I watched this fantastic video of Tony Robbins and it inspired me so much – I’m sure when you watch it, you will be smiling all the way through because Tony’s energy is so vibrant and positive.

Make 2012 your best yet and make a start right now by watching this video!

Key points:

• Select an area of your life you would like to improve and describe what that area is like for you currently. Be specific!
• What are the rituals that have shaped your current conditions in this area. Be Honest!
• Write down what you want. What’s your compelling vision? Be Specific!
• Write down the rituals that will get you there. What would you need to do everyday to get you to where you want?

Be Honest, Be Specific!

Tony Robbins (Click on this link to watch the video)

Paulo & Christina

Why do we shout in anger

A master asked his disciples:
‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

The disciples thought for a while, and one of them said
‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’
‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you? ‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’
The disciples gave him some other answers but none satisfied the master.

Finally he explained:
‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’

Then the master asked:
‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’

And he concluded:
‘When they love each other even more, what happens?
‘They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love.

‘Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

In Chinese astrology each year certain orientations and also people born in particular years are affected by the governing animal of the year.  2012 is the year of the dragon.

In Buddhism, legend has it that Buddha summoned all of the animals of the earth to come before him , but only twelve animals actually came to bid him farewell. To reward the animals who came to him, he named a year after each of them. The years were given to them in the order they had arrived: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog & Pig.

The twelve animals are also know as the twelve branches and they rotate every year along with the ten heavenly stems and these are what give the year its elemental consistency.  For example 2012 is the Water Dragon year.

Each animal is in conflict with one other animal, thus:

Rat and Horse are in conflict

Ox and Sheep are in conflict

Tiger and Monkey are in conflict

Rabbit and Rooster are in conflict

Dragon and Dog are in conflict (2012)

Snake and Pig are in conflict

Main conflicted animal in 2012:

The Dog

Since 2012 is the year of the dragon, those that are born in the year of the dog are particularly affected.  This is because the dog and the dragon are in direct conflict (see list above for those in conflict).

Those born in the year of the dog would need to wear a protective jade rabbit and or red thread around their waist/navel area to balance the crash (wear from 22/12/11 until 22/12/12).

This analysis may seem very general as many people are born in the year of the dog, so you may wonder does that mean everyone born in the year of the dog will be having a bad year?  The answer is that it depends on the rest of your birth-chart (bazi), on whether it is weak or strong and on what other protection you have within your chart this year.  Since most people do not have access to this knowledge I would recommend that it is advisable for you to wear the red thread on your waist/navel area, as this works as protection.

Years of the dog: 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 (repeats every 12 years)

A Brief overview for 2012 of the other Animals

The Rat

2012 is a good year for the rat.

The Ox

2012 could be a challenging year for the Ox.

The Tiger

2012 could be a good year for the tiger but don’t work too hard and ignore your health!

The Rabbit

2012 is a good year for the rabbit.

The Dragon

Even though the dragon is the ruling animal in 2012 he still needs protection due to certain astrological reasons, so it is advisable for those born in the year of the dragon to wear the red thread also.

The Snake

2012 is neutral for the snake.

The Horse

2012 is satisfactory for the horse.

The Sheep

2012 is neutral for the sheep.

The Monkey

2012 is good for the monkey.

The Rooster

2012 is good for the rooster.  Last year was a difficult year for the rooster but this year will be much better!

The Pig

2012 is a good year for the pig.

Orientations affected – ‘The Grand Duke’

Each year certain orientations are also affected and you should not start building work in these orientations as it can cause you a lot of problems, such as draining of finances with unexpected expenses arising or even more serious health issues arising.

This year the southeast part of your property or garden must not be disturbed since the dragon also called the Grand Duke of the year, (each year the title of Grand Duke is held by the ruling animal of the year) is located in the southeast.  Additionally, the sector that houses the dog should not be disturbed either, thus, the northwest is also affected.

Therefore, starting building work in the northwest or southeast of your property this year may cause you problems.

