Day 135 (positive project) Nurture your Passions

Posted on February 28, 2012 by alchurchill

Life can be challenging, that’s for sure. Some people have it easy and some extremely difficult. Everyone however has the strength to make their own choices and to do this must truly connect to who they are.

One minute people tell you to live your passions and to focus your attentions in one area, after all nothing can be achieved without attention and determination. The next minute however, you are advised to introduce balance into your life and to give things a break!
“But hang on a minute!” you say, “I thought I was supposed to live my passions and do what is important to me?”

Yes, this is true, but maybe all your passions require equal attention?

It can be hard to remain focused on all passions, I can liken it to planting a number of seeds. Perhaps you plant five seeds, they all need taking care of, but maybe all in different ways.
Maybe you neglect one, or over water another. Maybe one requires less water than another, but you go ahead and give it the same anyway. This can result in a lot of dead plants. You need to now how to cultivate each passion, if only there was a label!

The only observation I make here, is learn how to nurture your seeds, stay awake and focused, stand back and look at all your plants and understand what attention they all require and deserve.

Day 122 (positive project) Innocent Valentine

Posted on February 14, 2012 by alchurchill

There is a great family from Colorado living in the house next door here in Mal País. They have a young son with them called Colin.
This morning the couple on the other side of us and ourselves were both left small notes to awake to, addressed to each couple, on our shared table on the terrace. Upon opening the note we were greeted by the picture you see below.

There is something very heart warming about these types of gestures, especially when so much innocence is involved.
Valentines is not about corporations and extravagant gifts it’s simply about connectedness and love.
Thanks Colin and family for highlighting the simplicity of love.

Day 99 (positive project) Surprise!!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by alchurchill

Who doesn’t love surprises? Im not talking about being startled, or necessarily a physical gift, but more so about a sudden arrival of a friend or loved one, or a sudden change in your daily plan that was unexpected, but planned in secret by someone else.
It is always very nice to be the surprised, but I feel it can be even more exciting to be the surpriser. I have in the past turned up at my parents house completely unannounced after having been traveling for 2 years. Prior to my knock at the door they believed I was in Singapore. The excitement I felt the entire journey home in anticipation of their reaction was close to overwhelming.

So today, I arrive a day early to surprise another, excited for the look on their face, and somewhat satisfied; as it comes as retaliation to a previously received surprise.

Gotcha!

Day 54 (positive project) Worry Turns to Trust

Posted on December 8, 2011 by alchurchill

The entire premise of this blog hinges on emotion. The very act of being positive relates to feelings of positivity and is therefore inseparable from emotion. This awareness of ones ‘state of being’ has brought me closer to my emotions and places them somewhat in the spotlight, forcing me to take a look at them.

Now the topic of emotions is HUGE and many books have been written and will be written on this matter. But, my current interpretation on emotions (and I reserve the right to change my opinions) is that emotions are indicators, signposts, a way to measure how you are doing and if you are on the right path. Being able to access these emotions, or at least recognizing them when they appear is very beneficial to setting the path you desire.

Bringing positivity to the forefront during this project, obviously brings with it the negativity as you need to have both polarities for the other to exist. Positivity has no context without negativity. So when one attempt to remain positive, you tend to look at negative in order to choose the path. This brought me to a fork in the road, one path is doubt, the other is trust….

We harbour doubts and mistrusts to protect ourselves. We create suffering when there is no need. The bad stuff happens in ones head, but that is merely worry. For one need not protect himself, when one is surrounded by positivity and honesty. Have faith that humanity will provide only good and if ‘badness’ does occur then be it dealt with then, as that is enough to contend with. Extra undue worry, simply adds. It is merely mind clutter that wasteth time and emotion. TRUST.

~ Alan Churchill

Never disregard your emotions and never be your emotions, use them wisely.

Join me in turning Worry into Trust.

Day 32 (positive project) Friends

Posted on November 16, 2011 by alchurchill

I have begun to reach out to friends I have not seen in a while. Whilst it is true that these friends may always be in your thoughts and hearts, we may never take the time to reach out personally. If you haven’t heard from me in a while, the chances are you will soon. If you don’t get to me first.

Love to all my friends…..

Post Riot Positive Graffiti

Posted on June 21, 2011 by alchurchill

Messages of support after the clean up

After the Stanley Cup Riot in Vancouver, thousands of people flocked to help clean up the streets, armed with brushes and bin bags, they cleaned the streets of glass, dirt and general mess. Wooden boards were placed in all the broken windows. This enticed in thousands of people to scrawl their message of support for the citizens of Vancouver and the Vancouver Hockey team, along with messages to those rioters, informing them of their ridiculous behaviour. The wall also showcases the good nature of Vancouver citizens in an attempt to redeem their image after images of riots were sent around the globe. This City is one that stands together united for the greater good and we proved it. Not only did we fill these boards with amazing messages, but now the museum has agreed to store the message boards once the windows are replaced.

