Notes from ConsciousCafe Skipton

Published: January 31, 2018
Author: Kate Cowan
As we veer towards the end of January, we are sharing this post from our Skipton group Leader Gina Lazenby, written on Blue Monday earlier this month. Gina shares her thoughts, insights and key life events from the last few years.
 
Today is Blue Monday ....  apparently - the most depressing day of the year. Something to do with a tenuous formula for money spent at Christmas, the number of long dark days endured and returning to work in the new year. Are you feeling blue? 
 
Funnily enough, for the first time in what feels like many many months, I am feeling a bit perkier and upbeat. It is sunny here in Yorkshire and the days are getting slightly longer. But, I have to say, it has been a long haul getting here! 
 
Four years ago I made a decision to make a MAJOR life shift. In January 2014, and after almost a decade of significant overseas travel, with many many a long trip to Australia and California, I decided to have ONE home in the UK, and no longer flit from one to the other, moving stuff between my beloved Yorkshire hilltop retreat home and my city base of 25 years in London where I had held many wonderful community gatherings. Both so different.... but neither one being just the right place anymore. 
 
My stated quest was to start a new NEXT PHASE in my life and I knew that I needed a different container to support that. So, a decision was made to move out of both. 
 
It took two very long years and I finally moved out in November 2015. Many folks have been wondering what I've been up to since then. I have to say, life change does take time....it is more of a steady process of emergence and becoming, unlike a quick wardrobe makeover or a new outfit. And it took MUCH longer than I expected. It always does doesn't it?! 
My indoor conservatory - the ornament shelf from London repurposed and now holding my collection of plants that I've grown from scratch. Very good feng shui - I have been growing like my plants !!

For the last two years, since leaving my beloved London house, I have been setting up new foundations for myself. I am not even crystal-clear about what happens next but as Kevin Costner famously said "if you build it they will come"

So having set down temporary roots in Skipton town, a few minutes from the Healthy Home in the nearby hills, I ended up buying a small sweet house and what started as a bit of a makeover and a little extension ....  became a much bigger project that took well over a year and has only just been completed. 

Now that this new container is done, I am currently focusing on the details of creating order, one of life's essential support systems. Finding a place for everything and everything in its place. Oh the joy of being efficient and finding everything! 

One of the initiatives I did find some time for in my year-long construction project was to launch Conscious Cafe in Skipton. Judy Piatkus set this up in London six years ago and I went to many of her programs. She encouraged me to find my own community of kindred spirits wanting to have meaningful conversations and connection up here in the Dales. Tomorrow night will be our seventh event! 
 
We have had three café evenings at Hetties in Skipton talking about caring, career change and happiness, a Christmas supper evening at my Healthy Home in Skipton town taking time to review our past year, and then two Movie evenings watching documentaries "A Quest for Meaning" and Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything". And tomorrow night, we are back at Hetties cafe starting the new year with a conversation about "Making a Fresh Start". It is a subject very close to my heart. If you are within driving distance then do join us. The next date for Conscious Café Skipton is February 12th.

My diary is quite spacious at the moment and I am relishing having a long breather away from the fray .... but I can feel momentum gathering in the ether (like the faint rumble of stampeding hooves in the far distance). Let's see how this coming year unfolds. 

I will be in San Francisco in February for Wisdom 2.0, again, a place where I truly find my tribe. It is my sixth time attending and I'm taking colleagues with me from London, Iceland, Germany and Sydney. Four of us have been working on a program leveraging the power and potency of reinvention. It is called "From Warrior to Warrior - How to Reinvent Yourself at Any Age and Take on the World". We are looking to arrange events and opportunities to speak while we are in San Francisco and California in February 20-28th. I am also hoping to have a chance to host a Women's Gathering there too. Do get in touch if you have suggestions. Thank you. Keep in touch via the  Worrier to Warrior Facebook page.

Much of my life force in 2016 (just before the building mayhem took over my life) went into producing a series of The Rise of the Feminine radio programmes. A new series will be back this year .... so many of the conversations that I had 18 months ago are just now gathering real interest. 

 

Finally, I want to share the news of my mentor, spiritual grandmother and friend Dadi Janki. She is 102 this month. Unbelievable, especially as she is still working (Head of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University).  Apparently she's just been to Southern India to open a new retreat centre and has been speaking to 500 people. We are expecting her in London in April...... so that is exciting.  And the community of women who we recognised in the 100 Women of Spirit initiative to honour Dadi's 100 years, continues to gather pace. We are creating an event on June 16th to support young women and share the wisdom of older women with Millennials  and vice versa! Let me know if you want an invite or know a young woman.

 
 
What are they all waiting for??!
PS You might find this image amusing.  I noticed a field full of sheep this morning ... all of them standing looking in one direction and none of them eating grass, very spooky. I just had to get out of my car and take a picture. Definitely a good image for a caption competition. Any ideas?
 
Love & Light
 
 
Gina Lazenby
 
 

ConsciousCafe is a not-for-profit organisation, a friendly and welcoming community, a place to live life consciously.

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