So...to make a long story short, Conscious Kids (the mindfulness course for children that I wrote this year) has sort of taken off lately! It's very exciting! Today, I just found out that I got selected in this contest held by a Law Firm in Edmonton to win funding for Conscious Kids (like $10 000 to help me promote it and develop it!) How AWESOME would that be?!
So how did this happen? Sort of "by chance", like everything in my life! First, someone asked me to sell them a license to teach Conscious Kids on Vancouver Island. I thought this was a fabulous idea, but then I needed a lawyer to help me write a licensing agreement. So, one night I was searching the internet for lawyers in Edmonton. Although most of my family members are lawyers, they are waaaay too busy and I didn't want to bother them. Good thing I didn't, because it allowed me to find this contest, the Field Law Community Fund! I spontaneously wrote my entry that night, thinking it was a long-shot. Well, today they told me I qualified! I didn't think my entry would be posted on the internet and I wish I could have edited it a little, but oh well! By now I know that I control very little in this life. Let's see where this ride takes me!
If you're curious about the contents of Conscious Kids -an online mindfulness course for children that I've written (and that has been keeping me super busy lately!) this little video will show you the highlights of what's covered.
This is my daughter Emma when she was 4. Today, she’s 11. She
has good days and bad days. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed being a mom. If you
have kids, I’m sure you can relate! Our children are growing up in a complex
world, to say the least.
I often ask myself how I can help Emma feel secure in a
world filled with daily unpredictable atrocities? How can I help her to feel
grounded in a materialistic world that rewards spending time on electronic
devices and in shopping malls more than playing outside? How can I help her to
feel joyful and relaxed in a world that rewards productivity and performance at
any cost? How can I help Emma to be loving and compassionate towards others in
a world that encourages competition, power struggles and the survival of the
fittest? How can I help her to feel energized and balanced in a world that has
lost touch with what real food is and encourages her to take a pill to fix the symptoms of disease! How can I best
prepare her for the future in a world that preaches the benefits of knowledge
and education, but fails to ask these fundamental questions: Who am I? Why am I
here? What’s my purpose? Was I meant to suffer or can I be happy? What is true
happiness? How can I find lasting joy and peace in this complex world?
As parents, we go out of our way to sign up our kids for
soccer, swimming, dancing, drama, music...which are all great, but let’s face
it, something fundamental is still missing in their lives. Are we teaching them
how to fit into the system so they can “win” at this game of life, or are we
helping them to figure out how to be truly happy? Do we know how to be truly
happy ourselves? What kind of example are we setting for them?
What I want for Emma is for her to be able to think outside
the box. I want her to see beyond the illusions of this fearful world she was
born into. I hope to raise her awareness so that she’s able to stop creating
more suffering for herself and others and instead, she can concentrate on
healing our planet. I want to teach her how to tap into her inner-wisdom.
Ultimately, I want her to remember that her happiness comes from within. She’s
not a victim of her circumstances. Neither are you, nor your children. But to
change our perception of the world, we first have to change the perception of
who we think we are. It’s time to awaken!
I wrote Conscious Kids (online mindfulness lessons) for
Emma. It won’t change the world, but it’s a small step in the right direction. If
you’d like to receive the weekly mindfulness lessons, you can sign up here
(deadline is Feb 1st, 2016): http://www.lisevilleneuve.com/#!consciouskids/ckgl
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Make sure you take some time to relax and recharge.
So...I decided to do an audio recording of one of the stories from Conscious Kids (an online mindfulness course for kids I've written). Just click on the video above to have a listen!
This was me
a few years ago (in the attached video). At least that’s who I thought I was. I
wrote songs, performed, and toured in a lot of cool places. I won some music
competitions and I received a grant to produce my own album. I was even lucky
enough to record a duet with the wonderful Daniel Lavoie on my CD. I was young,
ambitious and determined to “make it” as an artist in the music industry.
I guess
there’s nothing wrong with that, except that in my case, I eventually realized
that my relentless desire to “make it” and become a “somebody” implied that
deep down inside, I felt like it wasn’t ok to just be “a nobody”. I was searching
for something that would ultimately make me feel better. I wanted to feel
loved, accepted and validated by others. I wanted to step out of the shadows
and yell “hey! I exist!” I needed to prove that I was worthy. I truly believed
that my success as an artist would make me feel happy and content. Boy, was I
wrong!
I climbed up
the ladder of success, but the higher I got, the worse I felt. Something was
off. I couldn’t just enjoy singing and writing anymore because I became
obsessed with the game. My success or
failure rested entirely in the hands of a few key players in the music
industry: the radio stations, the record companies, the music producers, the
press agents and the media. In order to move forward in a way that was
significant, I needed their approval. In a split second, these people could
decide if I was star material, or completely worthless. This made me feel
insecure and powerless. I knew clearly by then this was not the road to
fulfilment!
I started to
look deeper for answers to my insecurities, and what I discovered was that I
had spent many years strengthening and repairing my damaged ego. I was very
attached to this idea of “me” being a girl with brown hair, an artist with
certain opinions, feelings and experiences. I had never seriously considered
that maybe we, humans, were much more than our physical form. It dawned on me
that my deep longing for love and peace could never be satisfied on a material
level. I realized that even if I played this game of society and succeeded on a
very large scale, my ego would still find a way to make me feel insecure and
dissatisfied. I would still feel like I needed to do more, be more and receive more
love and acceptance.
What about
you? Can you relate? Are you completely content with who you are right now, or
is there something in the future that you need to do, or work on, or achieve
first, before you can feel completely fulfilled and at peace?
Well, that
feeling sucks, doesn't it! It’s sort of like your self-worth and power are
largely in the hands of others, and you can never really be content in the
moment. Even when you play the game and are successful in the eyes of society,
you still feel like something’s missing, something’s not quite right yet.
I felt like
that for many years, until I finally understood who I really was. And who is
that? Well, it turns out I’m simply the light escaping through the cracks
of my ego shell. I hate to break it to you but, that’s who you are, too.
I discovered
what consciousness, or awareness, was all about, and it completely changed my
life for the better. Things started to really make sense. I started to feel
truly empowered on a whole other level. Consciousness was my ticket to real
freedom. The search for that something or someone that could fill the void was
over! What a relief to finally have some clarity.
It all comes
down to two choices. Either we stay attached to who we think we are on the
surface and we play the game of ups and downs, successes and failures,
happiness and unhappiness, me versus you; or we recognize that we are the light
shining through the cracks of our individual ego shells. When we truly see
ourselves as the light, we’re ok with the idea of being “a nobody” in society’s
eyes, because we already know the true value of who, or what, we are. We can
play the game without getting attached to the outcome. Everything becomes
lighter.
So yes, I’m
working on being the best nobody that I can be. I have learned so much over the
years and I now enjoy teaching others about consciousness and mindfulness. It’s
a humbling but incredibly beautiful and liberating journey. I believe awakening
to our essential self is our true purpose here.
This is my daughter Emma. I'm very proud of her for wanting to do this little video today. Normally on Sundays we go to the pool and this is something she enjoys very much, but she preferred to work on this video instead.
