Hello family and friends,
Today, I’d like to share some really big changes in my life this year.
I would love to tell you how Lifebook changed my life by helping me to look at how I really wish to live my life. I can tell you, it is BIG.
I have found one of the ultimate freedoms in life: Today, I am free of food. Yes, this may sound waaaayyy out, but I know that I no longer need food to live.
(If you’re curious, disbelieving or think I am plain nuts, I can back this up with a foundation in both science and the spiritual wisdom traditions of the world. Of course, there are also a few qualifiers in there.)
Oh, and added to that, I also:
• achieved amazing weight loss – 13,7 kg / 30,14 pounds
• stopping smoking after 30 years of a titanic struggle to quit and
• realised my dream of starting to live on pranic energy, among other wonderful things.
In case you’re wondering what Lifebook is: it is a programme by Jon and Missy Butcher, where you determine your Life Vision across a number of important life categories. The Lifebook categories include: health, emotional life, intellectual life, character, spiritual life, love life, family and social life, finance, career and lifestyle.
Number 1 totally awesome benefit - clarity
By far the biggest benefit I got from the Lifebook process, was clarity.
Once I have worked out how I wish my life to look across 12 categories, decision making became a breeze. I started making decisions quickly, easily and with confidence, because I was entirely clear about my life vision and could measure every decision against it.
So, if a decision came up, I would look at the options and ask myself: Does this further my Life Vision? If the answer is “yes,” I go for it, if the answer is “No,” I throw it out, chop-chop.
I had no idea of the true importance of clarity until I felt the difference myself. Before Lifebook, I would ponder decisions for days, make pros and cons lists and generally just spend (and waste) a lot of time making decisions. Now that I have this decision-making tool, it is like I see the light at the end of the tunnel every day! :D And no, that light is not a train, it is blue skies! I also save heaps of time and mental as well as emotional energy.
Get Darius!*
Quite early on in the Lifebook Journey, I looked for that one big thing that would move the needle drastically for me across many categories. I wished to gain a lot of quick wins early on.
I had found out about Pranic Living in 2017 and immediately felt strongly attracted to the concept. In my mind, Pranic Living boils down to switching your energy engine from mostly running on “food fuel” to mostly running on “pranic energy fuel.” Note that this is not an absolute statement: you could, for instance, run on 60%, 70% or 80% pranic energy, and adjust your food intake accordingly. (It is not quite as simple as that, but it will take quite a bit of space to explain.) Also, eating food can be a lot of fun, so someone can choose to still “taste” food and eat from time to time, or eat at social occasions (because eating is such a social activity) and so on.
Before I did Lifebook, I felt that the huge travel distance required to get to a pranic initiation workshop and that being away from home for two weeks or more was a bit too much to ask. I could not quite not convince myself that it was important enough to make the kind of effort it would require to get to a workshop.
However, after progressing quite a bit through my Lifebook, I saw very clearly that a Pranic Living Initiation was my Darius. Once I had found many compelling reasons for going, through the Lifebook process, all the “obstacles” that blocked me from going to an initiation just melted away like snow before the sun.
So, in February I booked a flight to Thailand and did the initiation from 22 – 30 April. At the core of the process was a 3,5-day dry fast. I came through the process many kilograms lighter in body and a quantum leap lighter in spirit.
* For those of you who wonder what I mean when I’m talking about “Get Darius!” I got this bit of history from Jon Butcher.
“All was ready and on October 1, 331 BC the Persian army of possibly 200,000 (ancient texts exaggerate the number up to 1 million) faced off against Alexander's 35,000.”
Source: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/alexander.htm
The way I recall Jon telling it, is that Alexander the Great had to come up with an exceptional plan, since his army was vastly outnumbered. The evening before the battle, Alexander sent a message to all his commanders: everyone had to focus on “getting Darius.”
In those days, the Persians considered their king to be a god. During the battle, when Darius saw all of Alexander’s army heading for him, he quaked in his boots and fled. When the Persian army saw their god-king fleeing – well, what chance did they, as mere mortals, have? So, they fled too, and that is how Alexander won with his 35 000 soldiers pitched against 200 000.
