How to develop a negativity filter!

The post you're about to read is something of a companion piece and an expansion of a previous post on the subject of silence. In that post I told you about our need for silence and finding a quiet place you can go to in order to unwind and be refreshed. Well here I'm going to tell you how the noise around us is very damaging, what you can do about it, and why it's good to tune out and turn off.

Quiet Times.
Around 100 years ago, our ancestors lived in a very different world.
Their world was much quieter than ours. If we invented a time machine and took a walk through my local town in 1913, we would be in for a very odd experience!
The first thing that would strike us would be the lack of traffic. The pace of life without cars would be much slower.
Immediately after that we would be aware of the lack of noise. The loudest thing around would be a dog barking, or perhaps the church bells, Indeed bells are very useful in this time, people are able to hear distant bells, and so the different business across the town use bells to summon the workers and to signal breaks and shift changes. There is even a bell at the Fire Station that summons the part-time Firefighters from across the town.
There are no radios here, no television, no mobile phones, no internet. If we want to hear what's going on in the outside world, our best source of news and information is the local newspaper. This is really the only way to get news from outside our local area, and make no mistake, just as today, we will be told exactly what the government wants us to hear. As we slowly travel forward from 1913 that propaganda is only going to get worse. In around one years time, we will be subject to an absolute barrage of news and misinformation that will see most young men around us heading off to a swift and brutal death in the Trenches of northern France.
If we choose to use our time machine to jump forward through the decades stopping off in each different period, we will see Radio come to promenance, followed by TV, and then the internet. All of them will provide entertainment, news, views, information, and yes, more propaganda. Through each new medium the governing powers will tell us what they want us to hear. Companies large and small will try to catch our attention and take our money through advertising.

If you absorb crap, you'll feel crap. 
Today as in 1913, everything you hear, and everything you see, affects you. Even if you're sitting on the sofa half watching your favourite soap, the images, and sounds affect you in a very powerful way, and you are subject to masses of this type of damaging information every single day of your life.
So let's return to the typical soap. In the UK, one of the most popular soaps over the last 50 years has been 'Coronation Street.' Like any soap it is full of intruige, illicit romance, fighting, and rowing neighbours. Who would watch it if it wasn't?!
But beware, what you see and hear can really affect you. Even if you're not really watching and the TV is just playing away in the corner of the room, the sounds invading your ears are hurting you. Your subconscious mind doesn't know that it's hearing a televison programme, but it processes the sounds nonetheless. In a single episode, it might hear shouted arguments, backstabbing conversations, threats of violence and worse. Do you understand what these sounds are doing to you? They're sapping your energy, engaging your defensive responses, altering your heart rate, releasing endorphins, tightening your muscles, implanting negativity, draining you. Most of it happens on a subconscious level, but it still happens.
If you switch on the news you get the same thing, and again with the radio, and from your computer.
If our friends from 1913 were transported with us to 2013 what would they think? My guess is that within minutes of arrival they would be struck by the incredible noise and pace of life. The speed of the traffic, the loud advertising, the inane babble of TV, the absolute tidal wave of information, the sheer stimulation of all these things combined.
Most of the inventions that produce our modern noise are innovations that have come about in the last 100 years, and as humans we simply aren't built to deal with them. As a race, we developed over tens of thousands of years to think only at the pace of a fast run, not at 70, 80, 90 mph or more. We were designed to be single task machines, built to do one thing well while shutting out most others. As a Pilot I understand the concept of information overload more than most. During flight training with seemingly endless tasks happening at once, it is very easy to reach a state of 'brain lock' whereupon you find yourself at the controls of a hurtling piece of machinery, and incapable of thinking what you're supposed to do next. You have reached maximum capacity, and it doesn't take long.
Because you can't process all this information you become stressed, fatigued and irritable, you get tired quickly, you can't switch off of an evening, and you lose quality sleep. If your quality of life suffers and you only get one life, then what are you going to do about it?

