Part One

What's True

What's True

I believe in you, that's what's true. That's the number one reason why I'm here.

But what's true of your world?

As I have mentioned, the first part of Live Your Sunshine — Be Your Light focuses on what is known and true of the world you are living in. This is information I wasn't aware of in my early ventures into improving my approach to my life and how I let things make me feel. But over the past ten to fifteen years I've read and learned a lot, and the facts about our world are continually evolving as scientists find out more and more.

So, although I wasn't aware of a lot of the points I share in Part One during the earlier stages of my own spiritual enrichment journey, I feel they are important for you to understand as you review where you're at in your life and consider where you want to be. I would definitely have made progress, and experienced insight and awakening, a little more quickly if I'd known and understood how much more I could influence my life, and what I had inside me that would help me reach higher and burst into flower.

I also like to know why and how. I'm curious, inquisitive, and interested, so I spend a lot of time looking for answers and information. I thought it might help you if I shared some of that information. Part One contains a lot of the answers – the current known truths – about our universe, which, in turn, highlights how incredibly difficult we've made life for ourselves.

But it also highlights how we can use what's around us and what we know to make life so much easier. Awareness is empowering, and knowing and realising means we can take a step back and work with what we now know is.

* Believe in you – I do.

ur Universe

You may or may not be aware of (or you may have chosen to ignore or dismiss as many have), some of what's going on around us in this big world and what's going on in that vastness, that space around us.

We are all tiny parts of an expansive universe – sometimes now being called the quantum field or realm, other times known as source, God, or the cosmos.

The universe is varying levels of vibrational energy that contain everything we are and know.

Therefore the whole Universe is actually made out of energy, and what we perceive as matter is also energy. The collective energy waves of the Universe, which might be referred to as 'invisible moving forces', comprise the field ...

Bruce Lipton

There are laws that operate within that expanse of energy. We've grown up knowing some of these laws, such as the one that creates gravity, but most of them have been kept under wraps.

We are energy too, a vibrational part of that expanse of energy called the universe. There is energy inside our physical bodies and surrounding our bodies. The energy surrounding our physical bodies is known as an aura. The energy beyond our auras expands into that huge quantum field of energy.

* You are energy.

You Are Connected to Something Huge

This way of thinking may be a little different to what you are used to. It may be a bit challenging. You may not like it, but it's important to follow your progress through this book in the context of this information. In fact, without acceptance or understanding of the fact that you're a tiny piece of energy – a very important and connected tiny piece – in something that's far bigger than your own little world or even the big world we live in, you'll lose a lot of benefit and value from the greater broader learning you'll derive from working through these chapters. That energy – that vibration, these laws – works with you to create your reality. What's 'happening to you' isn't just accidental. When you realise and understand this even just a little bit, you can then use it to your advantage and make your world just a little bit easier and more enjoyable.

Have a think about times when you've just known you need to do something, or when you've received a strong and powerful message from somewhere inside you that you can't quite explain. Perhaps you felt that you needed to be somewhere, or that something was just right (or not right). What do you think was happening there?

Think about times when you've 'felt a vibe' or had a strong inner sense about something.

This is the universe working with your inner being. This is your true self, your heart, your intuition. This is all of these things that are one, that are you, connecting with the higher energy that's all around you and guiding you along your way. If you can picture something like that happening — an invisible connection, or telephone line, between you inside and the tops of the trees and beyond – then you'll be able to see yourself operating perfectly without any needless interruptions or negative self-talk from your head. Hold on to that picture!

You are so much more than just your mind and your body. This sort of internal communication is happening all the time, but most of the time we don't listen to it because we're too busy listening instead to our egos, our logic, our reason, our friends.

Think also of times when you have walked into a room and felt an atmosphere. What else, other than energy, other than something bigger than anything you can touch, could that be?

You have been connecting and connected with universal energy your whole life. So, accept that fact here and now because this knowing will help you to pay attention to more of what's right for you and what's in front of you.

