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Can we use intuition in our everyday lives?

In this video clip from our informal cafe chat, Judy Piatkus (founder of Piatkus Books) is asking me about how to use inner wisdom in our everyday lives. Is it something anyone can access? And how do we do it?

Posted by Kay Starr | June 18, 2012 | Categories: feminine wisdom, inner guidance, inner wisdom, intuition, Judy Piatkus, law of attraction, meditation, metaphysics, spiritual intelligence | Tags: calming emotions, dealing with a crisis, finding answers, guided meditation, gut feelings, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inner world, inspiration, instinct, intuition, Judy Piatkus, law of attraction, making clear decisions, manifestation, meditation, personal guidance, Piatkus Books, self help, spiritual guidance, spiritual intelligence, spirituality, spirituality in business, wise counsel | Leave a comment

Ten Tips for Easy Peasy Meditation

We’ve all had those moments. Suddenly, we are totally absorbed in a thing of great beauty – an incredible golden sunset on a beach, a piece of heart soaring music that moves us to tears. The rest of the world disappears. There’s only this wonderful experience, filling us, thrilling us. Anything we were doing pauses. Anything we were thinking melts away. We are transported into vivid aliveness and feel like we are standing in the centre of the universe.

This aliveness is our natural state. It is waiting beneath and below all the complicated layers of our life ready to greet us. All we have to do is remember to drop in from time to time – visit the oasis, refresh ourselves – and we can take that aliveness back into our everyday life. Somehow, then, our troubles aren’t quite so troubling. We feel like our emotional batteries are charged up. We can see more clearly how to deal with things.

This is essentially what we are doing when we sit down to meditate. It’s so easy to forget our natural, alive state that we need to do something routinely to remind ourselves. So, we build reminder time into our daily pattern – get up, brush our teeth, have a cup of tea, meditate – and that way we don’t forget to remember! As little as ten minutes spent like this every day can invite the aliveness back into our life.

So, how to we do it?

1. Decide what you are doing

Before you start meditating, be clear how long you will sit for and what kind of meditation practice you will do. Have a silent watch or clock within sight so you can open your eyes and peek at the time if you need to. You may notice that you soon don’t need a clock. Before long you will instinctively ‘feel’ that the time you’ve allocated is up and it’s time to come out of meditation.

2. Choose your time

It makes a big difference if you can stick to the same time to meditate every day (or every other day or every week – whatever routine you establish). If you pick your time and stick to it you don’t have to keep re-making the decision to meditate and figuring out when. It just becomes part of your day or week.

First thing in the morning is great. It’s well worth getting up half an hour earlier to give yourself this start to the day. Some people prefer last thing at night when everything is over. Or perhaps your best time is when you get home from taking the kids to school. Or maybe after getting home from work and just before dinner. Whatever time you pick, have a satisfied tummy – neither hungry nor overfull. Choose your time and make it part of your daily or weekly routine.

3. Find your quiet spot

Find a place where you can be quiet and undisturbed. Be in a room on your own (unless others are meditating with you). Unplug your phone and switch off your mobile. Be out of earshot of TV or radio. Let others know to leave you in peace.

It’s nice to set the scene for your self. Perhaps face a garden window or a vase of flowers or an inspiring picture. Burn some incense or essential oils. Make this your special meditation spot. You will find that this place will start to have a peaceful atmosphere, a meditation ‘vibe’.

4. Be comfortable

Find a chair where you can sit comfortably in an alert, upright position. A dining room chair is good, or an easy chair. You can also prop yourself up at the head of a bed. Undo any tight clothing, buttons or zips.

Wherever you are sitting, support your back with cushions so that your spine is reasonably straight and your head and neck is free. If you are on a dining room chair you can put a cushion under your feet. If you are in an easy chair you can see if you prefer having your legs folded up cross-legged. If so, make sure your knees are supported with cushions if needed.

Some people like to sit on a pile of cushions on the floor, or a meditation stool. If so, put a blanket down first as a mat, then your cushions or stool on top. Two or three firm cushions are about right. At the right height your back is not bowing or arching but relatively straight. You can straddle the cushions like a horse, or sit with your legs folded in front of you cross-legged. Support your knees by tucking extra cushions under them if they don’t reach the ground so you can relax at the hips.

However you sit, you should have a strong base – a tripod of your backside and your two knees. Have your hands resting in your lap. Tying a shawl or scarf at your tummy gives a little shelf to rest your hands on if you like.

There’s always the option to lie down on a bed or the floor if you think you’d be most comfortable like this. The only draw back is that you may find yourself feeling sleepier than if you were sitting upright. None the less, the number one priority is that you are comfortable. So if lying down is right for you, that’s fine.

Close your eyes lightly, or have them half open if you are very sleepy or disoriented.

If you get stiff or pins and needles while you are meditating, gently and slowly move and re-position yourself and carry on. However, the idea is to find out how to sit completely comfortably for an extended period of time without having to move, so keep playing with your posture until you get it just right.

When you are settled, close your eyes lightly, or have them slightly open if you are very sleepy or disoriented.

5. Let the weight drop down

Take several big, long, deep, deliberate, audible breaths. As you breathe out, let your weight drop down through the sitting bones – down, down, down through your seat and the floor into the ground.

Even as we let our weight drop down, we are also aware of an invisible force supporting us upright. It’s as though we have a taut string attached the crown of our head, reminding us of our natural poise and alertness. The more we relax and drop down, the more we feel effortlessly supple and upright.

6. Relax and soften

Relaxing further, roll your shoulders a few times each way. Then move your head gently from side to side. Make some wild faces to release your face muscles (nobody’s looking!). Let your jaw hang slightly slack and your tongue be free. You can use your hands to gently massage your jaw, cheeks and forehead. Carry on over the scalp and down the back of your neck. Give your shoulders a bit of a squeeze then stroke down your arms to your fingers. Continue down the body with your hands, squeezing or stroking all the way down to your toes. You can hang over your toes for a while. Keep breathing easily and slowly uncurl. Finally, shake out your hands and finish with a nice stretch. Come back to a relaxed, upright sitting posture again.

