One thing being on the road gives you is time to reflect and plenty of other peoples stories to digest.

It seems everybody has a story, and seeing how that story has affected that persons life got me thinking about mine.

Recently a wise person told me ‘You are the cork in your own bottle holding in the living’ and that CORK is often OUR STORY. Who we are, or are not, what we can, or cant do, whats holding us back or preventing us from growing.

To be honest i experienced quite a slump this trip i just couldn’t shake. It seemed no matter how great a time we had i couldn’t fully enjoy it.  Until i realised it was the story i was telling myself about how this trip should be and what i expected from myself and others.

So this xmas im resigned to PULL OUT ALL THE CORKS and see what life looks like when the bubbles on the inside are allowed to escape without judgment or a story to keep them in.

Its an INCREDIBLE thought. What would life look like if you JUST DROPPED YOUR STORY!!

JOSHUA TREE National park Where we woke up this morning _ USE THE SCROLL AT BOTTOM OF PAGE TO SEE FULL PIC.

Did any of you see the full eclipse of the moon last night ? WOW it was dark!

REAL WILD WEST TOWN – With a story

We swung by Oatman. The rickety old wild west hamlet that Clark Gabel chose to spend his wedding night at. The old mining pub (he sayed in) is totally covered top to bottom with around $70,000 signed dollar notes.  Miners used to sign a dollar and pin it behind the bar so when they went broke they always had enough for a beer. The tradition caught on.

Oh but sir i should love to go to the dance

We ran into these amazing dinosaur footprints way out in Navajo Indian land. It was increadible to actually touch the footprint of a Trex. You could see nails and skin indentations and all.

There were lots of other dino footprints in what used to be a mud pit. AMAZING!!

ENCOUNTER WITH A MYSTERY SCHOOL MASTER

Drinking hot chocolate trying to keep warm we met a tiny serene little lady called Lubi (one of the nickname we give to BlueBelle). Turns out she was, ‘a master practitioner of one of the original 7 Mystery schools, dating back to King Solomon’.(so she said)

It was such a strange chance meeting that I couldn’t resist sitting in for a session with her to find out more.

Much of it was  ’secret’ so i was unable to film , but she promised it would change my state of mind, release negative energy i had stored up and power up lots of good stuff.

How do i feel? Well strangely enough I do feel like i have a fresher state of mind. So lets hope it stays that way. As for all the other promised upsides???   We shall see  Either way it was interesting to lean more about another persons beliefs and passion.

BLEAK INDIAN LANDS

The land out here is really harsh. Talk about the wild west. In Tuba City, part of the Navajo nation there is not much to see but dust and makeshift houses. Many still choose to live with no  water and electricity but we spent some time with some wonderful people and got to learn a lot about the heart of the indian comunity

LA BLUES:- I must say i have been in a bit of a slump. The prospect of missing my boys and the sensory overload of LA. But true to form as soon as we stepped out of our comfort zones and hit the road, flow kicked in WOW i love this experiment!

AGAPE CHURCH:- Crazy experience. Picture going into a giant gospel style church with every colour, creed, hippy, punk, rich poor, new ageie, Buddhist, hindu, catholic and jo next door all mixed in one.

The preacher Michael Beckworth (yes from the secret) preaching about the grand unifying spirit that underlies all beliefs.

Strangely it is the only church or large group of strangers i have ever walked into and not felt like an outsider. Not sure what that was about but it was nice.

Awesome atmosphere and powerful message. Certainly got us thinking. Why do we all insist on making everyone else wrong when we ‘choose’ a belief system. What if we looked at the sincerity of the human hearts desire for connection rather than judging how they make that connection!

