Creating Healthy Habit Patterns

Our own memories of what we have already done previously in this life can really  influence our actions as they can create a strong imprint.

As human beings, we have a tendency to create habit patterns. Just notice when you have a new, satisfying or memorable experience, such as the first time you visit a city and find a particularly good restaurant, how it can very quickly become a pattern to want to revisit this same place, even order the same food. We play out these patterns across a very broad spectrum of our behaviour – from the most basic of eating, sleeping and exercising, through to more elaborate patterns.

GETTING UNSTUCK

When we get stuck in patterns it can often be like we are sleepwalking in routines, the patterns become so thickly layered that we continually just play them out. Eat, sleep, work, repeat. What we did yesterday or last week becomes what we are doing again today. Again, remember that each situation in life is actually unique so if you are repeating the same stuff over, then check you aren’t trapped in your comfort zone!

At the end of the day, the way out of these particular scenarios isn’t to fight with or reason with the voices in your mind but just to keep accessing the greater intelligence of soul consciousness which raises your vibration and radiance to fulfil your being with spontaneity. As explained earlier, this also reduces the volume of the other discordant chatter in the mind (trolls) as well as being much more alluring and efficacious, and will over time begin to change the imprints on the body too.

REFILLING YOUR CUP

So, while acupuncture and treatments can also work to alleviate significantly embedded and discordant energies that sit within the body, you still need to work at refilling yourself afterwards with the good soulful stuff!

It’s also good to notice that since it feels so fulfilling when you have really been soul embodied, there is also a tendency to reach out much less to other things to pick your energy up, whether it’s food, drink or seeking attention from other people (as opposed to connecting with other people simply as a gift of life). You just feel more nourished and less needy!

In some form or another, around any area of your life there are always multiple perspectives, often that contradict each other about what you should be doing. So, all you can do, at the centre of that, is trust what feels right. It’s the only common factor, what’s in your own special heart.

SOUL & PERSONALITY

While the promptings of our soul is always what we are looking for, it’s also helpful to be aware that over time, what happens is that the radiance of your soul, the more you engage with it, starts to take over from your genetic, predisposed version of self that you are born with.

Essentially, your soul consciousness starts to permeate your conscious expression, and you start to become a generally more ‘soulful’ person, enabling you to drop old tendencies which you might have picked up habitually or been influenced by in your early life, but that aren’t your authentic self.

This embodiment of soul is a continual process, and like much else we discuss, can also have a yin and yang quality to it, in the sense that after a concerted period of soul growth, we may have relatively fallow periods where we integrate our experiences to become part of our body-mind and shape our future spontaneous expression in the world.

But there’s no rush – you just follow your instincts and freewheel when you need to while you integrate new possibilities and experiences, and then when the impetus comes to pedal like fury and be the change in your life, expressing this more refined version of yourself in the world, then do that too! Life carries you through this process.

SUMMARY

So how can you incorporate healthy habits into your life today?  What will you try to improve on?

If you need further support you can also grab a copy of my book ‘Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide to Life’ or visit our wonderful Juice Retreat  at the beautiful Moinhos Velhos in Portugal.

The Soul Is Often The Quietest Voice

We can often become disconnected from the voice of our soul if we don’t regularly have the means to engage with it, or express our soulful nature, and it can also create a situationwhere other voices in our mind become particularly loud as there is lack of direction from and ability to hear the messages of the soul.

THE VOICE & ENERGY OF THE SOUL

In fact, if we have been particularly disconnected from the voice and energy of the soul, we can really become quite closed to it, and old imprints, habit patterns and fears can almost totally overrun our mind to the point that we question whether those more soulful experiences and feelings we’d previously had could even be real or true. These other voices like to keep us safe and familiar – hence the dreaded comfort zone – but it’s best not to indulge them and focus more on heartfelt and soulful activities which lift us and continually pull us out of ‘falling asleep’.

THE MAGIC OF CHINESE MEDICINE

In Chinese medicine, we actually refer to the heart as the quietest voice you hear in your mind, so when the mind is busy it’s competing with some pretty loud competition! This is also why it’s essential to get to know the various streams of dialogue you hear in your mind so you can have some discernment. It’s also important to clear up your energetic body and quiet the discordant chatter with therapies and by cultivating practices in your routine that help this, such as yoga, meditation and deep relaxation. The mind gets busier when we are off track in life as the other organs, elements and aspects of our nervous system are trying to dictate our next move to create balance, basically trying to take over the role of the soul as we can’t connect with it. At this stage it’s as though you are walking in the dark, taking haphazard guesses at things that you think might help!

COME BACK TO BALANCE

It’s worth noting this important point. Even when you’ve come back to balance and cleared up your energetic body, and the discordant chatter has quietened and you are feeling happy and well, it’s not always the case of having an ‘empty’ mind. Sitting in deep meditation, we can still sometimes hear the voice of the heart and soul as a distinct voice within, only it’s a much more distinct and comfortable voice, as the other discordant voices are quiet. The voice of the soul can also be felt, and experienced, as a direct subtle energetic transmission of light, which can also be accessed and realised through deep meditation, but in many cases it can be distinctly interpreted through words or visions.

