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This article takes a brief look at how realisation and taking the time to focus on the present moment in our lives can be enormously beneficial to human wellbeing and potential for living a balanced, happy and healthy life.  It can be the starting point and also the end point of who we want to become or what we want to see happen in our lives.

REALISATION

The realisation of a current situation in my life shows me and teaches me to accept and it’s the first step in breaking a circle of negative thought processes and habits which debilitate us as human beings and our chances in life.  

ACCEPTANCE IS THE VITAL KEY

Reality is not about what is around the next corner or what is in the future.  Reality is what’s available to us in our current situation right now.   Spirituality teaches me that a lack of acceptance (both of other people and self) or false values keep me separate or at a loss with no ability to tap-in-to the energy which is in the world if you choose to accept it.  It’s through acceptance and realisation that we grow stonger, we see what’s real, what is imaginary, we are able to make good decisions, perhaps for the first time!

December 2009

Lifestyle: making good choices and decisions for successful living.   Raymond Van Neste.  Copyright 2009 ©

From London in the UK, Raymond Van Neste reflects on lifestyle and the search for inspiration, creativity and spirituality in today’s world

SAVING LIVES

In an article that I wrote in 2007 about hope entitled:  Orbis: Sight Saving and Life Saving, I described how hope is something that has a powerful driving force and potential to help people in hospital to not only overcome illness but to beat the odds which are stacked up against them.  From this perspective hope saves lives.

A FALSE PROMISE?

I read an article recently where somebody argued that whilst they did not disregard the power of hope to give people a purpose especially in dire situations to keep going it is nevertheless useless.    It’s okay to be conscientious and full of hope but then how is it possible for that hope to be sustained?  It’s a false promise and a dead end!

Upon reading this I’m sad that somebody would relate to hope in this way and dismiss its power so easily.  It s a proven fact that people who have no hope for the future have accordingly no reason to live.   If somebody initially has hope it is undermining of their position to assume that they will lose their vision and need of having some kind of hope for the future. 

MAKING THINGS HAPPEN

Hope is not only a word it’s much much more!  it’s a state of mind and of being, of understanding that okay something might not be happening right now but it can still happen later on and I hope it will!  Having such a state of mind puts in to motion the forces that make things happen.  A disposition of hopefulness literally works miracles.

Norman Vincent Peale in his many books argues over and over again that what we hope for we get.  He cites examples of many of his clients and friends who at different stages of their lives had given in to negative thought processes.  Each day they confirmed within themselves  that the worst was going to happen, it’s going to be a bad day today, I can feel it!  I’m going to miss the bus and my boss will crazy as usual!  ‘We are what we think’ is basically a truth worth considering so that whenever you feel hopeless in any situation in your life, counter the negative life draining thought with a positive one and you’ll see, maybe not immediately but at some stage coming-up things will change for the better. 

HOPE AND REALITY

And so, whenever, I hear or read about what is happening around the world politically, wars and famine, terrible suffering and injustice, I can if I want to not only be sad but equally have great hope that things will change.  This is the beginning of the use of spiritual power.  It’s the actual decision to not give in to gloom and doom.   I can’t do anything to change the world but I have the power to hope and to pray!

Raymond Van Neste.   Hope or Fear?  Copyright 2009 ©

THE QUESTION

I will ask a question:  ‘Is ‘Creativity’ an old fashioned concept’?  To start with I’ve just been inspired to write this blog, that is, I’ve been promising to publish it for months and only now do I finally get round to it.  Okay, but better late than never and this is the start, so I’ve got to start somewhere!  

A VACUUM

I feel first of all that I just want to express my feelings about the concept of ‘creativity’.    This word, it seems to me, is barely used and seems to be going out of fashion.    New ideas and concepts have taken the place of creativity such as hi- powered media images about what corporations think is best for us all, fashion, food, entertainment where does it all end?    It’s so easy to be sucked-up in to this vacuum of black hole where there is no way out, once in there then it’s all about conforming to how we should live our lives according to the images I’ve just mentioned.    

INDIVIDUALITY

It’s more about what we feel as human beings, as individuals and being inspired according to our experiences and feelings about the world.   It’s only in this way of individuality that we can begin to focus on the belief that there is a spiritual source within us which guides in our lives and fills us with inspiration according to how perceptive and sensitive we are to our feelings and intuition as well as human need and compassion for people who are suffering. 

