Angela Deutschmann Newsletter

October 2009 Part One

Hi everyone

This week is the 5 year anniversary of the Travelling Light newsletter. I sent the first one out in the last week of September 2004! Since then Garrick and I have created a business that we absolutely adore, a community of wonderful people sincerely committed to their joy and a range of personal growth interventions that focus on cutting-edge insight and embodied awareness. (Not to mention that we had two sons in the process J). Thanks to all of you for supporting my joy, trusting my intuition and playing the game with us, it’s been such fun! To celebrate 5 years of Travelling Light we are giving away a R300 voucher, which can be used for any of my services, to the first five people who make a comment on my latest blog ‘Tired of Transformation’ : http://angeladeutschmann.wordpress.com

I’ve been reading a lot of Ken Wilber’s work recently and was encouraged to see, as a renowned philosopher, researcher and psychologist, how highly he speaks of shadow work. He is known for intricately studying both eastern and western philosophical and spiritual traditions and his studies on monks show that ‘you can’t meditate away the shadow’. The parts of you that you don’t own will own you until you face them. I’m running a once-off Shadow Work evening on Wednesday 7 October. If you have not done shadow work before, I strongly encourage you to attend as it is a very powerful pathway to liberation and greater wholeness.

Please see below for details of this and other events, such as the next Group Reading and the final Embody and JoyMap Workshops of the year in November. The next Growth Club starting in January 2010 is filling up quickly so please reserve a place soon if you are inspired by the idea of growing together in a small group for 12 months. Members of my Growth Clubs are exposed to all the work that I do including shadow work, the transformation game, the joy / pain paradox, the give / take paradox and many other areas of expansion.

Garrick is taking bookings for an Inspirational Breathworkshop with Joost Maijvis in Jo’burg on Saturday 10 October and for my next Cape Town trip 21 – 26 October. Look forward to seeing many of you in the next few weeks.

Much love

Angela

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Upcoming Events

Shadow Workshop

All of us have internalised the idea, to greater or lesser extents, that there are qualities, emotions and experiences that are wrong – envy, cruelty, certain desires, anger etc. This has resulted in most of us suppressing or controlling these feelings to such an extent that we swallow instead of express them and, in so doing, push them into the shadow. After a while of pushing parts of ourselves away from our conscious recognition, we begin to be very fragmented resulting (most commonly) in fatigue, confusion or irrational self-sabotage.

It’s impossible to know your passion, for example, if you have not really known your anger because anger and passion are two sides of the same coin. By the same token, if you are repressing your pain you are undoubtedly also repressing your joy. For those of you who are courageous enough to begin seeing what parts you have pushed into shadow, I will be offering a once-off Shadow Workshop where we will work practically with these concepts in a small group. You can expect the processes to be uncomfortable, and you can also expect to leave the workshop deeply relieved and released.

Date: Wednesday 7 October 2009
Time: 7pm sharp to 10pm
Venue: Zenatude, Rivonia. Please request directions if necessary
Cost: R250.00 per person payable in advance. Includes tea and coffee
To book: Contact Garrick at 0844608667 or via email

For a personal story on my own shadow work you can read the article ‘From Holy to Wholly’ on my blog.

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 and R650.00 after 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.

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 channeling. 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 18 October 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, 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.

One participants’ experience

I signed up for Angela's Joy Map workshop because it sounded like fun and the title was intriguing. At the end of that day I came to the shocking realization that my business, where I spent 80% of my time and energy, did not figure anywhere on my Joy Map! So if it wasn't bringing me joy and it certainly wasn't bringing me money, what on earth was I doing it for! In a gentle yet probing way Angela had us take a long hard look at what truly is joyful for us.

