Aug 15

StuHis passion is music (although he would argue it is chocolate!). His voice, so deliberate yet strategically subtle, gentle teasing you into submission for the message he brings. A winning combination to the lyrics, which are layered like a rich tapestry of life experience, higher learning, faith, goals and love. It’s like the poetic murmurings of a beautifully sung prayer – it touch’s your heart and leaves light in your soul!

Read the following in depth interview to uncover why this inspiring new artist is promoting the one thought “the human solution is a divine evolution” and why he has decided to donate his profits to a charity close to his heart.

So Stu, when and why did you start playing guitar, and when did you discover you had the talent to sing?

I asked for a guitar on my 16th birthday, as soon as I knew a few chords I started writing my own songs. A few months later I made my own studio by lashing together my ghetto blaster to my girlfriend’s dad’s stereo.
I knew I could sing as a child because I could imitate all the songs I liked, but I was v shy.

What are your fondest musical memories?

Playing my old Walt Disney record, yes vinyl! My favourite “I wanna be like you” over & over. Still know it word for word & every monkey noise.
Then my next favourite memory is when I was 17 & went to Dingwalls Jazz club on a Sunday afternoon. Giles Peterson was playing frenetic but musical 60’s bebop & two guys (I think maybe “brothers in Jazz”) were dancing, the floor just cleared for them. I can’t describe in words how I felt, the sound & the sight just moved me to tears as I stared, it was a v deep experience. They had such style, grace & physicality, the rhythm, joy & energy was shinning from them, the sound … it was a high that no drugs could come close too.
That experience got me into dancing, so I went every week to these Sunday afternoon jazz clubs, even on my own, it was so cool. Never packed & always full of interesting souls struttin n stepping, expressing their thing. You can see a person s soul through the eyes & how they move to rhythm.

So who are your influences?

The person who is the single biggest influence on me musically is my music teacher, Professor TV Gopalakrishnan, a master of Classical Indian music.

Who are your favorite musicians? Groups?

Musicians & influence is such an enormous question for me; so here goes. My musical training came from listening, first to the radio, with whatever caught my ear. As a young teenager I loved rock n roll, especially Little Richard, but the radio is so diverse & so my taste has always been diverse, but generally its Black music in its many forms. Growing older I could afford records: I loved the songs Prince did, up until about 90’s, loved hip hop beats, conscious lyrics of KRS1 & Chuck D, but the best flow was Big Daddy Kane. At that time you were either an indie kid or hip hop, I was the odd ball, I did like both, though I could only dance to hip hop. Indie songs, bands I appreciated. The breaks in hip hop got me into funk, JB being the obvious, but then the breaks began to get more obscure, jazz influenced & soon my record collection was well over 10,000; gospel, jazz, funk, soul etc.
No one name really stands out, but sooo many songs & artists have influenced me.

So how do you handle mistakes during a performance and do you ever get nervous before a performance?

Mistakes, if u don’t make a big deal of it, other people won’t either. When buskin on the underground I would actually be trying things out, writing, working ideas. True performance art ! the energy & vibe of all those people would become part of the creation. Busker’s do 2 hour slots, its all v official, sometimes for those 2 hours I’d work on 1 song, but people only hear 10 seconds of it so it cool. Any way if I didn’t make “mistakes” I wouldn’t get ideas. Of course I got nervous. The mind is such a trickster. Some days u listen to its crap more than others.

Do you work with other artists, If so who? and why?

Yeah, I got into doing my own stuff by working with others. My first single “Money” by Coco & the Bean, I did the rap for it. These guys did hip hop in their bedroom so this inspired me to do likewise. Currently I’m working with Sali, a Carnatic (south Indian classical) singer on an innovative dance track, also an RnB singer called Kavita, she’s great but keeps burping like Barney (Simpson’s) after a great vocal take.

Ha ha, very funny – I’ll get you back for that!
So, tell us about the REAL Stu?

Big question eh? I’m special, there’s no one quite like me. Then we are all unique & special so I guess I’m ordinarily special. I’m very blessed, I’ve had the opportunity to experience a “western” & “eastern” family life. I’m v healthy. Funny, well I laugh at myself. V positive, love life, especially people, but I think our potential is nowhere near reached. I’m also blessed with many talents, musical creations being the primary. But the more I witness people struggling with themselves, religion, God etc the more I realize that my most treasured blessing is having a direct communication with the divine. I always feel truly at ease with my personal faith & this actually also makes me feel at ease with any religious faith. Religious texts are words but the wisdom is woven between the words, interpretation depends on the heart & mind of the reader. The essence of love is universal, humanity is corrupted by ego. Music transcends all this political egotistical crap because its feeling comes not from words but the movement of notes. Like love it has its universal law. I study Carnatic music because the “laws” that define this music have evolved over thousands of years & its focus is more internal, it has more culture, not to say its better, but it has a different emphasis. It will be many more years before I will master this art but its influence will permeate into my creations.