Take a few more strong breaths. Let your tummy be soft. Check your jaw is still slack and that the tongue is free.

7. Drop into the breath.

Notice how you are breathing now, however it wants to come and go. Feel how it is to be breathing, how you feel inside yourself, the rhythm of the breath as it comes and goes. Let yourself be filled with breath. It’s as though your whole body is breathing, expanding and contracting with every in and out breath. Feel your breath right down to your toes, to the tips of your fingers, to the roots of your hair.

8. Give your head a rest

As you’re breathing, you may be aware of questions and preoccupations rippling around in your mind. It probably feels like its going on in your head. However, invite your thinking mind to rest for a little while. It’s not needed for few minutes.

Soften your eyes, let your eyes go soft and dewy (even though your eyes are closed you can do that) and let the brain itself feel slack in your head. Just feel the breath going in and out the body. Breathe in and out and let all those thought particles fall through the breath like dust particles falling through the air in a sunny room. Let them all fall to the ground.

9. Feel into your heart

Breathing into the body, notice how you are physically feeling around your heart area in your chest. Can you feel if it is tight or relaxed? Can you feel if your heart feels nice, or if it feels pain, or somewhere in between? Can you feel if your heart feels far away or if it feels very vivid and acute and present?

And whatever it is or isn’t, just noticing it as you breathe. Feeling the texture and the tone of our heart. You might be aware that there is a kind of atmosphere – an emotional atmosphere around your heart. You might not have a name for it, but you can feel its ambience, its flavour.

Perhaps you can even sense its colour – the colour of your emotional heart right now. You might not see it exactly, but whatever occurs to you – the colour or colours of your heart. Even if it’s not what you expect, even if it’s not what you want, notice the colour.

10. Being with all that you are

Continue to breathe with all that you are – all that you think, all that you feel, all that you sense, and all that you know. Gather yourself into the breath and let yourself drop into the vastness of your total being. Getting into this zone is a meditation in itself, and you need do nothing more. However, you are now also ready to take it further into a focused meditation if that’s what you’ve chosen.

Enjoy.

My complete guided meditation – Ask Your Inner Wisdom – leads you through a full preparation / relaxation and then on to find inner answers from deep within your own wisdom.

The MP3 download (20 mins) is available here www.maggiekaywisdom.com/meditation-shop

Posted by Kay Starr | June 13, 2012 | Categories: meditation | Tags: guided meditation, meditation | 1 Comment

Spirit in a Human Body

In early June 1982, I found myself sitting bolt upright in bed. It was the middle of the night and I thought I was dreaming, but here I was with my eyes wide open and it was still happening.

The eerie star-like essence kept on flowing from under the bedroom door, along the ground and now formed a person-sized pillar at the end of my bed. I knew it was Dad. I could feel him.

As I stared at the essence, I was enveloped in a reassuring cloak of love and security, and for the first time since he’d died a few days ago, that awful, brittle fear melted away. It seemed that Dad’s spirit had deliberately come to me to soothe me.

I became strangely peaceful and fell asleep.

My sister, Katy, was staying over, but didn’t stir. She was back with me in the attic bedroom we used to share as children.

Now an 18 year old teenager myself, the room was all mine. Katy had left home to get married six years before and since then I’d painted the walls chocolate brown and put a mattress on the floor under the alcove.

My mechanical genius boyfriend, John, had rigged up an extra speaker out of an old oil can so my ancient LP player would sound better.

We would burn incense and lay around listening to Genesis and Pink Floyd. It was the 80’s and there weren’t many other ‘hippies’ of our age, but we were happily retro together, feeling like we’d been born 10 years too late.

John was intense and keenly intelligent and didn’t seem to quite fit into our plain old Scottish backwater world. The music we loved was our religion – opening our consciousness to other dimensions and posing questions about the meaning of life.

More than one medium ventured that John had been a Tibetan Buddhist monk in his last life. Certainly his dark hair, broad face and slightly slanting eyes hinted of Tibetan, but he was all Scot in this life.

On my bedroom walls, the Donny Osmond and George Best posters had long been replaced by pictures of fairy goddesses and mythical creatures. And there was also a cut-out picture from a magazine I’d been given by a Hari Krishna in town one day.

What a Hari Krishna was hoping for in Paisley (a ‘seen better days’ town near Glasgow) is anyone’s guess, but for some reason I accepted his magazine and found one of the pictures in it to be strangely compelling. Up on the wall it went.

The image was of a ‘cycle of life’ – a depiction of an Indian man being born, aging and dying, drawn clockwise round the page like the numbers on a clock.

At the top he was a baby, then a toddler, then a child and then getting older and older until he died and became a baby again. I loved the exotic Indian poetry of the picture, and somehow it spoke to me even though I couldn’t put its meaning into words.

I so loved having my own space in the attic room away from it all. Although I had a happy family life, I relished time on my own.

If it hadn’t been for Dad’s poor health, I’d have moved into digs while I studied psychology at university in nearby Glasgow. But I wanted to stay at home and support Mum and Dad, especially now that both Katy and my older brother, Jim, had flown the nest.

It wasn’t an easy time with Dad in hospital, but Mum was a tower of strength. She worked full time (which involved extensive travel), looked after the house beautifully, honoured her singing engagements as best she could and spent most evenings visiting Dad.

But even Mum wasn’t invincible. In the winter of 1981 a grumbling health problem became acute and she was taken into hospital.

This led to Dad’s final hospitalisation too. His condition wasn’t good and he needed care. He certainly couldn’t manage without Mum.

