FW

Well who knew!! Having spent all my life with a passion for big cities and water I have found a new love for tiny, dry mining communities in the middle of nowhere.

I can’t  tell you how great the last few days have been. Staying in White Cliffs (population 200) and before that Lightning Ridge and Cobar.

Places like White Cliffs are like living on the moon. You could easily forget the rest of the world exists. With skies miles wide and land that goes on forever it sure is conducive to thinking.

You also get to see and feel first hand the ancient nature of this country, as you realise you are driving and walking over million year old seas, picking up iron stone that may have been formed in meteors and looking at fossils and gems found right under your feet.

It really makes the earth that much more personal. Rather than just some concrete base for us to get from A to B on.

Something else I have really enjoyed has been driving for hundreds of Km’s. Anyone who knows me will tell you I used to whinge at having to drive more than 10 min when I lived in the middle of the city. But I did 900k over the last 2 days and loved every minute.

The long drives are akin to enforced meditation, because there is so little to distract you

(assuming you don’t have the radio on). And you find yourself easily able to hear the constant jabber in your head, that usually goes on unchecked most days.

In fact I have found that out here learning to tame your mind is so much easier than in the busy hubbub of the city. Just like the view, you can see your thoughts and emotions so much more clearly as they approach, and this gives you more time catch them and let them go effectively.

It also gives you a chance to see how silly most of them are, and in my case to practice a few of the great tips, some of the people we have met passed on to us.

Kay Daynes told us that in prison under torture the lifer’s would always keep a smile on their face, this helped change their state of mind just enough to stop them losing all hope. So if you see a madly grinning Winnebago driver pass you on the street you’ll know it’s me  :-)

Amir Zoghi taught us to project love – Visualise you are literally glowing from the inside out and it is filling the space in front and around you. This feels amazing when you break down the little voice trying to remind you you’re not loving the flies, heat, sore bum, complaining baby etc. But once you get it, it totally changes how you see the world around you (literally).

Jodiann Poynton showed us how to capture a thought in mid flow and let it go whilst tuning into your intuition. This is fun to do with someone, as you see who can keep a clear mind the longest or intuitively predict events on the journey.

Grant Hilton From the Peace Retreat showed us how to concentrate on our breathing and change our thoughts simply by changing our breath focus. This also strangely alters how you see and feel the world and is great when you have been hunched up over a steering wheel.

And Gaz Lowe showed us how to change our perception and be able to see that where we are is absolutely perfect as it is. This is one of my favorites. Balancing the thoughts that pop into my mind or the things I see out the windscreen and accepting WHAT IS , rather than always wishing for what’s around the corner.

ALL these thought processes, techniques and concepts are perfect to practice as the miles role by. So the Winnebago has turned into a rolling seminar workshop of epic proportions. And when Bess and I are not practicing or swapping ideas and epiphanies, we get to listen to some of the great masters of personal change, religion and science on our CD player.

So I have a totally new respect and appreciation for the aboriginal’s idea of walk about.

Ok so I’m not on my feet, but I’m sure if more of us got out of our lives for a while, and just wandered, we would need less prozac in this world.

The outback sure has a way of putting problems into perspective.

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