BEING IN ALIGNMENT

What’s important at this stage is understanding that when we are in alignment, the soul sits in the heart with such efficacy and power that it directs the other organs and elements within us.

The greater intelligence of soul consciousness and true wisdom of listening to your heart

The soul essence within you is also plugged into a much broader consciousness and intelligence than the narrower personality mind we can often inhabit which relies a lot on logic and creating new preconceptions and expectations based on old experiences. This is because your soul essence (or soul seed) is connected to the soul source where a great deal of the overall choreography of your life is orchestrated and guided from.

LISTENING TO YOUR HEART

Thus, since the heart is the tool of expression of the soul and where we experience soul intelligence in the body, then truly following your heart is actually the ultimate level of intelligence and way to navigate through life. The old saying of listening to your heart isn’t an empty cliché, as although it may not always make sense to the more logical mind, remember it is connected to a much broader perspective than you can see from your own vantage point, and in time events unfold which may make more sense. Think of it as your soul having access to the soul source that has an entire 360-degree perspective on all life and can be busy making connections for you that you can’t see – yet! So, trust the impulse of the heart.

It’s like the difference between being lost in a crowd trying to find your way out as opposed to being able to see the entire crowd from above and plotting a route based on the bigger picture.

Passion is a barometer for how much your soul is engaged in what you are doing!

SUMMARY

So, how does this article resonant with you today?

If you need further support with your wellbeing, we run regular retreats at Moinhos Velhos in Portugal and you can also grab a copy of my book through my website to support you on your journey to health and healing.

Being Present & Having Presence

Happy Wellness Wednesday and welcome to a new blog.

Today I wanted to discuss ‘Being Present & Having Presence’ with an extract taken from my book Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide to Life.

Being Present & Having Presence – The Heart Electromagnetic Field

Accessing the soul has a particularly high vibration (high energy!) to it so it makes you feel incredibly well and you tend to have a sense of presence – people pay you more attention. Soulful moments also tend to be characterised by feeling very ‘present’ within the experience with little other internal dialogue/chatter inhabiting the mind. This is also explained in various therapeutic modalities as being a result of the increase of the electromagnetic field of the heart that occurs in these moments.

Your Heart Energy

It’s this increase in your electromagnetic field or ‘aura’ which makes you more noticeable to others and also relaxes and quiets discordance in other organs and aspects of the nervous system that otherwise creates additional thoughts. The organs and nervous system are impacted as they are also essentially bathed within your heart energy – it’s also why people around you might also feel more relaxed in your company, but in fact not just the people, but the plants and animals around you too. You feed the whole.

Living A Soulful Life

Put quite simply, when you are doing soulful activities, your heart and body-mind are happy and there is no need to overthink or be overstimulated (stressed)!

Doing a large amount of soulful activities also leaves a positive legacy in your actual physical body. We identified above that when you are doing a soulful activity your heart radiance increases, and since your heart processes blood, it stamps onto the fluids of the body the essence of your soul which becomes part of your physical vibration and body-mind here and now. You start to radiate a soulful and authentic presence. However,  this needs renewal – the more soulful activities we do, the more presence we have as the soulful charge stays within the body.

Good Vibes

This would reflect in what we think of as someone having a great deal of charisma, a good ‘vibe’ or presence. When someone is truly doing what they love, their energy field ‘aura’ extends massively off the body. Think of a performer truly in their essence or when you walk into a room where someone has been creatively inspired or in their ‘element’. You can often feel their presence in the atmosphere. So when you do what you love, you become a radiant and inspiring person with a sense of presence.

Is Your Heart In It?

You can also contrast and consider your own internal experience of when you don’t really want to be doing something. Think of how we even say in our everyday language, “My heart wasn’t really in it” when we feel we have moved on from something or it just doesn’t work well for us. You could actually swap ‘heart’ for ‘soul’ in this instance since, as we have identified, there is an intimate connection between the two.

Getting To Know Your Heart

Getting to know the energetic qualities and characteristics of the heart is an essential ally in your ability to relate to the promptings and expression of the soul. I have already made reference to the relationship between the heart and soul, that the soul uses the heart as a navigation and expression tool (as the essence of the soul sits in the heart). Therefore it makes sense that if we understand some of the basic characteristics and feelings of the heart in expression and reception then we can more clearly interpret the promptings of the soul.

Summary

How has this resonated with you today?  Are you present in your everyday life do you have presence?  Share your comments with me.

If you need further support then come and visit us at our juice retreat in Portugal or grab a copy of my book.  More details on my website.

Have a great week!

Are You Seeking External Validation?