The next few weeks were bleak. With Mum and Dad both in hospital, I felt very alone when I came down with a nasty flu.

Thankfully, this phase was short lived. I got better and Mum recovered well and was soon home again. Dad, however, never made it out of hospital.

The evening before he died, it happened that my brother, sister, and I were all visiting Dad together. Mum was delayed and would see him later on her own.

We found Dad restless and a slightly delirious. We hadn’t seen him like that before and were puzzled, but we didn’t guess what it meant. None-the-less, we all said goodbye with special tenderness. It was to be our last.

The next day, on the morning of 4^th June 1982, Mum woke me in my attic bedroom with a call from downstairs. “I’ve just heard from the hospital”, she said, “Your Dad’s condition is deteriorating.”

Half way through the 20 minute journey to the hospital, I suddenly doubled up with an inexplicable pain across my body. It only lasted for moments, but felt like a signal.

When we arrived we were ushered into a waiting room. “I’m sorry to tell you”, the nurse said to my Mum gently, “your husband has just passed away”. Shock hit me like a great crashing wave.

My sister, Mum and I were shown to Dad’s bedside. The curtains were parted and I struggled to comprehend what I saw. He wasn’t there! My Dad was just not there!

Sure there was an inert shell that resembled what my Dad had been, but this was not my Dad! I had never seen a dead body before and now, in that instant, I understood that it is pure spirit alone that brings life to our bodies

I wasn’t drawn to the empty waxwork lying on his hospital bed. Instead I stood back and looked up. I could feel Dad all around us in the air.

It was as though I was breathing him, floating in him, drinking him. It was a draft of heady, intoxicating bliss. Dad was free, he was everywhere!

Back in the waiting room, the atmosphere of spiritual intensity was expanding until it filled every space. It was as though molecules of sublime gas were being pumped into the room until the density almost burst down the walls.

Dad’s love was all around us and he was flooding us with his presence. I looked out of the window, awestruck and suppressing an enchanted smile.

What I was experiencing now seemed more real than the talk and interaction that was going on around me. It was a like my camera lens on life had been re-focussed to a different dimension.

My ‘normal’ reality had receded to the background whilst a vivid supernatural reality was sharply present instead. I’d never known anything like it before and yet it seemed strangely familiar. It was wonderful. It was home.

Posted by Kay Starr | June 4, 2012 | Categories: Awareness, Death and dying, metaphysics | Tags: communicating with the dead, death, ghost, life after death, metaphysics, spirit, spiritual experience, spirituality, vision | 1 Comment

Follow Your Bliss

Three little words – famously coined by Joseph Campbell – hold the key to a truly happy, fulfilled life.

Follow. Your. Bliss.

To follow you need to find the trail. Maybe you can’t exactly see what your final destination is, but you get a bit of the picture, a feeling, a general sense of direction.

And it is okay to take one step at a time and trust that the next step will be revealed. All you need do is ensure that you are still on the path of bliss, that each step feels good – even if you don’t know where it is ulitmately leading.

It is your bliss we are talking about. Not anyone else’s! And not what other people think should be yours. What sets you alight, turns you on, fills you with happiness?

And you don’t have to understand why you feel that way, justify your passion to yourself or anyone else, or know how your dreams will be achieved.

You came into the world with your own unique talents, interests and potential. Just stick to what you really love, trust what feels good and eventually it will all take shape.

And what is bliss? It is something deeper than just immediate gratification. It is an expansive feeling of rightness, truth, freedom, unfolding, fulfilment. It bubbles up from deep within.

Sometimes we choose what we think we want, but it does not really satisfy us. It feels hollow, like it hasn’t really hit the spot

If that’s the case, we are probably not truly following our inner guidance, but are compromising in some way (usually to please others, or because we think there’s no other option).

Bliss arises when you are attuned to your inner wisdom and are being guided by love rather than fear.

You are making choices that are satisfying and sustainable and that lead to more happiness and good choices – a positive spiral.

I explain more about how to step into this positive spiral in the following video clip – Which Voice In My Head Do I Trust? (My most watched video!)

So if you have a decision to make, take a few breaths and check in with yourself.

Make sure that you are feeling expansive, inspired and loving before you make your choice. That way you can be confident that you are on the right path to a happier, more fulfilling life.

Follow your bliss!

Posted by Kay Starr | May 17, 2012 | Categories: Abundance, Awareness, Follow Your Bliss, inner guidance, inner wisdom, intuition, Joseph Campbell, manifestation, spiritual intelligence | Tags: Choosing with love, course in miracles, finding answers, Follow Your Bliss, guided meditation, gut feelings, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inner world, inspiration, instinct, intuition, Joseph Cambpell, making clear decisions, meditation, personal guidance, self help, spiritual guidance, spiritual intelligence, spirituality, wise counsel | 2 Comments

Tap Into Your Intuition

Are you Intuitive? Yes you are.

Everyone is intuitive. It is part of you. It is just a matter of waking it up, excercising the ‘muscles’ and learning what signals to trust.

Think about it for a moment. Think about all those times you’ve had a hunch, a gut feeling or a sensation deep down that you just KNOW what’s right. That’s your intuition speaking to you.

Do you listen though? How often do you follow your inner promptings and let your intuition guide your decisions? Do you realise how much of a smoother ride you would have in life if you did?

The trouble is that we are not very schooled in how to find and use our intuition. These days, the emphasis is on our quick thinking rather than our deep knowing. This means that most of us are missing out on a fantastic natural method of getting the best from life.

How do you tap into your intuition?

Pause and take a few deep breaths.

Ask yourself what’s best.

Receive your answer.

It’s as simple as that!

Inner guidance, answers and solutions are literally a few breaths away.

The first trick is to REMEMBER to pause and ask at the outset.