I have witnessed people who have started building work in certain parts of their property, where they have disturbed the ‘Grand Duke’ and it has caused them many problems.  Thus I would strongly recommend that disturbing the Grand Duke should be avoided.  If for whatever reason it can’t be avoided then seek professional advice, since with auspicious date selection and certain other rituals you can avoid these problems.

Wishing you all a great 2012

Love

Priya

This is an article featuring me published in Sky News

What can you say about Autumn? It’s leaves and Halloween; it’s confusion about whether the clocks go back or forwards (it’s back, by the way); it’s a time to get those coppery-brown, woolly clothes out; and it’s the time to settle down and watch some great TV.

We’ve got loads of toasty shows to keep you warm this season. There are all-new episodes of Glee, high-concept dino-drama Terra Nova, not to mention brilliant original and imported comedy like This is Jinsy, Modern Family and Spy, just to name a few.

But what about the room you’re watching TV in? Are you comfortable there, or do you feel a little … squirmy? Maybe you need to arrange your TV room according to Feng Shui principles.

Feng Shui literally means ‘wind-water’ and is a way of arranging space to be in balance with the Earth’s natural energy.  It has been practised in China and other parts of Asia for thousands of years.

We’ve spoken to the experts for their their tips on how you can set your TV room up according to the principles of this ancient system.

Who we spoke to

Priya Sher is a former management consultant and now full time Feng Shui consultant living in London. She says: “Feng Shui to me is a sensible way to harness the energy of the environment to benefit those living within it.”

Priya’s TV room top tips:

1. Select furniture in proportion to the room size: not too big for a small room and vice versa.
2. If you can, avoid placing your TV in the south, southeast or east of the room. It’s best to place it to the west, northwest or north.
3. Balance the colour of the room against the amount of natural light it gets. So, for instance, if your TV room gets plenty of natural light, avoid bright or light coloured walls.
4. Avoid painting the walls bright shades of red, pink or purple. “ These would make the energy of the room too active.”
5. Place a tall plant with soft leaves in the corner diagonally opposite the door to activate money energy.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

- Lewis Smedes

Recently, I read Paulo Coelho’s beautiful new book The Aleph in which the lead character says a moving “Prayer of Forgiveness”.  The prayer touched me and made me reflect on how many people punish themselves, sometimes for many years by not forgiving others and themselves.

Of course, all of us at some point in our lives have been hurt by someone, or hurt someone, either intentionally or unintentionally. If the pain is intense we often hold onto our anger for a very long time. In our heads we play the scene many times, which only adds to our unrest.  The memory deepens and sometimes exaggerates resulting in the pain to intensify.

When the relationship is an important one, some of us will at some point make the move to resolve the conflict and eventually within time learn to let go and forgive the offending person.  But there will be many of us who continue holding onto anger, pain, resentment or guilt not realizing that in the end the person you damage the most is yourself.

Our whole life can get affected by this obsession; family, friends, work – and in some cases we can get so consumed that we forget about enjoying the beauty of what is happening around us; we stop appreciating the good things happening to us because we have filled ourselves with resentment, thus blocking love from entering.

We need to forgive and let go, so that we can start living life again by allowing love to enter. To do this:

First make a commitment to yourself that you want the best for yourself, after all your wellbeing is your priority. If you are not able to appreciate your life you will never have the courage to live the life you love.

Always remember that to forgive and let go is in your control; it is your choice.  If it was you that hurt another make amends; tell them or write to them about how you feel and then let go and forgive yourself.  Understand that you are human and as humans we all make mistakes.  If it was someone who hurt you then let them know, release yourself of the pain and resentment, why would you want to continue hurting yourself by holding onto this pain?  Negative thoughts deplete your energy and positive thoughts increase your energy and your thoughts are always in your control.

If the situation was very traumatic then it is important for you to get professional help to allow you to let go and forgive. Understand that this may, depending on the severity of the situation, take months or years, but it is only once you do this that you will be able to get peace of mind and allow your life to move forward.

