Are you busy? I sure am. Do the days rush past, giving you hardly any time to actually realise what is happening? No worries you are not alone. Many of us are in the same boat and to be honest it’s not new either. So it’s not surpising that there is a well known trick to make you less stressed and more at peace with yourself and your busy day. This trick doesn’t take any extra time after you practise it a few times. It’s really simple. By focusing on something small, in this case taking a sip of water from a glass, you bring awareness to what you are actually doing right that moment. By doing this your body calms down and you become less stressed. It also works on your mind. By focusing completely on this one action there is no room for anything else. So for one sip you mind is quite. And you have the choice of doing it as often as you like. One sip or ten. Whatever you feel you need.
Get a glass of water
One Sip Awareness
All you need is a glass of water (or another non-alcoholic drink)
Be ready to grab your glass and take a sip, here we go: Reach for the glass and look at your hand reaching for the glass See your fingers wrapping around the glass How does it feels to your touch? Pick up the glass What is the weight like and can you feel your muscles respond? Bring the glass towards your lips Is there a shift in sensation in your mouth as you are about to drink? Does it feel dry or is there more salavating now that you know you are about to take a sip? Place the glass on your lips and sip How does the drink feel? Warm, cold, cool, smooth, textured? Taste the liquid in you mouth and be aware of the sensations Swallow and feel the throat constrict Can you feel it go down? Return the attention back to your mouth Is it the same? Are you still thristy? Do you want to drink more? If so how do you know? How does your body tell you?
Finish your drink in peace. Bring awareness to however many sips you feel comfortable with. Even if that means only once every drink or even twice a day. There is no wrong or right.
The idea of drink awareness is well known to help become more in tune with youself and your surroundings. Oprah has an audio version of this excersise on her website connected to her 'A New Earth' Class. It's free and very helpfull! Please make sure to check it out.
Have we lost touch with our heart? Being generous, kind and compassionate seems a hard thing now a days. We are always in a hurry and get upset when someone doesn’t move out of our way fast enough (whilst walking or in traffic). More and more we react with anger and feel insulted by the other persons lack of understanding/respect for your situation. Surely they can see you are in a hurry? And why would they block the road like that in the first place: can’t they think!! Sounds familiar. Well don’t worry you are not the only one. Today lots of people are stress and rushed. And all you need to do is go back to your heart! The Institure of Heartmath has discovered that focussing on your heart takes stress levels down by leaps and bounds. So to help you create some breathing space in your life. You feel peacefull and joyfull which makes you a kinder person without any hard work. Infact it’s a feel good excersise.
Heart breathing
You can do this excersise a few times a day. Sit, stand or lay down (depending on where you are and how you feel) and breathe deelpy three times, slightly pauzing after the inbreath before starting on the outbreath. Now focus on your heart space. Imagine the breath going through the heart: each inbreath is filling it up with energy and oxygen and each outbreath disposes of waste products (negativity and/or carbon dioxide). Whilst continuing breathing through the heart space and keeping part of your focus there, think of something that makes you happy. This can be anything: a beautiful place, the love for your child, a nice piece of music... whatever you choose makes sure it’s a good thing. It can be a human, and object, a place, sound or even the idea of being in tune with the universe. Feel the feelings that come with the thought and how it opens up your heart. Focus on your breathing again for three more breaths to finish of the excersise. Now go out into the world and be happy, peacefull and open!
The first tip is about connecting to your body (in this case your feet) and the earth. Gardeners know we are all connected to the planet, because they see how it works, year after year. Everything you do in the garden effects so many things. Crop rotation, composting, watering, feeding these are the steps with a major impact. But what about smaller things, like the bees that furtalise our crops and flower gardens. Only in the last few years with CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) have we realised how important bees are. Without them we would not eat as they are responsible for pollanating lots of our basic foods. We depend on these tiny little creatures and they depend on flowers who depend on the earth.
