How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
William Shakespeare
On my recent trip to London, I went to one of the most innovative book launches I have ever attended. It featured a clotted cream tea. Clotted cream is not for the faint of heart, or those hoping to lose weight. Nor were the cakes that accompanied it. Moreover, this super rich cream was served with delicious blackcurrant jam (jelly) on warm, freshly made scones (biscuits).
The event included a workshop, Q&A and book signing -- all donated, apart from the price of the book, if you chose to buy it. What a wonderful gift of giving it was.
The book at the centre of all of this attention is the new one by Drs John-Roger and Paul Kaye: Serving & Giving Gateways To Higher Consciousness, available from 1st November.
In the workshop, we were invited to explore and discuss how we could be of greater service to ourselves and others. We were introduced to 10 second stillnesses. This simplest of techniques brought the room of 175 of us into such a peaceful quality, we could have been out in nature, by a quiet lake, or up a mountain or in the depths of a forest -- not in the centre of a bustling city.
Try for yourself now. Let go of your reading. Close your eyes for 10 seconds and take in a deep breath. Drop your shoulders. Allow yourself a moment of peace. You can do this at any time: by the computer, in a line of traffic, waiting for your child to come out of school. I have found it works like magic. Taken frequently, 10 second stillnesses can bring a calm to your whole day. What a great way to serve yourself!
If we do more with less,
our resources will be adequate to take care of everybody.
Buckminster Fuller
The book has many gems. The reader is encouraged to read it not from cover to cover but to put it down from time to time, and go serve. Serving can be as simple to do as breathing in and breathing out. It could be picking up the phone to someone who may be alone; offering a word of encouragement to a person who is struggling; taking the time to prepare a nurturing meal for your partner.
We are designed for giving. When we do so, our lives come into a certain order, even and especially when things seem so chaotic and uncertain. A serving frame of mind will respond when asked. For example, yesterday a woman came up to me outside a public toilet, asking me if I had toilet paper -- there was none. I do not usually carry it around, but I had a pack of tissues.
Man discovers his own wealth when God comes to ask gifts of him
Rabindranath Tagore
You may protest. With all of the demands currently in your life, and the stresses you are already experiencing, how on earth can you be expected to go out and serve others? Isn't life difficult enough already without being expected to go and do more for others?
It is when times are most difficult that we really need to take better care of ourselves. But the emotions of fear and doubt cause us to forget common sense. We need wisdom. But wisdom does not come from pressing the panic button and going unconscious.
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Theresa
With serving well comes awareness -- recognizing the need to recharge your batteries when they run down, and to know when they are run down in the first place. Look what would happen if you breathed out the whole time. Fortunately, our bodies have a way of breathing in automatically. So too with serving: we need balance.
The headings alone for the section of the book: Serving and Giving to the Self inspires self-caring: To your own self be true; Be good to yourself!; Taking time for yourself; Serving yourself; Why is it such fun to give?; Learn to receive; The gift of receiving; Taking care of ourselves versus indulging ourselves; Giving is such a selfish thing; Server, heal thyself; Have fun and rejoice in it.
The core of Serving & Giving is love, or more accurately loving and caring. It is the frequency of love that lifts us above our troubles and woes, and more than that, finds a way through them, and more than that, places us in a position to live the lives of our heartfelt dreams. We are each of us born with a wealth of love to express: gifts, talents, natural attributes.
When all seems hopeless, the energy of love will find a way forward. Serving and giving awakens more of our love. At this time, can we afford not to be giving and serving?
Every day use your magic to be of service to others.
Marcia Weider
How has serving (yourself or others) benefitted you? Who most inspires you by their acts of giving and serving? If you could better serve yourself, what would you be doing?
Please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me at clearresults@mac.com
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