WATCHING YOUR THOUGHTS

I wonder how many thoughts you've had in the course of this day that have seemed to take you a little 'off center'? By off center I mean away from where you'd like your mind to be.

It's funny, isn't it, how we are often taken on bizarre mind trips by thoughts that seem to pop up from nowhere, hang around for a while, and then buzz off into the.....where do they go?!

The trips are endless: 'Gotta get back at him for that thing he said', 'Must stop forgetting to do that', 'How do I look in this?, 'Oh, I wish I wasn't so lonely', 'I should meditate more', 'Who am I?', 'Why aren't I as happy as that person?'...endless and spiralling and confusing and...empty!

Your thoughts, positive and negative, have the power to pull you away from a waking state of bliss...the kind of blissful feeling that puts a serene smile on your face and lets you walk through your day literally beaming with good feeling where people walk past you and wonder, 'Wow! I want a bit of what HE'S on!'.

A really easy technique I use is to label my thoughts as they come up. When my mind takes a trip to a moment when I was embarassed about something, or I regretted saying something, or I got needlessly angry towards someone...I take a metaphorical 'step back' and watch that thought come and go. And if another one pops up, that too I just watch flow out to sea. Just picture that for a moment - your thoughts are like waves disappearing into an ocean.......

Catching your thoughts like this and letting them flow out to sea is one way of becoming more mindful, and by being more mindful you are regularly tapping into your daily right to feeling good. In this short video, the spiritual mentor and writer Ram Dass reveals the secret to watching your thoughts.

(Picture is detail from'KyotoThought Patterns' by Oliver Kinghorn, watercolour and ink, available in postcard or poster prints.)

LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION

Hallo! I'd like to share with you here a simple meditation technique that will bring you instant contentment and leave your whole being 'fizzing' with positive energy. The 'Loving Kindness Meditation' is Oli's own interpretation of a few meditation 'classics' that is lovely to perform in public places and which you can carry round with you 'in your pocket' so to speak. Take the tube, the bus, or a communter train, for example, and reflect for a moment on how 'anonymous' the atmosphere inside can make you feel. It certainly doesn't help me start the day off in a magnanimous mood.

With the intention of 'warming' up the environment a little and sharpening my sense of awareness of the moment, I like to imagine a brilliant, golden beam of light shining from my heart right into the hearts of all the folks in my field of vision. Within only a few moments I find myself literally beaming and alive. And it doesn't have to stop there; the same positive visualization can go with you down a busy street, in a quiet cafe, standing in line, sitting in class...

There are, I believe, many similar meditation techniques at our fingertips for countless daily situations . With so many potential threats to our inner peace floating in and out of our days, stand up for your right to contentment. I'll post a number of simple, everyday meditations on these blog pages over the coming weeks. I'd love to hear how they've worked for you, and if you can add any new ones yourself.
Have a lovely day. Follow your bliss...


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ARE YOU READY TO 'FEEL SIMPLY LOVELY'?

What is the secret to feeling simply lovely? What simple, lovely things do I have to do to tap into my daily right to feel good? What evidence is there that this can be achieved? How does one makes one's days simply lovelier to live in?

Some of the clues to these fundamentally humane questions can be found in this delightful little gem of a video which accompanies an earlier, concise version of the same production - The Secret.

Enjoy here for perhaps the first time such respected, bubbly, lovable purveyors of The Law of Attraction as Joe Vitale, James Arthur Ray, and Bob Proctor. Yes! Enjoy, absorb, and follow your bliss...

A SECRET YOU MUST KNOW.....

There are moments in everyone's life when you come across something so fundamentally right and good and real that it seems to contain the seeds for dramatic, magnificent changes in the way you live your days. In this delightful, life-affirming little gem of a film there is enough to inspire you to embrace your dreams right away and start tapping into your daily right to feeling good. So be inspired, be giddy, be uplifted and align yourself with a universe that is waiting to give you anything you can possibly imagine.

Have a splendid day!

Follow your bliss...

Gorgeous Art Film, 'The Pillow Book'

The sumptuous scenes that create this exquisite film are played against the backdrop of artistic Kyoto, through lanes and gardens and temples that I habitually walk through myself every day of my life here. I love this gorgeous film for the way it has brought a little known part of Kyoto to life. There is something very enigmatic about Kyoto that keeps the artist here, and the subtle allure of the place is captured poignantly here. Erotic and spellbinding, a tragic mystery enfolds with the quiet, measured craft of the way calligraphy is performed. The candid, eclectic, painterly films of Peter Greenaway, the director, always contain something to delight the eye, and it is easy to see how this arthouse film has become a favourite amongst other painters, photographers, dancers & craftsfolk I know through Kyoto and the wider world.

To know a little bit more about where Oli lives and works, or just to revel in the beauty & craft of one of the most beguiling art films you will see, treat yourself to buying this dvd and come back to it each time you want to re-awaken your love of fine art, indulge your senses, and be taken into another world. See lovely scenes from The Pillow Book in the clip below.

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LUSH & ALIVE...A PAINTER'S RIVER IN KYOTO

Ciao a tutti! I hope your day is a lovely one and you're following your bliss...This last Sunday was blessed with late summer sunshine and I found myself down by the river in Kyoto with a couple of chums and a few choice bottles of plonk (the Cotes de Bourg stood out for me). The scene reminded me of a piece I wrote for the magazine 'Cafe Independent' when I first came to this lovely city a handful of years ago, and this be it...

BREATHE IN THE DEEP pulsing presence of the water, see lush greens, banks of clovers, the sweet sakura and happy, crazy weeds galore. Sitting here on the sides of the Kamo River in mid-afternoon I can feel the heat surround my skin, like wearing something of exquisite silk. Lolling back in the grass and looking like a wise old tramp, folks pass by and look at me and smile, like I seem to be telling them something, or that my face today is the face of Everyman.

The river's a brilliant stream of humanity - couples two-to-a-bike whizz past in directions north and south along the river; every family of man and beast drifts along; and even the holy men from up in the hills come down to the water and sit in meditative states under the cherry trees, then venturing into the shallows, sensing the sussurating pad of the water at their heels.

Yes! The Kamo River is one you can walk the length of, climbing steadily up into the hills above Kyoto and cross by wading at any point; a humane river in every respect, veritable kaleidoscope of people cruising, smoozing, reading, sleeping, or simply tuning into the precious vibe of the happy river. There are guys crashed out in the grass with the flashing steel smile of the harmonica in their mouths, or holding a brass trombone, cello, juggling balls, or the supine length of a girl. Inhibitions seem to peel away as girl and boy kiss and stroke each other in the dizzying heat.

Oh! Enchanting summer! There's magic in it, there must be. Long and handsome, I'm held like a spell; instantly delirious, thank God it's not serious! The nymphs and angels of my watercolours, strident pinks and oranges, vermillions, scintillions, reds and golds, are the same girls who walk through my days. Yes, there's always something for the imagination, self-teasing, desire, the incorrigible eye of the poet, call it what you will.

You just want to lie back and wish the scene as it is will never end. A thousand sweet kudos and blessings on you, Kamo River.


I wonder where your private utopia is? Have a splendid day!

See you in two minutes...!


(Picture is of a watercolour and china ink original by Oli Kinghorn called, 'To Paint is To Love Again; for what the painter sees and loves he is duty-bound to share', 120cm x 60cm)

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