Positive Life Winter 2016/2017

WE TALK TO

TEAL SWAN

Be real and feel Jack Canfield

It’s time to start really living Gratitude

The gift of appreciation Co-parenting

The magic of listening Delicious Dal

Cornucopia’s winter recipe

winter 2016 priceless

positivelife.ie

Beginning here now…

this is just the beginning...

“Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

I love when a theme emerges organically from the magazine and itintells what it Andy will “If you smile when no oneinelse ispast; around, you really mean it.” ~ Roon “Nothing has happened the it happened theusNow. Nothing ev wants to say. This issue it’s the power of being vulnerable, being ok with our full inInthe it with will Teal happen Now.” ~ emotional Eckhartpain Tolle range ofhappen emotions. myfuture; interview Swanin shethe says, “In our BRAIN. gotofme thinking.

In our research issue, I discovered lies gold.”

I’m a fanIT’S of gold, rising like the beings we are to a wholethis and integrated place. THE whenPRESENT you smileMOMENT. your brainAll releases endorphins: dopamine andit.serot the spiritual teachers talk about It’s No need to be afraid of all that you are - the light and the shadow - and if you and this happens your smile is real or fake. in mentioned in our whether magazine all the time.

Thich NhatENDORPHINS Hanh loves it, an are no longer afraid, then there is no shadow, only the light that you are. FULL ON.

make you feel SMILE chemicals.

Feel What better,isand th spoke about it good. repeatedly onand hisrelease recent visit to Dublin. so spe

paul congdon, Publisher to another SMILE that releases chemicals, and on it goes. NICE SEQU about it?

SO smile yourabout way through newyou issue keep smiling 2012 “What the past?our What areand going to do in theinto future?

THANKS to Patrick Bridgeman being a brilliant editor so fag my mind.

“Isn’t that juicier?

Come on,for man.

Think, imagine, worry, welcome Actually, to our new editorI’m Katie Roche. excited.”

Mind, grand.

Thanks for thinking of me thoug Happiness of the our lovely reader.my KEEP This summer I’m season restingto inYOU, the NOW, navigating lifeSMILI from paul congdon, Publisher centred, balanced, spacious, aware, free of thought. In the present, a different energy flow is available to us - clearer. Try it this Summer.

NOW. What? Next. paul congdon, Publisher

Contentment

Contentment Contentment 4

Winter Vibes leading lights

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positively newsworthy those little gems from here and abroad

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spirituality & the city

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positive parenting negotiating co-parenting by listening

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dee Wallace what my mother taught me

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amanda collins cleaning with natural oils

what our readers love about ireland

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Meditation love drink withoutand limits Winterlearning VibestoEat, be aware

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Jai kartar gratitude with bells on

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Positively Newsworthy Going green and taking strides positive personality Jack canfield, the secret of his success Spirituality andsweet thecure City Tales of love positive supplement

heart-to-heart breathing connection CNM Get fit for winter 412 26 tantra Summer Vibes Out for and about and in store.

publisher pc Media paul@positivelife.ie editorial gavin ryan editor@positivelife.ie design simon o’connor simon@postivelife.ie ad design caroline hanan caroline.hanan@gmail.com advertising paul congdon paul@positivelife.ie 0861579518 social media yahaira l. reyes yahaira@positivelife.ie

Publisher PC Media

Thanks to our advertisers, paul@positivelife.ie Publisher PCwe Media can give Positive Life magazine to Editorial Patrick paul@positivelife.ieBridgema you for FREE. If you’re talking to Katie Roche Editorial them, let them know wePatrick sent youBridgema their way. editor@positivelife.ie katie@positivelife.ie

28 teal swan spiritual advice from the fifth dimension Astrology What do the planets say?

614 Positively Newsworthy Running, feasting and camping.

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cover photo: tanJa niKola

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positively practical the healing power of making by hand The Powers of Raw Fall in love with juicing Spirituality and theFood City Turning Points. davie philip following the compass to change Positive Home Secrets ofby a feng shuiSmith. goddess cnM winter wellness herbs Astrology Athrough New Dawn Andrew

Design Simon O’Connor

please use the information simon@postivelife.ie provided in this publication as a recommendation only to Caroline better Ad Design Hanan mental and physical health. we caroline.hanan@gmail.com strongly advise you to consult Paul Congdon your doctorAdvertising regarding health hans Wieland connections 1: growers and chefs Hidden gems old favourites.concerns that you may have. the Dance with the and universe paul@positivelife.ie Winter recipes a hearty dal from cornucopia views expressed by contributors Monk Cheongwol comes to Ireland.and advisors0861579518 The best performance of your life do not necessarily short & sweet what’s happening in the holistic world represent the views of the Know that you are. of self publication’sThanks staff. to our advertisers, w where it’sour happening elva carri detachingBe beliefs from sense

Rude Health Preview The Law of Attraction Positive Personality Dee Wallace Confi dence Ireland 2012 Identity Who you,your really?

Mooji trust in the greatare unfolding Positive Power Pack suitcase, we’re moving biomagnetism a powerful draw to a life healing Reborn Szvath travells toofCosta Rica.

Reshape Julia Your Brain Reading this will change your life Breathing SpaceEarly Making Monday mornings magic.

Positive Beauty to bed, early to rise...

give Positive printed, published, packagedLife andmagazine distributed in ireland. for FREE. If you’re talking to positivelife.ie let them know we sent you

Please use the information

winter vibes “Kindness is like snow, it beautifies everything it covers” Kahlil Gibran

positive gifts How much do you want it?

The Chocobox is full of delicious raw chocolate. The box itself is beautifully handcrafted and is nailed shut. Nailed shut you say? So how do you get at the lovely chocolate? Well, this is all part of the experience. Your giftee is going to have to figure that one out for themselves.

No true chocoholic would let that stop them! magicmayan.com

A Right Shower This knacky invention is a showerhead that is designed to purify your water, increase flow and looks really stylish to boot. The sciency bit is something to do with a three level filtering system that makes the water better for your hair and skin. It certainly looks really great and would make a perfect gift for anyone who fancies healthier skin and alkaline water to shower in. supersoftshower.ie

Entertaining Possibilities Eoin Scolard’s new book, The Possibility Exists, is about one man’s search for freedom. This quest is something to which we can all relate. After several life changing experiences, Eoin began asking himself some serious questions about the way he was living his life. The book is his answer to those questions. His answers are illuminating for us all. eoinscolard.com

The Skin We Live In What we like about Urban Veda skin care products isn’t just that they’re not tested on animals and they respect the planet with sustainable manufacturing. No, what’s really cool is that they are based on Ayurvedic principles that are tailored to your specific skin type. urbanveda.co.uk

in the best possible taste Pure Temptation

Sarah’s Raw Bites are squares of deliciousness that can be found in shops and online. Born in Ireland but raised in Zimbabwe, Sarah returned to Cork to begin her apprenticeship as a chef as she had always loved cooking. While working for Avoca in Malahide Castle, she discovered that people really loved her treats. We think you’ll love them too. sarahsrawbites.ie

Mindful eating You can read what our vegan restaurant reviewers, Veghuns, have to say about Happy Food in our Short & Sweet section inside. But we like this place so much, we thought we’d give it another mention. Is the Camden Street area becoming a vegan quarter? happyfood.ie

Cornering the Market Ex-Cornucopia and Happy Pear chef Phil Smith set up Shoots and Roots after browsing the many Dublin food markets and knew he could offer something more

interesting. His vibrant and nutritious salads, pies, burgers, pastries, tarts and desserts are good for you and the environment. @itsshootsandroots

things to do, places to be

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Carpe Noctum Our Buddha Bag has gone into its chrysalis and emerged as the butterfly that is Positive Nights. Hosted in The Powerscourt Townhouse Centre we’ve already had The Happy Pear, Teal Swan and many others. We have also had a blast with other offshoot events including the intuitive supper club, a night of insights, fun and vegan food with your host, the inimitable Paul Buggle. Be part of it.

elbowroom

healthy new year A Komplex Solution

positivelife.ie/positivenights paulbuggle.com

the RDS will fly out the door. There’ll be music, talks and happenings. I’m really looking forward to seeing comedian JP Sears whose satire pokes gentle fun at all of our wellness enthusiasms. Another magnificent event not to be missed. consciousconcert.com

Get Creative

Go Wild This Winter Wilderness Lodge in Glenmalure is the perfect place to run your next workshop or just simply take a retreat for the new year. In the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, it’s the ideal getaway for walkers, campers, writers, or anyone who appreciates the beauty of nature.

Check out their gorgeous self-catering accommodation. wildernesslodge.ie

The Concert of the Year Next year’s Conscious Concert is shaping up to be the best one so far. No doubt the tickets for the event on March 25th in

All We Need Is Love is a community space in Dublin 1. It is a free space, a dream maker that everyone can be a part of. They tell us, “we’re hoping to start a movement where everyone is free to follow a path based in their passions for creativity, a movement where everything make sense, where the truth is transparent and free of the illusion of fear.” Sounds good to us. allweneedisloveproductions.com

The Great Escape The Elbowroom in Stoneybatter has long been a favourite haven for holistic events in the city. They have now opened The Elbowroom Escape, a holistic centre only an hour’s drive from Dublin where practitioners can host retreats in beautiful environs and have the resources such as great food and all the therapeutic knowhow of the Elbowroom team. the-elbowroomescape.com

We don’t always get the nutrient-rich food our bodies need to stay healthy.

But nutrition isn’t just about vitamins.

Research shows that people are often deficient in necessary phytochemicals too. Dr. Wolz’s Vitalkomplex addresses that deficiency. Our bodies can need a little boost in winter and we think this is a great place to start. rossmorehealth.com

Recovery From Eating Disorders Caoimhe Harrison, battled with issues related to food before becoming a Master Practitioner for Eating Disorders & All Food, Body and Weight Issues with the British Psychological Society. Taking advantage of her personal recovery and her years of training she offers one-to-one sessions, workshops, in-house and online programmes to those who struggle with their eating habits. Help is at hand.

Armoin.ie

A New Career in Healing Train to become a craniosacral therapist with an internationally accredited course given by Body Intelligence. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy takes a whole-person approach to healing and the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit are deeply acknowledged. The 50-day practitioner course starts in March. bodyintelligence.com

positively newsworthy good news from around the globe. positivelife.ie

6 1 The Love Test What makes two people fall in love? Is it chemistry or is it some shared outlook which draws them together? Or is it something completely different? One thing that we rarely pause to consider is whether this bond can be formed in laboratory conditions.

New York Times column, Modern Love, highlghted the research of Arthur Aron who headed a team to discover whether in fact it could.

The researchers set themselves the task of creating an environment where deep and lasting intimacy could be created between strangers. After much trial and error, Aron and his team developed the experiment. Two strangers of a suitable sexual orientation to make them a potential couple were put in a room and given a list of 36 questions to ask each other.

The list was divided into three sets of 12, each set featuring questions more intimate than the last*. Over the course of ninety minutes, the candidates discuss their answers to the probing questionnaire revealing surprisingly deep thoughts

and emotions to a perfect stranger. Aron believed that mutual vulnerability fosters closeness.

The second part of the experiment is silent. The candidates face each other and hold each other’s gaze for a full four minutes. In that time, candidates have claimed, the fear of connection slowly passes and what is left is the radiance of our inner light shining out through the eyes. This human in front of us, having opened themselves up to us, are revealed by the silent gaze to be beings of divine beauty.

What this experiment seems to suggest is not that love can be manipulated by science, but in fact that once the barriers are lowered, love is the most natural feeling that one being should have for another. *(for a link to the full list of questions, see our website )

2 Last of the Summer Pops When Joel Cervantes Macías was walking through Chicago’s streets one hot afternoon, he spied the 89-year-old Fidencio Sanchez pushing an icepop cart in the sweltering heat to earn his living. Joel discovered that Fidencio had recently lost his daughter to illness and had been forced to return to work to pay expensive medical bills. Joel immediately felt compassion for the old man who had earned his retirement and wanted to help out. He bought $50 worth of ice pops right there. It was more than Fidencio would usually earn in a day.

After returning home, Joel recounted his story to his friend who suggested he start a gofundme page for Fidencio so he could use the money to take a break from his hard work. Joel agreed and a page was set up with a target of $3,000.

After only three days, the fund had

reached over a quarter of a million dollars.

People had been touched by Fidencio’s situation and decided to intervene to make a difference.

Fidencio and Joel were inundated with interviews from the media and have met with lawyers and financial advisors to ensure that the money is put to good

3 An appetite for sharing The Bia Food Intiative is aimed at eliminating food poverty by reclaiming some of the 100,000 tonnes of perfectly good food that is wasted every year in Ireland and distributing it to those in need. Their mission is to ensure everybody eats well and nothing gets wasted.

The food is donated by business. Whether it is because it is short dated, over stocked or any of the number of ways food ends up in skips, this is perfectly good food that would otherwise end up in the bin. The Bia Food Initiative then redistributes it to local charities who would not otherwise have the storage facilities for large volumes of donated food.

Charities around Ireland spend millions of euro each year buying food for the families and communities that they support. While a great deal of food donation is already occurring nationally, there are still large volumes of food going unused because individual charities just can’t handle such big amounts.

Bia Food Initiative takes the hassle of managing surplus food away from these charities, allowing them to concentrate on their core services, while at the same time saving them money and ensuring a regular supply of food.

