Angela Deutschmann Newsletter
September 2009
Hi everyone
August brought another remarkable Embody experience, full of release,
insight and the absolute freedom of being. Thanks to the group of brave
(and laughing) pioneers that dared to step into all the processes so
open-heartedly. There is one more Embody this year for those of you
whose hearts are big enough to fall in love with your bodies. I would
love to see you there.
My first webinar called Parenting Lightly was great fun and worked well,
even though it is somewhat surreal to be sitting in our loft speaking to
people all over the world! The talk introduced an approach to parenting
based on joy, and not on being ‘good’ and explained the five pillars of
light-hearted, spiritually true, parenting. The webinar ended with this
poem, which sums it up beautifully:
‘God be with the mother. As she carried her child may she carry her
soul. As her child was born, may she give birth and life and form to her
own, higher truth. As she nourished and protected her child may she
nourish and protect her inner life and her independence.
For her soul shall be her most painful birth, her most difficult child
and the dearest sister to her other children’.
Michael Leunig, writer and cartoonist
A Parenting Lightly e-book, based on the webinar, will be available to
buy in early October.
This month I have been working a lot, mostly personally, with a branch
of self-awareness called Shadow Work. My Bull’s Eye below discusses this
in more detail. I’m offering a once-off Shadow Work evening on Wednesday
7 October to introduce the concepts by means of a film and to facilitate
some deep, experiential processes to introduce you to your shadow.
Please see below for details of this and other events, such as the Group
Reading on 20 September and the final JoyMap of the year in early
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.
You may also be interested to know that Joost Maijvis will be
facilitating Inspirational Breathwork sessions in Jo’burg on Saturday 10
and Sunday 11 October. Garrick is taking
bookings for those.
May September see you with a spring in your step.
Much love
Angela
Please visit my Blog
here.
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 +27844608667 or via email.
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.
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 20 September and Sunday 18 October 2009
Time: 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.
One participants’ experience: (Click here to see more feedback from others.)"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 for 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.
Once again the Embody workshop, run at Boondocks Mountain Retreat, created significant, even miraculous, shifts among this group of powerful and courageous participants. Thank you to each of them and my assistant Shaun for giving such big permissions. You humble me.
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.
Date: Friday 20 – Sunday 22 November 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 +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.
‘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
Contact Garrick to register for the next group (January 2010) or to learn more.
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
September 2009
From Holy to Wholly
This month I am taking some Growth Clubs through a process called
Integrating the Shadow. Like many of you, I have been exposed to Shadow
work through the books and films of Debbie Ford who has popularised the
notion of the shadow, a concept which was originally named and described
by Carl Jung. It is only as I sit down to write this that I realize (of
course!) that life has been putting me through exactly the same journey
on which I intend to take my Growth Club members. So this week I have
been meeting one of my shadows and her name is Prejudice.
Painful as it is, let me share with you two incidents that happened this
week that have opened up my prejudice to me.
On Monday, after doing some work with an NGO in the city, I had a fit of
‘I’m-not-your-typical-white-South-Africa-I-embrace-diversity’, which
resulted me in deciding to do my weekly groceries at a Pick N Pay in
Newtown rather than my regular, suburban branch. I felt rather virtuous
about my choice to shop in the city and rub shoulders with people who
are very different from me. Of course my virtuosity, my sense of being a
good citizen, my superiority even, followed me right on into the shop
and caused havoc.
Everything went wrong from the time I tried to park (Newtown Pick N Pay
doesn’t provide parking because its patrons are largely on foot) to the
time I tried to pay showing my Vitality card (Yini Vitality?!). I got in
everybody’s way, slowed down the lunch-time shoppers with my big trolley
and kept people waiting behind me at the till because no less than three
different items of mine would not scan. I stuck out like a sore (white)
thumb and I cringed inside at what I could so clearly see: in my effort
to cross boundaries I had entrenched them even more.
This is always the result of effort, of trying, of going out of your way
to be good instead of following your natural path, your authentic
desire. Wherever you are trying to be good (at parenting, at
spirituality, at eating etc) you will inevitably, in some form or
another, either produce or attract the reverse of what you want. This is
because, contrary to what most of us would believe, the universe or God
is in support of wholeness, not holiness.
If you have to try to be or do something, if it is not a natural joy or
an authentic desire, then you are repressing something, pushing away a
part of you that you wish wasn’t there and that is the shadow. Whatever
gets pushed into shadow will be what you unintentionally display or
bring towards you so that you can see where you are in denial or being
fragmented. In trying so hard not to be a stereotypical, racist white
South African I had become just that. My prejudice was in the shadow.
The following evening Garrick and I went out with friends to watch the
phenomenal film District 9. Sitting in front of that screen was, for me,
like being repeatedly punched in the stomach. I could hardly tolerate
the oppression and homegrown prejudice. If the film wasn’t quite so
brilliant I would have walked out the cinema from the sheer pain of
watching it. In-between my sobs afterwards I sssssaid to Garrick that I
was interested in the degree to which District 9 had affected me. Why
was I so much more emotional about the content than other people, why
had I been enraged when people around us laughed at some of the
blatantly oppressive comments? I could see that my buttons had been
pushed, or actually bashed, in a big way.
Ken Wilbur in his book Meeting the Shadow suggests a simple and very
clear distinction to determine whether what you are experiencing is
‘your stuff’ or not. ‘…if a person or thing in the environment informs
us, we probably aren’t projecting; on the other hand, if it affects us,
chances are we are a victim of our own prejudices’. I was so deeply
affected by that film because my own capacity to be oppressive, deeply
buried, was being reflected to me in a most powerful manner.
This conclusion is supported by my history. I spent years working in
NGOs and other organisations dedicated to undoing oppression and
developing the under-privileged. I consulted to corporations on black
economic empowerment and corporate social investment, dated more black
men than white and was always very outspoken on matters of racial and
gender discrimination. I wasn’t simply informed about these things, I
was fighting them. I understand this now as the obvious outcome of my
own prejudice being dis-owned, being in the shadow.
It has been painful for me to acknowledge this, especially because now I
am seeing evidence of my prejudiced thoughts everywhere! They follow me
into my relationship with Garrick, with my body and in how I make
choices about where to live. But it’s important to note that there is
nothing I can, or need to, do about my prejudice other than fully and
softly see it. Just the act of observing creates a distance, a gap,
between the real me and those thoughts. Over time that gap will grow
sufficiently for me to naturally, gracefully, use prejudice consciously
rather than unconsciously (it can be done and it can be useful). The
shadow does not need to be forcefully eradicated, it needs only to be
gently brought into the fullness of the light.
If you are interested in the idea of meeting, owning and disarming your
shadow I will be showing Debbie Ford’s film The Shadow Effect and
running some processes around that on Wednesday 7 October 2009.
Alternatively you can read one of her books on the subject, in
particular ‘The Dark Side of the Lightchasers’.
Here’s to each of us bringing our shadow into the light so that the
shadow of humanity will follow the same path.
© Angela Deutschmann 2009
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