A Peaceful Resolution » Status update

There was a typhoon and everything

Andrew Lightheart — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:39:27 +0000

Well, kittens, I’m sorry.

I had several posts planned, including using the principles of Non-Violent Communication to listen, the patterns of conversational turn-taking, why not-interrupting is hard to reinforce…

But then I went to Hong Kong and taught classes all day, getting up at 5 and not getting back to the hotel until gone six.

And there was a typhoon.

So, well, yeah. No writing.

Hope you’re week’s been good.

I’m heading to China tomorrow for more of the same, so I might not get much writing done there either…

We’ll see.

You’re great though.

Yes, you.

And those posts are still in my head, so they’ll be here soon.

Have a great weekend.

See you in China.

Fancy a date?

Andrew Lightheart — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:21:29 +0000

Hello lovelies

Just a quick note to say I’ve been asked to make a guest appearance at Elizabeth Potts-Weinstein’s blog.

EPW and I have hung out quite a bit on the Twitters and is the person who got me into making internet video. She’s pretty rad, man.

EPW writes and teaches about speaking and living your truth, and so requested my post be something connected with that.

To be honest, my article still only really exists, as of this precise moment, in my head.

I predict, however, that it will reveal previously undisclosed details of my nerdy childhood.

I would l.o.v.e. it if you could pop on over on Wednesday and show me the comment love.

If, you know, you fancy it.

So that’s Wednesday, ElizabethPottsWeinstein.com, be there or… be square.

I know, quality 80s sign-off, right?

A
x

Aaah, grow up already.

Andrew Lightheart — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:31:35 +0000

It was my 35th birthday yesterday.

Thirty-five.

Twelve years too old and five years too young to say that age ‘is just a number.’

And here’s my birthday revelation: I’ve been waiting to get to an age where people don’t think I’m too young to do what I’m doing (whatever that happens to be).

And I realised that it’s time I stopped waiting.

As, well, thirty-five is pretty adult, I reckon.

I was telling my coach last week that I didn’t have any background in helping people to be calm and confident in crisis and conflict. You know, something that would sound good on a bio.

She very gently beat me up about that.

‘How about the past seven years of getting people to love public speaking?’ she asked. ‘Any parallels there? Stressful situations, being conscious and awake? At all?’

And yesterday after making morning tea but before opening my cards, I started writing a chronology of my life.

I spotted some highlights.

You know, reading Shakti Gawain at the age of seven.

Reading How To Talk So Kids Will Listen… age 12 (and leaving a note to my parents saying ‘Maybe you should read this.’ Subtle.)

Doing affirmations (admittedly not in the healthiest of ways) from age 12 and for years. (Not any more, but, sheesh, I was up in the middle of the night, in bed, writing and writing and writing…)

Sending myself on a rebirthing camp age 16. (Naked fire-purification, sweat lodge, shaved head and all. My poor mother.)

Seeing my mother through her divorce.

Training as a holistic aromatherapist.

Working as a travelling trainer, living on my own in tiny towns for a month at a time, age 20.

Sitting and talking with mothers whose children have just died.

Four years tailing the two main NLP guys in London and asking days of questions. (I’m not an NLPer now, but hombre it taught me to see and hear.)

Working as a training manager in the City and single-handedly learning and teaching every soft-skills topic on the planet.

Running my own (successful) business for seven years now, four-and-a-bit of which has been 8,000 miles away from my home town.

Creating a presentation skills masterclass that has mythical status inside the largest bank in the world. It really does.

Being fully trained over a period of two-and-a-half years to help people have life-changing realisations as I cleanse and consecrate the energy in their home. (I was a registered Space Clearing Practitioner with Karen Kingston for a while, there.)

Hauling my ass through years of painful sobering up around money and procrastination. I’m pretty good now, thanks for asking.

Meditating most mornings for seven years.

Being in an astonishingly happy relationship for almost eleven years and counting.

And thirty-five years of being gentle and fascinated.

So, in short, enough waiting already.

Enough invisibility.

Enough excuses.

Time I grew up. In a good way, of course.

Who’s with me?

Smiles.

Waggles eyebrows.

12 warm-hearted bloggers to read while I am away

Andrew Lightheart — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:52:45 +0000

Ok, kittens. I had these great plans for mindfulness posts I was going to write for you and secrets to share and video book reviews I was going to schedule in advance and… well… I’ve run out of time.

I’m off on holiday.

I know.

Rural Bali for five days, six nights of napping by our friends’ pool, staring at the sea, playing with their dogs, crosswords and card games, delicious home-cooked food, early nights, reading and maybe, maybe a little writing.