RESULTS
The results of my decision and the actions following upon it were quite dramatic. I had lost fat and fear and gained one of the ultimate freedoms: Freedom from food.
This is how it impacted on some of the Lifebook categories.
Health
This week, (Thursday 20 June 2019) I clocked below 60 kilograms for the first time in about two decades. That’s a biggie.
• On 21 January this year I weighed 73,1kg (160,82 pounds).
• On Thursday 20 June 2019 I weighed 59,4kg/130,68 pounds.
• Thus far, I’ve lost 30,14 pounds/13,7kg.
I hit my very ambitious goal. On the one hand I could scarcely believe it, but happily I can see the evidence daily, because my clothes no longer get stuck on my fat rolls and I can see the evidence on the scale every morning. I am utterly delighted.
Stopped smoking
Another massive win is that I stopped smoking. I turned 50 last year in December. I had promised myself that I would stop smoking when I turned half a century. I also promised myself I would stop smoking when I turned 40, and when I turned 30.
We all know that it is not a good idea to break one’s promises to oneself. I did this once too often and realised that I would have to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into my efforts to stop smoking. I just wasn’t going to accept defeat again. And I was heartily sick and tired of being a slave to the smoking habit. My highest value is freedom, and realising that I was a slave to a habit really didn’t sit well with me.
It occurred to me that it would be very, very hard to smoke while living on pranic energy. A purified body just wouldn’t be able to deal with the toxins of smoking, so, clearly, going through a pranic initiation would be just the ticket here.
The result? The last time I smoked a cigarette was on 21 April 2019, the day just before the Pranic initiation retreat started.
When I told my mom about my adventure, she seemed to take it in her stride. A bit later I heard from my sister that my mom was worried about me. I phoned my mom to discuss her concerns. She was worried that I would pass out without food, or not have the physical strength to live a normal, active life. I reassured her that the opposite was true, and sent her my health stats for the day - 30 May 2019. I had walked and jogged 14,8km (9,1 miles) for the day and my resting heart rate was 44 beats per minute. Not too shabby, I’d say. :D
Result: Allergies gone
Two years ago, I fulfilled one of my dreams by moving to a little town close to the ocean. I love it here. One drawback, though, it that, ever since I’ve moved here, I suffer from flu-like symptoms every April and May, with an aching body, a sore head and a post-nasal drip that is quite irritating.
I have seen homeopaths and doctors about this and nothing helped. A friend of mine suggested that it is probably a seasonal allergy.
A little while before the pranic living workshop, we received an email suggesting that we start water fasting and perhaps try fasting one day a week, just to get into it.
My first attempt failed. I started getting hungry about 11:00 on the Monday, and ate something. I spoke to my sister and she encouraged me – she said that fasting is actually quite easy and that she likes it. (Thanks Lynnette v d Walt!)
I also saw a video where someone suggested you fast from 17:00 the one afternoon to 17:00 the next day. I decided to fast from 17:00 on Sunday to 17:00 on Monday. That made a HUGE difference, because, when I got up on Monday morning, I was already well on my way through the 24-hour fasting period. Then, when I got peckish around about 11:00, I simply told myself: “Only six more hours to go until 17:00. Can’t spoil all the good work done in the previous 18 hours!”
So, on my second try I did manage to fast for 24 hours.
A couple of days before my second try at fasting, the seasonal flu symptoms started. I got that sinking feeling in my stomach: “Oh, no, not another two months of suffering, please!” It is rather daunting to face low-grade pain and discomfort for the next two months.
Miracle! After my first successful fast, I was “scanning” my body, to get a sense of how she felt after the fast. All of a sudden, a huge smile lit my face: My flu-like symptoms were gone! I was absolutely over the moon. To my lasting delight, the symptoms stayed away.
When I re-read the email suggesting that we try fasting, I noted that they stipulated we should do a water fast, i.e. drink water only. I had overlooked that bit of information, so during my first 24 hour fast I happily drank tea and coffee. It dawned on me that, despite having done a half-assed fast by drinking tea and coffee instead of just water, I had still been healed from my flu-like symptoms. You have no idea of my gratitude, joy and relief. I think only someone who had faced two months of pain – and who had experienced a reprieve from the pain, can truly appreciate the relief and gratitude.
