Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Taken today from the book When things fall apart by Pema Chodron

(Recalling a manager’s sarcastic reaction to my statement ‘there is no failure only feedback’ that they had had a lot of feedback in their company that year!) I have similarly had a lot of good news this year and continue to receive the same! I have rarely if ever experienced such ‘chaos’ in my life as I experience now -changes in environment, people around me and family. And how beautifully this quote by Rinpoche reframes that experience. Nothing has changed in my circumstances in this moment of reading his words and yet my approach to ‘the chaos’ has totally changed and subsequently my feelings. Our world and our experience of it is so often constructed through our thoughts. Letting go of those thoughts and rising above them allows us to be the essence of who we are. Somtimes I forget sometimes how radical and how powerful and how beautiful that is. So I say this often yet when I forget to ‘Apply to Self’* I experience the negative frightening turbulence of chaos. And as I let go of my thoughts I change my experience and my whole approach to life. What could be simpler? I spend my working days (and my non-working days) telling others that life is much simpler than we choose to make it; that the present is the desired state, that plans unfold by saying yes to opportunities especially those that feel right in our gut. That is how I seek to live my life yet sometimes I forget. I am being reminded right now.

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.” Rinpoche

This is also useful to hold as a belief when you are on one of the longest flight paths in the world!  (non-stop Dubai to Auckland 16 hours) And here I am on the other side of the world to my usual base – in New Zealand – with my youngest son – my world has indeed been turned upside down and I thank God for it.

*’Apply to self’ is one of the most astounding ways of thinking and owning what we experience in the world and was introduced to me by Gene Early my mentor and lifelong coach. Join Gene and I in Bix Manor Henley on Thames on June 20/21 to explore and delight in this way of thinking and more ways of ‘reframing’ experience to see that life is what we make it and that life is good.

For details but not timetables click here! 

Or you might want to join me in France, India or the UK  and you can find all details of all programmes on my beautiful new website www.sueknight.com