With storage facilities in Dublin, Cork and Galway, the Bia Food Initiative is busily assisting the work of local charities working to alleviate the plight of those most in need. Now that’s connected thinking.

use. It’s amazing what can happen when a person allows compassion to be their guide. Even without the resources to make a difference himself, Joel Cervantes Macías’ generosity of spirit made it possible for the world to intervene on behalf of 89-year-old icepop salesman, Fidencio Sanchez.

positively newsworthy the little things

by Gavin Ryan

8 1 the Man from beyond It was a cool still day in Dublin. I was on my way home from meeting a friend for tea. Above me, the sky was opalescent, the way it goes on still, wintry days. I noticed the trees, that only recently had been an explosion of autumnal colour, were now bare. The tapering branches had a delicate look devoid of their leaves.

“i saw the bright light. i know where i’m going when i die and i don’t worry about anything anymore.”

An older man in an anorak leaving the social welfare office caught my attention. He looked like a man who had known hard work and was now retired.

“If they were paid for their productivity, they’d never draw a wage.”

He was referring to the staff at the dole office. It was the sixth time he’d been in

to sort out his pension, he told me. It was only his entitlement, sure hadn’t he been paying taxes his whole life.

I muttered something in agreement. Suddenly, the look of worry left his face. He grabbed my arm and beamed at me. “Did you ever hear of those fellas who die and come back to life?” he asked me. He meant the phenomenon some people experience in near death experiences where they journey into a bright light and occasionally come face to face with their creators. “I’m one of them,” he asserted. “I was dead for two whole minutes on the operating table. I saw the bright light. I know where I’m going when I die and I don’t worry about anything anymore.”

I wished him luck. He went his way and I, feeling strangely moved, went mine.

2 let’s Go fly a kite Myself and herself were walking by the sea as we often do. There was a choppy breeze and we were well wrapped up. We were both transfi xed by the figure of a man way out to sea kitesurfing. The tide was far out and the figure wasn’t much

more than a silhouette gliding, arcing and skimming the top of the sea. We both stood and watched for a long time admiring the courage and dexterity of whoever was out there on this cold and blustery day. The figure would be carried up into the air and then crash down with a silent and distant splash only to arise again moments later to catch the wind and zip along the blue.

It became clear that he was coming in. The silhouette grew slightly larger in shape and we could see that he was barefoot, the pink of his calves clear even from a distance. We decided we’d wait to watch the mysterious surfer return to shore.

We also noticed another person was watching him too. A man along the shore held binoculars and watched on intently.

We didn’t have to wait too long for the figure to be upon us. Our kitesurfer turned out to be a boy of fourteen and the intent watcher was his father. We marvelled at the boy’s bravery in going out on his own and also at his father’s trust. They had been doing this for years they told us. There was a great bond between father and son. They loaded the gear into their van together and drove off.

We watched them go. A father and son out on a windy day flying a kite.

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spirituality & the city Notes from a small island.

Sophia Carvalho My love towards Dublin is increasing every single day. Not just because I got to know my love at college but also because of all the diverse beauty that Dublin likes to show every day. I see the beauty of Dublin walking down Camden, Aungier and George’s street. The amount of good restaurants along the way combined with the colourful murals of ‘U ARE ALIVE’ and ‘DON’T BE AFRAID’ give you a beautiful feeling of being part of Dublin.

I love Dublin in general because of its mentality. The people here accept life as it is and try to enjoy it whatever comes and they make the best out of it. If there’s sunshine, yeah everyone goes out and enjoys it. If there’s rain, yeah everyone goes into a pub to have a beer or have a tea on their couches at home. It’s very rare to see Irish people complain about simple things. They go with whatever comes...sunshine..rain. .and the humour never gets lost.

Roisín Fitzpatrick We made the effort to rise early and to trek up the grassy hill at Slíabh na Callaigh to reach the highest point in County Meath. With a clear blue sky overhead, we all awaited the rising sun with eager anticipation. At 7.12 a.m. she peeped above the horizon like a blazing orange disc immediately sending a shaft of light into the Neolithic chamber. After illuminating the large standing stones to the left of the entrance, the golden rays then slowly reached the back stone and shifted from left to right bringing the ancient rock carvings beautifully to life.

A small group began drumming and chanting to fully embody the experience of being embraced in this ancient womb at this sacred time of year. From a slow methodic beat, the pace became higher and faster as the rhythmic sounds undulated to a crescendo. What exquisite joy to feel at one with the beauty of nature and the eternal light - Solas Síoraí - past, present and future.

Paul Harrington What I love about Ireland at the moment is also what I love about Dublin. I love the people here, the mix of nationalities and diverse cultures, that somehow all seem to fit together to become modern day Dublin, and in turn, modern day Ireland.

These days you can walk down the street and hear different languages being spoken on every corner and find some new unique place to eat popping up all the time. Yet everything still seems to remain quintessentially Irish.

It seems that people who have travelled and experienced ways of life that they appreciated elsewhere, have decided to bring a little bit of that home with them, to share with the rest of us. It all makes for such a rich experience living here, full of influences from around the world, interwoven with our own Celtic traditions. The Ireland that I knew as a kid has changed completely, but in its place is a country that has faced hard times, embraced change, and come out richer and stronger than ever before.

11 piera sarasini

Gianluca tarralo

I was born in Italy but I left when I was 19, spurred by my innate sense of curiosity. As a ‘people’s person’, my impulse was to find others who, like me, wanted to make the world a more peaceful, creative place. Initially, I lived in England and Scotland, studying linguistics and various esoteric traditions.

In my 20s, I met an Irish man who introduced me to the magic of his country. On my fi rst visit, I felt a deep connection with this land of ancient wisdom. A supernatural and yet vulnerable force held the mirror of awareness right in front of my soul. I was moved. So I moved.

Ireland has been my home for two decades.

Here, I have become an anthropologist and an author, supported by my soul family and guided by the energy of sacred sites, gently leading me into an ever-growing, profound, heart-centred human experience.

When I was asked to write this short piece on what I like about Ireland, it took me a while to find an answer. Not because I was short of things to talk about. On the contrary. In the last 15 years, since I have made Ireland my home, I’ve had the chance to appreciate many things about this country and especially about the people that make it what it is: The kindness, the humour, the smooth roughness, the ‘it’s grand’ attitude, the closeness to their inner ‘wild’ side. It then struck me that there is a place, a crossroad where all these roads seem to meet: Music. There have been no other countries I have visited or lived in that have such a special connection to music and to its tradition. And I feel that it is in music that many of the things I appreciate about Ireland come together.

fabrizio Vitali It’s been now 11 years since I moved from Italy to Ireland and there has never been a moment when I questioned this choice.

I quickly realised that in Ireland I would have a chance to become what I wanted to be, mainly for one reason: the ability of believing in your own dreams! I always felt that in Ireland this is still possible because of its history and culture, but most of all because of the unconditional support that the people and community around you are ready to give.

It feels like that the people support your process of achieving whatever you want to achieve rather than the achievement itself, and this generates self-confidence, trust and empowerment at its core!

It is ultimately about being who you want to be and Ireland’s magical and bubbling culture nourishes this incredible core value so much needed in our times!

positive parenting

connect before

correcting parenting from the same page.

by Anna Cole

“All happy families are alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ~ Tolstoy

Having had the privilege of working with parents from all walks of life and hearing of their struggles and triumphs, I can tell you Tolstoy was wrong! Not all happy families are alike. Whether you’re a sole parent (or ‘soul’ parent as I like to spell it), a two parent family with a Mum and a Dad, a two Mum family, a two Dad family, an extended multi-generational family, a melded family, an adoptive family or any variation on the theme of family, you ARE family. No two families are quite alike and all have an equal chance of being happy. From my experience it’s all unhappy families that are alike. When arguments dominate, when people get hurt, it’s because we all lose track of how to

Hand Parenting we call this a Listening Partnership. When the heat starts to rise in your parenting journey around your partner, find another parent who will listen non-judgementally to you, agree an equal exchange of time and use a timer and listen while the other lets off steam.

The guidelines when listening are: no advice, no interruption, just warm respect and attention. No referring back to what they say afterwards and keep it confidential. When it’s your turn to talk, go with whatever needs to be said. Show your feelings fully if you can and get all that annoyance, frustration, despair or whatever it is off your chest before you then talk with your parenting partner.

“listen first, make connection, then make your course correction.” feel connected, loving and forgiving of our many limitations and mistakes as parents.

Whatever permutation of family you are living in, it’s likely that you will be sharing the care of your children to a lesser or greater extent with a partner, or ex-partner. Some of our most difficult struggles can be about how to ‘parent from the same page’. It’s natural to want our partner, or ex-partner, to parent the same way as we do. When they don’t, that can leave us feeling frustrated and lonelier than we’d hoped. These feelings lead us to behave in ways towards our parenting partner that aren’t helpful. The number one tool to help you think well about how to parent from the same page is to find someone other than your partner to tell of those frustrations. At Hand in

Just as we teach parents to ‘connect before correcting’ their children, this principle applies for our partner in parenting. If you have a course correction you want to bring to your partner, start the conversation by offering some connection, before you make your suggestion. A simple way to do this is to think of something - anything - you can appreciate about your partner. Without exaggerating or being insincere, just find one little thing for which you can be grateful. It might be something as simple as “I appreciate that you took the kids for a bike-ride when they were with you.” Then offer some bite-sized guidance rather than overwhelm or threaten him or her.

Once you’ve had some listening time for yourself outside the relationship, be sure

to make room to listen to your partner’s concerns and ideas even if they don’t fit with what you want to do. Listen fi rst, make connection, then make your course correction. If they raise objections, listen carefully and respond kindly if you can.

You are learning about them and most likely their childhood as they speak.

Places where we as parents get rigid or authoritarian with our kids are the places where our parents got rigid or harsh with us. So notice where your partner gets stuck in an old ‘power over’ model of parenting and see if you can listen to them about what would have happened to them if they, as a child, had acted that way. This will give you vital clues as to where your points of disagreements lie. It’s often possible to find a way to agree about how to handle a situation even if you and your partner in parenting are coming at it from different angles. You may be able to find a way to handle difficult moments that meets your most important wishes.

You can always hold the bottom line.

You will step in as gently but fi rmly as you can and protect your children if your partner is acting in ways that you consider completely out of order. This is not easy territory for any of us, tempers will flare, our own childhood issues will get in the way of us thinking clearly all the time around our parenting partners or ex-partners, but with a focus on the importance of connection – with our children and with the other adults who love them – we can make it happier. anna cole, phd, is a certified instructor with hand in hand parenting, a parent educator, researcher and writer. find her on facebook: hand in hand Parenting with Anna Cole or at www.handinhandparenting.org where you can also buy her hand in hand parenting book.

13

positi v e at tr action

When I go into an audition, I have to have the confidence within me that I can deliver a good read. I have to have confidence in my healing that I can make a difference in someone’s life by the information that comes through. I have to have confidence before I even sit down to write this article.

The one common principle in all these adventures: I have learned to trust my channel. Always and without question.

That is, of course, quite the opposite of what we have been taught. The definition of confidence is: full trust. And yet, our society has educated us in the belief that we can never our owntaught judgment, me. what mytrust mother and God forbid we really trust anyone

by Dee Wallace outside of ourselves; and it is actually impossible to trust ALL energy. Quite a conundrum, don’t you agree? If creation takes confidence, and confidence is trust, and we are taught we can’t trust, then we can never be the confident vibration that creates. Ergo, the more you go into your mental mind to reason, figure and stay safe,

the less confidence you experience in the creation process. And then the pattern of limited creation begins again.

I mean, I couldn’t walk into Mr. Speilberg’s office without any confidence and book E.T. You can’t even have successful love making without confidence. And yet, we ask the Universe to deliver to us when we aren’t confident in the trust within ourselves to create it, or to handle the creation when we do. So, the Universe, being the very wise director it is, must experience your confidence to manifest your desire.

So, how does one create confidence?

meet in harmony, and create the child, a.k.a. the creation. The divine idea/ instinct/guidance must be taken out into the world with power by the masculine to successfully create. When that happens, confidence is truly in place.

So, ask yourself: do I have a lot of great, inspired ideas that I never do anything with? If the answer is yes, know that you need to balance the masculine so you have more power to deliver your ideas to the world. Or do you push and work and strive doing ANYthing, just to try and create, without a lot of success? Stop and take time to nurture your feminine.

Allow your channel to open and receive divine guidance, and then use the power that is in place to radiate that out. Then the creation is automatically in place, and confidence is reinforced.

Confidence is not something you get. Confidence is the vibration of knowing that you are. Be the knowing of the Creative Force that is you, and confidence is a no-brainer. Literally.

maternal

flame

“Believe in yourself.

That was my mother’s greatest legacy and message to me. She must have taken her own advice.”

L_summer_12_d1.indd 19

14

‘I mean, I couldn’t walk into Mr. Speilberg’s office without any confidence and My mother was born into a family of six children.E.T.’ Her father, my grandfather, book

was a railroad worker. Her mother, my grandmother, was a devout Southern Baptist woman who devoted herself to raising her children.

My mother was the youngest and was, to her parents’ dismay, always launching into cartwheels down the street. She was instilled with strong religious rules of compassion, giving, serving and church.

