5 Easy Exercises to Create a Positive Life!

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

If you prefer, you can listen to this article on my podcast HERE. Or click on the picture below.

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who’s in Charge?

You’re probably familiar with the saying ‘what you think you create’ but how can you seriously filter every bad thought? There is a way, I promise. But before we delve into the amazing powers each of us possess, we have to get one thing straight.

There’s only one person responsible for what you think and do and that’s YOU.

If the thought of being the creator of your reality scares the willies out of you, then read on…

The Freedom to Be Happy, to Be You

Can you remember learning how to swim or ride a bike? Can you see how determined you were to succeed because you knew the pay-off was going to be huge?

You may have started off with water-wings, splashing about aimlessly— gulping in water — or peddling your heart out whilst trying to maintain your balance even with the training wheels on! But that child never gave up.

Then what came next once the wheels were removed? Probably scrapes and bruises the first week but did that deter you? Did you give up then? Probably not. You wanted to ride! You were hell-bent on feeling the wind on your face and the freedom that would bring with it.

Same goes for swimming — gliding about in the water refreshes and frees your body of weight. You knew that swimming was going to be the biggest trip ever!

Where am I going with this? Your thoughts need training wheels/water-wings if you want to experience the same freedom from negative thought. And here’s how you’re going to do it…

Getting Real Right NOW

Here are a few things you can start to do today to become more aware and proactive with your thoughts:

Morning Motivation — When you wake up, give yourself 5-10 minutes to think about what how you want to see this day play out. See if you can catch any worrisome or negative thoughts before they take hold of the exercise. Put up a STOP sign in your mind and gently kick those blighters to the curb. Then bring your focus back to visualizing your positive day ahead. Try to smile and see/feel yourself enjoying this bright new day. Emotions back your thoughts into manifestation.
Marrying the Mind — When you start to get a hold on your thought stream and just how much power you DO have over it, you can start to have a better relationship with your thinking. You are now in control and you can focus your inner dialogue on what serves you instead of calling in all the unwanted experiences. Start your affirmations off with a strong ‘I am…’. For example ‘I am going to have a great day today’, ‘I am going to have a safe trip’, etc. Try avoid the phrases ‘I desire’ or ‘I want’ because it only brings more desiring and wanting for the future. When you use ‘I am’ it is in the present tense and is happening right now not in some future timeline.
Mind Mangle Cleanse — During the day (if you are but a mere mortal) you will probably find yourself slipping into worry, blame, anger, despair and an array of other harmful mind banter. You may even find that your head is throbbing because of all the distorted ‘mind mangling’ that’s going on up there. Here’s your chance to hold up that STOP sign again and see if you can look at things from a different perspective. Most of what we worry about never comes to pass and most judgments/situations when seen from a different angle can evoke empathy instead of anger. See if you can alchemize your thinking — in other words, find the treasure in the trash. Read related article: 3 Ways to Alchemize Chaos
Re-Member — We often get lost in ‘doing’ and not ‘being’. Try to remember all the things that make you happy and bring you joy. Start a gratitude journal (see my gratitude journal to your right and you can get yours by clicking on the picture) When you smile the world smiles with you. So, remember to feel gratitude for life, nature and the people that make your world spin. Look at every magnificent dawn or sunset as a blessing, every fragrant flower or birdsong as a gift, every smile or hug as a gesture of love and draw on those experiences when you’re in a negative frame of mind. See if you can remove yourself from a negative situation and sit under a tree or listen to some soothing music. Seek out those small but beautiful moments in your life and embrace them. Hold them close to your chest and bring them out when you need to. It’s bound to make you smile. You can always alter your reality at any time. Don’t forget that. If you choose to stay in the gloom, then just know that ‘this too shall pass’.
Over and Out — At the end of the day, review what happened and see if you can pick out any situations that you have turned around in reality. Did you manage to have a good day? Did things turn out like you affirmed in the morning? Or close to? Or can you do better tomorrow? Keep trying and if you do see results it’s going to make you more determined — just like that little tike on the bicycle, gearing up for the next day’s practice. Because you know that practice makes perfect!

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” — Joyce Meyer

You will get a grip on your oh-so-powerful thought stream and you’ll be able to eventually steer those thoughts to benefit your life in ways that will make your head spin — in a good way!

Now it’s up to you to give yourself a reason to smile every day.

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 click HERE.

Other articles you may enjoy:

4 Cures for Negative Thinking

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come. ~Robert H. Schuller

My friend and I were out walking this morning around the neighborhood when we noticed some magnificent landscaping and flower beds to die for! We were also, funnily enough, talking about having foggy, congested heads (physically and mentally) because of the amount of time we are spending on our computers. We both happen to be writers.

I found that looking at these spectacular gardens really opened up my heart space and led me to think about this concept of the mind/garden metaphor.

If we can just give ourselves time in our own gardens (minds) to prune back, weed and cut off any dead branches and scrape up old leaves off the grass, we would be able to temper that stuffy headedness.

Back to my morning stroll…we then went on to discuss how meditation, exercise, getting out into nature and yoga work to unclog this tightness and tiredness in the head.

So, some good practices to follow when you feel your thoughts aren’t being honorable paying guests in your head are to:

1. Gift yourself some time for space and clarity

This doesn’t have to be for very long stretches (however long you want) but make sure it is at least 10-15 minutes of down-time. You can sit in your garden, park or in a comfortable quiet space and reflect on your thoughts. Realign them to what you feel comfortable with. Then simply let all your thoughts dissolve and sit in stillness. Observe what comes up and then put it aside. Enjoy the space of just being. We are human BEINGS not human DOINGS. Don’t forget that.

More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity. ~Francois Gautier

2. Assess yourself and think gratitude

If you are having a lot of negative, worrisome thoughts, ask yourself if they are really necessary? Is worrying about it going to change anything? How can you steer them onto a different more nurturing path? Can you list a few things you are grateful for? Better still, get yourself a gratitude journal and make it a daily practice.

There is a basic law that like attracts like. Negative thinking definitely attracts negative results. Conversely, if a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully, his positive thinking sets in motion creative forces — and success instead of eluding him flows toward him ~ Norman Vincent Peale

3. Go for a walk or do some yoga

Any kind of exercise can actually give you a huge boost. I know a lot of people who are tired and worn out from a hard day’s work don’t particularly care for physical movement. Perhaps you think it is the last thing that can help but it really can. Just 20-30 minutes can really get you to shift stagnant energy and get your system up and firing.

Walking is a man’s best medicine. ~Hippocrates

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. ~Raymond Inmon

4. Breathe properly

Take a few good and hearty breathes. This is a wonderful grounding tool and can get you into balance very quickly. Most of us breathe very shallowly, not allowing for the body to become fully oxygenated. Try to take in enough breath as to fill your lungs and spill over into your stomach (you should look like your pregnant — that is an indicator that you have got in enough air). Breathe in to the count of 5, hold it to the count of 5 and then consciously breathe out to the count of 5. This enlivens and awakens your mind — try it, you’ll see.

Focusing on the act of breathing clears the mind of all daily distractions and clears our energy enabling us to better connect with the Spirit within. ~Author Unknown

Kick out fear, worry and drama to finally start renting your headspace out to positive, nurturing and creative thinking — the paying guest.

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Growing Food Gives You Hope

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

It’s spring in the Karoo and I did all my vegetable seed planting yesterday before the last of the winter rain hits. I love getting my hands in the dirt, it’s a very grounding, calming experience. Do you grow your own veg? Here’s why I think you should…

Right click to download for free as wallpaper for your device 🙂

If you would like a greeting card of this, click here. I also have kitchen prints for sale here. And let’s not forget the gardening aprons! You can get those here.

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6 Reasons to Garden Your Anxiety Away

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“There is an unspoken communication between you and the natural kingdom.”

Lockdown Blues

Yep, we’ve probably all experienced the Groundhog Day phenomenon at some point this year. What comes with boredom, isolation, worry and stress is a copious amount of anxiety, right?

I’ve had my ups and downs during the whole COVID-19 experience.

What kept me sane was (and is) my garden.

Relief is Green

I can’t express enough how therapeutic being in the garden is. If you don’t have a garden, being in a park or in a forest or trail will boost those positive endorphins just as much.

Get out as often as you can.

Gardening Aprons $20

Here’s why:

Fresh air — especially mask-free fresh air. Go somewhere where you can safely breathe as nature intended (preferably where there are lots of oxygen making trees). Oxygen livens the cells in your body, giving you a vital boost.
Exercise — whether you’re gardening or walking in nature, you’re getting the blood flowing. Extremely important for combating depression or a growing couch-potato waistline! Healthy exercise also distracts you from cravings or snacking through boredom.
Well-Being — Communing with nature gives you a much greater sense of aliveness, grounding and vitality. If I’ve been chugging away behind a computer screen for a couple of hours and I go out into my garden for some respite, it only takes a couple of minutes before I feel my stress melting away. If you are working, make sure to take your lunch hour outdoors, even if you sit under a tree for 15 minutes.
Connectivity — when you garden and get your hands in the dirt, you are connecting with the earth, she feels you. There is an unspoken communication between you and the natural kingdom. I talk to the insects, the birds and my plants. You may think I’m crazy but it feels good to me and I feel connected to everything when I’m out there with grit underneath my fingernails. If you don’t have a garden, start a patio garden. If you don’t have a patio, start a windowsill garden. To grow is to believe in the future.
Problem Solving — I often find that when I’m in my garden, solutions arrive as quick as you can blink. Whenever I feel challenged about something, I turn to my garden, or a walk in the countryside. There’s nothing better to clear your mind and let in all the helpful ideas.
Inspiration — then there’s the motivational factor. I don’t have enough hours in the day to get out all the creativity I glean from being outdoors. There is a wealth of ingenuity out there to be plucked from the ether.

Speaking of which, it was a couple of months ago — when I was navel gazing and felt at a loss as to where my career was heading — that I stumbled upon the idea to get designing. Now, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m primarily a paint and canvas type of artist. I’ve not delved into the world of design fully and whole-heartedly, not yet anyway.

I felt now was my chance.

My Little Karoo Garden

My inspiration? You guessed it! My garden.

I’ve been having a ball walking through my garden, getting inspirations for designs. So much so that I even opened a store of my own, especially dedicated to my life in the garden. I’ve called it “My Little Karoo Garden“. It’s got a real ‘African’ edge to it 🙂 Dung beetles et al!

I hope this bloggy blurb has inspired you to get outdoors more often and to even get planting! Gardeners always have something to look forward to. I’d really like to hear your gardening stories — how does being in nature inspire you?

If you want to take a stroll through my store, click the logo to your right 🙂 I’d love to know what you think. It’s still in the beta stage but I’ll be adding new designs as they flow in.

Don’t forget to hit the follow button in the sidebar!

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3 Ways to Alchemize Chaos

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Posted on May 13, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

How to use a Little Spiritual Alchemy

Do you sometimes feel that you are manifesting the good along with the bad? The good manifestations are fantastic but what do you do when you have created a not-so-desirable situation?

The best thing to do is to start to see your potential problems in a new light — what can they teach you?

Once you figure out why they are there and what your lesson is you can turn them around. Does it work? Hell yes!

Here’s some helpful advice:

Accept — when life throws a curve-ball (or 3 or 4 or 12 or whatever your circumstance has chucked at you recently), you need to give yourself some time and space to absorb. To give your acceptance to what cannot change because resisting it will fuel its growth or allow more negativity to enter your slipstream. Acceptance
Don’t forget to pin it!

can even transmute the problem as you give it no power. You can visualize how you would rather see it and then let it go. I did this with many problems I have recently faced to see those very situations change to positive in a very short time and I did very little (just a bit of positive affirmations and visualizations) to make it happen.
Act — take action with what you can do and don’t stress about what you are not able to do. Simply knocking down one thing after the other gives a great sense of satisfaction even if you have a mountain of things to do. You will conquer Everest one step at a time. Then when you look back, you’ll see just how much you can get done and how powerful a being you are. I felt completely swamped lately with so much to do but little by little I got things done. Most of the ‘struggle’ was actually in my mind. I still have a few things to wrap up but I know I’ll get it all done in divine time!
Trust in the Flow — I find myself surrendering to the present moment a lot and blissing out even amidst the most chaotic times. I just have a knowing that I am in that Universal flow and everything is going to be alright. So exercise that grounding present moment awareness and trust that everything is in divine order. I have literally sat back and watched the most astounding things flow and fit into place like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I could never have orchestrated if I tried to control the outcome.

Try and perceive your problems as learning curves and transmute the bad to good — after all, you’re an alchemist you know?! Read related article: Why Rejection Can Be a Blessing

The Definition of Alchemy

In times bygone, alchemy was turning matter into gold (the short and sweet version :D).

What you are going to achieve with ‘spiritual’ alchemy is turn your ‘matter’ (situations, etc) into ‘gold’ (treasure/abundance/wealth).

To alchemize a situation is to step inside it and transmute it from the inside out. Get into what is bugging you (through meditation or quiet visualization) and start working your magic — find that gem of understanding/learning that the situation has to offer and morph it (through picturing what you want to see in your mind’s eye) into what you do want to see manifest in your life.

Keep on aligning yourself to your ‘new’ vision especially when you feel that sinking feeling in your stomach (solar plexus) when thinking about the distress it may be causing (keep alchemizing it!).

Please let me know if this works for you (leave a comment below). 🙂 I love to hear your feedback.

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3 Vital Steps to Forgiveness and Self Acceptance

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“When you forgive, you in no way change the past – but you sure do change the future.”
Bernard Meltzer

Forgive and Let Go

You may already be aware that to forgive another person does not condone their actions but frees you from bondage.

When you hold a grudge, you inadvertently hold yourself in a head-lock with the other person until you can forgive. So, without releasing that person through the process of forgiveness, you tether yourself to him/her/them indefinitely.

If that’s not encouragement enough to start the process of forgiveness then I don’t know what is.

However, what I want to explore in this article is self-forgiveness. A topic that can easily be misunderstood, brushed aside or not even thought of.

Surely it’s those people in our lives that have done us wrong that need our forgiveness, not ourselves?

Why You Can Be Your Worst Enemy

Funny thing is, a lot of us find it much easier to forgive others than to turn the action inwards.

It’s so much simpler to have the heart to exonerate another but we go into a flat tailspin when we start to dive into the watery abyss of all the things we’ve done to ourselves that need absolution.

You know what I mean, don’t you?

We have done so much harm to ourselves through:

Negative Self Talk
Missed Opportunities
Laziness
Fear
Stubbornness
Disrespecting Ourselves and Others (whatever harm you have done to another is a direct blow to yourself — there is no separation)
Lack of Willpower and the list goes on…

Have you forgiven yourself these indiscretions?

Steps You Can Take Today to Start the Healing Process

Do you know that we each have a shadow self? A part of us that feels unworthy, guilt and shame. Do you squash this part of yourself every time it pops up to say ‘Yo!’?

You’re not alone.

First things first — we are dichotomous by nature. We live in a third dimension of duality and we experience the yin and yang, light and dark, feminine and masculine, good and evil aspects of everyday life…well…every day!

You can’t truly be a human being if you are not experiencing these dualistic traits on a daily basis.

And there is your gold! We are ALL human — we ALL make mistakes. Goodness me, if we were all to carry the blame and shame on our backs as a physical representation of how we feel about ourselves, we would all be seriously misshapen.

Isn’t it about time to embrace your duality in order to truly feel whole?