Take 10

The best way to remember to pause and ask in the heat of your busy everyday life is to practise a little when things are quieter.

Just 10 quiet minutes a day will really help. Spend 10 minutes of every day sitting quietly by yourself – no TV, radio, phone, computer or interruptions – just you sitting down, relaxing, feeling your breath moving through your body.

If you are not accustomed to ‘taking 10’ like this, you will be amazed how refreshing it is and how good it makes you feel for the rest of the day.

It is good to find a regular spot in the day that works for you – like after your morning cuppa, on the train to work (providing you have earphones!), or sitting in the car when the kids are dropped off at school – and to incorporate it into your everyday routine.

Watch to find out how life gets better when we use our intuition…

Try my guided audio to tap into your inner wisdom…

Simply listen, relax and find your own answers.

Click http://www.srimati.com/shop to download

Posted by Kay Starr | March 22, 2012 | Categories: Awareness, inner guidance, inner wisdom, intuition, meditation, Power of Now, spiritual intelligence, Uncategorized | Tags: guided meditation, gut feelings, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inner world, inspiration, instinct, intuition, making clear decisions, meditation, metaphysics, self help, spiritual guidance, spiritual intelligence, spirituality | 1 Comment

A Message of Freedom

Last week I was in London attending the book launch of Barefoot Doctor’s – The Message. It was a fantastic event hosted by my dear colleagues Imago People TV – a brand new TV based marketing portal for transformational teachers, evolutionaries and heart-centered thought leaders.

Jude Levy, Rachel Elnaugh and Katharine Dever (Imago founders)

www.imagopeople.tv

I loved it! The theatre was full of sparkling, inspired, genuine friends and collaborators, gathered for this special occasion – the launch of Imago’s first book publication having recently signed Barefoot as Imago’s first ‘star’.

After his talk, Barefoot signed books and then we were transported to a Soho nightclub by a fleet of people-carriers where we had a trance-dance after party. The cocktails were flowing and Barefoot and his DJ friend led a pumping set. A brilliant way to end the night!

I began reading my copy of The Message this morning. Having heard Barefoot speak just a few days ago, the pages are alive with his voice and presence. I was taken right back to watching him on stage – yes with bare feet – talking from the heart without notes and SO eloquently.

And it’s juicy stuff – captivating and satisfying at such a deep level. It reminded me of when I first heard Buddhism taught so excellently by the funky, fresh, bright young guys at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre in the 1980s.

At the tender age of 19, I was awestruck at the meaning and magic being revealed to me. I was being given the ways and means to live a very blessed life – and although I no longer consider myself to be a Buddhist (prefering to be open to all forms of spiritual wisdom) – those early teachings have nourished me for decades.

And The Message – deeply infused with the Taoist wisdom that Barefoot draws from – describes the same universal principles of freedom, self-mastery and interconnectedness that is the essence of all untainted spiritual teaching.

This morning I am sitting in my conservatory back home in the beautiful Devon countryside, listening to the birds and the sound of our village church bells, watching the trees and shrubs bounce in the gentle wind. It is so peaceful after the hurly-burly of London…

Even although I lived in London for 16 formative years, I rarely strayed beyond the ‘urban village’ created by the Buddhist community I belonged to. And these days, I am very much a country bumpkin – an innocent – unused to the wiley ways of London living.

So when I realised that I’d got lost walking from my city hotel to the Barefoot event at Sadlers Wells Theatre, I had an attack of anxiety. I was lost and alone in the backstreets of Shoreditch, the opposite direction to where I should have been going ( must have been a homing instinct as I used to live in the east end).

Asking directions at a film studio, I was advised to retrace my steps all the way to the main road and catch a cab. It was going to take ages and I was already late! Arghh! Panic! But the bigger, wiser part of me was cool. “Don’t worry”, she said, “it’ll be okay. Just put out a prayer.”

“Please I’d like a taxi to show up for me now”, I thought , and sure enough, a black cab immediately appeared from around the corner to drop someone off right in front of me. I told the cabbie he was my angel and gave him a big tip. We made it to the theatre in time.

It was the second ‘kind assistance from strangers’ experience of my London trip. The first had come in the form of two incredibly sweet receptionists at the hotel who couldn’t do enough to help when I requested a change to a quieter room.

I had considered just putting up with the roaring traffic, but then thought, “Well why not just ask?” In the end my room was much nicer and twice the size of the first – and very quiet. “Hmmm, it’s good practice to simply ask for better things”, I reflected.

The next experience of the kindliness of strangers came a few hours later at the book launch. I pulled out my purse to pay for drinks and my payment cards were nowhere to be seen. For a few moments, panic swept through me “They’ve been stolen! How had that happened? How was I going to pay for my hotel? What do I need to do to cancel them and stop them being used?”

But somehow, even in the swirl of panic, part of me was chilled, loving, peaceful. Time slowed down. Although the bar was busy, the bar tender was patient and smiled sympathetically. A complete stranger standing next to me offered to pay my bill. In a few moments, all was well when I discovered my cards had simply fallen out of my purse into my bag. Phew! But how nice to have been held in my moment of anxiety by the care of others I didn’t even know.

However, the biggest ‘angelic intervention’ via strangers happened the following day when I was on my way to a client’s home for a day of coaching. In the night, I had knocked a glass of water over my Blackberry (Instant manifestation there too. In my half-sleep I thought, “Wouldn’t it be awful if I knocked my water on my Blackberry”, and it promptly happened! Be careful what you think about Srimati!). In the morning, my Blackberry wouldn’t work.

The dreadful realisation that I didn’t actually have my client’s full address or phone number written down anywhere soon overwhelmed me. I was relying on my Blackberry for all that information! Once again, complete panic! And then, once again, the bigger part of me was reassuring, amused, loving, and enjoying the adventure of it all. Something would work out. “Just be open to having some help, as with the taxi”, my inner wisdom said.

