So far, so good!

It starts small.

You overhear a conversation about burglaries in the area and that night, when you’re going to bed, you double-check that everything is locked.

A newspaper article tells you that there’s a deadly strain of influenza on the go and you begin to worry about public places.

You tell yourself that you’re taking sensible precautions to safeguard yourself and your family, but before you know it you are living in a fortress, growing more and more afraid of other people; what they might take from you or what you might catch from them.

And the other people are feeling the same way about you until eventually we are all safely locked away from each other, hiding behind the fear that we’ve used to build our walls.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The world is a scary place so fear is inevitable.

Living in fear is a choice.

If I could say one thing to the world at large right now it would be ‘STOP!’.

Stop assuming that the financial situation is hopeless.

Stop saying that it has to get worse before it can get better.

Stop looking at what’s wrong.

Stop fixating on worst-case-scenarios.

Stop fear-mongering and spreading doom and gloom.

Stop talking to your neighbours and colleagues about how bad it’s going to get.

Stop hyping up the true story with tales of woe.

Stop listening to anybody intent on spreading bad news.

Stop broadcasting fear.

Stop running around like a headless chicken trying to save your own ass.

Just stop – for one moment – and take a couple of deep breaths.

Now, let’s all – as one global community – ask ourselves what we can do about this?

Not ‘how can we fix this?’ - because it’s already happened - but ‘how can we change our perspective to create a better future?’

‘How can move forward in an inspired and enlightened way?’

After all, the quickest and most certain way to get better answers is to ask better questions!

It is my belief that every person is born with the innate desire to achieve their highest goals.

We all arrive in this world programmed for success, but we get sidetracked by circumstances and bogged down by limiting beliefs.

Our mission, as we journey through life, is to first become aware of the limitations we have accepted, realise that they are not necessarily accurate and then work towards creating a new, factual set of beliefs based on our true potential and our passion.

Most people have no problem becoming aware of their limitations! After all, many us were blessed with schoolteachers who were only too delighted to help us see our faults and failings on a daily basis!

Coming to the realisation that what we were repeatedly told about our level of ability, our courage, our potential or our intelligence - as well as ‘facts’ about our race, creed, family or the world in general - is simply not true is a more difficult step.

And that where the importance of dreams comes in!

If you have a dream, if somewhere deep, down inside you there is a burning desire to be, do, have more than you’ve been told you can expect, you also have the resources to make that dream a reality.

So stop for a minute and find your dream.

Take some time to allow the passion and potential you were born with re-ignite in your soul.

Let it well up from deep inside and give it a voice. Write it down, draw a picture, make a model - give it life in any way you can.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, with every detail worked out. It only has to be yours and yours alone - not your family’s, not your teacher’s, not your children’s - but your own personal, individual, unique dream of who you were born to be.

Once you have found it, nurture and feed it like a tiny seed and never, ever stop believing that you can make it happen - no matter what!

This is your birthright.

Claim it now!

Let’s take a short trip into fantasyland and pretend that the reality we are all experiencing right now is just a figment of our imaginations.

Let’s make-believe that everything begins with a thought and that we can use our minds to create anything we can visualise. We can change everything we don’t like and summon up better scenarios by simply adjusting our thoughts.

Let imagine that health, wealth and happiness are merely states of mind, and as such, can be embraced or avoided at will.

In this fantasyland we’re visiting, we understand clearly that situations like the current global economic crisis, the destruction of the environment and all the social dis-ease of the world have been created by a certain type of thoughts and can be resolved by a different, more positive and efficient, type of thoughts.

All we have to do in this special place inside our imaginations, is to change our focus and our reality changes to match it.

When we focus on greed and fear and loss, that is exactly what we experience.

When we focus on abundance and love and kindness, life delivers abundance, love and kindness.

When you’re ready, feel free to go back to ‘real’ world where you believe you have little or no control over anything.

I’m going to stay here a little longer!

But, just before you leave, are you sure which one is fantasy?

The weather is so mixed these days that sometimes it’s warm and sometimes it’s cold. I find myself adding and subtracting clothing all day long!

Our cat loves to sleep and yesterday I noticed that when it’s warm, she sleeps with her body sprawled out, as if to occupy as much space as possible and absorb the heat and when it’s cold, she sleeps with her head curled up into her tail, to minimise her exposure.

It struck me that we all adopt the same strategy when dealing with the various and ever-changing conditions of life. When everything is ‘sunny and bright’ we walk tall and expand to fill the space around us. When the dark clouds roll in and we feel threatened in any way, we retreat and try to make ourselves as small as possible.

What would happen, I wonder, if we made the decision to face the tough times standing tall?

How would things be different if we gathered up all our courage and chose not to curl up into that protective foetal position?

How would the challenges we face look if we were facing them full on, eyeball to eyeball?

Let’s see!

Relax your shoulders, lengthen your neck, tilt your pelvis slightly forward and raise your breastbone.

Look the world in the eye and walk tall.

The general mood around the so-called ‘civilised’ world is one of doom and gloom.