Why do you want to record and release your own music?

I make one big assumption in life: if I like something, other people will also like it, not everyone, but then not everyone likes Thai red curry, but I do.
“I admit, this rhyme is not mine, it’s inspired, divine….” That’s a quote from “Beats n Love” but it reflects my music. I feel that my music will inspire other people, whether it’s a social or political comment or whether its lust or love, my tunes are varied, but whatever the message & emotion that combination of notes conveys, other people will share & appreciate hearing it.
I feel I have a “product” which is not eclectic, cliquey but has a wide appeal. I want to get “mass” appeal, that will mean more influence, power & of course money. With those ingredients I stand a chance of creating a school for deprived kids.

How do you describe your music to people?

It depends who I’m talking to. Music is a science, its full of maths, symmetry, structure, its incredibly beautiful. Its nature & nature is not as crazy & abstract as many people think. If you are not aware of the fundamentals of it, then how can it be discussed? If u wanna chat like a critic then its all about your perspective, your interpretation & feeling. Many people may share that feeling but not everyone so its not really a discussion.
My music is natural, so without trying it has a structure, symmetry, flow etc. its natural because its inspired: by the millions of songs, rhythms & nature, by life, energy & love.

Out of the songs that you have written so far, which one is your favorite and why?

“On my way” seems to be a big favorite, I like it cos its catchy & has a great positive message. Its not my personal favorite. My favorites are some of my earlier tracks which wont be released till I’m in a position of having a great studio & engineer to do them justice. The sound scape of them is amazing, I would spend sometimes up to 4 months on one track. Now I spend about 4 weeks.
What challenges have you had to face in order to pursue music?
Time has been the biggest challenge. I’ve needed a lot of time to be ready for this release. Physically, spiritually, mentally as well as musically. I’ve practiced yoga for 15 years, studied martial arts, Sufiism, Carnatic music, ayervedic medicine, dance, all to get a balance in my life. I trained to become a school teacher, its all part of the BIG plan, its starting to come together. My drive has pushed me through some v tough times, fate has continually pulled me along. I’m ready now.

Why have you decided to donate your profits to charity and why have you chosen this charity?

The Parry Charitable foundation is a small independent charity that provides a loving home for handicapped children. It’s standard of care is high & there is a big waiting list. Every penny from donation goes into helping the kids NOT on administration. ALL the workers are volunteer, most charities 70% of your donation goes into paying their admin costs.
I know this charity & sometimes work there myself, for these reasons I donate to them.
In the long term I want to set up my own school for deprived children. I’m a qualified school teacher, yoga teacher & scientist as well as many other “life” skills. From a young age I would talk to God. When I was 12 years old I received instructions to help deprived children. This goal is my purpose, music is the vehicle to propel me there.

OK, finally what does “the human solution is a divine evolution” really mean?

It’s from the track ‘On my way’….
Ok this small phrase has a big meaning, & rather like a sutra in yoga text, a surah in the Holy Qur’an or verse from the Holy bible its open to interpretation. Unlike those wonderful books of wisdom the writer is fortunately for me still around. So here’s the intended meaning: evolution; this word is kicking up a big fuss lately, in America some schools are refuting the scientific evidence & claiming the “literal” bible version of evolution. Well books of ancient wisdom such as the Old Testament were written with hidden meaning & depth that belies a superficial surface. The true value of the words lie in studying those hidden meanings. The Darwin theory of evolution & the scientific evidence is compatible with religion in fact it’s magnitude & beauty reinforces a divinity & creation. However this is not the platform for this debate & as I said before, interpretation is dependant on perspective. What’s important is that evolution is not HISTORICAL its continuous. We are still evolving & compared to the history of the world we have just climbed down from the trees. If you look at how we behave we are still as ruthless as we ever were as beasts. Capitalism is the law of the jungle but applied to the City. “Only the strong survive. “ Fortunately this is not the whole story. All over the world people are silently working, giving unconditional love to those who are in need or weaker. I believe that right now, historically, we are at a cross roads of evolution. Technology is changing our lives & the global communication phenomena can & is spreading a message of love. It’s mixed up with violence & sex but Its harder to get any more violent than we are, its impossible to take off any more clothes, but the message of love is limitless & individuals & groups everywhere are able to contribute & unify in a way even the hippies never dreamed off. I read in a Sufi book once (can’t remember which one, sorry). “When we act like animals we are worse than the animals but when we act like angels we are better than the angels.”
Its just a case of time. When will we choose the path of love?

