanse & Strengthen Your Aura
Cut any chords you may have with others. You may not even realize that you have an etheric chord binding you to someone (or many someones) — it’s never healthy to have these, even to people you love. Everyone must be God Sovereign, so these kinds of chords drain you/the other(s) of their energy and block you/other(s) from being in your entire power. Here is a simple, soothing and loving chord cutting exercise with Doreen Virtue: CLICK HERE TO DO MEDITATION.
Revoke/Release any soul contracts you may have made now and in the past that have you tethered. Sometimes we are not even conscious of these agreements either because they predate our current lives (ie. from past life experiences) or they are made unconsciously (ie. inviting negative/lower astral entities into your energy field via Ouija board/not knowing who or what you are summoning for help). Read related article: 15 Protection Tips That Keep Out Negative Energy

I hope these tips help you to reclaim your divine vessel and space that you have 100% rights to!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Why You Need to Tap into Your Muchness for Self Confidence

4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

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How to Recognize a Dream Thief

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Deepak Chopra implied in his book, The Book of Secrets (very good and worth a read!), that one should hold on to some dreams and desires and keep ones cards close to ones chest. In other words, there are some goals you should never share with others — they are personal and that kind of secret is okay.

At the time of reading this, I was an open book. I was the kind of person who tells everyone everything and doesn’t hold back. I trust people very easily so I didn’t quite get this at the time…I was soon to learn!

Devious Encounters of a Friendly Kind

On my journey of becoming more self aware and, naturally, becoming more aware of others — I encountered some people (disguised well, as friends and kindred spirits) who have proven Dr Chopra right.

Unfortunate as it is, there are folks out there who like to trample on peoples dreams and instead of being encouraging — they tend to quash your spirit.

They can do this outright (more obvious to spot) but some do this in a covert and subtly insidious manner. They can make you feel like they’re doing you a favor by ‘saving you from yourself’ when the reality is — they themselves are inept at attaining their goals so they can’t have you stealing the spotlight (even if they weren’t going to use it).

Spotting a Thief

Trouble is, they come in many shapes and sizes. They pose as friends (or even family members) but are cunning at disguising their true intentions which usually becomes more apparent when the green monster rears its head and you’re about to outshine them.

They work well in undermining your dreams in a sometimes very nice and polite way. It can be confusing when a friend or loved one subtly puts you or your dreams down in a way that seems like they’re only looking out for you. Before you know it your bonfire has been well and truly pissed on.

And you’re left holding the psychological pieces of the puzzle that was once your dream that now lays in pieces on the cold, dead coals.

Employing Armed Response and Protecting Your Dreams

It’s usually the softies that get crushed underfoot (I used to be one, so I know what goes through a people-pleaser’s self-doubting mind). We tend to take people at face value and trust that they have our best intentions at heart. We even think that other people probably know better than us.

I’m sorry to say that that bubble needs to be popped, the sooner the better!

It’s okay to walk away from people like this. I always felt guilty doing it, so I would stay in a friendship just to ‘keep the peace’. Thing is, I wasn’t keeping my own peace. Bottom line is: it’s just not worth sacrificing your own inner peace for friendships like these.

I still like to adopt a ‘innocent until proven guilty‘ approach with people but I now have a well honed bullshit-o-meter. I’ve had too many experiences with borderline narcissists to know what one sounds like especially when my gut instinct is sounding alarm bells.

Things you can do to combat such dream thieves are to:

Develop a good sense of inner discernment/gut feeling or instinct or whatever else you want to call it. Look out for people who hype themselves up whilst subtly putting you down. Stay far away from these people or at the very least (if they are unavoidable) do good aura protection mantras. Read more here: 15 Protection Tips That Keep Out Negative Energy
Maintain a healthy ego/pride. This is in no way egotistical, it’s just having enough self love to have faith in your innate wisdom and to go ahead with any dreams or goals you want to pursue without letting other people dissuade you. Related article: Do You Feel Worthless? 2 Reasons Why You Need to Love YOU. From the wisdom of Wayne Dyer: “Regardless of how absurd your inner callings might seem, they’re authentically yours. They don’t have to make sense to anyone else. The willingness to listen and act on your inspiration, independent of the opinions of others, is imperative.”