I knew I wanted to be an actress the fi rst time I saw my mother give a half hour dramatic reading about The Crucifi xion at our church. People from four states came to witness her presentations, and as I looked around the room, grown men and women were crying because she had brought them into her story and moved them to emotion. I sat there, an innocent eight year old, and thought, “I want to do this. I want to move people like my mommy.”

I had already been well groomed for the dream. I was automatically cast in each of my mother’s religious dramas.

I started out as the baby Jesus, and ended up as The Virgin Mary. I was also entered into competitions and recitals of dramatic presentations which included performances for the music club and the mayor.

One would have thought we were among the aristocracy of Kansas City from the above scenario, but we were quite far from it. Mom married her high

Dee Wallace has worked as an author, teacher, dancer and actress in film, television and the stage for over 30 years (E.T., Cujo, The Howling).

Her book, Bright Light, tells that school sweetheart.

Neither of them tale andsecure sharesathe spiritual lessons she has would college degree.

Neither learned fromaapedigree life in acting. came from family. She was a www.iamdeewallace.com secretary. He was a salesman. And I am sure my mother never imagined what would befall her as his wife.

Not too soon into the marriage, my dad started drinking. Mom would always defer the reason to the war: he worked in the Red Cross on the front lines. She used to say wistfully to me, “He was never the 05/06/2012 same after he got home.”

She stayed to support him through many trials and tribulations. One adventure after another failed. Businesses were taken away. Ideas were stolen from him. New adventures burned to the ground. During all this time, she had two beautiful children, myself and my older brother, seven years between us.

There was no money. Dad was out of work and drinking excessively. Mom laboured tirelessly at the job she took the bus to daily and then had to cook dinner for us all upon arriving home. But still, despite all this, my mom believed in herself enough to create amazing opportunities for her children. She would barter her talents to get me dance lessons.

She would borrow a violin so I could learn to play in the music program at school.

She would make friends with a modelling instructor to open up opportunities for me to model and make some money for the family. Despite how my hometown labelled us, my mother would not be defined. She believed in herself and she

19

12:17

believed in possibilities. I am sure she is, right now, the patron saint of “Yes you can.”

Because of my mom and her enduring belief in my greatness, I was a cheerleader, Homecoming Queen, wrote for the newspaper, a soloist in a dance company, performed across Kansas City, and played a mediocre violin in the high school orchestra.

I have no idea how she managed to pay tuition for my college. We never talked about it. It was a given, I was going. Nor do I know how she paid for my wedding. It was a given, I would have one.

When she found out she was expecting my younger brother, they somehow finessed their finances. This too was a given; this challenge would be met.

I watched as every hurdle my mother encountered was met with dignity and strength. Yes, that would be the most appropriate word I would assign to her: dignity. Throughout her life, she was a statue of dignity for me, and others, to follow.

Throughout my life, I learned that lesson well from her. I graduated and entered my fi rst year of teaching. I will never forget the pride that glowed from her eyes around that achievement, one she undoubtedly wished she had accomplished for herself. But my heart yearned for something more, something that the call of destiny had to answer. The acting dream that took hold of that eight year old girl watching her mother affect people had to be pursued. I wanted to go to New York. She was afraid for me, as any good mother is for her child launching off into the unknown. But her fear would not get the best of her. “If you have to go to follow your dream, go. Just always remember who you are and where you came from.” Fat chance I could ever forget that.

So off to New York I went. Three weeks later, after a call lamenting that I didn’t have an agent and no acting jobs yet, I received a card in the mail from mom. It was two vultures sitting on a wire. You opened it up and on the inside it said: “Patience my ass. I want to kill somebody NOW.”

Underneath in mom’s recognizable penmanship was written: “Enjoy the journey, D.D., and have patience. God will deliver.”

The next week I got that agent and booked my fi rst commercial. I was booked in a huge industrial show as a dancer. I felt out of my league. I was back to that place of feeling less than again. All these dancers were successful performers on Broadway. I couldn’t remember the routines. I called mom in tears. She listened, as she always did. And then she quietly offered a solution. “What would you do if you had to teach these dances?

What if you had to teach them to your students?” she asked me.

So wise. So loving. She knew that would put me back into my power so I could believe in myself.

This was her continuing gift to me throughout my life. Reminding me how talented and powerful and smart and capable I was. Reminding me to believe in myself. Whenever I hear the songs, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” and “I Hope You Dance,” I send up a prayer and a hello to the mommy that supported me so unconditionally in my life creation.

And now, I am passing that baton on to my daughter. Every moment I have with her I strive to encourage her, propel her, remind her and celebrate her in her talent and strength and beauty so she may

“the highest prediction is this: you are the master of your fate. You are the highest answer.” believe in herself and soar as high into her creativity and happiness as possible.

When she falls, I will be there to lift her up. When she doubts, I will be there to remind her who she is. Because I am my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother. We are connected by a silver thread that pulses through our heart centres and explodes into the world as a force to be reckoned with. We are Maxine and Deanna and Gabrielle. And we are amazing.

Here’s to you, mom. May I always remember. dee wallace has worked as an author, teacher, dancer and actress in film, television and the stage for over 30 years (e.t., cujo, the howling). her book, bright light, tells that tale and shares the spiritual lessons she has learned from a life of acting. iamdeewallace.com

positive home

By contrast, bleach and other chemicals in non-natural cleaning products can create smells and even toxic odours that are unbearable.

Simple ingredients needed for making your own cleaning products include: »» Baking soda »» Citrus seed extract: Usually made from grapefruit seed, this natural preservative is a powerful antimicrobial agent. It is often sold as grapefruit seed extract »» Essential oils: lavender, sweet orange, bergamot, rosemary, eucalyptus or tea tree; thyme; lemon or lemongrass; and peppermint or citronella »» Cider Vinegar

And here are some great recipes for making your own natural cleaning products: »» All purpose cleaner: nine parts water to

one part white vinegar

16 a new

broom

»» For the Bathroom: 10 drops of tea tree oil

and three cups of white vinegar. Add to your toilet bowl and let sit for 15 minutes.

Fill a spray bottle with half water and half vinegar for a shower or bathtub cleaner. Leave for 30 minutes before rinsing off. »» Glass Cleaner: Mix two cups water, 1/2 cup

white or cider vinegar and one to two drops of lemon essential oil. »» Tile Grout Cleaner: Mix one part water

and three parts baking soda mixed into a paste. Apply to grout and let sit; and then scrub.

natural ways to clean your home.

by Amanda Collins

»» Cookware : Use sea salt with a little lemon

Feng Shui is all about having the most supportive, inspiring and healthiest home.

One of the first steps to achieving these Feng Shui goals is to give your home a really good cleaning. But because Feng Shui also means living in harmony with the earth, your cleaning should use natural organic products that honour and nurture that relationship.

“Tea tree essential oil offers antibacterial, antiseptic and antifungal properties.”

Using natural home cleaning products supports the sense of smell. Many cleaning products include natural essential oils, and thus will make your home smell nice by offering an ‘aromatherapy’ effect. Lavender is a natural disinfectant. Imagine getting your home clean while enjoying that beautiful relaxing aroma. You can even add a few drops to your clothes before they go into the dryer or a few drops in the vacuum cleaner.

Lemon is another magical essential oil. You can use a few drops on stains on your clothes, or add a few drops to a gallon of water when mopping your tile floors.

Tea tree essential oil offers antibacterial, antiseptic and antifungal properties. It works especially well to get rid of mildew and mould around the house.

juice or essential oil and scrub. Also, try baking soda and water made into a paste.

If you decide to purchase natural cleaning products instead of making them at home, there are just a couple of qualities to look out for: »» »» »» »»

Nontoxic / Fragrance free Biobased / Reduced and recyclable packaging No VOCs / Pesticide Free Biodegradable

Feng Shui principles are becoming so widespread, you can get some great natural brands at the local health food store. Now even grocery stores carry them. www.InternationalFengShuiSchool.com www.AmandaCollins.com

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positi v e meditation

warm your heart this

winter Five Ways to Deeply Connect and Love Without Limits.

by Sandy Newbigging For the best relationships, aim to focus on warming up your own side of the fence instead of trying to fix, change or improve others so they are more loveable.

It is easy to fall into the trap of making relationship conflicts about the other person. What they said or didn’t say. What they did or didn’t do. What they meant or didn’t mean. But to proactively move from conflict to connection, you must remember that your relationships with others are a perfect reflection of your relationship with yourself. Here are my five top tips for keeping your heart warm this winter.

1 Be the person you want to love People try to take from others what they aren’t experiencing within themselves. If you think that someone else should be kinder, more communicative, giving, etc. then ask: Where can I be more of what I want?

When you become the person you have wanted other people to be, many conflicts dissolve because you no longer resist the

lack of certain attributes in others and aren’t attached to them being a better or improved version.

2 Take everything as an invitation to love better We habitually want other people to change so we don’t have to. However as the saying goes, when you point the finger there are always three pointing back at you. Look for themes in any arguments, disappointments and common feedback you receive from others. Don’t waste time playing the blame game. Instead, be open and humble. Explore if any issue you have with someone else is an invitation to learn how to love in a more unconditional way.

3 Look for opportunities to give Service sits at the heart of the most successful relationships. ‘How can I serve you?’ as opposed to ‘What’s in it for me?’

Whenever you feel a problem arising in a relationship, find ways to give and be of service. When you make the relationship

“Your relationships with others are a perfect reflection of your relationship with yourself”

18

about how you can help the other person be happy, feel loved and have a great day (without trying to fix or change them), then it’s amazing how fluid and fun relationships become.

4 Be willing to share more of yourself Raising your defensive walls within relationships is a fear-based habit that can be transcended. There is great strength in vulnerability because it takes humility and courage to let your ‘weaknesses’ be seen by others. I am constantly amazed by how quickly conflict evaporates when one party is willing to honestly share what’s really going on for them. ‘When you did that I felt scared that you might leave me’ or ‘when you work late I question if it’s because you don’t want to be home with me’. It’s very hard to be in conflict with someone waving the transparent flag of vulnerability.

5 Don’t go changing trying to please me Would you feel completely loved by someone if they always wanted you to be different? If you weren’t quite good looking enough, funny enough, clever enough, rich enough or tidy enough, for example? How loved would you feel living with that kind of pressure to perform? Not very much, I can only assume.

My spiritual teacher once asked: Are you willing to fully commit to this relationship, even if the other person never changes?

Well, are you? Forcing others to live up to your criteria for what’s ‘loveable’ only leads to a fake love with its foundations based in judgement. If you desire deeper connections, let others be enough, exactly as they are now. It’s the key to loving without limits.

Join Sandy’s Calm Clan (www.calmclan.com) to transform your relationship with life for inner calm, radiant relationships, optimum health and living fully and freely.

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every time a

bell rings Gratitude and Kundalini Yoga.

by Jai Kartar Kaur Mohan

The Christmas season can be special, even for someone like me of a nonChristian faith. Gratitude, charity, and interconnectedness are all in the air. There are higher levels of consciousness in action.

Don’t compare yourself negatively to others. Rather, take the cue to actively seek the positive, admire the light where it shines and listen for the soft sound of the bell.

If I were to have a collection of keepsakes to proudly put on display, I would collect bells. My associations with bells are positive ones. For me, bells ring in gratitude.

Do you remember this line? “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” This quote is from It’s a Wonderful Life, the classic 1946 movie starring Jimmy Stewart. The film is all about the human journey of learning to be grateful. Even the title of the film is a declaration of gratitude!

Oh, beautiful bells! My soul listens for jingle bells dashing through the snow, magical flying reindeer making musical landings on rooftops, the doorbell ringing followed by a warm greeting. I recall the tinkling of the chimes I sometimes play in yoga classes to gently awaken restful yogis from their deep relaxation. I recollect the jingling of the cat’s bell, announcing her arrival, and her deep purr as she rubs against me.

In the movie, The Polar Express, a boy receives a special gift, a Christmas bell. Only those who still believe in Santa can hear it. It’s a heart-warming reminder that we cannot experience prosperity if we aren’t grateful.

20

Meditation for Gurprasad Guru is that guidance which takes you from darkness to light.

Gurprasad means Guru’s Grace or Blessing; given by the grace of the Guru.

Posture: Sit in Easy Pose with a straight spine. With your upper arms close to your sides, bring your hands to the level of the heart with the hands side-by-side and cupped (the way they are for receiving Prasad).

Eyes: Eyes are one-tenth open and focused on the tip of the nose.

Mental focus: Allow all the blessings of heaven to flow to you.

Ask for whatever you need. Know yourself to be blessed. Feel the boundless flow of spirit. Just let it happen. Fill your heart and soul with all the bounties of nature. Simply meditate on the boundless flow of the Universal Soul and feel a deep inflow of spirit.

Time: It is suggested to start with between 3 and 11 minutes and work your way up to 31 minutes.

My teacher, Yogi Bhajan, spoke of “an attitude of gratitude.” He said that gratitude opens the door to prosperity.

Someone ungrateful doesn’t recognise the gifts that are being given. If one decides to want for only one thing, he becomes blind to all of the other opportunities that are offered. Those opportunities will never amount to anything because they haven’t been taken.

I imagine a bell on prosperity’s door. I’m able to ring it

whenever I am grateful. The door is always answered when I come, hand in hand, with my dear friend, Gratitude.