I set off. At least I knew the name and whereabouts of the apartment block. Maybe there would only be a few flats to choose from and I’d find her. But when I arrived at the address, I was gazing up at a huge tower block – with at least a hundred apartments! How was I going to track her down?

I asked a few residents but no-one seemed to know my client. I chatted with a friendly cleaner who was mopping the floor. He was sorry but he didn’t know her either. With me still feeling strangely peaceful despite the impasse, he melted into the moment with me and suddenly remembered that there was a concierge office for the estate just a short walk away. Maybe they could help.

They did and I was on time for my client. More importantly, with the backing of my calm, loving bigger self, I had navigated the problem without getting flustered and was still in great nick to conduct my coaching day.

To me these events are such a striking example of our ability to respond creatively even when something challenging is happening to us. If we are aware enough of that bigger, calmer, wiser loving self (even when another part of us is panicking) there is always a positive choice to make – even if its just to be open to the help of strangers when we are feeling alone and vulnerable.

I read somewhere recently, “Nothing happens by accident. It merely has a purpose that is not yet understood.”. I like that. I like the idea that whatever happens is for a purpose, even if it’s not what we want, and even if we are not consciously aware of it’s deeper purpose yet.

On reflection, I recognised that I had unconsciously created these circumstances during my London trip for a purpose. The purpose was to graphically demonstrate to myself that I deserve help, support and the best of things; that I am not alone and don’t have to struggle the hard way and that if I am stuck, even random strangers will help me if I only ask. That’s good stuff for an independent person like me to realise.

In this video, I am talking about the freedom of choice that comes from being able to tune in to our inner wisdom – our bigger, wiser self. Being awake to this allows us to calm down, take our time, make the right decisions, be open to the positive options available to us.

Its just as Barefoot describes in The Message –

“Because as soon as you can see all aspects of the manifest world – this world of people and machines, this world of nature, this world of planets, stars and galaxies, this world of infinite space, and this world of you – as an expression of the ineffable background presence, as the Tao throwing shapes on the dance floor of the universe, you are no longer fooled or perturbed by appearances.”

“So that no matter how thrilling or scary your circumstances in any given moment, no matter how scintillating or distracting the current configuration of details, you remain centered, referenced to and identified with the prime cause informing it all and are thus able to maintain equilibrium and perspective at all times. You are able to receive and process the endless incoming stream of information as an expression of absolute love, life and consciousness, as an expression of God or the Tao talking to you.”

So thank you Barefoot Doctor for inspiring me to write this blog this morning. It was a pleasure to meet you and to participate in your beautiful transmission of The Message.

Posted by Kay Starr | February 19, 2012 | Categories: Awareness, Barefoot Doctor, Buddhism, holistic, inner guidance, inner wisdom, inspirational coaching, intuition, law of attraction, manifestation, meditation, metaphysics, Rachel Elnaugh, spiritual coaching, spiritual intelligence, Taoism | Tags: asking for help, Barefoot Doctor, Buddhism, calming emotions, dealing with a crisis, don't panic, finding answers, freedom, gut feelings, Imago People TV, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inner world, inspiration, intuition, Jude Levy, Katherine Dever, law of attraction, making clear decisions, manifestation, manifesting, meditation, metaphysics, personal guidance, praying, Rachel Elnaugh, spiritual guidance, spiritual intelligence, spiritual wisdom, spirituality, Taoism, The Message, wise counsel | Leave a comment

True Love

It’s the eve of Valentine’s Day and I’m thinking about LOVE…

Love has to be my favourite topic and I have written articles, scoped out books, given talks, recorded videos, led workshops and guided meditations on love many, many times.

So how do you find your ideal partner?

It took me a while to find the true love relationship I always wanted. I was 38 and Pat was 50 before we met and we’d both had our fair share of ups and downs in relationship before finding each other.

Here’s my article from Connect Magazine – Meeting My Match – about how I finally prepared myself for and attracted a really great life partner:

http://srimati.com/2010/06/22/meeting-my-match-my-revealing-true-love-story/

Pat and I at our wedding in 2003 – making offerings to the river

It wasn’t long before I was inspired to run Get Ready for Love workshops as part of my coaching practice. During the course of a weekend, participants dived into the deep and delightful process of preparing themselves for a superb relationship.

This article by the Daily Express, shares some of my top tips on getting ready for love:

http://www.thrivecraft.co.uk/lovecoaching/lovearticles/ready4love/ready4love.html

In this video, I remind us of the golden rules that enable us to attract what we really want into our lives – including a great partner:

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Please do share your own true love stories with us here in the comments box. It’s a wonderful thing to share…

Posted by Kay Starr | February 13, 2012 | Categories: Ah meditation, Dragon's Den, Embracing the Beloved, Embracing the Beloved, Finding God Through Sex, Finding True Love, inspirational coaching, law of attraction, manifestation, meditation, Meeting Your Love Match, metaphysics, metta bhavana, Rachel Elnaugh, Raw and Real, relationships, true love | Tags: Ah meditation, love, manifestation, meditation, Rachel Elnaugh | Leave a comment

Find Your Inner Wisdom – Free Audio Give-away

If I have one mission in life it is to alert you to the immense wealth you already have at your diposal – your inner wisdom!

We all have the capacity to dip in to this pot of gold to find answers, solutions and direction at every step. But some of you have yet to find out how to visit this inner world – or know what to do once you get there!

Actually, it’s very simple. You can soon learn how to pause and tune in to your ‘inner wisdom frequency’. And how to tell it apart from the fretful noise in your head which can lead you astray!

In recent years, I have created a guided audio experience (okay, yes, meditation if you like!) that shortcuts you to your inner wisdom.

I’ve discovered that even those of you who are ‘not the meditating type’ find it easy and enjoyable. So give it a try!

