You’ve got the magic

Star of this month edition of “You’ve got the Magic” is the insightful Jonelle Simms.

I officially consider Jonelle to be one of my “growth buddies”, meaning those people I had the immense fortune & pleasure to encounter on my path to self discovery.

A while back ago, I stumbled across something that was to change the way I look at life forever so radically, I knew there was no turning back.

After a spell of tough times, I finally found mental relief in a Paradigm that helps people access their own innate health by understanding how the fundamental mechanics of the human experience work.

This was a totally new terrain for me and it also took me away from the more traditional coaching methods I had up to then learnt.

But without giving away too much, I shall let the brilliant Jonelle share her knowledge with you all.

• Your work is based on the “3 Principles” Understanding. Would you like to tell us what that is and how it has impacted you and those around?

It’s so funny, but this can often be the most “challenging” question to answer. I can explain what I think the Principles are, and believe me, I keep trying my best to listen and explain in all sorts of ways every day. However, the value of the Principles is not at all in my (or anyone else’s) description of them. Instead, the value comes from each person somehow being open to hearing and feeling something for themselves beyond the words… going from an intellectual understanding of “Oh ya, I get that this problem is just my thinking, but…” to “OMG, I’m really making all this stuff up!” It’s kind of like learning to ride a bike, where you’re told about the concept of “balance”, and then at some point it just happens… It goes from something intellectual to something understood and felt at a deeper level.

So if I had to put some limited words to it, I’d say…

• MIND – Everyone and everything is made up of an intelligent energy that is continually working for us, even though we mostly don’t notice it or appreciate it or see the full scope of it. We can intuit it though. Just the fact that, without any conscious effort, I somehow turned myself from an egg and sperm into a human being, lets me know there’s always much more going on than I could possibly ever realise.
• CONSCIOUSNESS – We all have this ability to be aware of not only what’s going on around us, but also to be aware of our thinking. It’s like there’s a part of us that can observe our life at the same time that we are experiencing it. And so on a daily basis, and in any moment, we can go from having an experience that seems very limited and personal, to sort of waking up and seeing it from any of an infinite number of entirely new and even philosophical perspectives, including waking up to the realization of what and who we are.
• THOUGHT – There’s much more to thought than most of us realise. We not only tend to automatically believe a lot of the ridiculousness that appears in our head, just because it appeared there, but what we don’t realise is that our entire experience of life IS thought. And that’s just another one of those things that doesn’t have any value until we get some sense of it at a deeper level than just as a concept in our head.

And so how does getting some insight into the Principles impact someone?

Well, you get some freedom from the ridiculous made up thinking that frequently and innocently appears in your head. And so you can experience all the inevitable moments of feeling great AND feeling incredibly awful, without having to try to hang on to the good feeling or get rid of the bad feeling. Good and bad will never go away, but because you see what’s creating your experience of it, you get to live it with a bit less seriousness, a bit more grace, and a lot less suffering. And because you get to see how everyone else is experiencing life in the exact same way (innocently believing in all the craziness that appears in their heads), it makes life make sense, it explains why everyone does the things they do, and it becomes a lot more OK to just be human, with all your personal made up craziness.

• More and more people are waking up to the fact that there is a superior intelligence driving our life the whole time. It can’t be seen, yet it’s there. For instance our own body and its wondrous abilities is a clear proof of it. It has been called many names like Mind, God, Divine Intelligence, Quantum Field, even The Force (I like this one ‘cause I get to feel a bit of Yoda as I say it!).Why is it then that we so often forget this and we go about our life thinking we are the ones in charge, needing to control and fix every small detail of our existence?

I have no clue! LOL! I just know that thought is very powerful, and that the human condition is to experience a continual personal mix of secure (positive or neutral) and insecure (negative) thought all day long. So whenever we feel secure, we tend to do less controlling and fixing and “live more effortlessly, allowing life to unfold”, and whenever we feel insecure, we tend to do more controlling and fixing. It’s not a problem to feel secure or insecure in any moment… It’s just that when don’t realize that the thinking is illusory and temporary, we tend to spend a lot of time focusing on it and trying to do something about it.

