Matthew Ashdown

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Today’s blog is a little different. I have invited a friend of mine to share a project that she is working on that I will believe that will empower many young women who have ever been shamed for, or are challenged by, their natural cycles. I have had dreams about this book, and so I trust that it will be making an impact when it is published. I want Kyla to share her story, and so have attached it here, and share how you can help in making it a reality.

“Hi my name is Kyla Plaxton. When I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, I decided to start writing a book which I had been thinking about writing for a few years.

I am trained and registered Accupressurist. I learned to use body symptoms to find out deeper what people were holding onto. There was always a memory, emotion, thought process or just even an idea that was held in the cells and causing static in their bodies. I started to notice that during menstruation a lot of pain would come up for women. So I started to experience with my own pains. And wow, when I listened, yes my body was trying to tell me something. I then realized this was the loudest most powerful time for women, a key into who we really are. I found my destiny.

I thought if girls could get this information before they get their periods, they might actually get excited about having this creative power put to good use in their lives, they might actually enjoy getting their periods! And so was created “Little Women’s Guide to Personal Power: How to turn your monthly menstruation into the biggest blessing of you life”

I’ve talked to groups such as Big Brother’s Big Sister, Go Girl Program, and a couple of middle schools here in Victoria. There response is incredible! Girls are dying to have someone to talk to about this.

In the book are some naturals way of dealing with pain, ideas about seeing yourself beautiful as you are, and getting that you are powerful beyond measure just like Marianne Williamson said:) Along with some very practical exercises on how to listen to your little inner voice and hear what your body is really trying to say.

There is a contest with the publishers FriesenPress, where I can win the comprehensive package that I need to be able to make sure I can affect the most change. Please vote to help this book win the contest for a FREE Self Publishing Contract with FreisenPress so that women the world over can benefit:

https://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/162044/voteable_entries/33568991

sincerely,

Kyla

Your vote is a vote for the future generations of women growing up feeling honour and respect for themselves as they go through their monthly cycles. I have seen how shame around it has affected the adult life of many women. This book will help a lot of young women so let’s support Kyla with this one!

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As a teenager I was trapped in a body that I didn’t want. After a stint in a hospital with a number of scars marking my body, and a particularly long one down the front of my belly, I could no longer look at myself in front of the mirror. And, after a reaction to one of the drugs in the hospital I began to develop cysts that could be seen on my body when I went swimming.

Because of who I was at the time, it took me down. My self-esteem plummeted. You would not have seen me at the beach or the swimming pools, because I was just too ashamed of my body. I did not date for many years, who would want me? That was my attitude and it followed me on into later life.

Throughout my adult years I found it very difficult to believe that anyone could be attracted to me. But, that was not what happened. I found that women were attracted to me, because I had developed into a tall and attractive person ( their words not mine, I couldn’t accept that for the longest time ). It didn’t help though, because my mind still feared the rejection that I would receive once they saw me intimately.

It took the work of people like Louise Hay to shake me out of it. Her underlying message to me was that I needed to begin loving every inch of my body right now in order for that love to grow. I couldn’t wait until somebody else loved the scars, I needed to love them myself.

So what did I do that helped me out along the way? Instead of pitying myself for the body that I had been given, I began to spend my shower time in gratitude for it. Gratitude for the scars. Gratitude for all the parts of my body that had at one time received my hatred. It was a daily practice, and still is. I did not believe it straight away, self-defeating thoughts would percolate up from my subconscious mind, but through the power of my will I began to strengthen the self-affirming thoughts. Now this is what I help keep others accountable to as their self-talk coach.

I have begun dating again recently, feeling that I am getting ever closer to a knowingness of myself and who I would want to be with in life.  For every rejection from others that I receive it becomes a reminder to me to exclaim “I love and approve of myself”.

Yoga helps us to live within this body and enjoy it, and provides us with the means with which we can enjoy with detachment. Let us not fear loving our body for fear of getting attached to it. Let us love the source that created our bodies, whatever you may call that.

