I want to welcome Toby Negus to fundinmental. I left the topic open to whatever Toby would like to share. I hope you enjoy it. Take it away Toby….

Love

While I was sitting within a grove of trees, my gaze came to rest upon a single tree. I tried to see this tree as it was, to feel its life without my conditions of how I thought it should be.  So, I waited for another way to understand this tree, resisting the distractions in me that so wanted to tell the tree what it was. I waited for the tree to tell me who it was. Ever so slowly, an awareness of the tree grew in me of its life, its interconnectivity to the other trees, the air, and the earth. This tree felt singular in its purpose; not a different type of tree or a daffodil, but the tree that it was.

It felt like it had no doubt of what it was or why it was. The power of the tree’s self-identity was total. It was in love with being the tree that it was.

This irrevocable love that is evident in nature, feels so different from the human experience of love. Ours seems a kaleidoscopic chaotic love affair. Unfixed to the singular love that a tree has. It is a helter-skelter ride of highs and lows, where our everchanging will causes our love to come and go all too easily.

The tree does not have to make it, it is in it! We have to summon it; create its opportunities and beckon it into our lives. And we do this each day; rekindle the sparks of our purpose to find again our love. Because we do long to be in love in what we do, with another and with who we are. We love to love, love to share, love to give, love to make things that shine, and of course, we love to be happy.

It seems that the human task is to ‘make love’, to give birth to it by our will.  And this we do, in our choices of passion and in the struggles we endure to bring our heart’s love to life.

The Heart Knows What the Mind Cannot See by Toby Negus

GENRE:   self-help, mind body spirit

BLURB

This is a thought-provoking and enlightening exploration of spirituality and perception. The text functions as a guide to self-improvement, with a mixture of autobiographical elements and snippets of universal wisdom. The speaker provides accessible solutions to life’s difficulties, and an outlook of optimism applicable to any circumstance. The illustrations and graphics are thoughtfully chosen, and the interactive textual elements give this work an originality that sets it apart. The speaker’s own experiences and conclusions are at the heart of this fiction, and the first person narrative voice creates a sense of proximity between author and reader. The text describes itself as ‘a journey to the heart’, and this truthful discovery of the self is reflected in the speaker’s revelation of his whole self through the text. The narrative often presents a dichotomy between positive and negative outlooks or voices.

For example, the speaker includes sections in which his self-doubt speaks, ‘you’ve got no proper education, you can’t spell properly, you’re dyslexic and your grammar is crap. You’re not really a writer’. This negative voice directly opposes the sense of self-belief the speaker builds within the narrative. He uses examples such as this to remind readers that the journey to happiness is complex and that flaws or setbacks are natural. The negative separation or fragmentation of the self is prevalent in the lines, ‘I do not love the grumpy me, the sad me, the hostile me, the parts of me that act as if I do not care’. The act of writing represents a unification of the self and an attempt to reframe the speaker’s life into coherence. The frequent use of direct address and rhetorical questions promotes an active reading experience, in which the author opens up a dialogue with the reader. The text includes prompts and activities for the reader to engage with and learn from. Encouraging readers to take part in the text is emblematic of their journey to self-fulfilment and love, in which they must take responsibility for actively creating their own happiness.

The speaker depicts his process of enlightenment as a framework for others to emulate, and the format of the text demonstrates the transfer of agency to those who take part in the speaker’s challenges at the end of each chapter. This work ultimately teaches us that ‘we are the cause of what is’ and thus sheds light on the crucial idea that every individual has the power to create themselves and their world positively.

EXCERPT

Real learning is not what we expect.
If we could expect it, it wouldn’t be learning.

I looked in the mirror today and saw more than who I thought I was; within the eyes was a million years of purpose. I saw the depth of the universe and felt its unfaltering love. It was as if I had seen the divine within myself, the truth of who we are. The us that never dies, the custodian of our purpose, the love of our life.

This wasn’t what I expected and was somewhat sobering. There was no blinding light, no sound of trumpets, and no big handshake with an almighty. But it was as profound as if there had been. For it seemed I was touching an eternal part of myself, an authority within that could create my heaven on earth, that was already in heaven on earth! It was a glimpse of something other than the me I thought I was. Its light questioned the lack of self-care and love I held for myself. And its presence would eventually crack and then dissolve my view of what I thought it meant to be human.

Doing a spiritual journey and tackling self-development issues can give many profound perceptions, and I have had my fair share of them. But this was different, this was personal. It was my eyes that were looking at me, something that I could not escape from. It could not be brushed off as a ‘perhaps’ or a nice perception that subsided over time. Its truth seemed to embed itself into my very soul.

AUTHOR Bio and Links

Toby Negus has studied and taught spiritual and personal development in the UK and around the world for over two decades. He is qualified in advanced counselling, as a life coach and as a Cognitive Behaviour therapist. He is an Amazon best-selling author of a collaborative Conscious Creators book and has illustrated and self published two books on the subject of self-awareness and the spiritual journey. He is also a published author of a children’s book The Boy Who Dreamed in Colour. He has given talks and run workshops in support of his published work within the UK.

In the last few years, he has created many pieces of artwork that are a reflection of his spiritual journey. These have appeared in magazines and have been exhibited in the UK.  

• Website: www.tobynegus.com
• Amazon Author: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toby-Negus/e/B00PS7U9VK
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/boathouse01
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OriginalArtWords/

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