And many of you seasoned meditators have reported how refreshing and useful it is to be guided straight to wise answers with this unique audio journey.

As a festive season give-away, I am making the MP3 download of my guided audio available to you absolutely free!

As an added bonus, you can also download the recording of my recent webinar on Inner Wisdom hosted by mother-entrepreneur magazine, Tunza Spirit. www.tunzaspirit.com

In the webinar I describe how just 10 minutes of quiet time a day can prepare you to ‘hear’ your inner wisdom – and how to create this precious you-time in your day so that it becomes second nature.

To whet your inner wisdom appetite, check out this short video where I’m talking about inner wisdom, my guided meditation and forthcoming book.

The gold within you awaits!

Just click the link below for FREE access to the MP3 download of Answers: Finding Wisdom from Within.

Plus bonus access to my recent Tunza Spirit magazine webinar packed with tips and insights on finding and using Inner Widom.

https://srimati.sharefile.com/d/s8fb11b5427a41d48

Remember, this free give-away ends on the 7th January 2012. Get your downloads now!

Seasons greetings everyone!

8TH JAN UPDATE – THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED.

However, you can still download the guided audio for £6.99.

Click here http://www.srimati.com/shop

Posted by Kay Starr | December 13, 2011 | Categories: Abundance, Creating Abundance, inner guidance, inner wisdom, intuition, meditation, metaphysics, spiritual coaching, spiritual intelligence, Uncategorized | Tags: finding answers, free guided meditation, free MP3 download. free audio, free webinar, guided meditation, gut feelings, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inner world, inspiration, instinct, intuition, making clear decisions, meditation, meditation CDs, metaphysics, mum looking after herself, personal guidance, self help, spiritual guidance, spiritual intelligence, spirituality, Tunza Spirit magazine, wise counsel | Leave a comment

Happiness, Life Balance and Feminine Wisdom

Everyone seems to be talking about it – that the time is upon us to make radical changes – to find kinder, more balanced ways to prosper in life and business.

As the ‘old ways’ of greed and exploitation continue to falter and fall, we are digging deeper than ever to find alternatives. How can we create fair societies, healthy economies and sustainable lifestyles?

Even the government has commissioned a study on how to foster happiness, finally acknowledging how important this personal level of well being is.

I am relieved to say I have heard on a reliable grapevine that the government are genuinely taking heed of the findings.

And thank goodness some attention is being placed where it is due. After all, when we are happy we are healthier, more productive and cause less trouble! All governments should take heed!

Here’s the link to newly launched Action for Happiness whose work I follow and admire – www.actionforhappiness.org

Being a true Aquarian, I’ve been ahead of the curve on this theme. A couple of years ago, I spoke at a conference about our experience of setting up a community run shop in our village.

One of the things I mentioned was that giving and contributing to other people (in this case by volunteering in the community shop) was creating increased happiness and that Gross National Happiness was as important as Gross National Product.

But perhaps it’s true that charity begins even closer – at home i.e. within ourselves. Are we happy, in balance and being kind to ourselves?

When I spoke to former TV Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh, about this she admitted that she felt she had to get ‘tough’ in her early days of business. This left her out of balance and in need of reclaiming her feminine side.

Nowadays Rachel is actively engaged in supporting a new era of feminine wisdom in business. She is in the process of setting up her new project Source TV – a cutting edge platform, specialising in video, dedicated to supporting and promoting ‘heart-centred thought leaders’.

It is so inspiring to witness the growing strength of this wave of conscious and creative entrepreneurs and mentors. I had a very enjoyable couple of days supporting Rachel at the Business Start Up Show in London recently.

Thank you to all you amazing people who I met at Rachel’s stand. The bounce in your step and the sparkle in your eyes is the only proof I need that a time of happiness, life balance and feminine wisdom is nearly here!

Posted by Kay Starr | November 28, 2011 | Categories: Abundance, action for happiness, business, business mentor, Business Start Up, Creating Abundance, Dragon's Den, economics, feminine wisdom, holistic, inner guidance, inspirational coaching, intuition, law of attraction, manifestation, metaphysics, Rachel Elnaugh, social enterprise, spiritual coaching, spiritual intelligence, spiritual marketing, telepathic marketing | Tags: action for happiness, business, course in miracles, entrepreneur, ethical business, finding answers, gross national happiness, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inspiration, inspired entrepreneurs, law of attraction, life balance, life coaching, metaphysics, Rachel Elnaugh, spiritual guidance, spirituality in business, wise counsel, zeta | Leave a comment

How do you form and launch a new business idea?

Its funny how one thing leads to another… And it means I have lots of links to share with you today…

I was just scrolling through my Facebook page when an article by Happiness author and coach, Robert Holden, caught my eye.

www.robertholden.org

Robert’s work has always intrigued me and I’ve heard great things about him from colleagues and friends. Reading his article, I remembered that Robert is a good friend of Nick Williams – another warm and inspiring UK coach who I connected with a couple of years ago.

www.inspired-entrepreneur.com

And so, that led me onto reviewing the video chats Nick and I had recorded together. Up popped this one – Nick asking me what steps I advise people to take if they are starting out with a new business idea.

It’s called Tips for Inspired Entrepreneurs and I give three or four really good practical steps that are helpful if you are formulating or wanting to develop a new business – however big or small.

One of the points we discuss is how PERSONAL it is running your own business and how business success goes hand in hand with our own development as a person.

After all, our business is our creation and an expression of who we are. So to make the best of our business, we need to understand and manage how our personal strengths and weaknesses play out in our work .

And it works the other way too – running a business is one of the most character building endeavours we may ever find ourselves involved in. It can be enormously challenging and by the same token, enormously growthful.