In today’s blog, I would like to share with you my experience of ‘external validation’.  Now more than ever, because of social media pressure, we can often find ourselves comparing ourselves  to others or seeking ‘external validation’ to feel worthy.  We can lose our identities because of this and all the people pleasing can leave us feeling exhausted and not really understanding who we really are.

So, here is my experience that I shared in my book ‘Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide to Life’.

MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON EXTERNAL OPINIONS

With external navigation we tend to make decisions based on the value judgements of the people around us and societal norms when making choices in life, whereas in internal navigation we are making choices that come from within. And over time I’ve increasingly moved to internal navigation; I get my answers within and act on them, and have very much narrowed the gap between soulless aspects of my life and peak experiences (such as the retreats and workshops) which were full of soul. Now every part of my life is touched by soul – or else what’s the point? I cringe now when I hear family members proudly asserting what a great job a younger relative has because they are working for so-and-so and earning big money, even though the younger relative hates the job!

As I’ve developed, sometimes I’m in situations where I feel like I’m living out my soul; it’s so on the surface, it’s like my entire being is a giant beating heart of what is important to me. Then life is easy. I don’t have to ‘think’ or do intense practices to find my love and soul. I’m just happy as I’m in my essence.

SOUL EMBODIMENT THROUGH HOLISTIC LIVING

I tend to feel completely soul embodied when I’m doing acupuncture treatments, teaching yoga or giving workshops – it’s as if all other internal chatter drops away out of my mind and I feel totally at ‘One’2. For want of a better description it’s as if I totally drop into my body and there is no longer any division between me and the world around me. When I’m doing something that I love so much there is no need to have any trepidation of the world around me; I’m in my ‘element’.

A RETREAT FOR YOUR SOUL

A remarkable time for me is when I’m facilitating at Moinhos Velhos retreat in the Algarve. When I’m there I feel like my soul can just be so on the surface and met on so many levels. I do all the things that I love, offer loads of healing work, have great connections with people, community, professional development, fun, all in one place. Times like this can really help to shift your template and raise the bar of what you think is possible. Although we evolve and need change to keep the soul stimulated, don’t ever dismiss times like these as simply being a ‘holiday’ or somehow not ‘real life’, which is something the naysayers will have you believe!

However, listening to the soul also isn’t a one-hit wonder which always takes you towards the fun stuff; it’s something you have to do often, and you have to find ways to constantly access it. Here’s where your regular practices need to come in, so you don’t lose track of what’s inside and talking to you. Things evolve and sometimes we have to do what I think of as the ‘long walk’.

The long walk is where the soul is seemingly asking to move on from a situation we have become overly comfortable with, or which is no longer feeding or nourishing us, since the soul prompts you when you aren’t living fully as it likes to evolve and have new experiences. I’ve had this many times in my life.

Today, make space to rest and reset your mind.  Get in tune with whether you are internally validating yourself or trying to validate yourself through external measures.

If you need further support you can read my book – ‘Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide to Life or visit us at our beautiful healing juice retreat at Moinhos Velhos in the Algarve for some time of rest, inner healing and rejuvenation.

My Soulful Journey

If someone had mentioned to me years ago the idea that I had a soul it would have been just another ‘idea’ in my conceptual mind, another theory to file away. I believe the soul is something that you have to ‘touch’ inside, sometimes deep inside, and it was only initially through doing many ‘embodied’, ‘spiritual’ or ‘soulful’ practices such as Sun Moon Dances, 5Rhythms Dance, natural therapies and lots of yoga that I began to touch upon mine.

WHAT IS THE SOUL?

So what is the soul? Imagine a seed of light within you that has the capacity to expand and contract; this in essence is the soul. When the soul finds itself in a situation that engages it, doing something that you like, that seed of light expands and encompasses you and you are totally embodied within the radiance of it. It becomes your essence, your aura and charisma and spreads out in every direction around you, touching the life around you too.

However, let me be clear here. The idea isn’t just to be accessing your soul through intense or sometimes radical spiritual experiences outlined above – it’s about getting your soul essence into every part of your life, every moment, as why would you ever want to be cut off from your own light? The practices I outline above are just ways to help you get connected again if you get cut off. The connection you feel in those practices acts as a template to remind you that you are more than a body and a brain, and then you bring that state of being off your yoga mat, off the dance floor, out of the therapy room or wherever and into your life!

In my late teens and early twenties, I had to dig really deep to find my soul, as I had become so disconnected at times. There were periods that were full of a darkness and emptiness, as I wasn’t doing things to let my soul off its leash and fulfil my being. I recognise that sometimes there were huge gaps between the whispers of my soul and the limiting beliefs on the surface of my mind – perhaps those beliefs weren’t allowing me to entertain the essence of what my soul desired, so I wasn’t following its calling, or simply the circumstances around me hadn’t really engaged with my soul itself.