Keeping Good Company

It goes without saying that if you associate with the inspired and the inspiring, you can’t go wrong. Positive people will lift your spirits and motivate you to push your own perceived limitations and boundaries.

You can’t lead an inspired life by hanging around people who are a constant source of negativity — that makes about as much sense as a bird tying weights to its wings to gain more height.

Your mom was right — sometimes ‘hanging out with the wrong sort‘ could be a make or break situation. It takes time, trial and error to know these things but it’s a lesson well worth learning.

Choose your company wisely!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (How to Recognize a Dream Thief) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

We Desperately Need to Abandon the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach

5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship

Going Beyond Normal: Manifesting the Truly Bizarre

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

We Desperately Need to Abandon the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Getting Into a Tight Squeeze

“Truth is multi-faceted and can’t be squeezed into one or two concepts. We need to leave room for expansion especially for the things we cannot explain nor understand right now.”

We have a local store where I live that sells clothes. My husband bought a belt from them recently. He is a very slim chap and when he got home he was horrified to discover that the belt did not fit him.

I bought myself a smashing pair of leggings that said ‘one size fits all’. When I got home, they did indeed fit me except for one little detail — there was no room for a derriere! Comically, when I wear them, the front pulls up A-Okay but there is a major underpants revealing sag to the back end.

Perhaps in the location where these items were made, the bodies of the people are a tad bit smaller? Either that or my husband and I have entered megalithic proportions.

All jokes aside, this concept has been threatening me too many times for it not to have some underlying, sound metaphysical synchronous advice. As I sat yesterday — absorbing a rather dichotomous talk show that got me thinking — a little message popped into my head and said, ‘one size doesn’t fit all‘.

Throwing the Baby Out With the Bathwater

The above adage simply means to lose valuable ideas/things in an attempt to get rid of what is not wanted or,in other words, rejecting the essential along with the inessential.

For example: You may absolutely detest conspiracy theories and every time you catch a whiff of one, you dismiss it as utter nonsense without doing any research into the matter or checking in with your innate wisdom or gut instinct.

There is undoubtedly a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to conspiracy theories and there is certainly ample speculations to throw out. However, to lump them all as ridiculous, shields any endeavor at viewing something from a different perspective — even if doing that inevitably leads you to still toss the idea out.

When you do a little investigative work before kicking something to the curb, you have then covered your derriere instead of leaving it exposed! The ‘one size fits all’ has been sized up.

Bombshells and Tin Foil

The same could be applied to a lot of spiritual information out there.

Let’s face it, the internet is being bombarded with YouTube videos, articles (like this one *blush*), books, coaches, radio shows and all sorts of other ways we can communicate with others about our personal philosophical truths and existential theories about life, death and everything in between.

The problem arises with being ‘overloaded’ with information and, for want of a better phrase, not knowing your ass from your elbow.

There is so much information out there — a lot of it can be quite contradictory not only to others opinions but sometimes we find someone who contradicts their own thesis (albeit covertly) — I sometimes feel I need to don an aluminium hat to shield myself from a possible meltdown!

Take a Knee and FEEL Your Truth

On our path to ascension (or spiritual awakening or whatever else you want to call it) it’s only natural that we strive to know more and find out as much as we can — it can be an exciting trip down the rabbit hole to venture out into the world of the alternative — but never lose sight of the fact that intrinsically your soul already knows and all else is merely reminding you of that.

That’s why any teacher, guru or master usually proclaims that if anything they teach doesn’t resonate, you should not take it on board. This may be for many reasons, two being that:

this is not true for you or,
you are not ready to take it on board yet (have you ever read a spiritual book that didn’t gel with you at the time of reading? then you pick it up years later and…bingo! You hit the wisdom jackpot because you have now grown into your ears, so to speak)

We can easily flip from one article to the next, one talk show to the next — absorbing a plethora of energy and data — just remember to give yourself much needed time to integrate any new information.

This is where you can commune with your over-soul and glean your personal truth by sitting in stillness and asking for integration and clarification.

Gift yourself with time to mull things over because one size certainly does NOT fit all. Truth is multi-faceted and can’t be squeezed into one or two concepts. We need to leave room for expansion especially for the things we cannot explain or understand right now.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.
To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you clickHERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie onFacebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HE
RE.
This article (We Desperately Need to Abandon the ‘One Size Fits All’ Approach) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship

Going Beyond Normal: Manifesting the Truly Bizarre

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Love is a two-way street constantly under construction.” — Carroll Bryant

Head Over Heels

20 years ago I married my school sweetheart. Yeah, we got married young (I was just about to turn 21 and he was 23) but we were head over heels in love and had been dating for over 4 years. We just knew it was the real deal and we were unstoppable.