Filter the information, and improve your mood. 
My advice is this. Be very selective about what you watch, or what you listen to. Really think about why you're taking in that information, and what it will do for you. If you're turning on the TV, Is it force of habit, addiction? curiosity? Do you switch it on at this time every evening because it's part of your routine?
You're a very intelligent adult, but the majority of programming out there treats you like a child. It is designed to either part you from your money, feed you false information, keep you docile, or distort the truth.
Entertaining programmes of real value are out there. They do exist and they can improve your mind, provide you with quality entertainment, and enrich your life. They are presented by enthusiastic, knowledgeable people, and are worth your valuable time. It is up to you to seek them out. Filter out the crap, and yes, I classify most 'news' programmes as crap.
Don't be told what to think. If you want to know about a particular story, seek out the information. Talk to people who may know about the subject, be very selective about which TV or radio interviews you listen to, look at the background to the story, use the internet to hear voices from all sides.
Make your own mind up, and keep your opinion to yourself. The world is full of people with nothing to say, saying it much too loudly. So unless it helps someone, or unless you're asked, then stay silent. It really is golden. Be content with that. 
I will end with a quote from the "Whole Earth Catalogue"

"We are as gods, and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory, as via government, big business, formal education and church has succeeded to point where gross defects obscure actual gains.
In response to this dilemma and to these gains, a realm of intimate personal power is developing, power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. "

Quietly!! 

Autumn? It's a piece of cake.

Well Autumn is here again, and although the days are shorter, the nights are longer, and getting up and motivated on dark mornings is an object lesson in determination, Autumn remains one of my favourite times of year.
They say that you sell something on it's benefits, so what I'm going to do here is sell you the benefits of Autumn!

Although the leaves of summer have mostly fallen, the new buds of next years positivity are already forming above you, so while nature takes time out to reflect, refresh, and renew, we should take a leaf out of her book (see what I did there?) and follow her example!

One of the mistakes people make when the nights get darker, is to try and carry on doing all the things they did during summer, and then moan when they find they can't! Why would you do this to yourself? Autumn is a time to slow down, re-group, change what you're doing, and start making plans for the year to come, so this is what you must do. Change with your circumstances, and above all, stop trying to resist.

Find things that will occupy you indoors.
One of the best things to improve your state of mind is to create. Fill your evenings by painting, drawing, writing, or starting a new project. I'm currently building a model aircraft from balsa wood, which I will fly with my little boy next summer, it requires very little space to build (dining room table) and does wonderful things for my blood pressure, as well as having something tangible to show for my efforts. I'm learning new skills and resurrecting some old ones, and working with a natural substance like wood is always a great pleasure. 

Have a damn good clear out.
Get rid of things you don't want, and clear some space ready for the new to come into your life. Do this in your cupboards, your wardrobe, your kitchen, anywhere that you think could do with a good old dig out. Why wait until spring? I'm sure that even the dusty shelves of your own mind could benefit from a good sort out, and letting go of things that aren't any use to you anymore is a very refreshing process. 

Enjoy nature.
Take time to go for a walk and enjoy what is happening around you. Being in nature is very good for you at any time of the year, and during autumn the natural energy you can soak up is especially powerful. There are few things nicer than coming home with red cheeks and numb fingertips to a nice cup of tea. Simple pleasures! 

Meditate.
Use the longer nights to find some time to drift to a stop and just sit and relax. Just find a comfortable spot, close your eyes, and stop thinking. It doesn't have to be hard to do, in fact, it's our natural state. When you open your eyes again, be fully present. Don't think about what you're doing tomorrow, or next week, or over Christmas. If you do you'll never be present in the moment. You'll miss it. 
Don't get caught in the never ending cycle of thinking of tomorrow, because when tomorrow comes, you'll just be thinking of the next day. You'll never actually get there. You're there now! So be there now! 

Learn a new skill.
This is the ideal time to learn something new. Expand your mind. My suggestion is to read some good books. Pick out a bunch of new books and read them. Try reading books on subjects you know nothing about. You don't have to spend anything, Your local library will lend you them for free. They're good like that. Be open to new insights as you read, and try to get a feeling for the passion the author had to have to write all those words. Absorb that creative energy. 

