Angela Deutschmann Newsletter
August 2009
Hi everyone
I popped out to the shops on my own early on Saturday, delighting in
the wintry morning and icy wind. When I got home I was so invigorated
that I was ready to write a book, tidy up our (scary) office or go for a
run (yes, it’s true). But steadily, over the next couple of hours while
being with my young family, I allowed myself to veer very far from that
joy and by evening – having done none of the things that I desired – I
was depleted, angry and resentful. Even though we had spent quality time
with our small children and visited wonderful friends, I had lost myself
in the demands and dramas of my kids to such an extent that my own joy
had puffed away. That, and a conversation the night before with a friend
navigating the tricky waters of step-parenthood and anorexia, prompted
me to revisit all the information on parenting that has come up in
readings over the last few years. Those who share my commitment to
conscious, present parenting as well as my frustrations at the practical
demands thereof, can sign in for a Web Seminar called Parenting Lightly
on Wednesday 5 September from 8pm to 9.30pm.
Details of this and other upcoming events, such as Joymap and Group
Readings are below. You can also find about my couple’s workshop,
Separate Togetherness, and the procedure for booking readings and
coaching sessions with me. I’ll be in Cape Town between Wednesday 12 and
Saturday 15 August and offering readings in White River on Tuesday 25
August. I have written some more in this month’s Bull’s Eye about the
three Practices for Joy that I mentioned in the previous newsletter. I
know these will move you into a deeper and softer experience of joy.
There is one more week to enrol for Embody and forever change the way
you think about, listen to and love the body you’re in. A quote from
Rumi that I read today offers a very eloquent invitation for this
glorious experience: ‘'You've been walking the ocean's edge, holding
your robes dry. Dive naked a thousand times deeper. Love flows there' .
At the same time as Embody, Sue Fuller-Good and Ellis Levin run an
extraordinary journey in the bush of Boondocks called Brilliant Freedom
– a chance to discover the joys of physical existence like you’ve never
known before.
Why not join us for one of these events and make it an august month?
Much love
Angela
Please visit my Blog
here.
Upcoming Events
Web Seminar ‘Parenting Lightly’ - NEW
When most of us reading this were growing up, it was a commonly held
idea that children should be ‘good’. Everyone knew that ‘good’ children
did well at school, were liked by other people and got rewarded by
Father Christmas! It’s less common, though still heard today, that we
talk of someone as being a good boy or ask ‘is she a good baby?’ This
notion that being good is the highest way we can be (as opposed to
happy, for example) has informed more of our choices and responses than
I think we would care to acknowledge. Yet many of us are slowly
orientating ourselves differently and trying not to impose the same
ideas on our children as were ingrained in us.
What has happened, however, is that the focus has simply shifted off of
trying to raise good children and is now on trying to be a good parent.
There are endless numbers of books and talks and teachers giving advice
on how to be a good parent and the very same pressures and restrictions
that this placed on kids previously is now being placed on parents. I am
interested in a model of parenting that bypasses the notion of good
altogether and instead focuses on navigating the whole team (children
and their caregivers) to a place of individual and collective freedom
and happiness.
Join me for a web seminar called Parenting Lightly where I will share
the techniques that I have learnt (and am still grappling to master) as
well as some practical suggestions and case studies. This is NOT a
seminar that will give advice on discipline, potty training, or how to
get teenagers to do their homework. It is about you, the parent, and how
you can be released from your presumptions about parenting into the
sheer joy of it.
Parenting Lightly – Web Seminar
Date: Wednesday 2 September 2009
Time: 8pm to roughly 9.30pm
Cost: Introductory offer – R75.00 per person
Please contact Garrick +2784 460 8667 or via email to book a place and to receive full details of how to pay and log on. You will need broadband internet access and some other basic PC requirements. You will be able to pose questions during certain parts of the seminar.
Personal Readings and Spiritual Coaching Sessions
A personal, or couple’s, reading is a session where I channel insight from your higher self about what is most dominant in your ‘field’ at that time. This can include patterns you are holding, some of your life themes, blockages in your body, the particular cycle you are in at the time or what thought patterns may be holding you back from feeling free. Usually there is an opportunity to ask specific questions if you wish to, but the reading will take on a particular direction or set of themes right from the start. The energy of these conversations is gentle, incredibly loving yet also full of humour and practical suggestions.
