Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Kisses to your tummy from Susan Jane Murray


Pinched straight from Susan Jane Murray herself without additions because these Valentine cookies just look divine:


Valentine CookiesGinger and Chocolate hearts¨

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1 teaspoon good unrefined salt
2 cups ground almonds
2 tablespoons lucuma powder (optional)
2 tablespoons dried ginger
1/4 cup agave or honey
Large bar of 80-85% organic dark chocolate

SJM says. " Us girls love a guilt free pig-out, so don’t save this recipe just for V-Day. Cookies adore DVD evenings and impromptu office picnics. These chaps take a mere 3 minutes to whip up, 6 minutes to cook, and 2 seconds to devour. They boasts oodles of magnesium, particularly important in supporting adrenal function (stressed?), circulation (heart problems? Rusty libido?) and food cravings (pay attention girls!). Its vitamin E content is renowned for waging war against damaging free-radicals, aging cells and diseased cells. Other goodies include its anti-depressant content of niacin, energy-boosting B vitamins, blood-strengthening iron and impressive calcium levels. To help absorb its calcium content, go munch them in some sunlight for vitamin D. Otherwise, vitamin K found in foods like barley grass, miso, kale and spinach also prove helpful for proper calcification in the bones. We began with fizzing libidos and ended up with advice on kale and osteo conditions. I sincerely beg your pardon. What I meant to say was that they are so damned tasty, your knickers will be knocked off. "

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees conventional oven, 150 degrees fan oven and 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Click on the handy temperatures chart below, and scroll down for extact conversion temps depending on your oven.
2. In a saucepan, gently melt the coconut oil.
3. Take off the heat, and using a fork, combine with the remaining ingredients. Taste and add more dried ginger or rock salt if you like – I always do.
4. Form into a squidgy ball of dough and place on top of a piece of greaseproof paper. Press into an oblong ‘pizza-base’ shape about ¼ inch deep with the base of your palm or your fingers. Cover with another sheet of grease proof paper and freeze for 15 minutes max. This makes it easier to shape and cut the cookies, but also ensures they don’t turn into puddles in the oven.
5. Remove dough from freexer, cut out desired shapes (see picture to the left) and place on a greased cookie tray. The quantity you get depends on how thin you managed to press the dough out.
6. Bake for approximately 6 minutes before they start to brown or colour.
7. Allow cool on the cookie tray in a cool place. In the meantime, to take your mind off pillaging the entire batch before they’ve had a chance to cool down, I recommend melting a large bar of organic dark chocolate like Montezuma’s, Green & Blacks or Dagoba. Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate and allow to cool on grease proof paper in the fridge. You might like to adjust the sweetness for your next batch, or the ginger content. Lucuma is a wonderful way of sweetening the dough without making it sloppy, while providing niacin (vitamin B3) for cholesterol and depression. "

She adds: "The ‘received view’ on coconut is that it is high in fat and to be avoided. This is most unfortunate because organic virgin coconut oil has incredible immune-boosting properties. Its lauric and caprylic acids stave off fungal infections while helping your gut’s friendly bacteria thrive. And its fat content is in fact needed for the proper metabolism of the nasty fats we take in. Think about it – how many fat Thai people have you met? Exactly. "



So i'm off to whip up a storm in the kitchen and hopefully in less than 15 mins ( i may skip the freezer bit) will be merrily munching my way through some delicious biscuits.

Sunday, 7 February 2010

Your best foot forward

Luckily with Reflexology it is about working on both of your feet, and even on your hands.

But what is Reflexology?
Reflexology is a Holistic Treatment for the Mind and Body which involves working on your feet and sometimes on your hands. It is a unique treatment using fingers and thumbs on the reflexes of the feet. It is not a massage but it is a deep treatment sending messages from your feet to your body. It's based on the principle that there are reflex points on the feet and hands that correspond to every organ, gland and part of the body.

A reflexologist will begin a reflexology treatment by taking a thorough health, diet and lifestyle consultation. Following this, they will examine your feet and may ask further questions. The treatment will then begin with some general relaxation techniques, followed by a precise thumb and finger walking technique aimed at applying pressure to every reflex area on the top and bottom of the foot.

Reflexology is not ticklish as a firm pressure is used. If a particular part of the body is out of balance, the corresponding reflex may feel tender or sore during the treatment. It is important that you let the practitioner know so that steps may be taken to rectify this discomfort.

A full foot reflexology treatment will generally last 45-50 minutes.

How Does Reflexology Work?

With the extensive nerve distribution in the feet, and the large portion of the sensory and motor area of the brain devoted to the feet, stimulation and therapeutic movement of the feet activates responses throughout the nervous system. The results are body-wide effects. Circulation is improved, lymphatic movement is enhanced and the body’s natural pain relieving chemicals are triggered. Neurologically, the activation of receptors in the feet changes the tempo and tone of the body by sending new messages into the system, which responds by becoming homeostatic (balanced). In essence, the foot becomes a conduit for sharing information throughout the body. Pressure applied to the feet generates a signal through the peripheral and central nervous system, then is relayed to the brain and on to the various organs to allocate the necessary adjustments in fuel and oxygen. Finally a response is sent to the motor system and the body’s overall tone and tension level is adjusted, reducing stress on the body’s internal systems. Dr. J. Manzanares, M.D., surgeon and reflexologist with 20 years of medical experience who has treated 70,000 clinical cases of reflexology patients, confirms this neurological circuit that takes place from the receptors in the feet. There are over 7,000 nerve receptors in each foot and there is no other single part of the body that when massaged can affect the entire body like the feet. No wonder we love foot rubs! Reflexology can help to restore the body’s natural balance, increase energy levels, improve sleep patterns, boost the immune system and improve your general well being helping to keep your body in good working order and resisting illness.