You are a marvellous creation, and your body has been divinely created for this lifetime. You are here to enjoy all that our earth provides while claiming your spiritual beingness more every day. Shame and guilt bind us ever more to the body, so let us begin to love every inch of our body so that we can be free from any bondage to the human body.

In every moment that you catch yourself shaming yourself with a negative thought about your body, arrest it with a simple “Thank you”. Your ego is powerless against it. Then picture or look at that body part and send it love, taking deep diaphragmatic breaths and bringing the thoughts of that body part into the centre of your heart space. Do this daily until you care not what others think, but only what you think, of your body.

You are beautiful and divine creation, and seeing yourself any other way has allowed the shallow thoughts of the superficial side of society to win the day. You are more powerful than that.

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The meaning we give any experience in our life will affect our future until that moment we choose to let go of any meaning that does not serve our highest good.

As a young teenager I had a shocking wake-up call in the form of a near death experience. Despite how wonderful some of it was, there were parts that I could not get my head around. Aspects that I have been gradually letting go of as I become aware of the suffering underneath.

When I came around, and had much time lying in a hospital bed, I contemplated two things:

1) I have been given a second chance.

2) What did I do wrong?

The first thought has lead to me stretching myself out through life to make a difference in the lives of others. The second thought became the reason I sabotaged myself. At that time I was still struggling with going to catholic church each week. I believed in a higher power and I still call it God to this day. I was afraid though. I lived in fear of punishment. I was a sinner and God was angry! So my young mind equated my accident with being punished. My daily thought while watching new blood being transfused into me was that I must have goofed up pretty bad to deserve something like that happening to me.

Asking “what is wrong with me?” causes the subconscious mind to go searching for all the
reasons as to what it thinks is wrong with us.

It has taken me many long years to shake this thought. It has taken hours of affirmations, prayer, and meditation to renew my concept of God. My fickle mind wants to hold on to the old, but my heart calls for an ever new awareness. My body and my health have all responded in kind to this effort.

Through the conditioning about God I learned to take on a lot of guilt in my life. That guilt caused me to make poor choices that sabotaged business, relationships, health, the whole shebang. There has been much pain to let go of. Many days of feeling the sadness and letting it pass. And many hours of affirming that “I am a divine child of God”.

You see, if we believe that we are bad, or that we have done bad things, we carry that thought with us and create more incidences where we prove ourselves right. We think that we are making bad food choices, we are bad because we did not exercise, we treat others poorly. When we recognise the divinity within ourselves and everyone else, it leads to a completely different experience of life.

I am going through major life changes right now, and I am letting go of guilt, and forgiving myself for the past. I am eliminating the rigid thought patterns that I absorbed like a sponge in my pre-adolescent years, and day by day I am moving from an intellectual concept of a loving God, to heartfelt resonance with that belief.

Things happen to us for a reason. For 6 years I have been asking a new question “What is the gift out of that experience?” And there are many new answers every day. I am not sure where I would be in life if I had not nearly lost it. It has helped me find greater peace with the concept of death. It has caused me to question the dogmatic principles that I heard each Sunday in church, and has been an initiation into the path to freedom that my soul seeks.

I know that there are lots of challenges that people are going through at this time. Many of us are challenging the dogmatic principles that were guilt and shame based in our younger years. There are many concepts from upbringining that have set me up with great values in life so I am not knocking it all. It is the controlling aspects that I have chosen to turn my back on as they do not reflect that path that I am following.

Change can happen quickly, or gradually, but with determination it will happen. Remember that you are divine child of God and that there is help and support for you. Instead of asking “What is wrong with me?”, ask yourself “What is the gift in this situation?”

One of the greatest assets that has helped me in recent months amid the changes has been the practice of yoga and self-healing techniques. These simple techniques can be learned in a skype video session with me, and I would be happy to introduce you to them for the reasonable fee of $50. Contact me at matthewmashdown@gmail.com to book your session.