This also started me thinking: Why did it take me until after my 50th birthday to discover the miraculous properties of fasting? Why is this not a common health strategy in our society?
Emotional
I did not expect the emotional benefits. They were even greater than the physical benefits, though clearly interlinked with them.
Fear not
I tend to be a nervous traveller. For my trip to Thailand, my travel agent had found me a series of flights with relatively short time periods between the connecting flights. While I was delighted with the fact that I wouldn’t have to hang around at airports for hours, I was also quite nervous, worrying that I would not have enough time to retrieve my luggage and get my next flight, with such short periods between the flights. It is a bit of a pain to be so worried – it really detracts from the travelling experience. Even though I told myself: “que sera, whatever will be, will be,” I didn’t really follow my own advice.
After the pranic initiation, flying back from Thailand, I was struck by how relaxed and chilled I was. I didn’t worry for a moment over whether I will make my connecting flights in time or not. “Ah, so not only have I lost fat, I have lost my fear too!” I thought to myself, suffused with deep delight.
Guilt gone
While I was on the heavy side, weight-wise, I felt guilty to get on a horse, thinking about their poor backs. After my dramatic weight loss, the guilt is gone and I thoroughly enjoy my horse riding now.
Spiritual
My meditation practice took a quantum leap. Before, I struggled a bit to get up at 4am to do Dr Joe Dispenza’s pineal gland activation. I now often wake up without the aid of an alarm clock at around 3:36 am and enjoy hours of meditation. Since the initiation I also often feel strong currents of energy coursing through my body during meditation.
I regularly enjoy deep states of joy and gratitude.
Intellectual, spiritual and emotional
It is spiritually, emotionally and intellectually very deeply satisfying to ponder the potential positive impact of pranic living on the earth.
Just imagine if all of us humans stopped eating. Or reduced our intake by 80%. The effect on the world around us will be astounding! I enjoy reflecting on that, even though I realise that pranic living is not for everybody. It is probably just a small number of extremists and pushers of the envelope of the human condition who will try this sort of thing.
Still, it is now my new vision to share it with as many people as humanly possible and see what positive and beneficial impact it can make in the world.
Career/vocation
The miraculous benefits of pranic living has sparked a massive desire in me to share this concept, this way of living, with the world. I have already devoted quite a bit of my time to this sharing by working on a book about it. I believe that a vocation connected with pranic living will now be included in my life.
I have only touched briefly and rather superficially on the concept of pranic living here, because I don’t intend to write the whole book right here.
Book
If you are keen to read about my pranic living adventure and you’re willing to wait until I’ve finished my book, feel free to leave your email address here and I’ll be happy to email you a link to the book once it is done. I’m very happy to be writing the book, because one of the things Jon mentions in the Lifebook training, is that it is good to balance our input (studying, receiving) with our output (writing, sharing information and wisdom etc.).
Many other positive things have happened, really too many to describe here. For instance, I did an animal communication session for a friend’s dog during the past week, and the confirmations on the information I shared was quite astounding. (Thanks Jio!)
I discovered the power of paradox. It blew my mind and I’m still working out my thoughts around that. It will go into the book.
Another subject that has come to the fore, is the great impact of intent, combined with habit, something that I’ll talk about in my book.
Just a quick example: As human beings, we are naturally geared to be of service to others, to wish to make other people happy. We can combine that with the great power of intent, to give others a daily blessing which is much greater than ourselves. Make it a habit to bless others daily.
An example of such a blessing: “May every breath I take today bless all beings.” Then, see how beautiful your breathing becomes.
Or: “May every step I give today bring joy to all.” Then, see how joyfully sacred your every step becomes.
Conclusion
We can choose where we play. We can choose to play in the middle, where things are safe and stay the same (or we hope they do). Or we can choose to play at the edge, where things change all the time (they do, anyway): where new lives, thoughts and paradigms are born.
I choose the edge. Playing on the edge with tools like Lifebook didn’t change my life a little bit. It changed my life massively, dramatically and permanently. Entirely worth it, if you ask me.
