Look What I Made! :)

I've never made real jewelry before. I didn't even know it could be an activity I'd enjoy...until I tried it this week! Not that I'm particularly skilled at it, or want to make a sudden career change, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in the colourful world of beads and crystals! There was no pressure to perform, I was simply playing, experimenting, enjoying the process...and now I have 11 new pairs of earrings! Emma was super eager to jump in and participate, and as a result of this little experiment, she decided to get her ears pierced a couple days ago!

I've had a growing interest in real crystals and their different properties. When we were in Cancun last January, I talked to a few Mexican jewelry makers and I was really drawn to many of their beautiful earrings, bracelets and necklaces. I bought amethyst, rose quartz and turquoise pieces, and I just love how they feel. What are your favourite stones?

I just wanted to mention how good it feels to express our creativity, to give ourselves many opportunities to just play and explore, even though we may not know what the heck we are doing! Our purpose should ultimately be to follow our bliss. At the end of the day, our success should be measured by the amount of joy we experienced.

Warmly,

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com

A Note From Your Higher Self...

My Grown-Up Tantrum, Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of this post, you can catch up here: http://lisevilleneuve.blogspot.ca/2015/02/my-grown-up-tantrum.html

To summarize, a recent unpleasant experience made me wonder how to know the difference between an intuition, or "gut feeling", and a fear (created by our negative thoughts). I was a little confused by this because of what I know regarding the law of attraction (our thoughts create our reality). When I experienced intense negative feelings that were pushing me in a certain direction, I didn't know if I was creating more negativity by focusing on those thoughts, or if I was receiving some kind of intuitive warning signal. Have you ever been in a situation like this? Any other metaphysical geeks like me out there?

I pondered on this question for a couple of days. My first thought was that intuition would probably not feel so heavy and overwhelming. It would feel more like receiving a neutral, informative message. I reminded myself that we receive intuitive messages all the time, but these have to be invited in first, and they never interfere with our free will. Fear, on the other hand, is a child of the ego. It is extremely emotional and has an agenda: to increase our sense of control. Fear hijacks our bodies and overrides intuition.

I asked myself "what emotional state was I in the night before my tantrum occurred?" The honest truth was that the entire day before Rob and Théo drove off, I was focusing on the snow storm and was already worrying. The seed of fear was planted and my thoughts kept feeding it. My threatened ego wanted to be in control again, so it overwhelmed me with anxiety and led me to believe that the only way to feel better would be by preventing Rob and Théo from driving. It even tried to convince me that I was receiving some kind of intuition from my higher self. I'm onto you...ego!

For those of you who are not familiar with the ego, the higher self and the voice in our head, I realize this probably sounds a little schizoid and neurotic. It sounds like there is a voice inside of me trying to control me. Well, I hate to break it to ya, but there is, and it's also in YOUR head right now! (unless your name is Eckhart Tolle) Go ahead and make it say "hey gorgeous, it's me, the voice in your head." Really, try it. I know you heard it. Now, if you were able to hear it and observe it, it means that there is a space between you (the observer) and it (the voice). That realization, my friend, is the beginning of the awakening process. But let's go back to intuition versus fear for now.

Thanks to the law of attraction (I just want to bug Rob a little, I know he's still skeptical about the whole LOA thing), I found a fantastic article on the web written by Suzy Singh (Negative Thinking vs. Intuition) Suzy beautifully describes how intuition and fear feel in our bodies (and how they relate to the different chakras). If you are wondering at all if what you're feeling is coming from intuition or fear, this article will make it crystal clear for you. Thanks Suzy Singh!

After reading that article, I was relieved to conclude that my paranoia was fear-based and not an intuition at all. Rob and Théo's safe return home confirmed that. I can now blame my insecure, controlling ego for having told Rob "there will be consequences if you go ahead with this drive" on the morning they left. When they came home the next day, the very first thing Théo (5) did was whisper something in my ear. He said "what's daddy's consequence?" Rob and I laughed so hard we almost became incontinent for a second. Take that, ego!


Warmly,

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com
www.consciouslivingsolutions.com
www.soul-spa.com

My Grown-Up Tantrum...

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” -Eckhart Tolle

The other day, I experienced what you might call a grown-up tantrum. I certainly don't feel proud writing about it, but this is exactly what I signed up for when I enrolled myself on the Conscious Living Solutions blog : honesty, transparency, authenticity. Also, this is how we learn and grow, through the contrast of our good and bad feelings and experiences. When we go through something that makes us feel terrible, we can make a conscious choice to clearly identify what we would prefer next time. This empowers us to understand and manifest what we DO desire.

My tantrum was essentially born out of fear. Rob was about to go on a long road trip with little Théo after it had snowed 20 cm the previous night. It was 5:30 am and they were getting ready to leave. I felt nauseous at the thought of them driving on icy roads. I checked the road reports, and it wasn't looking great. I was overwhelmed with anxiety, pleading with Rob to change his plans, but to no avail. In my desperation, I even muttered something ridiculous like "there will be consequences if you go ahead with this." I felt powerless, sad, angry and gripped by fear while I watched them drive away. To make matters worse, my monkey mind then said "hey, guess what, Lise, you are focusing on them being unsafe on the road, and you are fuelling that with heavy emotions...you might actually be manifesting an accident!" To which I replied "Shut up, stupid voice in my head".