Create your own universe.
I'm not kidding! Go and get an A3 pad and some pens and draw a map. Do you remember books from childhood that had maps in the front? How exciting were they? Draw your fictional world, roads, cities, lakes, rivers, inhabitants, let it really fire up your imagination, Develop a back-story and histories for your people. If you're frightened someone will read it, then if you have children, do this with them. I'm sure they'll love it! Who knows, it could become a book! 

Find out how something works.
Be inquisitive. Ever wondered how your central heating system works? (oops maybe that's a bit boring) how broadband works? How clouds form? Exactly what your kidneys do? Chances are you have access to a computer if you're reading this, so you have no excuse not to find out! We live in the information age, and almost unimaginable amounts of knowledge are there at our fingertips. Use it for good. 

Taste.
If you're partial to a nice glass of wine in the evening, or a beer, or maybe a bit of Port, then try and really taste it. Think about what you're tasting, and then read about it, see how close you are. Maybe even cook a simple meal to accompany your wine instead of the other way round. The point is don't just drink for the effects, really absorb the taste. 

Take photographs. 
The famous film director and actor Francois Truffaut loved to film and take photographs of children playing, saying that children are incapable of duplication, everything they do is original and never repeated, so capture those moments. Build them a den or play a game and experiment with lighting and different shots, make your own movie of their adventure. A lovely thing to do is to put on their favourite TV show and then record their facial expressions as they watch. 

Today is all yours. 
As the leaves fall and the rain floods the ground, slowly but surely the soil is gradually building that will cover our time in history, and one day someone will dig through it and find themselves back in our autumn, wondering what we did, what we thought, and how we lived. Will the energy and positivity you create now flow through that person in the future as they picture that long gone autumn in their minds eye? 
There'll always be an autumn, but you won't always be here to enjoy it, so make the most of your time and don't waste it thinking of tomorrow. Tomorrow may not be yours, but this moment is. 

So there you go. Autumn doesn't have to be summer's cast-off, or the depressing bit before Christmas, it can be something you look forward to every year, and a time for making the most of life. 
I hope you enjoyed this autumnal post, but since I need to set an example by acting on my own advice and not just dispensing it to my readers, I'm off out to enjoy the last bit of sunshine. 
Excuse me while I make like a tree...and leave.....

Enjoy

"Autumn is one of my favourite times of year in Los Angeles. Watching the birds change colour and fall from the trees."~ David Letterman. 

David LettermanDavid Letterman

Dreaming

One of the benefits of a good night's sleep is the potential for great dreams. In the past I haven't really paid much attention to my dreams, They were usually nice when they happened, but on the whole, I didn't take much notice of them. 

Dozing on the job
Lately I have started to pay a lot more attention to what I dream about, how often I dream, and what leads up to having dreams in the first place. Part of the plan for what I'm doing here at Positive Paradise is to experiment with dreams, dream recall, lucid dreaming and astral projection, so I have plenty of work to do, and the best thing about it, is I can do it laying on my back! 

We're not in Kansas anymore..

I find myself able to have a really good night's sleep pretty much every night at the moment, In the past I have had some problems with insomnia, but since I started on a positive path and learned about letting go, relaxing, and being mindful, I find that my sleep quality has shot up. I attribute that ability to practicing regular meditation. It only works.

I will go into the techniques and methods in a future post, but one thing I have noticed is that my dreams are becoming much more vivid. Remember "The Wizard of OZ" when Dorothy steps out of black and white into glorious Technicolor? Well what I have experienced is much the same......well.......not quite, but you know where I'm coming from.

Open your mind...

The subject of dreams is a long and complex one and open to individual interpretation, but I'm not interested in the technicalities, I'm interested in what works and what doesn't, so I am busy researching tried and tested techniques and then altering them to find what works for me. Once I find a good system I will develop it and tinker with it until I'm happy with what I'm doing and can achieve good results.

