Hello from Nairobi!

Hello from Nairobi, it has been a while since I have posted and a while since my last adventure. Unfortunately this is an adventure I am making on my own this time around, although as my wife always tells me 'everything happens for a reason' and I think I needed to take this trip at this time and on my own. Since arriving back from our last adventure life has settled into a somewhat normal routine, kids in school, Bec back to work, me working, Gus entertaining all of us, and we have in the main settled into our new life in Mt Martha. There have been though a number of commitments we have made since returning that we are working hard to put into place. Firstly family comes first, our kids, our relationships are a priority in our lives and we build our lives around this not the other way around. Life should be less complex and we should live our lives simpler (this one we have had some wins and some challenges), be true to our Dharma (or our purpose in life), live healthy both physically and mentally, live in the moment (less focus on the past and less focus on the future). So how have we gone, not bad, not great but not bad. We have made some progress although we did get distracted by the concept of extending our house, and I have been challenged by the ever increasing work opportunities, and Bec has returned to work etc etc. The universe sent us a gift by delaying our extension plans and we got a breather there, I am coming to the end of some challenging work assignments and we are slowly getting into a routine around Bec being back at work. We have also both focused considerably more on our purpose around selflessly serving kids and improving the lives of disadvantaged kids. We are determined to make this a core of our life not just an add on.

So here I am sitting in a Nairobi hotel room blogging. The plane trip over was quite exhilarating for me. I was able for the first time in a while to catch my breath and revisit what is most important. Through a 36 hour journey it provided just the space I needed to refocus my energies and my life. I read this awesome book the Monk who sold his ferrari and it was like a gift in the way that it set out for me just what I needed to do next. It is all about controlling my destiny, ironically what I spend every day telling the people I coach, why wasn't I listening! Well I was I just didn't know how to take the next step. Within this book there are some beautiful and inspiring quotes that touched deep inside me and revived my spirit for living an authentic life. I once drew a picture of me as a man in a glass cube with wings screaming to people outside the cube to let me out, to let them know I was here but they couldn't hear me. What I didn't know at the time was that I had the key I just had to look inside to find it. The key was me, my self awareness, my vision, my purpose and my passion. I knew who I wanted to be and how I wanted to be I just had to find the courage to stand up and be me, face my fears and live my life.

Over the past 5-6 years particularly, Bec my soul mate and I have been on an incredible journey exploring our selves. I know it sounds a little selfish and it could well be argued that it is but I have grown to understand that unless you truly love yourself you can not truly love others. You cannot live an authentic life, you cannot live to your Dharma. Whilst I was happy with the family i was a part of, happy with the things we had, happy generally with the life we led, I was far from loving myself. In essence I could not kid myself any longer about how I was living my life versus the potential my life could be. It is all in degrees though. My life is in far better shape than it was, we have made some significant inroads to creating the life we want but there was another level we or I had to go to. The past 48 hours have realised an awakening of my spirit and I feel incredibly rejuvenated.

i read that the average person has 60,000 thoughts per day. I reflected that of those thoughts when times have been particularly difficult I would have wasted a large majority of these on negative thinking. I just couldn't help myself it was like a groundhog day in my head from the moment I awoke to the moment I went to bed and even in my dreams. Relationship issues, family issues, work issues, stress, worry and anxiety were a big part of my mind. If my mind was a garden mine was being overgrown with toxic weeds and I was letting it happen. I needed to start turning my attention to my purpose, not my past.

My authentic life, my lighthouse, my Dharma or purpose is about;
Being present, fun and free with my kids,
Being within a loving intimate marriage,
Selflessly serving kids,
Enabling others to reach their full potential,
Supporting and loving my family -
this is what my 60,000 thoughts should be focused on. Within this I want to create a level of boundless positive energy, valuing every precious moment, being physically capable to meet any opportunity, breathing deeply, expanding my mind through knowledge and experience and importantly laughing, talking and dancing (being free to be me). Don't think the last one, the dancing doesn't terrify me!

As part of this journey I am committing to the 10 rituals of radiant living, or at least my version of these. They include The rituals of;
Solitude (meditating every day, training my mind, cultivating my garden)
Physicality (exercising every day)
Live Nourishment (eating more live foods - vegetables and fruit)
Abundant Knowledge (reading and learning)
Personal Reflection (stopping and reflecting ever day)
Early awakening (up at 5am with the sun)
Music (listening to inspiring, relaxing music)
Spoken Word (positive affirmations aligning to my dharma)
Congruent character (living aligned to my principles and character)
Simplicity (living more simply).

For the next 21 days this is my commitment to lay the foundation for a radiant life, to be grateful for all the wonderful gifts my life has given me and to control my own destiny, reach my potential and live to my purpose.Two days in and the energy I feel is like nothing I have felt outside of an event. it is congruent with how I feel when I am in India, or having a great time with my kids, or selflessly serving others but I have previously struggled to integrate it into my everyday life. So far so good.

Today represents another challenge and opportunity. Today I go and visit some villages and local projects around kids. In the past I have always found this quite overwhelming and it has sent me spiralling into a pit of disbelief about how the world is the way it is. My challenge today is to stay above this personal and subjective reaction and to stay in the moment. To rise above the personal challenge and to draw upon my skills and experience to find the opportunity to live my purpose and make a difference in whatever way that I can. I will let you know how I get on.

As a final word I want to say thankyou to my beautiful teachers, my kids and Bec. Everyday my children send me lessons and everyday I am grateful for them. When I say my purpose is to selflessly serve children, it starts with my children and then others. They are the wonder of my world. Finally to my Yogi Bec, my wise and special friend. You have for so long been sharing with me your deep wisdom and insight and you have been standing in my lighthouse showing me the way. You are wise beyond your years and I am so thankful to have you by my side showing me the way, thankyou.