Wry Vita - Marion Ryan's personal blog - blog designer, business coach, lawyer of attraction and good-enough mum

Choose your Thoughts from the Buffet of Life

"We want you to enjoy the contrasting experience, just like you enjoy the contrasting buffet. And we want you to reach the place (and practicing Virtual Reality will help you to gain this confidence) that whenever you're in front of a buffet that has so much that you do like to eat, as well as some that you don't like to eat, you don't feel frustrated that there are things there you don't want to eat. You don't feel compelled to put them on your plate and eat them; you just pick the things that you like."

And the Universe of thought is the same way. You can choose from it the things that you like

Excerpted from the workshop in Salt Lake City, UT on Saturday, June 29th, 2002

Our Love,
Jerry and Esther

Abraham-Hicks

Winning Websites

Well, how wonderful is that - my website and blog design business, ReadySteadyBlog has won an award for one of its website designs!  The EveryWoman Network award for best website home page.

Marie Taylor and Jeni Purdie are the brains behind LivingRightNow.co.uk which offers inspiration and practical support to women "wishing to embrace a personal journey of self-discovery and transformation".  And none better to deliver this in my view, than Marie and Jeni, who are experienced coaches, consultants, trainers and master NLP practitioners.  Ex-company directors and published authors too! 

I know Living Right Now is a project very dear to their hearts so was delighted to be asked to create the site for them.  I particularly like clients who have a business-like approach when we work together.  That is, they understand what the purpose of their site is and therefore what they want it to do.  They want it to look wonderful but know that doesn't necessitate hours debating whether this shade of pink works better than that one.  They have a deadline so they are motivated to provide me with the information I need and let me get on with it.

Living Right Now is a business that continues to evolve and the website and blog will continue to grow as they release new products.  Why not sign up for their excellent free coaching programme which gives you a great flavour for what they are about.

So thanks, Jeni and Marie, for giving me this opportunity to work with you and thanks, Every Woman, for awarding the site with "best home page design"

Birthday Joy and Sadness

Two of my favourite people in the world have next-door birthdays.  First, there's Joe, my pops, who yesterday was 84.  He is a grumpy old sod with a heart of solid gold.  Actually, he's less grumpy than he appears.  Fact is, he's pretty deaf and so when there's a few people around he tends to keep quiet as he can't really distinguish what's going on.  Give him the floor though and he knows how to work the crowd, especially a female one.

He is still driving his flash car and apart from the odd ache and pain he is as fit as many a man twenty years younger.  Happy birthday Joe.

Then today it is Judith's birthday and though she probably doesn't care if I tell you how young she is today, it's not really your business and besides which, like Joe, she plans to go on forever.  She isn't a grumpy old sod but again, that heart of hers is a big as a dustbin lid.

I could say a lot more about both of them and my dad wouldn't care because he's not interested in surfing the 'interweb' anyway but Judith would know I was being wickedly sycophantic so I won't bother.  I will say however that they both know I love them with all my heart and would do anything for either of them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, there were two more unexpected birthdays...

Tap, tap, tap at the EFT World Summit

Are you a tapper?  Meaning - are you into Emotional Freedom Techniques?

If you are - or are open to finding out more about it right now - then you must check out the EFT World Summit

It consists of two presentations every day for 9 days and they are covering lots of great subjects - from explaining the basics of EFT and how it works to losing weight, quick and dramatic pain relief, clearing debt, raising your personal energy, relationships and lots more.

They are going to turn all the presentations into a digital product you can buy so they say each day's presentations are only staying up for 24 hours but in fact as long as you insert the correct day number into the URL you can still access all of them.

I've been listening each day to snippets of the presentations and am particularly enjoying the introductory discussions and great tapping scripts.  Judith and I have been tapping virtually every day for the last three weeks and though I believe our personal scripts are very powerful, it's always good to hear the experts' versions.  They are better than mine for peeling away the different layers of an issue I might not do so thoroughly on my own.

EFT is one of those tools I've been picking up and putting down for years.  I go for weeks and months ignoring it but re-creating the tap habit never fails to make me feel better.

Yesterday morning, minutes before my Skype tapping session with Judith, I recollected an incident that had happened 14 years ago when I was eight months pregnant.  

Terry's Chocolate Orange - For Life or Just for Christmas?

Nothing less important to share this Good Friday lunchtime than an international conspiracy that I am right at the centre of and note that I have less than 48 hours to get this sorted.  So syringe your ears, put your specs on and pluck away any stray nasal hairs that could prove detrimental in the olfactory department because what I'm talking about today is something that deserves the attention of all your senses.

 

Look, I'm not even an NLP practitioner yet all my senses are tingling as I gaze upon its loveliness:

• I see that perfect chocolate orb, that symmetrical orange ball of loveliness; its curves in all the right places

• I feel the weight of that silky chocolate sphere that begs to be enclosed in the palm of my hand.  We were made for each other, surely

• I hear the muted sound as I unwrap its protective foil and the sudden thud as it hits the table as I attempt to cleanly separate the segments

• I smell its tart orangeness mingling with the warmth of the cocoa beans

• And I say... Terrys Chocolate Oranges - Are they for life or just for Christmas?