We had many hurdles to overcome in our early years of marriage as we were still growing into our adulthood but, luckily, we survived the bumpy ride and the trying times made our connection even stronger.

Sometimes love alone doesn’t guarantee a lasting relationship — successful entanglement comprises of many things.

Read related article here: 5 Fundamental Steps to a Thriving Relationship

In the article above, I discussed 5 important steps to a healthy, loving partnership which covered:

communication
trust
excitement
‘I love you’
‘thank you’

I highly recommend you read the fluffy bits of this article as they are uber important if you want to nurture your happily ever after.

Taking the Sour with the Sweet

Relationships never stop growing and mutating — I learn something new about my partner every day (especially as we both work from home and are in each others space 24/7 — funny thing is, I wouldn’t have it any other way!). It’s exciting and can also be, at some times, eye-opening — as in ‘wow, I didn’t know that about you‘.

Yup, revelations still happen many years into a relationship.

There are always ups and downs — there’s no candy-coating that fact. We’re all growing and learning all of the time (with a bit of luck), it’s especially trying in these auspicious times as we quicken into a global spiritual awakening. Relationships are going through the ringer!

The real trick is to always try remember to view things from all relative perspectives. There are a few more points I’d like to pick over, things I’ve discovered over these 2 decades of marital bliss:

Perception — this is a tricky little blighter as we are so used to seeing things through our own perspective. We must always remember that everyone has their own version of the truth and it pays to put yourself in someone else’s shoes every once in a while. You’ve got to honestly ask yourself if you are being fair in viewing someone or something from a multi-dimensional standpoint.
‘I’m Sorry’ — it’s a prudent practice to admit your mistakes — especially to your partner. It really sucks when you have a one-sided relationship with a know-it-all. Humility goes a long way and it strengthens that trust muscle for you in your partner. Never be too proud to say you’re sorry or to acknowledge that you may have stuffed up.
Tolerance — there are junctions in a relationship where you may need to concede and ‘agree to disagree‘. Your partner is entitled to their opinion just as much as you are. No-one has to convert anyone else to their truth. Your real test in this situation is to have tolerance and non-judgment — it goes a long way and shows a sense of maturity that your partner will appreciate.
Detachment — now this is a strange attribute to put in a discussion about relationships. Aren’t partnerships supposed to be about being attached? Yes and no. You work together as a team constantly but you must have respect for your partners privacy. Every person needs a bit of space to explore their own sense of self and that should be respected. Therefore, practice detachment every now and again with your partner in a loving manner. Allow them to have unquestionable space and time alone without feeling hurt or rejected or making them feel guilty. You may discover that you need this periodic freedom too. It is not healthy to be so attached to someone that you forget where you end and they begin. It may be a romantic notion in a novel or movie to be so inseparable that you’re two halves of one unit. In my experience, you need to be a complete unit and your partner needs to be a one too — there are no half measures! You both need to be whole and independent before you enter into co-dependency — a bit of a dichotomy at first but well understood when you enter a serious commitment.
Patience — remember that old adage, ‘love is patient’? It’s true — when you love someone you will periodically need to exercise patience — let things unfold naturally without unnecessary force. That’s how you grow as a couple.

I hope these tips help you to step up your game and keep your relationships healthy and thriving!

Read related article: 7 Clues You’re in an Unhealthy Relationship

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie onFacebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (5 Key Factors to a Lasting Relationship) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Going Beyond Normal: Manifesting the Truly Bizarre

10 Hilariously True Life Quotes That’ll Make You Chuckle

Could Depression and Suicide be Linked to this Parasite? 1 in 3 People Affected!

How We Create Reality: The Infinite Power Behind Ideas

Going Beyond Normal: Manifesting the Truly Bizarre

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

The World’s a Menagerie

“Joy and elation are the quickest tools to getting those dreams and desires fleshed out.”

The most frequent question I think any South African gets asked, when visiting a foreign country, would be, ‘Do you really get lions prowling the streets?’ — To which the more common reply is a contentious, ‘no.’