People are scared because the big pillars we once thought were untouchable – like banks – are in deep trouble and nobody knows what’s coming next.

It is my belief that this ‘crisis’ is just a natural part of the ongoing expansion and contraction that is necessary for growth but, because  - we can now all see it happening in real time and the media are feeding us a constant stream of catastrophic scenarios – everyone thinks it’s Armageddon.

Take a deep breath.

Everything is alright.

There is no need to keep focussing on the wreck that is the global economy because, as we lall know so well, what we focus on grows!

Focus on chaos and lack, we get more chaos and lack.

Let’s all make a decision right now not to buy into the hype and scare mongering. Let’s choose to keep our eyes on what is right in the world.

Even if the only thing you can find right in the world just now is the fact that you’re reading this, there is always goodness and kindness and love and opportunity and abundance to be found.

Sometimes you just have to look a little harder, that’s all!

Any writers out there will understand that there are fallow times when you just can’t seem to find anything new to say. It used to really freak me out - as if the words had dried up forever - but now I know it’s just a phase (sort of like filling a cistern) and I’ll be full of new ideas again soon

In the meantime, I’ve decided to reprint some of the earlier blogs.

As children grow up, the adults who care for them knit a set of beliefs and values around them to teach them how to be in the world.

Many of us never examine what we were wrapped in and wear this borrowed set of beliefs and values all through our lives.

Lately, I have found myself unpicking some very old and well worn beliefs that I accepted as truths until now.

For instance, my generation was taught that it is selfish to think of yourself.

‘Looking after Number 1′ was considered a character fault, especially in girls who were assumed to be naturally inclined to look after others.

But the bottom line is, you simply cannot nurture others unless you first nurture yourself.

This concept will seem alien to many women - and some men - who were brought up on the notion that always putting others first is the noble and right thing to do.

In the long term, suppressing your own needs in order to care for others is guaranteed to backfire. Resentment, frustration, disappointment and anger - probably well disguised - will begin to demand attention.

These negative feelings usually manifest as a physical or emotional dis-ease.

Our bodies are trying to tell us to pay attention to our own needs on all levels, but we refuse to listen and continue trying to project love and caring and kindness out to the world.

And one day, you just can’t do it anymore because you’re running on empty. It’s as if the love in your heart was a jug of water and you kept giving the water away without ever taking the time to refill the jug.

That’s when you need to start looking after Number 1.

Take some of that wonderful nurturing and turn it on yourself.

Go and do whatever it takes to refill your jug - and remember to keep doing it as often as necessary.

It is only when you can treat yourself with the same level of kindness, thoughtfulness and love that you lavish on others, and when you look after yourself as well as you look after others, that will you able to be truly loving, kind, caring, thoughtful and nurturing.

I just love the chorus of the new song by The Streets.

‘I came to this world with nothing.

And I’ll leave with nothing but love.

Everything else is just borrowed.’

Those words remind me that as I die, it will be totally irrelevant how much money I’ve made or how many houses I own, how far I’ve travelled, how many books I’ve written or how famous I am.

The only thing that will count for anything as I move on to the next phase of my life, is the love I have shared on this journey.

Love given and received will have created every memory, every significant moment, every friendship.

So, it makes sense to me that only thing worth stocking up on while I’m here, is love!

Like most people, I grew up believing that selfishness was a really undesirable but inherent human trait and that I should always do my best to conquer it by repressing my own needs.

I also learned that ‘self praise is no praise’ and ‘pride cometh before a fall’ so I never acknowledged my achievements and always found it impossible to accept a genuine compliment.

Thankfully, it seems to be that the human race is now beginning to be able to discern the difference between selfishness and self-love and between ego and real pride.

The shift from a fear-based to a love-based way of being is subtle, but incredibly powerful and will have a positive effect on every aspect of life.

It doesn’t take much to change your perspective and the change starts with awareness of your thoughts.

Are your thoughts founded in fear or love?

Last week I did a big clear out. I threw away lots of junk and clutter and sent anything worth saving to the charity shop.

In the process of going through all my ‘stuff’ I came across two sets of wine glasses that only see the light of day at Christmas. It seemed such a shame to keep such nice things hidden away for 364 days of the year so I unpacked them and washed them and put them in with the everyday glasses.

And, one by one, because they were less robust than the everyday glasses, they got broken or chipped.

I was beginning to think that maybe I should have left them packed away but today I was reading a piece written by a women in the Southern States of America who has just lost her home to a hurricane for the second time.

Her lesson in non-attachment was far more extreme than mine. Her de-clutter was carried out by Mother Nature, who was much more ruthless than I was!

This woman had no choice about what to keep and what to throw away.

If the wind could take it, it was gone, regardless of its value; sentimental or otherwise.

My wine glasses very quickly paled into insignificance in the face of her total loss of material possessions.

And yet, it was obvious from her words that although she had lost everything in a materialistic sense, there is no wind powerful enough to blow away the only thing she had left – her incredible, resilient spirit.

When the going gets tough, you find out who you really are and what strong stuff you’re made of!