Thank you to Stu for sharing his work with us and giving us the time for this interview, and thank YOU for reading the article.

Peace and Love

If you would like to know more about this artist, then please check out his website WWW.STUSOUNDS.COM

Special thanks to the designer of the website: Pj (www.websitedesignz.net) and Phil (www.macpips.com)

Article written by: Kavita Sohanta - I DO NOT burp in between songs! :)

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Jun 26

Hi Everyone, it feels good to be back and I must say I had an magnificent time at UPW. I’ll be posting my stories up a little later on.
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I want you to take a good look at yourself and your thoughts and ask yourself to what degree are you a self critic and to what degree are you self constructive? If you spend much of your engaged in self critical inner chat then it’s unlikely you will ever be able to get the results in life you truly want. Whereas if you were to engage in a more healthy inner dialogue of constructive evaluation and then ask yourself “what can I change to do things better?” Then you will begin to automatically make changes to your actions without even realising it. You will begin to become more proactive and take the necessary steps towards your goals. Its a form of self coaching whereby you are not too soft on yourself and neither are you too harsh on yourself but you find the balance in getting the right kind of self talk to enhance the quality of your life.

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Mar 8

One of the things I’ve been taught, when it comes to sports, is to practise the art of ghosting. What is ghosting? Ghosting is where you practise the game or movements by yourself whilst imagining yourself to be in the live situation. So, if for example, you’re a squash player, you may book a squash court on your own and pretend to have a game. During that time, you’ll focus on your fitness, movement around the court, your pretend strokes of the ball, but your mindset must be that you’re actually playing a real match. In your mind you visualising the perfect shot and footwork every time, you’re pretending that your opponent is superior to you and yet you’re finding the perfect strokes and match play to equal their game.

In many ways it’s synonymous to shadow boxing, you as the boxer may not have an opponent but you pretend you have one and sparr just the same. It’s like you’re sparring against an imaginary opponent, you imagine the moves that your opponent would make. You visualise all the possible moves your phantom adversary would make, anticipate the moves and react accordingly. You train your muscles to react without the conscious mind taking up valuable proccessing time.

I do the same in badminton. When I’m waiting for a game to finish or waiting for a court to become available, I’ll use that time to ghost to train my muscles to move and react in the way that I choose. It’s always the shots that I consciously think about which are the ones that I get wrong. So if you can train your unconscious to do all the hard work, there is nothing left for your conscious mind to do. In badminton the shutttle can travel at speeds of up to 200MPH. In a fast paced game, if the opponent is attacking, you rarely have more than a quarter of a second to react to the oncoming shuttle, it’s all the work of the unconscious mind.

But ghosting doesn’t just apply to sports, you can apply to the same technique to whatever aspect of your life you choose. It’s not always practical, in all cases, to do ghosting with the physical movements. But you can ghost in your mind through visualising. I remember when I was at the Tony Robbins UPW seminar back in September. The first night, the Friday, was the day that we would be doing the firewalk. I was so nervous because I had bruised my foot quite badly the night before and could barely walk. But two hours prior to us doing the firewalk Tony began to train us on the mental preparation before walking across the glowing red hot coals. Instead of feeling the fear of being burnt, or falling, or doing something stupid in front of thousands of people (which is what most people were probably imagining at that point), he showed us that we could construct, in our minds, exactly how we wanted the walk to go. We created funny animations of the walk in our minds. We played it backwards, forwards, from different angles, with cartoon like actions, but we solely focused on the success, not the failure. The more whacky and vivid you ghost, the more successful you will be.

You can do the same too! Whether you have a big presenation to get ready for at work, a huge sporting event, or you’re just getting ready to tell someone how you feel. ;) Ghost the scenary in your mind. A while back I wrote an article called P.I.C.’s. Create some super P.I.C.’s in your mind and visulise that ultimate success coming through every action that you take!

No scary failure ghosties, only the kind succesful helpful ones please! :-)


If you love sports and are interested in new baseball bats or need other equipment such as baseball pants or possibly even baseball shoes then check us out today for what you’re looking for!

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Feb 9

We live in a world where we’re surrounded by masses of technology, so much is expected of us, we have more responsibility than ever before, our time is precious and not only is more expected of us, we’re expecting more of ourselves. With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that illness, both physical and mental, is prolific throughout society!

