Clean Up the World

It is a sunny September morning and the wind has finally dropped in the perpetually breezy Southern Spanish town of Tarifa. I live in the most southern point of mainland Europe, a paradise of long white beaches, migratory wetlands and lush mountains of pine and cork oak.

The lack of breeze is making it easy for me to rummage through the grass verge picking up stray, wind-blown plastic, discarded food wrappers and old, forgotten tissues. Around me, five or six other people are picking through the bushes, gathering junk.

Earlier in the day I met with a bunch of passionate, solution focused people, as we collected rolls of black sacks, rubber gloves and hand-painted signs and were allocated areas around the town to clean. This action is part of the Clean Up the World campaign, a worldwide movement aimed at collective responsibility for the mess we are making on our planet.

A number of things are running through my mind as I work… love for the environment, satisfaction at being of service, a warmth that I am taking responsibility for something and a sense of community and connection, not just with the people I am working with, but with nature herself.

As I pick up the flotsam and jetsam of our modern life, I can feel nature within me, around me, as an extension of the planet. I wonder how much of humanity has some kind of disconnect going on in their heads. There seems to be a correlation between the separation and isolation we feel and the amount of rubbish and packaging we are using on the planet. The further we get from nature and each other, stuck in our heads and egos, the more separate we feel thus the more useless stuff we tend to buy in order to fill that void. Packaging separates us from our food, from materials, from nature itself. Yet humans are nature. Nature is us. We are part of a vast ecology that is begging for us to wake up and realise this simple fact. In our separation from who we really are, we lose our way, senselessly consuming without regard for the results.

It is plainly apparent that the biggest amount of junk is plastic. My local supermarket advises using a disposable plastic glove to pick fruits from the display to put them in a plastic bag which will go in another plastic bag at the checkout if I were to follow all the ‘rules’. This is wholly a modern problem yet all of us are complicit in the continuation of such materials because we have not yet chosen to stand our ground when it comes to shopping and many of us are not aware of the alternatives. Plastics can very easily be made out of super sustainable hemp, creating super bio-degradable packaging that makes good compost! Yet that is only half the issue really.

Having good alternatives to plastic, having good rubbish solutions and recycling systems are not nearly as effective as not creating it in the first place and this is always our first port of call. We have the choice to shop more carefully, take our own bags, to consider what we are buying. Is there a less-resource hungry product out there? We can drop our awareness into our hearts as we shop, connect with our nature, and ask ourselves what good choices we can make today. We can decide to buy loose vegetables, take our own bags shopping and buy food from counters rather than pre-packed fridges. We can refuse packaging and extra bags. Clean Up the World makes it perfectly clear that we can go out anytime to pick up rubbish. It doesn’t just have to be their once a year weekend.

One thing I didn’t feel over the course of the day was anger. I didn’t blame anyone for the mess. Clean Up the World emphasises that we are all in this together. That means letting go of separation and blame. What occurs is a sense of community, responsibility, heart-connection and oneness with the planet. It feels good picking up rubbish. I highly recommend it.

Top Tips for Cleaning Up the World

1. Take a plastic bag with you when you go walking. You can pick up any litter you see. 
2. Go out into nature, breathe deeply, connect your breath to all that is around.
3. Let go of anger. We are in this together. This is our rubbish. 
4. Picking up rubbish is a grand opportunity to do something that feels good today!
5. Say no to unnecessary packaging and plastic bags.
6. Take your own bags shopping.
7. Shop in places that you can choose loose or refillable produce and packaging.
8. Investigate and educate yourself about hemp plastics.
9. Organise a Clean Up the World group to clean an area near you.
10. Communicate with your local council about your clean-up day.

The Forty Pilgrims Project - The Rift: Part 1

Day 13 to 25

We exist in a seemingly infinite Universe. We live in a constant evolving now that continually creates the very next moment. Each moment is unwritten and reveals untold potential. Anything can happen, nothing is written in stone and surprises and adventure abound. We are at a juncture in time and space where we are beginning to piece together the puzzle of consciousness, quantum physics and material reality.