Here’s what you can do to start making peace with your faux pas’:

Know that you are required to make mistakes in order to grow, learn and have a contrast with which to work from (i.e. how would you know what you want if you don’t experience what you don’t want?). Affirm: I forgive myself for making mistakes and give myself permission to live to my best ability even if it means making more blunders.
Cut yourself some slack — to err is human, to forgive is divine and seeing you are both, I think you have permission to accept your mistakes and find the hidden gems within your ‘unworthy’ experiences. Affirm: I forgive myself and will look for the positive aspects of my seemingly negative actions and where they have brought me on my life path.
Put the whip aside! We are all guilty, I’m sure, of being an asshole at some point in our lives — it doesn’t mean you have to flay yourself for your lack of good judgment over and over again. Be kind to yourself as you would any other. Affirm: I forgive myself and will not, from this point in time, rehash past mistakes to punish myself further. I am whole. I am human. I am Divine. I am.

You are proving your worth when you’ve tripped just by picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and carrying on down that yellow-brick road. Be kind to yourself when you stumble and know that there is always a lesson in the fall.

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
Mark Twain

The true warrior always mines the mistakes for the treasures and let’s him/herself be at peace with making miscalculations. This is divine balance and the acceptance of every aspect of the self.

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Come peek at the other things I do besides blogging :)…

Heavy Baggage Weighing You Down? How to Lighten Up!

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

When you’re sojourning overseas and you’ve got tons of luggage — it’s a real schlep, right? It’s much easier airport hopping when you’re traveling light. And a lot less to think or worry about too.

Life is no different.

Let Go Of the Bone And Try Something Fresher

You can’t expect to be light-hearted if you’re holding on to the past.

There’s a prime piece of T-bone steak waiting in his bowl but the Rottweiler is hanging on to last night’s dried up, old bone. Sound familiar?

“You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are full of yesterdays junk” ~Louise Smith

Letting go of our past isn’t easy — no-one said it was. No matter if you are grieving a physical loss or an emotional wound — we all have ‘baggage’. Our job is to unpack it.

You don’t want to go the rest of your life carrying a backpack, do you? Not only will it give you back ache but it will also slow you down, tire you out and rob you of your present joy.

Baggage Was Never a Forever Thing

Your past was never meant to be carried as a burden. What happened to you — no matter what it was — all had a soul teaching for you to move through. Your job is to get the lesson.

If you’ve experienced abuse — perhaps your discovery is that you found your strength to move on or your power to forgive. If you’ve experienced death — maybe your pearl of wisdom came in the shape and form of learning to let go in love or to find peace in vulnerability.

These are merely suggestions as we all have vastly different reasons for going through certain life experiences.

Every time I look back at the tougher times of my life, I can see there was always an illuminating teaching for me. You can very rarely feel it when you’re in it. It takes time to work through grief and heartache — which is perfectly natural and everyone’s period of mourning is different — just don’t get lost in the past.

Related article: Dealing With Life’s Traumas

A Personal Metaphor For Loss

Did you know you can download my book FREE?Click here!

In 2002 my husband and I moved to the UK and stayed there for 3 years. It was a thrilling experience but I did miss my homeland.

After a year of being there, I lost my father. It was such a devastating experience and I had to catch an emergency flight back to South Africa to help my mother with the necessaries.

When I flew back to the UK I began to shop. I bought everything and anything — it was pure compulsive behaviour. And to make matters worse, I shipped it all back to my mother to keep for me for when I returned, which she did.

I spent more posting the boxes of ‘stuff’ back than I paid for the items…true madness.

When I returned home for good, my mother led me to her garage where all these boxes were stacked to the ceiling. I couldn’t believe how much I’d sent (and spent)!

I went through all the treasures I had sent myself to find it was all…well, for want of a better word…crap!

I didn’t need it and ended up giving most of it away.

Related article: The Secret to Letting Go of Every Fear

The Diamond in the Tale

What I did learn, in hindsight, was that I was filling a void left by my father’s death — shopping was my coping mechanism.

I could have kept the boxes but I knew that would have been holding on to the past and those boxes would turn out to be made of cement, holding me back and filling space I needed for my future.

It was the most freeing thing to do when I gave all that junk away. It even turned out to make two very special ladies extremely happy!

As I was clearing out the boxes from the garage, two Xhosa ladies came walking up the road selling beautiful hand-made baskets.

They saw some of the things from my boxes and asked if I would consider trading with them. I told them they could have the stuff but they insisted on giving me two awesome baskets. They literally danced and sang in joy back down the street with boxes piled on top of their heads.

I still have those baskets and every time I look at them I am reminded of this lesson with a smile on my face.

There is gold to be mined in our experiences — good or bad. Your job is to find out what your soul wanted to take from the experience. Then leave that bag, don’t check it in at your next stop. Live lighter.

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Posted on April 22, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Stewing in Your Juices

I’m normally quite a chilled person. Nothing phases me. Until…

I take on too much work
I get into my ‘yes’ mode and make arrangements and dates that clog my diary
I volunteer my services willy-nilly
My housework starts to mount
My ‘to do’ list grows around the garden (especially as I’m trying to do the whole sustainability thing)
I have awesome ideas but have to implement them (adding to the head clutter and time/schedule disaster)

I’m sure you can probably relate to most of the above. Then what happens is that chilled out person who thought they could take on the world in a heart beat starts to panic.

The Signs of a Meltdown

The walls of my diary close in and anxiety starts to rear its ugly head.

Panic attacks
Sweaty palms
Emotional outbursts (usually involving tears)
Temper whirlwinds
Depression
Feeling defeated and impotent
Losing it over the smallest things

Pink Green Spring Flower Quotes Pinterest Graphic (1)

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We can experience the above on a smaller or larger scale, depending on the level of anxiety and what looms ahead.

Okay, so what can be done?

Anxiety Be Gone!

Well, I’m trying to give myself a well-deserved pep talk here ’cause I suddenly realized the other day that I was slipping off the cliff of the ‘work’ I had piled up.

Amid my darkest moment, I came to the conclusion that it was going to be done whether I fretted about it or not. And what couldn’t be done was just not going to be done. It’s really quite simple.

So, on a practical level, try to:

Get what’s in your head down onto paper (this works a treat!)
Now you can make a priority list
Schedule your time wisely and you’ll find you can fit a lot into your day
Don’t stress about how much you’ve got to do by getting tangled up in the future tasks — concentrate on the task at hand
Read no. 4 again.
Yip…read no. 4 and 5 again!
As Yoda said, ‘Do or do not’ — in this context, do what you must do and stop whinging about it. Have you ever stopped to think how much time we waste worrying or bitching about what we have to do instead of doing it?

Example: I have a mountain of clothes to pack away. Every morning I get up and look at this mountain and feel despair. It affects me greatly. I don’t like a messy bedroom — that’s where I’m supposed to go to relax, not stare at a heap of rags.

What not to do: Whine about the job. Look at the heap in deflated impotence. Complain about how much other stuff you have to do. Sit and have a cup of coffee and catch up on your Facebook feed. Or, in my case, write a blog about it, whilst — out of the corner of my eye — I can see into my bedroom and the washing pile is staring happily back at me.

Solution: Do it. A 5 minute rant could have you half way done by now. You can have that cuppa AND pack the washing away (what a novel idea!).

There is actually plenty of time in a day when you use it wisely. The above example is small fish compared to some of the whoppers we have to face in life and prepare for. However, inevitably, we are remarkable creatures with an ability to squeeze a lot into our lives when our minds are prepared well enough.

Let’s go back to no. 4, 5 and 6 of the tips list. This tip has helped me exponentially over the past few days. I’m a Virgo and a control freak. When my schedule starts mounting up and I feel like I’m losing control — it’s a blood bath! I have the tendency of looking ahead at what I have to do tomorrow, the next day and so on into infinity. This makes matters worse.

All we have to concentrate on is what lays before us today. You can deal with tomorrow, well, tomorrow! If it’s really a pickle, then set aside 10-15 minutes of today to work out a game-plan for tomorrow so you can at least get some sleep.

If there is ever something to remember about anxiety it’s this: one step at a time! You’re amazing and you’ll do it all, only if you tackle what’s in front of you now. As my dear mother used to say, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’.

And now for something completely different…a little humour to liven up your stress monster:

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author and multi-media artist 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 click HERE. 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 also follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment).

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Why ‘Heart Talk’ is SO Important

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Posted on April 8, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Ever spoken to someone who isn’t really listening?
Ever started a conversation and you can just sense your partner is more interested in saying what he/she wants to say without regard to your input?

We’ve all been there.

It’s not a great feeling to waste your breath and effort when you just know it’s falling upon deaf ears or when you’re just not being ‘heard’. Sometimes we feel like we’re in the firing range of someone’s motor-mouth and you’re being spoken ‘at’ and not ‘to’!

Wits End Meets Heart Opening

I’m afraid I’m losing my patience with people who are talking to me with their ‘heads’.

What do I mean?

You’re being spoken at by a person who is only interested in getting their logical perspective across irrespective of what their heart is trying to express. It’s kind of a heart bypass that shoots straight to the thought process.

When we communicate with our hearts we first open a space for dialogue to begin. A dialogue that is receptive as well as giving — where you give a person a chance to speak and they reciprocate.

How Do I Begin Heart Dialogue?

Firstly, you need to drop into your heart space (where your physical heart resides).

Your heart emits a frequency that can be measured (in fact, its electromagnetic field is 500 times stronger than that of the brain) and when 2 or more people are communicating through this frequency, you will have a better chance of clear, pure, flowing, integral dialogue.

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye” — H. Jackson Brown, Jnr

Your quality of conversation is going to be better because you are not only conversing with language and emotion but with feeling too. The other person is going to connect with your field and be ‘in tune’, so to speak, with you. So, it’s more likely that any deception will be picked up by that innate part of you that can hone in on these things.

Read related article: The Heart has it’s Own ‘Brain’ and Consciousness

Secondly, when you communicate from your heart, you open yourself up to a more truthful, no-bullsh*t kind of conversation (you know — the ones worth having!).

Your words will flow with more ease and fluidity.

When you trust that what needs to be said will be said, you have no need to rush your words. Have you noticed how most spiritual teachers speak very slowly and with great distinctness? You will, most likely, be guided to say what needs to be said without having to beat around the bush, flounder or hog the floor unnecessarily.

Straight From the Horses Mouth

I was having a conversation the other day and what would have taken me half an hour to explain just drifted calmly out of my mouth in about 3 sentences. They were succinct, truthful and to the point. No waffling.

It was great!

I haven’t been particularly loquacious these past few months and have been feeling very foggy and scrambled in the head of late (ditsy blonde that I am!) but more frequently I am finding the right words at the right time.

Either that or I end up grinning like a Cheshire cat or expressing myself through interpretive dance.

I’m really rooting for full-on telepathic communication in the not-so-distant future. Truth be told, I’ve already begun to experience this kind of connection and I can’t wait for it to go mainstream!

I hope you will start to have more meaningful, inspiring tête-à-têtes in your NOW moments.

What’s your take on heart versus head communication?
Have you tried it? If so, spill the beans in the comment box below 🙂

Related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom

Other articles you may enjoy:

The Most Insanely Creative Gifts You Can Give Anyone! And Saves on Therapy Bills Too…

How to Better Understand Your Yin/Yang Energy

Do You Feel Worthless? 2 Reasons Why You Need to Love YOU

How Weird, Little Synchronicities Can Actually Be the Bomb!

4 Reasons to Eat Humble Pie and Starve the Ego

Gracefully Receiving is Just as Important as Giving

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

The Law of Giving and Receiving

“Giving opens the way for receiving.” — Florence Scovel Shinn

Deepak Chopra wrote a book that changed my outlook on life. I stumbled upon it very early on in my quest for spiritual truth — it’s called The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

Now I know most of you have probably read it or heard of it (if you haven’t yet put eyeballs to paper/kindle yet I strongly urge you to do so) but I wanted to briefly recap on Law no. 2, seeing it is the season of giving and receiving.

Deepak states that the flow of life is the harmony of interaction between all elements and forces that make up the field of existence. Because our mind and body are in constant flux (as is the universe), stopping the circulation of vital energy would be tantamount to stopping the flowing of our blood.

No blood flow = blood clot. Now, you don’t want to be a clot, do you?

His conclusion was that in order to keep this vital chi force from stagnating we must learn to give and receive. So whatever you are wanting to manifest in life — be it good company, money, affluence, love, joy, etc — that is what we must give out into the world.

Easier Said Than Done?

A lot of people have no problem giving — it is the receiving part that most shudder at.

Perhaps we were taught that receiving was impolite and we should graciously decline offerings of any sort. Or, maybe some think that if someone is trying to give us something it appears that we are lacking in some way. Therefore we shun the gift so as not to look needy or ‘down and out’.

This is an ego trap.

When you block someone from giving, you are stopping that vital energetic exchange from circulating. How would you feel if your gifts weren’t received?

It gives most of us great joy to be able to give, so why stop that joy from others? Allow other people to give to you or you may be hampering their ability to be in the universal flow.

Don’t be blood-clotting anybody, you hear?!

How Do I Start Today to Bring the Flow into My Life?

According to the book (7 Spiritual Laws of Success), when you come into contact with anyone, you give them something. This doesn’t have to be material things, it could be a blessing, a flower, a sincere compliment, etc. You’ll find that sometimes the most powerful gestures of giving are non-material (you can occasionally throw in something of a material nature too though).

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” — Lao Tzu

Think about it — giving the gift of your undivided attention or heart-felt affection and caring are priceless gifts and they won’t break the bank!

In a Roasted Nutshell…

Don’t underestimate the power of giving as you will receive it back ten fold! Just keep that flow going and be aware every time you feel you want to decline a gift or gesture — try remember to allow for others to give as well.

The art used in this blog can be found HERE.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Why You Should Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

How to Create Opportunity

Eco Bricks Just Might Help Save the Planet and YOU Can Start Yours Today!

Comfort Zones: Embracing the Beauty of Awkward and Uncomfortable

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

This article (Gracefully Receiving is Just as Important as Giving) 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.

Self-Empowerment Books by Cherie Roe Dirksen:

4 Nice Ways to Say ‘No’

Featured

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Are you the type of person who doesn’t like letting people down even when it doesn’t suit you?
Do you eventually end up letting yourself down — time after time — with your yes’s which should’ve been no’s?

Then this blurb is for YOU!

“Saying no doesn’t make you a horrible person — you are merely a person with healthy boundaries.”

People Pleasing 101

Take it from a people pleaser — it ain’t easy saying no…or is it? In my 40 odd years on this planet, I’ve only recently discovered it’s actually quite easy and painless to say no if a situation doesn’t suit you.

Most times, people move on and ask someone else or respect you for your honesty. Some people (the ones who need to realize the world doesn’t revolve around them and their needs) don’t appreciate no’s (these are the ones people pleaser’s are most afraid of).

Thing is, you don’t have to please everyone. If you are going against your grain in doing something you would rather not do — you have every right to say NO. Please read this article which explains more: Boundary Setting 101 — Target: Empaths

4 Phrases to Commit to Memory!

Without hurting or being unreasonable — you can actually decline a request.

There are 4 easy ways to say your no’s, here they are:

‘I’m sorry but I won’t be able to’ — and you NEVER have to justify why you can’t — you don’t have to give up voluntary disclosure. Don’t fall into the trap of rambling on and on about why you can’t. You simply can’t do it — your reasons are your own. If they ask why not, you can just say you are busy or have too much on your plate right now – finito.
‘I’ll have to think about it, I’ll get back to you’ — this can buy you some time to work out your succinct excuse and bow out without physical confrontation, if needs be.
‘I’m going to have to decline as I have plans for that day/I am busy that day’ — again, as in no. 1 — you don’t have to get graphic.
If it’s about lending money then this one works a treat, ‘I have a strict policy about not lending money’. If they try to twist your arm, you can always say that you have been burnt in the past and will not be swayed. End of story.

