by Tom Evans | Mar 31, 2019 | Expanding
Being Seen
This month I did something I have been meaning to do for ages, I had some new photography done for my site.
The wonderful Maria O’Brien of Haiga Photography popped over to my house on a glorious pre-spring day. You’ll find my mugshot on all main pages of the site now, as opposed to me hiding away down somewhere deep.
I am so pleased at what she did and am wondering why I spent so long just hiding behind my voice on meditations, audiobooks and my podcast. Time to be seen, as well as heard.
Here’s a few of the fun ones …
If you fancy some photos that show your essence, get in touch with Maria.
Being Heard : Podcasting Again
Now the first draft of Soulwaves, the novel, is in the can – more on that in the next blog – I dusted off The Zone Show podcast this month and started it up again.
In this episode, I chat to Jelena Adzic about her transition from meditator to meditation guide on Insight Timer.
You will hear from Jelena again in the next episode when she turns the tables on me when we talk about said novel … and the next page I am turning.
Being Heard Even More
I’m thrilled that my new 30 day course, Mindfulness for Busy People, is now live on Insight Timer.
The new course format has allowed me to collate meditations from many sources of mine into the app into one cohesive container. The course contains a mix of remastered existing meditations along with brand new ones that link the whole 30 day narrative together.
It’s ideal for both new and experienced meditations – discover a new way of busy-ness today
by Tom Evans | Mar 4, 2019 | Chatting
This time last year I was invited by Judith Morgan to reflect on how I did my business my way.
A year on, or another Sun orbit, I thought it worthwhile to reflect on how it all went.
You can read the first blog here …
Soulwave Update
A stroke for my father in law, the death of my mother in law and a hip replacement for my wife all conspired to delay the publication until my 62nd orbit. No more books are getting in the way. It will be out before I am 62!
See The Slowest Book I’ve Written for more and publication timings …
The Big Ü
The book came out as planned on the 8th August 2018 – a significant date for my wonderful co-author, Laurence Udell. It’s the first book I have published simultaneously in hardback, paperback, ebook and audiobook formats – with four brand new meditations from yours truly. It is already opening hearts and minds and will be spawning two other programmes – the Bigger Ü and the Biggest Ü. It has also lead to high-end mentoring as well as talks, keynotes and workshops in the corporate sector. It’s turned out to be not only a mind-opener but door opener too.
Is it a book, an audiobook or a movement?
Insight Timer
Around May 2018, I reached over 1 million meditations on the app … it’s currently at 1.6m and climbing. While still free, a significant event happened and my first 10 day course went live – The Art of Timefulness.
It’s just about to be joined by a second 30 day course – Mindfulness for Busy People. The result is that a steady income is now flowing which takes the pressure of having to take on billing work.
Getting the whole world meditating …
Projects X, Y & Z
You might thing that this lot is enough for most people but three other projects are coming along already. I can’t say too much about them but can just share that the next orbit of the Sun is already looking bright.
Project X – there is a new initiative bubbling on Insight Timer to make things grow still further.
Project Y – The Zone Show podcast has been dormant while I finish off the novel. Listen out for two new episodes this month as it’s just about to take off again, in a bigger and brighter way.
Project Z – just imagine that everything you had been working for was meant to be. Things are coming together in to a new phase.
by Tom Evans | Jan 31, 2019 | Chatting
This January, I did something that I had not done for a number of years. I started out by taking my foot off the gas. Partly ticking off something from the bucket list and partly winding up my 60th year with some fellow sexagenarian friends, I went to Northern Finland, saw the Northern Lights (on two evenings), went snowmobiling, husky sledding and Nordic walking (or is that Finnish walking?).
Anyhoo, the break combined nicely with completely forgetting about anything to do with what you might call “work”. Lo and behold, on return 2019 seems to be falling into some sort of shape – but importantly without any tight grip on the reins.
Key 7 of the Tarot, The Chariot is a good example of how this all works. The Charioteer (the self-aware mind), thinks he is driving the bus. The two beasts at the front (the unconscious mind) think they are pulling the whole show in the right direction. All the time of course, the road itself (the higher self) is what is dictating the path we follow. Therein lies the lesson. Let go of the reins and find out where you are really heading.