As a South African resident, you rarely see wild beasts strolling down the highway — you may occasionally get a baboon raiding your fridge for last night’s lasagna (if you’ve left a door or window open), but nothing like a giraffe talking a stroll through Cape Town botanical gardens at high tea.

Most well-traveled global citizens would already know that despite South Africa being a third world country, it does indeed have cities, freeways and fences (yes, I was also once asked if we have roads, I mean really! And just for a bit of comic relief — I was even thrown this question by an Indian lady with a British accent on the London underground, ‘If you’re from South Africa, why aren’t you black?’ to which my response was, ‘my parents are.’ It kept her quiet and mentally incapacitated for the rest of the journey). Suffice it to say, it’s not all untamed bushveld here in the deep South.

I’m going to turn tail a bit here and share my recent experiences in actually manifesting the reality of the wild world I’ve so vehemently denied exists. My efforts above where to set the stage for the more common perspective of life in the RSA but what I’m going to say now is going to blow all that out of the water.

Let Your Mind Go Wild

If you still don’t think we create our reality then please do read on…

One of my favorite holidays was going on safari — there was nothing more magical, in my opinion, than watching a rhinoceros peacefully grazing to the backdrop of an African sunset or witnessing a pride of lions playing with their cubs under a starlit sky.

Point: I love seeing animals in the wild.

I just finished reading Douglas Adams’ book, ‘The Salmon of Doubt’, where his main character read his horoscope for the day and it entailed meeting a rhinoceros named Desmond — a possible stretch of the astrological imagination of any prediction addict living in the ‘real’ world but not terribly far from what I’m about to tell you…

Pachyderm Road Trip

My husband and I were on the road to our closest mall (a mere 2 hour drive away), I was gazing nonchalantly out of the window at the passing flora wishing to see something more exciting — I sh*t you not — like an elephant or something (let me stress again, this is not as common as you think).

You guessed it, not only five minutes later my hubby almost went careening off the road as I let out an excited high-pitched squawk — there was an elephant standing about 10 meters off the side of the road (behind a fence) eating his breakfast. I never had the chance to catch his handle but if I were to hazard a guess, he looked like a ‘Brian’.

It was one of those moments where you had to pinch yourself.

To put this into perspective: I have lived in South Africa for 41 years now and have never just casually seen an elephant on the side of the road — only in game reserves.

I told him (my husband, not the elephant) what I was just thinking and he thought it was rather incredible. I made a mental note to say it out loud next time to be even more credible.

At least he witnessed the elephant for himself. A while back we were traveling to our local mountain pass, on our monthly spring water collection, when I saw a flock of zebras (also not common), unfortunately, he never witnessed them as he had his eyes on the road.

Stripes ‘n Snakes

Every time we pass the spot where the said zebras were, I keep my eyes open for them as I really want him to see them for himself.

Last week I lucked out completely! As we were nearing the spot I said, ‘I wish I could see those zebras again’. We passed the spot but, alas, no striped horses to be found. On our journey back they were actually leaning over the fence on the side of the road in clear sight!

This time my husband saw them and was really taken aback.

I’m not going to bore you further about the escaped lion from a nearby nature reserve being seen on the mountains in my village or my almost daily encounters with reptiles that ought to be hibernating in the winter (every time I venture out into my garden I think of snakes despite the warnings from my husband not to…that’s like telling someone to not think of a monkey wearing a pink tutu) — no, I’m going to get to the point.

You Manifest All the Time

Let’s face it, it’s a bit tricky to keep on thinking about all those goodies and goals you want to materialize in your life.

Our minds tend to wander and daydream and we start manifesting the weirdest things (good, bad and middle of the road…or even side of the road, in my case). Next time you witness or are involved in something a bit out of the ordinary — check in with yourself and try to remember what you were thinking in the build up to that moment.

However, manifesting the weird things can be a complete blessing. Not only is it really nice to see a bit of wildlife (in my case) — ain’t nature great and all that stuff — but it shows us that anything is possible if we play with the idea long enough and bring in a matching vibration.

Maybe our belief factor is more attuned to conjuring a wolf (or a monkey in a tutu) than it is a monetary windfall. However, seeing that wolf (or monkey in a tutu) gives us confirmation that we are able to do anything if we believe it enough and that sure is enough for me to keep believing in my own manifesting prowess and to keep working on it.