So how does it all begin? How do you formulate and launch a new business idea? Have a look…

As it happens, starting new business is a topical for me as I’m planning to attend the Business Start Up Show in London next month.

www.bstartup.com

My friend and colleague Rachel Elnaugh (former dragon from BBC TV Dragons’ Den) will be there to speak on ‘Metaphysical Marketing’ and ‘The Future is Feminine’ – two topics that are close to both our hearts.

www.RachelElnaugh.com

Rachel will also be there ‘womaning’ her stall in support of her exciting new TV channel – Imago People TV. If you want to know more about it, have a look at Imago’s new website:-

www.imagopeople.tv

But to give you a taste, here are Rachel and I having a video chat about telepathic marketing.

And you are welcome to track down our other videos including our discussion on the emerging Feminine Wisdom in business on my You Tube channel, Thrivecraft.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Thrivecraft?feature=mhee

So, I hope some of these links are of interest to you and I wish you all the best with your new business idea!

Posted by Kay Starr | October 31, 2011 | Categories: business, business mentor, Business Start Up, Dragon's Den, feminine wisdom, holistic, inner guidance, inspirational coaching, intuition, law of attraction, life coaching, manifestation, metaphysics, Nick Williams, Rachel Elnaugh, spiritual coaching, spiritual intelligence, spiritual marketing, telepathic marketing, telepathy, Uncategorized | Tags: business, Business Start Up, Dragons' Den, entrepreneur, ethical business, Imago People TV, Inner experience, inner wisdom, inspired entrepreneurs, intuition, law of attraction, life coaching, metaphysics, Nick Williams, Rachel Elnaugh, spiritual intelligence, spirituality in business, The Business Start Up Show | Leave a comment

Thrivecraft with Maggie Kay Thrivecraft ™ inspirational training, mentoring and business alchemy for coaches and meditation teachers

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Can we use intuition in our everyday lives?

In this video clip from our informal cafe chat, Judy Piatkus (founder of Piatkus Books) is asking me about how to use inner wisdom in our everyday lives. Is it something anyone can access? And how do we do it?

Ten Tips for Easy Peasy Meditation

So, how to we do it?

1. Decide what you are doing

2. Choose your time

3. Find your quiet spot

Find a place where you can be quiet and undisturbed. Be in a room on your own (unless others are meditating with you). Unplug your phone and switch off your mobile. Be out of earshot of TV or radio. Let others know to leave you in peace.

It’s nice to set the scene for your self. Perhaps face a garden window or a vase of flowers or an inspiring picture. Burn some incense or essential oils. Make this your special meditation spot. You will find that this place will start to have a peaceful atmosphere, a meditation ‘vibe’.

4. Be comfortable

Find a chair where you can sit comfortably in an alert, upright position. A dining room chair is good, or an easy chair. You can also prop yourself up at the head of a bed. Undo any tight clothing, buttons or zips.

However you sit, you should have a strong base – a tripod of your backside and your two knees. Have your hands resting in your lap. Tying a shawl or scarf at your tummy gives a little shelf to rest your hands on if you like.

Close your eyes lightly, or have them half open if you are very sleepy or disoriented.

When you are settled, close your eyes lightly, or have them slightly open if you are very sleepy or disoriented.

5. Let the weight drop down

Take several big, long, deep, deliberate, audible breaths. As you breathe out, let your weight drop down through the sitting bones – down, down, down through your seat and the floor into the ground.

6. Relax and soften

Take a few more strong breaths. Let your tummy be soft. Check your jaw is still slack and that the tongue is free.

7. Drop into the breath.

8. Give your head a rest

As you’re breathing, you may be aware of questions and preoccupations rippling around in your mind. It probably feels like its going on in your head. However, invite your thinking mind to rest for a little while. It’s not needed for few minutes.

9. Feel into your heart

And whatever it is or isn’t, just noticing it as you breathe. Feeling the texture and the tone of our heart. You might be aware that there is a kind of atmosphere – an emotional atmosphere around your heart. You might not have a name for it, but you can feel its ambience, its flavour.

Perhaps you can even sense its colour – the colour of your emotional heart right now. You might not see it exactly, but whatever occurs to you – the colour or colours of your heart. Even if it’s not what you expect, even if it’s not what you want, notice the colour.

10. Being with all that you are

Enjoy.

My complete guided meditation – Ask Your Inner Wisdom – leads you through a full preparation / relaxation and then on to find inner answers from deep within your own wisdom.

The MP3 download (20 mins) is available here www.maggiekaywisdom.com/meditation-shop

Spirit in a Human Body

In early June 1982, I found myself sitting bolt upright in bed. It was the middle of the night and I thought I was dreaming, but here I was with my eyes wide open and it was still happening.

The eerie star-like essence kept on flowing from under the bedroom door, along the ground and now formed a person-sized pillar at the end of my bed. I knew it was Dad. I could feel him.

As I stared at the essence, I was enveloped in a reassuring cloak of love and security, and for the first time since he’d died a few days ago, that awful, brittle fear melted away. It seemed that Dad’s spirit had deliberately come to me to soothe me.

I became strangely peaceful and fell asleep.

My sister, Katy, was staying over, but didn’t stir. She was back with me in the attic bedroom we used to share as children.

Now an 18 year old teenager myself, the room was all mine. Katy had left home to get married six years before and since then I’d painted the walls chocolate brown and put a mattress on the floor under the alcove.

My mechanical genius boyfriend, John, had rigged up an extra speaker out of an old oil can so my ancient LP player would sound better.

We would burn incense and lay around listening to Genesis and Pink Floyd. It was the 80’s and there weren’t many other ‘hippies’ of our age, but we were happily retro together, feeling like we’d been born 10 years too late.

John was intense and keenly intelligent and didn’t seem to quite fit into our plain old Scottish backwater world. The music we loved was our religion – opening our consciousness to other dimensions and posing questions about the meaning of life.