Time required: 1 to 1.5 hours
Cost: R600.00 in office hours
A baby blessing, which can be done at a baby shower or as a regular reading, is a conversation with an unborn child. They are normally shorter than an hour, though this depends very much on the chattiness of the child! Best time to have one is between 20 and 35 weeks pregnant.
A spiritual coaching session does not involve direct channelling. It is an opportunity for you to bring specific issues to the session, perhaps those that came up in a previous reading but not necessarily, and to work with my questions and ideas on these. I don’t follow a specific coaching methodology and will work with what comes up in the moment using discussion or physical movement or conscious dreaming or anything else that can move you forward. A warning: I’ve been heard to say ‘I couldn’t give a damn about your success…I’m only interested in your Joy’!
Time required: 50 minutes
Cost: R450.00
Contact Garrick on +27844608667 or via email if you are interested in booking a distance reading or a one-on-one session in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein or White River.
Next Cape Town dates: Wednesday 12 August to Saturday 15
August
Next White River date: Tuesday 25 August
Group Reading
You can download the latest group readings from our website to hear the kind of insight that is available in that environment. The March group reading starts off with a reminder about the significance of our attention and a suggestion to be aware and deliberate about what we do with it. The majority of the conversation after that focuses on the aspect of eating and food, with clear and radical information about becoming truly empowered in this area of our lives. The questions also deal with eating and open up even more detail about how to approach food in a free way. There is a third point raised about parenting and how to be 'responders' rather than initiators to our children.
Group readings usually convey a tremendous amount of information in a short space of time – I like to think of them as the espresso of my work – and are mostly attuned to what the particular members of the group or broader humanity are experiencing at the time. They are affordable and a good way to introduce newcomers to the beauty and value of channelling. There is often an opportunity to ask a personal question. The cost of attending a group reading will remain unchanged at R100.00 for the third year running so that these events are as accessible as possible. Please note, however, that this is an attendance fee and the right to sell or distribute the information remains with Travelling Light.
Next Group Reading in Johannesburg
Date: Sunday 30 August 2009 and Sunday 20 September 2009
Time: Strictly 4pm to 5.30pm
Venue: Northside Lodge, 31 Knox Street, Waverley
Cost: R100.00 pp
To book contact Garrick +2784 460 8667 or via email.
JoyMap Workshop
In my experience, most New Year’s resolutions or any kind of goal-setting exercises, are likely to fail for two reasons: Firstly, they are usually based on what you think you should do, rather than what you deeply want to do. In other words, the goals are set only from your head. Failure to sustain these resolutions breeds a sense of self-recrimination, your esteem drops and a cycle of subtle disappointment begins. Secondly, even when your goals are truly aligned with your joy, they may be unrealistic and difficult to integrate into your life as it is now. Why not do it differently and begin to sculpt your life – practically - from joy?
I have designed a number of unusual, innovative processes to assist you to see what you really want (which is notoriously difficult to do) and to find real, creative and achievable ways to integrate this into your current life with nothing needing to change.
Two participants’ experiences:
‘Being the OCD personality type, I am constantly making lists and
working towards “goals” and setting new year’s resolutions throughout
the year, because how else can a person exist…. Ha ha – I found a
delicious way yesterday…I spent the day with Angela, a friend and wise
woman, and started learning about me and what I am passionate about as
opposed to what I think or believe I have to be passionate about…
The word goal didn’t even enter my mind and yet I have these BIG dreams
that I announced yesterday and have started towards them…not because I
have to, but because I cannot wait any longer …
I would love for you all to experience this joy and excitement…Go on,
give it a bash – the way you look at your life for the next year will
astound you!’
‘I am still taking in the incredible gift of the JoyMap workshop. I found the insights I gained profound and far reaching in terms of how I want to see my life unfolding. It certainly has a) given me permission to focus on my joy without feeling guilty and b) made joy so much more of a focus in my day to day life’
Johannesburg
Date: Saturday 5 September 2009
Time: 9am to 4pm
Venue; Northside Lodge, 31 Knox Street, Waverley
Cost: R650.00 per person (includes all materials and teas, please bring
a light lunch)
Minimum 6 Maximum 10
To book contact Garrick +2784 460 8667 or via email.
