Reflecting on change - Retreat

This past weekend I spent another wonderful retreat weekend with people from all over Ireland and the Uk,  in The Boghill Centre  . Every time I arrive to the centre in the beautiful rural setting of Kilfenora, Co. Clare, I am embraced by the peace and welcoming natural beauty of its surroundings. This is my home away from home for two weekends every year and I get to share it with the most amazing people each time. 

The theme of the retreat this month was Transforming with Spirit, it is not about changing who you are, but gently and compassionately acknowledging, accepting and loving yourself for who you are right now. It is changing the way you see yourself and how you feel about you from this moment on. It was a deeply emotional and life changing weekend for many of us including me. 

Many of the retreat participants were new to our little weekend getaway, but there were many familiar faces that have returned for the 4th and 5th time to further acknowledge where they are on their journey in life and to reconnect with themselves and a beautiful network of unconditional support and love from the group and from their new friends. It is amazing to see the bonds that are made on a soul level between people on the retreat, it is like we are stripped back of all ego, masks and pretense. We open our hearts to each other to reveal a beautiful but sometimes vulnerable side to ourselves that we are unable to do until now.

On this retreat I was joined by fellow Spiritual Medium Teachers Bronia West  & Wayne McHugh who shared so much of their beautiful energy with us all in imparting their learned skills from years of experience in helping others to connect on a deeper level to themselves and to Spirit. It was a such a joy to work in the energy of these two amazing people. In the evening we invited Bev Shiplee up to join them for an evening of Mediumship, beautiful messages of love, forgiveness and support were channelled from Spirit to the groups. There were even a few surprise guests invited to debut their abilities. Amazing to watch the courage shining through when we just allow ourselves to stand in our power. 

This was my 13th group to bring on retreat and each time is completely different. I know I am guided in my work and no matter what the plan in my head is, I have to just go with my heart. The flow of the retreat is all depending on the energy of the group and I always go with that. I know that with each exercise we partake in we are deepening our love and understanding to ourselves and the world. I truly believe that there are miracles occurring right in front of us everyday and sometimes we just need to stop and accept them, but first we must accept ourselves.

I felt deeply grateful to lead this retreat with so many amazing and talented people all waiting to shine their light even brighter. I was honoured on the Sunday closing ceremony by each person with a thank you from their heart and a special message from each, I felt it very deeply and it moved my soul into a new state of gratitude for life and for learning. 

We are all learning and growing, no matter who we are, where we are in our journey, we have so much more to experience. And whilst doing so you can have loads of fun along the way, well in our retreats we certainly know how to throw an after party.

Love to all. 

Our September retreat is nearly fully booked, so I may have a surprise retreat in May 26th to 28th, please let me know if you are interested. 

Looking for Love?

I am sure like most people in the world, you too have loved someone but didn't receive the same love back. Why?

Sometimes the  love we seek from another is only to fill the gap within ourselves. We have all fallen head over heels in love or so we thought at the time, with someone that was truly not good for us. Agree?

We can not make anyone love us! Yes you are adorable, cute and funny, but that does not mean that everyone you are attracted to is going to feel the same way about you. We sometimes feel a connection with a certain person, but it may not mean that you are going to live happily ever after, no if might just simply be that you have connected with someone who is showing you at this moment in time, what you are really lacking in your own life and are looking for someone else to fill that need.

I hear you laughing, yes some of you just would like to have more sex! And more of you want a long lasting committed relationship, but are you going to sacrifice your soul to be with someone that truly does not love and respect you the way you deserve? NO of course you are not.

So how do we help ourselves? Well firstly, when we are lacking in love, it does not mean that another person will make you feel whole. We may believe it in our minds, but truly our heart is looking to feel self-love and self-belief in ourselves.  Start by looking at what you really want (apart from the sex and someone to be by your side until eternity) in your life.

Are you meeting all the same kind of people and none of them are really what you are looking for, but because you don't feel like you have a choice, you keep reverting back to your ex or to the person that messages you at the end of the night? Don't feel bad, lots of people do it too. But think about the kind of person you really want in your life. Think of the attributes of this person, how you would like to feel when you are with them or even not with them. Allow yourself to feel safe, respected, loved, cherished and also to grow as an individual, just because you are with someone, does not mean you need to spend your time with them or thinking of them 24 hours of the day. If we continue to go back and do the same things over and over again, nothing will ever change. 

True love is a mutual respect of two people who allow each other to be themselves whole heartedly. Yes there is compromise when we commit to each other in any relationship, but it is a deep mutual respect for our dreams, lives and passions. If we allow ourselves to be more open about the people we want in our lives, friends or lovers, we start to open our hearts to the people that are attracted to that positive energy.

If you only believe that you will get the people who hurt or reject you, then that is all you will get. You are worth so much more than that, but you must first believe in yourself.

Start each day with a positive mindset, forget about the people that have hurt you in the past and let it go. You are not your past and there is no pattern to your relationships, you can change right now.  Your ex is an ex for a reason! We learn from the people we have shared our past with and we accept responsibility for our own actions. We acknowledge that that person came into our lives for a reason and we allowed them to treat us a certain way, but we have moved on from there and are now facing each day with a new positive attitude.