DISCOVERING MY SOUL

In discovering my soul, I found a sense of peace and direction I’d never accessed before. I was finding my purpose, realising that I have a powerful healer living inside of me. And again, to be clear, that ‘healer’ doesn’t have to be someone who does therapies for a living, it’s just that when you find your soul, you become a healer even if you are digging holes for a living as long as that’s your purpose! This is because you are bringing a healing quality to each moment of your existence.

In essence, we all have a calling, but with me it took some time for my conscious mind to come to terms with what my soul would be whispering! Growing up, being an acupuncturist or yoga teacher wasn’t really on the list of occupations that you’d usually choose, so this is where some of the limiting beliefs can arise from. You either feel you have to move towards what society places a high value judgement on, or you simply don’t have the context or awareness of what you might actually fit into. I didn’t really give myself a sense of permission to do those things I was drawn to as I also had to contend with the projections and ‘norms’ from the people and culture around me which initially influenced me and my beliefs, until I garnered enough trust in who I am to just do what felt right for me.

So, if you feel like you are in need of more support on your spiritual journey, then check out my book ‘Understanding Human Nature –  A User’s Guide to Life.   Through my website you can also find out about my juice retreat in gorgeous Portugal where you will be able to connect with like-minded souls.

See you next week.

About Understanding Human Nature

In today’s blog I wanted to teach you about how you connect to the people and world around you, why raising your vibration is so important and what my book ‘Understanding Human Nature’ is all about.  How you are bound together through the mechanics of vibration and resonance and why what you feel around a person or in a place has meaning, irrespective of what your logical mind tells you must be true.

In my book ‘Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide to Life’, I talk a lot about how to raise your vibration to achieve the life and the happiness that you require.

UNDERSTANDING ENERGY

As you delve more into your spiritual side, you learn to understand the natural energetic laws that are acting on your body-mind-spirit and directing the flow of your energy way more than the cultural demands of your society (and those of your boss) can ever contend with. Learning how these unceasing patterns of yin and yang and the Five Elements manifest in both your inner and outer world and how to be in tune with them – is essential if you are going to live a vitally healthy life!

Understanding Human Nature teaches you  how to observe and master how the inner terrain of your mind works and how it’s just comprised of the same simple patterns as the rest of nature.

You will explore relationship dynamics for what they truly are and dump the fantasies in favour of what is true and genuine.

And learn to understand, in depth, how healing practices such as yoga, meditation and Chinese medicine work and how they nourish your soul.

WHY READ MY BOOK?

Reading this book will help you understand the importance of your life purpose and successfully managing both your internal physiology and the circumstances around you to nourish and provide the conditions for you to thrive. It will help you understand that abundant health is your soul sitting within your body and directing through the heart the other elements of you to give you what you need.

And you will be empowered! You will feel clear to change the circumstances around you when they aren’t in alignment with your highest potential AND also have the capacity to work on yourself when you know the limiting factor is within. Wisdom and understanding is discerning which and knowing the difference!

I have often thought that the more you learn, the better you should get at something; so your life should also be getting better as you develop. If your life isn’t getting better, you might want to check you are absorbing the lessons life is sending your way or indeed, check you are learning the right stuff about life itself. And this is my attempt to share some wisdom that might help with that!

The book has been written to be read from cover to cover, but trust your instincts as well. If you are guided to dip in and out, then please do so. We are often working on certain aspects of our lives at a particular time and if something is more relevant now, trust your gut!

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Understanding Human Nature brings together 25 years of my experiences in yoga and meditation (teaching and practising), acupuncture and Chinese medicine, dance and movement, retreat facilitation, ceremonies inspired by Native American mysticism, tantra and community living.

You’ll learn from the countless hours I’ve spent treating acupuncture patients who lay bare to me what really matters; the hundreds of yoga classes I’ve taught helping people to reconnect to their body, heart and soul; the wisdom I’ve accumulated from participating in ceremonies (such as Sun Moon Dances where you dance for three days without food and water); the thousands of hours of conscious dance observing the instinctive wisdom of the body and group dynamics; my studies of tantric intimacy and understanding the mechanics of human relating, and my years spent living in intentional communities where life becomes about expressing your natural gifts to support the whole, not fitting in to make money! And finally the wisdom I’ve gleaned from simply learning to live my life from my heart.

FROM GRIND TO GROWTH

Over that time I’ve been lucky enough to work in the grind of the busiest cities, like London, but also the most exquisitely beautiful natural settings, so I’ve got to see and understand both sides – that in the city you are always striving to achieve and be someone, whereas in nature, you already are someone!

And now it’s time to be you.

So if you are in need of support on your spiritual journey then grab a copy of my book or check out my website for my latest classes or juice retreat which can support you on your path to healing.