Even the one for whom the bell tolls at the close of life can graciously listen as they are being called home. For those left behind, the death knell reminds us to appreciate what we have, so temporarily, here on Earth.

A bell calls us to reverie. It invites us to cherish its dulcet sound for the fleeting moment that it is here. Take pause, notice, appreciate. Be grateful.

I don’t have a fascinating ensemble of bells to display.

Yet, in my heart, there is a symphony that rings out. A note of that symphony has been recorded every time that I’ve bowed to remember my Creator. Every time my eyes have widened in awe of life’s wonder unfolding around me. Every moment where I’ve paused to revel in gratitude.

In my heart there is a cascade of tinkling sounds that reaches out into Infinity. Listen. It’s in your heart, too. Be great and full of love.

Sat nam.

Jai Kartar Kaur Mohan is a Kundalini Yoga Teacher & Teacher Trainer www.wellwithin.ie

Wi t h 3 D i ffe r e n t Co u r s e Locations to Choose From: THE DUBLIN COURSE Orientation January 22 nd, 2017

THE KILKENNY COURSE Orientation January 14 th, 2017

THE WESTPORT COURSE Orientation March 11 th, 2017 "Doing the teacher training was the most life changing and rewarding gift I ever gave myself. It is an education for living and a gift that keeps on giving."

Mrs. Norma Creed, Cork

DUBLIN & KILKENNY INFO

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mr.

motivator jack Canfield Comes To Dublin.

by Gavin Ryan

Jack Canfield has been affectionately labelled America’s number one success coach. As the originator of the world changing franchise, Chicken Soup for The Soul, and being the Guinness Book of Records holder for having seven titles on the New York Times Bestseller list on a single day, it’s clear that his inspiring words have had a massive impact on the world.

22

Choose Your Own Adventure Jack Canfield is very open about the difficulties he faced growing up.

Jack’s father was a military man and very abusive. Born in Texas, Jack was moved from base to base and lived in five states before his parents divorced when he was six years old. Jack’s mother was an alcoholic. She entered another relationship with a man who was a workaholic and together they raised Jack in what he describes as the typical dysfunctional family.

From the psychologist, Robert Resnick, early on Jack learned an important formula upon which he claims all experiences are based. The shorthand for the formula is E + R = O. What this means is that all that we experience is decided when an event (E) triggers our response ( R). Together these two factors produce (O), the outcome. It is not the events in our lives that determine our outcomes, but it is our responses to them.

While the events of Jack Canfield’s early years do not seem to be likely to lead to the incredible success he has achieved, it seems that it is the way he responded to those events that have proved the Resnick formula to be true. As he says, “your current experiences are a direct result of your responses to past events.”

Jack Canfield has simply learned how to respond successfully to life. He believes you can learn it too.

Jack gives the example of his friend, a luxury car dealer, who when the recession hit, realised if he didn’t figure out a way to convince people to buy luxury cars, he’d go broke pretty soon. Rather than blame the economy, his friend brought his fleet up to the wealthy areas and offered the inhabitants the chance to test drive his top of the line cars. Of course once they’d driven a brand new car, they were hooked. He sold more cars in the first year of the recession than he did in the boom.

Another example is of two men stuck in traffic. One is in a rage and stressed at being late. The other is relaxed, listening to the radio and enjoying the ride. The event is the same, but it is their responses which dictate their experiences.

Once you’ve grasped this, you are ready to take 100% responsibility for your life and start achieving your goals.

Find Your Life’s Purpose Now that you’ve taken responsibility, the next step is to decide your life’s purpose.

You can do this for yourself by completing some quick exercises outlined in his bestselling book, The Success Principles.

Jack Canfield explains that it is incredibly important to have a driving purpose. Without it we lack a compass to guide us and our actions, even when they are successful, may not bring us true fulfillment. You certainly don’t want to get to the top of the ladder only to find you have placed it against the wrong wall.

people would live and interact (e.g. People are free to be themselves, pursue their dreams and get the support they need in difficult times).

Life Purpose Exercise 1 Pick two positive qualities that define you (e.g.: Enthusiasm and Creativity).

Write them down.

The Law of Attraction Jack Canfield featured prominently in the paradigm shifting movie, The Secret, and the The Law of Attraction features heavily in Jack’s seminars. The ability to visualise one’s goals and the importance of being clear on what it is one wants in order to attain it is paramount. He wrote that “The entire universe was built for you to say your orders. Most people forget that in their lives, then they pass away and become part of that universe, waiting in

2 Name two things that you can do that helps others and brings you great joy (e.g.

To explain things clearly, To make people laugh). Make a note of them.

3 In the present tense, describe what you think a perfect world would look like, how

When you can put it all together, you’ve got your life’s purpose. Mine is “to use my enthusiasm and creativity to humourously explain how we can be free to be ourselves, go after our dreams and find the support we need when times get tough.” I think that it really captures what I’ve always been about in a way that I’d never quite put into words.

“Very informative, I learned a lot, different from others I’ve been to. I have been to different Coaching events and therefore don’t expect to learn much more at each event. However, at this one I was pleasantly surprised. Audrey Brennan “This was my first time coming to Estela’s training. I was overwhelmed, she has great passion, and powerful way of teaching. I would like to keep going to your workshop! I want more of positive energy. - Naley Nancy Estela is personally trained by Jack Canfield and a graduate of his Train The Trainer Program. A QQI Award Trainer and finishing her PhD in Holistic Life Coaching.

She conducts workshops and delivers courses in Dublin: • • • • •

How To Have It All - Achieving Your Goals & Dreams Breakthrough To Success - Success System That Never Fails Be Your Own Life Coach - Because You Have All The Power Your Personal Planning Process - Goal Setting and Financial Forecasting Meditation Exploration - Exploring Different Meditation Techniques For Information Contact: Estela Galorport - Success Trainer/Life and Business Coach Mobile: 0874378634 estela@egalorportinstitute.com www.egalorportinstitute.com

their turn to serve whoever will be brave enough to command his desires of the universe. Speak up now.” It is certainly an approach that puts the onus on the individual to step up and make their life dreams happen.

One of the things I like about Jack Canfield is that he is so passionate about sharing his methods with as many people as he can. This is a vocation for him and he pursues it with zeal and enthusiasm.

Once you’ve read his books or seen his videos, you know that he’s the kind of guy who gets a kick out of seeing people reach their full potential. Why not go see him when he comes to Dublin?

Jack Canfield is a keynote speaker at the Pendulum Summit, the world’s leading business and self-empowerment summit taking place on January 11th & 12th in the Convention Centre, Dublin. We have two tickets to the event for our lucky readers. See positivelife.ie for information on how to enter. jackcanfield.com pendulumsummit.com

positi v e supplement

the cure is

sweet overcoming Cystitis

by Anna Sawkins

Cystitis is no fun, that’s for sure. Like so many of our customers, I suffered repeat infections of E.coli related cystitis for many years. I was prescribed countless courses of antibiotics and drank gallons of cranberry juice, as advised, to acidify the urine.

In my case, as is the case with so many, the infections continued. I got temporary relief with each new antibiotic, but then the infection would come back with a vengeance.

Doctors tend to prescribe the lightest possible antibiotic and shortest course for very good reasons, but, in my case, it would fail to kill the infection, and when I went back they’d give me the same antibiotic but for a longer time.

But an antibiotic that has failed to beat an infection is likely to fail because the bacterium has built up a resistance to that antibiotic. If you keep attacking it with more of the same, it just becomes more resistant. Soon, nothing had any impact other than broad-spectrum antibiotics that had, for me, considerable side effects.

I was desperate and began to do my own research; the more I learned, the more clear it became that I was not actually being reinfected. I was succumbing to the same infection that was getting stronger as mutated bacteria defeated an antibiotic by burrowing deeper in to the bladder wall to hide behind tough biofilms, ready to emerge and begin to colonise again at a later date.

I also learned that acidic urine

creates perfect conditions that encourage this detachment and regrowth and discovered (as our grandmothers had before us) that drinking milk laced with baking soda helped a little (I now know that it was because I was changing the pH in the urine to alkaline and that doing this was inhibiting bacterial growth).

Equally, lemon juice and Robinson’s Lemon Barley Water helped, especially if taken neat at the first sign of infection (not pleasant, but just bearable, and better than cystitis). Very high doses of raw garlic, a superb natural antibacterial, also helped from time to time but obviously this was difficult to sustain and proved to be too antisocial.

Anyway, it was after another episode of cystitis, and treatment with yet another seven days of broad-spectrum antibiotic that I realised I was in serious trouble. The infection hadn’t gone away.

I had kidney problems. I would drink gallons, and issue a tiny cupful. I had abdominal bloating, and sharp pain, especially in my joints. Basically, I was at the end of my tether and seriously ill.

Fortunately, that was the day when the first shipment of Waterfall D-Mannose arrived in a parcel. I took one level teaspoonful in a small glass of apple juice.

Within hours of taking Waterfall D-Mannose, my symptoms were starting to abate. Within a day I was clear of cystitis symptoms. Free at last from the pain, I cried with relief.

The truth is that it took months to

24 “Within a day I was clear of cystitis symptoms. Free at last from the pain, I cried with relief.”

finally get rid of that propensity for new episodes to threaten (embedded bacteria have to surface to enable attachment and be removed), but now, a little each night and I remain infection free.

I think we are privileged in that we have access to so much useful information that enables us to take more responsibility for our own health, and research effective long-term solutions.

We can find safe food supplements that do not deplete our immune system or cause side effects that may be unwittingly ruinous to our health. In fact they work symbiotically with the body to promote healing. sweet-cures.com

Positive tantr a

the heart asks

pleasure first a Tantra Moment.

by Dawn Cartwright

26

Simple, beautiful moments of Tantra designed to open you to the extraordinary depths of the Tantric practice. Whether you’re just beginning, or you’ve been exploring Tantra for many years, you’ll find these moments bring intimacy in ways you might never have imagined. You’ll cultivate a steady sense of who you are, you’ll align with what is meaningful to you and you’ll experience a freedom to be and express as the person you truly are.

Every moment is an opportunity for a beautiful Tantra ritual, all it takes is a bit of planning and preparation and soon hearts will be soaring.

The Invitation First, extend an invitation to practise Tantra to a friend or lover. Be prepared to describe Tantra so there’s a clear understanding of what will take place. What is Tantra for you?

Explore your desires and expectations for the practice together. What would you like to receive from the practice session? What would your partner like to receive? Whether it is to learn more about Tantra, to create a loving connection, to meditate together using Tantra practices, to ignite your sexual fire or whatever, embrace it.

Boundaries & Emotional Connection Once you know what you’d like to give, receive and explore in the practice, talk about physical and emotional boundaries.

What kind of touch you are comfortable giving and receiving - and where on each of your bodies you feel comfortable giving and receiving touch? Are there limitations to how long you can sit in meditation? Are you okay with incense? What kind of music do you enjoy? Sharing boundaries makes it possible for us to meet authentically and helps us to be responsible for fulfilling our own needs and asking for what we want during the practice.

Create a comfortable Tantra practice environment to support you and your boundaries. What kind of environment will create the perfect atmosphere for the

practice the two of you have planned? Use your imagination. Prepare your body. Take a shower, brush your teeth, anoint your body with essential oils, dress in fabrics that are sensual and comfortable. Bring a gift, something simple like a flower, or chocolate, or music.

“These moments bring intimacy in ways you might never have imagined.”

The Tantra Practice Before your practice session, choose a practice you both feel familiar with, preferably something you’ve practised several times on your own. This will make it easier for each of you to fully engage in the practice without becoming distracted as you try to remember steps or techniques. A practice you may wish to explore is described below.

Heart-2-Heart Breathing Sit together, facing one another. You’ll place your right hand on your partner’s heart and your partner places their right hand on your heart. You both place your left hand over your partner’s hand on your heart. Close your eyes. Breathe out from your heart into your partner’s heart, giving love. Breathe in from your partner’s heart into your own, receiving love. This practice creates a weaving between your hearts and expands the connection you share. Continue for 3-5 minutes. Bow to one another to complete the practice.

Integration & Following Up Make sure there’s time at the end of your practice to share what you have discovered with one another. Then, take some time alone to integrate and digest what you have experienced by going for a walk or meditating. Make a date to check in with one another sometime within 24 hours. Share anything that may have arisen during or after your practice session.

Throughout the experience, remember to enjoy the moment!

Dawn Cartwright is a Tantric visionary, sacred writer, world traveller, and innovator in bioenergetic Tantra fusion. www.dawncartwright.com.

spiritual

catalyst teal Swan: Relationships, Consciousness and the Fifth Dimension.

by Gavin Ryan & Paul Congdon

Teal Swan has been labelled a Spiritual Catalyst, someone who provokes change in those that she encounters. Born with an innate sensitivity, she has survived the most brutal of childhoods. She outlines this in tragic detail on her site. From such dark beginnings, she has somehow managed to develop the wisdom and strength that she can use to help others release their emotional blocks.

“embracing the full range of our emotions is the highest form of positivity that exists.”

Her latest book The Completion Process is a handbook that teaches how to resolve all past trauma and begin to re-own those suppressed aspects of the self in order to experience true freedom.

She spoke to a packed and enthralled theatre at our Positive Nights event in Dublin. It was an experience all of us there are likely to remember for a long time.

acknowledge our shadow side and offer it the love it needs to heal. If you do not validate emotion, you can’t go through it.