There is so much for us to juggle that often we just become bogged down and find that joy eludes us because all we can do is think about the next thing that we have to doing or the next event we have to be at. I’ve noticed though that many people use the term: “I’m busy” not because they have too much on their plate, but because the things that they do choose to undertake are badly managed and that is what causes the “BB syndrome” as I call it. (BB= Busy Bee) I’m completely guilty of it too! It almost became an excuse so that I could get out of doing things or seeing people just because I wanted a bit of time to myself.

When we get to that stage where we begin feeling overwhelmed, we try and find solutions, but because we’re used to living in a complex world with complex systems, we think that the solution must also be complex. And then what happens? Because the solution you’ve formulated is so complex, you end up giving up and going back to suffering from the BB syndrome. It’s easier that finding great management strategies, but if no action is taken, all your time and energy is gobbled up by churning over all the things that you have to attend to, rather than taking action.

I was in a situation quite recently where I wasn’t enjoying my job. It was really frustrating me as I love working in I.T. in general, but after I got promoted just over a year ago, things went downhill and I really started to feel quite depressed when I was at work. Ironically, I was finding that everyone else around me was busy and I had nothing to do which really frustrated me! Even though it gave me time to blog and do various other things it was still a bit soul destroying being in place where I earn my livelihood and finding no fulfillment in what I was doing.

I’d had enough! I was so frustrated and I just could handle it anymore. I was on the verge of quitting but first I asked myself, what can I do to turn this around? I tried a few things like getting more involved with some of the other teams, but that didn’t help. I tried making work for myself but that didn’t help. I tried all sorts of things but nothing was getting results. But then I came up with a relatively simple plan, I had no idea if it was going to work or not, but it was so simple that I new that trying it would be easy and hassle free. Deep down I knew I’d found the answer to turn my situation around, but I put that feeling aside and just tried it out.

I formulated a simple strategy for gaining greater fulfillment at work. It wasn’t a supremely complex 50 point plan or didn’t involve taking drastic or massive action, all it took was a simple goal, a very simple strategy that turned things around.

My strategy was simply this:

TO LEARN ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY! 8O Would I be able to manage it? :P

To clarify; it didn’t have to be anything technical, I didn’t have to learn the complete working of a particular piece of hardware, nope, nothing like that, I just wanted to learn the simple stuff every day. Recently we installed a brand new VOIP (Voice over I.P.) system and that was a huge project, of which, I only had a small part. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands dirty in all area’s of the project, so I decided that whatever I do get involved in, I will make sure that I learn something new from it everyday.

One day, I had a real headache of a problem, A Cisco network switch kept crashing when we switched it on. At first, I thought it was faulty cable, so I changed all the cabling. That didn’t work! Then I thought it might be a faulty GBIC card (A fibre optic component of the network switch). I changed it, but that didn’t work. Then I thought that port itself was faulty so I plugged the GBIC into a different port, that also didn’t work! Then I thought the fibre uplink going in the port of the PASSPORT (A giant core network switch) was faulty so I plugged it into a different port, that still didn’t work!! I then thought: “There’s only one thing left that it can be!” That was that the Cisco switch itself must be faulty. I swapped that too and guess what? It still kept crashing!!! This whole process of elimination took me two days in total, by which time 90% of my hair had turned Grey, :P but I was not licked yet! I thought: “Let me plug each network cable into the switch one by one and see what happens?” I did that and found that one particular cable caused the switch to crash! BINGO! At least now I knew that it was something plugged into the switch that was causing the problem! (Something that I thought initially but dismissed!) It turned out that someone had double plugged one of the VOIP phone into the wall ports and that was causing a loop which shutting down the port on the PASSPORT! (I promise no more techical jargon from this point onwards! :lol:)

So, I learned something new, actually I learned two things: 1) To trust my gut, and 2) That if that happens to a network switch in the future to try that avenue first!

Even though it was a stressful couple of days, that simple strategy made me feel more relaxed less stressed and also gave me greater confidence for the future. It took my focus away from the stress of the problem and put it onto what was good about the problem.

So in a nutshell, my simple strategy became applied in two ways. At the beginning of my working day I ask myself: What new thing can I learn today? At the end of the day I ask myself: What did I learn today? This extremely simple strategy turned around my entire feeling with regards to my job to the point where I now actually look forward to getting to work everyday. I’m now enjoying my job much more, I feel much lighter at work and even though it’s much busier, I’m not feeling the stress of it.

There we have it, the greatest transformation can come from the most simple strategies. It doesn’t take a major change or a huge 50 point plan or jumping off a cliff to find a solution. All it takes is one SOS and you’ll find the world around you transform in your favour. So let me ask you, what area of your life are you struggling with and what is the most SOS that you can think of to turn your situation around?