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My 8 month old practice of Kriya Yoga has brought changes into life that could not have been predicted beforehand. In the early confusion that I was feeling, I gained weight. I want to pass on to you some yogic wisdom that helped me lose that weight and I believe can help you shift your consciousness so that you can make the choices that are in your highest good.

Earlier this year I wrote a blog about that weight gain. For years I had been able to maintain a steady weight and even helped others release theirs, and so my experiences were guiding me to a new understanding of myself as I sought to create a new reality. My new practice of Kriya Yoga has helped shake out the old.

Whilst reading one evening I stumbled upon some words by Paramhansa Yogananda in his book “The Divine Romance” , an affirmation that inspired me and one that I returned to often over the course of several months. We need to repeat those affirmations to really imprint them into our minds. Our minds can be powerful allies when aligned with the wishes of the heart, and not preventing them.

“I am the master of my body, it will obey my mind irrespective of any food that I eat. Any tendency towards thinness or fatness must go.”

I had never seen an affirmation quite so eloquent and one that got right to the core of the issue, being a servant to the body. Yogic masters are of the body, and enjoy its pleasures, but are not attached to them. Their strength is such that the struggles with weight and physical pains do not have the same affect on them that they would have on us. They may experience it but are able to detach.

I have repeated this affirmation daily and thank Yogananda for his age old wisdom. I had bought into a belief somewhere that I needed to learn from my weight gain. What I chose instead was to just recognise that the lesson was that I need not be a servant to my body and that the dark emotions that were surfacing, the fear that some part of me had buried deep, need not take me off my path.

Over time I found my attitudes changing. Emotions did surface, and I allowed them to move through me. Fear was replaced with faith. Behaviours began to change. With all the turbulence in the outer world, the Kriya Yoga has given me a solid foundation with which to move through the changes. Despite the turbulence, I found myself making the choices for my health and wellbeing that I needed to. I also found that I could just let go of needing to lose the weight. I desired it but it did not become a daily obsession as it was in my youth when I first lost weight. In fact the weight loss was symbolic of letting go of some old behaviours.

And so, even though I have not exercised to the extent that I would have a year ago, I lost all the weight that I had gained, and found myself dropping habits that were not supportive, at the same time still enjoying foods that I like. I continue to repeat that affirmation and I recommend it to others now. We do not need to be servants of our body. We can be masters of our body, masters of our emotions ( note that this is different to controlling our body which is the goal of many weight training programs ). It begins with seeding the thoughts in the mind that shift our very consciousness to one of alignment with our higher source.

So, I do hope that you are convinced by me, and can put this affirmation into practice in your life. Morning and night repetition of it will help, in time, make it something you just believe unconsciously.

For a complimentary coaching session focused on helping you to eliminate the belief systems that prevent you from enjoying the fitness you desire, contact Matthew at matthewmashdown@gmail.com

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This last weekend I had he pleasure of experiencing this Yogi master. To say it was powerful would not be enough. I have sought out true masters and Yogiraj Siddhanath is one. This video will give you a little taste of this great soul.

Yogiraj will be back in the US next year for a tour, but that does not mean that each and every one of us cannot benefit from his healing energy transmissions. Next week in Sooke, BC, one of his teachers, Nigel Lott, will be hosting a workshop where you will have the opportunity to be initiated into Kundalini Kriya Yoga and learn self healing techniques.
If you have been seeking out a real master of spirituality then I encourage you to check out this event.

Sooke BC Workshop

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“Humanity one’s only religion. Breath one’s only prayer and consciousness one’s only God”

– Yogiraj Siddhanath

There is a very special event coming up at the end of September. All the information you need can be found by reading the information below and contacting Nigel. This master has helped transform my life, helped me become more of a GratiDude and I highly recommend this retreat. I myself will be there too. Click on the letter below at any time to register!

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I gained some weight over the last few months, due to factors that are now clear to me. “Shame on you” were the words from a gym rat upon my return to my workout venue. I did not take that shame on for that is not what I teach in my work.