Today, I’d like to share some really big changes in my life this year.
I would love to tell you how Lifebook changed my life by helping me to look at how I really wish to live my life. I can tell you, it is BIG.
I have found one of the ultimate freedoms in life: Today, I am free of food. Yes, this may sound waaaayyy out, but I know that I no longer need food to live.
(If you’re curious, disbelieving or think I am plain nuts, I can back this up with a foundation in both science and the spiritual wisdom traditions of the world. Of course, there are also a few qualifiers in there.)
Oh, and added to that, I also:
• achieved amazing weight loss – 13,7 kg / 30,14 pounds
• stopping smoking after 30 years of a titanic struggle to quit and
• realised my dream of starting to live on pranic energy, among other wonderful things.
In case you’re wondering what Lifebook is: it is a programme by Jon and Missy Butcher, where you determine your Life Vision across a number of important life categories. The Lifebook categories include: health, emotional life, intellectual life, character, spiritual life, love life, family and social life, finance, career and lifestyle.
Number 1 totally awesome benefit - clarity
By far the biggest benefit I got from the Lifebook process, was clarity.
Once I have worked out how I wish my life to look across 12 categories, decision making became a breeze. I started making decisions quickly, easily and with confidence, because I was entirely clear about my life vision and could measure every decision against it.
So, if a decision came up, I would look at the options and ask myself: Does this further my Life Vision? If the answer is “yes,” I go for it, if the answer is “No,” I throw it out, chop-chop.
I had no idea of the true importance of clarity until I felt the difference myself. Before Lifebook, I would ponder decisions for days, make pros and cons lists and generally just spend (and waste) a lot of time making decisions. Now that I have this decision-making tool, it is like I see the light at the end of the tunnel every day! :D And no, that light is not a train, it is blue skies! I also save heaps of time and mental as well as emotional energy.
Get Darius!*
Quite early on in the Lifebook Journey, I looked for that one big thing that would move the needle drastically for me across many categories. I wished to gain a lot of quick wins early on.
I had found out about Pranic Living in 2017 and immediately felt strongly attracted to the concept. In my mind, Pranic Living boils down to switching your energy engine from mostly running on “food fuel” to mostly running on “pranic energy fuel.” Note that this is not an absolute statement: you could, for instance, run on 60%, 70% or 80% pranic energy, and adjust your food intake accordingly. (It is not quite as simple as that, but it will take quite a bit of space to explain.) Also, eating food can be a lot of fun, so someone can choose to still “taste” food and eat from time to time, or eat at social occasions (because eating is such a social activity) and so on.
Before I did Lifebook, I felt that the huge travel distance required to get to a pranic initiation workshop and that being away from home for two weeks or more was a bit too much to ask. I could not quite not convince myself that it was important enough to make the kind of effort it would require to get to a workshop.
However, after progressing quite a bit through my Lifebook, I saw very clearly that a Pranic Living Initiation was my Darius. Once I had found many compelling reasons for going, through the Lifebook process, all the “obstacles” that blocked me from going to an initiation just melted away like snow before the sun.
So, in February I booked a flight to Thailand and did the initiation from 22 – 30 April. At the core of the process was a 3,5-day dry fast. I came through the process many kilograms lighter in body and a quantum leap lighter in spirit.
* For those of you who wonder what I mean when I’m talking about “Get Darius!” I got this bit of history from Jon Butcher.
“All was ready and on October 1, 331 BC the Persian army of possibly 200,000 (ancient texts exaggerate the number up to 1 million) faced off against Alexander's 35,000.”
Source: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/alexander.htm
The way I recall Jon telling it, is that Alexander the Great had to come up with an exceptional plan, since his army was vastly outnumbered. The evening before the battle, Alexander sent a message to all his commanders: everyone had to focus on “getting Darius.”
In those days, the Persians considered their king to be a god. During the battle, when Darius saw all of Alexander’s army heading for him, he quaked in his boots and fled. When the Persian army saw their god-king fleeing – well, what chance did they, as mere mortals, have? So, they fled too, and that is how Alexander won with his 35 000 soldiers pitched against 200 000.
