Navigating two worlds

Elizabeth Stephens (now Elizabeth Jewell) is a woman who knows what she wants, and isn’t afraid to go for it. Having no previous publishing experience, she sold the family home in 1989 in order to finance and establish LivingNow magazine, originally titled ‘Whole Person’. 1996 saw the magazine move into a different format, not only undergoing a name change to LivingNow, but also making the magazine free of charge (and hence losing its gloss) – thus ensuring the insightful stories and information inside were easily accessible to a wider audience.

Elizabeth’s determined nature has undoubtedly secured LivingNow’s place as one of the strongest forces in this niche, and has taken holistic living out into the mainstream and the 21^st Century. The magazine currently has around a quarter of a million regular readers throughout the east coast of Australia and in Western Australia (based on a surveyed 2.8 readers per copy circulated).

Her main strengths have been noted to be that she pushes on regardless of her fears and that she employs passion, determination and the will to serve.

She is the author of two published books: ‘The Australian family vegetarian cookbook’ (Hyland House, 1986), and ‘Seven angels helped me…they’ll help you too’ (Living NOW Publishing, 2004).

Elizabeth was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and has lived in Melbourne for most of her life. She is the proud mother of three children and the grandmother of two.

Logic first but trust rules

Sunday, 01 August 2010 00:00

Elizabeth Jewell answers questions about being in business a a ‘woman-entrepreneur-spiritseeker’. Susie said, “I trust and act as if, but now when I think I have depleted all with nothing to fall back on – and responsibilities – it is very scary. My quiet clinic the past two months has been the final clincher.”

I invite you to send in your questions. Please email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Susie, feeling desperate and fearful, wrote to me with not so much a specific question but a sad statement of her affairs, “I trust and act as if, but now when I think I have depleted all, with nothing to fall back on – and responsibilities – it is very scary. My quiet clinic the past two months has been the final clincher.”

From my experience there will be a way through. For me, it has come little by little. I’ve been plodding for ages, sometimes taking one step forward and two backward. I kept hoping for some sort of huge rush and breakthrough, but it didn’t happen. Only today I wrote in my personal journal that the pins are now finally all lined up and that I think I can see the way through, but, to get to this point, I had to ‘speak to Spirit’ and agree to totally trust each step. I couldn’t do that for ages because I thought it might mean that I was agreeing to something that I didn’t want to happen, something scary like losing the magazine, and I was not prepared to do that.

I was fighting with myself for so long – wondering if it was only ego that was stopping me from throwing in the towel when things got really bad last year. Certainly people around me were saying this, and one very spiritual person for whom I have a lot of respect advised that I had so many signs to give in, but I would not, and therefore it must be ego. I was not convinced that they were signs to give in – they were scary, but they were just signs that I hadn’t got it right yet, hadn’t seen the way through. My intuition said it was more than ego, but I was confused by my circumstances and my would-be mentors. It’s hard to fly in the face of advice that well-meaning people offer, and sometimes they would get really offended with me if I wouldn’t agree. However, one day I suddenly realised a few things:

1. I’d skirted really close to this edge previously, and quite a lot of times, since magazine publishing is a tricky business – and in this niche even more so, just because lots of people think they either don’t need to promote themselves at all, or else they expect to spend $100 and then God will send a stream of people to their door forever more – either way it does not help to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars to the printer each year. Hence over two decades God had had many opportunities to push me over the edge, but each time I was saved, and probably many other times too when I didn’t know how close I was. So I used my logic and figured that therefore Spirit wanted me to do this job, and the magazine was wanted. Well, theoretically, that could have changed over the years, but I figured I’d take it as a given that it had not changed. Therefore, the premise I could work on was that I was not going to be pushed and I therefore just had to make the business work somehow.

2. I was given a very determined nature in this life. Spirit knows this. This is one of my strong points (and weak ones too – isn’t it funny the way our strong points are also our weaknesses?). Anyway, this being a large part of what I bring to the table, why would the Universe expect me to give in? I told people who were urging me to give in last year that it was the same as asking me to put my head on the chopping block, and that I was not going to do that willingly, and God knew that too. Therefore there had to be a different answer.

3. Using my logic again, mixed with an inner feeling, perhaps knowing, about my future, I reasoned this way: if I had closed the doors I’d have been a penniless, out-of-work 63-year-old (with huge debts). Again that seemed a stupid position in which to place myself intentionally. Because of the inner inkling about my future, not only was it a stupid move, but it flew in the face of what I signed up to do. Mind you, it would be perfectly easy if I was totally positive about my future, but, as you know, these inner feelings cannot really be proven until after the fact, and I guess that’s one of the fascinating things about life on this physical plane. Interestingly, I had well-meaning people telling me things like, ‘Maybe this (an out-of-work me) is what your future is; maybe you’re meant to experience that scenario!’