Amongst other things Reflexology can:

Relieve stress and tension (responsible for 75% of illness)

Improve nerve and blood supply (restoring vital energy pathways)

Encourage Homeostatis (the body's natural ability to heal itself)
Reduce pain and increase energy

Enhance body awareness and a sense of well being

Reflexology can assist with a wide range of illnesses (including but not limited to):

Stress and stress related conditions including anxiety and depression.

Back Pain

Migraine

Infertility

Arthritis

Sleep disorders

Hormonal imbalances

Sports injuries

Digestive disorders
Fatigue

What to expect from a typical Reflexology session:
If you have never had reflexology before you may wonder what it is all about:

On your first visit the reflexologist will ask you a series of questions about your
general health and life style.

You will then be asked to remove your shoes and socks and sit in a reclining chair or couch.


The reflexologist will use their hands to apply pressure to the feet, working specific areas with their fingers and thumbs. The pressure will vary on each client depending on their needs and preference. Each foot is carefully worked, starting with some relaxation techniques.

You may feel some areas of discomfort where there is a build up of crystal deposits; this will indicate to the Reflexologist an area that needs attention.

At the end of the treatment you will be encouraged to drink water and to continue to do so to help clean out toxins. The reflexologist will ask you to take note of how you feel in the coming hours.

A series of 5 to 6 sessions is often required for a specific illness, or monthly sessions for maintaining that feel good factor.

Who Can Benefit?
Anyone can benefit from all ages, pregnant mothers, babies, children, teenagers and the elderly.

PregnancyIf you are pregnant reflexology can increase health and well being and gives an excellent environment for both mother and incoming soul. It reduces stress and anxiety which can cause problems.

Children to Teenagers
If you have a child or teenager with anxiety about school or exams, reflexology can calm them and help them cope. A reflexologist is always a good listening ear and can give the child someone else to confide in.

ElderlyIf you are elderly and the circulation in your legs and feet is not working as it should, your legs and ankles might look purple from lack of use; Reflexology can really help with the circulation and make you feel so much better.

Specific IllnessIf you have a specific illness, along with your visits to your Doctor or the hospital, a reflexologist can help you tap into your body’s natural ability to heal itself, relieve stress and tension and improve blood and nerve supply.

Stress
We all suffer from stress in various forms,
everyone needs goals and challenges and a little stress
can help us to achieve. However too much stress affects
your physical health and leads to depression. (75% of all
illness is caused by stress). Reflexology is a brilliant way
to counteract stress, kick-start your vitality and boost
your self confidence.

What causes stress?
Any sort of loss, bereavement, divorce, separation, a child leaving home. A long term illness, moving house, loss of job and money worries to name a few.

In work worrying about deadlines or about not being up to the challenges of a particular task or not getting on with your co workers. All of these things can lead to stress.
Reflexology can give you an hour for yourself where you can totally relax in a safe environment. Regular treatments can help you take charge of your problems rather than allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by them.

Signs of stressIncreased irritability

Heightened sensitivity to criticism

Signs of tension such as nail-biting

Difficulty getting to sleep and early morning waking

Drinking and smoking more

Indigestion

Loss of concentration

If you recognise any of the above you could be showing signs of stress. By pressing the reflex point on your feet, concentrating on the points that correspond to the adrenal gland (the glands that produce cortisol the anti-stress hormone), and using lots of relaxation and breathing techniques Reflexology will make you feel a whole lot better!



About me
I trained with The International Institute of Reflexology. This entitles me to be a member of the Association of Reflexologists who promote the professional standards of Reflexology to the highest level. Although the profession is self regulated, when you see the initials IIR MAR you know that the practitioner is a professional adhering to a strict code of conduct, holds a current first aid certificate and is fully insured.

I am committed to Continuing Professional Development (CPD). This means I continue to develop my skills by attending courses and lectures in the field of Reflexology.

An interesting addition:
The use of MRI technology is being used to tie the fundamental understanding of reflexology to scientific certainty. MRIs have shown a direct link between the pressure points on the feet and their individual reflexes throughout the body.“Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies are about to change reflexology, providing illustration of some of reflexology’s basic tenets. In three separate studies, Hong Kong researchers explored with fMRI what happens in the brain when pressure or technique is applied to specifc reflex areas of the left foot. Their finding: the specific parts of the brain activated by such work correlates with reflexology’s theory and intended use.In one study, reflexology applied to a specific part of the foot activated the reflected area. Specifically technique stimulation applied to the inner lateral corner of the left great toe activated the right temporal lobe, the part of the brain related to the reflex area. of the brain inner lateral corner of the left great toe to see if this would activate the part of the brain reflected by this reflex area, the right temporal lobe.” Feb 11th 2008

For a visual introduction to Reflexology have a look at this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy-zUcmGMMo&feature=player_embedded#

Friday, 5 February 2010

SELF TRUST LEADS TO EMPOWERMENT


It was while living in Glasgow after my first degree that i came across Zaria Cullens CD "Waves Upon Waves: Awakening the Light body. A Sacred Crystal Healing Medicine Journey with Zaria Et An". Somehow i knew that i needed the healing that this CD offered, i was struggling hugely with chronic fatigue, immensely stuck and in need of help, but i didn't know the depths of help that would come from following that intuitive feeling about it.

Here is the blurb from the back cover:

"For many years now Zaria has delighted, captivated and enchanted audiences with her inspirational and transformational Crystal Healing Meditations. Spiritually sensitive since birth, Zaria has always been aware of and able to communicate with the Spirits, Divas and Angels of the Earth Mother's sacred Crystals. Here she tells their Medicine Story and guides the listener on a sacred Crystal Healing Journey into the heart of their own potential. Bring your heart back into rhythm with that of the Earth Mother and reclaim your Divine Birthright of feeling Healthy, Happy and Whole. This journey is the equivalent of having a session of Crystal Healing Therapy with Zaria. Highly relaxing while spiritually expansive, this Healing Journey is ideal for both beginners and the more experienced.It contains all you need to know to start healing yourself today. This Crystal Healing Journey can be experienced over and over again ~ anytime you feel the need. Each therapy session will take the listener to a deeper and deeper level of their own Self Healing and Self Empowerment. ENJOY. This journey is dedicated with great love to the spirit of the Earth Mother." If you would like a copy go to Zarias website here.