FIRST NIGHT:- Stayed in this totally weird place outside LA – Nothing but Mountains all around and a humongous factory outlet n Casino! Very sureal

Took BB to a great diner. Must say i love these things

ON OUR WAY TO PALM SPRINGS

There are kids who’s parents are junkies, homeless or down and out, forced to put the kids in seedy motels because they cant afford rent. These are ‘The Motel Kids’

We caught up with Bruno. A famous local Chef who has fed most of hollywoods elite. He has dedicated his resturant The White House  and his free time to help support these kids and give the parents a chance to get back on their feet.

We caught up with him as he put on a 5 star party treat. Importing snow and everything to put smiles on some very sad faces and some food in their stomachs

FAMILY TIME

We have been making the most of seeing my boys for the 2 week period we are in LA.  I see them only once or twice a year, so whilst we are waiting for conformation of our travel van to be ready we thought we would have some family time and see some sights.

CHURCH

Thought we would check out one of the fastest growing churches in LA. An Aussie import believe it or not. Last Life Change Experiment we checked out a variety of  religious and spiritual places others had told us really helped change their lives. So we were keen to see what all the fuss was about.

Was glad we went because the message was all about ‘grace’ and appreciation for what we have. I wrote the best bits here  (BLOG How to feel like you won lotto anytime)

GETTING TO K NOW THE LOCALS

We have learnt so much on this journey. We could never have imagined the profound effect it has had on the quality of our life.

However I have become aware recently that our next lesson/challenge has presented itself in various forms. Mostly in the form of dealing with our own frustrations

“LEARNING TO LET GO OF THE NEED TO KNOW” –  Yes although we have done this on an overall scale with the experiment. Its much much harder living it on a daily basis.

‘What if im late? What if they say no?  What if I don’t make the right decision? What if i do? What if we have no money? What if it all works out, What if it doesn’t ?  what if ………………

Predicting the future is a dicey deal at the best of times. And even worse when the predictions you make are negative and affect the quality of life NOW, before anything terrible has even happened.

Whilst our minds run these imaginary scenarios endlesslyL we are missing out on all the opportunities and beauty that are ALREADY REAL In our life NOW!

So our latest challenge is to catch the incesent pointless soothsaying of our minds and see where it leads.

And thats 1 big challenge  !!!!

But this ‘doing’ is NOT true experiencing.

Doing is based on an assumption that life needs you to ‘FIX’ it, in order for it to be acceptable

We DO, because we are in a constant state of judgment. Usually from within, about how things ‘SHOULD’ be.

As long as this exists we can never FULLY EXPERIENCE how things ARE. And hence the great beauty and lesson in what ‘IS!’

Like creating a sand castle most of us are constantly running around all day maintaining the walls of our illusion

We don’t see that these walls of ‘safety, familiarity and habit’ we are hiding behind, stop us seeing the truth about ourselves and the bigger picture for our life.

Whats worse. The frenetic ‘doing’, fools us into believing that activity equates to meaning. And distracts us from that niggling thought that maybe our life has none.

So why not take a moment to STOP today and EXPEIENCE.

Don’t fix or judge or plan or do. Just EXPERIENCE WHAT IS and the wisdom waiting in that moment for you to shut up and pay attention.

Some of you might panic at this thought. Thinking the sky will fall in or the earth will stop!

But trust me it wont.

And you might be AMAZED at the paths life reveals to you, when you stop believing that you know best

Your Mind; A Crystal Clear Projector Of Your Life, Or a Crap Filter Of Someone Else’s

Yesterday I had tea with a very wise woman.

This woman has spent her life brining the very best literature in the world to Australians and championing the cause of many struggling inspirational authors.

She reminded me that she has a no email Friday policy, refuses to accept email submissions at all, and told me that the quality of writing has taken a huge dive since, ‘we let TV & computers do all the work’.

Being a massive tec head myself I was dubious but she really got me thinking.

Every bit of electronic media affects us.

1)     We absorb more bad news in a day than the average person 100 years ago would have in a year

2)     We are inadvertently through spam, electronic bombardment and social networking subjected to the negative attacks, thoughts, ramblings and energies of people who otherwise would never have been allowed into our lives.