Daring adventurers are cutting through the mainstream flow of thought to the very edge of human understanding. Scientists, meditators, creators, musicians, inventors, yogis, writers and explorers… people from all walks of life are beginning to wake up to their true nature. People around the world are pushing the boundaries of human understanding further and further. We are walking into the dream. We are beginning to realise that reality is an extension of our thoughts, that we are all connected, that consciousness is not limited to humans alone. We are beginning to see that we are magical beings, extensions of an unlimited universal field of energy that abounds in love, experience and expansion.

Quantum physicists are concluding that matter is mostly space and that reality exists where we focus. There is a leap to be made from observing the behaviour of atoms in a laboratory and observing the grand tapestry of life dancing in front of our eyes. If we can reduce the infinite potential of a wave of possibility down to a seemingly solid particle once we observe it, how then can we make the connection between the thoughts we think and the life we are currently experiencing?

The thoughts we think, the state of our mind and the thrum of our emotional levels are the tools we have in the grand experiment of life. Our thoughts and beliefs create our perceptions and our emotions are a bodily response to all that we think. We feel those emotions in our gut, our heart and all over our bodies. They are indicators of where we are right now. Think different thoughts, get different emotional responses. It goes deeper...

What if our body does not stop at our skin? What if we have an electro-magnetic field that extends outwards into ‘reality’ that interacts with everything we see? What if each living organism has a field and we are all living within the fields of each other, extending from the Sun to the Earth to the Moon and back again. What if everything we see is responding to us based on the thoughts and focus we choose? Just like the scientists in the lab observing electrons, when we are not focused on something, it is not there - existing as all possibilities. When we are focused on it, whether in reality, briefly, or in our imagination, up it pops! A song heard for the first time suddenly plays all day. A person in a crowd keeps popping up all over town. A friend we were just thinking of rings out of the blue.

Let us dive even deeper still. Thoughts create perceptions and vibrations to which all of reality is responding to. Matter is becoming stuff because of how and where we focus. This is complex and wonderful. Reality is literally forming around our beliefs and thoughts and our emotions are letting us know how we feel about these things. They are letting us know if we are in tune with our heart and soul. They are our inner guru - our personal guide to ourselves. We are all beautiful and amazing wonders of the Universe and when we think anything less of ourselves it hurts. Our emotions can tell us when the thoughts we have about ourselves are not true to our hearts knowledge.

As we grow up we gather a whole bunch of thoughts and ideas, beliefs and patterns. We know that some of these ideas and thoughts are great and make us happy. We follow our hearts and discover our passions. We fall in love, play and learn to focus on what makes us sing. We eat the food we like and avoid the food that tastes yucky.

The flip-side is that we also gather thoughts and ideas that do not serve us. Often we gather illusions of thought when we are young. These illusions hurt. They don’t feel good. We have emotional responses to the illusions. Remember, our emotions are trying to heal us and show us the way back to our heart so when we feel ugly or unworthy or useless, our emotions are trying to tell us to move away from these thoughts. They are asking us to listen to ourselves, to allow the flow of the emotion to move through our body and then move on to a better thought pattern.

We get stuck in these patterns but because life moves on. We push them down, glide over them, ignore them and keep a stiff upper lip. We live with a lump in our throat as we swallow our emotions. The patterns of thought that do not serve us get stuck in our bodies. Thoughts have weight. They are electrical impulses and we are electro-magnetic, organic beings made of atoms of Earth that came from stars! These stuck thoughts and related emotions wear us down and get stuck in our sub-conscious, forgotten by our forward focused mind. They get stuck in our muscles and organs and we become slow and stiff from the weight of unprocessed junk. We age and become cranky, thinking we are less than we are as some people excel to greatness, floating on the jasmine of life’s summer breeze.

We try new things or dream of other worlds of experience but can be held back by the limiting beliefs hidden within us. We tell ourselves we are not good enough, that we are unlucky, that life is disappointing or that we are blocked and guess what – life exists where you focus. The underlying belief manifests instead of the forward focused eagerness of our waking mind. When this happens enough, we become dejected, depressed, and tired of life. We think we are helpless. It seems ridiculous to hear that our thoughts create things. Life seems random and unfair. Don’t worry, things can change. Life is awesome and predisposed to wholeness. It is working to heal you even as we speak. There is a way forward and a way to let go of the thoughts that no longer serve you. There is a way to recognise the old patterns and move into a new paradigm of excitement, creativity and joy.