The aim of my dream experimentation is to learn more about my subconscious mind, find out about other people's minds, and use the findings in a way that benefits both myself and others.

Astral projection is particularly interesting to me, as people who have this ability have reported talking to other dreamers, seeing the contents of rooms many thousands of miles distant, and even influencing other people. I want to explore this other realm and become a proficient 'traveller.'

The flight now boarding.....
I managed to have a proper lucid dream for the first time around a week ago, and it was as good as I imagined, or dreamed it could be!
It was a dream of flying, but I awoke within it and said out loud, "This is it, I'm dreaming" and carried out a reality check. It only lasted a few seconds, just enough time for me to look around and start to enjoy the sensation, before my heart rate went up and the dream ended and I came round.
I instantly got up and wrote down what had happened, I keep a pad and pen handy, (that is important) and I congratulated myself on my first trip into a new world.

Tell me your dreams!
As I start to explore my new world I will report back with my findings like any good explorer, and find out as much as I can about this practice. Obviously there is much to discover, but every great journey starts with a few small steps, and that is where I am now.
There is a great deal of information on the net about the subject of dreams, some of it is even useful! But I want to find my own way with this, I like to know what other people have tried, it's my journey, so I'm documenting what happens to me, but that's not to say you won't find it interesting! The reason I'm writing about it here on Positive Paradise is that I want you to try it too. It would be fantastic if we could swap techniques and experiences, and let the information flow. If you have any experience with lucid dreams, astral projection, or dreams that have really affected you, I'd be glad to hear your stories!

These are early days, but like anything new, you learn by doing, and at the moment I'm making steady progress. Watch this space... 

The need for silence

Hi all and welcome to the first Positive Paradise post for quite a while! What have I been up to you ask? Well I started a new job several months ago, and to be honest some things need your full attention, but every day PP kept calling to me, and I knew it wouldn't be long before I was back. This blog is my passion and my pet project, and I feel like I have neglected it, so here we go with a brand new post for a brand new era in my life. 

This post is all about what I'm feeling, and how sometimes you need to listen to what your body is screaming at you. 


Silence
I feel a huge need at the moment to spend time in solitude and complete silence, away from all distractions, and the noise of modern life. There is a part of me that I just can't ignore, and it is telling me in no uncertain terms that I must find a way to spend some considerable time in meditation. I need to go somewhere quiet, on my own, and just sit, relax, eat simple food, and tune in to the universe. I need to wake up early, meditate, and keep up the practice until I engage with whatever it is that is calling to me. Now you may think that just going somewhere and sitting around may be an easy ride, but it really is not. It's terrifying. Once you sit for long enough without the distractions of modern life, the silence becomes unnerving, it disturbs you, scares you. You try to fill the void with noise, any noise, even just random thoughts, but once they subside and you start to let go, that is when the truths come. You see yourself and your purpose clearly, and you begin to find answers. Some people never achieve this, they spend their whole lives with the noise and they never hear their own voice. I have been on the edge of this state in the past, but never fully immersed myself in it. This has to change. 

Where to go?
My favourite place is the Old Man of Coniston in the English Lake District. 
There are places on that hill where if you choose the right day you can find total peace and quiet, with just the wind for company. That will do for now. I could do with a week or so, but it's plainly not going to happen for a while. You have to be grateful for whatever solitude comes your way, and for me this place is accessible and a firm favourite. 
I have a place I go next to a lovely tarn about half way back down the hill by the route I usually take, and it's best to sit there after walking to the top first, so you have a flood of lovely endorphins or 'happy chemicals' in your system. 
You can sit and watch the water, with the sun beating down, your whole body glowing from the exercise, and I swear, I am never happier than when I'm in that place. It totally defines me. 

