In a world full of technology and easy distractions we can easily find ourselves disconnected, and scared to be alone. Sonia Friedrich, author of 11 Steps to Healing, explains why it is so important to reconnect withthe most important person in our lives – ourselves.

Too often these days we live in a world of thinking, distraction, disharmony and disconnection. In fact life seems to be designed to keep everyone busy and we often feel that others are displeased if we take a few moments of time for ourselves. At the same time, me-time can also be the most confronting of all.

Many of us can no longer handle time alone. Recent studies published in the magazine Science, show that the majority of people would prefer to give themselves an electric shock than spend 6-15 minutes alone with themselves. Unbelievable but true.

Timothy Wilson from the University of Virginia conducted a series of eleven experiments, asking all the participants stay awake and be with themselves. There were no phones, books, or distractions. While the experimental design varied across the studies, with some being asked to do minor task, the results showed overall most people found it less than enjoyable and very difficult to be alone. In one study 63% of men and 25% of women actually gave themselves an electric shock rather than be all alone and doing nothing.

But the fact is that in distraction you cannot hear the calling of your soul, the needs of your heart or the voice of your body. Your mind takes over and snaps into thinking in short spurts at a time and this habituated response is now so ingrained that society grasps for distraction as their modus operandi.

Being alone in nature is a soothing way to get back in touch with ourselves. Photograph: Candida Baker

For many this avoidance is deliberate while for others it is completely unconscious. To reconnect with the self can be one of the scariest things to do. To be with our feelings is daunting because then we can no longer deny the truth of our life and our world, but we will do anything to avoid it. It is one reason addictions are so rife in our culture – whether it be work, drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, pills, sex, exercise, botox, even yoga – yes! Anything done to excess, for intentional distraction, as a mechanism to self soothe, and avoid feeling your truth is an addiction.

The journey of healing begins with feeling:

• Start with moments at a time and build from here
• Learn what your emotional states are again. You may be so numb you need to identify them as if for the first time
• When you have an emotional charge to anything, be with it. Hold the space and ask yourself: “How am I feeling?” and “When have I felt this before?”
• If you use the word “interesting” to describe your emotional states, stop. Ask what feeling you are too scared to say and get back in touch with
• Observe the self-initiated distractions in your day. Take a moment and reflect on what happened a few moments before that you do not wish to feel or see.
• Observe where you allow the distraction of others to take over your life.

Get out of your head and into your heart. Feel to heal. In feeling we align with our intuitive guide, honour and if we hear it, begin to live from our authentic voice. Here rests our truth. Find your place of silence amidst the distraction of the world and reconnect to all of who you are. It is there. Feel it.

Sonia Friedrich is a mentor to business executives who wish to change their life. She has recently released 11 Steps to Healing – For Multi-Millionaires & Business Owners. Visit soniafriedrich for more.

BUY 11 Steps to Healing here: $29.95 + p&h
lulu.comsonia+friedrich

Book Review by Barry Eaton here
verandahmagazine.healing-hand-business-owners

The post Being alone gives us the time to feel to heal appeared first on .

 

Barry Eaton, from Radio Out There, reviews Verandah Magazine’s columnist Sonia Friedrich’s new book, and finds it a practical roadmap for healing…

                  11 Steps to Healing, by Sonia Friedrich  (self-published: soniafriedrich)

Healing in the business world is normally associated with getting your bank balance in order, or perhaps soldiering on while recovering from the flu.

This very simply written book puts healing and business success firmly in the personal sector whether you own the business or work for a boss. Taking problems out of the administrative basket and working with them through their emotions and intuition will come as a wake-up call for most people.

Sonia Friedrich’s 25-year corporate career covers advertising and marketing roles in Fortune 500 companies. It is refreshing to see a mainstream business consultant encouraging her readers to be honest enough with themselves to admit whether they are leading an authentic life.

I particularly liked the chapter posing the question of how many happy years you have left in this lifetime. It comes with an easy formula for self-analysis. Sadly, many people just exist in their daily life – happiness doesn’t come into the picture. However, the choice is yours, if you are prepared to make the necessary changes recommended by Friedrich.

Sonia Friedrich, author of ’11 Steps to Healing’.

It is no coincidence that the following chapter is ‘Stop Lying to Yourself’. We all indulge in this pastime and I was surprised to see how this affects everyone, whether they are lying consciously or just avoiding the truth.

There are many self-help books filling the shelves of bookshops all around the world, but I was particularly impressed by the advice to business people to listen to their intuition and also to their body. A simple exercise demonstrating how the body constantly sends us messages is an invaluable guide for those who ignore these messages.

By reading this book and acting on the information it contains could not only help people heal their business problems, but also inspire others to find their real purpose in life.

For small business owners on a tight budget, the exercises it contains would also be a valuable staff training aid.

However this is a book that can help all manner of people whether you are in corporate life, or just trying to deal with life.

11 Steps to Healing is available at Soulife Byron Bay, Mary Ryan’s bookshop Byron Bay, and online from  soniafriedrich

Barry Eaton is an author, broadcaster and host of RadioOutThere

The post Healing on hand for business owners appeared first on .

 It’s easy to give ourselves a hard time because the dreams we have are not manifesting, writes Sonia Friedrich. As we near the end of 2014 do you remember the goals and dreams you had at the beginning of this year? How close did you come to reaching them?  Alignment, not action, Friedrich writes, is the key.

This year I’ve manifested many of my dreams – and I still have many to achieve before the year is out.  Most recently, last week in fact, our manifesting powers were put to the test when we had to find a new home within a week.