Over the last two weeks I have been stuck in patterns that have been desperate to be healed; patterns that have been underlying most of my thoughts and actions for most of my life. Patterns that are only now being revealed through the Forty Pilgrims Project, in which 53 people have begun to focus on new beginnings, new ideas, new wholeness and new experiences. Imagine all of that power of focus!

We are free to change how we think and where we focus. We can leave the jungles of our mind if we so choose and graze in the pastures of our dreams

Join me in ‘The Rift: Part 2’ as I explore limiting beliefs and how we can make the journey back to our hearts.

Love, love, love...


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'The Forty Pilgrims Project' series is a blog inspired by a journey. Simon Welsh, poet, writer and new paradigm adventurer is walking the Camino de Santiago - a simple mission to put one foot in front of the other. Carving out a journey over 1000km of trails, roads and pathways, he is heading for Santiago, and further yet to Finisterre, the ‘End of the World’. He carries with him 40 prayers, one for each day, one for each pilgrim that is energetically walking with him. He is supported by 12 guides, energetically supporting him from afar. 

This is my journal of his 'Forty Pilgrims Project' - an observation from the outside, as one of his guides and friends. An exploration of my own journey by his side, as we connect in the quantum field.

Matt is a singer/songwriter, musician, poet and writer of words. He is exploring the forests of consciousness, time and space, and surfing the waves of thought, love and being. Getting lost and wiping out are adventures in themselves!

The Forty Pilgrims Project - Introduction

Yesterday began the start of The Forty Pilgrims Project, a collective creation in the realms of time and space. It involves my old friend Simon Welsh walking the Camino de Santiago for forty days, clocking in over 900km on foot.

I read about his venture some four weeks before and was compelled to take an interest. His idea is to take on board a spiritual journey of sorts. A vision quest and a clearing, a pilgrimage of quantum proportions; not just for himself but for others too. He is wrestling with some demons and dancing with angels. Some I have no time for, some I have met and some I have probably yet to meet. 

As he embarks on this quest, he is taking with him the prayers and intentions of forty pilgrims. He bears their weight, if it can be said as so. To assist him in this odyssey he has called upon twelve guides – we could call them spiritual guides, energetic support, light warriors – yet in reality, they are human beings, offering their strength, love, compassion, energy and most likely, healing, reiki or some such other long-distance magic. In any case, we are all connected amid the quantum field so can easily offer him support, love and daisies.

I am one of his guides. I was compelled to add my focus and strength that I have been gathering over the last few years. This is not to brag that I am magnificent, but to affirm that I am, indeed part of a magnificent continuum of energy of which we are all magnificent within. Once we can focus upon that part of ourselves, we begin to realise this magnificence and can use it for the benefit of others. It is this role then, that I chose to offer Simon, and in joining into the collective, I add my energy to a grand circle of 53 – one courageous walker, poet and visionary, forty pilgrims with dreams and intentions bound up in his pack, and twelve spiritual guides supporting his energy, holding intentions and making conscious changes as the footsteps and days go by.

Simon, as far as I know, interviewed all forty of the pilgrims and wrote a specific poetic portrait for each of them. Within this portrait is held issues, hopes, intentions, and energy needed for transmuting into new paradigms for each of the pilgrims. They are not physically walking with Simon. That is his undertaking, and his journey into his own unknown. He is the physical anchor and catalyst for helping himself, the pilgrims and guides to manifest and make changes within their lives; the eye of the storm so to speak. Each day he will focus on one pilgrim, walking an average of 25km, reading their prayer somewhere along the way. At the end of 40 days, on day 41, he plans to reach Finisterre, ‘The End of The World’, where he shall read his own prayer and burn his clothes, shoes and words in shamanic ceremonial offering. Hopefully he won’t burn all his clothes as I am sure he'll want to come back! 

The twelve spiritual guides are primarily there to assist Simon in gathering his strength, offering support and adding to the circle. Again, as far as I know, we were all interviewed and I identified a key issue within my life that I would like changed and added it into the circle of creation that is carried within Simon’s reality bomb backpack! I am sure each of the other guides has gone through some such process. I told Simon what I would be sharing with him and the circle in terms of support, giving him free access to my channels of reiki, violet flames, munay-ki, white fire, rescue flames, heart and violet flame chakras and diamond seed chakras.

