On a daily basis we face changes in our lives.  Sometimes these changes are so small we hardly notice them.  Every now and again a major change happens.  That can be okay if you have instigated the change yourself, but there are times when that change is forced on you by someone else, or by circumstances beyond your control.  How we deal with these changes, how we receive them, how we process the feelings they produce, is the key to being happy in our lives.

Since my last post I have been faced with a series of changes.  One of those change was unexpected and certainly unwanted.  One of the horses in the WOW! World of  Whispers herd became ill and died.  It was tragic, tremendously upsetting and left a big void in the project.  The space Glen’s death has left will not be filled, no matter how many other horses come into the project.  All of us in the project needed to deal with this change, we had to come to terms with our loss.  One of the things Glen’s death brought about was a renewed enthusiasm for the work the project does.  The people who cared for Glen realised that the immense learning they went through whilst trying to save him can be used positively for other horses who may find themselves in similar situations.

Try to recognise the positives in every change in your life.  Change is inevitable and it is essential for us to learn and grow.  Embrace change.

Enjoy the journey.

There is a definite feeling of satisfaction when we do something freely for others.  Whether that is giving a helping hand, a word of advice or something more tangible.

This week I went to Wales to help to move the 8 World of Whispers horses to the Norfolk/Suffolk border.  I have been volunteering for most of my adult life and being involved with these horses has been one of the best volunteering experiences I have ever had.  We travelled overnight, leaving Wales at 2.15am and arriving at our destination just after 9am this morning.   Our next task is to find a permanent project base to operate from and we are now working on a plan to help us to achieve that by next spring.  We need at least 50 acres of grazing with some buildings suitable for use by people visiting the project.  The horses are not stabled, living outside 24/7, so they only need either natural shelter or basic shelter, not necessarily stables.  Ideally the location will be within North Norfolk, but anywhere towards the Norfolk/Suffolk border could be suitable.

One of the things we are doing to help move the project forwards is fundraising that will enable the project to become a Registered Charity.  We are currently running a raffle that will be drawn at my Art Gallery on 16th December, 2009.  Tickets can be purchased by visiting the World of Whispers website, or contacting me via my email, admin @ mandyallen.com.  We hope to raise £5,000 through the raffle.

If you have never experienced that euphoric feeling that comes after giving freely you should try it.  Find somewhere to volunteer, give something for nothing, and see how much difference it makes to your overall well being.  The rewards are immense.

Enjoy the journey.

I have been working on building an Internet Marketing business for some time now.  I started by buying various ‘make money’ products and training courses, never really getting far due to my lack of understanding at the time.  Many of these products start too far down the line for those of us who are starting from scratch.

One thing I have come to understand more recently in this business is the absolute importance of making friends online.  It is essential to build relationships with other online marketers.  These people will be very important in several areas of your business.  They may be people who you can build working partnerships with, either in a jv (promoting products) or partnering on creating a product or site, or they may be people who will offer you invaluable support, help, guidance, advice.  There is a wealth of it out there, but not everyone is willing to share.  The only way to find out who is interested in helping you to further your business is to talk to people and make friends.

So now I will tell you who some of my friends are.  These are people I have built relationships with online and who have helped me to further my online career.  If you look to the right of this post you will see a blog roll called ‘My Favorite Blogs’.  All of the people on this list have helped me enormously in terms of personal support, advice and guidance in my Internet business.  Please take time to visit their blogs.

In particular I would like to mention specifically:  Steve King, first and foremost as he is my business partner.  Together we started The John Thornhill Fan Club and are currently working on another site with a group of fellow marketers.  I would also like to mention Keith Alston.  Keith has helped me no end with technical issues.  He has a wealth of knowledge and I feel privileged to know him.  On a personal level I have had enormous support from Svenja Sattler, Kathy Dobson, Susan Owen-Thursfield, and Jay and Lynne Mueller, who have all been so encouraging and kept in touch for many months now by email.

I feel privileged to know all of you and thank you for everything you give so freely.

Make friends, it will reap rewards for your future, and your Internet friends will support you in every area of your life.  I found that out recently when I became involved voluntarily in a charitable enterprise, WOW! World of Whispers, and I was astounded at the generosity of my Internet friends.

Enjoy the journey.

Most of my regular readers know that I have recently spent a lot of time and energy supporting a brilliant Project for horses and people, WOW! World of Whispers.  This is a Project that works hard to bring people and horses together to encourage a healing environment for both.  This encourages amazing transformations in the people who come to the Project to benefit from the experiences.