To finish where I began; the beautiful “Prayer of Forgiveness” from The Aleph by Paulo Coelho:

The tears I shed, I forgive
The suffering and disappointments, I forgive
The betrayals and lies, I forgive
The slandering and scheming, I forgive
The hatred and persecution, I forgive
The punches that were given, I forgive
The shattered dreams, I forgive
The dead hopes, I forgive
The disaffection and jealousy, I forgive
The indifference and ill will, I forgive
The injustice in the name of justice, I forgive
The anger and mistreatment, I forgive
The neglect and oblivion, I forgive
The world with all its evil, I forgive

Grief and resentment, I replace with understanding and agreement
Revolt, I replace with music that comes from my violin
Pain I replace with oblivion
Revenge, I replace with victory

I will be able to love above all discontentment
To give even when I am stripped of everything
To work happily even when I find myself in the midst of all obstacles
To dry my tears even when I am still crying
To believe even when I am discredited

In an ancient time, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway to test the attitude of his citizens. He then asked his Chief of Staff to hide and report back to him if anyone attempted to remove the huge rock.

Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and just walked around it.

Many shouted abuse that the road was not clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a cart of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing he finally succeeded.  As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been.

The purse contained gold coins and a note from the king saying that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others had not understood.

An obstacle can present an opportunity for those with the right attitude.

Nowadays, as prices of properties are fluctuating all too rapidly many people are deciding to stay in their homes until things settle, rather than moving.  However, as the family grows it becomes necessary to increase the space in the home.  Thus, an increasing amount of people are building extensions and conservatories at the back of their homes to extend their living space.

In the practice of feng shui every part of the property represents a different family member, aspect, organ and part of the body, so when an extension or conservatory is built it changes the whole shape of the property, thus having an affect on your family and life.

When I go to perform a feng shui consultation for a home, I have seen this same problem repeated on many occasions.  Recently, I did a consultation for a client whose husband was very sick.  When I asked her how long her husband had been unwell, she told me about 2 years – this tied in with the same period as her extension had been built.  What had happened was that they had built an extension which stuck out on one side of the back of the house (right side) thus the left side of the back was left empty (right represents woman, left represents man)

• The back of the house represents health – thus the health of the man was affected
• The side that was left empty was the Northwest again representing the man
• The area inside the house that represented the husband’s hexagram was in the toilet.
• The other area that represented the husband inside the house was the garage which was full of rubbish.

Thus, all the energy was against the husband.  We corrected  this and now the husband’s energy is supported in the house and his health has improved greatly.

I would highly recommend that anyone thinking of building any extensions or conservatories seek the advice of a professional accredited feng shui consultant so that no member of the family is affected adversely by the change.

I see that Hilal is starting to feel uncomfortable.
‘I’m not interested in what our relationship was in a past life. We’re here in the present. In Novosibirsk, you made me forgive you and I did. Now I’m asking you a favour: tell me that you love me.’

I hold her hand.

‘You see this river?
“ Well, in the living room in my apartment at home is a painting of a rose immersed in just such a river. Half of the painting was exposed to the effects of the water and the elements, so the edges are a bit rough, and yet I can still see part of that beautiful red rose against a gold background.

“I know the artist. In 2003, we went together to a forest in the Pyrenees and found a dried-up stream and we hid the painting under the stones on the stream bed.
‘The artist is my wife.

“When I met her, I was convinced that our relationship wouldn’t work out, and for the first two years, I was sure that one of us would leave.
“ In the five years that followed, I continued to think that we had simply got used to one another and that as soon as we realised this, we would each go our separate ways.
“ I thought that a more serious commitment would deprive me of my “liberty” and keep me from experiencing everything I wanted to experience.’

‘I understand and respect what you’re saying,’ Hilal says. ‘But in the restaurant, when you were talking about the past, you said something about love being stronger than the individual.’
‘Yes, but love is made up of choices.’

We are both gazing at the river.

‘Silence is also an answer,’ she says.
I put my arms around her, so that her head is resting on my shoulder.
‘I love you,’ I tell her.