This is also about you building the confidence not only to listen to you, but to stop listening to others who are guiding you along the path they want you on (which they may be doing consciously or subconsciously). The path others would rather see you on is often quite a different path to the one you know, deep down, you'd rather be on. This is about you no longer conforming and no longer striving to meet expectations of other people – or your imagined expectations of other people. It is about standing up for yourself and having faith and belief in yourself and the messages you're receiving from your heart. The messages you receive from deep inside are your highest thoughts, your intuition, and they're coming from your connection to universal energy. They're the best guidance for you at any point in time. They are your highest vibration, and they are pure love. Don't go looking for alternatives, disputes, negotiations, or 'ways out'; I want you to trust yourself. As you open yourself to your own guidance, and follow your own guidance, you will continue to receive more guidance, so don't be afraid to do what your true self is asking you to do.

* You are already connected to a perfect support system.

There are lots of reasons – or excuses – that encourage us to close ourselves off to information and facts and other ideas we don't want to hear. But the simple fact is, there's something going on around you that's very much bigger than you – and me, and your family members and friends, your religion, your government, your culture, and your social network. As a society we generally choose to ignore this big 'something' or condemn it because it's 'weird'. It's easier to do that than it is to be laughed at, or than it is to take the time to understand how universal energy and its laws work and can be used to our own benefit.

It's easier just to believe everything we were brought up to believe by those we've touched and who have touched us, than it is to venture into even just listening to something else – another perspective, new discoveries in science — so we might become more informed and actually make up our own minds about the way we'd like to be and live our lives. For many of us it's become easier to live closed off than it is to even try opening our hearts and minds. We make excuses, rendering everything on the horizon at fault for whatever's going on in our lives, instead of standing tall, taking responsibility for our lives and leading our own way.

We tend to sneer or scoff at people who believe there's something more, something much bigger than just their own little domain. We don't even want to actually take a look at what it is they know or are doing, and how they're managing to live a life that's calm and relaxed, peaceful and contented.

Of course, part of the difficulty is that we can't 'see' the energy. We tend not to believe what we can't see: I'll believe it when I see it. Yet there's a lot of truth in the reverse of that philosophy; I expect that when I believe it, I'll see it.

Think 'open', 'believe', 'trust', 'love', 'attract' and 'feel'. I urge you to start feeling more, and then to pay more attention to what your feelings are telling you.

* Feel it, believe it, and you'll see it.

Open your mind to new thoughts and ideas. Toy around with the fact that you are energy inside and that you're surrounded by an invisible energy, your aura. Contemplate the fact that there is a lot more of that energy above, around, and beyond the realms of your body. When you open up and even just entertain the fact that you're part of something so much bigger, the little things – the difficult people, the hiccups in your plans – matter less, and often even stop mattering at all. The weight lifts a little as you realise that the energy around you is your unconditional friend, and it can help you, guide you, and work with you better than the sources of support you currently rely on – media, friends, family members, society, colleagues, your ego.

In fact, your whole perception changes. You are no longer annoyed by things that annoy you now because you see them differently and in true perspective. You are able to see – and live and love! – the brighter, lighter side of life because you're connecting with you, and you, by default, operate in connection with that bigger, higher universal energy.

Don't be put off, and don't be scared if this is all a bit too much. You don't have to 'get it' yet; this is just foundation information that will help you. As you look back on it, as you work through the exercises in this book, it'll make sense. Take your time and force nothing. Just go gently, and be open to receive and try.

* Open up to something bigger, and life will get easier.

Tapping Into the Energy

Sit quietly and rub the palms of your hands together fairly quickly for a few moments – enough to warm them up. Slowly move them apart. What can you feel? Close your eyes.

Move your hands further apart and then closer together without touching. Move them further apart again. Feel the invisible extending and contracting ball, the fuzzy air, the pulsating of your hands. Whatever you want to call it, this is energy. Within a few seconds, you've moved, generated, and connected with some of the energy that's around you.

In early 2003, raging bushfires shot uncontrollably through a vast area of national park near Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, Australia. A matter of weeks after the last of the fires had been extinguished, I was driving north, out of Sydney, along the freeway that ran through this region.