The result of that day was that I made a decision to close my business and that decision has made me feel freer and more joyful than I ever expected it to! The workshop gave me the precious gift of clarity and insight into what truly brings my Soul joy and I shall forever be grateful to Angela for guiding me to this space. A space where I am filled with excitement, anticipation and joy!!! I had asked for a sign about the way forward and boy, did I get it with this very profound workshop. Thanks doll!!! Love Di

Johannesburg

Date: Saturday 7 November 2009 (last one of 2009)
Time: 9am to 4pm
Venue: 42 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview
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.

Embody

A workshop for those whose hearts are big enough to fall in love with their bodies.

The Embody workshop is the result of my personal pain about my body. For years I was so confident, sure and present in my mind and spirituality and at the same time, so ashamed, disconnected and undeveloped in my body. I opened up all this pain and transformed it into an exceptionally powerful and unique workshop that puts you back in touch, in conversation and in love with your body even if you haven’t been there for years.

Our bodies, like everything else, are communicators to us. They communicate our divinity, in an immediate, uncomplicated manner. Our bodies are as profound a source of wisdom to us as our minds and spirits. They are faithfully attuned to our highest path, even though we are ashamed of them, hate them and, more often that not, attempt to control their expression.

It is our bodies that are meant to shape us, not us who are meant to shape our bodies.

If you are brave enough to fully see and own your own body, compassionate enough to accept the bodies of others and wild enough to fall unconditionally in love with your body – forever - then I invite you to Embody.

One participant’s experience:

‘My Embody experience is best described when I think of the story of Beauty and the Beast! How the beast needed to find the love for who he was before he physically transformed into the gorgeous prince. I can truly appreciate what Embody puts on the table in terms of concepts and processes. Having my life structured in such a way where I am required to be constantly intellectual in all that I do and how I approach left me disconnected from my body and my basic right to FEEL as God / My Soul / Higher Power intended.

Looking back my journey at Embody, I realise how I needed to shave the layers away to start feeling again. How I needed to cut away the restraints and allow for all that was great within me to naturally surface to the light to be experienced and integrate into my consciousness. No amount of positive thinking, visualisation or any intellectual approach could have leaped me forward as Embody allowed me to be. FEELING, being PRESENT in my own skin and AWARE of my body's voice was all I needed. I had to learn to step into pain, shame and at some points even hatred! But that is the beauty of life as I realised on Embody. You feel that pain / shame / fear / hatred and then transmute and so you make space for greatness and all that is good! Amen!

I am reminded what it feels like to be safe, vulnerable and loved through my eyes! Reminded how playing big, taking risks and plunging in enables the sweet bliss of freedom and lightness to find a sweet spot in my life. Because after all, when we working with the soul and our bodies, the people that really matter will see my beauty. Thank you to Angela, Shaun and my Fellow Embody Graduates! I have been gifted with love and a new level of "being" to operate from. Amazed when one is not weighed down with the intellectual clutter picked up along the way in life, how perspective, inspired action, focus and just feeling with every cell makes one BURN with ALIVENESS and BLISS. I am grateful that I was able to step into my "beast" and found my "beauty" that I can now go forward and strengthen’. Brynmore, Management Consultant

To read more about this pioneering process, including stories from graduates, please visit Embody.

Next Embody

Date: Friday 20 – Sunday 22 November 2009 (last one of 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

Payment plans available

To book contact Garrick at +27844608667 or via email.

Spiritual 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 (January 2010) 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

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

October 2009

Tired of Transformation?

‘I’ve done so much work on myself, when does it end?’

‘I’ve done everything right, where are the rewards?’

‘Why is there always more growth to do?’

You’re not alone if some of these thoughts have been playing on your mind recently. Many of my clients are voicing similar exasperation or exhaustion with their personal growth journey, especially after uncovering some of the very new and perplexing ‘shadow layers’. I see that there are two main underlying belief systems that are leading to these experiences of ‘enough already’:

1. Spirituality has been a system for getting what you want or
2. Spirituality has usurped your joy

Without using a very deep definition of joy, those two beliefs look contradictory. Here’s why they’re not, and why each of them will unquestionably lead you into frustration.