About 3 weeks ago a film producer visited the Project to create a video that will be used to promote the Project both through the WOW! website and through dvd’s and YouTube.  It has been a very interesting experience being involved in creating this short film.  As well as being the second camera person during filming, I spent some time this week in the editing suite with the film producer and the WOW! Project owner, Helen Wingstedt.

One of the people who had visited the Project, and had an amazing experience, was a newspaper columnist and BBC presenter.  He was there on filming day to talk about his amazing experience.  Off camera we all talked about life in general and he told us he had recently put a post on his personal wesbsite called ‘Sex, Drugs and Oil’.  He said his site had more hits on that post than at any other time in its history!  His theory was that if you include the word ’sex’ in the title it encourages a plethora of hits – I just thought I would test it out!

Enjoy the journey.

At last my first ebook is available for sale!  It has taken a good few months to get to this stage, but I received the coveted email from clickbank earlier this week and the product is now live.

Power Up Your Potential – Top Tips For Change is the first book that will fall under this brand name.  Book number 2, Power Up Your Potential – Top Tips For Bloggers is ready to add graphics and should be available in the next 2 – 3 weeks.

It’s a wonderful feeling, achieving so much is such a short time.  If you have ever thought that you can’t, then know that you can!  If I can do it, anyone can!

For a really great mentor check out John Thornhill’s Masterclass programme, and pop over and join The John Thornhill Fan Club for all your additional support needs.  Steve King and I have developed this site to create a forum for all of John’s students to meet, chat, receive support and guidance, and to promote any products created under John’s tutorage.

Pop over to my product sales page now and check out what Power Up Your Potential – Top Tips For Change is all about.  You can sign up for a free 7 day mini course there too!

Enjoy the journey.

A mixed bag today. I wanted to spend a little of the time on here to personally thank you ALL for your incredible response to my appeal for the WOW! project.  I have put a short message below from Helen Wingstedt, the project founder, as I know some of you may not have read this in the comments section, and I feel it is important for you to know what a great difference you are all making.  Helen will be keeping you all updated on progress with a regular post on here from now on.

For my part I have spent some time arranging for an exhibition of the photographs of the herd to be showcased at my gallery, Art-next-the-Sea, with the preview being held on October 10th, 2009 from 2-5pm. You are all welcome to come to this preview, and Horse Whispering Healer and WOW! founder, Helen Wingstedt, will be at the gallery for the preview.  After the launch of the collection we will  be selling prints via our internet shop; this will be able to be accessed via the Art-next-the-Sea website.

I will now hand the rest of this post over to Helen.

The Whispering World – Helen Wingstedt

An enormous thank you to you, Mandy, and to every one of you who’ve taken the time to read Mandy’s inspiring feature and responded to my Equine SOS – Save the Herd at World of Whispers.  August 2009 has easily been one of the most stressful months of my life on the one hand, and one of the most encouraging on the other.  To have so many people come forward to enthusiastically support the horses, the Project and me, for the work we’ve done and want to do, has been an incredibly moving and humbling experience which will be remembered and repaid in any way we are able.

I look forward to breaking good news with you all, as it happens, in the months ahead and thank everyone who by donating, will have made success from distress for animals and people possible.

Very best wishes,

Helen Wingstedt
The Horse Whisperer

See how the project is progressing so far at World of Whispers.

Enjoy the journey.

All I can say is WOW!  I have just had the most amazing experience of my life!  As you will know from my last post, my partner and I decided to go to Wales to help to move the World of Whispers project to a new location.  You can follow the journey of the last few days at World of Whispers.  Above is a photo of me with Jack, who I was particularly drawn towards.

Our reward for spending two days packing and sorting was to be able help to move the herd to their new home on Saturday morning.  It was not planned for that day but was arranged specially for us to enjoy as we had to leave that afternoon.

I have very little experience with horses; riding as a teenager and a couple of beach rides about 10 years ago is all I have done.  You can imagine my anxiety when the horses arrived at the new location and we were all told to take one and walk it down the lane!  There were five horses and four people.  I was the only ‘non-horsey’ person in the group.  Guess who got to lead two horses at once??  But I did it, and it made me feel really great.  If you visit the WOW website there is a picture of me leading the two horses.

We had planned to leave Wales just after lunch but sat in the field with the horses for such a long time we didn’t hit the road til 5 o’clock!  I have returned exhilerated and buzzing – it is an opportunity I am so glad that I took.