Whilst this all sounds a little woo-woo and out there, there are some fundamental quantum happenings going on here. I believe that we live upon a quantum field of pure love, potential and possibility, and that reality as we know it is co-created out of this field by us, by our imaginations, thoughts, words and actions. It all comes back to thought and being. There are layers and layers of amazing reality interwoven into us. Layers of light, matter, emotion, thought, atoms, molecules, quarks, bosons and auras, chakras, energy, and creative possibility.

As we wake up to ourselves, we begin to see the effect that we have upon our reality; that we are not random fluctuations living in a random universe, but that we are meaningful and purposeful focal points of Universal consciousness, creating pure experience out of pure potential using mechanisms such as thought, perception, genetic memory, imagination, generational patterns and influences such as parents, school, television and newspapers.

We are vast beings of thought, capable of projecting our imaginations from the dawn of time into the vastness of Space and beyond. We are composed of a history of all our lifetimes and all our connections to life. We are beings of Earth and beings of the stars. We are children of nature and of love. We are locked into a duality, the yin yang of existence. The up-down, left-right, black-white, mine-yours, virgin-whore, hero-cad, happy-sad see-saw that we call life on Earth.

We have the choice to live by default, on a seemingly out of control roller coaster, that is terrifying and exciting, with no way of getting off, subject to the chaotic storms of life, subject to horrors, fantasies, hopes, and disasters. We have a choice to feel powerless. We have a choice to feel helpless. Of course, when we are here, we often don’t think this is a choice.

We have the choice to stop and take stock. To start questioning our reality. To start asking questions about why things are the way they are. We have a choice to delve deeper into the reality of nature and the darkness that resides within us and thus 'without' us. We have a choice to try and discover the nature of that darkness, whether to embrace it or fight it. We have a choice to see the darkness outside of ourselves, the darkness that dwells in plain sight, in economic systems, politics, corporations, education and society. We can see the poverty, disease and pollution in our midst and wonder where it comes from. We have a choice to wonder whether there is a link between our own inner darkness and that which we see laid out upon the green grass of the quantum field.

We have a choice to explore, to experiment, to play with our thoughts and emotions. We have a choice to wake up to ourselves… slowly realising that we are not so powerless after all. We have the choice to stand up and claim our creations. We have a choice to search for silver linings and see beauty and majesty within it all. The process begins with self-love, expands into compassion and maybe has no end…

So that is where we are in humanity… in three places. Once upon a time we were only at the first stage. Now people are bridging all three ideas. The darkness, the awakening, and the empowerment. It would be trite of me to try and lump all our experiences into such small boxes because humanity is vast as are our collective experiences. We all count and we all matter. All our dreams expand the Universe as we step into joy. All things benefit from more smiles in the world.

Here we are then, upon the threshold of a dream. A new cycle of experience. A paradigm shift so vast, people are rapidly awakening all over the world, slowing piercing the veils of illusion that have long hung over humanity. We are awakening to our true potential and power and The Forty Pilgrims Project marks one facet of this grand experience. The circle of 53 touches not just the 53 people directly involved, but the people Simon meets along the way. It touches our loved ones, our friends and family. It touches the people we tell and the people that are affected by our own internal changes. It touches all who witness the new smiles we create within us and others. As we transmute our own barriers and realise our own potential, it will inspire yet more to seek their own awakening. A light in a room of darkness is a source of light none the less. Our beautiful planet, society and individual communities all have the potential to change through elevated thinking, compassion, love and dreams made manifest. This is the power of thought, spirit, love and transformation and maybe the point of existence itself. Hmmm… ahhh…

This is a journal of one of the twelve. An account of the journey from outside the focal point. A documentation of the changes, insights and connections made throughout the forty days of Simon’s quest. It may be personal to me, or I may be led outside of my own experience as I meet and converse with other pilgrims and guides, my social network, community and of course, Simon himself. Above all, I hope it to be an honest portrait of self-inquiry and a joyful adventure into the biggest co-creative experience I have ever embarked upon. Happy travels dear friends. Happy, happy travels.

Love, love, love...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'The Forty Pilgrims Project' series is a blog inspired by a journey. Simon Welsh, poet, writer and new paradigm adventurer is walking the Camino de Santiago - a simple mission to put one foot in front of the other. Carving out a journey over 1000km of trails, roads and pathways, he is heading for Santiago, and further yet to Finisterre, the ‘End of the World’. He carries with him 40 prayers, one for each day, one for each pilgrim that is energetically walking with him. He is supported by 12 guides, energetically supporting him from afar. 