Words will never portray what my senses experienced that day. As I drove round a bend, I came face-to-face with a breath-taking sight. Thousands of bright green new shoots had formed on the tips of scorched, charcoal-scarred trees, over an expanse that stretched to the horizon and totally contradicted the powerful stench of the still- burning cinders that was reaching my nostrils. On a normally fairly uninspiring drive home along the freeway, I encountered something that arrested my senses like never before. It was one of the most humbling, moving, awesome sights I had ever seen. Tears ran down my face. I was covered in goose pimples and completely in the grasp of the regeneration I saw before me.

The traffic and human life around me paled into total insignificance, and the sheer massive presence, the absolute and overwhelming natural beauty and power in those trees humbled me instantly.

Nothing can describe what came over me, and the respect I felt, in those few moments that day as I came around that corner and faced that commanding energy and true power of life. The contradiction between the amazing bright green example of youth and the black charcoal span of devastation stretching as far as the eye could see (and the nose could smell) was testament to the strength of life, wellness, and health. It was evidence that life can't be pulled out from under us quite as easily as we might think. We are those trees. We are that energy, that resilience. We can do that too. We can stand tall, we can be strong, we can be knocked down and come back stronger.

That those trees had that incredible and amazing power, that Mother Nature could do that, taught me more about energy and life and power in about thirty seconds than reading any book could ever have done.

* Power, resilience, strength – you.

You Are Energy

I urge you and encourage you not just to go with the words in this book, but to really take a holistic approach to what you're reading. Include your whole being. Sense the energy in and around you and zone in on your feelings. Experiment. Try things. Given the right attention, your feelings will energise you. Your feelings will help you to find the strength to open up to new thoughts, to open up to try new things. Your feelings will help you to open up to new possibilities, to the truth of what is in the world. Your feelings will help you to step over the fear, out of your comfort zone, and into the experience of trying something new.

The words alone don't teach you anything. The feelings, the energy, the experiences, and the emotions are your guides. Even as I was just sitting here trying to describe that day, feeling it again and reliving it from the other side of the world over thirteen years later, I had to stop and just be with it for a few minutes. Energy is powerful, grounding, inspiring, and deeply humbling. Just allowing myself to be with that experience, that picture, has been meditative in its own way. That's what you are living in – that energy environment. We too can heal, enrich and grow stronger; we too can remain grounded and energised, in the same way as the trees.

* Energy is your environment.

And because we can heal, enrich and grow stronger; because it's important for us to remain grounded and energised, we're going to talk a lot about energy and how things feel, how you feel. We're all part of that exact same life. Allowing ourselves to be led by our feelings means we're working with the energy around us, inside us, and everywhere else in between. Listening to that energy, and how we respond to that energy, is our indicator that we're on track – or not. Energy is naturally free flowing and should naturally make us feel good. If we're not feeling good, we're blocking something. Remember that: we're blocking something! Ifwe're not feeling good, that feeling is ours to own and to do something about.

All too often our energy is blocked as a result of the way we deal with the various components of our day, including the situations that arise throughout our day and the people who participate in our day. People generate a lot of negative energy, and many of our day-to-day situations are generated by people; hence, directly and indirectly, people can have a significant effect on our state of being if we are not conscious of protecting ourselves from their energy. It's often our interactions with others that prevent us from achieving natural, free-flowing ease in our lives.

Life wasn't meant to be the continual struggle – the physical, mental, emotional slog – that we've made it. Yes, we can do something about it. We can change the struggle. And we can do that by taking ownership and looking inside.

We're here, you and I, to unblock the blockages, to remove the obstructions in your energy that have formed as a result of the stressors in your life, and to let love and life flow.

When you make changes to your energy, you'll make big changes to the quality of your life. Love is the highest vibration, the highest frequency of energy. So when your energy vibrates at a higher frequency, you will likely be radiating a lot of love, joy, and compassion. Let that knowledge help you to live from and within your heart.

It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing – a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind.

Albert Einstein