Without that acknowledgement, the emotion will remain stuck.

What causes pain is not negativity, but resistance to negativity.

Embracing the full range of our emotions is the highest form of positivity that exists.

You are a ‘sensitive’. How do you hold that so it doesn’t overwhelm you?

I let myself be impacted by what I feel. It can be overwhelming at times, but I don’t resist it. With positive focus and that kind of stuff, you can make a jail cell beautiful. If you want to change a system that’s really flawed, you need to let yourself be affected by the things that you feel. That’s where the motivation to act comes from. When we see suffering, it gives us the momentum to do something about it.

What do you do on a daily basis to keep yourself in a good space?

My favourite meditative exercise is presence with self-awareness.

I also really like exercise and I’d be lying to you right now if I didn’t tell you that I do like using sex. I’m one of those spiritual teachers that’s going to tell you it is really important to embrace physicality. We are supposed to bring spirituality into all areas of our existence and that includes physicality. So that’s what I do, I try to bring that spirituality into every area of my life to make every moment sacred.

When something supposedly negative happens, how do we stay positive?

Positive focus is a really useful tool except when it’s used to suppress. What I call spirituality 101, says that I must stay positive in order to manifest what I want. So we try to ignore the negative of what’s going on. What this doesn’t take into account is that our subconscious mind has the ability of thinking ten negative thoughts in the time it takes us to think one positive. So if you think of momentum, the momentum is going to be with the negative even when someone is consciously focussing on positive thinking.

The way it works vibrationally is that a tug of war takes place between the part that is hurting and the part that is trying to escape that uncomfortable feeling. What I am suggesting instead is to treat the part of us that is suffering as if it were a small child crying. We can then come in underneath and

There are those having difficulty trying to leave relationships and others having problems trying to get in to them. Can you talk to both those people?

I think one of the reasons it’s so incredibly hard to leave a relationship is the complete uncertainty that you are going to find something better. When most of us contemplate a move, we jump to the worst-case scenario, “I’ll never meet anyone ever again.” If you can realise that this is not necessarily true and visualise all the wonderful opportunities, you can begin to see it differently.

What I find about those who are having difficulty manifesting a relationship is that they are often completely unaware of the part of themselves that doesn’t want one. The way that this universe works is that you are supposed to be in relationships. If you did not meddle with that, you would get into them all the time.

TEAL ON IRELAND When Teal arrived in Dublin airport, she experienced a flood of unexpected emotions that reduced her to tears for a full ten minutes. It took her a while to realise what was happening, until she remembered that her greatgrandmother left Co. Clare in forced emigration and she realised her DNA was opening up to heal from this trauma. It was clear to her that Ireland was going to have a special significance.

On her blog, Teal lists 34 signs of her Irish heritage. She includes her feistiness, her complexion, her self-deprecating sense of humour and her passion.

The dominant positive vibration she felt from the Irish was goodwill and that Irish people have an unshakable connection to both the land and their consciences.

The dominant negative vibration she tells us is bereavement. This comes from choosing to stand up to loss rather than accepting it. The Irish, she says, need to learn to let go of things in order to move on.

She has promised to return and is keen to explore the place where her Irish side, the Clancys of Clare, lived and breathed.

“You can only see the box when you get out of it.”

How do people develop self love?

When I was coming out of that hell-hole of suicidal despair, I studied people who loved themselves and I found that they did certain things. Self-love, I believe, is about doing those things for yourself. One of those things is that people who love themselves commit to what they’re feeling more than anything else in the world.

To get out of my depression, I spent one month of only doing things I felt like. When it started, one action for myself gave me hours of guilt so I had to be really present with that. I kept at it and what I realised is that life went on. The sky didn’t fall on my head. It made me so angry that I had wasted so many years in a prison of my own creation, but after a while, I began to enjoy my freedom and it became really apparent how trapped other people were. You can only see the box when you get out of it.

There’s obviously something going on with consciousness at the moment.

That’s an understatement! It’s the tipping point. We have been desiring our way into a new species. We have the capacity to comprehend the fi fth dimension. People don’t always know how to envisage that. They try to imagine it within a three dimensional framework. It doesn’t work. The fi fth dimension has several properties that we now have access to if we choose to step onto the road of awareness.

For example, you may have access to a number of timelines. This is where you gain the ability to change the course of the life you have already chosen. It’s all about life path potentials. In the three dimensional reality, you are limited by the linear timelines, but in 5D, you can recognise that all potential timelines are all accessible in the moment. That’s what shamans have known for thousands of years. Imagine a society where a whole generation of people have access to this.

Tell me about The Completion Process.

It’s a process I designed to solve your past trauma. Consider cancer, PTSD, depression, you name it, they could all be considered to be caused by past trauma. I’ve never met anyone who is not suffering from it. Your personality in your adult life is really just an adaptation caused by this trauma.

The way that it works is that you have an event and you feel it in your body. That’s called a trigger. All of our efforts are mostly to get people away from the trigger. This process goes entirely in the other direction. It takes you into the trigger. The trigger is like a wormhole that is linked to something painful in the past, you go straight into the wormhole instead of away from it. All of the gold is in there.

Imagine someone who is six years old, born into an immigrant family and forced to take an academic route despite being a brilliant artist instead. That is a trauma. The result is that the child, loyal to the parents suppresses their creativity to the point that she will be cut off from it and, as an adult, not even remember that it was ever there.

When we go into the pain of the trauma, we also recover the lost gift that was buried with it. You have no idea of who you really are until you have gone into that place. It’s a process of re-owning oneself. In the subconscious mind, those aspects that have been suppressed and lost, they are the parts that need to be re-owned for us to be happy. It’s hard work sitting with these painful emotions, but it’s what has to be done to become free.

teal swan is an internationally recognised spiritual leader and powerful voice in the field of metaphysics. as a renowned author, speaker and social media star, she travels the world teaching selfdevelopment and spiritual growth. teal has just set up a retreat centre, philia in costa rica. philiacenter.com tealswan.com

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positively pr actical

carve your

own path the true value of handmade.

By Nick Clayson

Last summer I had the honour of helping to organise the Earthsong Craft and Creativity camp with the theme of healing through making and doing. This is of course a grand claim, but one in which I believe passionately.

I have been carving spoons for a year or two now. It began as an exploration and a way of filling winter evenings. Very quickly, however, I became engaged in the process.

As time has passed it has become more of a practice.

I struggle with meditation. I know, everyone does. Isn’t that the point? I will be honest here, I struggle with mindfulness,

“i was lucky as a child. i had a father who made and fixed things.”

meditations and mantras. My mind has always been too busy and restless.

Working with my hands allows me to clear my head. Razor sharp tools tend to help with concentration. I don’t think when I am carving a spoon. Well I might think, “Oh I’m going to do this” or “I’m going to use such and such tool”, but when I begin to carve, I’m not thinking. Not in words. There is a link between my hands and that creative notion in my brain. Any artist or craftsperson will recognise that. It is outside of time, but also very conscious, very present. We have opposing thumbs and fingers. It is what defines us and

32

separates us from all other life. It enables us to manipulate things in a way that no other being can. Well, maybe an octopus. The point is that those thumbs and fingers are linked with the creative, inventive process and it happens at a deep and intuitive level.

I began teaching others last year with a Spoon Day and then again at the Earthsong Craft Camp. I noticed how engaged people became. I also noticed the value of working in groups. People find it easy to interact with a common task to be performed. It makes connection much more comfortable. I think this is especially true for men. It can be hard to access and feel a part of a community. Making and doing and working together provides a door into a little world.

I was lucky as a child. I had a father who made things and fixed things. He taught me a little about using tools and how to do things. Mostly however he left me with the confidence in my own abilities to just get on and do it.

Learning to carve and make spoons, then teaching others has been quite a journey for me and one which I didn’t expect when I started out. It is lovely at the end of a workshop when I see people with the things that they have made. I love that they have learned skills and how to use simple tools. Mostly though, I hope they leave with a little bit of the same confidence my father gave to me.

On a personal level, the last two years have been a difficult time in lots of ways.

Working with my hands making spoons and other things has kept me grounded.

Recently, a good friend paid me a lovely compliment. They said I had changed, that I was softer, calmer, more gentle and approachable. I hadn’t seen that in myself and it was nice to hear.

When I go out gathering pieces of ash, blackthorn, sycamore and willow left behind by the hedge cutter and sit down to start carving, I will give thanks. nick clayson is an architect, craftsman and yurt maker. facebook.com/bigfootyurts

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good life 2.0

disruptive

behaviour a Force For Positive Change.

by Davie Philip

The disruption we face as the world heats up will be hugely challenging. However, it will also be an opportunity to accelerate a transition to a future that is more meaningful, decentralised, local and powered by renewable resources. I believe this is inevitable and will be far healthier and preferable to the centralised, imbalanced world that we now occupy.

We have been slow to adapt to climate change. Humans are often resistant to change. We tend to feel safe when things stay the same.

Disruption is rarely welcomed as it can be seen as synonymous with conflict and chaos. This characteristic was apparent in the business world. For a long time the businesses considered disruption a problem to be avoided, rather than as a strategy. Now, seeing that innovative business models are outperforming the traditional methods which have failed to adapt to contemporary contexts,

34

business is championing disruption as the vital ingredient for success.

As a catalyst for change, disruption is vital. It can really help us challenge old assumptions and could speed up new innovative approaches, ensuring we remain buoyant in the face

“It’s a global community of positive disrupters engaged in transforming their locales that will lead the way to our bright future.” of the turbulence ahead. In fact, it’s a global community of positive disrupters engaged in transforming their locales that will lead the way to our bright future.

In our use of energy, we know we must quickly move away from our dependency on fossil fuels. Reducing our consumption and moving to renewable sources is paramount. However, the real disruption happens when we rethink how we generate and use energy locally.

Our communities have so much to gain from a decentralisation of power.

Locally owned and distributed renewable energy could revitalise our communities, providing much needed livelihoods and underpinning the journey to a postcarbon economy.

Like energy, the way we produce and consume food is also out of date. It’s great to see the rise of the shop-local and healthy eating trends. However, we can really disrupt an unsustainable food system by become co-producers, growing some of our own and subscribing to community supported agriculture initiatives. These projects reconnect us to the land, ensure the economic viability of local producers and also build much needed social relationships in the places we live.

It is not just in energy and food production where disruption will be important. Our idea of home can also be innovated. We can easily future-proof our homes by increasing insulation and making them more energy efficient.

Beyond this, co-housing initiatives are completely disrupting the way we house ourselves and challenging our notions of ownership. Residents of co-housing neighbourhoods have their own private living space but share assets and common space. As well as being more affordable, this approach has proved to increase wellbeing and be much better for our mental health.

To really navigate the disruption ahead we will need to recalibrate our compasses and be willing to creatively transform the way we do almost everything. Anyone working to make this world a healthier and fairer place is using disruption positively to innovate new ways to live in the world, meet our needs in a more sustainable way and accelerate the transition to a low carbon and resilient future.

Davie Philip davie@cultivate.ie is a community catalyst at Cultivate cultivate.ie and is based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage thevilage.ie He is curating the Convergence Festival in September 2017 on the topic of Citizen Engaged, Community Led Transitions.

To join the conversation email convergence@cultivate.ie

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natur al medicine

winter

wellness a herbalist’s guide.

by Colleen Kennedy

In Ireland, we are blessed to be living in a most westerly point of Europe. This, however, provides weather-related challenges to our wellbeing.

Our wild Atlantic location brings with it a dampness which pervades the environment and our delicate systems, becoming the basis of many illnesses we commonly see this time of year. This dampness has been remedied throughout the ages and in many cultures across the world. When you think of damp, it conjures up feelings of cold, mucous, congestion, slowness, lethargy and pallor. To counteract this we can use foods and herbs with an aromatic and pungent nature to promote warmth within.

Beneficial foods which offer these warming properties include onions, garlic, leeks, horseradish, ginger, wasabi, mustard greens, turnips and radishes. They have a pungent nature which can heat up and cut through the dampness and cold. You’ll recognise this sensation when you take a little wasabi or horseradish paste on the tongue!

These foods also enhance circulation and will promote blood flow to the extremities thus softening the impact of disorders of the circulatory system such as Raynaud’s Disease. By warming the stomach and the blood they help with digestion and absorption of food, thereby strengthening the body to prevent disease. By contrast, cold, raw foods, dairy and sugar will promote dampness, so be conscious of your own tolerance levels.

Stimulant and digestive herbs are used to dispel cold and damp and can also aid expectoration of mucous from the lungs and nasal passages. Herbs and spices we use here are cinnamon, cayenne, ginger, cardamom, clove and black pepper.

These are easily incorporated into any diet.

Here is a recipe for a warming tea that is beneficial in the winter months.

Inner Fire Igniter Tea Ginger 1 thumb-sized piece, peeled and grated Lemon quartered with the skin on Cloves 5-8 studded into the lemon quarters

“So often a happy client will tell me they wish they had tried

Cover ingredients with 1 pint of water and simmer or stew for 15 mins. When cooled slightly, add the honey.

This makes 3 small cups or 2 larger mugs.

1 small cup sipped before meals will aid digestion and assimilation of nutrients too.