Flowerfeet
Sit in a comfortable position with both feet flat on the ground. Imagine a flower growing into being underneath both soles of your feet. It's a type flower you like and it is slowly opens when in touch with the warmth of the earth. Feel how your feet seem to feel connected with the earth like the flower. Your feet seem to open up and the connection with the earth feels warm and natural. Feel what happens. Does energy seem to flow from the earth into your feet or is it the other way around. Are you in need of energy or are you releasing stress? No matter what is happening, let it be. Feel when it is enough and imagine the flower closing slowly. Wiggle your feet about and pay attention to how your feet feel now.
We live in a very thought-orientated world. We sit at our desks and work with our minds. We study and discuss, read and write. We live in thoughts when reading papers and watching telly. We have an opinion on everything, because that is what we think makes us unique and who we are. We are always busy planning and solving problems in our heads. In fact we are now so busy thinking all the time, we seem to have lost our ability to give ourselves a break. In fact we seem to fear it, as if we stop being who we are if we let go off all those imagined important issues and just Exsist.
It happens by accident sometimes. When we see a beautiful sunset over a fantastic landscape, so awe inspiring it takes our breath away and our thinking. You just seem to BE as the splendor unfolds in front of your eyes. For that brief moment there is no thought, and still you are there. One with the earth and her beauty for those few heartbeats.
Besides not being in touch with what usually happens around us, because we are living in our heads, we also seem to forget our bodies. Sometimes we manage to fit in a gym session or a walk, but that is about it. But even then we are not really feeling what is going on inside, we are planning the day or thinking of what happend with so and so yesterday. Our body has become a tool to a means and we see (and feel) it less and less as a part of us. It has been proven that body awareness prevents stress and other modern diseases like migraines and psychological issues. Being in touch with your body is a very natural state of being which is why it is used in meditation. Every single cell has life and all these cells give you form.
So to give your mind a break I'll be posting Happy Living Tips from now on. These are meant to give you fun idea's and take you back to basics. So let it all go for a few moments and use a Happy Living Tip...
A few weeks ago I posted some Sad News. My friend and colleague Charlotte had lost her baby girl Mira. Now Charlotte has bravely told everyone at work what happend and she gave premission to publish it on my blog. Why? Because it might save another baby's life. So please take a few moments to read this and tell people. Even if you read/hear this once, the moment it happens to you it will trigger and save lives. I'm sure of it.
photo from Riley Photography
Charlotte's mail:
I know I haven’t spoken much about what happened on the night my baby daughter Mira died as it's been too painful for me to keep reliving it. But now we have a few answers, I'm breaking my silence in the hope that this post may help to raise awareness.
After Mira was born, I developed tonsilitis and was kept in hospital for 4 days under observation and so they could give me antibiotics. There were a few delays as the maternity ward was so busy, and I ended up getting worse rather than better. On the day I left hospital, I developed my first ever cold sore. I asked the midwife who was looking after me if there was any treatment or if it was dangerous. She told me it was just because I was rundown after the birth and lack of sleep from being in a ward full of screaming babies (not Mira, of course - she was always so good and never cried ;-) ). There wasn't any treatment as it was a viral infection and it would just go away on its own. It did - it disappeared after a day - almost as quickly as it had come, and I didn't think anything more about it until after Mira died and it was suggested as a possible cause.
Anyway, Mira seemed perfectly healthy when she was born and a very placid, peaceful, content baby. She hardly ever cried, but we just thought we were lucky and that she was laid back, chilled out half-Egyptian baby! We settled her in well at home, and were loving every minute of being a new little family of three. Even up until the day before she died, we were unaware that there was anything even slightly wrong with her. She wasn't feeding very well, but we were told this was quite normal in newborns and that she'd settle into a pattern before too long and that it was nothing to worry about.
She became ill very suddenly, and although she had been seen by two doctors and a midwife on the day she died, nobody realised she was actually a very sick little girl. Her symptoms were so non-specific - poor feeding, restlessness, a slightly sticky eye - conditions seen in thousands of newborn babies and more often than not absolutely no cause for concern. What we didn’t know was that possibly even before birth, an infection was creeping its way through all of her internal organs and only became apparent when it was about to totally overwhelm her tiny body.
