A client first introduced me to the campaign last year, just before the end of April. This year, I vowed to get on board before the end of the month! Let it be known, I’m not affiliated with the campaign in any way – I just simply believed in the concept.

The concept: Grateful in April is a global campaign to get people focused on feeling good about what they’ve already got in their lives. It’s amazing what can occur when you find ways to be grateful for what you have.

My personal challenge: To post what I was grateful for each day on Facebook and Twitter. With each post I also encouraged fans and followers to join in with what they were grateful for.

My experience: Naturally, focusing on the positives helped breed positivity and I was inspired by the feedback and participation of those online friends. Offline, I also had people commenting on what I’d posted that day or simply ask about the campaign.

A couple of highlights for me from the project…

1. By day two, my sister joined in and posted her own gratitude posts on Twitter.
2. One of my Facebook followers reminded me about a gratitude journal I kept about 10 years ago. I dug it up and reread it. At the time, it helped me through a very difficult period and it was lovely to revisit the positives of that time.
3. Committing to posting a gratitude each day helped me to think about the positives, even when I was having an off moment. I found I was starting to jot things down as I became grateful for them and so many of these weren’t posted publicly.

It really didn’t take too much out of my day to think about something I was grateful for. April was a very positive month for me with lots of good news and developments with some projects I’ve been working on, the arrival of babies and announcement of pregnancies for my family and friends. It was also a pretty challenging month in other ways, but to be focused on the positives helped keep it all in perspective.

The real aim of the campaign is to help move people more permanently into a place of gratitude and I hope to rekindle the spark of my gratitude journal.

What are you grateful for?

Image via thecarolinejohansson.com

Describe yourself in five words? dreamer, romantic, creative, blogger, scientist

What is your passion/What do you do? I am a visual artist which includes painting, drawing, sculpture and installation work. I studied at the Queensland College of Art focusing on a major in painting and art theory. I am also a graduate of a Bachelor of Science where I studied anatomy, neuroanatomy, psychology, biology, pharmacy, bio-chemistry and philosophy. Within my art career I get to research and reflect on all of these areas and more.

When did you develop/choose to follow your passion? My earliest memory of making art was drawing on a blackboard my parents bought for Christmas when I was around 5. From age 7 I was already giving away sketches to members of my family as gifts. I think when I actually commited myself to pursing art as a career would have to be 2011. I had dropped out of art school a couple of years early disheartened by the 2008 economic crisis and disillusioned after seeing firsthand some of the greatest art in the world in Europe. At the time I resigned myself to trying another path in life. Come 2011 I realised that art as a career choice was inevitable for me and not making art was in reality much worse than making art even if I was never as great as the many artists before me. I stopped worrying about how I would be relevant and what people would think and just embraced it. I realised making art wasn’t just what I enjoyed but it was a big part of who I was and how I looked at the world.

What inspires you? Everything! from other art, to music to books, to fashion, to design, to nature, to philosophy, to science. The world is overflowing with possibilities and ideas and potential. I started an inspiration blog at http://laurahorrocksart.blogspot.com.au/ to share all of the wonderful things that inspire my work. There are some days that I don’t feel like making something, but once I get started I stop thinking and go to this other place and all of a sudden many hours have passed and I think to myself ‘I love this so much’. Most times when I get an idea it’s like electricity, I will see the work as it would look finished in my mind and what follows that is the urge to start working on it.

Best advice I recieved on following my passion? Living your life to make sure everyone else is happy will never in fact ensure the everyone else is indeed happy. There will always be someone who you’ve disappointed or let down or generally disagreed with. You might as well do something that makes you happy than not, otherwise you’re not happy and neither are the people around you.  And always listen to your heart, your head will tear you to pieces but your heart knows the way.

Where can people find you? You can find my work at http://evelynluc.wordpress.com/

You’ll need:

7g yeast

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 cup cheese (we chose Parmesan)

6 cups flour

Tea cloth

Large bowl

Method:

Mix yeast, warm water, and white sugar together in a large bowl. Set aside for five minutes, or until mixture becomes foamy.