Happy hunting! :)

The Secret DVD

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Jan 29

There are many particular chants, affirmations, thoughts, incantations that I use to energise and empower me throughout the day. But there is one that stands out for me personally that gets me focused not only in the now, but it also takes my mind off the end result and allows me to remain happy and free from worry. The thought is…

No matter the outcome, I am happy now.

Now it’s a pretty simple thought and you can use it for any situation where you are awaiting a decision or a particular outcome. Say for example that you’re waiting for a result of some kind, now this could be anything, it could be the result of a medical test, the outcome of an interview, you could be awaiting a business decision, or an answer from the bank. It could be any number of a thousand things.

Lets take for example you’re waiting for the result of a medical test, for many people, depending on what it is, it could cause a fair amount of worry and anxiety. Lets face it, it’s not a nice feeling when you’re trying to get on with you’re life but you can’t stop thinking about the test results. It’s not a nice feeling and to shift your focus onto something else it not an easy thing to do. It was out of something like this that made me come up with this thought. Of course, naturally, you can’t just think that thought and hope for your worries to go away, it has to be coupled with some sort of distraction, maybe some empowering music, or doing something else you enjoy doing. Put yourself into a good feeling state and say the thought to yourself and believe it. Welcome the challenge, and say “No matter the outcome, I am happy and will remain so.” It has to be said with conviction and belief and when you do you’ll find that a huge weight will be lifted of your shoulders

So if you’re if you’re in a situation we’re you’re precariously running out of nails to bite on, remember the power thought, say it conviction while in a good feeling place, and watch your shoulders return to their upright position. :-D

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Jan 17

…to bring about automatic successful self-marketing when you meet people is: do something to make them remember you. Get a “thing” that people will always associate with you and you alone.

It could be something as simple as a kind gesture, a silly joke that makes people laugh, approaching people randomly just to say hello! It could be anything of the sort. Don’t just be another face in the crowd, or one of many fish in the sea, be a rare species, Demonstrate your uniqueness and I guarantee that people will remember you for years to come!

Just in September last year, I was at a religious festival, I saw a woman I recognised although I wasn’t quite sure where from, but I felt like I knew her. So I decided to go up and say hello. It turned out that she was a news reporter that I had seen on T.V. Before the end of the festival I made sure I spoke to her again and got her email address. Because of my actions, It’s unlikely that she’ll forget me (although she’s probably trying to :P) and now we have become friends. If I didn’t act, didn’t say hello, didn’t do something out of the blue, I wouldn’t have made this great connection.

Another time, a few years back, I was at a club, and had the chance to sing in front of the camera to win a CD. So I sang my heart out and I won the CD. Little did I realise that It was going to be broadcast on Cable TV!! :-O But because of that people I’ve never met before, still, come up to me and say: “Hey I’ve seen you on T.V. somewhere!”

Be remembered! ;)

The Secret DVD

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Jan 15

I gave up a dream once and it was the biggest regret of my life and to this day, is still one of the few things I regret about my life. When I was at school, I absolutely loved drama and performing arts. Acting, singing and dancing around were my passion. I was pretty useless at everything academic and most other things but performing arts I adored!

When I was in Junior school, we had poetry reading competition. We had to a read a poem by Spike Milligan. The competition was that whoever read out the poem the best would read it out in front of the whole school and the parents and all the teachers too. It was a wonderful poem, I don’t remember it that well and but it was something to do with either catching a really big fish or being caterpillar that was getting bigger and bigger from eating so much! Anyway, we had a mini competition first, in front of just our class. We all had the opportunity to read. I read mine out in such a funny way with all the actions and emotions coupled with the poem that my teacher said I was the winner outright and I got to read it in front of the whole school!

Another time at Junior school, we were going to put on a play called Pedro’s Revenge. I auditioned for the Role of Rocadura, a gangsta who controlled the small town in Mexico. None of the other kids could do a rough Mexican accent like I could so I got given the part immediately! I remember that during the play I got to wear a Trilby hat and my older brothers pin stripe suit with gangster style shoes! I loved playing that role and to this day I still have some pictures of me in that play. I remember that there were also reporters there from the local papers and they wrote an article about the play and put us in the paper! :)

I did a few more plays at Junior school and even at secondary school too. When I got to college, as I had pretty much dropped out of high school an not completed many of my exams, I decided to retake drama at college too. While there I also did some productions as part of the drama club whilst retaking my drama exam.