Sometimes trying to grow in awareness is just not a sexy process. I sat myself down, started to breathe, and decided to focus on their safe journey, since there really was nothing else that I could do at this point. I surrendered to what I was feeling and just sat with it, observing how that felt in my body. Then I started to wonder "how do I know if these intense negative feelings were an intuition (gut feeling), or just the by-product of my negative thoughts? If I were about to board a plane and suddenly started to feel nauseous and fearful, shouldn't I be paying close attention to these signals? Maybe my intuition is warning me about impending doom. Or... are my paranoid, negative thoughts actually increasing the chances of this unwanted experience to unfold?"

What do you think? How do we tell the difference between sensing that something is about to happen and creating that experience with our thoughts? Where does intuition fit into the law of attraction? Hummm....

Well, stay tuned for the conclusion of this story in my next blog post.

Thanks for being here! Feel free to express your ideas / comments!

Lise
www.lisevilleneuve.com

Dear Daddy: Can I Tell You A Secret? -by Emma

Hey Daddy?

Did you know the movie "The Secret" is on Netflix now? I really enjoyed watching it and I even wrote up a summary (yeah, mom made me!). Would you mind checking my spelling? Thanks dad, here goes...

"The Secret" was written and produced by author Rhonda Byrne. She's Australian, just like the cast of H2O! Anyway, Rhonda's father died and she was looking for ways to come out of depression and despair. What she discovered was a secret that certain important people knew about for thousands of years but never wanted to share. This secret is the Law of Attraction. Here are the highlights of the Law of Attraction (in order of appearance in the film):

-Our thoughts actually become things
-A positive thought is 100 times more powerful than a negative thought
-We have about 60 000 thoughts per day, so it's much easier to monitor our feelings instead of every single thought (because our feelings are the result of what we have been thinking)
-When we feel good, we attract good things. When we feel bad, we attract negative things
-Simply shifting our negative feelings can change our whole day
-When we feel bad, we can learn to change that in a few seconds (by listening to music, by thinking about or doing things we love and enjoy)
-The Law of Attraction is a creation process that has three steps. 1) Ask 2) Believe 3) Receive
-Gratitude and visualization are powerful processes that help us get what we want faster
-For a relationship to work, we need to focus on what we like about another person, not what we don't like about them
-Complaining about things just brings us more negative things
-Only WE have the control to create our own happiness (not others)
-Disease cannot live in a body that is in a healthy emotional state
-Putting our focus on disease creates more disease in our body
-We become what we think about
-It's important to focus on what we want, not what we don't want (mom said something about you not wanting to end up in a group of crows? Not sure what she meant)
-Energy flows where attention goes
-Everything in our Universe is made up of energy, including our bodies and our thoughts
-We are the designer of our destiny
-Our purpose is the one we give ourselves
-Our goal is to experience joy every day

That pretty much sums it up! I felt great after watching this documentary because it gave me the feeling that I can do just about anything with my life by focusing my thoughts and noticing how I feel.

Thanks for reading! Mom also said something about you appreciating the "Coles Notes" version of this movie. Now you are all caught up!

Emma (10 years old)

Dear Rob, Are You Serious???

Dear Rob,

I enjoyed your first post, and it made me realize that we really need to be clear about what the c-word means to us. I know it makes you cringe, so maybe we can use the term "awareness" in the future, but for now, let's go back to the dirty consciousness word.

You wrote about your yak "He looks pretty conscious". You also wrote "Consciousness is one of the only things you really have. You get it when you're born, and you have it (in most cases) until you die." I'm thinking, do they have enlightened yaks in Tibet? Are we born as little Buddhas, fully aware of our spirits, or higher-selves, beneath the drool? And what about the majority of humans, are we predominantly conscious beings? 

Well, as you were making yourself a latté today, I inquired about what you really meant. You explained to me that the c-word has been loosely defined and interpreted by many different authors (such as Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle...etc), but its true meaning goes beyond words and language. For you, a synonym of being conscious would be "being awake". That explains the yak, the drooling babies and the rest of humanity. Now I can agree with you. Yes, they are awake (except when they are sleeping, then they are not conscious). So, just to be clear, when we are talking about "Conscious Living Solutions", we are not talking about "Awake Living Solutions." We are talking about Aware Living Solutions. Is the a-word better? Awareness?

Anyhow, let's move beyond the word, the concept, and agree on a meaning. How about this definition by author Nathaniel Branden (The Art of Living Consciously):

"Living consciously is a state of being mentally active rather than passive. It is the ability to look at the world through fresh eyes. It is intelligence taking joy in its own function. Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant or unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them. Within the range of our interests and concerns, it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding, both of the world external to self and of the world within. It is respect for reality and respect for the distinction between the real and the unreal. It is the commitment to see what we see and know what we know. It is recognition that the act of dismissing reality is the root of all evil."