Ground Cinnamon ½ tsp Cayenne Powder ¼ tsp (if tolerated) Honey 1-2 tsp (Added after tea has cooled a little so as not to destroy the beneficial enzymes)

Sometimes I add a handful of carrageen moss or thyme to aid the expectorant qualities of the tea. If you have any inflammation of the stomach, it is best to avoid the cayenne pepper.

It’s quite normal to pick up the odd sniffle, but when you see a recurring pattern or you are finding an infection hard to shake, herbs are invaluable. There are many herbs at our fingertips to use against both viral and bacterial infections.

Consistent use of herbs is key and it’s important to use the proper doses. Taking them for a day or two often isn’t enough to stop stubborn viruses from replicating.

Doses vary from 3 to 5 times per day and will steadily strengthen the host to fight off infection. Teas, soups and stews are all great ways to incorporate these healing herbs and spices into the diet.

I prescribe individual tincture blends to help with different infections or to give the immune system some

support. Herbs I often use are elder, licorice, echinacea, berberine family, chinese skullcap, boneset, ginger, trikatu, astragalus and olive leaf. It really depends on the person and what stage of illness they are at. Some herbs are better taken in the acute stage while others are best suited for chronic infections.

Keep your easy-to-grow herbs like sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary handy.

These possess many phytochemicals which are antimicrobial, and are therefore beneficial for gastrointestinal health. You can think of them as your outdoor medicine chest of prevention!

This is much appreciated when the winter vomiting bug comes to town.

Finally, don’t forget the importance

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of rest. Sleep is crucial for health and wellbeing. Turning in a bit earlier and unplugging from technology in the evenings will help you to get more hours of healing sleep.

Colleen runs a clinic in the Body and Mind Health Centre, Rosbeg, Westport, Co. Mayo and also lectures at CNM Dublin and Galway based campuses. If you would like to find out how you can train at CNM for an exciting new career in Naturopathic Nutrition, Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy or Acupuncture, join us at our next free open evening. Reserve your place online. naturopathy.ie

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the wonder of therapeutic horticulture

By Hans Wieland

culinary

positive food

and independent living skills. The project garden includes a polytunnel and is grant Gardening is aided in 2012 by the National Lottery with a wonderfully flexible medium the specific purpose of ‘improving physical and mental health.’ that can growers and Chefs.

The Senses Garden at The Organic transform lives,

by Hans Wieland Centre has become a well-copied feature, and, working and Helen McCauley - who works as a in The Organic Centre, I have seen firstdelivery days to cafés and restaurants Thursdays are special days for me. ‘garden Cregg House - got hand how gardening can help everyone, in Sligo.in Seeing the smiling and also Thursdays are harvest days at The therapist’ inquisitive faces of the chefs gathering Organic Centre and Thursdays are many ideas from there. “The use of regardless of age or disability. raised beds helps our gardeners using We all have heard people say, wheelchairs to fully participate in the “Gardening is therapeutic,” but the HSE“A close connection between garden project.

Our sensory beds and funded Community Food Project (CFP) and chefs maintains flower gardens offer a restful place for all I coordinated from 2004 to 2011growers proves flavour and nutrition our other service users to enjoy through that with the following figures:freshness, since in our vision, smell, taste, touch and sound,” starting with the CFP, participants havefood.” she says. reported 67% better health, 91% more active, 78% improved fitness and 81% less stressed. One of the other findings was that gardening together provided ‘mental what is therapeutic horticulture? health gains for those with specific Social and Therapeutic Horticulture is the difficulties.’ (J.P. Burke: Growing in formal name given to the use of plants Confidence, 2007 Evaluation Report) and gardening to promote personal Researchers at Bristol University and development, healing, health and University of London conducted research wellbeing. which suggests that friendly bacteria which It can be part of a person’s rehabilitation are common in fertile soil cause brain to enable them to recover from a difficult cells to produce the beneficial chemical time in their lives such as drug addiction, serotonin. It also highlights the importance bereavement or physical injury. of gardening organically without using It can help clients to learn new skills, and chemicals and toxic sprays. has been shown to slow down the progress The CFP has also been working with of a degenerative illness. Acquiring new the Occupational Therapy Department of skills can also improve the chances of the Mental Health Services in Sligo. The finding employment. gardening project, as part of a needs-based Other benefits include increased physical therapeutic programme in the hospital, activity, social interaction, opportunities has supported a wide range of individual for voluntary work and social inclusion. goals, e.g. relaxation, exercise, socialising, (Thrive 2011) motor skills development, motivation

connections

d d e t o a a g c g g a

o d s u s b r e s

g d t t a h C p

I s D a C i

round the delivery boxes of vegetables, herbs and flowers makes the hard work of growing such an exciting occupation.

The Organic Centre gardens and polytunnels are literally the back garden for a few of the chefs in town.

What seems pretty obvious, the close connections between growing food and preparing food to eat, has undergone significant changes in recent times. For me and my family the distance our food travels is always very short, from garden to kitchen. This is not always the case if we go out and eat in a restaurant, where many ingredients

39

could come from faraway places. This situation though is changing rapidly in the last few years.

Local and Seasonal Menus A new approach in composing a menu by some of Ireland’s leading chefs has emerged: Finding local producers, understanding seasonality in food production, creating local signature dishes, healthy and vegetarian food options, seeking the best variety of a vegetable for specific dishes and looking at the nutritional value of food are the ‘order of the day’. This in turn has created new opportunities for farmers and growers, who can satisfy the ‘locavores’ as local produce is the ultimate desirable ingredient when it comes to freshness and quality. Once a relationship is established and chef and grower are connected, special crops, particular varieties and unusual produce can be requested and grown to create a point of distinction that lifts the establishment to new heights. As Monty Don says, “The best ingredients, simply prepared, make the best food.”

This connection also benefits the environment. Food that is produced in harmony with the seasons and without travelling long distances is more sustainable and provides food security for future generations who will no longer be able to rely on cheap imports and oil dependent food systems. It is also good for the local community as produce grown by local farmers keeps rural traditions and landscapes alive.

A Chef’s Garden The ultimate connection is having a kitchen garden behind the restaurant or the restaurant on the farm, where the boundaries between growing and cooking are fluid. On a recent visit to former students of the Organic Horticulture course at The Organic Centre it was a joy to see the connection between producing and cooking in action.

One works now in a walled kitchen garden for a very famous restaurant in Donegal, the other is a former chef turned organic grower, who now delivers produce to Galway’s growing food scene. To experience the passion of these young growers while walking the gardens and fields full of fantastic produce, was a joy to behold. Meeting the chefs afterwards, who turn the produce into very tasty dishes, I saw the same passion to strive for perfection.

On one of my delivery days to Sligo I asked Gary Stafford, chef at Lyons Café, why he loves our produce. His simple answer was: “Flavour.” He also grows a lot of soft fruit himself. He says it’s about teaching the other chefs to source locally and think and feel a certain way and about the huge rush he gets from serving a dish featuring one or two ingredients which he has cared for all the way from seed to table.

So here is his recipe using butternut squash and fennel bulbs from The Organic Centre and some of his herbs:

Roasted Winter Vegetables 1 Butternut Squash - cut into 2cm chunks, seeds discarded 2 Fennel Bulbs - cut in half, then into thick wedges 1 Red Onion - peeled and cut into 8 wedges 4 Courgettes - cut in half lengthways then into 2cm chunks 4 Garlic Cloves - peeled and cut in half lengthways 2 Rosemary Sprigs 4 Thyme Sprigs 2 tsp Cumin Seed Olive or Rapeseed oil Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper Honey to Drizzle Preheat the oven to 200 C. Spread the butternut squash over a large roasting tray.

Drizzle with a little oil and season. Sprinkle the cumin seed over the squash. Roast in the oven for around 15 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven. Add the remaining vegetables and herbs and continue roasting for 30 minutes or until the veg is tender, golden in colour, and a little crispy around the edges.

Remove from the oven, drizzle with honey and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Gary Stafford, Lyons Café: Cookbook 2.

40

eireann cosy up with this winter warmer.

positive food

dal

by James Burke Dal to me represents the best in winter comfort cooking. It’s as satisfying as anything I could think of preparing at any time of the year, but in winter it comes into its own. I like to keep the spices simple, relying more on the flavour of split peas, fried garlic and ginger. The addition of turmeric is more for the vivid colour

it adds rather than the earthy flavour, while the cumin seeds lend a simple, uncomplicated touch of fragrance. Feel free to add some chilli, cardamom or cinnamon for a more spiced version.

This recipe incorporates the most colourful winter vegetables and also benefits from the addition of frozen

garden peas and fresh coriander to brighten the whole dish up a little. It also provides a nourishing main course that includes much of your recommended daily nutrition needs.

To make it easier, I have given separate lists of ingredients for each aspect of the preparation.

Roast Winter Vegetables with Dal, Rice and Gingered Pea PurÉe Makes 4 to 6 portions

Photo: emma loughran

6 medium sized carrots/15ml lime juice/15 ml rapeseed or coconut oil 4 medium sized beetroot/15ml lime juice/15ml rapeseed or coconut oil 400g yellow split peas 1.2 litre water 2 teaspoons turmeric 60ml rapeseed or coconut oil 4 medium onions 120g ginger 1 tablespoon sea salt 50g chopped fresh coriander for decorating 240g brown basmati rice 600ml water 60ml rapeseed or coconut oil 10 cloves garlic 2 teaspoons cumin seeds 300g defrosted garden peas 6g peeled and roughly chopped ginger ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Method for the roast root vegetables and split peas: 1 Rinse the yellow split peas in a sieve with fresh water. Place the peas and the 2 teaspoons of turmeric into a medium large saucepan and cover them with the 1.2 litres of water. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a low simmer. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid to cook for 35-45 minutes until the peas have completely softened. Once they have cooked, purée the mixture with a hand blender and set aside until needed. Once this is completed, preheat the oven to 200° C. 2 As the peas are cooking, prepare the carrots and beetroots by peeling and chopping them into medium sized lengths. Add the 15ml of lime juice and 15ml of oil to the prepared carrots and place onto a baking tray. Repeat the process with the beetroot and lay the pieces onto another baking tray. Cover the trays with tinfoil and put into the oven (now heated to 200°C) to roast, 35 minutes for the carrots and 45 minutes for the beetroot.

The carrots will need to be covered for the first 20 minutes of cooking, after which, remove the cover for the last 15 minutes (or until the carrots have softened). The beetroot will need to be kept covered under the tinfoil for the whole roasting time.

Method for the sauce and the rice: 1 Peel the onions and ginger. Slice the onions into half moons and chop the ginger finely. Heat the 60ml of oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion rings over a medium heat for about 12-15 minutes, stirring regularly. Throw in the chopped ginger, reduce the heat and continue sautéing for another 10 minutes before removing from the heat. Once the yellow split peas are cooked and puréed, add them to the finished sauce ingredients and stir in the 1 tablespoon of sea salt. If it is a little thick, add some water.

2 Place the brown basmati rice into a medium saucepan and pour the 600ml of water over to cover. Bring the rice to a boil, reduce the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. Continue cooking over a very low simmer for 20 minutes until the water has been absorbed into the cooked rice. Set aside until needed.

Method for the tarka dal and pea purée: 1 Peel the garlic cloves and chop them very finely. Pour the remaining 60ml of oil into a small saucepan and place over a medium heat and fry the garlic for about 2 minutes. Add the 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds to the pan and continue frying for another 1-2 minutes, then stir the tarka dal into the finished sauce ingredients to combine.

2 For the gingered pea purée, place the peas, ginger and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times until you have a smooth and vivid green purée. Set aside until needed.

Method for serving: Divide the cooked basmati rice between 6 plates or bowls and pour some of the finished dal over the rice. Place the roast root vegetables around the dal and top with some pea purée and chopped fresh coriander.

Your winter just got warmer. cornucopia.ie

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short & sweet 43 this Way to the future of food the vegan challenge

by Darren Maguire & Ethna McDermot

With raw, vegan and plant-based diets on the rise, the upper echelons of the culinary community have begun to take note.

Following this trend, chef Alain Ducasse, recently removed all meat and dairy from his three Michelin star restaurant in Paris.

Inspired by this, we at Plant Based Academy decided to challenge Alain Ducasse to prepare a raw vegan menu for us at his other three Michelin star restaurant in London, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. The restaurant gladly accepted our challenge and prepared for us an

8-course raw vegan menu.

Upon arrival at the Dorchester we were greeted and seated in a beautiful elegant dining room and presented with our unique eight-course raw vegan menu, which was as simple and elegant as you would expect from a Michelin star restaurant. The food was exquisite and we had the most divine dining experience.

They had created contemporary raw vegan cuisine at the highest level.

We met the chefs after the dinner and thanked them. They were

gracious and seemed to have embraced the challenge with great enthusiasm, saying that we had provided them the opportunity to look at how they work with vegetables now and given them ideas to explore going forward. A return trip in the future is definitely on the cards to see where these masters of food take raw vegan culinary arts.

The future is looking very bright for plant-based cuisine.

PlantBasedAcademy.com

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Intuitive Cooking Learning to Trust Your Culinary Instincts

by Sarah Sylvester Learning how to improvise with food is an essential skill. It’s funny how we often create our best meals when we have little food in the cupboard. This is when our intuition kicks in and we ‘feel’ our way around ingredients, using our imagination and cooking in a lateral way. Sure, this might occasionally end in disaster; that blue cheese-curry sauce might have been memorable in the wrong way! But usually, when we are forced to tune in, we can cook in a different, more intuitive way. And the more we tune in, the more we can learn to cook like this all the time.

