We all have the capacity to dip in to this pot of gold to find answers, solutions and direction at every step.  But some of you have yet to find out how to visit this inner world – or know what to do once you get there!

Actually, it’s very simple.  You can soon learn how to pause and tune in to your ‘inner wisdom frequency’.  And how to tell it apart from the fretful noise in your head which can lead you astray!

In recent years, I have created a guided audio experience (okay, yes, meditation if you like!) that shortcuts you to your inner wisdom.

I’ve discovered that even those of you who are ‘not the meditating type’ find it easy and enjoyable.  So give it a try!

And many of you seasoned meditators have reported how refreshing and useful it is to be guided straight to wise answers with this unique audio journey.

As a festive season give-away, I am making the MP3 download of my guided audio available to you absolutely free!

As an added bonus, you can also download the recording of my recent webinar on Inner Wisdom hosted by mother-entrepreneur magazine, Tunza Spirit.  www.tunzaspirit.com

In the webinar I describe how just 10 minutes of quiet time a day can prepare you to ‘hear’ your inner wisdom – and how to create this precious you-time in your day so that it becomes second nature.

To whet your inner wisdom appetite, check out this short video where I’m talking about inner wisdom, my guided meditation and forthcoming book.

The gold within you awaits!

Just click the link below for FREE access to the MP3 download of Answers: Finding Wisdom from Within.

Plus bonus access to my recent Tunza Spirit magazine webinar packed with tips and insights on finding and using Inner Widom.

https://srimati.sharefile.com/d/s8fb11b5427a41d48

Remember, this free give-away ends on the 7th January 2012.  Get your downloads now!

Seasons greetings everyone!

8TH JAN UPDATE – THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED.

However, you can still download the guided audio and webinar for only £1 each.

Click here http://www.srimati.com/shop

As the ’old ways’ of greed and exploitation continue to falter and fall, we are digging deeper than ever to find alternatives.  How can we create fair societies, healthy economies and sustainable lifestyles?

Even the government has commissioned a study on how to foster happiness, finally acknowledging how important this personal level of well being is.

I am relieved to say I have heard on a reliable grapevine that the government are genuinely taking heed of the findings.

And thank goodness some attention is being placed where it is due.  After all, when we are happy we are healthier, more productive and cause less trouble!  All governments should take heed!

Here’s the link to newly launched Action for Happiness whose work I follow and admire – www.actionforhappiness.org

Being a true Aquarian, I’ve been ahead of the curve on this theme.  A couple of years ago, I spoke at a conference about our experience of setting up a community run shop in our village.

One of the things I mentioned was that giving and contributing to other people (in this case by volunteering in the community shop) was creating increased happiness and that Gross National Happiness was as important as Gross National Product.

But perhaps it’s true that charity begins even closer - at home i.e. within ourselves.  Are we happy, in balance and being kind to ourselves?

When I spoke to former TV Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh, about this she admitted that she felt she had to get ‘tough’ in her early days of business.  This left her out of balance and in need of reclaiming her feminine side.

Nowadays Rachel is actively engaged in supporting a new era of feminine wisdom in business.  She is in the process of setting up her new project www.imagopeople.tv – a TV channel dedicated to promoting ‘heart-centred thought leaders’.

It is so inspiring to witness the growing strength of this wave of conscious and creative entrepreneurs and mentors.  I had a very enjoyable couple of days supporting Rachel and Imago People TV at the Business Start Up Show in London recently.

Thank you to all you amazing people who I met at the Imago People TV stand.  The bounce in your step and the sparkle in your eyes is the only proof I need that a time of  happiness, life balance and feminine wisdom is nearly here!

I was just scrolling through my Facebook page when an article by Happiness author and coach, Robert Holden, caught my eye.

www.robertholden.org

Robert’s work has always intrigued me and I’ve heard great things about him from colleagues and friends.  Reading his article, I remembered that Robert is a good friend of Nick Williams – another warm and inspiring UK coach who I connected with a couple of years ago.

www.inspired-entrepreneur.com

And so, that led me onto reviewing the video chats Nick and I had recorded together.  Up popped this one – Nick asking me what steps I advise people to take if they are starting out with a new business idea.

It’s called Tips for Inspired Entrepreneurs and I give three or four really good practical steps that are helpful if you are formulating or wanting to develop a new business – however big or small.

One of the points we discuss is how PERSONAL it is running your own business and how business success goes hand in hand with our own development as a person.

