Tai Chi Ch'uan

This is a form of ancient graceful exercise, yoga and it is also a martial art which is performed as a strengthening for the body and meditation for the mind. It also helps deportment and eases joints and strengthens muscles. Slow, purposeful moves increase energy, chi, and is popular throughout the world, especially in China where it is used as a community exercise, often performed in public. To assist wellbeing, reduce stress and provide grace and poise!

What are Runes?

Runes are letters of an alphabet that developed from extremely ancient illustrations, each of which once had a specific meaning. These gradually developed into an ancient form of writing, which can be traced back from markings that appeared on rocks as early as the neolithic period. Among the signs engraved on these early Runes were parts of the body, weapons, animals and variations on the square, circle and swastika.

Later on, these symbols became simplified into abstract hieroglyphics,  wich were composed of lines that no longer resembled specific objects. In addition to being used to communicate ideas, Runic letter images were considered so powerful and magical that they were inscribed into tools, weapons, rocks, altars and personal items. In addition, from these earliest of days, these magical markings were inscribed into wooden pieces that were thrown down and "read" as an early form of fortune telling. 

How to Make a Vision Board

 

You can skip the advert at the beginning of the video.

Your brain will work tirelessly to achieve the statements you give your subconscious mind. And when those statements are the affirmations and images of your goals, you are destined to achieve them!

Creating a vision board is probably one of the most valuable visualization tools available to you. This powerful tool serves as your image of the future - a tangible representation of where you are going. It represents your dreams, your goals, and your ideal life.
Because your mind responds strongly to visual stimulation-by representing your goals with pictures and images-you will actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions...  and your emotions are the vibrational energy that activates the Law of Attraction. The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words,” certainly holds true here.
If you have already defined your dreams, it’s time to illustrate them visually.

Weight Loss Hypnosis

 

This is a weight-loss hypnosis video created by Zoe Featherstone with text by Wendy Stokes for salt, sugar and fat reduction. 

Ivanhoe - A Xmas Story

 Beneath a sky dusted with December frost, open the pages of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, and step into a Yuletide feast of chivalry, adventure, and a smoldering ember of Christmas cheer. Forget sugarplums and reindeers, for here, amidst ancient castles and sun-dappled forests, knights dance with danger, outlaws sing carols of rebellion, and a love story unfolds as poignant as a whispered prayer on Christmas Eve.

Our hero, Ivanhoe, returns from the Holy Land wrapped in mystery and shrouded in shadows. Discarded by his own father, betrayed by his king, he becomes a lone wolf, a wraith haunting the snowy English countryside. Yet, his heart, though battered, still glows with embers of goodness, waiting to be fanned into flames by the spirit of Christmas.

Solo Vision Quest

 

The Vision Quest was held by native tribal people of the Americas and was a time spent alone in nature to learn about themselves and about other species, to be thankful for the water we drink, the song of the birds for comfort and the breeze in the trees for company. We can do this in our time, perhaps with fasting, with meditation, with kindness and love for all we see, hear, feel and experience. This video was made in 2011 but the information does not go out of date.  

Ethical Shopping Decisions

"Shop wisely from ethical sources, and only buy what you need. Recycle, renovate and repair" 
Many goods made for the Western market are made using poorly paid staff from poor countries with bad human rights records. We must consider paying a little more for the purchased item in order to give a reasonable wage. In the past, children in India were paid in pennies, some as young as seven years old. They were tied to carpet looms to stop them from running away! When you can, buy Fair Trade Products that give producers a living wage. You might want to complain to the shop owner if goods are wrongly labelled, such as many real fur products which are labeled as fake fur because real fur is cheaper than fake fur! You can write to trade magazines also with your preferences and concerns and also tell your MP who might be able to assist with new legislation.

Improving Your Sleep

One of the greatest complaints physicians hear is that patients have poor quality sleep. This either comes in the form of insomnia, or feeling tired after a full night's rest. 

The Winter Winds Bring Me Home

The cold winds of winter have arrived. When I stepped out side my front door, I was at once blasted awake by the duality of sharp crystallized air and the blindingly brilliant sunlight. My husband and I decided to go for a short walk and it was clear we would need to dress in layers as the temperatures would vary widely from open fields to protected hollows. Out of the depths of the hall closet, I retrieved last year's winter paraphernalia of scarves, hats, and gloves. Adorned with all these accessories, I decided to leave my binoculars behind; after all the migrations were over and these were only backyard woods.

Carl Jung - spirituality

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who trained under Eugene Bleuler and was associated and trained with Sigmund Freud. Jung’s school of Analytic Psychology continues to be popular. He is accused of collaborating with the Nazis in WWII where he acted as a psychiatrist and promoted Hitler and Mein Kampf. Despite having a reputation for endorsing astrology, after an initial belief, he rejected it. 

Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology.  He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart throught the world.  There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul. -- Carl Jung (from "New Paths in Psychology", in Collected Papers on Analytic Psychology, London, 1916). 