There’s no one blanket fix to solve everyone’s believability chip but we can start trying to whip up interesting and unusual things (let’s try move past the parking fairy and onto the more spectacular — maybe along the tracks of a rhino named Desmond or possibly an elephant named Brian?) to show us how we take baby steps to claiming our power.

Be light-hearted and have a good laugh along the way, it quickens up the process and injects joy into your journey. Joy and elation are the quickest tools to getting those dreams and desires fleshed out.

Related articles:

Listen to This to Unlock Your Money Manifesting Prowess

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie onFacebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Going Beyond Normal: Manifesting the Truly Bizarre) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

10 Hilariously True Life Quotes That’ll Make You Chuckle

Could Depression and Suicide be Linked to this Parasite? 1 in 3 People Affected!

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10 Hilariously True Life Quotes That’ll Make You Chuckle

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Time to Take Your Life a Little Lighter

“It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down and spreads to your hips.”
– Fred Allen

We could all use a laugh every now and then but we can’t all carry our Monty Python DVD box set with us to work or have our funny bone tickled by Trevor Noah YouTube clips when the main honcho isn’t looking. This being said, you can print out some tasteful quotes and stick them to your desk when you feel you need to take a quick chuckle break.

To have a good belly wobble has been proven to reduce stress and boost your feel good frequency. Point is, you’ve got to get in a decent laugh every hour or so (with a bit of luck) and that’s no laughing matter! Laughter is serious business — you’re health is at risk if you don’t have a good guffaw on a regular basis (tell that one to the boss!).

On That Note

I’ve selected a smorgasbord of funny life quotes that ring absolutely true but are delightfully dichotomous and just plain pant-wetting. You’ll see what I mean…enjoy:

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. — Margaret Mead
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. — Elbert Hubbard
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. — Isaac Asimov
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month. — Theodore Roosevelt
I can resist everything except temptation. — Oscar Wilde
I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand. — Charles M. Schulz
All generalizations are false, including this one. — Mark Twain
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. — Thomas Sowell
Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves? — Robin Williams
Being negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don’t have to sit on it. — Joyce Meyer

Hope you had a good giggle 😀

Which one was your favorite?
Do you have a favorite quote to add to the list? Please share in the comment box.

11 Quotes To Remember When You’re In A Bad Mood

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (10 Hilariously True Life Quotes That’ll Make You Chuckle) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Could Depression and Suicide be Linked to this Parasite? 1 in 3 People Affected!

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

Could Depression and Suicide be Linked to this Parasite? 1 in 3 People Affected!

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Indebted to Ted

I’m not one to promote fear-mongering (as I’m sure my title to this piece evoked some kind of startled reaction) but when I recently watched a TED talk by Ed Yong titled, ‘Zombie roaches and other parasite tales‘ I was stunned and felt compelled to share this with as many people that will listen (as TED talks normally galvanize us to do).

Ed Yong’s delivery only took 13 minutes and I highly recommend you watch — he is most entertainingly witty (video to follow blurb).

This really struck a chord with me as I know several people who have been through conventional and holistic medicine and therapies for their depression and nothing has helped. It is my belief that we hold the answers we seek regarding depression from within but, in this case, I’ll make an exception. There could indeed be an external cause for some types of depression.

Toxoplasma Gondii — Tales from the Litter Box

Toxoplasma Gondii is a single-celled protozoan that lives and breeds in cats — more specifically, in a cats gut — and it’s egg-like cells are emitted through cat poop.

Here’s where it gets even more shitty…

Zombie Apocalypse — Fact or Fiction?

It is estimated that 1/3 of the globes population have these parasites living in their heads!

Scientists speculate that this single-celled trouble-maker may indeed be affecting the brains of the infected and altering thoughts and behavior. They have even stipulated that ‘Toxo’ could be a possible explanation for our cultural differences in some instances.

Researchers from the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, suggest that mothers who have high levels of Toxoplasma Gondii during pregnancy, may be predisposed to giving birth to schizophrenic offspring.

Don’t take my word — read for yourself HERE.

Not a nice thought, eh? Especially as so many of us seem to be hosting this potent little parasite. Wait…there’s more!

Depressed or is Something Else Muddling Your Emotions?

Toxoplasma Gondii could very well be linked to neuroticism, depression and suicide.