Ssshhhh
Too many people fill their day (and by default mine) with sound, it really is like they are afraid of silence, and see a need to fill a room with noise wherever they go. They will enter a room and turn on a TV and not watch it, or get in their car, switch on the radio and not listen. If they are with you in a room the feel a need to chatter incessantly. 
Personally, I have always enjoyed long periods of silence, I don't find it awkward, or embarrassing, I just find if I have nothing to say there is no harm in saying nothing! 
Finding silence is a real challenge in today's world, and you have to work hard to find a place that you can go for a little quiet time, even in the countryside there is usually background noise from roads and the general hum of life. 
My advice is, if you find somewhere quiet, then keep quiet about it! or pretty soon your silent bubble will be popped. 

Stop stimulating me!! 
I read somewhere recently that an average person gets more stimulation in a week, than people a person 100 years ago got in their entire life. That really is something to think about. In the small market town where I live, various workplaces summoned workers by means of bells, even the local Fire Service of which I am part was summoned by a bell on a prominent building. This is unthinkable now with all the noise of modern traffic. 
Even at home you can be inundated with sounds you didn't even realise were there! The hum of a lightbulb, the whir of the bathroom fan, the heating boiler, the TV and it's devices on stand-by, next door's TV, the washing machine, the cooker, they all contribute to background noise.

So value silence, enjoy quiet times, and relish peace and quiet. Let your inner voices be heard and take action on what they tell you. It could be important......

Can big ideas save the world?

In my last post I wrote an open letter to Richard Branson which basically called him out on the subject of the environment. I said that while he ran an airline he could not possibly bang on the way he does about pollution because he is part of the cause, and not the solution. (Hey that rhymes!)


That hasn't changed. I'm not saying air travel is so bad that nobody should do it, I'm just saying that Richard, bless him, is an outspoken chap considered untouchable by many, and that his relentless voicing of his opinion on the environment is starting to get under my skin a little. You don't talk to people about fire safety while you set alight to their trousers, do you? Again, sorry Richard, but you're doing it wrong.


Now, what I failed to offer in my open letter was an alternative. My friend Melody Fletcher from www.deliberateblog.com asked me if there really was an alternative, and she deserves a thoughtful answer, plus if I come up with an alternative solution where people can still fly between destinations at 500mph while causing very little pollution I'm going to be richer than Dickie boy, so I'd better get started! 


The Challenge
Here is the challenge. People love to travel by air. Me included. We have spent just over a century perfecting the art of air travel, and we have come a long way. People are still with us now who started their lives having to travel across oceans in a steam powered liner, spending weeks at sea between ports. That same person can now sit at home and book a ticket to travel in air conditioned comfort at eight tenths of the speed of sound, while munching peanuts, watching the latest movies and being whisked to their destination in hours, not days or weeks. That my friends, is progress. However, progress has it's price. 


An airliner, in order to operate as efficiently as possible, needs to go fast. A jet engine works better the faster it goes, so to go very fast indeed you need to get out of the way of most of the air that slows you down. That means getting yourself very high (No, not in that way Richard). 
At 35,000 feet you have already left behind most of the air, and you are in an environment that is utterly hostile to life. That engine out there on the wing is sucking in enough air every second to fill St Paul's Cathedral. It's mixing it with kerosene, burning it, and blasting the choking, poisonous results out of the back. Airliners have become very efficient compared to their early forbears in the 50's and 60's but it is still a brutal, polluting way to move a piece of metal and carbon fibre. Richard doest really care, because it makes him astoundingly rich. In Richard's mind there is a very big sweeping brush, and a very big rug to sweep the rubbish under. 


So what are the alternatives? (This is where I get rich) ............


Oh bugger. There aren't any good ones.....


Stay with me though....