Sometimes this involves encountering a turning point or three – here’s what came to meet me on my return to marginally warmer climes.
Soulwave
I now have a much more relaxed, sensible and do-able publication plan for novel, which formed towards then end of last year. It’s now being actioned and is producing tangible results … and deeper more cohesive storyline.
This month I am spending one day each week going over what I’ve written and one day working on one of the remaining chapters.
The new plan on track as follows :
– to have the first draft written by March 21st
– to then record the audiobook version (best proof read ever)
– to publish the Kindle and audiobook versions by the 21st June
– to publish the print version by 21st September
– to use the 21st December as a tentative back stop should things go awry
Just for Today Nuggets of Mindfulness
Back in July 2018, we moved Just for Today messages from a freemium to contribution currency model. After a promising start, we flat-lined and didn’t quite hit our first target. This year the model will flip back.
So, in March we are having a month off to reflect and regroup. The plan is that, from April, the daily nuggets of mindfulness will revert back to being free and two new exciting and affordable tiers will be created.
A new seed project will also start germinating too!
Insight Timer
The wonderful people behind the app have changed their model for the better and opened even more doors for me to migrate my archive. I already have one 30 day course going live soon and a second will appear before the year is out. This latter course will share what I haven’t ever shared yet about the nature of thought.
See Insight Premium for more details
I hosted the Daily Insight on the 19th January, which was alot of fun and will be doing the next on the 8th March – and after that, one every two months.
I also took my meditations in a new direction this month. This We Know is the first of a series of philosophical meanderings in a guided visualisation. And here’s Siri creating the artwork live, while listening to the meditation.
To cap it all, they have just asked me to provide the Daily Insight for Christmas Day this year. Guess what? Its title will be The Turning Point.
p.s. Some amazing Big Ü news popped along too, and is forming nicely with no effort on my part, but that will have to wait for next month’s blog
by Tom Evans | Dec 28, 2018 | Expanding
This month saw the unexpected passing of my mother-in-law. She has been in a care home for 8 years and wasn’t ill (for once). She had had a happy day, laughing and joking and was chatting to my father-in-law watching TV early evening. She was alive one second and gone the next. We had just moved them to their 3rd care home as my father-in-law had had a stroke and needed more care.
It was peaceful and painless for her and we were lucky to get a funeral slot just before Xmas. We are now left with a bereft person who doesn’t want to be around.
It makes you reflect and realise about the cycles of life. We have been in elderly care mode for at least the last 10 years and this gave me the impetus (and opportunity) to write at least 10 books and create hours of meditative visualisations and resources
Efforts Redoubled
So now our care and attention will increase, as father-in-law will need company, before the end of this year, next year is mapping itself out. When we encounter death, it is natural that we think about our own mortality. The fear of death left me many years ago but I do have a desire to leave behind a legacy of what I have learned for others (and possibly a future incarnation of myself/my soul). So this puts a focus on the next orbit of the Sun.
Project 1 : Soulwave : The Novel : I’ve now decided not to pressure myself on this and just to get the 1st draft written by my next birthday in March. Then to produce the audiobook by the 21st June, which will double as the the best proof read and edit you can get. And then to make the publication date, the 21st September.
Project 2 : Just for Today : These daily nuggets of mindfulness have been going out for well over two years now, latterly illustrated. In the New Year, Siri and I will be taking them to a new place where community involvement sits at the core.
Project 3 : Meditations : My free meditations are already on Insight Timer and more will be coming. One short story (from the Germinatrix) and one new free meditation will be published a month. Plus a new 30 day course will appear Q1 of 2019 which will replace three of my existing standalone courses.
Project 4 : The Big Awakening : While all of my creative output has been finding its way to the world, a massive amount of esoteric wisdom has yet to see general release. Some 1-2-1 mentoring clients have seen and experienced small snippets. I am giving no shape to how it gets out there but I know, with publication of The Big Ü, a channel now exists. Watch this space and it will be revealed – and all I know is that projects 1 to 3 above are the foundations.
Related Links :
Soulwave – draft available for Just for Today Patrons
Just for Today daily nuggets of mindfulness
My meditations on Insight Timer
The Big Ü
by Tom Evans | Nov 30, 2018 | Illuminating
The Paths of Return
This month has been nothing less than amazing … and that’s after a load of amazing months.