Saying no doesn’t make you a horrible person — you are merely a person with healthy boundaries. When you can help someone out, do. Bear in mind that to do something against your true wishes is never going to send out a good vibration — for you or the other person.

Related article: How to Recognize a Dream Thief

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).

Other articles you may enjoy:

Get Your Smile On — Laugh Your Ass Off!!!

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Smiling at strangers, spreading good cheer and laughing until you wet yourself are some of the most important things you can do for a healthy life. It literally can heal you. I recently read this article, ‘You’re Not Laughing Enough, and That’s No Joke‘, which stated:

“The average four-year-old laughs 300 times a day. The average 40-year-old? Only four.”

Fun fact: The adorable child in this photo is my husband 🙂

4 Tibetan Tips for Longevity

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Tibetan Wisdom

Most of us want an abundant, full life. I stumbled across a beautiful Tibetan proverb on my facebook feed that really made sense.

Let me share it with you:

“The secret to living well and longer is: eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure”

How simple is that?

Eat half — in today’s world, most diets are just too much. A small step you can take to a healthier lifestyle is to lessen your food portions at meal-times. Eat so that you are satiated and not stuffed — take my word for it, it makes you feel much better too! There’s nothing worse than feeling like an overfilled burrito. Read related article: 11 Essential Rules for “Clean,” Healthy Eating
Walk double — I’m a great advocate of walking. It’s free and easy to do. All you have to do is don your sneakers and head out the door — no gym fees required! Not only does it help you to maintain a healthy weight, it helps in the prevention or management of various conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. It also strengthens your bones and muscles. Read related article: Science Proves What You Suspected: Walking in Nature is Good For Your Mental Health
Laugh triple — there are reasons why you should take up laughter today! A good belly wobble decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies. This will improve your resistance to disease. It also triggers the release of those much desired endorphins (your body’s natural feel-fabulous chemicals). Endorphins induce a sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain hence why cancer patients are encouraged to watch copious amounts of comedy. There’s nothing better than laughter on the path to healing emotional or physical conditions. Related article: Use Laughter to De-Stress & Connect With Others (TED Video)
Love without measure — unconditional love does not judge. When you can see the divine in another, you are spreading peace like wildfire. An open heart that has an abundance of love to pour out is the only way we are going to heal not only ourselves but the world. This doesn’t mean you are used as a doormat — some loving is done from a healthy distance. But love and forgiveness can only help heal ourselves and our globe. Read related article: How to Cultivate Unconditional Love and Forgiveness

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant”. — Martin Luther King, Jr

May you live long and prosper.

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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (4 Tibetan Tips for Longevity) 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

More articles you may enjoy:

3 Ways to Wave Goodbye to Fear

The Art of Pastel Poppies — Come See the Photo Process

Why Not Imprint How You Want to Die?

4 Reasons to Entice You to Quit Drama

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.” — The Duchess (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)

Hmmm, yes. What is it about human nature that keeps our noses continuously stuck in other people’s affairs?

I’m sure we’ve all been lured into, blind-sided or even voluntarily stepped into drama at some stage of our lives but it always tends to leave us feeling mad, depleted, hurt, worn out, angry and a host of other undesirable emotions.

Perhaps you are the director of drama? Do you find yourself thriving on creating new havoc in your life or the lives of others?

Well, the 4 suggestions below might help you to diagnose why we create or involve ourselves in such amateur dramatics and can hopefully tempt you to have a better insight to and possibly disengage in the frivolous activities of other peoples business.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall — Whose Inner Reflection Will Tell All?

The Smoky Mirror — Right in at no. 1 is our behaviors reflected in others. People that volunteer themselves to get entwined in the business of their fellow man, usually have some characteristic of what they are judging about others lurking about in their own foggy behavior. Sometimes we hide these attributes so well, that we can’t seem to see those traits in ourselves. This takes a lot of introspection and complete honesty to weed out. The next time you find yourself judging someone else’s behavior, try to see if there is any essence of ‘you’ in that judgment. The ‘smoky mirror’ (smoky = hard to see through, mirror = others reflected in us) is not going to be the case every time you identify or see a particular unnerving trait in another but the projection of our own inadequacies sure does tend to happen a lot, so be aware and look out for it — best to nip this mannerism in the bud before that bud turns into a fairly peckish venus fly-trap and makes a meal out of you.
Deflecting Attention — Some people classically try to avoid their own perceived short-comings and inadequacies by not taking responsibility and deflecting the attention to make themselves look and feel better. In other words, you know you’re a gossip but you make sure you let the world know what an even bigger tittle-tattle Peggy-Sue is. Or, you feel ugly so you point out all the negative aspects of others constantly and this, somehow, makes you feel a little better. Now you’ve safely fudged over your own issues and redirected attention elsewhere. But how long is this ‘success’ going to last? Not long at all — it’s a hollow place to operate from. You’ve got to face your shadow head-on or you will inevitably suffer and bring others down with you. If you find yourself on the receiving end of an attention deflector just remember to not take it personally. It’s not about you, it’s about them. Leave the drama arena unstirred.
Ego Trappings — Good ‘ol no. 3 is that juicy little sh*t-stirrer — the ego (or more like e-go away!). The ego thrives off drama and misery and putting itself ahead of the pack. Sticking your nose into someone else’s business is ego-fodder. You can make yourself better than, thinner than, prettier/handsomer than, cleverer than, more successful than so-and-so just because it gives your ego those 15 minutes of superiority— even if you don’t say it out loud, you know it’s true! The silent ego is just as dangerous as the overly loquacious e-goo (terribly gooey and all that jazz). Just like the sticky residue in the venus fly-trap — your icky e-goo can get you into some sticky situations if you are not aware it’s rearing that self-important head (down boy!). When the ego has you by the short and curlies, you tend to compare yourself and you’re usually the one that comes out on top. However, don’t be fooled! The ego is cunning and manipulative and can make you feel less than too. Both are a trap and both are easily avoided with the light of your illuminating awareness. Have a good laugh at your ego if you find yourself in its throes — nothing kills the ego more than hilarity and humility. Show the ego who’s boss — they key is to control your and not to let it control you. Read related article: How to Stop the ‘Monkey Mind’ Phenomenon
“The Amateur Dramatics Society — Putting on a Show Near You!” — This is like the smorgasbord of the lot. You can find a little bit of each trait in no. 4 — the drama addict! Have you noticed how some people can’t live without drama? There you are trying to get off the wheel of karma and drop your drama while others are trying to hook you back into the cycle. There are some who will purposefully go out and buy a ravenous venus fly-trap, stick their finger in the jaws of the plant and howl when it clamps down and draws blood (of course, whilst facebooking the entire event post hast!). If you are one of these eager dramatists, I wish you luck on your journey and can’t quite understand the pay off. However, if you are someone who wants to keep a potting shed full of petunias rather than a dangerous carnivorous plant, take my advice and set your boundaries. If someone is trying to lure you into drama, don’t try to run away from them (fence-sitting is just not an option anymore — it’s all about facing your stuff now), don’t confront them with the ego (as in start an argument — you will then have stepped right into the trap and fed the drama) — simply speak your truth and stand firm in your conviction. Walk away if appropriate. Empowerment is always about standing your ground and not letting people overstep your boundaries and doing that in a way that does not provoke aggression or submissiveness. You’ve got to aim straight down the center and tell it like it is — speak your truth straight from the heart. If you offend someone, that is their choice and they will have to deal with it. Remember that taking offence is a choice.

The Long and Short of Your Schnozzle and Where to Put It In Future

So, what’s the moral of this tale? Live and let live.

You can powder your nose, you can blow your nose, heck, you can even pick your nose if that’s your thing — but whatever you do, keep your nose out of other people’s business. If they want your hooter present they’ll ask for it.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Why You Should Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

How to Create Opportunity

Eco Bricks Just Might Help Save the Planet and YOU Can Start Yours Today!

Comfort Zones: Embracing the Beauty of Awkward and Uncomfortable

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

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

This article (4 Reasons to Entice You to Quit Drama) 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.

Self-Empowerment Books by Cherie Roe Dirksen:

How to Create Opportunity

Image

I have to laugh…whenever I write articles, my first step is to check that I’ve written a kick-ass title. When I typed this title ‘How to Create Opportunity‘ into my headline analyzer it scored 125%. I didn’t even know that was possible! Clearly the Universe wants you to hear this.

Why Do We Have More Opportunity Than Ever?

Here it goes:

I, all too often, hear the same stories of people wallowing in their lives because there is lack of opportunity to get them where they want to be. I’m afraid I don’t buy into that and here’s why:

Never before in the history of civilization (Ancient Alien theorists may suggest otherwise but for the sake of the article, let’s soldier on) have we had something called the World Wide Web!
Never before in the history of civilization (insert Ancient Alien disclaimer here too) have so many people been literally at our fingertips.
Never before has the world been at our feet like it is today (again…insert Ancient Alien blurb here — BTW, I’m a complete Ancient Alien theory freak so I’m totally open to the idea that civilization has risen and fallen many times but — for the sake of this article — let’s say we’re treading new territory here).

Don’t Buy Into Lack

Don’t talk to me about lack of opportunity. The world is literally bulging with opportunities our fore-fathers couldn’t have dreamed about!

So, how do we create opportunity? The answer is simple (and you’re probably not going to like it, or maybe you’ll prove me wrong?).

Take action.

You can make all the vision boards in the world, you can visualize your butt off, you can do mantras and meditations (and all of these things help exponentially) but it is meaningless if you do not TAKE ACTION. Creation itself implies action. No action, no creation.

Read related article: How to Turn Disappointment into Opportunity

What this DOES NOT mean:

You try to control and force something to work
You stop doing things like meditating, visualization and making vision boards

What this DOES mean:

You get your derriere out the door and mingle with REAL people (there is NOTHING that gets you further than speaking and putting your feelers out there). You can meet like-minded people, people who may hold a piece of your puzzle or people who have ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of. Get out there and talk, you may even have some information that will help others. This life is all about us helping each other, right?
When you do something like make a vision board or write down a set of goals — it’s important to stay in that energy and feel what it’s like to have that manifest now but it is just as imperative to let it go. You need to learn to ‘let in’ (things that are representative of your ‘joy’ frequency) and to ‘let go’ (things that don’t feel comfortable or are incompatible to your ‘joy’ frequency). When you let it go and don’t try to control the outcome, you allow the universe to get you there on the quickest slipstream.
Meditate on opportunity, ask the universe for synchronicity and when you get it — take action! It may not come in the shape or form that you think, so keep those eyes peeled. Read related articles How Weird, Little Synchronicities Can Actually Be the Bomb! and Why Synchronicity Can Change Your Life.
Search engines are a great tool to zip you about the globe. You can read up on what you want to achieve. You can see other peoples success stories or read tips and tricks on your given field — go take a look at Pinterest (if you haven’t ventured into the obscenely creative world of Pinterest, I suggest you set aside a good couple of hours and a flask of tea). Don’t forget that it is great to be inspired by others but don’t be a copy-cat — always be authentically YOU. Don’t be afraid of that, that’s where your true power is. Your dream requires WORK (but the nice kind of work). There are so many things I still want to try my hand at and I know it’s going to take strategy, dedication and some serious time-management with copious doses of patience but it doesn’t put me off.

If you truly want what you say you want, you’re going to be driven to try any and every avenue. The world is your oyster, so crack open the Tabasco sauce and start slicing up those lemons!

And, because I want to see you succeed, I’m giving away free copies of my eBook ‘Creative Expression — How to find your inspiration…’ to all who click HERE (or on the pic to your right).

Other articles you may enjoy:

5 Tools to Stop You Worrying

3 Ways to Kick Your Fears to the Curb

It’s Time to Go Beyond Belief — Here’s How…

How to Stop the ‘Monkey Mind’ Phenomenon

How to Redesign Yourself From the Cellular Level and Beyond!

The art used in this article is called ‘Dancing in the Void’ and was part of my solo exhibition called ‘Rocking Art’.

Click on the picture of the painting to your right to take you to my gallery. The original painting is still for sale (at the time of this article publication).

‘Dancing in the Void’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

30″ x 30″ x 1.5″

$1800 (international shipping incl.)

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Self-Empowerment Books by Cherie Roe Dirksen:

Comfort Zones: Embracing the Beauty of Awkward and Uncomfortable

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” — Brian Tracy

The comfort zone, for those who are unfamiliar, is that cozy place where we feel all squishy and safe. Trouble is, the comfort zone is not progressive.

Kicking Butt or Laying Low?

Let’s face it, if everybody was indeed Kung Fu fighting, we’d have a global population of ninja’s urinating all over their comfort zones. Any dedicated activity, drive or passion requires — at some point — the collapse of the comfort zone or pushing yourself beyond what you think you can do or achieve.

No great man or woman became great by not bothering.

“I have stepped outside my comfort zone enough to know that, yes, the world does fall apart, but not in the way that you fear.” — Tan Le

Hence, — if you don’t push yourself past your comfort zone — there will be very little chance of:

Super serious adventure (the type that involve dizzy daydreams and hullabaloo)
Mind-pickling creativity (envelope-pushing, innovative stuff)
Dashing acquaintances (bow-ties, glass slippers…maybe even a hint of Spandex?)
James Bond type action sequences or even those swanky Bond-ish cocktail parties (no, not in your cards if your comfort zone has it’s way — it’ll be Saturday night at the town hall playing Bingo for you!)
Rave reviews, lavish affections and golden opportunities (the kind geese lay with cherries and lashings of champagne on top)
Anything more exciting than fluffy slippers, junk food and watching Netflix…(as lovely as that can be, that isn’t all life has to offer)

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” — Denis Waitley

What Mr Waitley is trying to convey is that an exciting life — injected with passion and pizzazz — is never going to be yours if you’re not willing to dip your toe into the icy waters of liquid potential. Liquid potential can be freezing, dark and wet but it could also hold the treasures of a sunken ship in it’s watery abyss.

If you never try, you’ll never know…sad thing is — if you don’t try you’ll always know. Familiarity breeds contempt. You’re potentially going to lose respect for yourself if you don’t pluck up the courage to venture into the unknown.

“Comedians tend to find a comfort zone and stay there and do lamer versions of themselves for the rest of their career.” — Chris Rock

Heart Wisdom, Feedback and a Gushy Ending

When you fling yourself out the door of familiarity into the wild and exciting wilderness, always remember that there is never failure only feedback. Even if you do stumble out there in the ‘uncomfortable’ zone, don’t give up! The only place you’re going to find wonder and miracles is out there — so dust off and soldier on.

Thing is, IMHO, your comfort zone is in your heart — it should be what you carry around with you on the inside. It’s never going to be ‘out there’. Read related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom

If you’re comfortable with change and you’re 100% in your integrity, you can demolish the comfort zone and never look back. All the magic you may be yearning for lies just outside of that comfort zone — the enchantment is just waiting for your leap of faith.

“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.” — Benedict Cumberbatch

Other articles you may enjoy:

5 Tools to Stop You Worrying

3 Ways to Kick Your Fears to the Curb

It’s Time to Go Beyond Belief — Here’s How…

How to Stop the ‘Monkey Mind’ Phenomenon

How to Redesign Yourself From the Cellular Level and Beyond!

Find Out How to Tune Into Your Personal Higher Vibration

Prayer: Where Did it All Go Wrong?

The art used in this article is called ‘Exploding This Reality’ and was part of my solo exhibition called ‘Rocking Art’.

Click on the picture of the painting to your right to take you to my gallery. The original painting is still for sale (at the time of this article publication).

‘Exploding This Reality’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

28″ x 28″ x 1.5″

$1645 (international shipping incl.)