I used the CD as often as i could and it began to open things up for me and allow me to 'breath' again. It was the start of the deep healing that i needed. Somehow before i left Glasgow i managed to get a private healing session with Zaria because it turned out that my wonderful boss Josef knew her well. I was completely blown away simply by her presence and then by the following healing session. I felt seen for the first time in a long time and i mean really seen to the core of my being. I felt that she just understood without explanation and in that session she began to help me to understand what i had been seeing and feeling all these years and gifted me an understanding of what i might need to do to get better.

I signed up quite soon afterwards to one of her healing courses, feeling that it was absolutely what i had been looking for in order to heal, to make sense of and to start trusting what i had been experiencing for most of my life but hadn't understood and more often than not had been scared of. Experiences of seeing, feeling and hearing presences, angels and guides, astrally travelling, vivid waking dreams in which i felt like i was being gifted/downloading huge amounts of information from spirit, among many other things. I realise looking back on it that it was a shamanic training/awakening and that these experiences would come when i needed them the most, to remind me that we are always connected to great spirit even when we are not aware of it.
I had grown up feeling deeply- feeling other people’s emotions including their physical and emotional pain, but I had no idea how to deal with this hyper sensitivity, instead i often just tried to block out these feelings in order not to feel so much or to be totally overwhelmed by them or the fear of it all. But ironically when you fully acknowledge the fear and allow it instead of trying to push it away it can begin to transform and things can open up. Ultimately F.E:A.R -False.Evidence.Appearing.Real can become Focused.Energy.Alters.Reality.



Doing the two year "Crystal Healing, Natural Medicines and Psychic Development course" with Zaria was the best thing i ever did. The program included: Crystal healing, hands-on-healing, meditation, development of psychic and auric sensitivity, Shamanic techniques, learning to trusting our intuition, dream work, dowsing, learning about colour, plants, herbs, oils, space clearing, massage, crystal webs, grids and configurations, development of listening and counselling skills, Earth Healing techniques, physical and spiritual nutrition, construction and utilisation of shamanic medicine wheels, the healing power of sound, meridian cleansing and balancing techniques, making gem elixirs, crystal massage, advanced healing layouts as well as Anatomy and physiology" and it qualified me to be a Crystal Therapist (C.T.U.O.L)/ Natural Medicine healer.  But most if all it enabled me to see that the gifts i had were incredible and that essentially i am a healer. Something that people around me had been saying for years.


It was the first course where i felt that each individual was completely honoured for who they are and everything was done with great love, deep respect and gentleness. Zaria is an incredible person and a wise and deeply skilled healer and it was such an honour to be taught by her and be on this awakening journey with her guidance. I came away from each weekend feeling completely reconnected, buzzing with energy and light and enhanced by the whole experience. It was so good to be with people who really understood this stuff and could talk openly about it all as we shared this incredible experience and practiced everything that we learnt on each other. We were given healing foods and were taught a whole host of  invaluable skills and essential knowledge about the natural world and vibrational medicine, it was all in all a wholly nourishing experience, a coming home that enabled me to believe in myself again.


It was incredible to realise that i could use the ability to empathise deeply with people and the fact that i could see, feel and hear guides and spirits in order to work with a person to help them heal. But most importantly i began to trust my intuition and what i was sensing. I found that i was able to sense what was going on in the physical, mental, emotional and etheric body of a person by 'reading' their light/energy body, i was able to journey for them in the spirit world,  as well as being able to weave energy, unblocking places in the body where things had become tangled and stagnant, using psychic surgery as well harnessing natural, planetary and star medicine to heal, to name but a few tools that i was given by spirit and that i learnt to use by trusting and allowing it all to flow in a healing session. It was mindblowing and exciting.


We were taught to access the sources of any disease or discomfort, rather than just treating the manifesting symptoms. We worked with the Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual bodies in a safe and sacred space. Learning to develop more trust in our own perceptions, and more confidence in our ability to serve and support others and ourselves. "It is the ideal choice for all Holistic Health Care Practitioners, providing plenty of time and space in which to experience and understand Vibrational Medicine. All courses are designed to support and encourage each student, and to honour their unique spiritual perceptions, as they reclaim their birthright of self mastery and self empowerment.Only when we fully love ourselves, are we ready to fully love each other."

One of The U.O.L.’s most basic tenets is that they trust and assume that all of the students carry amazing potential. "And, that with a little support and guidance, they will emerge as proficient and empowered therapists. We also honour each soul who has the wisdom and the courage to make time for the next stage in their own self healing journey. We honour the Medicines of openness, freedom, change, choice, flexibility, acceptance, truth, trust, love and intuition, and know that if you have been guided towards one of our courses - you are ready, and we look forward to sharing the journey with you."

I feel very lucky to have found this training as it has opened up a whole world for me that was trying to get my attention for years and i now feel was essential for me to embrace. I think without knowing it it took a lot of energy to deny what was happening and to try to push it all away.



For years before and after this training i worked with children and teenagers in various settings supporting them and working with their pain and negative beliefs about themselves and about the world, often as a result of adverse life experiences. I began to use this new awareness from the healing course in my work and i also began to be sent clients to work with in order to directly use these skills.

Embracing my intuition and understanding these gifts that i had not previously understood or even wanted to have has been a relief to say the least and was ultimately what i had been searching for in order to start to heal and to find my way foward.

Freedom of expression that touches the heart


I feel that Art Therapy is an incredible tool for getting to the heart of an issue and helping to bring it out into the open in a visual form to be reflected on, processed and healed.