It’s Time To ‘Wake Up’

The path to spiritual enlightenment is a crazy one.  There are highs and lows like a endless rollercoaster ride.   However, it is ever-changing and when you do reach enlightenment in your life or even just a glimpse, you literally feel like you have ‘woken up’ from a dream.  You see your life in a different way and you value things in a different way.  Your life has a different meaning and all of a sudden you gain an inner wisdom and inner peace within yourself that no money could buy.  You find joy in the simple things and not in materialistic purchases and your spiritual practice becomes the oxygen to your soul.

This week, I wanted to share with you my onward journey to enlightenment from my bestselling book as we are ever evolving.

EXTRACT FROM ‘DISCOVERING HUMAN NATURE – A USER’S GUIDE TO LIFE’

There are so many spiritual, new age and natural health practices out there nowadays that we are trying to parachute into our modern-day lives. The result is this grinding juxtaposition of your Tuesday night yoga class, Wednesday night massage or week-long yoga retreat against the chaos and spiritual distress of your everyday life.

You might feel this clash as soon as you make the lonely commute home after the classes and events that actually do fill your heart, or during the social night out full of alcohol which barely scrapes the surface of what you really want to feel nourished. Or perhaps you feel it most when you wake up to another day in a concrete jungle overwhelmed with technology that’s meant to help you connect with people – somewhat bizarre when in reality people barely feel comfortable raising a smile as they walk past you in the street.

WAKING UP

Maybe it’s when you wake up in the morning and drag yourself to another adrenalin-fuelled day at work as the pressure is on. Not the pressure for you to achieve what’s deep in your longing soul, all the compacted dreams you’ve got stowed away in there from the day you were born, but simply the pressure to make money for ‘someone’ as you face the bleak reality that you’re just another person in the rat race. Or maybe waking up to another day in a job you hate or just tolerate is all you have as you just don’t know what else to do!

Possibly it strikes you most as you are rushing around frantically in the winter feeling exhausted to your bones, catching a glimpse out the corner of your eye at nature and the trees around you that are seemingly still, having a rest, but having no time to muse on that as you’ve got to keep pushing to get things done!

Perhaps it’s when your backache or depression becomes so bad you finally go to the doctor’s hoping for some kind of healing for the problem but instead walk out despairingly with another packet of painkillers or antidepressants?

Or is it when you end another relationship because it just doesn’t match up to the Hollywood image of how it’s meant to be?

What is going on?!

THE MIND BODY CONNECTION

Nobody told you it was going to be like this, did they? These ideas were force-fed to you as being the norm from the day you were born and pushed even more as soon as you got into school: ‘real life’ they call it. And you were meant to fall for it, hook, line and sinker, and you once did, but the only problem now is that you’ve started to wake up.

The connection with your soul and natural life has been stoked by your engagement with these soulful natural practices such as yoga, dance, mindfulness and time spent in nature, and now there is no going back! You can try putting your head back into the sand after the bliss of your class or retreat, try getting back to the ‘real life’ you are meant to dutifully play out, but it’s too late.

Whether you like it or not, you’ve been reborn into your own soul wisdom, the chance and opportunity to live out your birthright of who you actually are. It’s time to close that gap between your bliss state when you do touch on the exalted territory of your heart and the rest of the f**king spiritually pitiful existence we have somehow contrived to create and become a diehard, authentic version of who you actually are. In all areas of your life!

It’s time to be given the instruction manual to be yourself that you should have been given the day you were born, if only the people around you knew it existed, and probably weren’t too bitter at the stress they had to endure in their own ‘real life’ to let you see it!

And here it is. Instead of filling your mind with ways to function in the ‘real world’ (which in fact is a crazy construct of Western civilisation which mostly pulls you away from everything that is naturally and actually important to you), here are the instructions to find who you are and how to function as a naturally exhilarated person in this reality and hack the system altogether!

Learn how to connect with your soul and interpret when it’s whispering meaningful actions to take in your life, and how to feel it right now in your heart when you are doing something that’s meaningful TO YOU.

SUMMARY

I wrote my book because I was fed up of the ‘hustle culture’.  It is time to reconnect with your passions in life and work on your wellbeing.  Many people do not know what their purpose is because they are misaligned with their passions in life.  Whether you want to spend more time with family, create your own wellness routine, write a book or  set up a new business – tap into your passions today as without passion in your life there is no purpose.

If you would like to read more, you can grab a copy of my book through my website.

See you next Wellness Wednesday for more insights on my journey to wellness and how it can help you.

From Pain I Discovered My Passion

It is with great pleasure and gratitude that I share with you my wellness journey.  Each Wednesday, I will share with you extracts from my debut book ‘Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide To Life’.  Today I share with you how I turned my painful experiences into a burning desire to pursue my passions in life.

Extract from Understanding Human Nature – A User’s Guide To Life

There have been many turning points in my life. Some big. Some dramatic. And some seemingly imperceptible at the time, until I look back and realise how much they inform who I am today. It’s all too easy to call them low points, when in reality they are just ‘turning points’, navigational aids, letting me know I’m diverting off track or have some work to do.