RESULTS
The results of my decision and the actions following upon it were quite dramatic. I had lost fat and fear and gained one of the ultimate freedoms: Freedom from food.
This is how it impacted on some of the Lifebook categories.
Health
This week, (Thursday 20 June 2019) I clocked below 60 kilograms for the first time in about two decades. That’s a biggie.
• On 21 January this year I weighed 73,1kg (160,82 pounds).
• On Thursday 20 June 2019 I weighed 59,4kg/130,68 pounds.
• Thus far, I’ve lost 30,14 pounds/13,7kg.
I hit my very ambitious goal. On the one hand I could scarcely believe it, but happily I can see the evidence daily, because my clothes no longer get stuck on my fat rolls and I can see the evidence on the scale every morning. I am utterly delighted.
Stopped smoking
Another massive win is that I stopped smoking. I turned 50 last year in December. I had promised myself that I would stop smoking when I turned half a century. I also promised myself I would stop smoking when I turned 40, and when I turned 30.
We all know that it is not a good idea to break one’s promises to oneself. I did this once too often and realised that I would have to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into my efforts to stop smoking. I just wasn’t going to accept defeat again. And I was heartily sick and tired of being a slave to the smoking habit. My highest value is freedom, and realising that I was a slave to a habit really didn’t sit well with me.
It occurred to me that it would be very, very hard to smoke while living on pranic energy. A purified body just wouldn’t be able to deal with the toxins of smoking, so, clearly, going through a pranic initiation would be just the ticket here.
The result? The last time I smoked a cigarette was on 21 April 2019, the day just before the Pranic initiation retreat started.
When I told my mom about my adventure, she seemed to take it in her stride. A bit later I heard from my sister that my mom was worried about me. I phoned my mom to discuss her concerns. She was worried that I would pass out without food, or not have the physical strength to live a normal, active life. I reassured her that the opposite was true, and sent her my health stats for the day - 30 May 2019. I had walked and jogged 14,8km (9,1 miles) for the day and my resting heart rate was 44 beats per minute. Not too shabby, I’d say. :D
Result: Allergies gone
Two years ago, I fulfilled one of my dreams by moving to a little town close to the ocean. I love it here. One drawback, though, it that, ever since I’ve moved here, I suffer from flu-like symptoms every April and May, with an aching body, a sore head and a post-nasal drip that is quite irritating.
I have seen homeopaths and doctors about this and nothing helped. A friend of mine suggested that it is probably a seasonal allergy.
A little while before the pranic living workshop, we received an email suggesting that we start water fasting and perhaps try fasting one day a week, just to get into it.
My first attempt failed. I started getting hungry about 11:00 on the Monday, and ate something. I spoke to my sister and she encouraged me – she said that fasting is actually quite easy and that she likes it. (Thanks Lynnette v d Walt!)
I also saw a video where someone suggested you fast from 17:00 the one afternoon to 17:00 the next day. I decided to fast from 17:00 on Sunday to 17:00 on Monday. That made a HUGE difference, because, when I got up on Monday morning, I was already well on my way through the 24-hour fasting period. Then, when I got peckish around about 11:00, I simply told myself: “Only six more hours to go until 17:00. Can’t spoil all the good work done in the previous 18 hours!”
So, on my second try I did manage to fast for 24 hours.
A couple of days before my second try at fasting, the seasonal flu symptoms started. I got that sinking feeling in my stomach: “Oh, no, not another two months of suffering, please!” It is rather daunting to face low-grade pain and discomfort for the next two months.
Miracle! After my first successful fast, I was “scanning” my body, to get a sense of how she felt after the fast. All of a sudden, a huge smile lit my face: My flu-like symptoms were gone! I was absolutely over the moon. To my lasting delight, the symptoms stayed away.
When I re-read the email suggesting that we try fasting, I noted that they stipulated we should do a water fast, i.e. drink water only. I had overlooked that bit of information, so during my first 24 hour fast I happily drank tea and coffee. It dawned on me that, despite having done a half-assed fast by drinking tea and coffee instead of just water, I had still been healed from my flu-like symptoms. You have no idea of my gratitude, joy and relief. I think only someone who had faced two months of pain – and who had experienced a reprieve from the pain, can truly appreciate the relief and gratitude.