Not that many people know however what Art Therapy is or why it is so powerful, so i shall explain a little from my persepective. Making art in itself allows you freedom of expression and encourages you to let go of all ideas of what it is "supposed to be" and instead allows what wants to be. It allows you to express yourself in ways that you couldn't with words. It is a channel of communication that is closest to the authentic truth of who you are and what you might want to share about yourself and the world. The art work is a visual story of deep emotions, feelings and what is closest to your heart. By bringing it into visual representation and reflecting on it with a therapist it can be worked with, processed and ultimately used to help you to heal.



There is no need to be an artist to benefit from working with images or to use art as healing or for self-development. The techniques are varied but all work by helping to access our subconscious mind beyond the conscious and beyond verbal language. The subconscious mind holds our beliefs, habits, fears & emotions and this practically controls what we think, and how we act, which basically produces the quality of our lives and our reality. These beliefs, habits etc developed from the events and experiences in our lives. For example a man with phobia for flying did not ‘decide’ to have that phobia, something triggered that, such as a really bad flight experience. The subconscious mind is so powerful that it will manifest whatever you believe in, which makes the subconscious mind the seat of our power or disempowerment. This is exactly why even though we know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, we don’t do it. It’s because our subconscious mind is stopping us. That’s why all your thinking, analysis, reasoning etc through your conscious mind has little impact on the final actions we take. Our minds are usually filled with a running commentary of self-talk which inevitably contain some self-limiting beliefs. But do we direct and guide that flow? If we hold negative or false beliefs, then the brain responds by generating images which resonate with that emotion-thought-belief vibration. The same holds true for positive beliefs. Which means that the power of images is in their uncanny ability to get to the core of what we really believe to see what is holding us back and to allow us to create an alternative, a reworking and a new way forward. We can bypass the conscious mind through image making (thus avoiding the filters) and implant a message, an idea into our subconscious.  


So to reiterate: Image work, or art as healing, is a means of taking hold of what can be an unconscious process and guiding it along a desired path, towards your consciously chosen objective. How does this work? All images carry a deep meaning that is specific to that individual. That image-meaning is formed from the moment the art work is made and awareness is the key to change.
You choose where to put your attention, and that summarizes the law of attraction: we get more of whatever we focus our attention upon.What stops us from pursuing our dreams? We can become stuck in negative patterns because of incorrect beliefs, the foundation of which may date back to early childhood. Image work helps us gain awareness of our conditioned beliefs, which is the beginning of change.


Another roadblock to change is fear. Using the visionary healing art of our images creates a safe environment within which to experience a different reality. Allowing the hand to draw an image of our fear is a powerful means to uncover the truth as well as a method for integrating the personality and achieving ever greater wholeness, self-acceptance and love.
Studies show that a vividly imagined experience is indistinguishable to the brain from the actual experience. That’s why mental rehearsal, or image work, is a highly effective way to learn new behaviors and is used by many performers and athletes as vital aspect of training. The same concept is also effective for unlearning negative habits, old reactions, or inappropriate or limiting beliefs that stop you from moving toward the life you really want.


Personally I use art therapy techniques to examine life situations that I want to change, spontaneous drawing in combination with journaling and image dialog, for example can help by uncovering resistance or gaining awareness of limiting beliefs. I also use image work to help focus my goals and to process sessions with my clients.  I therefore use art to process, to express, to think, to connect, to calm, as a space where relationships and responsibilities can be seen and felt and for so much more.



Art therapy (and shamanic healing) can be wholly transforming. Take a chance and try it yourself.


Wednesday, 3 February 2010

THE TIME IS NOW


This is a stream of consciousness/one of my morning page entries from August 25th 2009. I wanted to share this with you today because it is an incredibly clear and powerful message and i think it might also resonate with more than a few of you.

"What becomes of the broken hearted,who shall pull those faces off the ground, who shall mend those weary ones, hear their cries, shall you just let them go? Who shall walk with them unbidden, who shall work alongside them in life. What shall happen when you let these go, let your dreams slip away. What shall become of you without your dreams and your yearnings to become a healer. A better way it to keep those dreams like a flag held aloft taken with all the oaths and promises, imbued with spiritual and magical powers. A medicine blanket that taps into the protection of spirit, of life, of the heart. Be true to who you are, tap into the deepest roots of knowing and healing, let those threads weave their way from head to toe, leading you, guiding you on your path, because they will hear what is true and what's dead, what is not yours. The deepest connection is the one that you can make with yourself. To allow yourself to shine, to release yourself from the bonds of should, could, would. What would we do without our guides, our magic beings, our helpers, our angels, our love. We are all one walking together and setting the same game in place. What dreams have you, what goals, what desires can you make real today, this month, this year?Who is calling you, here in your name? We are calling, we are the guides and guardiens of the woodlands, of the fields and the fens, of the brooks and the dells and the fairy glens.We are the spirits of lost time of maigcal beings, of wonder, of light, of the earth, of all that is. What we want is you to re-root to heal fully your karmic patterns of fear, loss, paralysis, lack of movement in the healing skills/field that you were born for. You are here to let light shine forth, to pour light into every cell, to shout it forth on every airwave, to live it with every breath and to allow others to do the same. The time is now for great things, for the light and the love of this task has been waiting for you to train. But to also realise that you can do more. But you start with the childs energy of life and exuberance. The ability to have a soaring mind, above the world taking flight to see what needs to be seen in the heart, soul, mind and body. Body therapy combined with light work and art will be the way. You must start with crystal clearing and healing on yourself everyday and use the teachings Zaria has entrusted to you and start to journey again to find a way to use it in the world.What seems is not as it is and what is is not what it seems. Where you are is perfect and nothing now can stop you from what you want-herbal knowledge and magic, psychic surgery, weaving, nutrition, colour and light medicine, it will all come. The spirit teachers are waiting for you. Ask and they will come. Come here and learn all that we can teach you and know that you will surpass all expectations. You are able to be all that you want to be. We will help but you need to keep listening to what comes unbidden, unrefined, unforced, like magic it will appearand this time you cannot miss it and you cannot runaway/escape it is in you and it is so strongly your destiny to be a magical medicine woman that no other path will be allowed. We have plans for so much wonderful work that you cannot imagine the fun and excitement it will bring.Who would have thought that life could be so joyous, ecstatic and magical. We are all here just jumping with anticipation. Waiting for your first journey as a mum. Waiting to hear where you want to go and where you need to go. It is all written and we know you are no longer scared of spirit. It is here it is yours. It is all you ever asked for in all your past lives. You have been well looked after and now is the time to release, to let go, to surrender in an empowered way. There is no reason to let go of your power, but you can let go of the mental stronghold of depression and lack of movement. It has been a long journey but you are there, you are ready to launch to have absolute faith that who you are and what you do is worth everything. You are so valued by us and by all those who know. You are beyond imagining and all that we know we give you. We are the gatekeepers, we are the ones that have been keeping this knowledge for you until you were truly ready and now is the time. The time for all that is needed and we can let it go into you. We release it into you yet still remain to watch and to protect and guide in the deepest love and loyalty and friendship. We are the ones that were called for all those years ago. We are the ones that came. Who saw a beacon of light in a small girl who had buried it all under self doubt, hate,lack of connection, lack of self knowledge, love or balance. What you undid you rebuilt and even though you can get swept away by these thoughts you never need become them again. You have strength, self knowledge and healing in your heart, in your arms, in your head. In your arms they are dancing letting you know that you need to start dancing in your circle of light, taking action from this connected space where life belongs. We say start now, live now, let life open up and rejoice in all that you have been given. This life is yours, take it use it and enjoy it. "