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Self-Empowerment Books by Cherie Roe Dirksen:

3 Ways to Kick Your Fears to the Curb

Posted on January 16, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Creeping in Through the Cracks

Fear is an almighty strong emotion. It could be said to be the driving force behind our collective impotence.

Why does it have so much force in our lives?

It get’s flung at us constantly via the media — TV, movies, adverts, the general public, etc.

And when we’re not ‘out in the world’ overhearing all the crime statistics and getting fed bad news from people on the street, we rush home to fall into the escapism of our daily Facebook feed because there’s nothing there to be fearful of, right?

Wrong! We get a slipstream of everything that’s messed up in the world (barring, of course, those sweet little kitty meme’s and quirky quote feeds — although even those are starting to take their toll on social media addicts).

One has even come to fear the next ‘Be Like Bob’ post or cradle in terror at the thought of another cat in a pot photo. All jokes aside…

Getting Down and Dirty

We need to take responsibility for what we give our attention to and for how we allow, yes allow, the media to manipulate our emotions and pervade the airwaves with such repugnant negativity.

We are the ones giving credence to and creating our own fears — we can literally asphyxiate ourselves with things to fret or find fear about.

Every time you give into fear you feed negativity and give it more power. Fear is a choice, like it or not.

Related article: How To Deal With Your Fear of the Unknown

The Different Types of Fear

There are, of course, many different types of fear but they are all grounded in the act of giving your power away.

When we come up against fear, we are presented with a chance to be aware, brave and face up to it. Get to the nitty-gritty and uncover the truth about why we are so afraid or uncomfortable (i.e. the fear of heights/snakes/natural disasters/terrorism/clowns/Uncle Sam/Aunt Betty/’fill in the blank’).

When we mine ourselves for the ‘why’s’ and ‘what-have-you’s’ of our own fears, we can face them and move through them.

If there is nothing we can do but send our love, compassion, empathy or prayers to a fearful situation, then do that! Stop giving rise to a tidal wave of negative emotions.

Either do something about your fear (fight or flight), make an effort to get to the bottom of why you feel a certain way (be it through meditation, inner-examination, therapy, etc) or stop thinking about it — turn your thoughts around!

What you think about you bring about. Your attention, good or bad, always feeds the probability giving it more gusto. So, stop gusting away at those fearful ruminations!

Incapacitating Fear

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

In order to work fear back into the light, we need to find its polar opposite — LOVE. When you inject love into fear it evaporates — it has no stronghold in the presence of love.

But how does one start projecting love when ones knees are knocking?

Well, let’s address what is called heart-centered living — I’m sure you’ve all probably heard that word by now. People are throwing it about a lot these days (including me — guilty as charged!). As airy-fairy and lace-clad as heart-centered living may seem — there is a nugget of gold in the finding!

Related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom

Quickening the Heart

When you work through your heart, based primarily upon how you are feeling about something (as opposed to working through your mind and how you think about something), you are guided by a more truthful resonance of picking up subtle nuances from your surroundings rather than being directed by what reason dictates.

So even though we are in need of our minds and pensiveness, we have been dominated by left-brain thinking for centuries. A shift is occurring, not to totally disregard our thoughts but to channel through the heart and then process through the mind. In other words, not just to go straight to the head and bypass our hearts or how we are feeling intuitively.

Rationality can be useful but it has, in some cases, left our instinctive abilities to wither in its stoic presence. Sometimes our ‘logic’ has actually hindered our bliss. This could be because ‘society dictates otherwise’ or ‘the norm is to be…’ — well, be careful of whose ‘norm’ you are conceding to.

It’s that age old conflict between science and spirituality (left-brain versus right-brain) — the solution to which is using both in balance.

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” — Dorothy Thompson

3 Key factors to transmute your fears are remembering to:

1. Spend Your Emotions Wisely

Don’t buy into fear. Think of all the things you have feared in the past — did any of those worries come true? If yes, did you survive it? I take it you did if you are reading this. The energy or vibration of fear draws that which you worry about into your life. Have you ever been with someone who is not afraid of dogs but you are. When a dog comes running at you both, it goes for you, my sweaty-palmed friend, not your companion! Why? Animals, as you probably know, can sense fear — so can the universe and the universe is impartial. It acquiesces to what it thinks you desire via your frequency output. If your emotions are dialed into fear, expect life to become frightening. The only thing you should fear is fear itself (thanks, President Roosevelt!).

2. Know That Love Conquers All

Get used to being tuned into your feelings and steering them to safer shores. When you are in fear, inject some love into your aura by thinking of someone you love, your favorite pet, the infectious chuckle of your child or grandchild or a blissful memory. Change your vibration! This is how you get to expand on the feeling of love in the face of fear. Show fear that you have too much love in your heart. Fear is a mental construct in the absence of love. Trust your instincts and obey your heart. Send love and compassion to all those who suffer or who are in situations you fear to be in. Even send love to the perpetrators of heinous crimes. Why? Because you won’t solve hate by chucking more venom at a situation. When you can send love to the victims and perpetrators alike, you are diffusing the energy and making a space for healing and learning to occur. The perpetrators of violent crimes will not ‘get better’ with negativity, hateful thoughts or jail sentences (that is not to say that they shouldn’t have to ‘pay’ for their crimes — we all have to face the music for our actions) but, in sending love and compassion, there may be a glimmer of hope that they will have a true awakening to spirit and show remorse or have a change of heart.

3. Take Control

Short, sweet and to the point. If you want to be self-empowered then the first things you need are awareness and the ability to take responsibility for your actions. These two fundamental principles are gateways for you to realize your inherent potential. You are a co-creator, take responsibility for that and take control from this point onwards.

The art used in this article is called ‘Kom Ombo’ and was part of my solo exhibition called ’42’ (you can download the FREE book of art and poems HERE).

Click on the picture of the painting to your right to take you to my gallery at Saatchi Art. The original painting (as of the date of article publication) is still available for $690 (which includes worldwide shipping).

‘Kom Ombo’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

36″ x 10″ x 1.5″

$690 (incl. worldwide shipping)

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 (3 Ways to Kick Your Fear to the Curb) 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 blogs you may enjoy:

How to Redesign Yourself From the Cellular Level and Beyond!

How You Can Beat the Matrix

2 Damn Good Reasons Why You Need to Love Yourself!

Future Projecting a Positive

Satisfying Simplicity

Get Your Joy on This Festive Season!

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Plug in, Baby

I have a WordPress site and I think they’re pretty user friendly. However, my IT-challenged brain just can’t handle all these new appy, gizmo-type thingy-ma-jigs.

Let’s take plugins — God bless them for what they do, unbeknownst to me.

It took me about 30 minutes to realize that figuring out how to use one of these ‘plugins’ just wasn’t going to happen. The pitbull in me (the one that doesn’t usually give up, starts yelling and shouting and banging fists against the table, then bursts into tears) decided to let it go.

Bear With, There is a Point…

Before I get to this enigmatic point about joy, I have to carry on with my story.

So, feeling like a champ for walking away, I went to take a break on the couch, smartphone in hand. Now I’m scrolling down my facebook feed.

Why, oh why!!?!

I give myself about 5 minutes to do this but, in light of recent events, I think I might curb it to like 2 minutes or even 0.

My whole feed was taken up by

a) Mindless pap (‘look what I’m eating’, gym sessions, my feet at the beach).
b) Horrific, graphic content either about abuse, ‘scene of the crime’ photo’s or cruelty to animals (you know what I’m talking about, right?).
c) Well-tailored, fear-based world events (usually ‘sponsored’).
d) Selfies…loads and loads — no wait — TONS of selfies. Taking ‘Face’ book to new levels.
e) Quotes that either mean nothing but have been glazed over with sprinkles to look like they might be profound or quotes that really tell me you need to see a professional. Or even better, quotes used or made up by people accompanied by d). — a selfie of a prophet in the making. I’ve got a slight feeling that the quote is a by-product of the need to post a selfie disguised as ‘information’. Some people even use religious quotes accompanied by selfies…Jesus would be pleased.

Nature Quote by Cherie Roe Dirksen I’m so relieved to be updated every hour or two with a new profile pic of any said person because, really, I might have forgotten in the last 59 minutes what they looked like! Phew.

Rant over…point coming.

After swiftly realizing that my mind was turning to moosh and I was feeling really overwhelmed and agitated, I closed my phone cover. I looked outside — there was my garden. Oh joy! Bursts of colour winked at me, green grass tempted me for a quick roll down the hill, sunlight beckoned me for a warm taste of its rays.

Enough Already, I’m Outta Here

I know for a fact that too much time spent on devices and looking at a computer screen rots my brain. I feel nauseous, disorientated, joyless and tired. I need to use computers because I do most of my work online but I’ve drastically curbed the time spent doing this. I get on and get off as quickly as I can.

The point of this whole article was to say that if you’re feeling the way I do (drained to the core after being bombarded with all this cr@p), go spend time in nature. I know I bang on and on about this but it just SO works.

The day I described above saw me playing out the rest of the twilight hours pottering in my garden — watering, planting and just admiring natures beauty. The birds were singing, my cats were following me around — purring and weaving between my legs — and life felt GOOD, the absolute antithesis of what it feels like to be computer-bound.

The JOY was sweet.

I can’t help but feel like the conspiracy theorists are right and our tech age is robbing us of our innate, earthly experience. It’s turning us into zombies who are overloaded with stuff we don’t need to know about.

Don’t get me wrong, having the internet has been a huge blessing — having people at your fingertips, community pages, valuable information, etc — it’s all great. But, as with everything, balance is essential (read related article: How to Hold Your Equilibrium). And let’s face it, most of us aren’t balancing this new found delight.

Thunder…Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah

Yesterday we had a massive thunder and lighting storm accompanied by huge droplets of rain — it was fabulous! I went and stood out in the garden getting pelted and loving it. I felt refreshed and my bare feet were sucking in the mighty Gaia goodness of the ground.

Yeah, I’m a hippy but at least I’m a joyful hippy.

In all seriousness, it was awesome. I felt refreshed and renewed. Our connection with nature is a beautiful, symbiotic relationship and with any relationship it needs to be nurtured. Don’t go sit under a tree once a month and expect to be rejuvenated. As with any healthy practice, you’ve got to do it daily for maximum benefit.

Please take a leaf (yip…very punny) out of my book and spend as much time as you can taking in the great outdoors. Balance out your life and use the internet/computers sparingly. If you can’t help it and work long hours at the computer — take regular breaks (try and get outside if you can, even if you have to pretend to be a smoker in order to escape the building).

Nature is the best medicine, especially for a world-weary heart.

You may enjoy these related articles: Homeless Activists Go Organic and Feed an Entire Shelter With Rooftop Garden

Tobacco Doesn’t Just Kill Smokers; It Kills the Environment

The art used in this article is taken from my solo exhibition, ’42’, and is called ‘Literally Popping’. You can buy the original or a print HERE.

You can view my online gallery at Saatchi HERE.

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

How to Become More Balanced (and Happy!)

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.” ― Lao Tzu, Te Tao Ching

How Doth Your Pendulum Swingeth?

The dictionary definition of the word ‘equilibrium‘ is a state of physical balance and/or a calm state of mind.

It’s when opposing forces are in balance.

It’s great when we find ourselves on a high — experiencing supreme joy, love, happiness and elation. It’s really shitty when we hit rock bottom — experiencing doubt, anger, pain and fear.

The key to true happiness is somewhere in the middle.

An Uncomplicated Truth

Both states of joy or anguish are temporary. As Eckhart Tolle pointed out, ‘this too shall pass‘ — that phrase goes for anything you are experiencing the good along with the bad.

As much as we want something good to last or something horrible to pass, it’s soothing to know that the ‘normal’ or most frequent state of our being is always found in the middle — balance.

Happiness — that sometimes elusive emotion — is yours in that balanced state. You’ll also find peace, clarity and calmness hanging out there.

Read related article: Why a 10 Minute Meditation Could Mean Everything

A quote for your to pin 🙂

Last week I wrote about patience (you can read that here: Why You Should Always Try Your Patience) — balance and patience go hand in hand. You can even enjoy patience because it’s the place you hang out when you are expecting your miracle to manifest. Being in equilibrium is much the same — it’s the space to be when you are just soaking up being an eternal spirit having a corporeal experience 😉

Learn to love and be comfortable in balance and you will master the art of true contentment — nothing will be able to sway your pendulum but you.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Go Slow to Speed Things Up

This is Why You Are Amazing

Got Blocks? This May Be Why…

How to Cope With the Knowledge of Pure Evil

The Truth About Being All Stirred Up

About the Artwork

The art used in this article is taken from my painting ‘Escapism’ — you can get the original and prints HERE or you can get all sorts of products, clothing and prints HERE.

You can read about the inspiration behind this piece here:

What Radiohead Looks Like Through The End of my Brush

This is Why You Are Amazing

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” ~Carl Sagan

I would like to begin this blurb with a statement that the Pleiadians made through one of Barbara Marciniak’s channels to humanity: Be noble because you are of the stars but be humble as you are from the earth (paraphrasing).

Rat Race Illusions

Most of humanity is stuck in the daily grind — feeling small, insignificant, impotent and out-of-control. We’ve forgotten our magnificence. Read related article: The Incredible Power of Humility

We are a noble, honourable race albeit one with a few… *a-hem*… issues. Yeah, we may get despondent looking at the headlines or reading the history books but inherently I think we can make it to a class 1 civilization.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed and saddened by the things people do, I remind myself that there is far more good in the world (and good people) than bad. The handful of rotten eggs does not maketh the race.

We, as Carl Sagan so eloquently put it, are made of stars. We have a stellar nobility but we also have a modest earthly existence. This is grand too because it makes you of earth and stars — a proud inheritance. Without ego interference, this is a beautiful thing: to be noble and to be humble. This kind of humble does not mean low-ranking in any way, it simply means to be meek and respectful. Humility is a noble trait. And nobility can be humbling.

Read related article: 12 Things Conscious Successful People Do To Excel

We must hold our heads up high and give ourselves more credit. It’s too easy to get swept away in thinking that humanity is a plague when we could be thinking towards the solution — we can be great, we just need to embody it.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons

The Truth About Being All Stirred Up

Don’t Let Control Issues Ruin Your Life

How to Play the Game

Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (This is Why You Are Amazing) 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.

The Truth About Being All Stirred Up

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

I read a quote the other day, it went something like this:

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear you path”

There is so much truth in that if only we could have the clarity of thought to see it that way when we’re in the eye of the storm.

Life’s Little Reminders

Things, in hindsight, always become clearer. It’s that one day that you suddenly wake up to realize that if that (fill in the blank) didn’t happen, you’d be stuck (fill in the blank).

And if these ‘storms’ don’t come to blast a clear passage, you can get awfully stuck in your comfort zone and never push yourself beyond to where your soul longs to be. Read related article: Comfort Zones: The Beauty of Awkward and Uncomfortable

Life’s trials will never cease to be there, it’s your perspective and how you choose to see and handle it that must change in order for you to be genuinely happy.

If you can — when things seem really bad — see it with new eyes, perhaps you can let go of the situation/person more readily. If you can face life’s obstacles with a knowing that anything that comes into your life to disrupt is there for a reason and, in my experience, that reason is always growth and a situation that leads to something even better.

I have, in many circumstances where I would have normally thrown my toys way out of my cot, applied this concept of future projecting a positive outcome (just remember that the antithesis — worry — is future projecting a negative outcome) with absolute success. Read related article: Future Projecting a Positive Outcome

I know I’m the only one who can make me happy.

In the middle of a hurricane, know that you have every ability to turn it around into something you can learn and grow from.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” ~Dr Seuss

The art used in this blog can be found HERE.