The excerpt below is taken from the article Toxoplasma’s Dark Side: The Link Between Parasite and Suicide from Scientific America.

“The link between neuroticism and suicide is well established, thus if the parasite does make people more neurotic, it’s not surprising that it influences rates of self-violence.

How does a parasite affect how we think? The authors suggest that our immune system may actually be to blame. When we are infected with a parasite like Toxoplasma gondii, our immune system goes on the offensive, producing a group of molecules called cytokines that activate various immune cell types. The trouble is, recent research has connected high levels of cytokines to depression and violent suicide attempts. The exact mechanism by which cytokines cause depression and other mental illnesses is poorly understood, but we do know they are able to pass the blood-brain barrier and alter neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine in the brain.”

Symptoms Can Include:

a high temperature (fever) of 38C (100.4F) or over.
aching muscles.
tiredness.
feeling sick.
sore throat.
swollen glands.

Natural Cures?

Thankfully, nature also holds the cure.

In this case there are several things you can take for Toxoplasma Gondii besides anti-biotics which include garlic, black walnut, organo oil and nutmeg essential oil. Please read realted article: 5 Natural Remedies for Toxoplasmosis: A Common Parasitic Disease You Can Get from Your Cat

Watch the Ed Yong TED talk below:

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Why We Detest Indifference (Odyssey, Issue 3 — Out Now!)

Boundary Setting 101 — Target: Empaths

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Straight From the Horses ~~Ass~~ Mouth

I’m a people-pleaser with strong boundary awareness.

It’s taken me years to weed out and recognize time-wasters and/or emotional vampires and nurture the relationships with the people I’m willing to give my attention to (read related article:5 Ways Energy Vampires Steal Your Time and Life-Force). My radar is set to blast out the moment I sense someone is taking a fat chance with my time and energy (I’ll discuss more, in a bit, about how you can sense them too).

People-pleasing is part of my nature and, to some extend, my upbringing. What I thought was being polite or well-mannered has gotten me into a plethora of icky, gooey manure at various stages of my life until I learnt about boundary setting.

Bottom line is: You’ve got to set dem boundaries, folks!

Advantage Takers

There are always going to be people who find every opportunity to take you for a ride — be it emotional, financial, energetic or just a cruise in their latest hot wheels (that kind is fine #justsaying).

I like wearing my rose-colored glasses and try to seek out the best in people. However, you’ve got to use your glass case too when the situation calls for it. Especially if you’re empathic…you’re like a moth to a flame for users.

If you’re tired of being used as a doormat and aren’t liking the boot-mark motif on your backside then read on…

What I’ve Learnt About Setting Firm, Strong Boundaries

Let me cut to the chase here — there are a few warning signs I want to share with you on how to implement your God-given right to protect yourself:

If you were raised to be polite and well mannered, it is still okay to say no or walk away from someone who is clearly using you. You can still be in your integrity — after all, there is such a thing as a calm and polite ‘no’.
It is equally okay to draw a line in the sand when you cannot extend help because you are busy — putting your own needs — or your family’s needs — aside for others is not always the solution. Use your discernment, of course, sometimes we do have to drop things in order to help someone out — just make sure you have the energy to give and the matter is of genuine importance.
Don’t care what people think of you if you say no or walk away from them in a case of you detecting energy vampirism or negativity. You have every right to protect yourself and they can think what they like about you — that’s their problem.
Protect yourself and your loved ones from people disguised as friends who bring you down. Even if you’ve been friends for ages — it’s okay to walk away at any given time when something or someone is not serving your highest good. Sometimes we let these relationships drag on forever because we think it might change or we feel uncomfortable ‘breaking it off’ but you can’t live your life and sacrifice your joy to please others. Those friends who do not resonate with us any longer will find other people who are on their frequency — just remember we are all on a path of learning and understanding so don’t deny them of their lessons by letting bad behavior slide for the sake of keeping the peace (who’s peace anyway? There is no such thing as one sided peace).
Your time and attention is valuable — don’t let other people use it like it isn’t. The moment your bullshitometer detects a disturbance in your vital force — set them boundaries, buckaroo! If someone is stringing you along, cut the chord.

Related article: Why We Detest Indifference

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She also has just recently launched her official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Boundary Setting 101 — Target: Empaths) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.

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