Prepping flour

Stir olive oil, salt, herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cheese, and 3 cups flour into the yeast mixture. Gradually mix in the next three cups of flour. Dough will be stiff.

Oregano, basil, garlic and onion pack a flavourful punch

Tasty Parmesan cheese. Romano cheese would also be yummy.

Knead dough for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until it’s smooth and rubbery. Line a large bowl with oil, then place dough into the bowl, ensuring all of the dough’s surface is oiled. (You may need to turn the dough over to ensure it is all covered with oil). Cover the bowl with a damp tea cloth. Allow to rise for one hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove the tea towel and punch dough down to release all the air. Shape into loaves. We divided into two batches, then divided each batch into three strips, then plaited the dough to create our loaves.

Three strips of dough rolled out and ready to be plaited

Place loaves on a greased baking tray, or one lined with baking paper. Allow to rise until doubled in size – about 30 minutes.

Plaited Italian herb loaf, ready to be baked

Bake at 175 degrees for 35 minutes, or until golden. Remove loaves from oven and cool on wire racks for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Italian herb bread straight out of the oven

Delicious!

Check out this post for more vegetarian recipe ideas and the connection between what you eat and your energy and spirit communication.

Now, post-baby as the sleep deprived mother of a screaming newborn, my meditation practice looks a little different! Meditating with a baby in the house is a little more difficult, but not impossible. As Little Miss completed her second month of life, and her screaming and demands escalated, I realised she was actually presenting me an opportunity to practice what I’ve learned in a very new way.

For the first couple of weeks of her life, I didn’t meditate. And this probably made matters worse. Then I remembered that meditation isn’t just about the time I’m sitting, formally practicing meditation. Rather, it’s about taking what’s learnt during meditation into all moments of the day. It’s about practicing mindfulness at all times. My challenge was to be mindfully present during these new routines with my baby, rather than letting them distract from my meditation.

Once I looked, I found plenty of times with Little Miss that I was not mindfully present, but rather, allowing my mind to wonder aimlessly. I quickly turned this around and began meditating in a new way. For example, while Little Miss feeds, I meditate. While trying to soothe her screams, I meditate. Given, it’s a different type of meditation to what I used to practice, but it’s meditation none the less. All it takes is an awareness that your mind is wandering, then calling it back to the present moment.

I like to take this further, focusing on my breathing and opening my heart chakra. You can try this yourself, without a screaming baby. Simply be present in whatever challenge you are facing and spend a few moments slowing your breathing and centering your attention on your chest. Sometimes I simply smile to my heart and from my heart.

Just with Little Miss’s feeds alone, I can steal 15 minutes here and there to meditate through the day. But, this is a tip for anyone – why not meditate while brushing your teeth, on public transport, while on hold on the phone. Simply bring your mind back and be present.

Where’s the most unusual place you’ve forced yourself to be present?

Image via theorganisedhousewife.com.au

Your mouth watering? Then follow his recipe and devour your own creations:

You will need:

1 kg flour(keep some flour aside)

10g yeast

15g salt

600ml warm water

Sunflower oil

Cling film

Tea cloth

Baking tray

Method:

Place flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and then pour in water.

Flour, salt and yeast in bowl, ready to become bread

Mix by hand. Keep mixing until it’s become a ball of dough.

On a dry surface (eg kitchen bench), sprinkle some flour, then take the ball out of the bowl, and place onto floured surface. Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth.

Shape dough into a ball, by cupping and turning the ball. Pour a little sunflower oil into a large bowl, to coat the inside of the bowl. Place the dough into the oil-lined bowl and cover with cling film and allow to sit for 1.5 hours. The dough should double in size during that time.

After the 1.5 hours, remove the cling film and remove the dough. Gently push the air out of the dough. This amount of dough is enough to make two loaves, however, you can resize at this point into however large a bread you’d like to make. We cut the dough into half and make two loaves.

Dough divided into two, ready to become crusty loaves

Set dough aside in a damp tea cloth for 45mins.

