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Is what you are imbibing inspiring you or requiring you? The Memetic environment
The Memetic environment is everything you are watching, reading , believing and listening to. It has been estimated that we have about 604,800 thoughts per day (http://ping.fm/WPBKX ) and that it has been found that (surprisingly, NOT!) that depression is linked to uncontrolled negative thoughts (http://ping.fm/qFK9h) . So this environment is a key part of nurturing optimum mental health. Karen Vizer has already written about the Physical environment and the importance of eating good food and using extreme self care. (http://ping.fm/1lenu

My favourite story about this is the man who decided he was going to ask his neighbour for a lawn mower. However, his thoughts began to spiral into a long story about the last time he met his neighbour and how he seemed distant and then he thought of the times his neighbour had delayed returning equipment to him and he found himself getting angrier and angrier. Eventually he got up, walked purposefully over to his neighbour’s house and rang the door bell. When his neighbour answered the door, he shouted at him “you can keep your ****ing lawnmower” and stormed off. And I know I can certainly identify with that story (although I usually stop myself before I go to my neighbour’s house!).
So structuring and tweaking this environment to support us is a really key part in our overall sense of happiness and well being. So how can we design this environment to support and inspire us?
1. Spend some time identifying and observing what you are actually allowing into your headspace. And ask yourself what is the overall impact on your own sense of well being? I was on a call recently and one of the participants described how she was feeling good and then watched the news and found herself feeling agitated and wondering if her optimism was actually completely misplaced! I have noticed that when I occasionally watch the news (my husband is a bit of a news junkie) that I feel as though I have put on a hairy jumper (sweater) next to my skin. It feels jumpy and yucky...so my way of handling it is with humour. I find myself giggling at the obvious relish with which commentators dish up endless servings of gloom and doom. Strong echoes of Eeyore http://ping.fm/n2wg7(Winnie_the_Pooh) .
2. What inspires you and fills you with joy? For example we have a bird feeder outside the window of our dining room and I have to say that watching those tiny creatures brings me into the present and out of the yada, yada, yada of my monkey mind. So what inspires you and how can you bring more of it into your space?
3. Disconnect from the mass media. Remember that the news is just one group’s version of reality, despite the urgency and drama of the presentation. In a recent Social Traffic broadcast (http://ping.fm/3lnoX ) Philip A. Gornail made a point that he now checked his news on the Internet rather than TV/radio. If you feel as though you must know what is going on...just check the Internet rather than listen to the mass media. And as Tim Ferris (www.timferris.com ) points out...the chances are that we will hear about anything really major anyway. I endeavour to follow this myself but I have to say that one of my own questions about this is does this mean that I choose to remain oblivious to the suffering and pain in the world? I am deeply aware from my friends in Africa and around the world that there are still many places with none of the basics (we in the west) take for granted. The way I have chosen to deal with this is: (a) I acknowledge that simply watching suffering on TV and in the media overwhelms and paralyses me (b) I identify small changes I can make in my own life e.g. I’ve recently become a vegetarian again after 13 years, we recycle as much as possible and I make regular contributions to charities that I believe really empowers its population (c) I’m part of Social Traffic (www.socialtraffic.biz ) which is seeking to really heighten awareness of this magnificent jewel we are living in..Mother Earth.
4. Use your MP3 player to download and listen to positive material that inspires and supports you. There are huge amounts of material available free of charge or for a very reasonable fee (www.blogtalkradio.com or www.hayhouseradio.com or www.zencast.com are three great examples) Use the time in your car or when you are exercising to feed your mind with good stuff. There is another great resource at www.learnoutloud.com Or just create playlists of your favourite music.
5. Identify what is draining you about your thoughts. Here is a suggested way. Notice how you feel after watching/reading/believing certain materials. Just observe the aftermath. Notice if it’s positive or negative. Don’t judge it. (You are in good company here. St. Ignatius of Loyola (http://ping.fm/pybV9 ) used this method to notice that he felt better after reading lives of saints than after reading other material.) Begin to gradually introduce more of the “positive aftermath” materials into your environment and you will notice that your attraction to the “negative aftermath” stuff will diminish. Another powerful way is to simply write your thoughts in longhand as they come up...there is something really empowering about getting that endless replay out of your head onto paper...and it does start to repeat itself after a while.
6. Hang out with people who inspire you. Why not join us at the Social Traffic Facebook group? It’s got great resources inspiring people and you will get to learn loads.
7. And of course I have to mention what I consider to be a great tool for helping shift thought patterns that keep us stuck...consciousness shifting (But then I would, wouldn’t I ?  )

If you are curious about environments and want to learn more, you can listen to a recording of a call Karen Vizer and I did (http://ping.fm/AuHud )about environments. We are also planning something juicy around this as well…watch this space..