4. The final step was therefore to say to Spirit – I have been supported by you so far, I know that you want me to succeed, I cannot turn this business around by myself – so I trust, totally trust now, and will go step by step until I am led to the clearing in the forest.

What happened next? Well, it’s still happening I’m excited to say. I found much more opening up to me. It was as though everyone ‘upstairs’ said, ‘Well thank God she’s finally agreed. It only took her 20 years. Now we can give her lots of extra props and clues.’

Logic_first_but_trust_rules

Image supplied by Orna Ben-Shoshan
www.ben-shoshan.com

Good things have been really piled on and, despite the fact that, because of my work schedule, I rarely have time to let things brew, my thinking has opened up and I’ve had many gifts and realisations. I see synchronicity working even better in my life, I feel more loving toward everyone and myself. I am now comfortable that I don’t have to worry about the future. This is not to say that I am a peaceful goddess every day – far from it – I’m human and that means I have to deal with ‘reality’ and all the challenges that offers us all

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Keeping the heart connection

Thursday, 01 July 2010 00:00

I invite you to send in your questions. Please email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Because I would like to run my own project related to spirituality / counselling / inner growth, and I don’t know how to make it happen, and moreover, how to overcome my fear of doing it, I would like to hear from you what has been your personal experience as a ‘heart entrepreneur’. Natalia

How can you keep going back to the heart of your project without losing connection with your own heart?

The magazine is my baby, in effect, and, as a mother yourself, Natalia, you know that you would fight to the death for your child. The mothering instinct and the wild woman that is within each of us is probably one of the strongest forces on this planet, in my opinion. I have never really unleashed my wild woman, but I sense her there. I guess I’m a bit scared of ever totally letting her out, to be honest, but I take comfort in knowing that she is ready to pounce, scream, scratch, claw and bite any aggressor that my children or grandchildren might face. While a man will generally have more brute strength than a woman, female strengths are tenacity and viciousness. We can hang on and keep scratching and clawing when the need arises.

As all parents know, there are many times when it does get really hard to keep going, when we begin to lose heart, and when we wonder how we can keep bouncing back to face yet another day or a sick toddler or a rebellious teenager. Much of the time it is that instinct to protect the offspring that keeps us going, but sometimes even that seems to be hard to find when the need for self-sanity or self-preservation seems stronger.

My husband and I faced such a time when our two daughters – who were beautiful primary school children, creative and talented and just ‘good’ kids, and are now both fine, upstanding young women – were young teenagers. They both went through a punk stage and were just too big for their Doc Martens. Terry and I, meek and mild Virgos, had no idea what to do with these behemoths, who would run away when things were not going the way they wanted.

Keeping_the_heart_Connection

Image supplied by Orna Ben-Shoshan
www.ben-shoshan.com

At the end of our tethers, we were told about the Hu technique. Hu is a word like Om (or Aum). When chanted, it takes you to a different plane. We’re on the physical, as we surely know, then there is the astral, then mental, causal, and the fifth is the soul plane. Hu takes the singer to the soul plane when it is practised for a while. It can be used by anyone at all, whatever religion you are, although there are two paths that practise it ‘religiously’ – one branch of the Sufis, and people who belong to Eckankar. Being a member of the latter, I incorporated the chant into my morning contemplations, but it had somehow escaped me that it could be used as tool for change.

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Navigating two worlds - Rejection and resilience

Tuesday, 01 June 2010 10:00

Elizabeth Jewell (previously Stephens) answers questions about being in business as a ‘woman-entrepreneur-spiritseeker’

I invite you to send in your questions. Please email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

You told me in conversation about the first NOs when you were calling people…. What kept you going despite those answers and especially what did you do?

I’ve always had the sense that I was working for God (or Spirit or the Universe if you feel more comfortable with a different name), though I admit it’s been a tug-of-war between the two of us much of the time. However, knowing at the base of it all that I was doing God’s work has kept me going in the darkest moments. I admit, in case I sound too holy, that I have often metaphysically shaken my fist at God because the job just seemed too hard. Indeed, it’s only recently that I am really aware that God, or the Universe if you prefer that, and the hierarchy of spiritual beings that are there for us to tap into, are waiting for me to release the fearful grip of ego and to know that I am being looked after. I admit I’ve known this for years, have been struggling with the concept of letting go, and have thought that I have handed the magazine over to a higher force many times, but each time it keeps coming back. Probably more correctly, I’ve not properly handed it over. So I wouldn’t want to say that I have totally tapped into the answer yet, but I am closer.