After all, our business is our creation and an expression of who we are. So to make the best of our business, we need to understand and manage how our personal strengths and weaknesses play out in our work .

And it works the other way too – running a business is one of the most character building endeavours we may ever find ourselves involved in.  It can be enormously challenging and by the same token, enormously growthful.

So how does it all begin?  How do you formulate and launch a new business idea?  Have a look…

As it happens, starting new business is a topical for me as I’m planning to attend the Business Start Up Show in London next month.

www.bstartup.com

My friend and colleague Rachel Elnaugh (former dragon from BBC TV Dragons’ Den) will be there to speak on ’Metaphysical Marketing’ and ‘The Future is Feminine’ – two topics that are close to both our hearts.

www.RachelElnaugh.com

Rachel will also be there ‘womaning’ her stall in support of her exciting new TV channel – Imago People TV.  If you want to know more about it, have a look at Imago’s new website:-

www.imagopeople.tv

But to give you a taste, here are Rachel and I having a video chat about telepathic marketing.

And you are welcome to track down our other videos including our discussion on the emerging Feminine Wisdom in business on my You Tube channel, Thrivecraft.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Thrivecraft?feature=mhee

So, I hope some of these links are of interest to you and I wish you all the best with your new business idea!

Wayne first became a source of inspiration for me after my husband Pat introduced his work to me eight or nine years ago.  During the 1990s, Wayne taught the Ah meditation - a manifestation practice that he’d learned from one of his Indian Gurus – and Pat and I have been passing it on to friends, colleagues and clients ever since our Thrivecraft days.

Last year, I explored the practice in depth at my Entrepreneurs Find Inner Wisdom event, held here in Totnes, Devon.  This was filmed, but apart from posting the videos on my blog soon afterwards, I have not really made a point of publishing them.  Despite this, I have noticed that often people find the videos searching for information on the Ah meditation, so perhaps it’s about time that I made them more available…

Having plucked Wayne’s book off my bookshelf recently (and realised it was gifted to me by my special guest at Entrepreneurs Find Inner Wisdom – former BBC TV Dragon and business mentor, Rachel Elnaugh) I took this as a sign that it was time to run the Ah meditation video series here on my blog.

So here you are, a series of six short videos on the Ah meditation to dip into.  Do let me know what you think – and what results you get!  Enjoy!

1. Manfestation – You are a magician!

2. Introducing the Ah Meditation – Background and How to

3. Questions on the Ah Meditation – Do You Have to Believe for it to Work?

4. Preparing to do the Ah Meditation – Guided Relaxation / Opening the Chakras

5. Practising the Ah Meditation – Guided Practice

6. Concluding the Ah Meditation – Guided Om Chanting

Like most of us I have a very strong work ethic – if only I work harder, put in more effort, I will EARN my right to have or be this or that.  Except that pure mental exhertion is not the whole story and it is not sustainable. Sooner or later it becomes counter-productive.  By narrowing down our focus to a solitary slog of the intellect we shut out the natural supply of support and energy all around us in other dimensions.  It’s like a plant squeezing closed its roots and refusing the sustenance of the soil.

A year ago, whilst living in the Wild Field, I was contemplating my relationship to money, wealth and prosperity.  Despite months of thinking, planning and action around making a better living, something was compromising the flow of abundance into my life.  I decided to undertake a 40 day spiritual programme – The Abundance Programme by John Randolph-Price – to explore what unconscious attitudes might be holding me back.

Soon into the programme, I uncovered my main ‘vanity’ – an attachment to the idea that I was soley responsible for coming up with all the answers.  My pride meant that I was shutting off receptivity to support from elsewhere and it was only when I finally admitted that I’d run out of ideas that any of that was available to me.

Almost as soon as I saw this, things began to change (and indeed, a year on, are very different)…

Here are a couple of videos I recorded at the time – very much in the spirit of Raw and Real in the Wild Field (a no frills spontaneous video diary).  I knew one day I’d be brave enough to show some of them to you!

This first one is my basic ‘Aha’ moment about where I’d been going wrong….

And a few days later into the Abundance Programme, this is my video report on how I had already started to attract money from surprising places.

Nick is a lovely guy and we found we had very resonant interests and approaches to spirituality, work and inner life.  He is author of several books including his signature work – Discover the Work You Were Born to Do and runs www.inspired-entrepreneur.com – a vibrant community of heart and soul centered entrepreneurs.