3)     We are distracted from living the reality of the NOW, to deal with the trivia of the online. An entire day can be spent staring at a screen responding to crap

4)     We are fed so much contradiction, hype and bull that its hard to form informed decisions, leaving most people to literally shut down and stop caring. Creating a society that dosent want to think for itself and is easily led.

5)     Only a few years ago if you wanted to frighten, insult, upset or humiliate someone you had to go out of your way to do it. Now you just click a button – Giving incredible power to those who want to bombard your headspace and reality with their negativity.

Now I have been a tec head all my life and loved it. Still do.

But she has some incredibly valid points. Every contact we have with everyone changes us slightly.

When this contact is a one way stream of terabytes of murky, mixed, unproductive, un necessary, un inspiring, negative energy……………

Well perhaps it’s something we should all become more aware of!

How about making a stand – After all they are your thoughts others are hijacking!

One thing I have realized since our Life Change Experiment.……. The best 3D (no goggles needed) High Definition, inspirational and Life Changing show in the world is waiting right outside your door 24/7

On the road again. YAYY

Its so great to be back meeting new people and moving from day to day. I must say I totally LOVE the Winnebago. It has the most comfy bed. Makes you feel at home even when you are parked overnight at the side of the road, in the middle of some strange town.

Actually its quite surreal thinking about the rest of the world rushing by outside whilst you lie there in your pj’s. In fact I have found one of the greatest lessons this experiment has given us so far is a fresh perspective on so many of the mundane things we do automatically everyday.

With each new town we pass through, stranger’s lives we share and new situation we find ourselves in, it reminds me just how tiny our perspective of life really is, in the box we accept as ‘normal’. Literally a Gnats elbow of what is really out there and really going on.

Sure TV gives us the illusion that we are in touch with the world, we think we understand how others feel and judge them accordingly. We imagine we are experiencing all life has to offer because we go outside everyday and watch the discovery channel. But im discovering this is so far from the truth. How little we really know about what it actually feels like to walk a mile in another mans shoes, or really understand another persons beliefs.

The great thing about getting out and living this experiment is that it is a constant reminder of this fact. Each town has a different energy and feel, each street has a different vibe, each house has a different outlook, each family has a different perspective, each person has different experiences and each experience has different effect on us…The variable are literally infinite. And any one of them could totally alter how we see the world around us, who we are and hence who we will become.

So as I allow (often with great difficulty) each preconceived idea to be snapped like tendons holding onto the invisible old baggage I have called my ‘beliefs’ and self, fresh new thought patterns and ideas are free to flow. Giving me answers and alternatives I hitherto never even knew existed

The old saying there are things you know you don’t know, and things you don’t know you don’t know, becomes increasingly more apparent everyday.

THIS IS REALLY EXCITING TO ME!  It means if you feel stuck in a rut. It’s not because you really are. It’s simply that your brain has yet to be exposed to the stimuli it needs to make the connections to a fresh outlook. The answers could be are right under your nose. All you have to do is plonk yourself into situations that will challenge your perspective, until your brain makes enough connections to go aahhha!!

One of the ‘ahhha moments’ that has developed on my travels and is having a dramatic effect on our quality of my life, is learning to see each moment as ENOUGH! Rather than seeing what’s missing, what I wish it was like, what I expected it to be or what is might lead to in the future, I imagine that it is exactly as it should be.

The fascinating thing about this is that once you remove your preconceived expectations you can not only enjoy what IS with far greater enthusiasm, but you suddenly notice all the opportunities that actually exist within that moment. Opportunities you might have missed with your head down lamenting how things aren’t how you think they should be

Of course its not always easy. There are so many layers that determine why we chose to do the things we do, and we are often begrudged to give them up. Even the miserable ones. But then who said changing your life, perspective and thinking would be easy. It is what it is and at least now its fun

Looking fwd to running into many more of you on our travels

xx Geoff