Instead of being told by ‘professionals’ or ‘traditions’ what we need for our bodies, we can explore what is good for us through other techniques such as dowsing and kinesiology (muscle testing). These are back to the earth ways of empowering ourselves to understand what we are in need of.

After all, don’t we really all know what is best for ourselves?

This is also handy when shopping to find the best quality ingredients.

Intuitive cooking is a way of us linking ourselves to our bodies, our environment and the seasons. The food we make for ourselves tastes different because we use our own energy and intention to change its vibration and create something that our bodies really need right at that moment. After all, necessity is the mother of invention and, dare I say, links us to the universe!

The Skin You Live In Looking Good This Winter

wholefoodqueen.com

Winter brings short days and chilly temperatures and along with that your skin may feel a little tight, dry and dull looking, I know mine does during these colder months. Here is some advice to banish dryness and give your winter skincare practice a boost.

During the colder months, the central heating being switched on and the cold air battering against our skin can make it become dry, dehydrated and dull. The answer is to moisturise more. As weather conditions change, so should your skincare routine. Choose a moisturiser that is rich in organic plant oils such as almond, jojoba or avocado. This will create a protective layer on the skin that retains more moisture, boosting the hydration levels and keeping the skin soft and supple.

To prevent your hands from drying out, apply a cream after washing and several times throughout the day. It’s a good idea to keep a tube of hand cream by each sink in your home and in your desk at work for a quick nourishing boost.

Particularly if you have eczema, dermatitis or psoriasis, it is wise to avoid allergens and irritants that may trigger a flare up. Winter skin is more fragile so avoid irritating fabrics and skin care products that are laden with synthetic chemicals (parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate and synthetic fragrances) and use mild cleansers and moisturisers that contain natural and organic ingredients to soothe and care for your skin. pravera.co.uk

the Zen touch connecting with the life force

by Saralee Cassidy Seiki Soho is an energy bodywork practice created by the Japanese spiritual and Zen shiatsu master, Akinobi Kishi. Venerated in Japan as a true spiritual sensei, Kishi took his healing method to Europe where he gave workshops for over thirty years.

Facilitating the flow of energy through the body, Seiki Soho clears energy blockages and creates an awareness of the energy flow. It is also a way to enlightenment. It incorporates bodywork, feeling for energy, spontaneous movement and most importantly the creation of the space to experience and enjoy life as human beings breathing again.

The process of Katsugen (purification) is more than a healing method, it is an energy that connects with the purest form of life-force energy: the formless form and the One Mind. Through Seiki Soho and the process of Katsugen the universe crashes in on you, you are awakened to the Buddha mind.

Seiki Soho is waking up people to be aware of themselves. If there is clarity of mind, like a clear blue sky, without thinking it is like breathing again, deeply and serenely from the hara – the centre of oneself. Life flows more spontaneously when one is in hara – the centre of the universe within.

Gavin Davis was apprentice to Akinobi Kishi for over 15 years and is the only direct contact Ireland has to the great master Kishi and his work. He has practiced Seiki Soho for over 25 years and together we run workshops across Europe and in Ireland, spreading the great work of Kishi. sei-ki.com

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Mind over Matter hypnotherapy and positivity

by Gavin Ryan Hypnosis is a subject that makes many of us wary. The idea of giving someone the power to control our thoughts can make us nervous. This sense is compounded by the hypnotists we see on TV causing people to believe and do all sorts of bizarre things that they wouldn’t do of their own volition.

These reservations may be factors in blocking people from receiving the incredible benefits available from hypnotherapy, whether it be overcoming phobias, smoking cessation, weight loss or any of the attitudinal issues that hypnotherapy is so adept at addressing.

Hypnotherapy can take advantage of neuroplasticity, the facility of the brain to retrain through imagination and thought.

Taking advantage of this ability

46

to rewire the mind, hypnotherapist, Fiona Brennan, has designed an online course called The Positive Habit designed to help those dealing with anxiety, stress or negativity (or anyone who would like to feel better) to access the tools to overcome these thought patterns and replace them with more empowering ones. Using a blend of video, mp3, readings and questionnaires, the six-week course takes advantage of the neuroplasticity of the mind to create new positive neural pathways, leading to improved outlook and a brighter perspective on the world. Having used it myself, I can only say that I believe that it should be rolled out in schools, universities and workplaces across the country.

I have a feeling that in the near future hypnotherapy will soon become as accepted a part of daily life and wellbeing as yoga has become today. thepositivehabit.com

flaska your portable water spring

By Luka Glogoski We all know that good hydration is absolutely crucial to our mental and physical wellness. Being just 1-2% dehydrated can reduce our ability to concentrate. It’s no wonder then that water bottles have become increasingly popular as of late. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are made from plastic and we all know the downsides of that.

Thankfully, we now have a solution available in the Irish market called Flaska, a reusable glass water bottle with water structuring technology.

Glass is the healthiest material, not only because it does not leach any harmful chemicals like plastic does, but also because it lasts much, much longer, is easier to clean and once you’re done with it, it can easily be recycled with no negative effects on the environment. No more piles of plastic bottles ending up in landfi lls or in the oceans.

Obviously, it’s not only the quantity of water that we drink which is important, but also the quality. We already mentioned that Flaska features a unique technology called water structuring. Flaska’s glass is treated with the TPS procedure, which essentially means it’s imprinted with vibrational energy you would find in natural spring water. This vibration is then transferred into the water poured into Flaska and influences the way the H2O molecules bind together. This process is known as restructuring or revitalising of the water.

The bottle comes in a special protective sleeve made from your choice of material from cork to cotton, neoprene to silicon. The sleeves are really stylish. Plastic bottles are so last year. fl aska.ie

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To Eat or Not to Eat The Nut Roastery’s delicious snacks

by Mai Lindberg

In the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon in England, and directly facing Shakespeare’s famous birthplace on Henley Street, ‘Harry the Hazelnut’ from The Nut Roastery’s store front greets and amuses everyone. The Hazelnut character is definitely making people stop to laugh and sample our exciting creations of healthy snacks, based around Nuts and Seeds from all over the world.

The idea behind everything at NIYM is that we can have fun and laugh whilst we co-create new and better ways

“Very soon we will release a range of six unique artisan nut butters, featuring ingredients such as turmeric and matcha”

to snack on wholesome foods, some raw and most gluten free, but all natural and healthy.

In May of 2016, The Nut Roastery was established by two founders; a business woman and a raw food chef from Denmark. It became an instant attraction for vibrant young people wanting to work and thrive in this fun environment and the company is now a colourful jewel in the heart of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Our granolas are produced in at a great bakery facility in County Waterford and are now available on the Irish market in health food stores. Very soon we will release our range of six unique artisian nut butters, featuring ingredients such as turmeric and matcha.

Our overall philosophy on health can be summed up in the word ‘balance’.

We believe that health is all about the wholesome choices which work best for everyone as the individuals that we are.

And we are reminded daily from across Henley Street, “To Thine own Self be True.” niym.com

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The Healing Touch Amatsu: A Life’s Purpose

by Helen Clarke

I became interested in amatsu thirty years ago when my mother was unwell. She had been to the hospital where they had given her meningitis through a lumbar puncture. It was very upsetting. A friend of mine who had been in traction had recovered through amatsu treatments and I brought my mother to his therapist. After three sessions, my mother was well enough to walk the mini-marathon as she had done every year. It was amazing. I started going for treatments for myself and when I had come to the end of the road with my career in marketing, I enrolled in the training myself. On my first day of the course, I realised that this was what I was put on the Earth to do. That was fourteen years ago and I haven’t looked back since.

Amatsu originates in Japan and it is a gentle but extremely powerful therapy. It is wonderful for a whole range of conditions.

I get so much pleasure from seeing people find ease and wellness through the work. I have a client who is 82 and had been suffering severe pain for sixteen years. She has been pain free from her first session. I also support many clients undergoing chemotherapy. Amatsu is so effective at supporting the body to maintain its resilience through cancer treatment.

My greatest source of pleasure is the work I do for a

Learn, Move, Reflect Rejuvenate Mind, Body & Soul What do you get when a fitness trainer, an NLP practitioner and a Mindful Living life coach come together to run wellness retreats? The answer is Mind, Body & Soul weekends. These retreats that cater to the whole being take place in the fabulous location of the Seafield Golf & Spa Hotel in Courtown, Co. Wexford. The retreats run over two days with a two course lunch provided on both. Workshop leaders, Clair, Shelley and Lisa are top professionals in their field and it’s a unique opportunity to have such a diverse team of experts run a multi-disciplinary course like this that is aimed at improving you on every level.

Create balance, feed your soul, fuel your body, expand your mind and strengthen yourself inside and out. It sounds like an approach that is sure to set you right for this new year.

Mind: Learn how the mind works and you will understand how to truly impact your behaviour, your experiences and what you attract into your life.

Body: Simple but powerful tips on nutrition will improve your daily lifestyle to get the best out of your body. Get invigorated with fun, motivating fitness classes for all levels.

Soul: Find meaning, purpose and passion by answering questions from a deeper place in consciousness. Develop the art of mindful living so that you can bring the practice into daily life.

Upcoming courses are running 25th-26th February 2017 and 27th-28th May 2017. diversefit.com

51 local charity that helps autistic children through contact with animals. They use me to keep their horses in prime condition.

The horses respond so wonderfully to amatsu. It’s a really special connection. @helenclarkeamatsu 087 947 1232

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serving the city cornucopia turns 30

by Gavin Ryan In 1986, Deirdre McCafferty and her husband, Neil, collected the keys to a closed down shoe repair and dry cleaners shop on Wicklow Street. Having been inspired by their time with the Hippocrates Health Institute where the benefits of enzyme-rich and organic vegetarian eating were extolled,

Deirdre and Neil had a dream of opening their own health food shop and restaurant in the heart of Dublin.

Young and full of energy, with the help of their friends, they refurbished the building. They even did all the carpentry themselves. Vital equipment was sourced

second-hand from classified ads in the Evening Press. With hard work and enthusiasm, they made their dream a reality.

Over the last 30 years, Cornucopia has become a hub for healthy eating and positive people. As the community grew, so too did the restaurant and in 2008 they extended into the building next door.

Deirdre McCafferty remarked that it was the goodwill of their customers that helped them expand. Initially planning permission was refused, but a petition signed by over 2,000 of their loyal customers proved that Cornucopia serves a vital need. Overwhelmed, the planning authorities reversed their decision and Cornucopia moved in next-door, much to the delight of Dublin’s diners.

Cornucopia celebrated their birthday with a fantastic party on their premises for staff, friends and customers.

With the wonderful crowd that attended, it’s safe to say that Cornucopia will be serving the people of Dublin for many more years to come. cornucopia.ie

happy days guilt-free gluttony

By Veghuns

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Happy Food by The Yoga Hub is the perfect lunching spot for all us guilt-free gluttons strutting around Dublin. Their tranquil residence is found in a quiet corner just off the busy Camden Street. If you venture here, their health-conscious versions of classic indulgences are sure to offer you a unique dining experience.

One of the many delights currently on their ever-adapting lunch menu is the tofu barbecue ribs, served with aioli cream and a choice of salads. This is a brave twist on a classic Fourth of July dish and I challenge any taste buds to not be impressed.

The battered tofu is so flavoursome that I couldn’t help making ‘mmmm’ noises after every bite!

Another new addition to their all-vegan menu is the Sloppy Joe, a skyscraper of a burger fi lled with a black bean and spinach hemp patty, unreal coconut cheese, battered tofu bacon, refreshing avocado, zesty aioli and crunchy coleslaw. Brimming with different flavours, this dish puts a healthy spin on a typical American canteen meal.

If you can fit it in (and we doubt you can!) Happy Food also offers a wonderful selection of delectable desserts that cater to a range of dietary needs - many are sugar-free, raw, gluten-free, and of course all are vegan! Maybe even sweeter than the treats are the affordable prices at this cute spot, particularly given the high quality of their fi lling fare.

If you’re looking for fab grub, lunch at Happy Food is guaranteed to make you very happy indeed! facebook.com/veghuns happyfood.ie

the house of the rising sun what astrology can teach us by calodagh Mccumiskey

Vedic Astrology is a vast and complete science. There are 12 houses, 12 signs, 9 planets and 360 degrees. The interpretation of the chart is based on the interplay of all of these variables. Planets are like people. Some of them get along. Some don’t. They can overshadow one another.

Each of the planets has mental, physical and spiritual qualities. The sun represents the ego, the soul and skeleton. The moon represents mother, nourishment, liquids in the body, our mind and emotions. Mars represents vital energy and blood; Mercury, our central nervous system, communications and quick wittedness. Jupiter affects wisdom, expansion and justice. Venus shows our relationship with the world.