This is my journal of his 'Forty Pilgrims Project' - an observation from the outside, as one of his guides and friends. An exploration of my own journey by his side, as we connect in the quantum field.

Matt is a singer/songwriter, musician, poet and writer of words. He is exploring the forests of consciousness, time and space, and surfing the waves of thought, love and being. Getting lost and wiping out are adventures in themselves!

Dance in the Rain

Today is a great opportunity to focus on everything that works - apart from all the wonderful benefits of having a fully healthy body, a world to live on, air to breath, food to eat, a place to sleep, freedom to think and gravity!

In the last week I have read about more states and countries legalising industrial hemp (which is the perfect sustainable replacement for all oil-related products amongst other things), a 19-year old who has invented an array that filters plastic out of the ocean, a considerably larger push of inventors coming up with alternative fuels (oil is SO last century), more evidence of cannabis being extremely good for your health, an increasing number of countries seriously doubting the validity of GMO products, the growing body of evidence and techniques on forming a conscious coherence with your heart - which greatly improves your health and stress levels - and countless people, innovators, artists and creators that are all working to improve, document and express the quality, magic and uniqueness of life here on Earth as a human! Well, if I can't see something positive in all of that today I must be purple unicorn eating dangleberries!

More people than ever are waking up to the fact that they are the one true power in their own lives. More people are taking inspired actions and letting go of worries and old redundant habits. I see more creativity and ingenuity in the world now than I have ever seen in my life due to the amazing phenomenon of the internet. Daily, I am inspired as I hook up to writers, artists, thinkers, inventors and genuine, loving souls that want to make a difference on this planet. Everyone I know has a good heart... Everyone! There is more positivity, hope, love and creative solutions on the planet than we may be aware of. We just have to make a conscious choice to start looking in different directions.

After years of getting heavy and bogged down with 'terrible' news stories I have realised that I don't have to listen to mainstream media anymore. Why should I read stories that clearly have an alternative and biased agenda and don't resonate with my heart? Of course, like many others, I feel obliged to know what is going on in the world. What we allow into our frame of perception heavily influences our emotional state. Sometimes we don't even realise it. Within our own sphere of compassion and perception we read about climate, war, crime, money, food and poverty and do not realise that we are absorbing the burdens and heaviness of these issues. In doing so, we are doing nothing to solve or help the issues we care about, dragging a weight of baggage around on our shoulders in a vain bid to empathise with our fellow adventurers in time and space.

I do not prescribe to the notion that we are being force-fed negative stories by the media. Each of us has the choice to stop and read something else; take a new angle on the issue. I am not suggesting burying our heads in the sand either and ignore the problems or contrasts of the world. Instead, we could become more discerning about the content of what we read and of what we think. If there is a 'problem', then you can be assured there is also a bright human being somewhere in the world making light of it in a way that has not been thought of before whether that is through discussion, humour, art or innovation. There are positive sources of news and we always have the choice to start looking toward the solutions rather than keep focusing on the problems.

We could dwell on good things that have happened rather than bad things that have yet to pass. We could energise our minds and bodies with stories of triumph instead of worrying about invisible futures. We could stop listening to the pessimists and naysayers and fill ourselves with the mystical field of pure potential where anything is possible. We could release our limitations of what is to come and know that a better world and elegant solutions will always blossom and thrive. After all, this is where luminaries such as Einstein, Marie Curie, The Wright Brothers and Tesla lived. They saw problems and created new paradigms. There are many alive today who do just this.

Ideas contain solutions, or at least , the seeds of solutions. Solutions brighten the soul. There is always another way. Humans are always innovating, creating and imagining. That is our nature. We have the choice to focus on the rain, feel sad, fetch an umbrella, or to dance in it and get wet...

Focusing on solutions releases the pressure and burden of problems. More than that, it starts a creative process whereby we can begin to move forward. It doesn't matter whether our problem is small, personal, global or immense. If we can but start... then we are moving in the right direction.

As one friend once said to me... 'Face the sun and the shadows will fall behind you'.

Love, love, love.