Milton Erickson

Who was Milton Erickson?
1901 - 1980 Erickson was a hypnotherapist who was successful due to his personal experience and innovative mind. Pacing, intense listening, acknowledgement and acceptance of the client's perception, is a vital tool to change. Respecting another's way of seeing the world! Families, work environments, politics, health, schooling, all can benefit from pacing - a person centred method! He described their ongoing experience, what they felt, thought and saw. It gave access to the unconscious mind. The Milton Model was a way in which he used vague words to produce a trance like state in his clients.

Music for Sleep

 

Recommended music for sleeping.

Solutions for the Journey to the New World!

The Power of Resilience in a Time of Extremes

If you’ve ever been on a journey of any kind, then you know the routine. To prepare for the trip, you first get an idea of where you’re going. You check the weather conditions, study maps, and then pack what’s needed to keep your routines alive while you’re traveling.

The key here is that when you know where you’re going, you know what to take. And when you find yourself going somewhere you’ve never been, you prepare for the unknown. It’s this simple idea that’s at the heart of this book.

Our Journey

We’re all on a journey, and it’s a big one. Our journey is leading us to a place no one has ever been. There are no travel guides or Internet trip advisors

Sociopath!

What is a Sociopath? 
We have all heard this word, but many of us do not know its meaning! 
A sociopath is someone who has the hallmarks of extreme selfishness, lack of empathy and lack of conscience. Sometimes the word is used interchangeably with the word 'psychopath' and the words 'antisocial personality disorder' is also often used by professionals. They appear in all walks of life; doctors, lawyers, accountants, politicians, etc., etc., and are manipulative, impulsive, unkind and mean, they have a sense of superiority and entitlement, are judgemental and often bully others into submission. They are also narcissistic and think or speak about themselves in exagerated terms. It is thought that 3 - % of the population have this defect in their character. There is no suitable medication to treat it. Anger management can help.

How To Breathe!

Why do singing lessons need to discuss the way to breathe properly? Isn't breathing just part of being alive and something that we do all the time without even thinking about it. While we all breathe, not everyone breathes properly, and one of the secrets to singing success is being able to breathe properly.

Proper breathing is one of the key aspects to learning to sing. Breathing correctly affects the quality of your voice tone and also helps you sing long notes when you need to. One of the most common mistakes made by people when they first sign up for singing lessons is that they think that breathing for singing is the same as breathing for, say, aerobics or regular activity.

Christian Salvation by Tim Heaton

In the season of Lent, the 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day, it is traditional for Christians to embark upon a course of Bible reading, study and meditation as a way of preparing themselves in mind and spirit for the great festival of Easter. (The six Sundays of Lent are excluded, hence the popular understanding of Lent as matching the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness.)

One of the best-selling Lent Courses of all time (and currently #1 in popularity on Amazon UK) is Tim Heaton's "The Long Road to Heaven", which uses the brilliant film "The Way" starring Martin Sheen as a springboard into discussion about Christian understandings of salvation. In the film, Sheen plays a bereaved father walking the Way of St James to the shrine of the Apostle at Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain - carrying his son's ashes.

Heaton's book ends with a short story called "El Camino", which is reproduced here, and which Church Times, the world's leading Anglican newspaper, said "could stand alone as a powerful and moving allegory of salvation."

Loneliness Book Extract: Ben Lazare Mijuskovic

Extract from 'Loneliness: In Harm’s Way*'  I attended this symposium and these are the verbatim notes of a talk at Brunel University, London on 30th October 2015:  The speaker wished to convey four things: (a) that all human beings are innately and universally lonely; (b) why this is so; (c) the consequences of loneliness; and (d) what can be done about it - its remedies!

         "The twin principles I propose to defend are that all we feel, think, say, and do occurs between two emotional and cognitive poles in human consciousness, between the solipsistic insularity of loneliness and the intentional desire to transcend it by attaining intimate attachments. The two terminals of consciousness constitute the dynamics of repulsion and attraction, which continually guide us through our passions, thoughts, and actions. After the biological drives for air, water, nourishment, sleep—and before sex---are met, the most insistent psychological need and motivational drive in human beings is to secure an intimate relation to other self-conscious creatures, whether animal, human, or divine. In effect, I wish to replace Freud’s principle of libidinal energy with the anxiety of isolation.

Sound Healing

 Music as Medicine is an ancient art and is both enjoyable and life enhancing. By listening to healing sounds, we can realign our energy systems, reduce stress and increase health

Humanistic Psychology

The basic principles behind humanistic psychology are simple:

1. Someone's present functioning is their most significant aspect. As a result, humanists emphasize the here and now instead of examining the past or attempting to predict the future.
2. To be mentally healthy, individuals must take personal responsibility for their actions, regardless of whether the actions are positive or negative.
3. Each person, simply by being, is inherently worthy. While any given action may be negative, these actions do not cancel out the value of a person.
4. The ultimate goal of living is to attain personal growth and understanding. Only through constant self-improvement and self-understanding can an individual ever be truly happy.