BEING HUMAN

Being human is more about what’s in our hearts rather than the amounts of money we have and this is the main reason why being involved in creativity can become a spiritual process. It’s this priciple which is at the heart of living and breathing.    It’s also related to the principles of giving and creativity where creativity is expressed through art, craft and writing (and of course all of the arts) in an open and spiritual way as well as the physical aspects of creation involved.    In answer to the original question: is creativity an old fashioned concept?   Not for me!

COMMUNITY, DIVERSITY AND DIFFERENCE

Having said all of this, I need to say also that ‘individuality, is not about being alone in the world and shuting ourselves off from the world.  No, this would be counter productive and have the opposite effect of being creative.    We can only find creativity through other people and the opening of our minds in the belief that ‘community’, diversity and difference are what it’s all about!   This is different from the giving up of our souls timidly allowing what is out there, money related, to judge what is and what is not good!

This is the beginning!

(Written: 4th April 2009)

Is Creativity an Old Fashioned Concept? Raymond Van Neste. Copyright 2009 ©

Michael Jackson remembered

A few weeks ago Michael Jackson’s family and friends remembered and honored Michael’s life for his contribution to music and to humanity.   I watched in awe as Michael’s family and friends got up one by one to speak and to show their love and care for their lost friend and family member.   I cried and my friends cried when at the end of the remembrance Michael’s daughter expressed her love for her father.   Along with people around the world my heart is very sad and was very sad to hear about Michael’s death which seemed to happen so suddenly and at a time of his life when he was still so young, not old.  

The sickness of society

I remember clearly, about three or four years ago here in London UK, listening to local London and UK radio stations especially the commercial ones speaking bluntly their thoughts and ideas about Michael.   At this time the media were covering and debating, as usual, different aspects connected to Michael’s life.  I remember listening in disgust while these same radio stations interviewed and encouraged members of the public to speak badly of Michael.   In the UK this is common.  The media are unable to relate to somebody such as Michael who is pure in heart and true to humanity.   Anyone who is different or not like them, anyone who is different or vulnerable is basically ignored or stamped on.   It’s a sick world.  

Out of the blue, earlier this year, 2009, it was announced that Michael would be performing and giving a long run of performances during late summer at the East London stadium.   Suddenly, those same radio presenters were now praising Michael Jackson.  And since money was involved and since London would be promoted and put in the spotlight, the media had changed their tune.    

Campaigning for a better world today and for our children

My friends and people who know me know that I campaign for a world that is more caring in relation to being more understanding and giving a better deal to certain categories of people here in the UK as well as in the West.   Here, if you are young or if you are elderly then you will be ignored by most of life’s opportunities.  Michael, was stamped on by those people are unable to accept that he was truly great, truly different.   He was different because his very life represents all that is creative and all that is great.   Yes, he is truly the king and not only the king of pop.  He was true to humanity in every way, giving effort, time and money, always caring and loving for people in most need around the world as well as to his family, brothers and sisters and to children around the world who needed him. 

Making the dream a reality

My prayers are with Michael and my heart too because he is truly a great example in the day and age in which we live today.   A person does not have to be a religious person to be truly good and truly great.   It’s a person’s heart that tells the full story.  By coincidence at the beginning of July, just a week after hearing about Michael’s death I went with a friend to see the theatrical version of Billy Elliot here in London UK.   I was uncertain about going to see this because prior to going I didn’t know about the actual story of Billy Elliot as portrayed in this theatrical production.   Half way through the production the story started to make a change for the better when it became more and more clear that there is a purpose in Billy’s Elliot’s life based on creativity and believing that if a person can work hard enough and keep the dream going then the impossible can become true.  This is an inspiration for all of us. 

Greatness

It becomes clear, in this production that Billy Elliot is gifted; he is gifted by having a special ability to dance.   Eventually, his family members and the community are forced to face up to this fact and began to see that Billy has a gift that should not be ignored. Billy, defies the odds, the odds of how those people around him including his family are only concerned about survival and not about the future, not about the future life of Billy which is in fact more important than the perceived needs of his community.  Billy Elliot’s production is truly great and inspiring, it shows beyond doubt that creativity and love always win through.   There is great power in love, there is great power in creativity and there is great power in belief and hope.    Eventually, over a long period of time and through hard work Billy is able to prove and to show those around him that he is indeed gifted.  Michael Jackson is the epiphany of such greatness because he also defied the odds to become a person who will always be loved and remembered because of his incredible gift of creativity, that millions of us have seen and his love for humanity. 

(Written: 17 July 2009)

Michael Jackson: The world as we know it and don’t know it.  Raymond Van Neste.  Copyright 2009 ©