I’ve always been interested in finding out how things work. Not inanimate objects, but how life itself works. Sure, at school, we are taught concepts, but these mainly lend themselves towards making one ‘successful’ within the confines and perspective of a particular society, rather than teaching you about the whole game of life. Where on earth – literally! – was any kind of narrative, explanation or instruction manual on life itself?

Now I get that we are all different. My brother’s bliss, his ‘Tao’, path and purpose, is tinkering with his 500cc Ducati. He’s happy stripping it down and rebuilding its engines, whereas my purpose is very different. It took me years to work out that we all have our own destiny and bliss. There’s no judgement; it is what it is! I spent years wondering why I wasn’t the same as seemingly everyone around me, until I found my place.

Let’s go back to one of my turning points. I was about 17. My parents had separated which catalysed some big changes for me and a collapse of sorts. I don’t attribute any blame or fault whatsoever, as like most parents they were trying as hard as they could, and I had a good childhood. Even if you perceive your parents’ behaviour to be misaligned, keeping the broader holistic perspective, they are not the only significant input to shape you into who you are today.

I was 17, my parents had split a couple of years previously and until then I had been nicely cocooned in a family and somewhat sheltered, which meant I never really had to reach out to seek or find answers. So ultimately, looking back now, their separation, although a source of pain, was the catalyst for me being who I am today. It forced me to go out and explore the world, and for that I am grateful.

One of the consequences of this significant rupture of my cocoon was that in my mind, on some kind of logical level, I wanted to almost adopt the group of friends I’d now buddied up with as my ‘new’ family and ‘secure unit’.

I was a teenager with lots of energy reaching out, as you do at that age, seeking an identity, but I didn’t know myself, let alone these new people I’d only recently met!

Summary

I was a lost soul trying to find my place in this World. It took me getting in with the wrong crowd, drinking too much and the pain of navigating tough relationships to re-discover myself and my new identity in this World and how I could help others.  It is from the darkest moments that I found my light.

So, if you are going through a hard time then understand that our painful moments do not define us.  Sometimes the Universe puts us into situations to help us build resilience and steer us in the right direction.  As Ryan Holiday would say ‘The Obstacle Is The Way’.

If you want to find out more about how these my life-changing events unfolded and changed my life then grab a copy of my book.  It will absolutely change your life too!

The Three Things that Convinced me we are all Connected

How do you see the world? Do you see it as full of separate objects, with our boundaries created by our physical structure? Or do you see everything in the world as connected in some way?

As you go about your day are you in a bubble made for one or does it feel more like existing in web of life? Are we connected to those around us? And in what way?

These are questions that really matter for how we live our lives.

 

How I used to see it

 

I used to see the world and everything in it as entirely separate. I suspect this way of seeing the world as full of separate beings and entities is relatively prevalent in the Western culture.

The idea that there could be some kind of interconnecting force, or greater intelligence dictating or choreographing the movement of people, plants, animals and natural life generally, well in the past, that wouldn’t even have crossed my conscious mind.

 

But then again…?

 

However, over time, I came to see that there were some glaring exceptions where a sense of non-physical interconnection between people or objects was particularly apparent. This gave me the awareness that there was some influence that people or objects could have on each other without physical touch.

Here are the three things that got me really thinking about our connection to the universe and everything in it.

Can you feel it? It’s all in the atmosphere

 

Firstly, it is never lost on me how at a football match, or motorbike speedway meeting, with thousands of other people, there is an acknowledgement that those people in attendance can create an ‘atmosphere’. It’s something which hangs in the air, radiating from these people, something which is created beyond their physical interaction, but yet which collectively influences everybody present.

Sure, some of these people might be physically touching or brushing against each other occasionally, particularly when you used to be able to stand at football grounds, but even so there was an acknowledgement that something else, more subtle, but still powerful, can be created by the presence of these people. A subtle radiance that could alter the way people think and feel.

This was one of the first reflections that got me thinking that we are connected on a far deeper level than just our physical bodies and beings.

How they make you feel

 

Secondly, I became more conscious of how the presence of just one other person near me could affect how I felt. Just one other person, standing in front of me, without touch, could make me feel vastly different, evoke vastly different emotions in me, depending on who they were.

Standing next to someone at a bus stop could make me open into conversation or contract and shy away – by sheer instinct. I realised that I was picking up on a connection with that person without even saying a word, without a single touch.

I realised that I really was connected to those around me, whether I liked it or not.

 

A Global Connection

 

Thirdly, I started to become aware of this sense of interconnection and atmosphere on a more global level too.

I’ll never forget the second ‘Live Aid’ or Live 8 event held in 2005. From the time I woke up that morning, I could tangibly feel the whole ‘atmosphere’ of my street and town was different and I felt the same as I visited the neighbouring city too!

The positive activities and intentions of so many people seemingly influenced more than the immediate space around them, with the impact on a national and perhaps global level that day.