We’d been given ample notice to move out of our house overlooking Tallows Beach in Byron Bay. Three months in fact. However a series of events occurred that took our focus away from even thinking about moving or looking for a place to live. My partner’s father needed to move into respite, which turned into fulltime aged care, and within weeks he was in hospital with pulmonary oedema. My partner managed all the paper work and was with him and her mother while he was in hospital. It was an emotionally exhausting time. Over two weeks his kidney and heart failure did not respond to treatment. Sadly and unexpectedly, at this time, he passed away. By the time we both landed back home, we were exhausted.

A few weeks later we were still both tired and grief-stricken. However, the one thing we said to each other was “There is no need to panic. If we check in each day and say what is true we will be o.k. This is a critical time for us because we are making life choices and we need to make the right one.” We began looking at properties on the internet. In Byron Bay this time of year there are a handful at best because everyone wants to holiday let for a greater return – it’s the same reason we are being asked to leave the wonderful property we have rented for the last three years. I knew we only needed one property and when anyone told me how difficult this would be to find, immediately I said to myself, “No it won’t. We only need one place. I’ve done this before. I’ll do it again. In fact last time I did it three days before Christmas.” Not once did I ever entertain the negative thought of others or let this enter my vibration.

Focusing on the positive helps eliminate the negative

The key was that I believed with all my being what I was saying.

Within one week we found two places with potential. One further away from where we wished to be. The other popped up a day later. We knew this property and it was literally 500 metres from where we live at the moment. Occasionally I would pass the woman who owned the property on my morning walk.  We’d never spoken before, but the  morning after I’d seen her property was available I thought to myself that if I was meant to see her I would. I was on the board walk watching over Mount Warning for quite some time and when I turned around, she was five metres away from me! If I hadn’t turned around at that moment I wouldn’t have seen her. She arranged for us to see the property that afternoon. Even with our cat and her no pets policy she was happy for us to be the new tenants. We handed over a deposit the next day.

Align and manifest your dreams

For many of us we have had an incredibly busy year. The dreams we were certain to reach eluded us yet they are still our dreams. When you dream something from the deep yearning of your soul you are meant to live it. If something you really want hasn’t happened now is the perfect time to take a look at your life and discover why. Your energy and all that busyness is focused in the wrong direction. Know your pattern and work out how you spend your time so you can avoid being stuck.

1. Alignment not action is what is required
2. You are a vibrational being living in a vibrational universe. When your vibration aligns with what you want then dreams can manifest
3. You can help or hinder this process
4. How you feel tells you if you are helping or hindering this process. This is the KEY. You can tell when something is not aligned almost immediately. When you say or think something and your feel a contraction in your body,  at a fundamental level you do not believe your dream is possible and therefore you are not aligned with what you say or think. Make sure you really do want your dream!
5. You can interrupt bad thoughts or experiences and choose a better feeling place that gives you relief. Doing this will change your vibrations and help you live in alignment.
6. It gets easier and easier with practice.
7. Do what makes you feel good.
8. When you feel true you are aligned and manifest what you want your world will change before your eyes.

Change your vibration and you change your life.

Sonia Friedrich is a mentor to business executives who wish to change their life. She has recently released 11 Steps to Healing – For Multi-Millionaires & Business Owners. Visit www.soniafriedrich.com for more.

The post Making your dreams come true appeared first on .

In the first of her new columns, psychic Liz Winter, who is based near Mullumbimby, says that intuition can be as simple as remembering to pack an umbrella – and practice makes perfect.

As I threw open the curtains I was greeted by the sun spraying golden beams of light into my bedroom. Excited about my upcoming Byron Bay lighthouse walk, I began preparing.

Somewhere in my busy mind, just below the surface I could hear a thought that seemed to be stuck on repeat. ‘Pack the umbrella, Pack the umbrella.’ I immediately started arguing: ‘It’s not logical, it’s a beautiful day, the weather forecast says clear skies.’ So I carried on and made my way to the lighthouse. Half way through the walk, you guessed it – out of nowhere came black clouds and a heavy downpour of rain. Sitting on a rock with a soggy sandwich, all I could think about was; ‘Why didn’t I just trust that thought?’

This is what I call an intuitive experience. We all have them; it’s just that we often aren’t aware exactly what it is. It’s the feeling in the stomach, the thought coming in out of nowhere when we are doing a mundane task, like washing the dishes or driving the car. The ‘I can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t feel right’ experience or thinking of someone and then they ring or you run into them down the street.

One example is a story I once heard about a woman who had a strong feeling to put scissors in her car. A week later she was in a car accident, the seat belt was stuck and the scissors saved her life.

We were all born with an innate radar system that can help navigate us through life – from everything to simple choices like what we should eat for dinner to more complex situations like whether we should leave a job or begin (or end) a relationship.

How does one become more in tune with one’s instincts and hunches? It can be as simple as becoming more aware and giving acknowledgement when these experiences happen. Love and honour your intuition, treat it with respect and don’t be too quick to write off these magic moments as always having a logical explanation. Over time you will recognise these unique feelings and thoughts and the more you put faith in your own ability, your intuition will expand and feel more natural to you.

Just as our bodies need nourishment and our hearts need love, our intuition needs some nurturing also.

It’s not necessary to be a yogi and meditate for hours – although it can be like water to a flower to know how to quieten your mind regularly. A few minutes of focusing on your breath, staring at an ocean, a tree, a view or perhaps closing your eyes and listening to music can be all you need to allow your intuition to blossom and grow.

So next time that repeating thought behind the chatter of your mind tells you to wear flat shoes, ring that friend, fill the car up with petrol or pack that umbrella trust yourself and listen!

Liz Winter has been a medium and spiritual development teacher for over 25 years.  Liz is a Medium, Reiki Master/Healer, Angel Therapist, Spiritual Teacher, Dream Coach and Qualified Counsellor.  To contact Liz go to her website:  www.lizwintermedium.com

The post Soul Talk appeared first on .