You can download Nick’s free guide to discovering the work you were born to do on his website and find out about all the activities and resources on offer.

Here is our video chat where Nick is asking me about inner wisdom and how I use it in my coaching work to shortcut to the real ‘gold’ within us.

As an award winning entrepreneur (for her multi-million first business, Red Letter Days); former Dragon from BBC TV Dragons’ Den; and author of Business Nightmares and forthcoming Business Magic, Rachel is a formidable business mentor.

From the autumn, however, Rachel is winding up her mentoring programme to make way for an exciting new project – see ‘message from Rachel’ on her website www.rachelelnaugh.com   Before she does this, she wanted to capture some business mentoring on film in order to create a DVD programme.

And so, at the atmospheric Magic Circle (and on the night of a full moon and lunar eclipse!) we all gathered to hear Rachel reveal her business magic live on stage.

Fantastic!  So inspiring!

Coming home, I remembered that I was fortunate to have some live mentoring from Rachel myself last year.  And that we filmed it!  And that I’ve not shared it with you yet!

So here it is – Rachel digging in to my inner story to help me define my name, brand and the title of a book I was writing.

I kept my contemplations private at the time – something that is recommended in the book in order to maintain the potency of the programme – but I took some video footage of the realisations I was experiencing for future publication.  Over the last few days, I’ve come across this wonderful material and have edited it into a dozen or so short videos. What a treasure trove! 

The time is now ripe to pass on some of these uplifting and encouraging teachings on attracting and allowing abundance into your life.  I feel fundamentally transformed by the spiritual / inner work I dedicated to this important topic and my fortunes have indeed changed for the better.  I can’t wait to share it with you..

Here’s the first video for starters – me waking up to the TRUE source of all abundance and prosperity.  It might pleasantly surprise you!

The questioner was also asking if I follow any particular spiritual tradition now.  The answer is no, I don’t.  I don’t even consider myself to be ‘just’ a Buddhist anymore.  I love the teachings of the Buddha and am so grateful for the years that I spent immersed in this tradition (anyone who’s heard me teach will know there’s nearly always a story from the Buddha illustrating what I’m saying!) but it just doesn’t feel right to define my spirituality that way anymore.

These days, I find that many of my friends and colleagues share this ‘universal’ approach to spirituality.  Like me they recognise that there seems to be some sort of perennial wisdom that runs through the pure heart of all spiritual traditions – and that it is wonderful to be open to it all, whatever form it takes.

I was reminded that I recorded a video answering this very question about 3 years ago.  I’m talking about what I experienced as a spiritual rennaisance when I first moved from London to Devon and met my now husband, Pat.  The fruit of this time was my resignation from the Buddhist Order and the birth of my first coaching practice, Thrivecraft.  So far this video has not been published on my website, so I thought I’d do so and let you see it.  Here it is!

Weekdays have a different rhythm now – up at 6.45am with a quiet mug of earl grey in time to wake Jamie for school. Then its sandwich making, reminders about what’s needed for the day, making sure he catches the bus… By 8am I am out in the conservatory – the nearest thing to a caravan in the house – and getting on with my work. Evenings generally involve collecting Jamie from various after school activities, preparing a meal, a bit of TV – often with a foot massage from my guardian angel husband – and flaking out by 11.

I have to admit that I am relishing being a full-time mum again – and its much needed and long overdue. That’s probably why it feels so right. Colin and I have always lived near each other and co-parented amicably since we separated, but its the first time Jamie has been living in one home with me in all those years. The demands of Colin’s work has changed and its been hard for him to support Jamie on his own. With Pat and I sharing the home parent role and my work enjoying the flexibility of self employment, this is a much better arrangement for Jamie’s last few years of school.

The idea came out of the blue and fell into place immediately. None of us had been thinking along those lines at all. However, even Pat – a reclusive wild man and caravan-life adorer – was convinced of the plan’s merits as soon as it arose. He’s having the toughest time adapting back to ‘normal’ domestic life, but he’s doing his best for the greater good.

Part of the idea is that we keep the caravans and use them during the camping season. This means that any of us can escape back to the wildfield when we need to – just a stone’s throw away but a whole different world. And look out for a new retreat package I’ll be offering soon including accomodation in the wildfield – a perfect place to get away from it all.