Five weeks later, we've just had the results from Mira's post mortem - the cause of death was disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus 1, contracted during or at the time of birth, with staphylococcus aureus septicemia as the secondary cause of death. What this means in plain English is that she died from the common cold sore virus that is present in 85% of adults. Only 6 babies a year die from this here in the UK, it's so so rare it's almost unheard of.
My GP told me yesterday that because it was my first ever cold sore, I wouldn't have had any antibodies in my blood to pass onto Mira before the birth and that was why she wasn't protected and so vulnerable. They said it was so rare for me to be developing my first ever cold sore at my age, which is why the midwives wouldn't have thought it was any risk at all to my baby.
So, sorry for such a long mail, but I just wanted to pass this information on. We had never heard anything about this before - and nor had any of the doctors or health professionals who saw Mira before she died.
I want people to know about this danger - I know it won't bring Mira back, but I wish I'd been aware of the devastating consequences of cold sores.
Please pass this information on to anyone you know who might benefit from being aware of this tragedy.
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Charlotte is still not sleeping very well, which is understandable. She's a very strong and brave woman that has gone through a lot lately. I'd like to thank her so so so much. I never had a cold soar and didn't know it was so dangerous. Thank you Charlotte.
I (and I'm sure many of you) wish her all the best this year and hope she will recover and heal. Bless you Charlotte! *Big Big HUG*
I've started my 'healthy living' plan on January 4th. The plan is to be healthy when I turn 30 in September. I tried starting in December, but that was an insane idea (see old blog post: Healthy Living, update 1). So a new fresh start when everyone is in 'diet mode' anyway.
I made a good start by only eating healthy, but the first 3 days I was very hungry. Sorry correction: I felt very hungry. I wasn't in need of more calories, but I wanted them. Especially on Sunday, after going to the gym, I felt I could eat a horse (<-the equivalent in cake). I made my homemade Lasagna that day and every bit I went: mmmm nice, food is nice! Until my boyfriend told me off. On Monday I ached all over. The lesson I took on Sunday was Body Combat, which I love. So I gave it my all and my all wasn't used to that no more. So on Monday my all protested continually with every move I made and every breath I took. I feared to feel worse on Tuesday, but it was much better and I started to feel like I'd more energy.
Body Combat, from Les Mills.
On Wednesday I went to the gym again for Legs, Bum, Tums or something like that (I always have trouble saying it right, substituting the tums for thumbs and mixing up the order). It was hell, but I felt proud I did it. Not to sore on Thursday.
Today I weighted myself again and the result is a good one. Lost 0.6 kg :) That is a very good amount. Not too much (loosing to much too quick makes you put on easier) and not too little (we do want results in the end). A good start!
Start weight: 87.4 kg End of Week 1: 86.8 kg (-0.6 kg)
If you haven't heard about The Secret they you've either been living in a cave or been in outer space. It was all the buzz in 2007. However if you don't KNOW what The Secret is, then I can't blame you. It's all a bit vague and unless you actually see the DVD or read the book (listen to the audiobook) it must be foggy as to what this 'secret' actually is. So I've decided to shed some light on the subject and take it out of the ridiculous that it has positioned itself into and into the realm of usefullness. Let me explain.
There once was a woman called Ronda Bryne who was well miserable. Then all of a sudden she wasn't anymore. In fact she got everything she could ever wish for. This was because she found an old book that told of the secret. So she decided to make a dvd and write a book about this secret, sharing it with all the world (well if you pay that is) and make lots of money. Her wish became true because lots of people can't resist a secret.
The Secret...
So what is The Secret. Well, the basic concept is that you get what you ask for. From the Universe that is. So if you are a negative thinker then you get negativity and if you are a positive thinker you get whatever you desire. This is a law, some call it The Law of Attraction (more about this below). You attract things all the time and that is the secret. Now all you have to do is think about what you DO want and you get it... get it?