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

"If only you knew your GREATNESS and celebrated it"


I called this blog "A Little Light on Life" and my company "A Light on Life" because i believe that we are all beings of light and as such that is just what we crave to keep us healthy and happy. One major part of this is the fact that we therefore need light filled, nutrient dense, living vibrant foods and that is where Raw Living Foods come in.

Matt Amsden of RAWvolution as interviewd by Laura Bruno on her blog August 6th
2009 said that he "immediately realized the pure logic that informs the concept. Raw foods simply contain more nutrition and more enzymes than cooked food, more “life force” if you will. Eating foods processed with heat is like pushing the vacuum cleaner over the carpet without having it turned on; your body has to do all of the work to digest the food but it’s receiving only a small fraction of the benefits. Humans and domesticated pets are the only species on planet Earth that consume cooked foods. They are also the only species that suffer degenerative disease en masse. The logical conclusion is that they are linked- cause and effect!"

Alissa Cohen, a top Raw Food Chef  who has two successful raw food restaurants in the states lists her
"Top Ten Reasons to Eat Raw Food" below:

1) A raw and living food diet feeds your body and your cells with vitamins, minerals, and life giving enzymes that cooking destroys.
2) Transforms your body, not in years, not in months, but within weeks.
3) Frees yourself from the bondage of dieting. Raw Food helps you lose weight effortlessly without counting calories.
4) Living food is full of life giving enzymes that will make you feel and look younger than ever before!
5) Raw food will help you regain that youthful energy you once had.Your body will feel light and energized-a natural high.
6) Most people notice they need less sleep on the raw food diet.
7) Get Happy with Raw—most people experience an improved state of mind and clarity within days of this diet.
8) Alkalize your body for optimum health. Almost all fruits and vegetables are alkaline forming.
9) Stay healthy and in shape without spending hours working out and starving yourself.
10) We are much more than we eat, but what we eat can help us to be more than what we are.

Image from Michael Somoroff’s exhibition Illumination at the BravinLee Projects Space 2007

I personally believe having just experienced a small part of what raw living foods can do, (80-90% raw food since october last year) that it has helped me to heal that much further from the remaining health problems that i have and in the process it has prompted a huge clearing out and a processing of many buried emotions even ones that i felt i had previously dealt with. It is an on going process but i feel less stuck than i have in a long time. I have known for a while that i have been hiding from what i am here to do in life, even though i thought i was taking steps to get there. I know in my heart that i am a magical medicine woman and as a result of work and experiences i know that i am a healer who can work with a persons energy/light body weaving energy and working on all levels with their guides to help a person heal. If i am totally honest i have felt that i was not ready for the huge responsibilty that i felt this would entail, that i needed to be healthier, to train and study more, to be better at what i wanted to do before i could truly get out there and really start. I had been too scared to actually embrace my gifts and what i felt in my heart i am here to do. I felt for years that i did not have any gifts and i did not have the right to believe in what i did, when i listened that is. These gifts that we all have are a huge hint as to what our calling is and perhaps the key to our happiness. While getting ill or stuck is perhaps the souls way to let us know that we need to try a different path or to listen to our intuition/inner guidance more. To follow our heart rather than our head. It has been funny allowing this process to unfold and seeing myself with greater clarity.


Life seems to be aligning itself more and more everyday and what i want to manifest in my life seems to have started happpening, now that i have a marginally clearer body and mind and as a result clearer intentions about what i really want out of life. I also have less and less fear which is clearing the way and i am starting to give myself a break and love myself more. My intentions had seemed vague and wooley until now, i couldn't see through that enormous brick wall and didn't have the energy to climb up on top to see over it. I felt like i was in a deep dark cave grasping for the light but only seeing occasional pin pricks or flashes and then they would disappear leaving me in the dark again. I feel that my body is less and less in pain and i have more and more energy which is just the most amazing thing after so many years of feeling like i was living a half life. I feel far more joyful and ready to look at the positive in things and not stuck so much in viewing things through a negative lens. I seem to have the energy to shift things out of that place. I feel that i can truly live the idea that in each moment you can choose how you feel and how you react to things (ok not all the time, but definately more than ever before, it's a learning curve) rather than just thinking it was a great concept but then shelving it because it seemed too hard. I definately feel that happy coincidences are happening more and more and i look forward to this increasing.

Powerful insights and profound testimony on the importance of doing what we came here to do.

We are all here for something, something magical and profound i am sure. I know that we are here to look after each other and our planet and to share our gifts. Maybe we don't have any clue as to the why but certainly if we listen to our inner guidance we will get some answers and if we can trust the process we will definately get more than we bargained for, in the best possible way.