Ultimately, the planets show both our potential and challenges. Astrology helps us understand our problems objectively and see where we will get the best results from our efforts at a given time. It also gives powerful and enlightening insights about the real purpose of challenges we are facing and how to overcome them. Astrology is a profound subject and endlessly fascinating. If you are drawn to learn more, I highly recommend its study. It is as enriching as it is vast. calodagh mccumiskey works in the field of personal development. she offers consultancy services, mentoring and life coaching, using vedic astrology. hellenisticvedicastrology.com

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“In stillness lies the sound, which is the creative existence of God. Whoever masters the stillness and the silence and can read it gets all the knowledge that exists” Guru Dev Singh

The joy of switching off Gift yourself a digital detox

by Angie Kinsella Becoming more conscious and aware of our phone usage is a great starting point to creating a healthier more positive relationship with our smartphones.

Perhaps you find yourself distracted by your devices and notice feeling a compulsion to check them more often than you might like. You are not alone.

Here are a few helpful tips:

Menopause, Where is Thy Sting?

Stay Lean, Stay Positive

by Susie Perry Debice

1 Create a plan for your phone use This is an empowering way to carve out some time offline. Decide on certain times of the day to be device-free. Set yourself a reminder alarm and explore apps that support this. Encourage yourself to ‘switch off’ after a certain time in the evening.

2 Get an old-school alarm clock This eliminates the temptation to check your phone first thing in the morning.

3 Take a moment Remember, you have the choice. When you hear or feel your phone ‘go off,’ take a few moments and gift yourself a few conscious breaths before you react. This is a great practice and soon will become a positive habit.

As you go through the menopause, levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone naturally start to decline, shutting down your monthly cycle. These hormone changes also trigger loss of muscle tone, a drop in the metabolic rate and increased fat storage - all of which result in abdominal weight gain and the inability to burn calories at the same rate as before the menopause. Here are three tips for staying lean.

4 Nature connection Spending time in nature is a powerful

1 Blood sugar balance Eating lots of sugary foods and

phone out of sight when not in use.

foods containing hidden sugars activates a hormone called insulin and it’s this hormone that converts sugar from the food you eat into fat which is then popped onto your belly!

2 Switch refined for wholegrain Ditching sugary foods is the first place to start when you’re on a mission to keep insulin in check. Next up is swapping refined carbs – white rice, white bread, white pasta – for their wholegrain alternatives.

3 Green Tea to the rescue When taken as an extract, this clever plant increases your metabolism and fat burning capacity and does wonders for the waistline!

Unfortunately, the dip in hormones caused by the menopause can also have a negative impact on your mood.

Cleanmarine MenoMin is backed by science and contains a combination of four specific nutrients which together target hormone balance, energy production and mood. Using a supplement to help manage your symptoms can make you feel much more positive about your journey through the menopause. cleanmarine.ie

therapy and switching off your phone during that time can allow for a deeper connection to occur. If you feel the desire to take pictures, perhaps switch your phone onto flight mode. This allows you to still access your camera and GPS, but you won’t be distracted by the ether of connection.

5 Out of sight, out of mind Have a place where you put your digitaldetox.info

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ringing in the changes continual growth for 2017

By Alison Canavan

We get notifications on our phones alerting us that we need to upgrade them but how often do we apply this in our own lives? It’s important to check in with ourselves daily and as we evolve and grow we need to freshen our daily habits making sure they serve us in the best way possible.

Change is the only thing we are certain of in this life yet it’s the one thing that people resist the most. It is both continuous and constant and upgrading your life is a journey that needs to be worked on until the day we die. By upgrading, I mean working on your true inner happiness and not the material goods like your house or car. The catalyst

for New Year’s resolutions is usually just a guilt driven response to all the excesses of the holiday season, which is why I steer clear of them and stick to small changes regularly throughout the year.

A great place to start is with your morning routine. How you start your day is tremendously important as its sets the tone for the day ahead. I always start my day by saying ‘Thank You’ three times as I get out of bed. I do some stretching and then a 10-20 minute meditation. After, I always practice gratitude by writing down what I am grateful for and why.

Finally, I set an intention for the day or choose an affi rmation or a mantra. The main thing here is to have fun with it.

Another useful change I am learning over time is to reach for refuge within as opposed to using external factors like food, drink, work, people and so on. My daily meditation practice plays a key role in this. It is precious time with myself in an often chaotic and busy world.

The one thing we all have control over in this life is our own inner world and if we nurture it our outer world will change for the better.

January is also cold and dark so it’s important to nourish yourself with good wholesome food and keep your immunity high. Souping is the new juicing during the cold months. You can batch cook both soups and stews which means you’ll always have healthy food to hand.

As we live in Ireland, we need to make sure we get our Vitamin D (aka the sunshine vitamin) so no prizes for guessing why we don’t have enough here!

We also use Vitamin D to metabolise Magnesium, which is a really important mineral that activates over 300 enzyme reactions in the body. These reactions translate to thousands of biochemical reactions happening constantly on a daily basis. Without the right balance, the system cannot work optimally.

I have started using MAG 365, which is easily absorbed and I take it before bed as magnesium has been shown to help with sleep. For women, the new bone formula has Vitamins D, C and K2 along with Magnesium to help contribute to normal healthy bones, while Vitamins D & C help maintain a normal immune system.

Ease into the New Year with a mindset of self-care and become more conscious of your inner world and upgrading as you go. After all, slow and steady wins the race. alisoncanavan.com

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“the one thing we all have control over in this life is our own inner world and if we nurture it our outer world will change for the better.”

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Growing up in a religious family (I’m a Baha’i) I learned pretty early on in life that I was going to have to repeatedly justify my decision to believe certain things. I was going to be told that I was indoctrinated. The truth is, I assess and reassess everything I believe I know and everything I choose to believe almost constantly. Because part of what my faith taught me was to investigate truth independently. To me, being open-minded is a process that takes practice, a lack of ego or at least an awareness of its effects, and must forever be in motion.

Decisions Are Great While I constantly reassess basically everything, I believe in the importance of making decisions or choices. In my experience, we should learn not just from theory, but also from action. In the process of being open-minded, it may not be helpful to always live as if you can be sure of nothing. Deciding on something

believe it

or not

before you make up your mind, open it.

By Elva Carri allows you to act on that decision or within that reality, explore it, assess it and then if necessary, change your mind.

Decisions are like looking out a window and guessing it may be warm or cold outside, versus opening the door and knowing for certain.

Detaching Beliefs from Our Sense of Self For some reason, having our sense of identity questioned or challenged can be incredibly painful. Being told you’re wrong, regardless of whether that’s true or not seems to upset, frustrate and anger us more than anything else. We fight our corner harder. Why should we open our minds when we know we’re right? Should we not at least attempt to get everyone else on the same page as us so that the world can be a better place? This position doesn’t take into account the fact that terrorists believe themselves to be making heroic efforts to create a better world. If I believe all people are equal, I must question my

beliefs, motives and actions as much as I question theirs.

survival instinct and only digs in deeper when attacked.

A Good Fight “If I no longer believe this, who am I?” It can be frightening to let go of our worldviews. When we are challenged in a forceful way, it can make us even more defensive. In psychological terms, this is called Belief Perseverance. It is part of our

The next time you’re in the midst of a heated debate, remind yourself that you’re strong and safe and that you’ll be fine. Let yourself know that it’s an adventure in exploration and curiosity.

Instead of fighting back, begin to ask questions. Begin to listen. In a good fight, people are passionate but not nasty. Listen for what they’re telling you makes them upset, makes them angry. What aspect of what they’re telling you about has made the world a more difficult place for them or people they love? Beliefs come from many places, but rarely do they form out of thin air. And when they feel their sense of self has been listened to and is safe, they just might listen too.

“The next time you’re in the midst of a heated debate, remind yourself that you’re strong and safe”

Elva Carri is the founder of GirlCrew, an online and offline social network for women all over the world to get out and have more fun. girlcrew.rocks | @elvacarri

positive booK

the best things come to

those who wait

release the need to control the future.

by Mooji

Loosening yourself from the mind’s grip is not a big sacrifice. The mind has nothing to sacrifice, actually. If it were really so full of treasures, then you might hesitate, but what does the mind actually have to trade in? Mostly just arrogance and delusion, and in exchange, you receive freedom!

The next time you feel intimidated by the prospect of making a choice and you don’t feel anything in your heart one way or the other, just keep quiet, but without waiting for something to appear. You are going to have to bear some discomfort for a bit because something inside will not want to experience that feeling of not knowing. Something wants to go, but just sit with that uneasiness.

Remain as awareness itself. Then, at some point, everything will calm down. A kind of recognition rather than a decision may enter your heart. The way forward may clearly manifest, and you simply move in a certain direction.

See What Comes I knew a man who was an actor. He had been coming to satsang for a while and wanted to do a

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“don’t be intimidated by the prospect of having to make a decision. perhaps things will soon become clear.” retreat with me. But as soon as he decided to do the retreat, a job offer suddenly came forward – something that is quite rare for many actors. So, he said to me, “I want to come on the retreat, but this is the fi rst job offer I have had for a long time. What should I do?”

I said I didn’t know. “Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of having to make a decision. Perhaps things will soon become clear.”

He said, “The director is calling me tomorrow at twelve o’clock. I have asked him to wait a day for my answer. My mind is torturing me. I don’t know what to do.

I think about everything and from every

angle, but I just cannot come to a decision.”

So, I told him to just forget about it and to be alone with himself. “Don’t you have any other advice?” he asked.

I said, “No, no other advice. Just do this. Even if it comes down to a quarter to twelve and nothing has become clear to you, don’t panic. Ten to twelve, five to twelve, nothing; one to twelve, half a minute to twelve, and still nothing. Then it will come up just like this: if the phone rings, pick it up and see what comes.”

I also didn’t know what was going to happen.

The next morning he called. “I sat with what you said, just being present and staying with my heart. But I didn’t have to wait for twelve o’clock to arrive. After a couple of hours of just sitting with this, it became very clear inside that I am coming on the retreat. And do you know what happened? This morning my father phoned me and offered to pay for the retreat!”

Live in your heart rather than in your head. If life wants to announce a direction, it will prepare the way for you by presenting feelings in your body and mind to enable that movement to occur.

And when your mind is seated in your heart, even if you should feel torn, other beings will come at precisely the right time to facilitate whatever transition needs to happen. Not only does your life become wind assisted, but you will also discover how miraculous this existence is. excerpted from Vaster than sky Greater than space: What You are before You became by Mooji. copyright © 2016 by Mooji Media ltd. to be published in december 2016 by sounds true. mooji.org

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biomagnetism a Journey into healing.

by Bernadette Masterson

Sherrie Scott is a Biomagnetism practitioner at the Institute of Biomagnetic Therapy in Dun Laoghaire.

She is one of a cohort of Irish people who have been cleared of persistent health conditions through Biomagnetism and who have been so pleased with their recovery that they have been inspired to embark on the Biomagnetism training course in San Francisco.

Sherrie met Raymond Cadwell, founder of the Institute of Biomagnetic Therapy, at the Winter Solstice carnival in Smithfield where her costumes created part of the colourful magic. She enjoyed a freelance work portfolio as costume designer, energy healer and art and

“sherrie had a deep knowing that becoming a practitioner of this therapy was part of her path”

well-being facilitator. Yet she knew that it was time to shake up her life and start something new. She fondly remembers Raymond’s recitation of a poem by David Wagoner titled ‘Lost’. It was a heartmoving poem about finding yourself.

Later, in the bar when it was all over Raymond talked about Biomagnetism, explaining that it is a new way of dealing with illness.

Raymond spoke about how this Biomagnetic Therapy had been developed

by Dr Isaac Goiz Durán, a Mexican medical doctor who has successfully treated thousands of people with diverse chronic illnesses. Dr Goiz applies magnets in a very specific way to treat the particular pathogens that are the underlying cause of the individual’s disease. Sherrie decided to visit Raymond and give the treatment a go. Her health improved immensely.

Sherrie had a deep knowing that becoming a practitioner of this therapy was part of her path, but did not make the decision to invest in the Biomagnetism training lightly. A great believer in simple rituals to move forward, she made creative use of an old pair of sandals. One winter’s day, while walking the beach at home in Rossnowlagh, in Donegal, she found a pair of flip-flops that had been left behind since the summer. Every day she used these fl ip-flops ritually - to move

another step forward on the sands of time towards the Biomagnetism training.

The training was intensive and life-changing. One of her early cases gave much encouragement. She recounts a story about Anthony Jameson, her treasured builder, who had helped restore her beloved seaside cottage. She recounted that Anthony had fallen off a ladder three stories high, his leg was pure black and he couldn’t straighten his back. She gave him a session, and afterwards he stood up straight and said he felt fantastic.

Two sessions later and the problem was cleared.

Another success story, amongst many, is that of 26-year-old Leslie who had debilitating Lyme disease since she was six. They worked together using Biomagnetism and Leslie did everything she could to cooperate: a nutritious diet, lots of greens, yoga and fresh air.

Six months later, Leslie announced one day that she was going to Scotland for a holiday. She came back full of joy. She had climbed mountains, visited castles and partied. Her renewed energy was an amazing surprise!

Sherrie shares the practice in Dun Laoghaire with Raymond Cadwell, Tomás Mac Sweeney and Linda Tuohy, and she also practices in Donegal. biomagnetism.ie

Healing the causes of Chronic Illnesses

Biomagnetic Therapy removes parasites, bacteria, fungus and viruses from the body which are the main causes of chronic illnesses such as: Lyme Disease Chronic coughs Chronic Fatigue Flu Asthma Persistent colds

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