Thorn Mooney New Year Ritual

Begin by making a list of all your accomplishments and your achievements over the past year. Every small victory, every time you have persevered, and every little success should make the list. Most of us only care about the big, momentous events, but life happens in pieces, and most of it goes unsung. That’s a habit we must break!

Next, choose one thing that’s got in your way of wellbeing this year or was an obstacle to your personal or professional development. Maybe you need to change your job, a relationship or home environment, or you need to work on your health or finances. Maybe you didn’t make enough time for a hobby or new skill, or were you too afraid to take a chance on something that could provide something valuable for you!

Christmas Quiz

1. What was the original colour of Santa Claus’s suit?

2. What address does the Royal Mail provide for Santa Claus?

3. What is a Smoking Bishop?

4. What is the poem title by Christina Rossetti that became a Christmas carol?

5. On Boxing Day 1991, what was dissolved?

6. Who wrote the first royal Christmas message, delivered by George V in 1932?

7. According to traditions when should Christmas decorations be taken down?

8. What special event happened in the WWI trenches on Christmas Day 1914?

9. What special event happened on Christmas Day 1066?

10. How many tips to a snowflake?

Recycle, Renovate and Restore

What should be recycled?

Aluminium foil, batteries, cans and tins, cooking oil, electrical equipment, engine oil, glass, mobile phones, paper, printer cartridges, Tetra Pak cartons, tyres, paint, plastics, polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, etc.
Home composting involves garden leaves, food waste, paper, etc. These biodegradable items can be saved from incineration and will provide good quality soil for the next year. Much of the soil on sale in garden centres is from irreplaceable peat bogs from places such as Ireland, so try to buy, if you must, non peat soil. Limestone pavements are also popular rocks seen in garden centres which are precious natural habitats, and get a water butt for the collection of rainwater.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder

What is Oppositional Defiance Disorder?
Does your child always refuse to do what it is told and insist on saying 'no' to all it is asked to do? This is very common in children around the age of two years old when they are learning what 'no' means. What is more serious is that children grow into teenagers and then adults, and when this difficulty is not picked up early, it can have disasterous consequences. These people have some characteristic behaviours, including resentment, defiance, blaming and psychopathy. ODD is a personality disorder that needs treatment. 

Anger Management

  Anger is a natural emotion which humans and animals feel for a number of reasons, such as a result of injustice. However, it is also very common when a threat is perceived - the fight or flight response, either run away or turn and fight the perceived opponent. Often these reactions are aggressive, and can make an already difficult situation even more difficult. There are many ways to deal with angry feelings. Often underneath the anger are feelings of grief and fear. If you are an angry person, relax and deal with the situation at a later time when you are not overwhelmed by what is happening. Learning a few simple steps can put an end to over-reacting.

Winter Mulled Wine Recipe

Mulled Wine Recipe:
Serves: 4 

• 1 litre of dry red wine
• 2 (5cm) cinnamon sticks
• 1 dessertspoon whole cloves
• 1 dessertspoon whole allspice
• 1 large piece orange rind (avoid the pith)
• 1 large piece lemon rind (avoid the pith)
• 4 tablespoons sugar, honey or male syrup to taste

---

Method Preparing time: 3min  ›  Heating time: 20min

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the red wine, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, lemon and orange rind. Heat gently, but don't bring to the boil. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar, or alternative, and once dissolved, taste to see if you'd like to add more.
2. Keep pot on medium to low heat for 20 minutes to let the flavours infuse into the wine. Serve your mulled wine hot in glasses or mugs.

Watch how to make your own warming mulled wine - including a non-alcoholic version - in our How to make mulled wine video

Additional drinks whatever your tipple!

The Negroni Aperatif: The Negroni has a bittersweet flavour, fairly strong, but can be delicious whatever the weather you can serve it chilled or piping hot. Ingredients: Gin, Martini Rosso and Campari, add a sliver of grapefruit or other zesty peel, blackberries or similar and a sprig of rosemary, and it's ready to drink! 

The House Punch: warming on a chilly evening, this is a super Christmas tea based cocktail. Using spices of your choice - cardoman, peppercorns, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, fennel, ginger, etc., add them to a strong pot of Indian tea and strain well. A good measure of whiskey goes well with the spicy brew. A splice of citrus peel will finish the effect beautifully. Serve hot with toasted bread, savoury biscuits or sponge cake. 

Wendy's Pick Me Up: from 4 liquidised tangerines, a lemon and a grapefruit, create a 'sauce' to add to champagne, Cava, sparkling wine or perry to make a long, lively light and entertaining drink. Serve over ice in an attractive long glass and pose for photos!

 

Mind Mapping Demonstration

Designed by the late Tony Buzan in the 1970s, this is a very useful way of collating psychological material. This video demonstrates how to create a 'mind map'. I use them all the time as a writer to organise the information for my feature articles. The most simple form is a spidergram, which has been available since my childhood days.

Ho'oponopono

'I love you' 'I am sorry' 'please forgive me' 'thank you'

These four exclamations are the basis of Ho'oponopono, an ancient Polynesian Kahuna method of healing. The belief that mistakes, errors, stress, anger, guilt, resentment, grief break the Kapu spiritual laws and create ill health is the basis of this practice. The answer is to be open about our faults, seek forgiveness and forgive others. Defining the transgression, prayer and restitution forbwrongdoing is the answer. Parents who are unhappy can make their children unwell, can cause social disorder and other difficulties. Ho'oponopono is a mental cleansing, providing restitution; the words mean correct, good, upright,  oral, just, virtuous, fair, restoration, righteous, amend, release, rectify, adjust, tidy up, make orderly, ought, should, must.

Increasing Your Contentment

1. Let of toxic people in your life- in my experiences, they drain me of vital life energy. I found healthy relationships are better.

2. Let go of fretting about past mistakes- forgive yourself and move on.

Chief Seattle

“Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume -- good, White Chief sends us word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Letting Go - A Sample Ritual

 We all have things in our life that are outmoded, no longer useful or just a nuisance. Letting go of difficult people, things or situations can be a process that takes time. If you have something you want to change, performing a ritual for 'letting go' can make it happen quicker and easier. Using string or cotton, tie one end to yourself and another to another person representing someone or something you wish to be released from. Call out your discomfort and feelings of control and entrapment. Cut the tie that binds you and speak about how free you are and use affirmations 'I am free'. 

For more information: http://www.wisebrain.org/LettingGo.pdf

Book Review

Book Review: Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them by Dr Susan Forward and Joan Torres. 

We each choose the best way we can to deal with difficulties in our lives, and these patterns are often unconscious because they begin in childhood, either inherited from our significant others, or from ways we develop through books, films and other influences. Many are maladaptions, that is, not the best way to deal with situations. Take for instance, when someone is angry with us, whether we escalate that anger, or manage to reduce it so we can get through the impasse to an improvement. 

Many of us in childhood, have to be the prettiest, cleverest, richest, most intelligent, most caring, most desirable, funniest, hardworking, the one who wants attention, the one who is the quietest, etcetera. In our adult life, we still might be playing those old stressful recordings, with some being vain, jealous, greedy, hurtful, needing to be the exception, to be a good provider, to duck and dive, the highest achiever, to get more than their share of life’s securities and comforts and flashy gizmos, and to be the most entitled, in the demand to achieve what once their parents desired or expected of them. We live life under huge stresses to achieve these things.