Growth Clubs
‘Having worked with Angela this past year has been an amazing
experience. I use the word experience as through her processes and
methodology I have been able to move from the intellectualising and the
cognitive awareness that I used to deal with life and actually start to
feel, emote and engage totally differently and live the aspect of
“Experience trumps Awareness”. It has been an amazing journey for me to
get to this place, it is through her brilliant application of Ontology
that has made this possible. Getting to this point has added huge value
to not only my life but has taken my coaching to a whole new level.
Spending time with the group each month and ending off with our own
tailor-made Jump workshop has been invaluable to me on so many levels
and has given me a lucid indication of where my Joy lies. I have had a
profound shift based directly on the workshop and know that choices that
I have made in the days, weeks and month following the workshop have
been done with clarity and certainty that they not only add my Joy but I
am liberated to follow and commit to it.’ Gavin, Ontological Coach
An increasing number of people are committing themselves to conscious,
responsible and empowered living. The number and variety of spiritual
workshops and therapies attest to this. Yet, more is required to
manifest awareness in action than just a once-off intervention. Personal
transformation is a dynamic and ongoing process and requires consistent
integration and support, whether that is in the form of honest feedback,
access to new knowledge or motivation. Often we attempt, or feel we are
forced, to pursue our spiritual development in isolation. Besides the
fact that this reinforces a consciousness of separation, it can also
leave us blinkered to our own stumbling blocks or gifts or next steps.
My popular Spiritual Growth Clubs provide a rare opportunity to walk
your personal path in fellowship with like-minded people who are open to
learning, sharing and growing as much as you are. They also come with
expert facilitation and access to all the new insight with which I work.
Contact
Garrick to register for the next group or to learn more.
‘It has been very difficult to put into words how best to describe my
experience in a Growth Club. The Growth Club provided me with a safe and
respectful space to express my deepest pain and emotions - a place to be
real, raw and authentic. Through this year long process I was able to
grow, to shift, to gain such huge awareness about myself, learning to
trust myself, to respect and honour my intuition and to fully experience
the rawest of emotions that I would ordinarily never have had the space
to do so. Angela’s exceptionally respectful and honouring approach is
hugely appreciated and her gentleness and beauty permeates in
everything. I thank her for giving me the cushion to "land safely"
through the year and my Jump process and to gain inner strength and
depth. I value the privilege of having been given this blessing to learn
and grow with her. A very privileged Club to be in. Thank you’ Ilana,
owner Magical Moments
Separate Togetherness
I work with a number of couples in my practice and friendship circles that are looking for new ways of having intimate partnerships - ones which are based on ‘wild love’ and real (not token) freedom rather than the more typical model of co-dependency and ‘blaming, shaming or taming’ (Gill Edwards). But there are few role models of such partnerships and most of us default to what we learned in our own childhood homes, especially when we are tired, overwhelmed or scared.
My Separate Togetherness workshop is for 10 people (5 couples) who are committed to their own joy and to creating a relationship which truly supports that.
I am not taking a purely theoretical approach but will instead build what I have learnt about healthy partnerships into processes focussed on the real-life gifts and challenges of the relationships in the room. Garrick and I will also share our own experiences of partnership and what we are discovering about being separately together.
This workshop will require honesty, courage and commitment, and will therefore deliver life-changing results. It is not specifically intended for relationships in trouble, but rather for couples who value their partnership enough to want to work on and deepen it.
Follow-up support after the workshop will be available.
Separate Togetherness Workshop
Date: Next workshop: Friday 2 October – Sunday 4 October 2009
Venue: Boondocks Mountain Lodge, between Nelspruit and Barberton
Cost: R 8 500.00 per couple includes workshop, full accommodation,
delicious meals and exclusive use of this magnificent lodge and
labyrinth.
Maximum 5 and minimum 3 couples. Please book soon.
To book contact Garrick at +27844608667 or email.
Embody
A workshop for those whose hearts are big enough to fall in love with their bodies.