The reason that I became such a high school dropout was because I was taught that the world was going to end very shortly, and I believed it! :lol: I was also taught that any big decision I was to undertake in my life should go through our spiritual elders and so I approached one the spiritual elders, I asked her, I want to become an actor and I want to do drama. She said to me: “No, that world is full of vice, go and do an office job.” Which is pretty much what I did. I believed her and I followed her advice, left my performing arts path and went to get a basic admin job.

Now as much as I’m sure she meant well, I wish that at that point in my life I had the courage to follow my own path. I know that that past can never be changed but what I do know for sure is that being on stage, acting, dancing is something very much that I’m yearning for. Just because I gave up on my dreams then it doesn’t mean that I cannot pursue them now!

It’s never too late to follow your dreams. If they truly mean that much to you, you will find a way! It doesn’t matter if you have 4 children, a mortgage, a high paid job that and is your only source of income, other commitments, whatever you think it is that is truly holding you back, is only your own lazy mind conjuring up reasons why those things cannot be done. There is ALWAYS a way. I can’t possibly go over all the ways in which you can get around all the challenges that you might be facing at this particular moment in your life. What I can do is tell you firstly that if you do have a dream and that you have been putting it off for whatever reasons, ask yourself firstly, is it truly your dream if so many excuses have been getting in the way? Is it something you truly want or is it just something you have nice thoughts about and “it would be nice if I could do it” etc. If that’s your only feeling towards it then maybe it’s not your dream and maybe you need to find a new dream.

I for one have many dreams and aspirations, not just the one. And in the course of discovering my dreams I have found some of the ones which were just “nice ideas associated with nice feelings” and separated them from the ones which have an extremely strong pull because I feel deep down within my soul that, that is what I want to do.

The way to separate those things that are “that would be nice” kind of things, from “I must achieve this no matter what” is a two step process which is as follows…

1) Get some quiet time and focus on you. When I say that what I mean is our focus is more often then not on thoughts of the things we have to do during the day, the people we have to email, the household chores that need to be done etc. Step away from those thoughts and bring them back to you. Remember that those things are not you, they are the things you’ve chosen, now who is the real you? What is your spirit, your core, your deepest feeling of being that you can come to? (This in itself, is a powerful regular practice you can adopt for many purposes and not just this.)

2) Once you have gotten to a position of getting closer to your core, ask yourself some rapid fire questions without thinking about the answer. Get a pen and paper handy and write the first thing that you feel like writing without thoughts getting in the way. As for the rapid fire questions, you can ask yourself some random questions to begin with e.g. what is my favorite colour? Do about 5 random questions and then throw in a more serious question related to your life into the mix. For greater effectiveness, do this process with a friend or someone you have a lot of trust in and have a good rapport with. A good way to tell if you’re answering from your core is to get the person who is asking you the questions to keep an eye on your eyes. If your eyes move before you’ve answered, you’ve thought about the answer. Look the person in the eye and answer as rapidly as you can without giving the question any conscious thought.

Don’t be afraid if your dreams change. It just means you’ve grown, expanded yourself and you want to explore something different. Whatever happens though, don’t abandon your dreams for one of the silly reasons that tend to permeate our lives these days, find some courage and get your quizzed with some rapid fire questions to find what out what experience your deep subconscious is yearning for.

Dream big :D

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Oct 9

VegetarianAs I promised two weeks ago, I wanted to use this blog to dish out some of my business Ideas. I have too many ideas, more than I can personally handle, and so my goal is for someone, to take away these ideas and make something of them. Obviously, I hold no obligation to you, if the idea comes to fruition, to give me anything, but any contributions voluntarily thrown my way will be greatfully received! :lol:

As you probably guessed from the title, I’m a vegetarian. Over time, being a vegetarian, you can get a little fed up with the lack of options there are available to vegetarians when eating out. Especially recently, I’ve noticed this more as I’ve decided to try and eliminate dairy from my diet. Just last night I gave in and decided to have a cheese pizza!! :oops:

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So this is my idea:

I think it’s high time someone created a pure vegetarian restaurant that offers varieties of VEGGIE BURGERS. You go to a Mcdonalds, they used to have two and now they only have one! (Not that I go there often or eat their food often) One type of veggie burger when there are about 15 different types of meat burgers you can get….psshhht!! Someone please tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t know a single vegetarian restaurant within the U.K. that combines: Healthy Eating + Vegetarian/Vegan + Variety!! If someone reading this, if you have the resources, please please open up a vegetarian restaurant that has not only a variety of veggie burgers and other dishes, but also focuses on health! Most people are vegetarian because they understand the health benefits of being a vegetarian and yet very few places promote the two things together. I know it’s a huge challenge catering just for vegetarians but I know of one vegetarian restaurant near me, in Harrow, called: Veggie Inn. They do superb food and not to mention the owners are lovely people. Whenever I go in there, they are always busy and the dishes the serve are soooooo tasty! (when you go, I highly recommend the Veggie Duck as a starter!) There is a place in Wembley called: Wembley Diner. I went in there recently and saw that they did a Vegetarian Kebab. I tried it, it was a mix of gently grilled veggies, salad and humous! It was the best veggie dish I’ve had in ages! It was simple, free from dairy and had very little oil!