So I just explained the concept to you in a paragraph, so what else is in this book, 90 min DVD you say? Well not that much. You see the concept is explained again and again and again by various people with example etc. I saw the DVD in September at a friends house. And I came to the conclusion that A. it was a lot of bullocks and B. it wasn't! What I mean is that the general concept was good, but the presentation very American. It reminded me of old fashion shop tv where they used to smile their whiter than white smiles and proclaim: "It's an AMAZIN' DISCOVERY". The Secret falls in the same category. The over the top positiveness makes you gag. See the announcement trailer via iTunes and decide for yourself!
If you follow the instructions of Ronda you will basicly end up like a loony. You have to act as if you already have what you are asking for. This can have pretty funny results... And it might work and you might 'have whatever you want', but another matter of huge proportions will pop up: will you be able to live with yourself? Not many intelligent people like to 'pretend' to be a complete idiot. Please read Emily Yoffe's article "I've Got The Secret". She tried it for two months and used this as a subtitle: "Human guinea pig: Humiliating myself for fun and profit". It's quite funny to read about her experience and informs you a bit more about what The Secret is all about. You can also listen to it.
The BIG problem I found with The Secret is that it's a lot of noise and very little information. And this is where we step away from the hype and approach the very usable basic concept to our own advantage. I got my hands on an audiobook of The Law of Attraction by Michael Losier. Which is also available in print. Where Ronda makes a hype, Michael just simply hands you tools to put in practise this Law (aka the secret).
The good stuff...
In the Law of Attraction Losier describes the concept in a more intellectual way than Ronda. He then proceeds with a four step plan. First you write down what you don't want. This is usually far easier then dicovering what you do want. With the 'don't want' list, you can now easily construct a 'do want' list, which is step 2. Then you use the 'do want' list and start formulating sentences in such a way that it's positive for you.
Example: step 2: I want to have a healthy body (see blog post Healthy Living, update 1) step 3a: I have a healthy body step 3b: I am in the process having a healthy body
3a is negative, as I'm not yet healthy, even though I'm eating right and going to the gym... I've got a long way to go and so this feels like a lie to me, which is negative. 3b is a better way to say it. It is true, I'm working hard on it and so it's positive and inspiring. Next, step 4, is allowing. You will be surpised how hard it is to allow yourself to get what you really want. One example he mentioned struck home with me!
I am Dutch and in The Netherlands people are a bit funny when it comes to money. They can be really tight and really generous. Independence from others is a must and therefor I always felt odd if someone gave me something. Lets say someone wants to buy me lunch. Well I can pay for my own and then there is the feeling of being in depth to this person for such a kind gesture, etc etc. Must better and easier to just say no! Right? Well no wrong. You see if I can't even except lunch from a good friend, how am I going to 'attract greater wealth' (in whatever form: monetairy, health, friendships, etc is all wealth). Two days later my colleague bought me lunch and man did I enjoy it :D
A compilation about Losier and his work.
In The Law of Attraction Losier explains each step in detail and takes the whole concept of The Secret from the ridiculous into the realm of usefull tools. You can even download the worksheets from Losier's website. I'm still working on my 'healthy body' desire statement, but it will soon be complete and I will post it on my blog.
I hope that you now will be able to use 'The Secret' for your own benefit and not miss Bryne's bank account. Don't misunderstand I think The Secret is not bad, just a bit useless... If you want to spend some money invest in the book by Losier. Far more useful. And if you are broke, visit thepiratebay.org for a torrent (only plays in itunes, use searchterm: losier), but buy his book or additional material when you got money from using his advice. It's only fair.
I always thought it a chalange to start a diet and go to gym in December, but it's proven more than hard. I'm not doing too bad (read: i'm not stuffing myself on an hour to hour basis as is usual this month). But there are little chocolates and cake everywhere. Also I've been too busy to make it to the gym. And quite frankly when it is between sending of presents in time or a workout the presents win. So Instead of beating myself up about this whole issue. I'll be trying not to overdose on sugar this month and start fresh in the new year, when everyone else is too. And I will say it now: I WILL BE HEALTHY ON MY 30TH!!