I had come across Living foods with Elaine Bruce many years ago and although i didn't follow her advise fully at the time i did feel intuitively that i needed to eat a very simple diet of fresh whole and more often than not raw foods, because my stomach didn't seem to be able to digest anything but that. I was told repeatedly by everyone around me that that i had an eating disorder because of this way of eating which made me question what i was doing and although this way of eating seemed to be soley responsible for helping me to get well enough to get out of bed and start to function a little better i did wondered if it was the right way to be eating. Anyway i stuck to what i thought i needed at the time and years later after several nudgings i have finally come back to Elaine Bruces teachings. I think these promptings began more strongly when i was pregnant but after about 10 months in Norway i began to get daily pushes to look into it. I am not sure now whose website i started reading first or what made me actually start but looking back on it it has definately felt guided and it was something that just made total sense to me, i finally resonated with the idea and i began to feel wonderful.


There are so many online raw food resources and books out there but a few that come to mind that i have resonated with are:

1) "The Lazy Raw Foodist Guide"  is an amazing e-book by Laura Bruno, a raw foodist,writer, life coach and medical intuitive.She is very grounded in her approach and likes to have fun with it. She says that finding your why comes before finding your way and she is so right. Without knowing the why it makes a whole lot harder to find your way and that goes for everything in life.
Her main webpage is: www.internationalrenaissancecoaching.com. I have just ordered another book by her called "If I Only Had A Brain Injury" mainly because she talks about how she recovered from a brain injury which changed her life and prompted her into working as a medical intuitive and helping others recover from Lyme disease, Chronic Fatigue etc etc.

About the author from amazon:
"Laura Bruno is an Intuitive Life Coach, Medical Intuitive and Reiki Master Teacher. She has taught natural healing classes around the US and coaches people from all over the world. On the verge of beginning a PhD program in English Literature, Laura suffered a 1998 brain injury that dramatically altered the course of her life. "If I Only Had a Brain Injury" offers an insider's look at a "Medical Mystery" from the unique perspective of a survivor, Medical Intuitive and spouse of someone who has since recovered from Lyme Disease. This healing guide draws upon "The Wizard of Oz" as a universal myth and model for healing."

I also love this You Tube lecture by her on
Synchronicity, Intuition and Intention.

2) The Best of Raw Food is a great site for recipes when you are starting out.
3) The Raw Food Chef is a blog by Raw Food chef Russell James who creates the most amazing mouth watering recipes.
4) Famous Raw foodies interesting.
5) Shazzie "Shazzie has been a vegan since 1986 and a raw foodist since 2000. She became an instant raw food superstar in 2000, when she started her world-famous blog ..." She is quirky, amusing and incredibly knowledgeable about raw food. She is also successfully raising her daughter as a raw food vegan. Her other website www.detoxyourworld.com is a great online resource for raw products, supplements, books etc.
6) Raw Model  for pure sexiness
7) The Raw Food World Matt Monarch and Angela Stokes Monarchs website about all things raw, including their very popular online T.V show.
8) Raw Reform Angela Stokes Monarchs website telling her story about her incredible weight loss through raw natural foods which among other things includes her inspiring blog.
9) Alissa Cohen Raw food chef says "Eating raw clears the fog from your mind so you can think better. It cleans you out physically so you can move in your body and therefore in your life. The raw food lifestyle IS about food but not in the way people think. It’s about feeding yourself the right foods to create the life you want. It’s so connected. I know there are a lot of people who don’t get this yet, but if what you eat doesn’t effect you – your physical well-being, your thoughts, your moods, your actions, and just your overall state of mind – what would?If what we ingest everyday, numerous times a day, doesn’t effect us, what possibly would!"
10) Karyn Calabrese entrepreneur, author and raw foodie.
11)Raw For Life clip with Michael Beckwith and David Wolfe.
12) The "Go Further"film trailerFilmmaker Ron Mann ventures along with the actor Woody Harrelson , Laura , family and friends on a 1500 mile bike trek. This 2001 Sol Tour begins the voiceyourself mission to promote the merits of Simple Organic Living. Rolling along as a living classroom is the hemp fueled mothership. Campus stops and regular folk enjoy the antics and the lessons to learn about leaving a lighter footprint. I haven't seen the full film yet but the trailer made me laugh.
.......and so much more.

I think the key is having fun with it all and eating what you want and feeling balanced doing it. Go with your intuition and love what you are doing and if not change something. If you would like to try introducing one thing that is guaranteed to make you feel better introduce one green smoothie a day. It may only be 20% greens and the rest fruit so that you can't taste the greens, but it is a start. Do what you feel comfortable with and no more.

Dream Your Dreams Into Being.

Broken? It is possible to piece things back together again?

George Triggs Sculpture Broken

George Triggs says "Creating sculpture is trying to express emotion at the core of our existence. Our bodies are vessels responding and interacting with the world through our senses. We store emotional information throughout our person, from the obvious body language to subtle muscle tensions and stress lines. This is our way of experiencing life with the human form used as a language to the soul."

With Chronic Fatigue it feels like you have fallen apart and that you will never be able to put all the pieces back together again. It feels like you are being buried under huge mounds of earth and there is little chance you will be able to come up for air. The hyper sensitivity that goes with it means that you feel overwhelmed, stressed beyond imagining and are left reeling from the simplest of things. Infact most things that you would normally not even notice or even think of as you go about your daily lives left my nerves feeling like they had been stripped bare and raw and i could not take anymore stimulation of any kind, i felt like i would never recover or have any energy again especially after i had pushed myself to do something. I also felt clueless about how to stop it, to get back to normality. Even now there are days when my body feels hypersensitive and overloaded and i don't handle it as well as i would like, my body sometimes seems to scream for the overload to stop, for absolute calm to reign, but this can't always happen, especially with a toddler around. It helps to consciously take myself in hand and drop my breathing right down into my stomach and imagine or physically smooth down my auric firled to stop the stress from escalating until i feel back in control otherwise it can feel that my body is not going to cope. I have to pace myself and to acknowledge what is happening rather than trying to supress it. I have to listen.