‘I love you because all the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake, where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the earth.

‘I love you like a river that gives water to the thirsty and takes people where they want to go.

‘I love you like a river which understands that it must learn to flow differently over waterfalls and to rest in the shallows.

‘I love you because we are all born in the same place, at the same source, which keeps us provided with a constant supply of water. And so, when we feel weak, all we have to do is wait a little. The spring returns, the winter snows melt and fill us with new energy.

‘I receive your love and I give you mine.
“Not the love of a man for a woman, not the love of a father for a child, not the love of God for his creatures.
“But a love with no name and no explanation
‘Like a river that cannot explain why it follows a particular course, but simply flows onwards.

‘A love that asks for nothing and gives nothing in return; it is simply there. I will never be yours and you will never be mine; nevertheless, I can honestly say: I love you.’

Maybe it’s the afternoon, maybe it’s the light, but at that moment, the Universe seems finally to be in perfect harmony. We stay where we are, feeling not the slightest desire to go back to the hotel, where Yao will doubtless be waiting for me.

in ALEPH
International Edition 
US & Canada Edition 

Master Your Fear 

I found this inspiring interview of Tony Robbins posted on youtube during the financial crisis a few years ago – Tony’s tips in this interview are so valuable for all of us in the current climate today.

This is what I picked up on:

• Use fear to your advantage as you chart a path to the future
• Share your story of role models
• Make decisions
• Face your fear
• Fear is physical so exercise and improve your physiology to gain a fresher perspective
• Embrace your pessimism, use it to your advantage
• Help others – when you help others you help yourself also
• This could be the best time of your life if you know how to use it

This is a beautiful excerpt from Paulo Coelho’s new book ‘Aleph’ – This magical book has been number 1 in every single country it has been released in – I’m so excited for September 2011 when it will be in bookstores all over the UK!

Tears are words that need to be written….

Paulo Coelho

(I am giving a conference in Tunis, Tunisia, in April 2006)

The conversation continues, time passes quickly and I need to wrap things up. For the last question, I choose, at random, out of the six hundred people there, a middle-aged man with a bushy moustache.
‘I don’t want to ask a question,’ he says. ‘I just want to say a name.’
The name he pronounces is that of Barbazan-Debat, a chapel in the middle of nowhere, thousands of kilometres from here, the same chapel where, one day, I placed a plaque in gratitude for a miracle and which I had visited, before setting out on this pilgrimage, in order to pray for Our Lady’s protection.
I don’t know how to respond. The following words were written by one of the other people on stage with me.

In the room, the Universe seemed suddenly to have stopped moving. So many things happened: I saw your tears and the tears of your dear wife, when that anonymous reader pronounced the name of that distant chapel.

You could no longer speak. Your smiling face grew serious. Your eyes filled with shy tears that trembled on your lashes, as if wishing to apologise for appearing there uninvited.

Even I had a lump in my throat, although I didn’t know why. I looked for my wife and daughter in the audience, because I always look to them whenever I feel myself to be on the brink of something unknown.
They were there, but they were sitting as silently as everyone else, their eyes fixed on you, trying to support you with their gaze, as if a gaze could ever support anyone.

Then I looked to Christina for help, trying to understand what was going on, how to bring to an end that seemingly interminable silence.
And I saw that she was silently crying too, as if you were both notes from the same symphony and as if your tears were touching, even though you were sitting far apart.

For several long seconds, nothing existed, there was no room, no audience, nothing. You and your wife had set off for a place where we could not follow; all that remained was the joy of living, expressed in silence and emotion.

Words are tears that have been written down. Tears are words that need to be shed. Without them, joy loses all its brilliance and sadness has no end. Thank you, then, for your tears.

I should have said to the young woman who asked the first question about signs that this was a sign, confirming that I was where I should be, in the right place, at the right time, even though I didn’t understand what had brought me there.

taken from ALEPH

HERE:
ALEPH PUBLICATION DATES
ALEPH (The video): WINNERS