St Lucia

I left Gatwick early on a cold morning, when the world was still in black and white.  Ghostly outlines of trees and motionless animals in the fields were only just discernable through layers of mist.  Just a eight and half hour flight later, I stepped down into a place of sultry warmth and vivid colour.  My senses were bombarded with the sights, smells and sounds of an island that’s truly alive. My dream destination, St Lucia is  truly exotic and unbelievably beautiful. Gorgeous sandy beaches, brilliant sunshine and sunsets, sparkling water…
I went on a wonderful boat trip to see the famous Pitons, which rise from the waves to the clouds like pyramids of volcanic stone; the drive-in volcano and botanical gardens.

A canopy of green covers the island like a haze. Rolling hills grow to form volcanic mountains and reach to the sky. The main town of Castries move and shake to the sound of car horns, the smell of rotis fresh from the oven and reggae blaring on the speaker.

I met many women who were single, widowed or divorced. Each had their own “story”. Their courage, sense of adventure and love of life was a true inspiration!

Life in St Lucia is slow and the people smile from the heart.  Life is simple.  Love, respect and kindness.  We can all learn from this amazing island.

With all the excitement of the Royal Wedding at the end of this month, people are focused on marriage.  The average bride is now 30, and the typical groom is just past his 32^nd birthday.  The modern couple is older and wiser; they know who they are, they know what they want and they know each other as well as they can.  That’s the idea anyway.  Yet, 54 years ago my own parents married at the ages of 34 and 30 so is it modern or were they before their time?

Many people believe that this age is the “right” way and they use divorce stats to verify their argument.

 

Yet I married at 21 and believe that if you marry young, you marry baggage-free, full of hope and blissfully ignorant.  It’s all very well spending years weighing up each other’s potential, but the long relationship test-drive is the opposite of romance and trust.

We live in a culture that encourages young people to fear all the big stuff – what if it goes wrong?  How will you afford it?  Burden of responsibility…. And as a result nobody wants to do anything, let alone marry. 

Marriage might be the most important decision of your life, nonetheless you can if you’re not careful take it far too seriously.  Some choices have to be instinctive.  You don’t have to be in your thirties to cope with the big life challenges.

I say get married when you are your most resilient and optimistic.  There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but at least you’ll have an amazing experience of being on a huge learning curve.

When there are problems within a marriage and it nearly falls apart, this is when people open their eyes to their self-defeating behaviours and gives them an opportunity to resolve those problems

But unless they understand the unconscious desires that motivated their dysfunctional behaviour in the first place and they choose to divorce, they will only repeat them again with their next partner.

I have come to believe that couples should make every effort to honour their wedding vows, not just for moral reasons, but for psychological ones; fidelity and commitment appear to be conditions dictated by the unconscious mind.

April

After what we experienced in March we are probably wondering what April has in store for us.  World events showed us how lives can change in a moment, that Mother Nature is still in charge, that no matter how technologically advanced we think we are, everything can be wiped out, taking us back to very simple basics of food, water and shelter.

In our individual lives there was an opportunity to assess where we are, whether we are happy, what we need to let go of and how we are creating our life path. For many it was a sobering experience and that leads us into the possibilities of April.

This month we have another major planet changing signs, Neptune enters Pisces, for the first time since 1827. This is another milestone - all of the outer planets have changed sign in the last six months and there is also a concentration of planets in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac and the sign of action. The question for us this month are what actions will we take and how will we be guided to take it. It is one thing to take action blindly and without forethought, it is another to consciously choose the action that is in our highest good.

While we all want to run away from whatever causes us pain, it is one thing to run away from fear, it is another to go towards success. A client just felt the need to leave her home and family because she felt the urge to run away.  She didn’t realise that we get the best results when we use every part of each experience as a learning curve and refrain from judging any of them. By running away, she just side-stepped, from one place to another. So nothing changed except her living space!

A shift in energy, in being and in thinking allows us to move towards success, towards a different reality that is not better or worse than the one we have, just different.

This month will be a call to becoming more whole, centred, grounded and aware. With six planets in Aries at the April 3 New Moon, we have much support for the new but Saturn, which is in opposition, challenges us to choose wisely, to reflect, take our time and move ahead consciously and mindfully. This month we have much support for taking action and creating change.

But if we don't want to create more of the pain, discomfort, fear, lack or anything else we no longer want, we will have to take mindful, powerful, conscious and deliberate steps towards success instead of trying to run away from our fears.

Have a great month.

Heather

 To order “Centre Yourself” meditation CD, go to www.heatherprince.co.uk