Thank you to everyone who made a move toward the positive.

Update 11.26am (pdt) - The link below will take you to an amazing photo of the ENTIRE graffiti wall, it is completely zoomable and readable – you could spend hours on it! Enjoy!

See the wall

A message from the City

Say no to War

Posted on June 1, 2011 by alchurchill

I have come across this video a couple of times over the last week and thought it important to share. It is very emotional to see a soldier talk like this and it adds realism to the picture. It does instil hope and feeds a feeling of togetherness and compassion for other people in the world. Take from the video what you will……

Saying goodbye

Posted on May 27, 2011 by alchurchill

As we go through life we make friends, break friends, lose friends and keep friends. At some-point though we always have to say goodbye. The emotional strength of that goodbye seems to be dependent on the depth of connection with that particular person, along with the length of time it will be before seeing that person again. That is of course if you even know that you will see them again?

I have been lucky enough to have travelled and lived for varying lengths of time in different countries over the last 8 years and as such, have said many goodbyes. After a number of goodbyes, I started to become numb to the emotions of saying goodbye. It’s not that I was becoming heartless, I just knew that there was no need to get upset about it.
As I was saying goodbye, I would take that opportunity to reflect on each relationship in terms of all the good points that it brought. Instead of looking into the future without this person, I would look to the past with this person. In a way, I quickly created an internal memory flicker pad of all the positive highlights and showed gratitude for everything up until that point. If I was to meet this person again in the future I would know it was meant to happen.
It can be more difficult if it is a romantic relationship, a subject I don’t want to go into depth here in these pages. However, if you can hold onto the good and realise the powerful lessons learnt, along with the understanding that this relationship took its rightful path, then you should be able to move on positively.

It is our attachment to this person that ultimately causes us to grieve their disappearance. Yes, it is sad to no longer have a certain person in your life, or to be far away from a certain person, wishing you were together more frequently, or even all the time; but in order to maintain the positive flow of life and to harness the power to move forward, we must be grateful for every interaction we have and every moment of time we have together with others. Good bye, is GOOD, lets not emphasize the BYE, but keep hold of that GOOD.

So here’s to friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and random strangers on the bus, to whom I have met and said good-bye. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to say Good Bye.

BBC News – Uganda anti-gay bill ‘shelved by parliament’

Posted on May 16, 2011 by alchurchill

With thanks to Avaaz…….

“Uganda’s parliament has adjourned without debating a controversial bill which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

It had been reported that a vote could be held on Friday.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been condemned by Western leaders and human rights groups, some of whom are celebrating “victory”.

via BBC News – Uganda anti-gay bill ‘shelved by parliament’.

For those that are not aware of Avaaz, it is the campaigning community bringing people-powered politics to decision making worldwide. I gave supported them for about 3 years now – check out their site if you wish to support too.

A night with Alan Clements

Posted on April 15, 2011 by alchurchill

I have just returned from a presentation at the Semperviva yoga studio in Kitsalano, Vancouver, the speaker being Alan Clements. Now at the time of receiving the email notifying me of this presentation, I had no idea who Alan Clements was, but on brief inspection of his bio knew that I should attend.
I knew very little of ‘dharma’ and definitely nothing in regards to Clements’ writings. I was completely open and had no pre-conceptions. On arrival, the vibe was good, simple pleasantries exchanged, a donation made and the talk began.
Clements was a very interesting character and had many real stories that in no way glorified spirituality or placed spirituality as something to be achieved. He was focused on freedom. I don’t believe he was talking about freedom from moralistic restraints, but freedom from self set goals, set solely in an attempt to become someone you think you need to be. He continued to talk about how we all have our very own unique fingerprint, no two prints being the same. This highlights our uniqueness and Clements communicated this very well in his stories.

The message I received; was to do what is right for you and to be wary of conforming to something simply because you are told it’s ‘what you should do’ or what society implies that you should do. He expressed that for a person to be so sure of an answer; scared him and those that ask questions are better received. Some people go blindly through life, conforming to society and holding their true selves back, without even realising. We are all guilty of this.
He spoke about Aung San Suu Kyi and expressed through personal life stories, that we all need the courage to speak up and openly about world issues, encouraging others to do what they truly feel is right for themselves.

In closing I would urge you to realise your own truth and to be true to yourself. You know who you are and if you don’t, then you need to slow down and figure it out. Don’t conform to this or that, or try to fit yourself into a pigeon-hole or category, just be you and be true.

You can check out Alan Clements work and bio at the site below.

http://www.worlddharma.com/
Please leave any comments below – I am genuinely interested to encourage a discussion about this.

Alan

Take To Change

What will it take to change your ways?

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