• The Principle of Thought points out our ability to continuously make up our reality through our thinking. Often though, while in distress, it comes to no avail to say “well it’s only my thinking…!” No matter how hard one will try and be positive about it, those are the times when most of us will feel completely stuck. How has your life been changed by the amazing work you do at the homeless shelter and how has the 3P Understanding supported you?

There’s still lots of times when I say “well, it’s only my thinking” and it doesn’t work for me either! LOL! But… there’s always, for me, at least some little bit of awareness and trust that my thinking will eventually get clearer all on its own, in spite of any of my interference. And even if I don’t get clear around some specific issues (and there’s still plenty, believe me), I realize that my life still continues on, and I manage to muddle my way through it in whatever makes the best sense to me in each moment. I go through life with a lot less concern.

As for working at the homeless shelter… For me personally, my insight into the Principles came with a few days of somehow dropping most of my personal thought and living in a feeling of incredible lightness and clarity, with eyes of unconditional impersonal love for everything and everyone. I saw that we were all much more than we could possibly imagine, and that we were all connected, and that anyone else who experienced a glimpse of the same, would begin to get some freedom from the belief in their insecure thinking, and some relief from their suffering. And since then, I’ve just always had this confidence of what’s inside everyone, despite whatever I see and experience on the outside. I see everyone exactly like me… a human being sometimes or often innocently caught up in the convincing nature of insecure thought, not realising they don’t have to take it all so seriously, and not realising or forgetting who they actually are underneath all that crazy made up thought.

And if anything, I would label my work at the homeless shelter simply as something I’m incredibly grateful for. I get to hang out, see who shows up, chat a bit, maybe watch a Sydney Banks video and talk about that, ask them questions, hear their stories, many of which are incredible stories of resilience and insight, share some of my own stories, sometimes laugh with them, sometimes tear up a bit, sometimes talk too much or don’t know what to say, sometimes feel connected and deeply touched, sometimes feel disconnected and a bit frustrated… whatever it is, it’s all good, and it’s all just very human.

I often find it amusing that I can have some lovely conversations with individuals who then later share their extreme stories of being in maximum security in prison, or having tried to commit suicide nine times, or having suffered from years of physical abuse, or having dealt with a lifelong addiction. It all seems pretty humbling and continues to give me perspective over my own craziness.

• So do you now live on a cloud, away from the tribulations of everyday life and in a constant state of bliss because of the Principles you’ve been sharing with us today? Was does Jonelle wish the world for 2017?

Well, it would be cool if I did, but I don’t live on a cloud at all. There’s still plenty of insecure thinking that appears in my head every day that tells me everything that’s wrong with me and the world and everyone else, and it all comes with a yucky feeling that sometimes hangs around for much longer than I care for. But since gaining some insight into the Principles, there’s always at least some level of deeper knowing that my thoughts are not who I am, that I’m not and never could be broken, that I’m just temporarily stuck in a funk of thought and feeling, and that I’ll be perfectly fine no matter what happens… even if I die. And wow, when you experience even a small glimpse of that, it changes everything.

• What does Jonelle wish the World for 2017?

It may seem odd, but for 2017, I don’t really want to “wish happiness” on anyone, as if it’s something they don’t already have or that they need to get to. Instead. I simply wish for everyone a new set of eyes from which to view their understanding of life, including the miracle that is their humanness, and the many glimpses always available into the limitless, miraculous world that surrounds them.

While Jonelle is not busy with her work at the homeless shelter in her town, she offers coaching services to 1)businesses for improved performance, 2)communities for alleviation of suffering, and 3)individuals for improved well being.

You can follow her inspiring journey on Facebook, Twitter, and if you happen to be in Canada or like Canadians (I do!) you can join her Online Community.

 

 

I’m the founder of Evoking Grace, a coaching program designed to inspire others to be their very best while bringing ease and balance into their everyday life. I can be contacted by email for more details on the work I offer or to schedule a “Wisdom Within Session“. Follow my mumbling & musings on  Face book,Twitter & Pinterest to be part of my “online tribe”.