What can I do?
Basically I'm a tiny little speck of a human with a tiny (but heartfelt) little blog, and about as much influence in the wider global community as an ant with agoraphobia.......
Hairy Richard isn't going to listen to me, nobody is going to give up their foreign holidays, and we will carry on regardless. Fair enough, I can live with that. I have my plans! 
As we move further into the 21st century, fuel will become more scarce. As my little boy gets older, in his lifetime he will see electric vehicles become more commonplace, but only at the pace industry decrees as they squeeze money out of us for expensive and dwindling fuel. The technology will eventually appear and bring us batteries with longer duration and more power, but only over time. They don't want us having that stuff while there is still money to be made on fossil fuels right? 
So that is cars sorted.....
Aircraft are a different matter. It's all about weight you see. Batteries are heavy, aircraft need to be very light. That 747 looks heavy, but it isn't. Not really. For the size of it, it's incredibly light! Solar powered aircraft can't work in size at the moment, well certainly not 747 size anyway, not with the technology we have, they still need heavy batteries so we continue to rely on fossil fuels, and yet again as the supply dwindles they charge us more for it. 


What could happen?
The way it looks to be going, is that we're getting there with our road vehicles very very slowly, it's too slow to make any real difference, but as I said, there's still lots of money to be made on fossil fuels. 
Aircraft will get there eventually with some dramatic and as yet unknown technology breakthrough, but not while powerful people can still make money on fossil fuel! 
So this how it's going to be. We're going to pay more and more for fuel, travel by the means we know now will become increasingly expensive, as is always the case with big demand and limited supply. 
Get it into your heads now, oil is running out (43 years at the most optimistic prediction).


We will in finally get to a point where our current ideas about travel are ruining us financially, and we will stop travelling. The world will become a bigger place for us again. 
We will continue our ruinous pollution of the environment, because that's how we are. It has been proved time and time again throughout history, that we use all the natural resources in a place and then we move on. Except that we no longer have anywhere else to move on to. Yet.


So the world will get more polluted, Politicians will ask us to fight with a ferocity you haven't even seen yet over oil, and we will get to a point where we no longer have a planet worth living in. 




Is this being positive?
Where is the positivity in all this? This is Positive Paradise isn't it? Well yes it is, but some things can not be labelled positive or negative, some things just are. 


You and I can recycle all we like, we can stop travelling, by road, rail, sea, and air. We can buy a bike, we can live frugally and be be a paragon of green virtue, but it won't make any difference. We will always consume something. 
There are now so many of us that if we all lived as frugally as we possibly could, we would still be eating away at our resources in an unsustainable way. We the developed nations could revert to a much simpler way of life, even have it forced upon us, but there is not enough space, not enough land, it's too hard to govern, it's too revolutionary a change. There's simply no appetite for it. 


So we will carry on. We will pay lip service to the environment, pathetically recycling, being green and being frugal with fuel. We will pollute, destroy, overgrow, and eventually out of necessity we will move on. When our planet is a polluted stinking husk, sucked dry of every resource, we will move on to another pristine paradise and do the same there. 


The only question is will our current planet take the initiative and destroy us before we destroy it? 


We need our imagination
What are we to do then? What can we possibly do to play our part in moving on to that new planet, or with some truly gigantic effort, save ours? I suggest starting with some ideas. 


We need some really big ideas. 


Maybe if we stopped killing each other that would be a good start. How many great ideas may have been lost in the trenches of the western front? or in the concentration camps of Europe, or the Iraqi deserts, or the mountains of Afghanistan?


Out there right now, maybe in poor slums or rich suburbs, tower blocks or villages, battlefields or business meetings, there exist people who will have great ideas. Ideas that will bring us new technology, massive leaps in potential, new energy sources. Things that haven't yet occurred to us in our wildest dreams. 
This is what will save us. Our one great gift is our capacity to think great thoughts, and to use them for good. This and only this will be our salvation. 
You don't need a shiny suit and a cape to save the world, all you need to do is sit on your bum! So stop, sit down, and start dreaming.
So you just carry on recycling, jetting off on holiday, pedalling your bike, driving your car, eating your burger, making something new out of the wrapper, because what will be will be. If we are to die out on a sun baked festering rock, it will happen. If we are to have the ideas that will save what is left of our earth and move on with harsh lessons learned for the future, then that will happen too. We are nature, and nature finds a way. 


Relax......meditate......chill out......drift off......