 I was dizzy, nauseous, suffered from unrelenting headaches, earaches, i had brain fog which meant limited attention span, limited ability to make coherent conversation, retain information or make sense of things in a logical way. My digestion and immune sytem were shot to pieces and my skin looked like a war zone and that wasn't just on my face although vainly this was the most depressing place for it to show. My skin also felt like it was crawling with bugs and itching. Not forgetting the exhaustion which i have described as a mind numbing, body numbing exhaustion which went to my core, i felt like i was dieing or was already dead, my cells seemed like they had not one iota of light or spin left in them and i was lieing under a huge sludgey stickey dark swamp with no idea where the surface was or how i could even move a finger to find my nose. I was depressed and i felt very alone.


I found that it wasn't enough just to look at what was happening in the body on a physcial level, or what was not happening. It was also important to look at what was being expressed by my body on a spiritual and emotional level, what was it trying to tell me and was i listening? Are we listening to all parts of ourselves?Or are there some things we would rather not face or bring into the open/the light of day.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." This well known speech by Nelson Mandela was orignally written by Marianne Williamson.


I have had/have incredible experiences with spirit- beings of light, my guides, spirit helpers and angels in my life, experiences which have intrigued me, healed me and blown me away, but for a long time i was also scared by being so open. Overtime i had vivid recollections of past lives in which i had been killed and tortured for the healing gifts that i carried, essentially leaving me with a deep fear of stepping up into the light to share these gifts in this life. I had a huge fear of fully engaging in life or of being able to allow and embrace these experiences. It was all stuff that i knew instinctively that i could not share with anyone at school and i don't think it was until much later in life that i shared it even with my own parents, although they of all people would have understood. Of course we all have the ability to see and sense spirit, i believe we were born with it, but overtime we have just lost it or supressed it, perhaps even been told that what we were experiencing was rubbish or all in our minds. But it is possible for everyone to re learn to 'see' and to tune in.


Because of this sensitivity i also felt like a psychic sponge picking up on each and every emotion of people around me feeling what they were feeling and their pain deeply and i didn't know how to process these feelings or how to just allow them to flow through me. Words expressed with negative feelings such as fear, anger, jealousy etc felt like they were literally cutting into me like a knife and i didn't know how to deal with it and i definately didn't see it as a gift. People came to me with their problems and their pain and although i was able to listen and to be present i felt there should be more that i could do. I felt very alone, old beyond my years and on the edge of the crowd. I didn't know where my place was in the world and i often wondered where all my support had gone in difficult moments. Looking back on it it was always there it, it just didn't always come in the way that i expected.


There were of course aspects of school that i loved and thrived on however. I loved sport especially running out on the track and i was good at it. I also loved creative writing, english literature, history and especially art. In these subjects i felt i could shine and i felt alive and whole. But these feelings about myself remained and looking back on it i feel that i unconsciously kept pushing away these spiritual experiences unable to see who i really was. Instead of helping to diminish the fear it ended up doing the opposite. Laura Bruno, a medical intuitive talks about this in her book "The Lazy Raw Foodist Guide" in terms of the effect a reduction in your field of vision has on your body i.e losing your perpipheral vision she says makes us go into the flight or fight response. So instead of protecting me it actually had the effect of making my body feel under stress, increasing the fear and anxiety. We were designed to have a wide field of vision, not just for predators, but now i also believe for the 'unseen' world. Instead of calming me it did the opposite, i wondered why on earth i was here, i began to feel very small and even more unlikeable and the more i played that script in my head the more unhappy i became sowing the seeds for increased ill health. My stomach hurt more often than not (our stomachs are the seat of our emotions, our solar plexus) and i began to get so much pain that i would increasingly have to take time off school because i would be collapsing with vomiting and the most intense stomach aches that the doctors would call it stomach migraines. I became sensitive to food and was in pain after eating (now i know i was also reacting to the gluten and dairy in my food, the former of which was creating a leaky gut) coupled with not liking myself i started to control what i ate re:cutting back on the food i ate because it made me feel better not to eat and not to be in pain. I was literally not able to digest life.


Bill Whitaker looks at this inability to digest life here as he dives into the secrets behind the film "The Secret" with Rev. Michael Beckwith.

When i was 13 years old i manifested a bicycle accident that was very minor in comparison to the resulting year long paralysis of first my right leg and then my whole body. Initially they thought i had cancer and before doing any of the tests they pumped me full of antibiotics and steroids. My body was crying out in pain and i did not listen or more crucially did not know how to listen. My mum says it was very weird and very frightening time because for most of that time she felt i wasn't there, i wasn't in my body. I believe now that it was a shamanic initiation. Eventually after a year of paralysis and hospitals i recovered relearning how to walk again and going back to school. The issues were still there though and as i hadn't dealt with them the first time they resurfaced in another way. I was still having the stomach migraines once a month or more and was gradually getting more and more exhausted having to take big chunks of time out and sleep and crash out after classes, my skin was aweful and i had enormous headaches. I was also dizzy ansd nauseuous all of the time. It is amazing how much shame i have felt over the years for feeling this way and have chosen to hide it, but it is part of my journey and who i am today so i am proud to be sharing it now.
I left school, wow what a relief that was and went to art school which was pure joy suddenly having the freedom and being around more like minded people and doing what i loved. But i still had a horrendous lack of energy so that again i was missing big chunks of time and classes. For some reason i decided to do jewellery design and got in to Middlesex University to do it. However after 3 months, although i had always thought i wanted to be an artist as art had always made me feel so happy and free it just didn't feel like i was in the right place or doing the right thing. aah the waste, what an incredible opportunity missed, but it didn't feel right. My confidence in myself or lack of was reflected in what i thought of my work, i just felt like i didn't measure up. I left and went to earn some money to get me out and travelling. I went to India to do some voluntary teaching for 3 months in a small village called Burua in the Hindu Valley just north of Manali in the Himalayas and then i travelled in northern India and in Nepal. Wow what a place and what an experience. I loved it all, the freedom, the energy, light and colour of the country was mind blowing and i didn't want to come back. I was able to live at a pace that suited me and my energy and i didn't have to conform to anything. I finally had the freedom that i craved. I did unfortunately get quite sick out there as my immune system was quite weak anyway and as many travellers do i picked up some water borne parasites, viruses and stomach bugs and lost a huge amount of weight.