Because I don't really go in for Easter eggs, me, but this year, having dramatically reduced my chocolate intake in recent weeks, I decided that I would give myself a treat on Sunday.  And when I thought about it, I realised there was only one thing I wanted.

A Terry's Chocolate Orange.

So I popped out shopping yesterday to make sure I had a couple of Eggs for My Boy on Easter Sunday and decided to get myself a TCO.  Up aisle and round carousel I went but could I find one?  The answer begins with N and ends with a hissy fit.

Doggedly I ran the gauntlet of the Easter shoppers, most of whom had carts heaving with booze, because in Ireland you know, the pubs shut for one entire complete 24 hour day on Good Friday and some people think they might die without the security of 3 dozen cans of Bud
and a bottle of rough whiskey.

I mean - how ridiculous?  Anyone knows that the only thing you can die of is the lack of a Chocolate Orange.

"I had the blues cos I had no shoes..."

"...Till out on the street I met a man who had no feet".

With thanks to Daniela Fraser who came across this inspirational video and shared it with me, I'd like to share it with you too if you have 4 minutes to spare.  And if you're too busy to watch it because you're rushing around with too much to do, then why not watch it anyway.

Inspirational Books

I finally got to the bottom of the stack of books beside my bed.  Two were particularly heart-wrenching.

"Once I was a Princess" by Jacqueline Pascarl-Gillespie and sub-titled "A mother's worst nightmare" told the true story of an Australian woman who married a member of the Malaysian royal family.  Despite agreeing to her retaining custody when the marriage broke up, he later kidnapped their two children and when the courts ruled against him, ignored the verdict and kept them anyway. 

In "Stolen Time" by Sunny Jacobs, her children were also taken from her but for rather different reasons.  In the wrong place at the wrong time, she was convicted alongside her husband for the murder of two policemen while the real killer did a plea bargain.  Her children were 10 months and 9 years old at the time.  She then spent 5 years in solitary confinement on death row, the only woman in the state of Florida facing the death penalty, followed by a further 12 years in prison before her wrongful conviction was overturned and she was released.

I love biographies and find this sort of story inspirational.  I love the evidence of the strength we find within ourselves when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.  I love getting an insight into other people's characters and a reminder that life serves up challenges as a matter of course.

I do however limit my reading of this genre of book these days simply because most of my reading takes place in bed and dozing off visualising the gruesome events of people's lives doesn't strike me as the optimum way to start my night's sleep.

But tomorrow I'll tell you what I'm reading now and why it is the perfect reading for any time of the day or night.

Learning to Love a Teenager

It is really not all that long ago (or so it seems) that that title would have meant something quite different.  Though I was never particularly attracted to younger men, it's true that when finding myself single at age 34 I jumped into a delicious fling with an 18 yr old.

Roger and I had nothing at all in common but after ten years with a wild and unpredictable bloke, Rog came into my life like a gentle breeze, wanting nothing more than to make me happy.  He would find me a seat in the most crowded pub, gaze adoringly into my eyes and hang on my every word.  Of course he did.  He loved me as only an 18 yr old bloke can love an old bird of 34.  Truly.  Madly.  Deeply.

Our relationship lasted a full ten days before I woke up, came to my senses and told him it was time for him to go.  I suspect he was inconsolable for a very long time - possibly as much as 48 hours - before finding himself a 16 yr old to love.

But today the teenager I'm learning to love is quite a different matter. 

Getting into Gear: Quarter 2

It's been a long time, I know. 

But life goes on.  It's 1st April.  Today we start the second quarter of 2009, another new beginning and another opportunity to seize the day, let go of the past and look forward.

I turned 50 last month and my friends were there for me, if not my family who were still too tuned into my mum's passing to take much notice of it.  One of those 'growing up' moments for me and at 50, it's high time.  But thank you mille fois to the people who can be thoughtful even when the world is turning so fast these days that it took me and my next door neighbour three months to bump into each other and stop for a chat.

I am rebuilding the tap habit.  EFT which despite being too woo woo for its own good does not fail to make me feel better when I keep at it.  Judith is much to do with this, having suggested daily joint tap sessions so we stay accountable to each other and don't stop the practice at the first diary clash, menopausal moment or jam doughnut. 

I'm also listening to powerful and positive stuff on my Ipod by night, not just when I go to bed but also if I wake up at 4 or 5 so no more tossing and turning trying to make myself sleep.  I just put the earphones in and drift softly back to sleep listening to some anonymous American guru telling me what to do and what to believe.

Yes, even contrary control freaks who know everything have times when they just want to relax into the soothing comfort of knowing someone else is taking charge and being responsible.  Just for a little while anyway...

Talking of grown-ups and being all serious, whatever happened to April Fool's Day?  4.30pm and not a trick in sight.  No newspaper reports of spaghetti trees, three legged ostriches or money found growing on trees.  Oh yes, tell a lie, Martin Lewis's newsletter this morning had a silly one about how to have a tax-free year, a little weedy and pretty tame.  Perhaps you've come across something good you could share with me - I could do with a laugh.