Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and you know I haven't come out far.
It's night time,
The ground is absolutely soggy above my head.
I can see the blur of the moon above above the clouds and I'm in my back garden and the reason I haven't come very far is because we are having some very heavy downpours of hail and rain that just seemed to come from nowhere and I don't want to go too far because I might get too wet but I do want to speak to you today because I've had the most glorious experience.
I've just started a women's group,
Facilitating a women's group online and this was the first day of bringing these beautiful souls together.
As you know I'm exploring the voices of older women,
Bringing women together,
Seeing how we might support and engage with and be with each other and share from our wisdom and today was the first day and one of the things we wanted to talk about today was the idea of the right starting point and what do I mean by the right starting point?
Well I came across the inside-out understanding many many years ago and for me it made the biggest difference in my life.
It made sense of everything.
It's an understanding that's helped me understand how I work psychologically and spiritually and the two premises of the inside-out understanding that really helped me are understanding firstly I am made of the spiritual energy of life itself.
I'm not talking about Liz the human identity.
I'm talking about the energy,
The spiritual energy behind life that then takes form as Liz and has an experience in the world.
So the first thing is to realize I am this spiritual energy and the second thing to realize is that in this human form I have a lot of thought and thinking and stories.
I have the ability to plan and to remember.
I use thought to schedule and create spreadsheets and think about what's right and wrong.
I use my thinking and thought a lot.
So the second thing to realize is that thought can and always does often does distract me away from realizing and recognizing and remembering that I am made of the energy of life itself.
So those two things work side by side.
Firstly that I am deeply okay.
I am in essence a spiritual being and secondly I get lost in thought.
I'm also a human and I get lost in thought and thinking and thought can distract me away from who I truly am.
So those are the right starting points for everything in my life,
Absolutely everything and that's what I'm suggesting is the right starting point for you or at least that you have a sense of that for yourself.
Anything that happens,
Any time you feel distressed or anxious or worried or confused,
That is your thinking letting you know that you are looking for peace of mind in the wrong place.
All those uncomfortable feelings you feel aren't telling you about what's going on in the world.
They're just letting you know and reminding you to come back to your center,
To come back to your peace of mind.
So that's the right starting point is remembering that you are both deeply okay and that you are a human being.
In other words you are perfectly imperfect and that is the right starting point,
Realizing who you truly are and understanding the powerful nature of thought to distract you.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
I'd love to hear your reflections.