 

Of course, we have even more subtle, almost quaint examples of our interconnection with others, like when we are thinking of someone and they ‘coincidentally’ just happen to call us on the phone at that same moment.

Another common occurrence I notice related to my work is that if I’ve been working abroad for a while and schedule a trip back to England – or start the journey back – then I’ll get an influx of emails regarding receiving acupuncture with me or enquiring about me teaching a workshop.

 

Like a great number of other subtle ‘unseen’ life dynamics, it’s often just generally a bit too confronting and difficult for the mind to try to define or give credibility to these ‘unseen’ dynamics.

And who was I meant to ask about it anyway? Back when I was growing up there was no internet and such existential and ethereal subjects weren’t exactly the topics of choice with the people around me!

However, nonetheless, these things I was becoming aware of were beginning to inform and develop my understanding of interconnection. And this prompted me to try and define some of the mechanics and patterns involved.

I’ll be posting more about interconnection – and what it means in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, if you’d like to know more then you can get the full low down in my book Understanding Human Nature which is available now.

How to Live More Soulfully – 24/7

Many of us are seeking to live more authentic lives. Lives that are more in tune with our core beliefs, values and intuition rather than moulded around the norms of our culture or the expectations of others.

Perhaps it all started for you when you had a glimpse of soulful living through your weekly yoga practice of meditation session. You glide off the mat but minutes later you are stuck in a traffic jam and all that soulful energy seems to leak out of you.

How would you feel if I told you that it really is possible to live that soulfully all of the time? That by listening to the heart and the quiet voice of the soul, you can live soulfully every single day rather than squeezing it in for an hour each week?

Here’s how.

Listen to the Soul

 

The first step in living more soulfully is to discover the voice of our own soul. You’ll know what this feels like. It’s those moments of insight. Moments of clarity and purpose. But it is possible to tune in more deeply to this part ourselves and be much more connected with this inner voice and make it more than fleeting moments that pass us by.

People also often talk about hearing the voice of the soul as a kind of ‘intuition’ but talk about intuition as if that voice comes from somewhere external to us, that it doesn’t actually belong or originate within us, shows a misunderstanding of what intuition is.

That voice or prompting or gut feeling comes from within you. Intuition = inner tuition. When you access the inner tuition of the soul you enter into a state of high vibration (high energy) so it makes you feel incredibly well. You might also find that you have a sense of presence – people pay you more attention!

We know when we are listening to the voice of the soul, it feels good and that radiates from us, from the inside out.

Quiet Other Voices

 

A challenge we all face when listening for the voice of the soul is that it is often the quietest voice inside of us. We can easily become disconnected from the voice of our soul if we don’t regularly have the means to engage with it or express our soulful nature. We may also find that other voices in our mind become particularly loud when there is lack of direction from, and ability to hear, the messages of the soul.

In fact, if we have been particularly disconnected from the voice and energy of the soul, we can really become quite closed to it, and old imprints, habit patterns and fears can almost totally overrun our mind to the point that we question whether those more soulful experiences and feelings we’d previously had could even be real or true.

These other voices like to keep us safe and familiar – hence the dreaded comfort zone – but a return to more heartfelt and soulful activities can lift us again and pull us out of our human tendency towards ‘falling asleep’!

 

Engage in Soulful Activities

 

We can quiet the discordant chatter of the mind that drowns out the voice of the soul with therapies and by cultivating practices in our routine that help this, such as yoga, meditation and deep relaxation. Sitting in deep meditation, we can hear the voice of the heart and soul as a voice within, it is a distinct and comfortable voice, and the other discordant voices are quiet.

The voice of the soul can also be felt, and experienced, as a direct subtle energetic transmission of light, which can also be accessed and realised through deep meditation. In many cases it can be distinctly interpreted through words or visions.

What is vital to recognise, is that the soul essence within you is also plugged into a much broader consciousness and intelligence than just our own. Often, we inhabit the narrower personality mind which relies on logic and creating new preconceptions and expectations based on old experiences. By following the intuitions of the soul we connect into something much deeper.

By following the heart, we connect to soulful intelligence. Truly following your heart, and the promptings of the soul, is the ultimate level of intelligence and way to navigate through life. It can be an entire blueprint for how to live, fed and spurred on by soulful activities but not limited to them.

 

The old saying of listening to your heart isn’t an empty cliché. If we are looking to take our soulful moments from the yoga mat to the whole of life then connecting in to the soul can be our greatest tool.

Connecting in to the soul allows us to access a much broader perspective than you can see from your own vantage point, and in time events unfold which may make more sense. Think of it as your soul having access to the soul source that has an entire 360-degree perspective on all life and can be busy making connections for you that you can’t see – yet!

So, trust the impulse of the heart. It’s like the difference between being lost in a crowd trying to find your way out as opposed to being able to see the entire crowd from above and plotting a route based on the bigger picture.

Your life really can be all that you imagine it to be in those moments of insight, just follow the promptings of the soul.