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.
She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (The Truth About Being Stirred Up) 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.

Other articles you may enjoy:

3 Valuable Understandings to Help You Kick Fear Addiction

Why You Should Ask Only Once

The Scary Truth About Our Subconscious Programming

Save the Date! My Solo Exhibition ’42’ is Happening This October!

Go Slow to Speed Things Up

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.” ~Viggo Mortensen

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Stress is one of the biggest killers of our time. The worst part is, it’s so unnecessary.

We think we don’t have enough hours in the day, we con ourselves into thinking that we need to do, do, do and — when the day is done — we worry about what tomorrow may bring.

Any alien looking down on our world would think we’re loopier than a slinky — one nut short of a complete fruit cake.

Life Experience of the Old and Crusty

I would like to think, now at the ripe old age of 43, that I have a bit of life experience under my belt. I was a chaser, a go-getter, a ‘seeker’ — now that I’m older and, I’d like to think, wiser — I’m a go-slower.

If we are to take it from the mouth of Viggo Mortensen — true success is to go slow to go fast (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to take it slow and steady with Viggo?).

The Advantages of Life in the Slow Lane

Taking life a little easier helps us to:

see with greater clarity of mind (so much better for making life’s important decisions)
to stop and smell those proverbial roses (and they are so sweet smelling in the springtime) — it’s our excuse to be like Ferdinand (watch video below if you don’t know this bullish yet delightful tale)
connect with ourselves in ways we almost never allow ourselves to (as in taking long, hot baths, strolls in the countryside, watering the garden or just staring at a wall for a couple of hours)
connect with others in more meaningful, whole ways (how many of us are guilty of not listening properly or having our minds wander when we should be focused on others?)
savour the passion of what we love to do no matter what that is
engage in true inner peace.

Slow down, life is too short to get yourself all twisted in a knot. Say no if you’d rather not. Put your sanity first before clogging up that diary. Learn how to decline gracefully and start human being instead of human doing.

Now, it’s time to sit back and tap into the inner bull:

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (Go Slow to Speed Things Up) 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.

Other articles you may enjoy:

3 Valuable Understandings to Help You Kick Fear Addiction

Why You Should Ask Only Once

The Scary Truth About Our Subconscious Programming

Save the Date! My Solo Exhibition ’42’ is Happening This October!

Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

When Life Gives You Lemons…

I would like to give you a recipe for the best darn lemonade ever — it’s about community, asking, giving and thriving.

4 years ago I moved to a remote little village in the klein Karoo, South Africa. I soon learnt that there was a really great switched on bunch of people staying here (with exception to the local loons, drama queens and negative nellies — if you’ve ever had a taste of remote country living, you’ll know what I mean).

I soon felt very at home in this quaint little outback town.

Recently I started my very own ‘Power of 8’ meditation group — the original concept brought to us by Lynne McTaggart (read more here:Are You Ready For Peace? Join Lynne McTaggart For the Largest Group Intention in the History of Mankind!).

We meet once a month and each member gets a turn to set an intention (which could be to lower the crime in the village, sending healing energy to abundance for all — the sky is the limit and we’ve been fairly successful!).

Our meetings bring much joy to us all and we have a safe place to discuss things that are a little ‘off the wall’. There is a sense of trust and sisterhood/brotherhood.

Yes Cherie, but what about the lemonade?

Hang on a tick…

The Secret Ingredient

After one of these meetings, I decided to pour myself a glass of lemon water.

I suddenly realized I had forgotten to get lemon juice from the store. I decided to put out a distress call to my neighbourhood whatsapp group (btw — I strongly suggest you create a neighbourhood whatsapp group, it’s really useful as long as you keep it light and friendly) asking if anyone perhaps had a lemon tree and lemons to sell me — cause, frankly, why not?

Within an hour I had a BIG bag of the juiciest, organic lemons from my neighbour a couple of houses up. She wouldn’t even hear of accepting payment for them. It was a good thing I had just celebrated my birthday and had brought her a couple of pieces of chocolate cake to compensate for such anticipated generosity!

She reminded me that I gave her apricots last season from my overburdened tree to which I replied that she was always more than welcome every season to come and fill a box.

She said I was welcome to her lemons any time.

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside as I’m writing this ’cause this is just the life, isn’t it — straight out of a Waltons episode!

Living the Dream

It’s what I’ve always wanted — a sense of true community. It overwhelms me how generous and delightful people can be in a world where everything seems to be collapsing in chaos and tumult, we can actually take back control by looking out for each other.

We have the power to create community wherever we are.

The ingredient to making the best lemonade on the planet is to reach out to people on your doorstep. The only positive change we can be sure of creating is the way we live, communicate with and help each other out from the small things to the larger things — to respect each others differences and to look out for each other.

If everyone can do this and create peace neighbourhood by neighbourhood — we most certainly will have the ability to thrive.

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.
She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, 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 has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons) 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.

Other articles you may enjoy:

3 Valuable Understandings to Help You Kick Fear Addiction

Why You Should Ask Only Once

The Scary Truth About Our Subconscious Programming

Save the Date! My Solo Exhibition ’42’ is Happening This October!

2 Damn Good Reasons Why You Need to Love Yourself!

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

What’s the Deal with Self Love?

“Self-love is the source of all our other loves.” — Pierre Corneille

Healthy self love is not narcissistic or egotistical — let’s just get that out the way first off. Some people immediately associate self love with selfishness or egotism — it is neither.

To love yourself is as important as breathing — without it your cup is empty and you can’t truly love or give of yourself if you’re an empty vessel, now can you?

Meet Jane…

Jane is a vibrant and gifted woman. Jane is also a people pleaser. She spent over 10 years in a dead end relationship with John because she didn’t want to leave him.

Why?

She didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Wow.

When I questioned Jane about why she hadn’t thought of her own happiness in this equation, she said that she ‘didn’t matter’. She went on to say that she has tried to placate all the people in her life because she wants to ‘keep the peace’ and not ‘rock the boat’.

Jane also divulged that when she was younger she was taught to be selfless and giving and that if she didn’t adhere to these principles she wouldn’t go to heaven.

“I think the most important thing in life is self-love, because if you don’t have self-love, and respect for everything about your own body, your own soul, your own capsule, then how can you have an authentic relationship with anyone else?” — Shailene Woodley

So as we started unraveling the complicated tapestry of Jane’s self worth and self love issues, we started getting towards the crux: Jane believed that God wanted her to be self-sacrificing otherwise she wasn’t worthy of His/Her love.

What complete and utter balderdash!

Thing is, a lot of people still believe this to be true and I think it’s the complete opposite. You are a worthy and lovable creation of the creator and deserve as much love and respect as every other beautiful being.

You’ve got to get with the divine program and start turning that love dial to full tilt on the inside!

Unscrambling the Concept of Self-Sacrifice

Here’s why I don’t think it’s healthy to be self-sacrificing:

When you have regard for other peoples feelings that is great — it’s called empathy/compassion/tact/kindness — nothing wrong with those traits. But when you do this with no regard for yourself you are, in fact, going against your own principles. Why? Because you are a person too…duh! Did you ever stop to think that you — a shard of the divine in carnation — are doing an injustice to a human being (your very own self!)?
When you decide to be in ‘service to others’ instead of ‘service to self’ (this is where egotism and narcissism reign supreme) it is a most noble and amazing thing but you need to be included in that service. It is completely contradictory to abuse your own rights and feelings in order to help others. In fact, you cannot truly give of yourself if you have no self love or sense of self worth.

If you need a bit of help with getting over societal conditioning and not giving a damn about what other people think of you so you can clear a path to self love, give this article a once over: 8 Tips on How to Stop Caring What Other People Think of You

Conclusion: if we all learned to love ourselves more we’d have world peace. Give it a shot.

If you liked this article, you may consider starting a gratitude journal. Every day write something you are grateful for, no matter how big or small. You’ll see your life start to change when you focus on the positive!

Get your gratitude journal today (click on this link or the picture below) for yourself or for someone you know who’s starting out on a self-empowerment path and could use a bit of motivation!

These gratitude journals can be purchased lined or blank (depending on whether you prefer drawing what you’re grateful for or writing it). They are 13.2cm x 18.6cm – a handy pocket-sized journal!

Other articles you may find interesting:

Simply BE in Gratitude

Remember: You Can Alchemize Anything!

5 Super Easy Exercises to Creating a Positive Life!

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” — Dalai Lama

Stepping Up to the Plate

There’s only one person responsible for what you think and do and that’s YOU.

If the thought of being the creator of your reality scares the willies out of you, then read on…

The Freedom to Be Happy

Can you remember learning how to swim or ride a bike? Can you see how determined you were to succeed because you knew the pay-off was going to be huge?

Same goes for swimming — gliding about in the water refreshes and frees your body of weight. You knew that swimming was going to be the biggest trip ever!

Where am I going with this? Your thoughts need training wheels/water-wings if you want to experience the same freedom from negative thought. And here’s how you’re going to do it…

Getting Real Right NOW

Here are a few things you can start to do today to become more aware and proactive with your thoughts:

Morning Motivation — When you wake up, give yourself 5-10 minutes to think about what how you want to see this day play out. See if you can catch any worrisome or negative thoughts before they take hold of the exercise. Put up a STOP sign in your mind and gently kick those blighters to the curb. Then bring your focus back to visualizing your positive day ahead. Try to smile and see/feel yourself enjoying this bright new day. Emotions back your thoughts into manifestation. Read related article: How Good Are You Out of Bed?
Mind Mangle Cleanse — During the day (if you are but a mere mortal) you will probably find yourself slipping into worry, blame, anger, despair and an array of other harmful mind banter. You may even find that your head is throbbing because of all the distorted ‘mind mangling’ that’s going on up there. Here’s your chance to hold up that STOP sign again and see if you can look at things from a different perspective. Most of what we worry about never comes to pass and most judgments/situations when seen from a different angle can evoke empathy instead of anger. See if you can alchemize your thinking — in other words, find the treasure in the trash. Read related article: 3 Ways to Alchemize Chaos
Marrying the Mind — When you start to get a hold on your thought stream and just how much power you DO have over it, you can start to have a better relationship with your thinking. You are now in control and you can focus your inner dialogue on what serves you instead of calling in all the unwanted experiences. Start your affirmations off with a strong ‘I am…’. For example ‘I am going to have a great day today’, ‘I am going to have a safe trip’, etc. Try avoid the phrases ‘I desire’ or ‘I want’ because it only brings more desiring and wanting for the future. When you use ‘I am’ it is in the present tense and is happening right now not in some future timeline.
Re-Member — We often get lost in ‘doing’ and not ‘being’. Try to remember all the things that make you happy and bring you joy. When you smile the world smiles with you. So, remember to feel gratitude for life, nature and the people that make your world spin. Look at every magnificent dawn or sunset as a blessing, every fragrant flower or birdsong as a gift, every smile or hug as a gesture of love and draw on those experiences when you’re in a negative frame of mind. See if you can remove yourself from a negative situation and sit under a tree or listen to some soothing music. Seek out those small but beautiful moments in your life and embrace them. Hold them close to your chest and bring them out when you need to. It’s bound to make you smile. You can always alter your reality at any time. Don’t forget that. If you choose to stay in the gloom, then just know that ‘this too shall pass’.
Over and Out — At the end of the day, review what happened and see if you can pick out any situations that you have turned around in reality. Did you manage to have a good day? Did things turn out like you affirmed in the morning? Or close to? Or can you do better tomorrow? Keep trying and if you do see results it’s going to make you more determined — just like that little tike on the bicycle, gearing up for the next day’s practice. Because you know that practice makes perfect!

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” — Joyce Meyer

You will get a grip on your oh-so-powerful thought stream and you’ll be able to eventually steer those thoughts to benefit your life in ways that will make your head spin — in a good way!

Now it’s up to you to give yourself a reason to smile every day.

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.

What You Need to Know About Game Changes

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

A friend posted a quirky quote to my Facebook wall the other day — it read:

When something goes wrong in your life just yell, “Plot Twist!” and move on.

I had a good laugh and then a light-bulb went on in the old noggin — that’s totally true and a helluva great life strategy!

Here’s why:

It was Shakespeare who cited that all the worlds a stage and all the men and woman merely players. Bearing this in mind, we are all in a kind of giant theatrical production and can, at any point, be the actor, director, script writer or producer.
Being part of the cast and crew is great news because whenever there is a twist in the tale or the plot thickens, we can interpretatively work it out and move along with the other players — yes, a bit like a pantomime.

How Can We Rewrite Our Scripts to Better Suit Our Needs?

I can’t help you with absolutely every twist and turn — inevitably life is going to throw a curve-ball, surprise or unexpected hurdle in the path of every living player — all I can do is offer perspective.

Here are 3 things to contemplate when you come across a “Plot Twist”:

Reason — I know a lot of people despise the old adage, ‘everything happens for a reason’…but, really it does. You may not be able to see the end result from where you’re standing but there is a greater scheme at work in our lives. If you want to call that major playwright God or your Higher Self, be my guest, but if there’s one thing I’ve noted in my life, it’s when I think I know what’s best for me and try to control my destiny — I get a plot twist. And I don’t think it’s a form of punishment, not at all. From my experiences these ‘plot twists’ have always worked better for me than anything I could have tried to dream up for myself. It’s like a slipway to your destiny. When we try to control everything, we can be very shortsighted. The universe is trying to work with you to get you what you want quicker than you could ever attempt. So when we seem to hit a bump in the road, it could be a detour to a better situation even if it may not look that way at first. Sometimes it takes years to see the outcome of one of these ‘twists’.
Rhyme — this is when you end with a sound that corresponds to another. Huh? Oh come on…I had to work rhyme into reason! But seriously, we can write the scripts of our lives to some extent. If you encounter a plot twist and you feel things are unraveling at the seams, write your own ending! Use the curve ball to add an interesting turn in your life. In other words, from this moment on, get down on paper how you want to see this specific ‘scene’ turn out. Then inject the outcome with feeling, like it’s already on DVD. Rewind and replay this episode in your mind knowing that the conclusion is something you really want and can feel.
Playfulness — seeing you’re already in a play, you may as well be playful! Or, in other words, find the humor in your plot twist. There’s always something to laugh about, it may as well be our pickles as much as our pleasures. Nothing kills a bad mood more than laughing. When you can do this you can be lighthearted. When you’re lighthearted it’s easier to find the up in the down. There’s nothing wrong with being down for a while but at some point, one must make the effort to get back up — humor is always going to be your greatest ally.

Have I lost the plot completely? Gone round the twist? You’ll have to wait for the sequel!

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.

Why ‘The Echo’ is Important on Your Evolutionary Path

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

So you’ve taken the initiative to change the course of your life to something that pleases you more. You’ve recognized that you are the co-creator of your experience and you’ve set your sails to bring you more of what you desire.

Suddenly you are confronted with more of what you don’t want.

Why?

Understanding the Echo Effect

It’s known as an echo. The Universe, in its weird and mysterious way, puts these ‘echo’s’ before us to get us to confront our change and see if it is what we want and if we are vibrationally aligned to said change.

What this means is that if you’ve been manifesting car problems and your new desire is to have a car that runs smoothly. You may get a flat tyre or a blown gasket. This is a kind of frequency test.

What is Your Reaction?

What’s actually happening is a test on how you REACT to this. If you truly are on a new path where your car is working great — your vibration will be light when one of these echo’s comes a-calling.

If you have changed and are on the track of vibrant va-va-voom vehicle vibrations, then you can just shrug off this echo and say to the Universe, ‘this is okay ’cause I know what I want and what I want is a working car. All is well’. Your vibration will be matched and you have passed the test.

If you lose your marbles and start kicking the car and saying, ‘why does this always happen to me?’ — you clearly have not changed your vibration to what you want.