Image supplied by Orna Ben-Shoshan
www.ben-shoshan.com

Back to your specific question – the NOs are devastating to me personally. We all have a ‘story’ to test us, to sharpen our focus, to give shape to our personal and spiritual growth. You may know that mine was abandonment at birth. It’s perfect the way the scene is set isn’t it? I agree before coming here that I will learn about abandonment and rejection and not being loved. So I arrange the birth situation with my willing mother, who is now unconscious of the plan in the physical plane of course. Then I go about putting myself in a situation where I have to ask people if they will advertise with me. I mean, really, advertise!?! It’s a pretty dirty word for some people, and yet I’ve seen over the years (21 years in July) that many people have built their lives and businesses by advertising themselves in our magazine. It doesn’t work for some, but by far the majority must get results or we would not have survived at all.

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Navigating two worlds - Guidance

Saturday, 01 May 2010 00:00

Elizabeth Jewell (AKA Stephens – explained in the editorial) answers questions about being in business as a ‘woman-entrepreneur-spiritseeker’

Have you identified an inner source for that inspiration or was it more something that was stimulating you from outside?

Absolutely an inner source – Spirit guides me the whole time. When I make mistakes it is because I am not listening and am allowing my ego to take control – although I might add that some of the things that I thought were mistakes in the shorter term, turned out eventually to be necessary pieces of the puzzle.

You ask about external stimuli – yes; that is also true. Spirit puts the props in place to allow you to see what to do next. Remember in last month’s reply I mentioned that we are given ‘waking dreams’ to guide us as to the next step. We are also given ‘golden-tongued wisdom’ where someone will say exactly what we need to hear next. I remember the day when we decided to spread our wings with LivingNow into Sydney and NSW back in 1996. We had published the magazine in a previous format in Sydney but not in the current format. It had been Victoria only. I had had a dribble of people over a couple of weeks ringing to ask if we would publish in NSW too, and my ears were starting to prick up. Then one particular Friday several people rang in the morning asking if they could advertise in our NSW edition. My ears were pivoting like a kangaroo’s in the bush when he hears a potato crisp muncher. I was alert for what was coming towards me in my environment, in other words.

Image supplied by Orna Ben-Shoshan
www.ben-shoshan.com

So I wouldn’t go so far as to say that God was munching on potato crisps to get my attention, but the effect was the same. Spirit (or the Universe if you feel more comfortable with that concept) was sending heaps of signs, starting with golden-tongued wisdom and, later that day, waking dreams piled on, until the correct decision was made.

Now that was apparently an important decision that I needed to make, and hence the barrage of stimuli, but I am perfectly confident that Spirit will and does provide the answers to every worthwhile question. In other words, I don’t believe we should ask whether we should eat before showering or whether we should wear the blue shirt today – well, I’m not in your shoes, and so I cannot specify that with certainty, but it seems to me to be a waste of time and our own brainpower to ask a mundane question of a higher source, although, I cannot tell a lie, I have been guilty of it many a time I admit. When I’m feeling disconnected from Spirit this particularly happens. I get into my ‘poor me’ state and feel as though I cannot make a decision for myself – and if I did it would be wrong anyway – I do victim and drama queen very well ;-)

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07-05-2010 18:37:23navigating or way-building?

Inspiration, persistence and fear

Thursday, 01 April 2010 00:00

Elizabeth Stephens answers questions about starting a business as a ‘woman-entrepreneur-spiritseeker’

What was your inspiration to start the magazine?

In 1988 my husband and I had been running a ‘new age’ group in an artist’s studio in the corner of our property in suburban Melbourne. What had started out as a 13-week program ended up being once a week for the whole year as we were all having so much fun. It evolved into a support group. My husband and I thought that we’d like to do this full time for other groups but didn’t know where to go from there. So we kept asking Spirit what to do.

Image supplied by Orna Ben-Shoshan
To see her artwork, please visit: www.ben-shoshan.com

In our meditations, and in choosing cards from time to time (which can be a crutch if done too often but can also be a very useful tool, a way of bringing the waking dream to you instantly), we kept getting the message that we had to go overseas, and then the messages narrowed down to going to North America.

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12-04-2010 21:19:37 :D