It has been a time when many threads have come together and many seeds planted years ago finally germinated. The only factor was time.
Thanks to the new Insight Timer courses, my meditations have lead to a steady, monthly sleeping income from sales of The Art of Timefulness course. Just today, I recorded the 30th of 30 new meditations for my second course which will go live in the New Year. A third course will follow 6 or so months later. A monthly ‘pension’ of sorts is now flowing in which means I can create even more and more.
By way of confirmation, I was interviewed at the start of the month about my career, and path, to date by Helena Holrick and Kelly Tyler for their ChangeMaker Portal – here’s an extract that you might find amusing.
The upshot is that it can take all your life to become an overnight success and that we can end up in a better place than we planned by not having a plan, watching the signs and going with the flow.
Another big realisation came to me this month when I was researching what will be my 18th book – an opus coming out around this time next year. It is said there are 32, or 33, Paths of Return. I have always thought this was too low. This is because paths can be combined and interleaved. So if there are indeed 33 paths, it occurred to me there are 33 factorial ways they can be combined, at the very least.
It is this theme that I will be exploring in 2019 – so which of 8,683,317,618,811,886,495,518,194,401,280,000,000 paths do you plan to follow?
What’s Next?
Now the 30 day course is in the can, I plan to get back to completing the last 10% or so of my novel Soulwave in December. This should give me enough time to have it edited and done and dusted in time for my birthday next March.
The publication of the course on Insight Timer means I can drop at least two, if not three, meditation courses that I currently self-host. This means I can reduce hosting costs and get rid of loads of clutter on my web site. At the same time, all of this, and the above, allows another domino to fall down. Over the course of 2019, all my current course materials will be revamped, augmented and rebranded under the Big Ü banner and form a new course that leads on from the Big Ü book called the Biggest Ü.
More monthly musings this time next month as 2018 comes to a natural close …
by Tom Evans | Oct 29, 2018 | Chatting
© gabrielle cole
When blogs first came about, they were mainly designed to act as a chronological journal. Some still are but many, including this one, are repositories of articles, often categorised to make blogs easier to find.
Latterly whole web sites, again, including this one and all my other sites, are built on blog technology.
Right now, I am in transition, a kind of retirement but only insofar as I am ‘retiring’ from the old way I used to operate and transitioning into a new modus operandi. You could see this also as a transformation from chrysalis to butterfly.
The overarching philosophy I am adopting going forward is ‘an attitude of gratitude’. I am so grateful for all the blessings bestowed on me in life – amazing life partner, not one but two beautiful homes (one going or transitioning), an unexpected career trajectory from BBC TV engineer to author and meditation guide and also gratitude for good health, a sprinkling of wisdom and the ability to explain and share the unexplainable and what is then mostly unshared.
These are the new seeds. This blog will now become a monthly journal of what happens next.
The Trigger
In August, Louise had a new hip and two days before her op, her father had a major stroke. Looking after both, and caring for mum-in-law and Lou’s sister with learning difficulties has consumed the last few months and will occupy the foreseeable future.
So Lou’s decided it’s time to scale down her business and I’ve decided to alter the course of mine. The latter has been helped by three events this year:
1. Insight Timer creating a revenue source for teachers and guides whilst still being mostly free
2. A new found speaking career
3. A collaboration with Laurence Udell and the co-creation of the Big Ü
So as a result of all this, we are selling (or renting out) our Surrey house, moving into our new eco-lodge in Wiltshire and the in laws have already moved from the most ludicrously expensive care home in West London to one 5 minutes away from our Wiltshire pad.
The Cunning Plan
So this is what the trigger has triggered …
- The workflow for Just for Today’s on Patreon will simplify so it takes 25% of the time currently
- In Q1 2019, a new 30 day Insight Timer course will replace many of the standalone sets of meditations on my site
- Also, during the 1st half of 2019, all my current online courses will migrate to a new programme on the Big Ü portal
- In time, this will all form the building blocks to a philanthropic foundation
- And most importantly, I will start writing and creating a new opus.
- That is after my 17th book, Soulwave, the one that has taken the longest to write, is published in 2019
Related Links
Soulwave : The Slowest Book I’ve Written
The Big Ü
Insight Timer freebies
The Art of Timefulness on Insight Timer