Does that resonate with you? Maybe our readers have other definitions of living with awareness they'd like to share in the comments below? I'm enjoying this process of blogging with you already because it's creating an interesting dialogue between us. We are able to move beyond "honey, can you take the trash out?" By the way, here is where the "bitch chore" keyword came from. The good  news: you will get $1 for taking out the trash (if you don't forget and drive off to Calgary).

Now, regarding your comment "I guess my goal is to not get murdered". Um...I'm going to have to find a way to make you watch The Secret. Seriously dude, don't mess with the law of attraction, it works whether you believe in it or not! Think of yourself as a gigantic magnet. There is no difference between "I want" and "I don't want", you will get whatever you focus on, so we are going to stop focusing on your murder right now. Oh, one last thing. Forget about the banners at your funeral. Did I mention how powerful visualization is? Start visualizing that cold, crisp beer while you are comfortably watching The Secret, feeling empowered and blissful...

Time to lighten things up on this blog. You have a natural talent for that, so you get to pick the next topic!

Love,
Lise

www.lisevilleneuve.com

The C-word. Rob's first post.

Consciousness is a silly word. Of course, it stands for something that's not silly at all, but when I hear that word, it makes me want to yak. Figuratively speaking, of course... I just needed Tibetan imagery here in the spirit of the Dalai Lama and all.

We need a new word to talk about that state of being detached but not emotionless, of being fully present in the here and now without being oblivious to the future or the past. Kind of like that yak. He looks pretty conscious.

Some alternatives: Present? Aware? Attentive to very current events? I don't know. But (at the risk of sounding like even more of a leftie softie than simply blogging about this subject makes me sound), maybe it's better not to label it. I can talk about the subject without feeling uncomfortable, but I just cringe when I hear the c-word in this context. Because technically, we're all conscious. Consciousness is one of the only things you really have. You get it when you're born, and you have it (in most cases) until you die. No one in Lululemons can decide whether or not you're allowed on the consciousness bus. Find your own word, Lululemon people!  This one is taken.

So Lise asked me to talk about what I hoped to get out of this. I don't really hope for anything. One of my favourite activities is hitchhiking. I like hitchhiking because if you're prepared for everything (food, warm clothes, tent, and sleeping bag), then it doesn't really matter where you end up because it's always fine... as long as you don't get murdered, which hasn't happened to me, or any other semi-prepared hitchhiker as far as I can tell. So I guess my goal is not to get murdered.  Of course I'm going to hear something about the law of attraction and how I'm inviting trouble by saying something like that. OK... I'll put it on the record for everyone to see forever: if I get murdered, you were right, Lise. Use some of my life insurance money for "I should have listened to my wife" banners at the funeral. Seriously. I think that would be hilarious.

To answer Lise's question a bit more directly,  I consider this an adventure, just like hitchhiking, or moving to Montréal. Or anything, for that matter. Let's see where it takes us. Hopefully not to Laval. Sorry Laval.

And yes Dear, I can take out the garbage on Thursday. Thank you for the nice words in your recent post. But you and I both know I ain't got nothin' on that Yak. He's owning it!

P.S. why did "bitch chore" make it into our list of key words?  Law of attraction!!!

Dear Rob, Let's Expose Ourselves To The World...

Dear Rob,

Thank you for finally agreeing...um...I mean....gracefully accepting to embark on this somewhat petrifying journey with me! Seriously, your support means the world to me.

You've always been there: as my sexy and suave manager during our crazy world tour in 2004, as a caring and loving husband for over 10 years now, and as an energetic, generous daddy to our munchkins. During all these years, you have been the main provider for our family and I am very grateful for that. You have given me the priceless opportunity to enjoy a music career, complete my studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and start a business, all while raising and homeschooling our darling little ones. I have been watching you brilliantly work your way up the professional ladder, impressing numerous people along the way. Not only are you extremely sharp and knowledgeable, but you are kind, funny and gifted in many ways (cooking, writing, outdoor sports...to name just a few). Aw, you're blushing! How cute! ;)

Now that we are both working in our respective fields and the kids are able to contribute more, I have a strong desire for us to join forces and work together towards a common goal. As you know, this goal is to live each day as consciously as possible. I've been headed in this direction for over ten years now, but I wish to push it even further so that others may be inspired and empowered to follow their bliss too.

You have given me an incredible gift by accepting to include our entire family in this adventure! I think your very well-rounded cultural, political and scientific perspective will balance out my more spiritual and metaphysical world view. I look forward to getting to know you on an even deeper level through your blogs. It will be interesting to see the new circumstances, people and opportunities that will come into our experience as a result of us opening up our hearts to the world. Yeah, it's a little scary, but exhilarating and liberating at the same time!

It will probably take a little discipline for us to stay committed to blogging amidst our daily obligations. Maybe we should set up a reward system! What do you think, any ideas? To help you get started on your very first post, here are some questions for you:

1) What does consciousness mean to you?
2) What are you hoping to gain from this experience?
3) Would you mind taking the garbage out on Thursday? ;)

Thanks for being here,

Love,
Lise

www.lisevilleneuve.com
www.soul-spa.com
www.consciouslivingsolutions.com