Shame from ourselves or another will never move us forward. Self love is what will cause us to make the best choices for ourselves, no matter what condition we feel we are in.

Extra bodyweight and overeating while in my old home environment was my symptom. Thoughts of scarcity were triggered. The underlying shame related to a childhood pain I was resolving, was the cause. I was being called upon a spiritual adventure and the gift recently became very clear.

I had the perfect opportunity to practice what I teach. Rather than condemning myself for my poor habits and blaming others for them, I committed to getting back on track, and loving, understanding and being kind to the part of me that was wounded. Words from others may have triggered me, but they merely reflected my own underlying belief systems. It took being back home in England, the environment that I was brought up in, to face this.

I reflected in meditation. I wrote out the thoughts that were consuming me. And I sought peace within myself.

So many people get caught up in a pattern of berating themselves for gaining weight, when truly the weight gain is a symptom. They then end up in a self defeating cycle where they feel worse about themselves every day. Find the cause. The suffering is causing the struggle.

Suffering is an option, but we need to recognise and admit that we are suffering to move on from it.

Love yourself right where you are at, even when the world around you condemns you, and you will begin to make the choices that reflect that. You will process and release emotions like shame, guilt, and anger along the way, but when you know healthy ways to do so, your health and wellbeing will benefit.

Now, time for some squats and sprint training!

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I remember being a teen. I wanted everyone to like me. It didn’t stop in my teenage years either. I carried it into my adult years and it caused me much pain.

You see, no matter who I tried to like, there were people who didn’t like me. And in order for them to like me, I had to pretend to be someone that I am not. And I became very confused.

Then, as an adult I didn’t trust myself at the core of my being. I was so used to lying to the world so that it would like me. I was really lying to myself.

I was speaking with one teen the other day and I got him to finish this sentence for me.

“The reason people don’t like me is……..”

It confused him for a moment, and then he said ” because I am happy.”

So, in order to be liked, he took on the role of the complainer. Being happy had caused him to be the outsider. I promised him that if he could have the strength to stay happy in the face of others ridicule, in time he would notice a change.

It is easy to fit in. Standing true to yourself is the hard part because that is where you face possible ridicule. The key is to loving yourself that way. If you really and genuinely love yourself you will draw friends to you that resonate with who you really are. You will eventually find the joy you are seeking in life.

I know it is not always easy for a teen to think like that when high school is the time of so many changes in our personal world. But I can tell you the short term satisfaction of fitting in to the in crowd leads to pain in later life as you no longer know where you really fit in.

It takes courage to be the real you in our world, but that is where you will find the most joy. There will be moments of pain and rejection, but if you are persistent you will find your place in the world, and will draw people to you like a magnet. And from there you will fill your piece of the divine puzzle. Be happy. Be you.

What are your experiences? What are your thoughts? Share them with me and stimulate future blogs.

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And if you are a teen or the parent of a teen looking for a little extra guidance, take me up on the offer of a free coaching session and find out how we can improve your experiences in this wonderful world of ours. Find out what this entails here!

Rebel Spirit Coaching

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I was swinging over the soccer goal post ( sorry fellow brits, I have been conditioned to call it soccer now ), loving the beautiful day that we were experiencing in southern England. I was feeling blissful. I was on holiday. I was playing with my brothers , sister and my parents. How could life be any better?

WHACK

The soccer goalpost pulled out of the ground and landed on my stomach, crushing it. All I remember was the excruciating pain, and the sight of my parents running from either direction to help me.

At 13 years of age I ended up in hospital, about to die. From my point of view at the time, it wasn’t a good day.

As I lay in the hospital bed, the extreme pain told me that something was very wrong. As a young boy brought up with a religious background, I had a belief that I done something very wrong to piss off the big guy upstairs. Why else would I be punished so?

6 weeks in hospital, with two of that in intensive care unit in an unconscious stupour with all kinds of drugs. I must have racked up some serious karma points. I will spare you the details but there were organs in places they shouldn’t have been.