 Neverthless it wasn't until i came back that i began to feel really ill. I had a place at Glasgow University to do Psychology and Anthropology so i came back, not questioning if it was really the right thing or not. Although i quickly knew i had made the wrong descision in terms of the course, it was too much on the intellectual path and often dry leaving little room for my creative side/drive, i didn't feel able to leave another course. I was also now struggling even more with my health, my face and my skin was puffy and in a horrendous state ( in part perhaps in coming back to eating wheat, sugar, dairy etc rather than eating a very simple diet of rice and vegetables) my stomach was refusing to cooperate and my energy was lower than ever. The final nail came when i went skiing with my family and i fell hitting my head and effecively getting whiplash/concussion resulting in increased dizziness, nauseau, headaches and brain fog/short term memory issues. Well to be honest i can't remember when the brain fog started but it was definately not welcome. Despite this i forced myself to keep going with the course even when it was clear that i should drop out for health reasons and when i could no longer get to classes. I was determined not to quit again and i didn't know what else to do but to keep trying to keep it all together. Not listening to my intuition in life has been one of the reasons perhaps that life has not flowed as it should but it has also has taught me how essential it is to do just that.


Listen and trust that although you may not know where it is leading you it will be somewhere good and needed for your own sense of purpose and well being. I clung on out of fear and because i did not know what else to do. Everything just seemed to be falling apart. I did not know what was happening to me and i wanted anwers to my health and to my life. What was i here for, what was i meant to be doing, what purpose did my life have and why was i so stuck? I was angry, sick and unhappy and i wanted some help and some answers. I felt very alone, not knowing, not hearing and not seeing the way forward, but step by step i did find the way. Somehow i was guided despite myself. I was guided by spirit.


I loved Glasgow for it's spirit and for all the wonderful people that i met there and it was great fun in parts. Some of my closest friends i met there while i was studying and it is also where i met my husband ( wow what an amazing man he is, he shone a light into the darkness when no one else could) and some amazing healers who started me back on the road to health. I also came across a buddhist practice, which although i don't follow also allowed me to meet some wonderful people and see the effect that chanting or simple prayer can have on your life. Ultimately i did not want to follow one path or be part of one organisation, but it was very interesting and healing.

I had slowly got worse and worse with the Chronic Fatigue in my first and second years until i collapsed pretty much in my third and fourth years. Managing to get it together to write the required essays despite not going to many of the lectures and doing the final exams despite only a week or two of revision. It started me on a road of education about myself, about diet, health and healing and ultimately what i am here for. I had no choice but it was an amazing wake up call. Looking back at my journals and and at all the information that i have gathered over the years i was given an amazing opportunity to do the most incredible research and by experiencing chronic illness i was given an amazing opportunity to fully understand what that is like at the deepest level and how one might come back from that/ heal from it. Ultimately it gave me the chance to go to the deepest and darkest places in myself and to start to discover who i really was and to begin to see that i was actually ok, infact more than ok.

HELP: The first person that really helped with the Chronic Fatigue in any significant way was someone called Georgia Wolfson who used a method called Holographic Repatterning now called Resonance Repatterning. Sadly i can no longer find her link on the internet so i am not sure what happened to her, or whether she is still practicing, but she was a very special person.



Resonance Repatterning is an extraordinary and powerful therapeutic tool that lets you tap into your body's wisdom and make postitive changes in your life. A repatterning can be likened to re-tuning the waveband or frequency of a radio. The programme we experience in life depends on the frequency we are tuned into whether this is health or sickness, success or failure, energy or exhaustion. In the session information is gathered using the tool of muscle checking, a technique used to access the body's own wisdom.



In Resonance Repatterning the practitioner will muscle check for the negative patterns in the unconscious mind that that person is locked into and then, again using muscle checking, will establish what healing modalities can be use to shift these patterns.The Resonance Repatterning system understands that we exist as fields of vibrating frequencies. Our thoughts, feelings, needs and physical symptoms are all vibratory expressions.
The frequencies we resonate with determine what we experience. We attract and express what we resonate with. If for example we resonate with the frequency of being angry, being sick, feeling rejected not having enough money, or humour, joy of living and passion, then that’s what we’ll draw to us and what will manifest in our lives.The Resonance Repatterning system gives us the tools to change our resonance so we naturally and easily spiral up to a higher energy state of well being and coherence.

We store a lifetime of experiences, memories and feelings in our bodies. Your practitioner asks the body what physical, mental and emotional tension it needs to release in order to return to optimum health. The body is then offered various therapeutic techniques and is able to select the treatment which will help to restore balance. The treatments may include: Acupressure points, breathing patterns, flower remedies, visualisation, tuning forks, meridian massage, colour and light therapy.


I wish now that i had written down some of my experiences during and after these sessions, but i do remember the peace of the room, Georgias healing presence, the fact that she had a great sense of humour and that she would test for what my body needed, even at the start of a session so that i could get the most out of it- for example to sit up or lie down etc. I also remember that in one session in particular we both felt that there were many angels present and i began to feel that there was hope for the first time in a long time.

I feel that Resonance Repatterning cuts to the core, finds the root and addresses it immediately. It is fast and precise and it is one of the most amazing forms of healing that i have ever come across. It has some similarities
with Life Alignment which is also a very powerful technique.


There were many other things that helped in my recovery but those are for future blog posts.
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