After 45mins, put on to oven trays lines with baking paper and place two to three slices/slashes into the top of the loaf, about 0.5 cm deep. Place tray into oven and cook for 40 minutes at 190 degrees.

Check out this post for more vegetarian recipe ideas and the connection between what you eat and your energy and spirit communication.

Happy reading!

Image via Obaz.com.

So, here I am, ready to be told what it is you’d like to learn, and how you’d like to learn it.

What do you want to know?

• psychic/intuitive development
• communicating with spirit and mediumship
• meditation techniques
• chakras and auras
• dream interpretation
• discovering your life purpose
• manifesting and the Law of Attraction
• what else?? all of these/none of these?

How do you want to learn it?

• in a one-off workshop
• weekly classes
• online seminar/webinar
• email courses
• how else??

I’d genuinely love to know, so I can tweak the courses I’m already developing and offer something that would truly benefit people. Maybe there is a whole area of learning I haven’t even thought of yet! I’m also trying to find ways to reach as many people as possible, as not everyone can attend a workshop in Brisbane. There is only one of me to conduct the classes – so, should I hire people to help run the courses or do you want me? Or would knowing I’ve developed the course and made it available online/on CD/DVD be better?

Any other ideas??

Would love to hear them – please leave a comment below or visit the Facebook page to leave a comment. All your feedback will be gratefully accepted.

Image via www.eighteen25.blogspot.com.au

You will need:

1 3/4 cups (160g) frozen peas, blanched

2 x 400g can chickpeas drained and rinsed

1/2 cup chopped chives

2/3 cup mint leaves

4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup (35g) plain flour

sea salt and cracked pepper

1/2 cup (75g) toasted sesame seeds

vegetable oil (if you intend on frying)

Method:

1. Put all ingredients (less the oil and sesame seeds) into a food processor and process until a smooth paste.

2. Take the paste and roll into small balls. Coat the balls with the sesame seeds.

Roll the falafel mixture into balls

3. If frying: grab a large saucepan and fill with about 5cm worth of vegetable oil. Heat over medium stove until hot. Deep fry the balls in batches for about 2-3 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper.

If baking: place the falafel balls onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place into a hot preheated oven (we had a fan forced oven at 180 degrees).

Pea and herb falafels straight out of the oven

4. Serve with a side salad (we made a simple garden salad) or keep as a tasty and ready-to-go snack. Yum!

Check out this post for more vegetarian recipe ideas and the connection between what you eat and your energy and spirit communication.

“Are you friends with them because of the depth of the relationship or simply out of habit?”

As I’ve blogged about before, you tend to be given information at a time you need it most. I’d been rethinking some of the people in my life after hearing this question, then I stumbled upon the Little Miss Melbourne blog post, and her words struck me.

“What I’ve come to learn is that people come and people go, but they always leave something behind.”- Little Miss Melbourne.

I’ve published the blog post below with her permission.You can also read it on her blog here.

Swings and Roundabouts

People come and people go. Sometimes the ones that come into our life and stay there are those that we feel indifferent about. Sometimes the people that come into our life and then go can be those whom we’ve held the strongest connection with of all. So there seems to be no rule in life and no guarantee of how long someone will be a part of our overall journey.  The person you’re closest with now might not be so in a month, a year or a decade – there’s just no telling.

Things happen in life which shift and change our relationships for us, usually through a process of events or something as simple as a realignment (or a misalignment) of perceptions.  For a certain period of my life this made me somewhat skeptical of relying on anyone to be in my life when I had no idea how long they might be there for.  Luckily, LMM has had a very good life with many positive influences so it didn’t take long for this insecurity to be absolved.

What I’ve come to learn is that people come and people go, but they always leave something behind.  Despite the quality or quantity of time spent as a guest in our little world, the encounters we have can shape or alter the perceptions we hold or even change who we are as a person altogether.  We may not be conscious of it, but we also leave something behind with those who enter our realm.  Like swings and roundabouts, we go round and round in life getting something from others, while always leaving something ourselves.

I also like the idea that people are “guests in our little world”. I believe that people do come and go and that their reason for being there may be beyond what either of you are currently aware of. What do you think?