The previous Embody Workshops yielded some miraculous and dramatic shifts in participants’ relationships to self-esteem, eating, exercise, sexuality, pain, relationships and awareness of life purpose. To read more about this pioneering process, including more stories from graduates, please click here.
If you are brave enough to fully see and listen to your own body, compassionate enough to accept the bodies of others and wild enough to fall unconditionally in love with your physicality – forever - then I invite you to Embody.
Date: Friday 21 – Sunday 23 August 2009
Venue: Boondocks Mountain Lodge, between Nelspruit and Barberton
Cost: R 5 800.00 includes full accommodation, delicious meals, 30 hours
of personalised input from two expert facilitators and exclusive use of
this magnificent lodge and labyrinth
To book contact Garrick at 0844608667 or via email.
Half of the places on this workshop have been booked as of April 2009 so please reserve your spot soon.
At the same time as Embody, Sue Fuller-Good and Ellis Levin are offering a workshop in the bush at Boondocks called Brilliant Freedom.
Brilliant Freedom is a workshop that works on the physical side of you to bring harmony in your body, soul and mind. It takes place on a glorious game farm, Boondocks and uses connection with nature, wild animals and being one with the earth to assist facilitator and healer Sue Fuller-Good to help you to break through any physical or mental limitations to a place of total confidence and trust in yourself and your body. Sue Fuller-Good is a physiotherapist and has a deep understanding of the body and of the energy system. She will coach you and coax you as you break through the prison bars of your self held beliefs about your body and what you can do with it.
This workshop will enable you to have a wilderness adventure (sleeping under the stars on the land and eating food prepared by your own hands far from the comfort of a kitchen) with facilitation and support. It is a spiritual journey which involves a lot of one on one coaching as well as healing. It takes advantage of the power of group learning as well and because it is experiential it will create cellular shifting and not intellectual learning. In addition to the physical challenges and excitement and Sue’s constant coaching, you will have assistance and input from Angela Deutschmann, who offers insight and teaching obtained from her channelled readings and coaching. Sue and Angela have worked together before with awesome results, each coming from their own very different perspective to create a fusion of understanding. On top of this, flying instructor, stunt pilot and extreme sports man Ellis Levin will be there to encourage you and share his expertise with you. He will draw on his life experience in walking through his own fears as he gently guides you to walk through yours. This team and this setting will provide the ideal space for you to break through and find joy in your physicality. Don’t hesitate to book your place on this life changing journey.
To Book contact Lila on +2711 463 0229 or email. The workshop is restricted to 12 people and already has some attendants so please book soon. 25% deposit secures your booking.
Bird cards
For those interested in joining my fascination and work with Jane Toerien’s Bird Cards (www.birdcards.net) I am now stocking these myself and you’re welcome to contact Garrick to purchase them at R250.00 per box set (Exclusive Books sells them for over R300.00 when you can get them and they are R931.00 on Kalahari).
Bull's Eye
August 2009
Practices for Joy
A recent reading described the ‘Path of Joy’ to be one of the ways to God, or oneness. It compared this to some other paths to God such as religion, suffering or service. In the case of some of these more devotional paths, there is a clear and known set of rituals or practices to observe like prayer, fasting, studying a holy text or worshipping in a particular way. These practices become the steps and markers of the path and help the followers to navigate it. If you choose to experience oneness through the route of joy then many of those traditional rituals lose their meaning and appeal, in fact the very notion of a Path (which implies somewhere to get to) may not sit true anymore. So what are the practices or habits to cultivate if you choose Joy as your way of being?
The Practice of Self-Awareness (on the level of personality and beyond)
‘Above all, know thyself’ – Oracle at Delphi
Interest in activities, books, teachers and other promoters of
self-awareness is at an all-time high. You need only look at the number
and popularity of workshops, therapies and materials that in some way
promise to help you get to know yourself to see that self-awareness as a
value has become rather common.
On one level, developing self-awareness can mean recognising your
emotional patterns, coming to terms with your past, identifying your
fears and desires, integrating painful experiences, healing your inner
child, recognising your gifts or strengths, forgiving your resentments
and being able to see what is truly motivating you in any moment.
Modalities such as regression and family constellating also belong to
this sphere of self awareness.
