Author Archives: Jennifer K Miles

About Jennifer K Miles

I am an educator, researcher and writer, passionate about storytelling and its power to change perspectives of self. Through undertaking the journey of my own transformative learning, I now work with adults to support them in drawing forth stories of the strength and potential gained in their lives, as they move towards the creation of their stories as yet untold. My three beautiful adult boys are the most precious part of my story, and continue to walk with and support me in undertaking my PhD research. I write about story and transformative learning ... the circumstances of our lives and the stories remembered; influences on the construction of our self-identities - positive and negative; critiquing the assumptions and limitations we have come to accept about ourselves, our potential, and our place in life; daring to imagine a story untold.
Oct20

The murmurings of our soul

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I’ve gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discover that my capacities are real. It’s like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Joan Mills

I’ve been reminded today about the importance of celebrating the journey, of pausing to consider the strengths that continue to emerge as we follow the murmurings of our soul. The soul speaks, quietly urging us forward, whispering truths of authenticity, cultivating our awareness of environments activities and people that fail to nurture our growth

As I work to re-member my higher self, and go about life in my clunky, inelegant way, I am stirred by strengths … both of others who walk the path with me, and by my own emerging connection to my soul. I will celebrate this stirring and continue to clumsily juggle courage with mediocrity and occasional insights of brilliance as I interpret and claim the murmurings of my soul

If you don’t feel it, flee from it. Go where you are celebrated, not merely tolerated

Paul F Davis

Apr9

Every ending is a new beginning … every beginning is a new ending … every ending is a new beginning …

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Wow!
IMAG0219It’s been quite a journey over the last months. I have left my employment of twelve years; enrolled full-time in my PhD; moved to another educational institution, returning to sessional teaching in Leisure & Health to support the professional development of health practitioners; continued my studies in yoga training in Satyananda Ashram in Mangrove Mountain, NSW, and have just returned from four days in spectacular Perth, presenting and sharing in the dissemination of knowledge around vocational education here in Australia.

Swami Satsangi Easter3a 2013 (2)

By far the most humbling experience though has been my time spent with four hundred other yoga devotees at Satyananda Ashram in Rocklyn with Swami Satsangi during her Easter visit. Through this I have received the blessing of initiation into Satyananda yoga, and am humbled to have been given my spiritual name and mantra by the magnificent Swami Satsangi to support me as I grow in consciousness.

‘Wow’ doesn’t come close to expressing where I’ve been and where I’m at.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Satyananda-Yoga-Rocklyn-Ashram/136861662992393
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8becSAKonQ

When we finally open to the winds of change, you can’t know where it will take you. It’s hard to know which way is up when you surrender to a whirlwind. Every ending opens to a new beginning, every beginning brings with it an unexpected new story with a soon-to-be-discovered new ending. Where we begin and where we end and where we begin again is transformational if we are open to it.

Consider the whirlwinds, the tearing and battering that takes place as we yield to the forces of nature that are one with each of us. Consider the inconceivable heights to which we soar in the fulfillment of our dreams. Every experience that is part of our everyday is critical to us becoming the fullest and truest expression of ourselves.

IMAG0184Often we can’t see where we’re going, or what we’ve left behind … but we should always trust that it is going to be spectacular if we follow our hearts to the natural end … so that we can begin anew, all over again.

Sep23

The middle

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Turtle eating strawberryNibble at the edges of a sweet dream that is bigger than you. Bite off more than you can chew from time to time to remind yourself to keep stretching your ambition beyond limitations. Break it down until bite size chunks of possibility emerge. Large visions are rarely swallowed whole; slow and steady, one step at a time, wins the race. By soulseeds

The last time we spoke my life was sitting on the edge of unknown change, and I am speaking to you today from the middle.

For the last months there has been change going on within and without, and as often happens in such times, my natural inclination is to withdraw, to observe, to conserve, to quietly contemplate, and to imagine the beginnings of new possibilities.

One of the great inspirations for me in these times has been the ever brilliant musings of Ian and Meg Lawton in soulseeds. They speak of life and love and have continued to seed my own morphing perspectives.

Today I was again reminded to keep nibbling away … slowly, slowly until one day I’ll be on the other side, wondering why I ever questioned that I could do it.

I wanted to share this with you, to remind you to keep daring to confront and nibble away at your own dreams, knowing that like the little turtle (tortoise??) and the strawberry, it IS possible, and it HAS to happen if it rests constantly in your imagining. We are all pregnant with possibilities awaiting birth, and it is inevitable that the time will come when they must come forth.

Keep daring, keep imagining … you and I both … and we will meet on the other side soon to share our stories of transformational change.