Through years of conditioning of a belief in reward and punishment, I had formed a belief that would haunt me through my years of struggle on my path to the truth.

Now I choose to see that time of my life very differently. I began to ask myself new questions at some point in the journey.

What if it was the best thing that ever happened to me? What if that event was the very thing that I needed to shake my up out of my zombie like state? What if my understanding of this idea about God and the universe was misguided?

I believe that event in my life was a catalyst for many amazing things that have transpired since. Now I can look back and see that it was a true blessing. At least that is how I choose to see it now. It took a LONG time to see it that way. I wasn’t sure if I could ever trust good things to last.

And, it has helped me in the moments of great challenge in my life today. I know that they are leading me somewhere, and my attitude to them will help determine where.

As a wise teacher taught me many years ago, “Nothing has meaning, except the meaning we give it.”

The challenge you are facing at this time in life can be a cataclysmic event that you allow to bring you down, or it could be a gift from another dimension that causes you to wake up to who you really are in life. It all depends on how YOU choose to see it.

And, one last really cool thing. I have a scar running the full length of my abdomen, with a cut around my belly button. Every day I look down at it I see a question mark. And I remember each and every day the power of questions.

What major life event changed things around for you? What current life event can you view differently? Share your thoughts below!

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5 years ago I began meditating. I was told that through it I would find the answers to many of life’s challenges, and find connection to everything within this big wide universe.

In 5 years of practicing I have had all kinds of experiences. Many times it surfaced my shadow so that I could heal it. It still does. I would sit there feeling frustrated, unable to quiet my busy and noisy mind. The mind that told me this was a waste of time, that I had to get on with useful things in life.

Feelings of shame, anger, depression, and sadness would all surface. Seemingly making it so that I might never achieve that state of bliss I sought. But something told me that all these experts and sages could not be wrong.

And so I have persisted, and I have recommended meditation to clients. Sometimes grabbing five minutes when I could, and sometimes sitting for periods of over an hour. As long as I would let go of getting a certain result out of it, I knew that I could keep going.

In recent months I have been initiated into Kriya yoga and the meditations that I have practiced daily have opened up things so awesomely. They call it “The Lightning Path” and I have been getting an idea as to why that is. These last few months have been intense.

But despite the breakdowns that have been going on in my outer world, I have been getting deeper and deeper glimpses of the bliss I had long ago been promised. And through the process I have been getting clearer and clearer on who I really am. Old me is falling way, as more and more my authentic self emerges from the ashes.

What has been great too is that I have found the meditation practice that works for me. I have enjoyed so many of the others practices that I have followed. This one just seemed to be the one that has resonated most deeply with my soul. The teacher, the practice, and the direction it took me, all feel true to who I am.

So, in the beginning you may find that all meditation does for you is remind you of what you have not looked at within yourself. You may be called to face your deepest fears. You may only notice more shame, anger and resentment. You may try a number of different types of meditation practices until you find the one that feels like home to you.

Never give up on it though. And find someone who can guide you through the emotions that surface. I am truly grateful that even though I did not feel the bliss that many spoke of, that I kept going. I found support and help in understanding what was surfacing and why. Now I am beginning to feel that bliss for myself. Meditations have been profound and I know that it will open up even more.

If you are interested in the type of meditation that I practice now, check out this website. It is not one that I can teach for I am still a student, but I hope that it lifts many of you as it has lifted me.

www.HamsaYoga.org

Meditation truly is one of my favourite parts of the spiritual life. That along with the greater joy, the connections to life and enhanced feelings of love of the world . With the connection that we can create through meditation we can take it out to the world. It may not take you 5 years to achieve the states I have achieved. I had a lot of resistance to letting go and trusting completely in God.

And it ain’t over yet! I am going to keep going on this path, I am going to keep meditating, for I know that there is much left to experience.

What are you waiting for? Take a seat, close your eyes, focus on your breath, and begin your journey of the soul.