So there we have it! A vision for someone to create, not only the best, most delicious, healthy Veggie Burgers in the world! Also a veggie restaurant that has variety, including dairy free alternatives and focuses on the health aspect as much as taste and variety!

Good luck!

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Vegetarians are people too you know! :P

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Aug 21

It’s a common thing to hear someone say that they feel somewhat stuck and are not sure of want to do with life. After all, in this day and age we’re inundated with choices of industries, courses, paths, hobbies, careers, religions etc etc etc so often the biggest battle in life can be settling on “what” choice to make rather feeling as if there are a “lack” of choices. Because I get to meet get to know people from a broad spectrum of the community I see people in all sort of situations even successful people who still feel a sense of almost being lost. A very simple solution to this problem is getting a bit of variety in your life! After all, if you’re just going to work, coming home, eating, watching t.v., going to sleep and waking up the next morning for work, it’s no big surprise that you feel a lack of self worth and in a place where you feel stuck and lost!

If you were at that stage yesterday…then be happy and accept today as a new day to begin a fresh challenge. A good thing to do is start by trying out a few things. Voluntary work is always a good way to go. Even if it has nothing to do with what you’re interested in, (e.g. I do volutary work with children but I work in I.T.) it will still help you to develop your power of perspective and give you stronger resolve to make any decisions. The reason I say this is because it will give you the amazing opptunity to break down many barriers that you may have built up in your mind over time. It like smashing the comfort zone. If you stay in comfort long enough it gets you to a point where you you almost a sense of lethergy and disinterest with life. A place I’m sure where you don’t want to be! Taking up a fresh challenge will smash through some of those walls that you’ve built up in your mind Through working with children, my confidence has grown massively. Not only that I was given free training too which was huge boost to my C.V. but it allowed me to grow through having different expriences. I was put into a situation where I was put into a class of about thirty students and I had to give them a workshop on preparing for work experience. I was provided with all the materials but there was no handbook on how I was supposed to do this. I wasn’t taught how to deal with the naughty and the noisey kids, I was thrown in at the deep end and I loved every minute of it!

I also work one on one with children and I coach and mentor them to improve the quality of their existence. I can think of no bigger challenge than this. It takes a great amount of courage to sit down face to face with a child and get them to open up to you about the challenges they’re facing. Getting them to open up is only the first challenge though, It gets harder as you have you somehow find a way to get the trust of that child and then through the rapport and trust that develops over time, you can gradually begin to guide them and help them to be better than they ever thought they could be and get them to surpass any barriers they had. Once you see the results of something like that, guess what? You start to realise that you have an immense amount of potential within you too and you slowly begin to manouvre your life to a place where you previously thought you couldn’t be.

Experiences like those can ignite a spark within you and may give you some clues as to which area you would like to persue. Even if it doesn’t, what it will do is give you the opportunity of expanding yourself! It will increase your sharpness, mental clarity and also open up a universe of new possibilities. You will feel more open and alive and those previous feeling of being stuck and frustrated will slowly start to dissipate.

Another idea to try is hospital radio which is another thing that I am going to get into very soon. It’s been my dream from a young age to get onto radio and hopsital radio is a fantastic stepping stone onto bigger and better things. What more noble thing can you think of thank helping sick people get better through entertainment? You can truly turn your life around and start by doing asolutely anything…look in your local paper, go to the library and find out what things there are for you to participate in! A friend of mine was telling me recently that she joined a roller blading club! On the weekends they go to places like Hyde Park and explore and just go crazy on their roller blades. (She often comes back with cuts and bruises but she absolutely loves it!!) :p

Take a course, learn how to play an instrument, take up dance classes, try yoga or tai chi or some other martial art, go hiking, bike riding, go carting, bowling, paint balling, read a book of a genre that you never even thought to try before, start a website, join a club of some sort, start some charity work, do a fun run etc etc etc!! There is so much out there that the list could just go on and on and on!!