Facing the Echo — Design or Default?

It feels like a dichotomous situation to get a repeat of the energy of the past but it is a vital factor in YOU realizing that you have not (or have) actually changed the way you think and feel.

You can either design the future (I want a working car) or go to the factory default (my car always fails me). The echo is a way to test your vibration to see if you are on a new timeline.

Read related article: How to Effectively Slip Into Your Preferred Future

It’s actually a great thing to get an echo because it means that your desire is being processed and you are in the throes of the final tweak.

Don’t get caught up in the echo and feel like you’re going backwards — shout into that echo with a ‘thank you! I’ve totally got this and trust with a capital T’.

If you can face adversity and be calm and content about it, you have just stepped over the threshold of manifesting what you desire. The echo test is your gauge.

Trust in the process and don’t let those echo’s pull you back into the reality you want to step away from.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Community Power Groups are Reshaping the Way We Think

Feeling Into a Better Reality

Do You Need to Learn How to Say ‘No’?

Are You Expecting Good Things to Happen? Why You Should…

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 (Why ‘The Echo’ is Important on Your Evolutionary Path) 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

Community Power Groups are Reshaping the Way We Think

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Here is my latest article from Odyssey Magazine (click on icon to the right to read the magazine for free!)

Ever wondered how you can change the world without having to march on parliament or chain yourself to a tree? I’ve discovered a powerful new way to effect positive change by starting small…

I recently bit the bullet and started a Power of 8 group within my local community. You’d think that a small village in the Klein Karoo wouldn’t have many ‘new-agers’, would you? Wrong! I have met some awesome like-minded souls since I moved here — almost 4 years ago now — and when I began my group I was exposed to more deliciously spiritual individuals.

What is a Power of 8 group?

It’s a concept that best-selling author, Lynne McTaggart, has come up with — you can read more about it in her book The Power of Eight: Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of a Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life, and the World. Lynne is renowned for conducting intention experiments with a huge amount of success. She even goes on to say that, ‘the greatest untold truth of all is that group intention has a mirror effect, not only affecting the recipient but also reflecting back on the senders.’

Why 8?

Well, Lynne McTaggart believes that 8 is the magic number for manifesting. It’s no surprise that — in numerology — the 8 signifies infinity, balancing of karma and mind over matter.

The American radio presenter, Art Bell (in collaboration with Neil Slade), did a mass consciousness experiment with listeners on Coast to Coast AM on July 7, 1998. Their intention was to bring rain to a parched Florida. The result was they got massive rainstorms.

We are powerful creators and when we get together, we can co-create with speedy efficiency.

First Try, First Miracle!

My first meeting took place a couple of months ago. We didn’t have all 8 of our group present (there were 7 of us) but we still went ahead. Just remember: any group, albeit it 2 of you, will have an amplified effect. Don’t let the numbers put you off — if you don’t have 8 members then start with who you do have.

Our group intention was to visualize the healing of a local man who was one of our member’s partners. This soul had been through over two years of suffering and general health decline. He had no idea what was wrong with him but kept on manifesting more and more health issues. He wasn’t an old man (I believe he’s in his fifties) but he had been practically bed ridden over the past couple of years.

We sat in a circle, did a short ‘breathing through the heart chakra’ technique (which merely involves imagining that each deep breath you take and let out is done so through the heart area — you do this 3 times) and then we began our visualization. We had a photo of the gentleman, who we would be sending the healing energy to, placed in the center. I set my timer and off we went. The actual visualization meditation took only 10 minutes (which is the time that Lynne McTaggart suggests).

The group reported back some wonderful energies and visuals that they had experienced and then we went on to have tea and cake (you’ve got to make these things fun!).

When we met for our second meeting (we meet once a month), our friend gave us some sad news. Her partner had been diagnosed with cancer and they were to begin treatment soon.

Within 2 days of our meeting, we all got a whatsapp from her saying that her partners new test results had come back and, miraculously, there was no cancer anymore! They, thankfully, hadn’t even begun treatment. All that was apparently wrong with him was that he needed an iron injection?!

We were all amazed and thrilled. We will never know if our group intention was the cause or catalyst for this healing but we all sure felt good about it.

My friend reported later that he was up and about creating things in his workshop which she said he hadn’t been able to do for years.

What Have You Got to Lose?

The media and our social networking feeds are usually full of bad news. We get bombarded with the negative every day. However, the truth is that you don’t need to buy into it. The more peace, abundant, healing and loving thoughts you send out into the world, the more that will mirror back in your life. It’s not that you are denying the truth; it’s that it doesn’t have to be your truth if you don’t choose it to be. Everyone is entitled to choose and create the reality they wish to experience.

Why not start consciously choosing to see positive change by starting a Power of 8 group? It’s really easy and you’ll benefit in more ways than you can imagine.

I love my group meetings — we get to share positive experiences, advice and wisdom is offered at large, we get to socialize and have a laugh together and everyone reports feeling elated after our sessions. Every time we meet, we take turns in offering an intention.

In our second session, a lady from the group wanted us to hold a space for trust and abundance in our village as we had had a series of petty break-ins and fear was running rampant. We know that this was caused through lack, so, we wanted all the locals (victims and perpetrators alike) to experience abundance in all forms and to have a sense of trust reignited in the community. We then reported back, via our whatsapp group, anything along the lines of the intention that was happening to us or around us. Suffice to say, the whatsapp group was alight with stories of trust and abundance that month. It was truly remarkable to see the change when we shifted our perspective from what we didn’t want to see to what we did want to see.

In our last meeting, one of our group members admitted that she thought the whole idea of a group like this was a bit ‘woo-woo’ when she was first invited. She said that she is now a firm believer after all the positive things that have transpired in our group and we’ve only met 3 times!

All you need to do is gather a group of open-minded individuals and let the magic take place.

P.S. It’s okay to be woo-woo 😉

(article can be found on page 76 of Odyssey Magazing Issue 1 2018)

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist, multi-media artist and musician from Barrydale, 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.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Feeling Into a Better Reality

Do You Need to Learn How to Say ‘No’?

Are You Expecting Good Things to Happen? Why You Should…

3 Ways to Wave Goodbye to Fear

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” ~Jim Morrison

Fear controls most of us. The sh*t thing is, our controllers want to perpetuate fear in any way possible — it makes sense to those seeking power.

‘Fight or flight’ fear is useful as it can save our life but that insidious, worrisome fear can cripple our inherent right to joy.

Every time you give in to negativity and feed fear, the monster becomes more fearsome and more powerful. However, when we pop the bubble of the bogeyman under the bed and realize we created it — well, it becomes quite ridiculous, doesn’t it?

If we all make a concerted effort to rise to the challenge of facing our fears, we — as Mr Morrison so eloquently pointed out — will set ourselves free.

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Love is Stronger than Fear

Let me share these 3 tips on how I manage my fears:

Don’t Buy Into Fear. Think of all the things you’ve feared in the past — did any come true? If yes, did you survive it? I take it you did if you are reading this. The frequency of fear draws that which you worry about to you. Have you ever been with someone who is not afraid of dogs but you are? When a dog comes running at you both — it goes for you, my sweaty-palmed friend, not your companion. Animals, as you probably know, can sense fear — so can the Universe and the Universe is impartial. It acquiesces to what it thinks you desire via your vibrational output. Your emotions are pointing towards fear? Expect life to become frightening then. The only thing you should fear is fear itself.
Tune Into Love. When you are in fear, inject some love into your aura by thinking of someone/something that brings you joy — it could be your loved ones, a furry child, the thought of something humorous or a really great memory. Have a cache of these to draw from — this is how you get to expand on the feeling of love in the face of fear. Show fear that you are made of love and love is all there really is. Read related article: How to Use Your Heart Wisdom
You are Powerful. You are in control if you choose to be. If you want to be self-empowered then the first things you need are awareness and the ability to take responsibility for your actions. These two fundamental principles are gateways for you to step into your power. You can alchemize any situation — I actually want to get that tattooed to my forehead because I still tend to forget sometimes. Read related article: 3 Ways to Alchemize Chaos

“To alchemize a situation is to step inside it and transmute it from the inside out. Get into what is bugging you (through meditation or quiet visualization) and start working your magic — find that gem of understanding/learning that the situation has to offer and morph it (through picturing what you want to see in your mind’s eye) into what you do want to see manifest in your life.” (excerpt from article, 3 Ways to Alchemize Chaos)

You may enjoy these articles too:

Why Not Imprint How You Want to Die?

The Key to Success That May Surprise You

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist, 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 thoughts, 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 an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates) and her band’s Facebook page is Templeton Universe.

This article (3 Ways to Say Goodbye to Fear) 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.

Why Not Imprint How You Want to Die?

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” ~Martin Luther

What a strange subject, eh?

Well, I think it’s one worth delving into. We set intentions all day long, shooting out those ‘rockets of desire’ — so, why not imprint on this matrix or world of maya how you wish to transition this corporeal life?

Yes, I’m talking about setting an intention for death.

Knocking on Deaths Door?

It’s not as morbid as you think. In fact, it’s liberating and freeing you to truly LIVE your life without fear of death. Read related article: These Are The 3 Major Contributors to Depression and Anxiety, According to Science

Many ancient texts like the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Egyptian Book of the Dead (great light reading…lol) actually teach you how to die with dignity and grace. This topic is something that we — as a western society — tend to sweep under the rug.

I’m not suggesting that you think about this every day. It is just something to plan for and to take a look at every so often (you may wish to change your mind about the finer details as you progress on your path).

How to Set an Appropriate Exit Strategy

This is a rough guideline of what I like to visualize at my time of passing (please feel free to adjust as you see fit). I want to:

transition with grace and ease
transition in complete peace and tranquility
transition with excitement about entering my next phase of being
transition painlessly and effortlessly
transition with the knowledge that I am about to make my transformation from body to spirit
transition with complete peace of mind and having all relationships resolved or in balance (i.e. noting tethering me to the physical plane)
set an intention to have trusted loved ones help me on the other side
die with a smile on my face

When I hold a space for these intentions and revisit them occasionally — it gives me peace of mind to live my life not worrying about that ‘fateful day’. I hope it will do the same for you.

If you don’t believe you can request such an ending, then I believe that will be your destiny (always feeling that you are in the hands of ‘fate’). Look, the way I see it is — what have you got to lose?

You may also enjoy the following reads:

The Key to Success That May Surprise You

Are You Ready to Enjoy Life?

Dissolving Chaos (Especially in Lunar Energy)

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist, 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 thoughts, 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 an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates) and my band’s Facebook page is Templeton Universe.

This article (Why Not Imprint How You Want to Die?) 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

Couch Manifesting: The Only Way to Dream Big!

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

I’ve been trying a new tactic using the Law of Attraction. Maybe I’m a little slow and you’ve already stumbled across this amazing way to manifest what you want. It’s what I like to call ‘Couch Manifesting’ and it’s as great as it sounds!

I tried this a few weeks ago when I was ill and ‘bed ridden’ and I never stopped doing it ’cause it worked so well. Read related article: How Learning the Art of Slowing Down Changed My Life

And…Action!

Straight off the cuff — I don’t want to confuse my sloth-like behavior with not taking action. Nothing could be further from the truth in my life. I want to appeal to those of you who have dreamed the dream, affirmed your backside off and taken copious amounts of action to get the ball rolling…but just don’t ever seem to catch that break — or you’re not catching that wave as often as you’d like to.

I’ve been there.

Couch manifesting is when you’ve put all the work in and you just want to sit back and feel those well-deserved rewards just being heaped on top of you.

No More Marketing Nightmares

I’m the kind of anal Virgo who doesn’t stop. Even when I’ve done all I can do, I’ll do even more and stress myself out to the brink of breakdown (I’m sure there are a lot of you who feel the same way). But not anymore…I’ve discovered couch manifesting!

The beauty about couch manifesting is that once you’ve taken the necessary steps to implement your goal — all you need to do is sit back, relax and daydream your result into fruition. You’re going to let the Universe take care of clients streaming in, great job offers clogging your inbox, suitors making house calls or whatever it is you’re trying to experience. Read related article: How to Effectively Slip Into Your Preferred Future

As I said before, I’ve done all the work, gone down the expensive road of advertising, pulled my hair out thinking ‘what more can I do?’ and ending up doing more and more or creating more and more…I felt like the Duracell bunny — just going on and on and on beating that drum!

My Battery Was Pooped

I had to get utterly grounded by the flu to take a closer look at what I was doing to myself.

Okay, what does Couch Manifesting entail? Let me give you my real life experience example:

The end of the month was looming, bills needed to be paid.
I sat on my comfy couch staring at the wall just repeating to myself, ‘I’ve sold 2 paintings and I’ve got money coming in from royalties too‘ (this seemed believable to me at the time).
I felt into that for about 10 minutes until I got to a point where it was real.
I relaxed a bit and felt my breathing ease up too — I got to the point where I was feeling my bank account looking healthy.
My body felt calm and totally at peace — hakuna matata style!
I was good, life was good, everything was goooood. All was well.
I started reading my book without feeling guilty or the need to ‘look busy’.

I kid you not. Within the hour — and this was so strange because of the instantaneous result — I got a payment notification. I was being paid for 2 paintings I sold last month that I didn’t know about via a local gallery I exhibit at! Then within half an hour I got an e-mail with a royalty payment…and then another royalty pay out a few hours later!

I’m sold on this.

Letting it Go

I’ve spent so long working my fingers to the bone to market myself, I’ve paid for so many adverts and courses, thought I should ‘do more’ to ‘achieve more’ when all I had to do was sit on my couch and daydream about the plethora of ways the Universe was going to bring more wealth to me with the least amount of effort.

I literally wrap myself over the knuckles when I slip back into thinking that I should be doing more and creating more when I’m simply not inspired to. I’m hard-wired to ‘look busy’ but it’s a habit that is dissolving quickly.

I’m not advocating that you don’t take more action — just do what you WANT to do, when it feels right, and not out of any DESPERATION. If you’ve done the work all you need to do is imagine the sh*t out of your success! You’ve got it already — believe it.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Switching From Random Creating to Intentional Creating

How to Effectively Slip Into Your Preferred Future

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 has an official art Facebookpage (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

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

This article (Couch Manifesting: The Only Way to Dream Big!) 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.

Positive Thoughts Work

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Twin Peaks, Mary Poppins and Eyes Wide Shut

I’ve recently been ill, I’ve been in bed for almost 2 weeks. When I was going through my bouts of fevers and chills, hacking coughing spells and razor-blade throat issues, I was pretty delirious most of the time. In that David Lynch state of mind, I was having some pretty wicked hallucinations (not of the cool variety). I was terrified of the impending night when all these ghouls and goblins of my psyche would come out to play.

It’s really hard to transform into Julie Andrews and let that spoonful of sugar melt away the blues when you feel like you’re seeing the other side of your face.

However, (and, yes, there is a point to all of this) I managed to draw on some of my sense one night when I was having a particularly bad time being stuck in a twilight zone hallucination that saw me playing out all of Stanley Kubrick’s movies at once (terrifying, I know!). I managed to think to myself, ‘surely, I can stop this and redirect it to something more pleasant?’.

Take Back Control

I was thinking: if we’re stuck (especially in these darkest, sickest, most painful moments which, unfortunately, tend to steer us to focus on misery and not mercy) in a place that seems like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and we can use our power of positivity rather than above-mentioned misery to dictate — then why not give it a go? Read related article: Proof Positive: Our Thoughts, Emotions Affect our Physiological Health

Okay, back to my long-winded point: I tried it out. It worked! I was wet with a fever but I still managed to switch the Kubrick movie-thon to a really cool place where I became more calm, peaceful and it was awesome even though I was stupidly sick.

