Being a Zen little Yogi whilst Omming up a mountain in Nepal is one thing.

Being a Zen little Yogi whilst your teen daughter relays countless *funny* You Tube videos; your high-on-life son demands a bike ride, cake baking and a demonstration of his new solar powered windmill NOW; the laptop blasts a football commentator’s blood-vessel bursting, spittle drenching goal-climaxing screams; the white -perpetually starving – cat brays in your face; the new fridge drones; a knock at the door heralds three guests piling in with their own tool kit of chaos … This Takes Mastery.

And lets face it … living with incessant noise in your life is part of the family package.

But the above mixed-sound-collage is actually a flake-moment-in-a-roll-top-bath, compared to the internal noise that most of us live with.

Please let me introduce you to the Skull Rave, aka your brain.

The Skull Rave plays a perpetually pumping tune of ideas, thoughts, shoulds, to-dos, potential creations, potential arguments, potential scenarios, earworm songs, demands, musts, concerns and memories.

With such inner noise, you could be submerged in a Dead Sea Spa Floatation Tank yet inside your skull you are existing in a bizarre, illegal rave where everyone is jabbing your face with glow sticks whilst jiggling Evian bottles like maracas.

The Skull Rave kicks off the moment you wake up and whirls around on a 50,000 beat repetitive cycle until eventually you fall asleep at night (and some people can’t do that as the chatter keeps them awake). The Skull Rave follows you into the bath and on walks with the kids. It keeps you in such a whirl that you miss things, miss the moment, miss that song bird who was sitting on your window sill singing the most delightful song (which it is able to sing despite the leaf clamped between its beak. Artistic Licence. Ha).

It is this internal madness that drowns out the voice of your Inner Sage:

Your True voice.

Your True Wisdom.

It distracts you from the whispers that guide you in the way of your dreams and the hunches that urge you to move a certain way.

Whilst Skull Raves are the common condition of most heads on this planet, the truth is that the Inner Sage cannot exist there.

By its very being, it cannot survive or thrive in a warehouse party.

It needs a different sort of space. It needs a Temple Head.

Last week I found myself on a beautiful autumn stomp with my good friend Liz.

Liz is an artist, a business woman and a wonderful communicator. She runs the Children’s Zones at festivals including Camp Bestival, the IOW Music Festival and Rhythm Tree. She is the hand maker and creator of the stunning flags that billow out above many of our British music festivals.

Liz is also a very spiritual soul. She’s been working on calming her Skull Rave for many years.

“So, rather than sitting to meditate,” she told me as we twisted Reid’s pushchair through leaves and up hills, “I’ve been incorporating my Inner Sage time into my Temple Duties.”

“Temple Duties?” I inquired.

“Yeah. You know, all that domestic stuff. I call it Temple Duties because certain jobs have to be done, but they never end. The washing, the drying, the cleaning of your house. Chores.”

That was my first gift from Liz.

The transformation of domestic chores into something flipping beautiful; Temple Duties. YES! REFRAME!

“So anyway,” she continued, “the chore I decided to use was pegging out the washing.

Thoughts come in and I’d gently return to pegging out the washing.

Then negative thoughts would come in. I’d gently return to pegging out the washing.

Then, sometimes, these amazing creative ideas would come in and I’d be utterly swooned into following them … but instead I’d just gently return to pegging out the washing.”

She paused.

“And you know the worst ones? When a really inspirational thought would come in and I thought “but this is a really GOOD thought to follow” … I’d continue pegging out the washing.”

We’d reached the beach by this point. Liz was smiling serenely and gazing out at the sea.

“What I’ve learnt is that thoughts are thoughts, whether they are inspirational or negative or just humdrum … they’re all thoughts. The idea of using a Temple Duty to allow your Inner Sage to come forward is that you let all the thoughts go. Whatever they are.”

I listened.

I absorbed the wisdom.

I could almost imagine the Inner Sage leaving the Skull Rave, drinking in the fresh night air and distancing Herself from the noise via Sacred Temple Duties.

And then … AHHH …. drunken thoughts come tumbling out of the Skull Rave door, cajoling Her back in! There are the fun ones, the sad ones, the aggressive ones and the ones dressed like Tequila Fairies. Of course, some would seem attractive and interesting, but the reality remained that all those thoughts would do is lead the Inner Sage back into unconsciousness.

Liz’s voice broke through my thoughts.

“Since giving myself that practice of just Pegging Out The Washing, things have shifted for me,” she said. “I’ve had massive clarity around my business, what I am doing and where I’m going. Opportunities have begun to open up. I am no longer drawn to letting my Inner Artist run away with every good idea that comes along. Things have really begin to shift.”

And this is the beauty,the point and the gift of stepping out of the Skull Rave.

By calming the incessant chatter of our thoughts – even just for five minutes a day – it gives the Sage room to breathe.

A new level of life elevation occurs.

Our activities take on purpose, clarity and vision.

In next Sunday’s post, I am going to tell you the story of a lady who, by making room for and listening to the voice of her Inner Sage (then taking action based on the intuition), retrained and launched a business that has flourished beyond belief. Until then though, I invite you to choose one of your Temple Duties – whether that’s cleaning the house, mopping the floor, decluttering your cupboards, driving the car, doing the shopping or ironing the clothes and during that time step out of your Skull Rave.

Focus only on the sensations/noises/smells/tastes and sights at hand.

If colourful characters spill out of your Skull Rave and try to get you back in, shake your head gently and bring your focus back to your breath.

If you’d like to share how you get on, pop over to the Grow Your Own Gorgeousness Facebook page and leave a “hello”.

I am now going to leave you with some pics of Liz’s heavenly flag creations to billow some Zen through your day.

Wishing you a very peaceful Sunday in the Temple of You.

XXX