My biggest tip in all of this though would be to take a regular sporting activity and make sure you keep it up! There is nothing worse then starting a job and realising that your gut is growing in inches at the same rate as your age! :p Keep your self in good shape and taking up a sport such as badminton, squash, tennis, football, or anything along those lines. Playing a sport will keep you sharp and again help you increase your focus and clarity and give you the extra drive and ethusiasm to take your life in a new and fresh direction. Not to mention that you’ll meet lots of new people, make loads of friends and make some great contacts in the future that will maybe even inspire you or give you that idea or that “something” that you’ve been looking for! :)

I would also suggest keeping some sort of journal or diary. The reason for this is perusing your entries often helps bring further clarity and perspective on any given situation. It’s also a good way to gauge the progress in your life. It really hit home for me when I read some diary entries of mine from a about 5 years ago and some diary entries from about a year ago…they were almost identical and my goals were exactly the same. It showed me that I had made no progress whatsoever and that nothing had changed in my life. At first when I saw that I became a little depressed but afterwards I realised that it was great gift! Seeing that made me realise that life can be incredibly short and unless I chose make something of it for myself, I would wake up one day and realise that my entire life had floated by and I missed out of almost every oppotunity to be happy and live a fulfilled and enjoyable existence. If you can begin to keep a journal, and update it regularly with your fresh desires and goals and monitor it regularly, ticking off your achievements and desires as you go along then you will find that over time you will feel much happier at having reaching and surpassing these milestones that you set out for yourself.

These are just a few starting points but the key is to become active. Switch off the t.v. turn off the computer…and go out there and meet some new people and enjoy the entire universe outside your front door! :)

I wish you happieness, success, and most of all love for life!

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Jun 29

Paperboy!I made this comment to my brother quite some time back and since then I’d almost forgotten about this point until I was doing a life coaching session yesterday with a client.

We all have a similar goal in one form or another to be financially stable and to be able to sustain ourselves whether that be through owning our own business or several businesses or through working in a stable and enjoyable full time job. I think it’s safe to assume that we would all like to be in a job that we love to do rather than being somewhere, where we “have to” be there almost against our will with the attitude of: “just doing this to put food on the table”

Whatever situation you are in right now, what would you do if your flow of income stopped for one reason or another? Whether you lost your job or lost a prime client that paid most of your wages, what would you do if that happened to you?

Begin by thinking; “This is a wonderful opportunity to being doing the thing I love and make it my livelyhood.” It’s a great thought but you also need to stay physcially active and alert to put you in state of mind and feeling that allows you to say positive and focused on what it is that you want. So what can you do to stay physically active and mentally sharp?

When I first thought about this idea I sort of thought to myself: “that’s stupid, no one’s going to do something like that” but then more I thought about it the more it made sense to me and probably one of the best things you can ever do if you were to ever loose your flow of income!

“What is it”, I hear you ask?

GET YOURSELF A PAPER-ROUND!!

Become a paper boy/girl! I can hear the groans and moans and rejections already but hang tight for a few mins and carry on reading my reasons why!

1) Swallowing your pride and getting a paper-round is a fantastic idea because for starters, if it is one where you have to deliver papers in the early hours of the morning, what it will do is get you out of bed at the crack of dawn. This is so crucial because there is a danger that without a job, you’ll end up going to bed really late, waking up incredibly late and then you’ll feel like you’re not getting anything done with your day. This way atleast, you’ll have something to get up early in the morning for, and once you’ve completed your round, you’ll have the entire day ahead of you to search for jobs or new clients and build up your business.

I remember when I was out of a job for 3 months or so, I ended going to bed at something like 5am every day and waking up and 3pm in the afternoon and because of that bad habit I never really had a chance to do any proper job hunting and I ended up feeling very stale and lethargic. At that point in time I wasn’t as motivated as I am today but I truly wish I had this idea then because I know something like this would’ve given me more energy and drive to get out there and find exactly what it was that I wanted!

2) It’s good exercise!! Whether you’re doing it on a bike or walking you’ll be getting lots of fresh air and exercise and this is crucial to keep you sharp and looking well while you’re in the process of finding your new job/clients. During that period of 3 months while I was out of work I think I must have gained nearly 2 stones in weight, that’s nearly 28lbs in 3 months!!!!! Lets face it, being fat and pasty never makes a good impression on clients or job interviews. Getting the exercise early in the morning will boost your slow early morning metabolic rate and will help keep the lbs off while you doing what you need to do!

This idea may sound strange at first but I know personally that If I lost my main source of income tomorrow then that would be the first thing that I would do straight away to keep myself healthy and sharp so that I could then focus on what I wanted. :D

BHFG

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