Ideas are everything, they are the currency of our brightest imagined future. 


Maybe one day soon, someone, somewhere, maybe the most unlikely person, will sit down and drift off into an amazing daydream, and on that day an answer will arrive that will save humanity. 


Here's to that great day! 

An open letter to Richard Branson

Dear Richard. 


This is an open letter on the subject of the environment. 


First of all a bit of background. I'm a fan of yours. In 1988 my Mum and Dad took my Sister and I on a family holiday to Florida. We spent a few days in London first, and we visited the Virgin Megastore where I literally bought the T-shirt. As a quiet lad from a tiny market town in the country, I was blown away by London, and I was so excited to be in this bustling electric atmosphere with all it's endless possibility. To me you were someone who had made the most of these possibilities. 


As I walked around the store I imagined what it must have taken to build up a business like this, from your first small shop to this huge empire. Being 15 years old and an aviation nut, I also knew that down the road in Gatwick you had a fleet of aircraft too. Splendid red and white 747's and an airline that was making BA look like a bunch of stuffy, faceless, establishment suits who were literally drunk on their own entitlement. As I sat down at the front of that aircraft and plugged in my free Virgin headphones and listened to the latest tunes, I gazed around at the stewardesses, who seemed to a 15 year old boy to be the very last word in glamour and style. I was in seventh heaven. 


Hours later the aircraft turned onto final approach over a sweltering Floridian landscape and through my headphones came Cilla Black, singing "Anyone who had a heart." Hearing this tune sung in the mid 60's by a very British lady as we drifted down over the orange groves and swamps of late 80's Florida was quite surreal, and as someone who has always adored the surreal and unusual, it wasn't lost on me. The holiday was amazing, Florida was hot, Virgin were beyond cool. 


A few years later I read "Losing my virginity" and was riveted to every page as I learned of your fights with BA, the dirty tricks campaign, and throwing a glass of water over Clive Anderson (well done!) 
I followed you through the news stories on TV and in the papers, and I saw you go from success to greater success. 


But lately something has changed, my respect for you has taken a knock, and I need your help to change that. 
You are aware of the beauty of the environment around your own beloved Caribbean island, and your love of that place comes through in your blog posts and tweets. You obviously care very passionately about the environment and you use your position of influence to actively campaign for change, but there is a problem. 


It's that airline. 


Richard, I'm saying this in the nicest possible way, and with the best intentions. The airline has to go. 
You can not possibly say a single word more about the environment while you have anything to do with the airline. 
I have a Commercial Pilot's Licence, and I know how an aircraft works, where it flies, and what comes out of the back. It's nasty. I don't care how fuel efficient it is, or how economically the pilots fly it, it burns fuel, and it dumps the remains out of the back of the engine into the atmosphere. 
I'm not mentioning your other businesses, or any statistics, or professing to be any kind of expert on the subject. I'm just saying that until you give up the airline, you have got to shut up. 


Sorry. 


When you've sold it, this is what you must do. You book a massive venue, and I do mean massive, and you invite everyone you know that has influence. Every journalist, celebrity, politician, environmental campaigner, eco activist, writer, pop star, actor, promoter, and you say these words:


"I sold my airline. I sold it because it pollutes the environment. I have other businesses that I'm doing my best to change so they can be more environmentally friendly, but the airline had to go. I couldn't stand here and talk to you about the environment while those planes were up in the sky. It was the ultimate hypocrisy and I'm sorry. I'm a rich man, I'm not embarrassed to tell you that, but that wealth puts me in a unique position, with unique influence. 
I'm 61 now, I'm not going to live forever, but I have the chance to do something that will change this planet for the better. I have an island, a beautiful jewel of an island, and my children have grown up loving it and enjoying it's wildlife. But you have children too, and they deserve a chance to enjoy their own island, this amazing place we all call home. My airline spent the last 28 years polluting the atmosphere, I can't change that, but I will make sure that I spend the rest of my days doing my bit to help other people make the changes we need to make. Very soon Virgin Galactic will be sending people into low earth orbit, and in the near future perhaps even further into space, and from that vantage point they will see what many other astronauts have seen. That tiny, impossibly thin blue line that we call our atmosphere. Maybe they too will be seized with a desire to do whatever they can to stop polluting it. They might also see the deforestation, the pollution from new industry in eastern Europe and China circling the globe, the melting ice caps, the new deserts. 
They might hope to avoid the fate of the inhabitants of another beautiful island named Easter, whose citizens looked sadly to the horizon even as they chopped down their last tree. 
We still have time, and we can make the changes we need to make. The planet doesn't notice announcements, platitudes and excuses, it notices action. My name is Richard Branson, thank you for listening." 


