confusing to the max!

i recently i had an epiphany about words and language

it seems we all carry round our own dictionary, a personal vocabulary we use to interact with the world at large.

for example when i use the word 'loyalty' and have the accompanying feelings, it may well mean be different to what it signifies for you.

we use words to map our lives. they are personal interpretations of OUR internal dialogue, and the world we create around us reflects this.

if you're working in a corporate environment, the word 'honour' must mean something quite different to someone working with disadvantaged kids. if you're in public relations, your experiential understanding of the word 'trust' or 'friendship' may be shaped by your chosen field.

accepting this logic helps us to understand our and others, responses. it's full-on out there - we're all jumbled up coming from so many different worlds, bumping into each other - it's confusing to the max!

how many times have you heard someone being described as "overly sensitive"? or you've walked away from a conversation thinking "we were on totally different wave-lengths"? or "what the f**k was THAT all about!?" - cause they probably were and you are and that's because we all have such variations in language interpretation.

i hope this helps you to not take things as personally. i hope it helps you to step back and gain a broader perspective of the world of interaction and communication. it's helped me.

shine brightly, one and all

just sharing the view from our balcony!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson - A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

divine intervention

are you waiting for life to happen?

when i look like this i'll feel better, when i get that i'll be happy, when i move to the country or meet a new love. endless waiting around for a better life, waiting for perfection to happen.

but it's here all the time - it surrounds you.
when you look up into blue sky, or dive into ice-cold water. when you meet a smile with a smile at a stranger on the street. divine life appears.

smell the next flower you see, pause, close your eyes and draw in sunshine. snuggle a baby, join in laughter, fill your home with music that makes you wiggle and sing.

have faith, whatever tradition you wish to pursue. have faith that your life is perfect just the way it is. divinely beautiful in a myriad of ways.

FATTY BOOMBAH!!!!!!

David Jones have been a long-standing client in the 25 years i've been working as a model. I've been popping up in their catalogues and television commercials for decades. well this week i found out i was too fat to work for DJs.

this is how it went down: a couple of weeks back DJ's were casting 'classic' models (mature women, aged 35+) for their festive catalogue. at some castings models are asked to try on some of the clothing for the shoot. i did and "quell horreur" most of the pieces didn't fit.

never-the-less the dear art director liked my look and felt i was right for the job, even put me 'on hold' (modelling term for penciled in).

my girlfriend who is a make-up artist worked on the shoot. at some point through the day my name came up in conversation when the art director was saying "she would have loved to have booked kate bell but unfortunately she didn't fit the samples supplied". the conversation was about how clients are always going on about how they want 'real women' advertising their product but buyers and designers supply size 8 samples for 35+ women.

interestingly my 12 year old nieghbour wears a size 8. at the height of my modeling life i was a size 10 and could passably squeeze into an Aussie 8. these days my bottom half is (just) still a 10, but i'm broader through the shoulders and back and fit more comfortably into a size 12 on top.

i'm 43 and totally happy with my bod. it's the only thing i truely own and i take care of it. i've worked hard to achieve a harmonious balance - what goes in = energy expended (what goes out). i eat mainly organic, i don't drink, i love being in the water, walking with friends, i do truckloads of yoga.

but i'm too big to work for david Jones.

visualization technique for relaxation

find a private, silent place. lie on your back and close your eyes.
relax your jaw, let all expression leave your face.
feel where the back of your body connects with the ground - the back of your head resting, the back of your shoulders and upper back, both arms and backs of your hands.
feel your bottom and backs of your legs, your heels - feel both feet fall easily out to each side.
allow your whole body to melt onto the ground.

now bring to mind a jelly-fish, yup, a jelly-fish. in your minds-eye see how it moves through water, fluid pulsing in slow motion...
with your mouth lightly closed, breath through your nose visualizing your languid jelly-fish doing it's thing.
notice your easy natural breath freely moving in and out of your body. feel yourself relaxing.

try this fast-track to relaxation, then call me weird...or not.

bellas flowers...

all picked from a home garden in bryon bay, and arranged on the morning of her friends wedding.

it's amazing what we can create with what is around us. i'm from a family that are excellent at it - turning something found into something extraordinary using ingenuity, patience and flair.

the act of creation is 'kundalini' - divine feminine cosmic force in manifest:
'kund' means 'a deeper place'
'kundal' a coil, or coiled
'kula' - means 'creative energy'.

so my beautiful bella embodied her kundalini and made manifest her friends wedding bouquet.

fabulous!*

recoleta & oli

buenos aires' colourful patchwork neighbourhood

air plant

imagine that

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cakes and cookies - but not as you know them

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paradigm, olivier rasir 2011

would you agree that most of us spend most of our adult years working? and would you also concur that together, as a human collective, we shape the world we live in?? and aren't we all, in some way or other in the pursuit of happiness???

well then i propose a radical change - instead of career choices based on the accumulation of wealth of never ending economical and political power, try 'The Art of Creative Living' - take responsibility for our world and share your unique gifts so that you grow rich in accomplishment and heart. create a gorgeous new world.

shift a pre-existing mindset and consider a new paradigm "work as art" or "man as artist".