So go out and be yourself, the next time you meet someone and feel a connection, it may not be the love affair of the century, but at least you are meeting people and sharing your amazing self with them, how far you want to share is up to you :-) 

Have fun :-)

BTW I have found LOVE! How did I know it was real love? I didn't, I just knew how I felt and how I was being treated. When someone loves you enough to believe in you more that you believe in yourself, they want the best for you. They will encourage you to be your best self. Of course we have arguments and sometimes he drives me crazy, but most of the time, I have a big smile on my face. He sees me for who I really am and that is okay, sometimes I can't really see myself, so it is lovely to have someone who reminds me that I am special.

Love Sharon 

You are all THAT!

Do you spend most of your time telling yourself all that you are not?

Believe it or not the average person has 70,000 thoughts a minute and most of them are negative or they are unaware of what they are actually thinking about.

So how can we help to change this pattern?

By changing our pattern of thoughts and self-talk, we can become more aware of what we want to be and start to programme our subconscious mind with the belief that we are everything we want to be.. The subconscious mind does not know the difference between reality and illusion, so whatever you feed it, it takes as fact! 

Some people are great at visualising themselves leading the life of their dreams and others need a little bit more work at it, so to help you get started, here is a little mantra to help you on your way to being all that.

I AM THAT, I AM

I Am that I Am is the common English translation of the response God used in the Bible when Moses asked for his name.

Transforming Negatives - When we put negatives after I AM as 'I am broke', 'I am not worthy', 'I am a failure', it creates limitations. Instead you could affirm 'I AM powerful', 'I am abundant' and you will automatically be filled with enormous capacity for transformation

 So take out a pen and paper and write I AM THAT, I AM at the top

What do you want THAT to mean for you? Under the word THAT, write down all the things you want it to hold for you, so that everytime you say I AM THAT I AM, you are empowering yourself with all the qualities and positive attributes THAT holds for you.

What is it you most want to be in your life?

For example THAT could be 'happy, confident, positive, abundant, living my dreams, working in my ideal job, in the most loving relationship, respected by my peers, open to new opportunities and the list goes on and on. Do you get the idea?

So once you have written down everything and I mean everything that you want to be held in the energy of THAT,  every time you say the mantra I AM THAT I AM, you are embedding the thoughts and energy of the belief that you are already all that.

So get writing and you can add to it as often as you like as long as you remember to focus your intention on all being held in THAT as you repeat your mantra I AM THAT, I AM

Love Sharon

Life is like a bicycle ride

Today I had a wonderful client who like most of us has gone or is going through a struggle in their lives, as we spoke and I felt the energy of what She holds true in her heart, I seen a lovely vision in my mind. Life is truly like a bicycle ride, sometimes we are cycling along enjoying the view, it may rain while we are half way to our destination, the tyre may become flat or the chain might come off. Your first thought is one of frustration as you wonder “why me, why now!?”, but isn’t that the way life truly is for most of us!?

No matter who we are or where we are in our lives, we will all find ourselves moving along and enjoying what we are blessed with, as we come upon any situation that blocks our view of the loveliness in or around us, we want to push it away immediately and get back to feeling safe and secure.

Life is about learning lessons, as on your bicycle ride, you may fall off and graze your knee, but it doesn’t stop you from cycling ever again, you are just a little bit more careful the next time you go out on the bike. You are more aware and observant of what is on your path, the same applies to your life.

As you set out on each day, you have a goal of what you want to do, where you want to go and what you want to achieve, as we all know, life manages to throw many interruptions into our days and we sometimes get side-tracked. This is not always a bad thing, if we stay on course with only the expectations of our mind, we may be limiting ourselves. Imagine if you will, you are on a bike ride and your tyre gets a puncture, you have to veer off the path and look for someone to help you. As you search along a new path, you come upon an area of beauty that you had never seen before and it lifts your Spirits, then a stranger stops along the way to help, whilst helping you they tell you a bit about their life. As you continue sharing your stories of woe and delight to this passing stranger, you realise that you have made a new connection, one that may develop into something positive or one that you have learned that as human beings it is in our nature to help one another, thus restoring your faith in others. You come away from that experience only to realise that if none of this happened you wouldn’t have found a new place to visit or met someone new that connected to you in a loving and helpful way. That doesn’t sound too bad does it?

So in life if you are going about your business and you find yourself in a stressful situation, does that mean you stop moving forward and stay where you are? NO! It means you keep on moving, delighting in all the positives you find along the way and acknowledging that sometimes it is okay to have a challenge or a struggle in your life. Even if it pours down with stress, it is just for that moment, it won’t last forever, just like a bike ride in the rain, you use an umbrella only when it rains!

As children we learn how to balance on a bicycle and if we keep on pedalling we will go more places, we must remember this as adults, to try and keep a balance in all areas of our lives and even if the road gets a little bumpy, if we stop for a minute to compose ourselves, look for a new direction, keep moving forward, we will always enjoy the ride, even if it takes us just a little bit longer to get there.