So, look after yourselves whilst I’m away.

If you’re in need of calming non-freak-out-ery, pop in and say hi to

Havi
Jen
Victoria
Hiro
Mahala
Kelly
Randi
Mark
Fabeku
Elizabeth
Susannah
and Pace and Kyeli.

Useful, lovely, kind-hearted people all.

Be gentle on yourselves whilst I’m away, and if you’re not, be gentle about not being gentle. Or not.

Hasta luego.

*stands in his sombrero and flip flops* *waves*

ps Catherine is launching A Great Thing on Friday. Sign up for her list to find out about it…

pps I’m a bonus on it if you actually buy it on Friday.

Oh yeah I remember

Andrew Lightheart — Fri, 07 May 2010 07:45:37 +0000

Ooh, I was grumpy last night.

After mainly hurdling my emotional patterns around money for the past two years, it’s time to tackle the weight that I put on whilst I was looking away.

And, oh, I’m a bit touchy about it.

Apparently, even if I love you, you’re not allowed to mention it. Apart from in total, full-on, utter support.

Oh, and you’re not allowed to criticize anything else that I’m doing whilst I’m getting my head around counting Points and journaling and checking in with my hunger levels.

And then, in the midst of persecution, there was a glimmer of something. Some ancient wisdom. There was this thing I used to do, or have…

Then I remembered.

I remembered about Do I Have A Thing About This?

And, you know, I realised I did do, in fact, have several Things about what was going on.

So I added notes to my Book of Me.

And went to sleep.

And rememembered why I need to be here as well as out there.

So, I’m back, kind of.

I’ve been writing posts to put here for weeks, saved as text docs on my netbook.

So, really, I’ve been back for a while, kind of.

And there’s a plan for a book, that I keep planning and planning.

So, yeah, I remember.

And, yes, I’m back.

Don’t look at me like that.

This just in…

Andrew Lightheart — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:56:10 +0000

It appears that I can’t live without this ‘place’. I think about it even when I’m meant to be meditating, make sneaky notes to myself about it…

My deal with myself: I get up-to-date with The Book I Get Paid To Write (and establish a workable schedule to stay on target) and I get to write here too.

First one, then the other.

Thought you might like to know.

Why I am taking a sabbatical

Andrew Lightheart — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:15:44 +0000

I am about to take a sabbatical from A Peaceful Resolution.

Here are the things that combine to make this the right choice (I think!).

This website/concept holds a very special (dare I say sacred) place in my heart and I don’t want to do it half-assed.
This is the year to pay my debts off.
I want to build a location-independent business.
I have expertise that I can implement right now which will help my heart’s constituency (smart, nice solo entrepreneurs).
A Peaceful Resolution was always going to be a slow burn, building momentum very organically.
I can only do about two-and-a-half things at once.
I am being paid to write a book, I have set up The New Site, I am working on getting fit (that’s the half).

So… I’m taking time off from here.

Now, I love it here.

I. LOVE. It.

So please don’t think that I am abandoning this project.

In fact, it’s because I have such high regard for developing the ideas here well that I want to leave it for a while.

Implementing these principles/keys/things in my life feels like an apprenticeship, and I want to defer that apprenticeship for.. a while. Maybe a few months, likely a year, possibly more.

One of the major things I have learned over the past few months is how to write in my voice.

I will be taking that fine line of genuineness and usefulness over to SmallBizTalks.com where I am working to set up a resource for people who want to do talks to promote their very small business.

You might not know that I have been coaching people in presentations for seven years or so, so I have a bit of knowledge to offer from giving feedback on over 4,000 presentations. SmallBizTalks has a large video component, a bunch of free stuff, plus, very soon, some paid stuff.

I can’t help but write off-topic, so I’m going to move my random musings over to another domain, which I will post here when it’s up. That is also where my Year Of Opening will carry on…

So… thank you so much for being a part of this experiment.

Please stay subscribed, so that when I start up again, you’ll know.

And, as always, you can hang out with me on Twitter…

Take care.

Andrew

And so it begins…

Andrew Lightheart — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:50:46 +0000

Hello my chickadees!

2010, eh?

Well, I made it through a month of festive family fun and have much learning to share.

Jet lag and receipts have beaten me to it this week, so…

***

NEXT WEEK: ON A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION…

~ Andrew spends Christmas with his family and learns important lessons about the roots of grumpiness

~ Andrew heals a 10-year-old family feud – and shows you how he did it

Plus… all the usual great conflict tips, tricks and tidbits.

***

No really…

See you there.