If you have made a donation you will be invited to an open day in Wales next year.  I will be there and really look forward to meeting you all.  Please take the opportunity to donate and come along to the open day.  You will not regret it.  I can vouch for that!

Donations can be made via paypal to helen@helenwingstedt.com, or look on the website for details of where to send cheques.  Come and experience something amazing.

Enjoy the journey.

Actually I am not talking about the book, or the film come to that, but a real life horse whisperer, living and working in Wales, UK.

A few years ago my partner went on a course in Wales, ‘Healer, Communicator, Horse Whisperer’.  The course was an experience never to be forgotten, and local horses have benefitted from the great learning that took place throughout the 9 month course.

Now the herd are struggling.  We have just been advised that they are in need of funding, and the owner of the herd, who is also the course leader, would like to register the project as a charity.  This would enable her to tap into a vast amount of funding that is only available to charitable trusts.  In order to register for charitable status the sum of £7,000 must be raised, and fairly quickly, to enable the project to apply for grants to ensure the future of the project.

This week my partner and I will travel to Wales to help the project move to a new home.  In the meantime we hope to raise some funding via our email requests and a display encouraging donations that we have put into our art gallery.

The project has a great website and have asked for people to donate the sum of £10, making them a ‘friend’ of the herd.  In return everyone who joins as a friend will get an invitation to meet the herd at an open day to be held in Wales next year.  I can’t wait for the open day, as I know the project will get the money they need.  There are so many people who love animals enough to give this very small sum of money.

You can visit the project website at World Of Whispers and see for yourself what wonderful work they do.  You might even be tempted to donate that £10!  Donations can also be made via paypal to helen@helenwingstedt.com.  Do something amazing today – save a herd of horses.

Enjoy the journey.

A good lot of the time we go through life almost not noticing the things that are going on around us.  But every now and again something floats along in front of us and we grab it with both hands and think ‘wow!  I want to know more about that!’

This weekend we are off to Scotland.  Our friends are both 50 and they are holding a joint party on Saturday night.  One of the pair has been in training for a couple of years for a challenging 10 mile swim from Ailsa Craig to Girvan.  Her swim takes place on Saturday afternoon and part of the plan for the weekend is to join the party that greets her on her arrival in Girvan.

Although I have been aware of the swim, the fund raising, the challenge, for the last two years I didn’t really know anything about it.  I mentioned it to someone yesterday and they said ‘what is Ailsa Craig?’  I didn’t know so thought I’d look it up on the internet.  During my search up popped a blog my friend has been keeping of her progress during training.  I was fascinated to read her journal, and it is so well written and so amusing in places I thought I would share the link with you all.  Take a look, and especially read the post that confirms that ‘chocolate makes you float’!

http://rossurtees.blogspot.com/ and if you would like to make a donation visit http://www.ailsacraigswimchallenge.moonfruit.com/.

What a way to celebrate your 50th birthday!

Enjoy the journey.

Recently our local vicar reached the grand old age of 65.  We held a surprise retirement party for him in the local village hall.

I love these events.  There is always such a variety of people there, and often people from the parish who I don’t see very often.  It’s nice to have the opportunity to catch up on all their news and share my own with them.

The other thing I like about these events is the food.  Being a real foodie I love the ’shared suppers’ where everyone brings a plate of fare of their own choosing.  There are always some extraordinary dishes on the table to try.

We had a collection for Tim, deciding to give him the cash rather than buy an inappropriate or unwanted gift.  After all, at 65 he more than likely has everything he needs or wants.  We decided he might like to use the money for something like a holiday, or maybe he has a project he can put it towards.

The amount collected was testiment of Tim’s good works in the parish.  He was handed nearly £1,000 on the night, in a box that looked like it might have contained a carriage clock.  I think he thought it was a carriage clock at first!

Tim made a speech; we expected nothing less from this great narrator.  He told us how humbled he was by our generosity, and yet it is he who has been the generous one, constantly giving of his time, always having an ear to listen, a wise word to say.  He told us about his decision to give his life to God, and made us all laugh when he said ‘neither of us mentioned me stopping at 65′!

We are expecting a new incumbent in the near future, but Tim will continue to work in our parish – mostly unpaid, of course, as he has been for some years now.  People who work in a caring role don’t stop caring just because they reach retirement age.  God Bless them.

Enjoy the journey.