This also started me thinking: Why did it take me until after my 50th birthday to discover the miraculous properties of fasting? Why is this not a common health strategy in our society?
Emotional
I did not expect the emotional benefits. They were even greater than the physical benefits, though clearly interlinked with them.
Fear not
I tend to be a nervous traveller. For my trip to Thailand, my travel agent had found me a series of flights with relatively short time periods between the connecting flights. While I was delighted with the fact that I wouldn’t have to hang around at airports for hours, I was also quite nervous, worrying that I would not have enough time to retrieve my luggage and get my next flight, with such short periods between the flights. It is a bit of a pain to be so worried – it really detracts from the travelling experience. Even though I told myself: “que sera, whatever will be, will be,” I didn’t really follow my own advice.
After the pranic initiation, flying back from Thailand, I was struck by how relaxed and chilled I was. I didn’t worry for a moment over whether I will make my connecting flights in time or not. “Ah, so not only have I lost fat, I have lost my fear too!” I thought to myself, suffused with deep delight.
Guilt gone
While I was on the heavy side, weight-wise, I felt guilty to get on a horse, thinking about their poor backs. After my dramatic weight loss, the guilt is gone and I thoroughly enjoy my horse riding now.
Spiritual
My meditation practice took a quantum leap. Before, I struggled a bit to get up at 4am to do Dr Joe Dispenza’s pineal gland activation. I now often wake up without the aid of an alarm clock at around 3:36 am and enjoy hours of meditation. Since the initiation I also often feel strong currents of energy coursing through my body during meditation.
I regularly enjoy deep states of joy and gratitude.
Intellectual, spiritual and emotional
It is spiritually, emotionally and intellectually very deeply satisfying to ponder the potential positive impact of pranic living on the earth.
Just imagine if all of us humans stopped eating. Or reduced our intake by 80%. The effect on the world around us will be astounding! I enjoy reflecting on that, even though I realise that pranic living is not for everybody. It is probably just a small number of extremists and pushers of the envelope of the human condition who will try this sort of thing.
Still, it is now my new vision to share it with as many people as humanly possible and see what positive and beneficial impact it can make in the world.
Career/vocation
The miraculous benefits of pranic living has sparked a massive desire in me to share this concept, this way of living, with the world. I have already devoted quite a bit of my time to this sharing by working on a book about it. I believe that a vocation connected with pranic living will now be included in my life.
I have only touched briefly and rather superficially on the concept of pranic living here, because I don’t intend to write the whole book right here.
Book
If you are keen to read about my pranic living adventure and you’re willing to wait until I’ve finished my book, feel free to leave your email address here and I’ll be happy to email you a link to the book once it is done. I’m very happy to be writing the book, because one of the things Jon mentions in the Lifebook training, is that it is good to balance our input (studying, receiving) with our output (writing, sharing information and wisdom etc.).
Many other positive things have happened, really too many to describe here. For instance, I did an animal communication session for a friend’s dog during the past week, and the confirmations on the information I shared was quite astounding. (Thanks Jio!)
I discovered the power of paradox. It blew my mind and I’m still working out my thoughts around that. It will go into the book.
Another subject that has come to the fore, is the great impact of intent, combined with habit, something that I’ll talk about in my book.
Just a quick example: As human beings, we are naturally geared to be of service to others, to wish to make other people happy. We can combine that with the great power of intent, to give others a daily blessing which is much greater than ourselves. Make it a habit to bless others daily.
An example of such a blessing: “May every breath I take today bless all beings.” Then, see how beautiful your breathing becomes.
Or: “May every step I give today bring joy to all.” Then, see how joyfully sacred your every step becomes.
Conclusion
We can choose where we play. We can choose to play in the middle, where things are safe and stay the same (or we hope they do). Or we can choose to play at the edge, where things change all the time (they do, anyway): where new lives, thoughts and paradigms are born.
I choose the edge. Playing on the edge with tools like Lifebook didn’t change my life a little bit. It changed my life massively, dramatically and permanently. Entirely worth it, if you ask me.