How did I do it?

I put on some music I found on YouTube (nice soothing, calming delta waves with night-time creepy crawly sounds – frogs, crickets, owls, etc). It was on very softly but it almost immediately grounded me and I felt more relaxed.
The music soothed me so much that even my pain seemed to lessen and I could focus, if not briefly, on a more positive thought stream. In this case, I just focused on the relaxation and peace I was feeling. I actually managed to get some sleep that night after being up for 5 nights!
I kept on saying out loud or to myself during the course of the day, ‘All is well’. ‘This too shall pass’ can also come in handy.
My frame of mind went from a ‘poor panicked me’ (thinking I was about to die) to a more optimistic package of phlegm that knew this was going to be alright.

It’s hard to dig yourself out of a pit when you’re in one, trust me I know, but just one good feeling thought can help you to cope. I’m not saying that for the next week of my illness I was singing ‘Kumbaya’ but my state of mind was much better.

Read related article: Ultimate Natural Home Remedy for Cold and Flu Season

Just give yourself a chance — one positive thought seed is all it takes.

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 (Positive Thoughts Work) 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:

How to Find the Perfectly Balanced YOU Right Now

‘How Can Nothing Mean So Much?’ — Featured in Odyssey Magazine’s 40th Anniversary Special Edition (FREE)!

8 ‘Alice’ Quotes That are Profoundly Spiritual

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.

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 (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.

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

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.

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 (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

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.

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 (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:

2 Dire Growth Problems Our Youth Face

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

How to Recognize a Dream Thief

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.

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 (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:

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

What You Can Do To Protect Yourself From Space Invaders

How to Recognize a Dream Thief

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!

Boundary Setting 101 — Target: Empaths

Free Yourself From Creative Complacency Today!

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.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Free Yourself From Creative Complacency Today!

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

Giving: You’ll be Amazed What’s in it for You!

2 Signs That Inflexibility is Setting into Your Life Experience

Free Yourself From Creative Complacency Today!

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Complacency: A Big Mistake Some Creatives Make

“The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.”
~Benedict Cumberbatch

Whether you’re a rocket scientist or a hairdresser — if you think you’re in your groove and that’s where you’ll stay, you’ve got a big surprise a-coming.

There’s nothing wrong with being on top of your game (and leave room for evolution) but when you think you’ve accomplished all there is to achieve in your field or you’re in a creative comfort zone — you block vital expansive energy.

Change is the Only Constant

With change being the only thing you can rely on in this universe, it’s actually quite pleasant to luxuriate in the understanding that there is always room for growth, new opportunities and new avenues of expression.

When we limit ourselves through thinking we know it all we severely cut off essential learning curves that could catapult your talents to new heights — as you will see in the video below:

“Pushing the envelope of creative expansion breaks down any illusion of limitation. Once you step out of the box, infinity beckons your every whim. Bask in the knowledge that existence is infinite, as are all possibilities. We create in a field of pure energy potential.” ~ Excerpt from Creative Expression — How to Find Your Inspiration

Check out my other video blogs in this series:

4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

Why Anybody Can Be Creative (video tutorial incl.)

How to Not Fall into the Trap of Complacency (video incl.

2 Signs That Inflexibility is Setting into Your Life Experience

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 video/article (Free Yourself From Creative Complacency Today!) was originally written/recorded 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.

Why You Need to Tap into Your Muchness for Self Confidence

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

What is Muchness?

Muchness can be described in many ways. Here is a list that best describes what your muchness really encompasses:

greatness,
moxie,
spunk,
backbone,
adventuresomeness (yes, it is a real word!),
tenacity,
valor,
spirit,
braveness,
determination,
grit.

Makes you want to leap up off your chair and punch the air, right?

Trouble is, a lot of people tend to play it small, hide in the shadows, stick to what ‘works’, play it ‘safe’… generally die of boredom — I mean really!?!

Turn on Your Moxie and Tap into the Divine You

Why is it important to tap into your verve? It combats a variety of self-inflicted ailments, such as:

Jealousy — if you are all you can be and you strive to do your best in all you undertake, you’re just not going to have the vibration of jealousy enter your space — it won’t fit. You get jealous (in my experience) when you see someone doing or being something you have failed to accomplish (yet). Think about it. Being in your muchness will make you leap with joy when someone is doing something you want to achieve and is successful. Why, it’s letting you know that it can be done! Heck, maybe you could even do it better. Even if you’re jealous of your boyfriend commenting about the pretty lady sitting at the bar — you should agree with him if you think she’s pretty and not explode at him for looking at another one of God’s lovely creatures. Let’s be honest here, don’t we all ‘look’ at beauty regardless of what sex you are? I admire beauty in both men and women. If you are taking care of yourself and taking pride in your appearance, expressing your truth in everything you do (from your moral attitude to the clothes you wear), you’re investing in cleanliness and love your very unique and individual construct of protoplasm (aka your body) — you’re going to be in a space of feeling wholesome love for who you are and what you represent. Nothing is going to get in the way of how you feel about yourself and if someone can’t appreciate that about you…well, there’s the curb — use it!
Boredom — you can’t possible get bored when you are expressing all the many facets of your awesomeness. You are constantly bombarded with motivation and inspiration because you know that your sense of adventure will never be satiated. There’s too much to do, be, explore and create. You would need many lifetimes to fully encapsulate all you want to do and be here on Earth, but instead of getting overwhelmed you take action. You just know that talking the talk is empty but walking the walk is empowering and is the quickest way to fulfillment, bliss and happiness. You can just feel that you’re going to pop your clogs if you hear another person whining on about what they need or want to do but never do anything about it because you know the secret to a tasty, action-packed life is to DO.
Self-Worth Issues — you’re totally over your negative self-worth inner dialogue ’cause you’ve realized that you are glorious! You are perfect! You may have some perceived faults but you know they’re there for a reason and you use it to your advantage. You know that the many hiccups in life are a path to a more refined soul expansion and you are itching to tackle every one of them with your new-found knowledge. Why? Because you know that nothing crosses your path that you cannot handle or turn-around to your greater well-being. Your frequency is tuned into joy and growth and lack of self-worth just doesn’t even make sense anymore.

Throw caution to the wind and step into you muchness today! Exercise your personal brand of creative flare, stand strong in your truth and start loving this life, this body, this opportunity you came here to have.

If you want to find out how to tap into your creativity, check out these videos:

Why Anybody Can Be Creative (video tutorial incl.)

4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

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 video/article (Why You Need to Tap into Your Muchness for Self Confidence) 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 Simple Steps to Avoid a Burn-Out — No. 2 is a Must!

5 Super Easy Exercises to Creating a Positive Life!

Why Anybody Can Be Creative (video tutorial incl.)

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Where to Start Looking for that Creative Spark…

To recap on last weeks blog please click here: 4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

Page 2 of ‘Creative Expression – How to find your inspiration…‘ tackles the fact that creativity comes in many shapes and forms. People who chime that they haven’t got a creative or artistic bone in their body seriously need to see this — I hope I can twist your arm about that.

I’m going to explore the many avenues creative expression can take — see if you can identify with them and nurture them in your day-to-day living.

When you tap into your own divine, unique form of creative expression, the joy and happiness with spill over and out of your own life to positively affect the lives of those around you.

For what is creativity but an enhancement and beautification of the life you came here to live?

Do you now recognize any creative traits within yourself?
Are you going to take them to the next level?
If you did connect the dots and have a secret passion lurking in the shadows waiting to see the light of day, will you be willing to gift yourself more time to be in that space of creative expression?

If you feel like getting creative right now, you can download some free color therapy pictures by clicking on the articles below:

New Concepts: What Does a Bach Masterpiece Look and Feel Like? (Video Included)

What Do Debussy and Mercury Have in Common? The Answer May Surprise You!

Tchaikovsky: Messages from the Masters (Video and Free Color Therapy Download incl.)

Viva Vivaldi! Connecting Us to Intelligent Design Through Music (incl. Art Process Video)

My book ‘Creative Expression – How to find your inspiration…’ is full of game-changing views on how YOU can understand and totally ace this life! You can download it for free at my site here: , view the entire audio/visual here on YouTube or buy the paperback at any leading book store.

Next week, I’ll be exploring page 3 which is something we all need to hear.

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 video/article (Why Anybody Can Be Creative (video tutorial incl.)) was originally written/recorded for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksenand ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons

Other articles you may enjoy:

4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

5 Simple Steps to Avoid a Burn-Out — No. 2 is a Must!

5 Super Easy Exercises to Creating a Positive Life!

The Secret Ingredient to Happiness

Plot Twist! 3 Things You Desperately Need to Know About Game Changes

4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of Life

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Take One — Meanings, Purpose and Lighting Fires (with the Added Bonus of Eternal Youth)…

It’s the age old question we ask ourselves at some point in this discombobulating journey of life: What is the meaning of it all?

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” — Sophia Loren

In this video, you’ll find out what ignites us — juicy little human beings with a propensity to create the most wondrous things — to stick around or to incarnate in the first place! See if you agree…

My book ‘Creative Expression – How to find your inspiration…’ is full of game-changing views on how YOU can understand and totally ace this life!

“The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity; moving beyond it necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears.” — Dan Stevens

You can download it for free at my site http://www.CherieRoeDirksen.com (when you subscribe), view the entire audio/visual here on YouTube or buy the paperback at any leading book store.

Next week, I’ll be diving into page 2 which is ripe with more succulent ways to tap into your creative psyche.

Related articles/video’s you may enjoy:

New Concepts: What Does a Bach Masterpiece Look and Feel Like? (Video Included)

What Do Debussy and Mercury Have in Common? The Answer May Surprise You!

Tchaikovsky: Messages from the Masters (Video and Free Color Therapy Download incl.)

Viva Vivaldi! Connecting Us to Intelligent Design Through Music (incl. Art Process Video)

5 Simple Steps to Avoid a Burn-Out — No. 2 is a Must!

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 video/article (4 Minute Video Leading up to the Meaning of L ife) was originally written/recorded for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksenand ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Com

5 Simple Steps to Avoid a Burn-Out — No. 2 is a Must!

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long” — Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)

As I was skimming through the enlightening pages of the Tao Te Ching my eyes fell upon the verse above.

In our modern, face-paced lives, we often fall prey to burning out. Stress and anxiety are growing — compacted by obligations, travel, deadlines, family, school activities, parenting, care-giving and the list goes on.

We try to squeeze in a yoga class at lunchtime or rush to the gym after work — perhaps take in a meditation on the train home — but even the list of what you must do to zen out can add to the stress!

That candle is blazing and we’ve lost the ability to just maintain a healthy flicker.

Here are 5 tips to ignite that wick into balance:

1.Keeping a Journal

I’m a huge advocate of keeping a journal.

Always keep one handy so you can jot down any ideas you may have that you don’t want to forget or get out what’s in your head, in general, so you can ‘tidy it up’ (schedule your time better in order to facilitate what must be done). This way you can also filter out what isn’t really important or what needs to take a back seat for now that can be readdressed later.

When you write down what’s bugging you (or things you still need to do), half of the stress is already alleviated and isn’t flurrying around upstairs, tap dancing on the floor-boards of your mind — driving you insane!

2. Keeping it Real

Right, now I’m talking to you — you know who you are. The person who has a million and one things to do and can’t find time for themselves!

There are a few simple questions you can ask yourself to keep it real. Here they are:

Is what I’m doing necessary?
Am I overloading my life with appointments, classes, engagements, work?
Are all these ‘busy’ things that I think I need to do adding to my quality of life or taking away from it? Ask the same for your child — are all the extra classes they are taking making them happy or stressing them out? Can they pick 1 or 2 that they really excel at and want to do instead of 5?
Are there any things I can let go of to give myself more time to just simply be?

I’ve spoken to parents of children whose schedules are so chock-a-block full of extra mural activities, PTA meetings and functions that it left my head spinning. Sometimes just dropping 1 or 2 things from their schedule can help them and you to function better. If, for instance, you drop a class like ‘painting/craft’ — you can always make time to do something creative with your child over the weekend (it will be a fun thing to do for you and your child will benefit from your company and attention).

I have also spoken with people in the corporate world whose routines and work hours are beyond ridiculous.

These ‘things’ that we think we must do are only choices. They are not set in concrete.

It Can Happen! Listen to this…

A close friend of mine, who worked in the corporate world for decades and was slowly killing herself through unreasonable work loads and shifts that extending into the early hours of the morning (and being on call over weekends), quit her job and is now living her dream!

She has just got back from a retreat/course in Mozambique where she has become a yoga teacher — something that she’s wanted to do for ages. She only thought she couldn’t do it when she had trapped herself in thinking that things were impossible.

Now she is making better choices.

I tried to convince her for years that her job was zapping the life from her but she didn’t want to see it at first. She had children to school/clothe/feed and mortgages to pay off — a reasonable argument but not without a solution.

What did she do when she quit her high paying job?

She started off slowly, doing things she enjoyed to do to make an income. She first started a home baking business and then went for her dream of becoming a yoga teacher. She down-scaled her home and sold off any excess debt incurring things.

Was she scared?

I’d say she was petrified but I think the thought of living an unfulfilled life scared her more.

She never had time before to enjoy the smaller things in life — watching sunsets, taking strolls on the beach with her dog or painting a picture.

3. Keeping it Simple

Life shouldn’t be just about mortgages, paying bills, keeping up with the Jones’s and dying. It needs to have the juicy things in there as well.

One of the biggest, juiciest things you could do for yourself to destress is to go BE IN NATURE. It is where our bliss is. It’s where our connection to Source is always available.

The ‘busy-ness’ is not natural, the computers and electronics are not natural.

We can use them for certain things but don’t let them become your life, don’t let them take over. Most of the crankiness we experience is from sitting in front of a screen too long. It drains our very life force! Go be in nature if you want peace, happiness and bliss.

4. Know Your Limits!

Know where your cut off point is. If you’re stressed from a hard day at work, don’t come home and immediately swap your computer for a TV screen.

Take in some classical music, go for a walk around the neighborhood or in the park or even in your garden (if you have one), sip a glass of wine on your veranda and take in the sunset or the night sky — do something that will let you unwind naturally.

Watching TV may be something you think is relieving your stress but it is a form of zombification. It’s not a natural way to pacify your soul.

I’m not saying you can’t watch TV ever again. Just be more selective about what you watch, trim down how much time you sit in front of the box and try to take up a new activity like reading or painting instead of always reaching for the remote.

Remember: You can do most anything as long as it’s in balance.

Example: It’s okay to have an ice-cream cone every now and again — it can be a real treat. But when you have one or more a day, it’s no longer in balance and it is hardly a treat anymore.

5. Be Kind and Compassionate to Yourself

Don’t forget to include things like pampering yourself — whatever shape or form that may come in.

Take nice long, hot baths, get your kids to paint your toenails for you (if you’re a man, get them to give you a nice neck massage), take yourself and/or the family for picnics where iPhones are forbidden and give yourself guilt-free time and space to just sit and look at the wall if you want to (or read a book, enjoy your pets, think of 6 impossible things you can do tomorrow).

Ponder Time…

You don’t have to burn the candle at both ends or burn yourself out in this life. Find the balance, find the simplicity and find your key to a happy, natural, wholesome life.

If you feel you need to work hard to get the latest car, a grand house or the latest gadget/wardrobe then you may be sadly missing the point of life. You can still be rich and content in a log cabin driving a low cost reliable old skedonk and you’ll have far more time to enjoy the subtle pleasures in life that materialism may be robbing from you.

Think about it.

Burn out and into an early grave (possibly in vast amounts of debt) vs. living an abundant life your way NOW.