It is vital (in the sense of being both critical and good for your
well-being) to know about yourself on this level and any therapy or book
or friend that reveals more of you to you is invaluable.
Yet, this is not where self-awareness ends. The work described above is
all still done in the realm of personality. Psychology, and other
related fields, has given us wonderful insights into personality, and
how to identify, grow and even treat it. But personality is but one
layer of the Self and, even if typically people presume that it is all
they are, any truthful and committed enquiry will show that there is
something else beyond the personality. How do we know? Because with
observation and stillness you can learn to watch your personality and if
that is possible, who is it that is doing the observing?
I won’t hazard an existential guess at the name of that part of self
that observes (some call it consciousness, others the soul) but
practicing awareness, better yet practicing experience, of that part of
you is essential to staying on the Path of Joy.
While getting to know your personality usually involves activity, or
effort, of some sort, getting to know a deeper layer of self involves
non-activity, such as the silence mentioned below but also, simply, the
act of listening and observing yourself. Make some space between you and
your responses, your choices, your habits and your language. Step aside
for just a second to look and listen to your words, your breathing, your
body, your actions. The more you train yourself to observe your
personality, the more you can distance yourself from your habits and
your pain and the more you begin to see that your personality, while a
useful and loved element of you, is not who you are. The joy that this
recognition, this gap, brings is beyond understanding (and is, by the
way, the only true antidote to stress).
The Practice of Silence
‘What is this life if full of care? We have no time to be still and
stare’ WB Yeats
Most of us have heard about, or personally experienced, the power of
stillness or meditation. Yet it remains an inconsistent practice at
best, or a non-existent one at worst because it seems to be truly
difficult to integrate silence into modern-day life. We have grown
accustomed to high, even perpetual, amounts of noise and activity around
us. That seems to be endemic of a modern, successful life. Yet so many
of our answers, our peace, our purpose, can only be allowed from the
practice of silence. Try this practical system for integrating silence
into your life the same way you have integrated brushing your teeth or
putting on your seatbelt.
The first prerequisite for this practice is that you are not interrupted
by anything, so it’s been suggested in the readings to do it in the
bathroom, where it is quite socially acceptable to be on your own and
uninterrupted for a few minutes even if you’re at work.
The second prerequisite is that you have no agenda for your silence.
That means you’re not trying to empty your mind, you’re not trying to
get a message, you’re not trying to de-stress or even meditate. You are
simply quiet and soft. Just gently looking and listening until even
those activities melt away. The moment you have an agenda, or begin
trying to do or be anything, there is pressure on your system and you
contract instead of what we’re after here, which is expansion.
This is an easy, un-intimidating way to do it:
Week One: 2 minutes of silence once a day (Set an alarm and
do not do any more than 2 minutes)
Week Two: 4 minutes of silence twice a day
Week Three: 5 minutes of silence twice a day
It is easy to do this and so delicious that after three weeks you will be dying (so to speak) to have more and more. But start off by only doing these amounts above so that you are not put off by an unattainable, unsustainable practice.
The Practice of Honest and Lighthearted Sharing
‘A problem shared is a problem halved’ Unknown, English idiom
One of the observations I make time and time again in my Growth Clubs is
how much lighter people are when they leave a session than when they
arrive, even though very often we are working with difficult issues and
demanding truths in sessions. Just the act of sharing what is going on
with you at a particular moment seems to dissolve most of the fear or
sadness or worry around it. I’ve seen clients laugh uproariously as they
talk about their bankruptcy or their fear of being single for the rest
of their lives, because when you tell someone you are, once again,
making some space between you and the issue and it is usually within
that space that you can see the solution or let something go.
There are two little tricks though: (1) the sharing must be deeply
honest and (2) there must be some humour or laughter involved. Merely
moaning about your circumstances (which is nearly always blatant or
implicit blaming) with someone who will say ‘shame, shame’ or just
support your blaming does not count as honest and lighthearted sharing.
If you can’t think of any people with whom you can talk about yourself
and your life in a raw, but light way there are plenty of groups to
join, both virtual and not, which are designed to create that sort of
space.
As I look at my life through this lens, I realise with amazement and
gratitude that these three practices have become my life, they are no
longer my ‘to do list’.
If you’re committed enough to Joy it will be so for you too.
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