More than one medium ventured that John had been a Tibetan Buddhist monk in his last life. Certainly his dark hair, broad face and slightly slanting eyes hinted of Tibetan, but he was all Scot in this life.

On my bedroom walls, the Donny Osmond and George Best posters had long been replaced by pictures of fairy goddesses and mythical creatures. And there was also a cut-out picture from a magazine I’d been given by a Hari Krishna in town one day.

What a Hari Krishna was hoping for in Paisley (a ‘seen better days’ town near Glasgow) is anyone’s guess, but for some reason I accepted his magazine and found one of the pictures in it to be strangely compelling. Up on the wall it went.

The image was of a ‘cycle of life’ – a depiction of an Indian man being born, aging and dying, drawn clockwise round the page like the numbers on a clock.

At the top he was a baby, then a toddler, then a child and then getting older and older until he died and became a baby again. I loved the exotic Indian poetry of the picture, and somehow it spoke to me even though I couldn’t put its meaning into words.

I so loved having my own space in the attic room away from it all. Although I had a happy family life, I relished time on my own.

If it hadn’t been for Dad’s poor health, I’d have moved into digs while I studied psychology at university in nearby Glasgow. But I wanted to stay at home and support Mum and Dad, especially now that both Katy and my older brother, Jim, had flown the nest.

It wasn’t an easy time with Dad in hospital, but Mum was a tower of strength. She worked full time (which involved extensive travel), looked after the house beautifully, honoured her singing engagements as best she could and spent most evenings visiting Dad.

But even Mum wasn’t invincible. In the winter of 1981 a grumbling health problem became acute and she was taken into hospital.

This led to Dad’s final hospitalisation too. His condition wasn’t good and he needed care. He certainly couldn’t manage without Mum.

The next few weeks were bleak. With Mum and Dad both in hospital, I felt very alone when I came down with a nasty flu.

Thankfully, this phase was short lived. I got better and Mum recovered well and was soon home again. Dad, however, never made it out of hospital.

The evening before he died, it happened that my brother, sister, and I were all visiting Dad together. Mum was delayed and would see him later on her own.

We found Dad restless and a slightly delirious. We hadn’t seen him like that before and were puzzled, but we didn’t guess what it meant. None-the-less, we all said goodbye with special tenderness. It was to be our last.

The next day, on the morning of 4th June 1982, Mum woke me in my attic bedroom with a call from downstairs. “I’ve just heard from the hospital”, she said, “Your Dad’s condition is deteriorating.”

Half way through the 20 minute journey to the hospital, I suddenly doubled up with an inexplicable pain across my body. It only lasted for moments, but felt like a signal.

When we arrived we were ushered into a waiting room. “I’m sorry to tell you”, the nurse said to my Mum gently, “your husband has just passed away”. Shock hit me like a great crashing wave.

My sister, Mum and I were shown to Dad’s bedside. The curtains were parted and I struggled to comprehend what I saw. He wasn’t there! My Dad was just not there!

Sure there was an inert shell that resembled what my Dad had been, but this was not my Dad! I had never seen a dead body before and now, in that instant, I understood that it is pure spirit alone that brings life to our bodies

I wasn’t drawn to the empty waxwork lying on his hospital bed. Instead I stood back and looked up. I could feel Dad all around us in the air.

It was as though I was breathing him, floating in him, drinking him. It was a draft of heady, intoxicating bliss. Dad was free, he was everywhere!

Back in the waiting room, the atmosphere of spiritual intensity was expanding until it filled every space. It was as though molecules of sublime gas were being pumped into the room until the density almost burst down the walls.

Dad’s love was all around us and he was flooding us with his presence. I looked out of the window, awestruck and suppressing an enchanted smile.

What I was experiencing now seemed more real than the talk and interaction that was going on around me. It was a like my camera lens on life had been re-focussed to a different dimension.

My ‘normal’ reality had receded to the background whilst a vivid supernatural reality was sharply present instead. I’d never known anything like it before and yet it seemed strangely familiar. It was wonderful. It was home.

Follow Your Bliss

Three little words – famously coined by Joseph Campbell – hold the key to a truly happy, fulfilled life.

Follow. Your. Bliss.

To follow you need to find the trail. Maybe you can’t exactly see what your final destination is, but you get a bit of the picture, a feeling, a general sense of direction.

And it is okay to take one step at a time and trust that the next step will be revealed. All you need do is ensure that you are still on the path of bliss, that each step feels good – even if you don’t know where it is ulitmately leading.

It is your bliss we are talking about. Not anyone else’s! And not what other people think should be yours. What sets you alight, turns you on, fills you with happiness?

And you don’t have to understand why you feel that way, justify your passion to yourself or anyone else, or know how your dreams will be achieved.

You came into the world with your own unique talents, interests and potential. Just stick to what you really love, trust what feels good and eventually it will all take shape.

And what is bliss? It is something deeper than just immediate gratification. It is an expansive feeling of rightness, truth, freedom, unfolding, fulfilment. It bubbles up from deep within.

Sometimes we choose what we think we want, but it does not really satisfy us. It feels hollow, like it hasn’t really hit the spot

If that’s the case, we are probably not truly following our inner guidance, but are compromising in some way (usually to please others, or because we think there’s no other option).

Bliss arises when you are attuned to your inner wisdom and are being guided by love rather than fear.

You are making choices that are satisfying and sustainable and that lead to more happiness and good choices – a positive spiral.

I explain more about how to step into this positive spiral in the following video clip – Which Voice In My Head Do I Trust? (My most watched video!)

So if you have a decision to make, take a few breaths and check in with yourself.

The next day, on the morning of 4^th June 1982, Mum woke me in my attic bedroom with a call from downstairs. “I’ve just heard from the hospital”, she said, “Your Dad’s condition is deteriorating.”