"Today we stand at a crossroads in history. We have the opportunity to create a new image of ourselves at work, one which will trigger a revolution as profound, as shocking, as transforming as the Industrial Revolution. Even as the Industrial Revolution could not occur until there was a massive shift in society's view of work and wealth, so must an equally profound change in thinking regarding work and wealth occur, before the next quantum leap in man's social evolution can flourish".
Zen and the Art of Making a Living - Laurence G. Boldt

The Fourteenth Dalia Lama says

"We begin from the recognition that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only ones own happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness"

'pathways', olivier rasir, 2011

I find it fascinating palm readers say that our right hand reveals the life-paths we choose and our left shows the life that was written.

written by whom?

why is it we navigate our lives the way we do? why is it that a sibling can live a completely different life to you, yet came from the same beginnings? how interesting that a young person can walk out of a designated life on one side of the world, cross an ocean to a whole other way of doing things and create a new life and thrive in it.

to find answers we could plum the depths of philosophy, debate forever the existence of a souls journey, we could stand solidly behind 'science says' or punk-out and dismiss life as random chaos.

but it will remain a mystery for most of us - the illusive mystery of life - forever holding our attention - making our existence fascinating - every one of us on a different path with an individual experience. such a remarkable absorbing journey.

make time each day to reflect on yours.

port douglas

our bodies thrive on negative ions
water emits negative ions
get some today

cherry blossom - olivier rasir, oli

colour lifts our spirits

our home has been a very neutral space - muted tones, lots of white, for some years now.

three weeks ago mum and dad lent me a coloured kiln rug - quite large, all vivid pink, purple, orange and green. it sparked something in me, a thirst for colour and almost overnight our living space began to change.

a hot pink coffee table in an op shop wouldn't let me leave without it, oli proud and businesslike bustled in with a fab and sexy fluro green and pink painting he'd just whipped up in his studio and promptly hung it on our living room wall. i fell in love with a purple dot painting by Roslyn Napaljarri that we added to our entryway. the white bookcase was replaced with orange cubes one-on-top-of-the-other. plants on our balcony are starting to flower...

Spring is here!!

once a model, always a model

it's not just that i'm still modelling, 25 years and counting, that i'm into the third day of a grapefruit fast.

it's because i have a sore and swollen knee that's been x-rayed proving there is nothing broken - it's just inflamed and fat in modelling parlance.

the local GP pronounced "arthritis" promptly eliciting anti-inflammatory drugs.

research on the net tells me that arthritis is an umbrella term for more than 100 different conditions effecting our musculoskeletal system and caused from a build up of oxidised rubbish in our bodies, and over-use.

i'd never change things to not win gold, silver and bronze medals at state athletics that i did as a kid, and i loved playing saturday morning netball throughout my teens, plus i make living teaching yoga, so what's a girl to do...but suck it up.

and i have been...grapefruit juice for two-and-a-half days now.

grapefruit contains the anti-inflammatory and skin-cleansing enzyme bromelian. they are the mildest citrus fruit in acid content and have strong antiseptic and mucus-dissolving properties, they are also mild in sugar content.

raw foods guru David Wolfe says

"How To cut Cellulite Fast - Drink only fresh grapefruit juice or simply eat only grapefruits for three days."

yeah well, summers coming up and did i mention that i'm still a model.

a funny thing

pain - sure doesn't feel funny

but have you ever realised when you have a sore something-or-other, that the moment you laugh and joke with a mate, your pain's gone - you've forgotten about it, it has ceased to exist in those moments.

Shigeaki Hinohara Japan's 97-year-old physician educator says

“Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke's we have music and animal therapies, and art classes”.

i think that's the message here - pain or no pain, the more laughter, music, creativity (and a puppy) we have in our lives - the happier we are.

nurture your neighbours

i have the most lovely neighbour a girl could ever wish for - seriously.

we have each others keys. when she's away i water her plants, when i'm away she waters mine. we take care of each others laundry when it looks like rain or there's a queue for the machines. if i haven't seen her in awhile i'll check that she's ok. we pass on books, we always have time for a quick catchup when we meet on the stairs. i can count on her for anything. she's awesome. she's made living where i do, lovely.

for twenty years i've lived in many different places and this is my first experience of true neighbourliness - i love it though it does make me wonder 'was it me?', all those years, making no effort! How uncool, how unfriendly, How Embarrassing!! because i must take half the responsibility, it takes two.

i encourage you, for a happier life to nurture your neighbours

THANKYOU NICOLE X

mess it up!

free it up

forget the 'right' way of looking imposed on you by know-it-all advertising telling you how to have perfect this and that.

i dare you, just once, to forgo brushing your hair, try wearing pyjama pants on the street - think up something to undo or not do, experience punk - it feels so naughty, childish and FREE!