I wish you a day in which you lower your standards.
Forget your taxes, your fears, your not enoughs or haven't yets.
Throw a Mardi Gras party for your enormous heart.
Plant a seed for a stranger with your grin.
And mostly, watch a day unfold you will always be proud of because you were utterly and extremely and blazingly you. Comfort wishes from Jennifer Louden..enjoy!

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Raise your standards: Begin to ask for more. Don't settle for less. You deserve more
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Complete what is unfinished: If you have lots of unfinished projects, unsorted relationships, they are all blocking you from your great life and your best self. Learn how to get them sorted.
Orient around your values: This will help in your own personal value development
Just sign up for Bring your best self to light at www.annewalshcoach.com

Curious why you keep making the same choices! I will be hosting a teleclass on Choosing unconsciously next Monday at 7pm GMT/11am pacific! Watch this space..

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The Nature environment or ragwort, flowers and why there are no live fat flying birds...
I was supposed to write this note yesterday but found that when I sat down to write it, I found myself feeling bored and restless and what I wrote was rubbish. So I decided to leave it and found myself awake at 4.30 am buzzing with ideas about this piece. This incident brought me up smack against one of the first things we can observe about Nature.
Things have timing
By and large all organisms have their own time line...whether we like it or not and generally our life goes more smoothly when we honour that. So what project have you got that you find yourself struggling with? Does the time structure you have decided should fit with it actually reflect its reality. It's great to say write a book in 90 days but is the reality for YOU that it's more like 90 weeks...and that's what it will take for you to do the work that truly reflects your intention?
Where's your pride?
Are you hanging out with lions or donkeys? Or who is in your herd?
There are few things lonelier than hanging out with the wrong herd. And few things more reassuring and comforting than finding those people that you say to (a lá CS Lewis) "what, you too!". But that means first of all admitting that you are in the wrong herd for you...and secondly identifying where you can find your herd (or what Martha Beck calls "your team"). So where can you find more like minded people to hang out with? This doesn't mean you won't mix with other species...but you'll have a place to go when you need to just be a lion instead of a donkey.
Ragwort is toxic for horses but they don't go on about it.
Ragwort is a toxic weed for horses (but not for all animals) but horses just avoid eating it unless there is absolutely nothing else. They usually don't go around wringing their hands (or hooves) wishing ragwort would change or raging against their own digestive system because it's poisonous for them. They just don't eat it. What ragwort do you need to stop eating ?
Don't just grow, evolve. Or move from leaf to flower .
In the opening pages of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" he describes the evolution of the first flower and how flowers have inspired humans ever since. So if you have an ongoing struggle/stuckness in an aspect of your life or business...what would be a totally new direction to take it in? Instead of growing more leaves...what would a bloom look like? For example, Henry Ford didn't invent a faster horse, he came up with the motor car which still has the shadow its origins as a horse carriage
There are no (live) fat flying birds
We have a bird feeder outside our kitchen window and I love watching all the different species show up and watching how they even eat differently. Sparrows seem to have a feeding frenzy and then disappear. The blue tits come, fastidiously take one seed and fly off. Finches let the sparrows do all the work and then pick the seeds off the ground. None of these birds are fat though. Flying is very energy intensive but must be balanced with having a body that's light enough to lift. So what do you need to do less of in order to fly?
Surprising fuel sources
The land where I live is very boggy and acidic and one of the plants that has evolved to thrive in this environment is the Venus fly trap. This plant cannot get sustenance from the usual source i.e. soil so it has evolved to get nourishment from what comes into its orbit i.e. flies. So if you can't get the fuel you need now...what would be a surprising source?
If your work was a star, what would it look like light years from now?
One of the things that fascinates me about the stars is that they are so far away that the light we are seeing from them now left thousands of light years ago. In fact those stars might already have exploded by the time we see them. We are constantly reaping the benefits of work done by people hundreds of years ago (many of them are anonymous). Witness our churches, great buildings, beautiful clothes, works of art, literature, the technology we depend on. These wonderful things evolved from the work of people who came before them. So if you were doing work that you intended to last for thousands of years, even if it's anonymous..what would you do differently or the same?

So my challenge to you this week is take a problem to Nature. If you have something that you are stuck on, why not just park it and look to Nature for inspiration. It may be that you can't get out to spend time in a forest...but you could always watch the Discovery Channel or David Attenborough...:-)

Last week I wrote about the financial environment Financial environmentand Karen Vizer wrote about the
Environment of Self . We will be writing about the other environments over the coming weeks.
If you would like to hear a recording that gives an overview of all the environments we have identified.
Check this out: http://ping.fm/AuHud
10 environments recording
Thanks for your time and as always, comments, suggestions and observations are most welcome!

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