Spirituality is not a system for getting what you want

I’ve noticed that most spiritual teachers, services and products sell themselves on the basis that ‘following my path will get you the stuff you want’. They don’t put it in those words exactly but they do claim that you will improve your wealth, relationships, health and success as well as attract to yourself all you desire if you train yourself in this way, think these kinds of thoughts, meditate for this number of hours, buy this bracelet etc. Hogwash. To be polite. Spirituality is not a path for getting what you (intellectually) want and avoiding what you don’t. It is an ever-deepening relationship with self / source that meanders and astonishes and challenges and evolves and opens and softens you. If you have been ‘working on yourself’ just to become successful, give up smoking, get thin or make more money then you have been duped. Some of those things may happen, sure, and of course you are welcome to pursue whatever is joyful for you but if you have been thinking that the more you work on yourself the more perfect you become and the more you get what you want then spirituality has, perhaps unwittingly, been more of a system for acquisition than for evolution and it is bound to disappoint.

There’s more to the Law of Attraction

What’s more, there is much more complexity to the Law of Attraction than meets the eye. As the September Group reading phrased it, you do not attract things by your ‘cognitive intent’ but by your whole vibration, which includes all levels and layers of self and not simply the small part of you willing or affirming something. That’s because the Law of Attraction, like all natural and spiritual laws, is a powerful feedback mechanism to you about the permissions you have been giving. It is not simply a system that you can use to intellectually control what does and does not happen to you. The drive of the universe is towards expansion, integration and wholeness, not perfection and success as we have been lead to believe.

The outcome of a truly spiritual existence is Joy

Don’t believe this if it doesn’t accord with your experiences or observations, but if you are feeling disappointed or tired of spirituality then one of the possibilities is that you have been expecting an outcome from your growth endeavours. An outcome could be a reward, a summit, or a sign that you have been ‘doing well’, like getting a new relationship or becoming successful in some area. The only outcome that I can comfortably promise from personal growth work is an increase in your permission for joy. And remember that joy is not a state of being that arrives when all your circumstances line up to your ego-expectations. Joy is the experience of living uncontained – being free to live without being contained by your past, your pain, your fear, your expectations or any other limited thoughts. Sometimes not getting what we want takes us closer to authentic joy than anything else, at least initially, so it is a huge misunderstanding to equate a spiritual life with getting more of what you want more easily. It will happen, and it won’t and if you can hold that paradox then personal growth won’t tire or disillusion you, it will merely offer up the next open door to wholeness.

Joy is the outcome – growth is a tool

By precisely the same logic, personal growth should never eclipse your joy! If it is in no way fun, exciting, or wonderful to do a workshop, read a self-help book, meditate (note that this doesn’t mean it isn’t scary or uncomfortable) then don’t do it. I have seen in myself and many clients that spirituality can become an excuse or a crutch or a shelter if it is being used to avoid being fully present in other relationships – with the body, with pain, with feelings. It is sometimes more of a challenge, and more of an opening, to embrace the parts of yourself that don’t seem spiritual (sexuality, humour, irreverence, the body, the shadow) than to develop only the ones that do.

I laughed when I recently came across one of Osho’s essays in the book The Man Who Loved Seagulls. In it Osho speaks of meditation as medicinal. It’s useful for when you are not well, he says, it can make you feel better. But if you are really well, you don’t need medicine and when you are really joyful, you don’t need meditation. That’s because, as the readings have said for years, joy is the motivation and spiritual growth is the tool.

If at any moment walking in nature, watching silent stars, cooking, shouting, lying naked on the grass or anything else makes you feel alive, relieved and open (the 3 characteristics of joy) then go there. It may well be that a personal growth workshop or conversation or book does this for you, but be careful of presuming that it will and getting stuck in an expectation that is not in alignment with an experience.

If you are feeling tired of personal development, ask yourself if you have been expecting it to ‘deliver stuff’ or if you have been privileging it above your joy. Then, as always, just drop it softly and be still.

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Angela Deutschmann

Experience Truth