namaste

when we start to live with a belief in the energetic nature of all that is, it makes it easier to have an experiential awareness of it.

spending time in thailand each year frees me to make the beautiful mudra 'namaste' with almost every interaction.

do it for a moment - bring your hands to a prayer-like position in front of your heart. drop your awareness into your heart and bring to mind the feelings of respect, well-wishing, honesty and integrity. how does that make you feel - is it something like peace?

if you feel a bit funny doing it physically, do it mentally. send the energy of honestly wishing others well, from a place of respect and self integrity to all who cross your path.

partake in a peace experiment,


namaste.

less like a rat on a wheel

'just flow with the river of life' - my motto for the last two weeks

periodically i have lived like this, on holidays, travelling, and on occasion in everyday life; but i made a strong resolve two weeks ago to abide by this premise always. i have been sticking to it (except for last thursday morning, when i spazzed about buying real estate for security - then had a shower and quickly got over it).

we run around needing to make money out of this or that activity. the wise and wonderful Shri T. Krishnamacharya says

"We look at ours affairs as business ventures and think only in terms of profit and loss". This attitude is becoming an obstacle to our spiritual progress".

emails were returned a week after receiving them, some phone calls too. the stressed feeling i get from charging around trying to be better and build a fortune has dissipated, leaving me feeling calmer, more relaxed about where i am right now. i feel less like a rat on a wheel.

please take care

last night i went to birthday drinks at a hip little happening winebar. everything was perfect, model birthday girl sexy, her man a delight, her friends very pleasant, mostly new to me - and the women present were skinny as skinny can be. personality shone through lighting up their dull eyes on only a few occasions throughout the evening, their arms were toneless and their skin dry - they looked like they were starving.


not all of the birthday girls women friends there were models. but they all were as skinny as each other.

in the media we don't see the nasty side of starving, make-up and lightening fix all on a shoot and after retouching the images we see are flawless.

when i was starving this is what it was like:
i’d think - ‘eat as little as possible’
I couldn’t be bothered exercising - didn’t feel like it, (didn’t have the energy), and didn't really think i needed to - cause i wasn’t fat.
my concentration wasn’t good, I found it hard to read
I’d sleep ALOT
i never felt happy with my body, there was always somewhere else that could be slimmer
i never felt very happy, or light and content, or comfortable

if this is you - take care - please trust that you can be beautiful, elegant, charming, intelligent and healthy.

you can do this by caring for yourself as if you were a new born baby. if you had a new baby wouldn’t you want to feed it the very best food and make sure you were doing all that you could to make it happy?


pls take care

Paris Hilton is a Prophet!

if you have nothing to say...don't say it!

blar blar blar, we fill space with words.

sitting on the beach with my man i said

"we're just like those two old muppets in the upper side viewing boxes, croaking out a comment on everyone and everything".

who do we think we are?!

we're all such know-it-alls, so opinionated and often, heaven help you if you don't happen to agree! - escalation to fearing for personal physical safety happens in an instant.

i'm all into revelation and being transparent to others, less confusion that way, but i am trying to hold my tongue and if i don't know about something, haven't thought overly on the subject - to just Shut-up!- OMG! Paris Hilton is a Prophet!

choose NOW!

i think i write this blog because i just need to get out what's in my heart and mind, and if what i say helps anyone reading it, then great!

and of course japan is on my mind.

what is it we're feeling here? - devastation yes, pain for those suffering, but please tell me i'm not the only one with a wrenching heart and horrified expression asking "why is it that a country on a major fault line has all those nuclear reactors??" - i know it's shocking and we're not meant to say that because it's the earths fault for erupting and all those poor people who have lost their lives, but please let's wake up and say "enough" - my vote counts, i will not support a government who believes in nuclear, i want renewable, sustainable, holistic EVERYTHING!

mother earth can't take the gross disrespect, it's not that she's angry, she's hurt, she's in pain, feel her pain.

raise it up, raise the bar on your life; act more responsibly, with more care. take a deep breath and be more than you are, believe you can make a difference, believe you can change. change now, the way you speak, the way you eat, what you think. choose life, choose wisdom, choose freedom, choose NOW!

divine time

most of us want what we want NOW!
i do, i'm a foot stomping brat. we want to take a pill and be healed, do a course and be a specialist, meet someone and get married. forget noodles, we want instant 'perfect life!'.

but we don't thrive on it - magic take time to make and bake and be born.

after chilling for four weeks in phuket i'm back in the city clinging by my fingernails to the peaceful pace i found over there - the sense of everything happens in it's own divine time.

the alternative is to force the situation to happen NOW, thereby creating drama and chaos, accumulating stress which makes life tougher (and makes you look crap) (that alone is enough to make me cry halt!).

so please can we slow down the pace, drive in a relaxed manner, pause and commune with our neighbours, listen in a conversation not just wait to speak. can we allow a week for an email response, a year to get in shape and let our children be kids til they're not.

we'll look better for it!