Caravans in the Wildfield

So, only 7 months after the biggest downsizing move of my life, it’s been time to upscale again! Having given away all our furniture and household belongings, we needed to start over. However, the abundant universe soon showerered us with gifts and blessings. Within 10 days of moving our new home was all ready and we were celebrating a house-warming with our generous friends and family. Another plus is that after spending a severe, snowy winter in a 25 foot caravan, this modest 2up/2down feels like a palace of comfort and modern conveniences!

 Living room to conservatory in new house

The move back into householder life marks the conclusion of an unusually introverted few months over the winter. By the end of October last year (the date of my last blog entry!) I was starting to put the breaks on ever expanding business plans and activities to concentrate on things closer to home. After more than a decade of being full on and ‘out there’ with my vocation, finances and family needed my full attention for a while. It was time to get my own house in order!

Initially, I simply wanted to be around my mum in Scotland as much as possible. She’s been going through extensive medical treatment and I could think of nothing better than to drop everything and be with her. In the event, Pat and I spent most of December up there. Mum lives in a lovely villa on a tiny island off the west coast of the mainland. We spent much of the UK’s ‘big freeze’ up there – helping with driving and hospital visits, enjoying family communion and filling our souls with the stunning beauty of the place.

View out to sea from mum’s upstairs window

Scotland was a tonic after spending November with my nose in account books. As well as doing my current end of year accounts, it was time to face some financial music about a business that hadn’t been doing so well and needed winding up. It was painful and confronting, demanding ruthless soul searching as well as loads of practical work. Every assumption, motive, decision, choice and step that Pat and I had made in recent years had to be examined. With no stone unturned on any level, it was excruciatingly personal and challenging to our self-esteem – and SO hard to forgive mistakes and let go!

As my colleague Rachel Elnaugh will tell you in her brilliant book, Business Nightmares, most entrepreneurs go through extreme financial challenges. Yet there’s a lot of shame and secrecy surrounding it – especially in the UK – and therefore its rarely discussed. But without sharing this crucial business experience how can we learn how to handle it from each other?

Business Nightmares is such an encouraging, inspiring and informative read. By revealling the inside stories of how even well known and successful entrepreneurs struggle, Rachel makes you realise you are not alone. And far from being shameful, knowing what the entrepreneur has been through makes you respect them even more. Do get yourself a copy if you haven’t already. It’s so well written by the wise, warm and witty former TV Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh.   Click here to find out more www.rachelelnaugh.com

Telling the Coaching Connect conference about Rachel’s book

www.coachingconnect.co.uk

During November’s process of intense self-examination, it also dawned on me that I’d become a little bedazzled by a kind of ‘ambitious glitz’. I’d spent the previous 18 months vigourously developing my expert platform (as its called!) – glamming up my public image, publishing blogs and videos, courting book and media deals, launching new workshops, speaking at conferences, cultivating exciting new colleagues and establishing an international network via social media.

All that had been so much fun that I didn’t realise I’d got a bit carried away, taken flight and lost touch with my home ground, or that a certain pushy “must have big success” had crept into me. I knew something wasn’t right because things stopped coming to fruition and I was feeling increasingly strained. Eventually I consulted my inner guidance about it and the message came through loud and clear – “Just STOP, Srimati!” And so I decided to drop everything and take some time out.

It was scary letting go and not knowing what was going to happen, but my courage was rewarded. Having followed my soulful beckonings through the dark of winter, I did find myself back on firm ground and free from the burden of grasping after future success.

There’s a new ease and relaxation in my approach to my vocation and I feel deeply contented and quietly confident that the right work will come to me at the right time. Of course the universe has received my telepathic energetic transmission instantly and a graceful wave of wonderful new work is now gently cascading into my well balanced life. It sure beats chasing the big time!

So I’ll leave you with a video of a conversation Rachel and I had last year. We are talking about telepathic marketing – the art of attracting business opportunities by paying attention to our inner life. It draws on the universal principle that life simply delivers to you whatever you energetically expect will come – whether good or bad – and whether you are conscious of it or not. To find out more about this phenomenon, see the book Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

The trick is to be aware of your beliefs about life and the signals you are therefore putting out. With a little inner work, you can make sure that they are genuinely aligned with your best interests – and so the universe delivers what’s in your best interests. And as I can testify, there’s nothing better than graceful waves of wonderful things cascading into your life because you’ve put your own house in order!

Rachel Elnaugh and I discuss telepathic marketing