Can you do this Richard? 


Yours,


Stewart, aged 38 
(a fan). 

Yes, It's working and I'm loving it!

There comes a critical point in any new venture where you ask yourself "Is this working"? And for me that point has come and gone, I'm happy to say that yes, it is working! I started down my current path almost a year ago, and since that point I have learned an awful lot. I can honestly say I feel I have learned more in the last year, than in all my previous years put together.


Questions
I started by asking the really big questions about life, the universe and everything, and kept asking and asking, probing, prying, and delving, and eventually I found the questions came right back to me.
My biggest leap was finding out just what stillness and silence can do for you. Just finding somewhere quiet, sitting down, and just stopping. Stopping thought, stoping action, stopping movement, just letting my inner captain ring down to the engine room with the order 'Full Stop."
To use another analogy, at the fire station we have portable communications radios so we can talk to each other on the fire ground. Often after a lot of to and fro communication they need recharging, so we take them and sit them in their recharging socket, and there they remain until the little green light comes on saying 'recharged' That is how I feel after meditating. I feel like I have stopped operations, plugged into the universe and recharged. My battery is full,  I'm reset, and I'm ready to go and communicate again.


My biggest gains have been learning:

• How to really listen
• How to calm my thoughts and meditate
• How to use the law of attraction to bring immediate results
• How to enjoy the here and now
• How to improve my communication

Now I'm by no means fully competent in any of these disciplines, but the thing is I'm now aware of what I'm doing. When someone talks to me I can listen properly, and I'm aware when I'm not!
I can slow down or stop my thoughts, and I'm aware when they feel chaotic. When I talk I'm aware when I'm gabbling, and I can slow my voice down, and start structuring questions, using new skills to get more from a conversation, and find out more about someone than perhaps they'd like to give away, or are aware they're giving away!


Deliberately knowing
I have got to know myself very well this past year, and I'm liking the person I have become, or perhaps I was that person all along, but I needed to do some searching to find him. I have forgiven myself for past events, and released grievances against other people too. This has been hugely liberating. When I encounter people I find annoying, I try to 'find the gold' and realise that it is me where the problem lies and my perception of them, not the other person.
The law of attraction is a huge subject, and I have just scratched the surface so far, but I'm well on the way to changing my vibration and bringing good things into my life. Everyone loves to start with 'programming' parking spaces, and the ability to park right outside your desired shop on a rainy day is amazing and always makes me laugh in surprise! I have MindStore to thank for this, it only works! It's just a little party piece really, but now I'm moving onto bigger things and I can feel the change. For the full picture I will direct you to my friend Melody Fletcher at www.deliberatereceiving.com Melody is the definitive authority on this subject and she will show you the way!


The REAL big society
You see Positive Paradise isn't just about one person, it is about a community of people. In the future I plan to involve writers, artists, musicians, designers, engineers, people with vision. Creative people from all backgrounds who can combine to teach Mr and Mrs average citizen, that by opening their minds and peeking through the curtain, they can see the cogs and gears of the universe, harness the power of the machinery, and use it for good. I will show them that there is more to our world than what they've been taught and conditioned to perceive. Just like in any production, the magic happens behind the scenes. We're all going to take a backstage tour and get front row seats for the performance of our life. Now how exciting is that?!