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 (5 Simple Steps to Avoid a Burn-Out — No. 2 is a Must!) 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 Dirksenand 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 Super Easy Exercises to Creating a Positive Life!

Plot Twist! 3 Things You Desperately Need to Know About Game Changes

The Secret Ingredient to Happiness

Open Your Third Eye and Awaken Your Pineal Gland With These Simple Exercises (This Really Works!)

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

CLN Editor’s Note: I tried the Awakening I exercise last night, honestly not expecting much. But wow does this work. About three minutes after completing the exercise, my forehead began to tingle, and suddenly I felt a rapid sense of expansion in the middle of my brain (where the pineal gland is located), along with an uplifted and expanded state of consciousness bordering on a mild and pleasant pyschedelic experience. I will be doing this exercise daily from now on until it’s time for Activation II, and encourage you to try them for yourself.

Awaken Your Third Eye — The Easy Way

By Lapis Links, CureZone Blogs

Note: Original article edited by CLN for formatting and clarity

AWAKENING I:

Please read all of the following;

If you wish to perform this exercise, you need to understand what you will be doing. It is important to follow the instructions as this is somewhat advanced:

The Third Eye is directly related to the 6th chakra — the psychic chakra, located on the middle of the forehead above the brows. It is closely associated with the “pineal” gland. The pineal gland is dormant in most people, as is the true Third Eye.

French Philosopher Rene Descartes believed the pineal gland to be “the seat of the soul” where mind and body met.

In the average person, the pineal gland is atrophied, [calcified] and dormant. The following exercise will change that.
Please read this thoroughly, as much of the exercises I write of are very advanced and can cause problems if one does not do them correctly.

The pineal gland is like a pea in size; like a shriveled raisin in most people where it remains dormant.

Related Article: 3 Lessons of Your 3rd Eye for More Powerful Intuition
__________________________________________________

Opening the pineal gland/3rd eye:

This is done with a specific tone and chant. You only need to do this exercise for 3 days, afterwards, it is permanent.

The mantra to be used is “Thoh,” pronounced “TOE.”

It must be within the correct vibration.

Not deep, not high pitched, inbetween, like alto range.

You will feel it when you hit the correct tone. So play around and don’t second guess yourself. When you think you’ve got it, you probably do.

1. Sit with your back straight.

2. Breathe in through your nose and hold your breath as long as is comfortable.

Open your jaws so there is a small space between your top and bottom teeth.

Place the tip of your tongue between the space of your slightly parted teeth.

3. Put a very light pressure onto the tongue with your teeth.

This is like the same process of saying the “TH” part of the English word “the.”

Once your tongue is in position, release your breath slowly through your mouth, saying T-H-H-O-H-H in one long exhale.

Say the word one time per exhale. Your tongue will be vibrating between your teeth.

You should feel the air moving past your tongue and teeth.

If this technique is done properly, you will feel a pressure or sensation in your jaw and cheeks. The tone will also vibrate in your third eye.

It may take a few seconds to adjust this, don’t worry, just keep going.

4. Do the above 5 times in a row.

5. It is very important the above exercise be done for 3 consecutive days, 24 hours apart. Then it is a done deal.

Related Article: 7 Ways to Be More Intuitive & Connect with Your Higher Self (3rd Eye)
________________________________________________

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

1. One of the first experiences is a headache or pressure in the center of the forehead. This sensation may also feel like it is originating from within, usually an inch or more beneath the surface of the forehead. This is a positive indication the pineal gland is awakening and beginning to function in a healthy manner.

*Some people can experience a migrane lasting several hours, so to be safe it is recommended that you try this in the evening when you do not have work to do. The severity of the side effects will depend on how atrophied/calcified your pineal gland is to begin with.

2. After the occurence of headache or pressure in the forehead, you may wake up one morning with a throbbing or tingling sensation in your forehead; it may feel like a goosebump.

The feeling may be very intense, like something is there. The sensation of pulsing or throbbing will continue throughout the day, and you may “hear” sounds coming from within your head, such as light popping or crackling sensations.

These are the final phisiological events you may experience after opening up your third eye.
It indicates your pineal gland is awakened, functioning and alive.

Related Video: Open Your 3rd Eye For More Imagination & Intuition
________________________________________________

PSYCHIC EFFECTS:

You may experience any or all of these to varying degrees:

Faster, easier learning and retention
Marked increase in intuition
Increased creativity
Psychic gifts develop and become markedly stronger, along with more developed ability to see or sense human auras
Clairvoyance (psychic vision) opens up
Clairaudience (psychic hearing) opens up
Clairsentience (psychic feeling/touching) opens up

This is a very powerful exercise, and as with all powerful practices, your body may go through discomfort in order to adapt.

CLN Editor’s Note: I have taken considerable steps over the past few years to awaken and decalcify my pineal gland, and as such, I experienced no side effects other than an intense but not-uncomfortable feeling of pressure in my forehead and third eye that was just shy of a headache. So not everyone will experience side effects.

AWAKENING II

In order for this to work properly, you must have already performed the Awakening I exercise.

I included this above for those who are new.

It is very important to wait for 10-14 days following Awakening I, before you go onto Awakening II, otherwise the exercises won’t be effective. Your body needs time to adapt and get the energy flow going.

This exercise is completely euphoric and intensley pleasurable. Unlike Awakening I, this should be done once a week, and given the blissful effects that are lasting when done correctly, most people will enjoy doing so.

Breath in deeply and hold your breath for a count of five.

Repeat this three times.

This helps you to be relaxed and focused.

Now focus all of your attention upon your third eye.

You should begin to feel a sensation similar to the effects of the Awakening I exercise — a slight pressure or awareness of the spot of your third eye.

Now, take a deep breath as you did for the Awakening I exercise.

Hold it for as long as comfortable — do not push this — and release your breath, vibrating the word “MAY.” This is pronounced like the English language word for the month of May.

It should all come out at one time- M-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay, gradually and slowly.

It is ok to adjust your pitch. The tone should be alto.

Breath in again, and repeat this five times.

You need to hit a certain pitch. You will know when you do, for you will feel this in your head. Do the best you can.

Now, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT:

When vibrating the word “MAY,” feel the energy going into your head,
first into your third eye area,
then into the middle of your brain,
and then to the top of your head where your crown chakra is located.

REMEMBER: Concentrate on your forehead (third eye area),
then the middle of your brain
and finally the top of your head.

This is done for the duration of each chant.

1. Breath in.

2. Begin to exhale, vibrating “MAY.”

3. Concentrate on your third eye.

4. Concentrate on the middle of your brain.

5. Concentrate on the top of your head and finish exhaling the vibration.

Repeat four more times.

The effects of this exercise are extremely pleasurable.

A feeling of lightnesss can occur immediately following the exercise.

Some people may feel energy or tingling inside their heads, or completely covering their heads; a slight presure in the crown area and intense euphoria is also common.

The blissful state can occur hours and even days later.

This will eventually become permanent and will greatly assist in void meditation, clairvoyance, and the development of other psychic and paranormal senses.

Addendum to this article: September 29, 2014 from CLN

After having noticed that a fair amount of the comments from this article have mentioned encounters with “shadow beings,” or other anomalous entities, although not understood, they continue to garner a lot of attention. Please check out two of our CLN radio episodes that deal with this phenomenon.

Shadow People and the Djinn – A Conversation with Rosemary Ellen Guiley (September 2014)

Shadow People (Strange Encounters episode) with Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Alexis Brooks (July 2012)

This article was published on Conscious Life News on 25th September, 2012.

How Balanced Are You?

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Tipping the Scales

So, what is balance? It’s just the definition for an even distribution of something. When you’re feeling out of kilter, it’s because you’re distribution is off whack. This can pertain to mind, body and spirit.

It sounds like a simple enough thing to get this so-called ‘balance’ in your life — it’s a no-brainer, right? Yes and no.

It can be simple enough. Example: ‘I’ve had too much pizza, tomorrow I’m only eating salad.’

That could be one way of bringing back equilibrium, in this case, to your body.

However, imbalance can creep up on you. Example: ‘I feel rotten…oh, maybe it’s because I’ve been on Pinterest (insert any other form of social media here) for 2 hours and my brain has turned to mush. I need to take a break and go potter in my garden.’

It can be darn right tough though with things that seem insurmountable and entrenched into the very fabric of our existence.

Example: ‘I work so much I haven’t got time for myself. It’s so hard to feel balanced.’ or ‘I know I smoke and drink too much, I feel it in my body but I don’t know what else to do to unwind.’

Trust in Your Innate Sense of Wisdom

A lot of the time our bodies/hearts whisper to us, hint at us, scream at us that something is wrong.

Our job is to listen.

We should endeavor to inject our awareness into our bodies, if there is discomfort — or into our hearts, if there is lack, sorrow or fear.

Here are some things you can do every day for more balance and harmony in your life:

Meditate — you know it’s good for you but do you ever get around to doing it? Meditation takes on many forms. You don’t have to sit in the lotus position to meditate ‘properly’ or go into transcendental states of consciousness for hours to achieve a quiet mind. Meditating could be to simply sit in your garden and listen to the birds or the wind. Meditating is something personal. Find the brand that works for you. Read more here: 5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)
Spin — Barbara Marciniak spoke of this in her book ‘Bringers of the Dawn— Teachings from the Pleiadians’. It’s a practice I often use to get myself on track. It apparently enhances the spinning of your chakra system. The technique is to hold out your thumb and focus on that as you spin, slowly at first, 33 times — from left to right. Then you anchor yourself at the end by bringing your palms together, at chest level, and press whilst keeping your eyes open. You can read more about the exact process HERE.
Breath work — yup, we breathe automatically so why must we focus on that? Because most of us breathe very shallowly. Our bodies actually need focused, deep breathing to function at optimus prime. You can read more about that here: What is Your Quality of Breath — Did You Know You Could Be Starving Your Body of Oxygen?
Eat Right — you are what you eat and all that blah blah…yeah, I know you’ve heard it all before but, seriously, it’s the truth! You’ve got to get real about what you put in that divine little temple of yours. It is in my personal opinion that you can still enjoy those ‘naughty’ things in life every once in a while, as long as you exercise (literally) self-control. I enjoy a glass of wine or a beer every now and again but let’s face it, if it goes out of balance and one drink becomes 5 you’re going to topple your equipoise. Too much of any one thing — even if it’s healthy — is not balanced. See what happens if you eat too many carrots…I dare you (*disclaimer: no don’t)! My husbands aunt once went on a carrot bender (I’m telling the truth!) and she turned orange. I kid you not.
Move — your body has muscles ergo it was made for movement. Walk, run, skip, hop, dance the fandango…do whatever it takes to build up a little sweat each day and keep that bod in tip top shape. Exercise really helps to maintain a healthy balance in your life. And if you work all day and are too tired to workout then take the stairs at the office, take a walk to the nearest park at lunchtime. There’s always something you can do to get active.
Watch Your Thoughts — a balanced body needs a balanced mind. You can eat organic, breathe deeply until you see cows come clambering home, exercise every God-given day, spin your butt off and yoga yourself into a pretzel to no avail if your headspace ain’t stepping up to the plate. If you find yourself on a negative downstream of thoughts, see if you can stop yourself and try to bring balance to the inner dialogue by counterbalancing the worry. In other words, start visualizing what you want to see happen and then let it go. Read more about how to here: 10 Ways To Transition From A Negative To A Positive Thinker

Try these things out and see how it makes you feel. If you can’t do every point — don’t sweat it! Do what you can.

Balance is something we all work at all the time. The key is to regularly scan ourselves for imbalance and to keep gifting ourselves with more quiet time.

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 Balanced Are You?) was originally created 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 of Cherie’s you may enjoy:

Feature: Odyssey Magazine — Get Your Free Copy NOW

Viva Vivaldi! Connecting Us to Intelligent Design Through Music (incl. Art Process Video)

The Greatest Task That Lies Before the Awakened Human Being

10 Spiritually Provocative Quotes From David Bowie — No.7 is Something We Should All Ponder!

What Do Debussy and Quicksilver Have in Common? The Answer May Surprise You!

New Concepts: What Does a Bach Masterpiece Look and Feel Like? (Video Included)

Are You Being Lied To?

Feature: Odyssey Magazine — Get Your Free Copy NOW

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

As some of you may know, Odyssey Magazine (a holistic magazine that has been running since 1977 — read more HERE) has asked me to be a columnist for their amazing publication.

Paulo Coelho is also a columnist and writes a fabulous article that is usually placed at the end of the mag (always save the best for last!).

I’m so grateful to this inspiring team for putting together a 4-page introductory spread in their latest issue. Click on the pictures below to take you to the article which is on page 60-63:

This is a FREE online digimag, so you can get reading NOW.

Here is the link — enjoy!:

Stay tuned for the next edition and my first column! 🙂

Other articles you may find interesting:

Viva Vivaldi! Connecting Us to Intelligent Design Through Music (incl. Art Process Video)

Update: From Bowie Tributes to Leading Myself Down the Garden Path…(photos and videos incl.)

10 Spiritually Provocative Quotes From David Bowie — No.7 is Something We Should All Ponder!

3 Ways to Use Magical Words to Create Miraculous Lives

Are You Being Lied To?

Anxiety Got You All Wired Up? Here Are 7 Tips to Help You Relax…

News Alert: Rock Music Art Originals Available to Purchase Exclusively Through Saatchi for the First Time!

7 Ways You Can Conquer Stress

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Stewing in Your Juices

I’m normally quite a chilled person. Nothing phases me. Until…

I take on too much work
I get into my ‘yes’ mode and make arrangements and dates that clog my diary
I volunteer my services willy-nilly
My housework starts to mount
My ‘to do’ list grows around the garden (especially as I’m trying to do the whole sustainability thing)
I have awesome ideas but have to implement them (adding to the head clutter and time/schedule disaster)

I’m sure you can probably relate to most of the above. Then what happens is that chilled out person who thought they could take on the world in a heart beat starts to panic.

The Signs of a Meltdown

The walls of my diary close in and anxiety starts to rear its ugly head.

Panic attacks
Sweaty palms
Emotional outbursts (usually involving tears)
Temper whirlwinds
Depression
Feeling defeated and impotent
Losing it over the smallest things

We can experience the above on a smaller or larger scale, depending on the level of anxiety and what looms ahead.

Okay, so what can be done?

Anxiety Be Gone!

Well, I’m trying to give myself a well-deserved pep talk here ’cause I suddenly realized the other day that I was slipping off the cliff of the ‘work’ I had piled up.

Amid my darkest moment, I came to the conclusion that it was going to be done whether I fretted about it or not. And what couldn’t be done was just not going to be done. It’s really quite simple.

So, on a practical level, try to:

Get what’s in your head down onto paper (this works a treat!)
Now you can make a priority list
Schedule your time wisely and you’ll find you can fit a lot into your day
Don’t stress about how much you’ve got to do by getting tangled up in the future tasks — concentrate on the task at hand
Read no. 4 again.
Yip…read no. 4 and 5 again!
As Yoda said, ‘Do or do not’ — in this context, do what you must do and stop whinging about it. Have you ever stopped to think how much time we waste worrying or bitching about what we have to do instead of doing it?

Did you like this article? Don’t forget to pin it 🙂

Solution: Do it. A 5 minute rant could have you half way done by now. You can have that cuppa AND pack the washing away (what a novel idea!).

And now for something completely different…a little humour to liven up your stress monster:

This article was written by Cherie Roe Dirksen for Conscious Life News – click here to visit their site.

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

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1. Gift yourself some time for space and clarity

2. Assess yourself and think gratitude

3. Go for a walk or do some yoga

4. Breathe properly

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1. Spend Your Emotions Wisely

2. Know That Love Conquers All

3. Take Control

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