 

A Beginners Guide to the Soul

If you’ve ever tried to talk about the idea of the soul with someone then I am willing to bet that you have experienced one of two reactions. You’ll either have been met with a blank stare or with great enthusiasm. For many people, talk of less tangible phenomena such as the soul can be challenging, particularly for those who have a more scientific and rational background.

The concept of the soul can also come weighed down by a many other concepts that people may find hard to get their head around. But for us soul talk enthusiasts, often we have discovered that it doesn’t really matter about the ins and outs of your beliefs, whether you think the soul is just a result of your experiences in this life or something greater.

To draw the benefits from an understanding of soul, you just have to subscribe to the idea that you are unique and there is part of you where that information is contained. Then the guiding power of your inner self, you soul, has a chance to speak – and listening can radically change you.

 

What am I?

 

So, what is the soul and why does it matter? Stick with me to find out.

Firstly, here’s the basics as I see them. You are a combination of your unique soul (which sits within your body) and your physical disposition, tendencies and personality that come from your genetic lineage. Your soul can be seen as an aspect of you that is constantly witnessing the decisions and actions that you take in life, often delivering prompts for change.

I like to think of the soul as the deepest part of me watching what I’m doing from behind my eyes. The blueprint and prompting for creative evolution.  All of creation has a natural blueprint that enables it to thrive and find its maximum potential; it’s just in-built. Have a look around: nature, the planet, animals and plant life, it all just does by instinct what it needs to do.

So where is and what is the blueprint? It’s your soul. Your soul is your blueprint and your instincts are how you feel and express that blueprint to keep you creatively evolving just like life around you.

 

Accessing the Wisdom of the Soul

 

So how do you access this blueprint and the wisdom of your own soul?

For me, the whole experience of accessing the soul comes with a couple of different ‘flavours’ – you get an individual essence of what you need to do, but also an awareness of the universal rules you need to play by. For people who don’t often access the intelligence of the soul, when they do, they can often put it down to an unusual experience and may seek to quickly drown that voice back out – particularly if life isn’t going so well.

This is because the promptings of the soul can be challenging to us if we aren’t really on track with our highest potential. They can even strike like a dagger at who we ‘think’ we are, and the various constructs we have about our identity.

So, if we are way off our ‘blueprint’ then the whisper of the soul can be tricky to listen to, as it can throw a curveball at who we think we are and what we think we are meant to be doing! However ultimately, it’s the voice you need to learn to trust.

 

Moments of Insight

 

When we don manage to access the soul, we often experience these moments as moments of ‘insight’. A moment of insight is where you are witnessing your life from your soul level. The voice of the soul often sits deep in the subconscious, which is why we need practices that enable us to quieten the mind so we can dip into those deeper soulful levels of who we are.

Then the essences and voice of the soul can start to make its way from the subconscious to inform your day-to-day thoughts and actions (or the personality level mind, as I call it). As you do this you will still have your unique quirks and nuances, but the underlying driver to your actions, opinions and thoughts starts to come more from the intelligence of the soul rather than collective norms and opinions of others.

 

Tending to the soul can radically alter our path in life. It can help you to see yourself from a different vantage point and to direct your life from a deeper place. In doing this work you might find yourself experiencing some peak moments. Maybe you have done a workshop or had a particularly soulful experience and a moment of clarity has come.

The challenge comes when you return back to your highly patterned life and promptly fell back to ‘sleep’ again, nostalgically reminiscing about the experience you had. It doesn’t have to be this way!

Once you’ve opened up to the voice of the soul, your own blueprint for life, there is another option open to you. Try living your entire life on the peak!

 

To find out more, check out my new book Understanding Human Nature: A Users Guide to Life

 

 

 

A Manual for Life?

There have been many turning points in my life. Some big. Some dramatic. And some seemingly imperceptible at the time, until I look back and realise how much they inform who I am today. It’s all too easy to call them low points, when in reality they are just ‘turning points’, navigational aids, letting me know I’m diverting off track or have some work to do.

I’ve always been interested in finding out how things work. Not inanimate objects, but how life itself works. Sure, at school, we are taught concepts, but these mainly lend themselves towards making one ‘successful’ within the confines and perspective of a particular society, rather than teaching you about the whole game of life.

Where on earth – literally! – was any kind of narrative, explanation or instruction manual on life itself?

 

Turning Points

 

Let’s go back to one of my turning points. I was about 17. My parents had separated which catalysed some big changes for me and a collapse of sorts. I was 17, my parents had split a couple of years previously and until then I had been nicely cocooned in a family and somewhat sheltered, which meant I never really had to reach out to seek or find answers.

One of the consequences of this significant rupture of my cocoon was that in my mind I searched for a new secure unit and found it in a group of friends. Looking back, I wonder, what was I thinking? How could I do a like-for-like replacement of my family with another group of people?

Putting aside my feelings I threw a lot of energy into these new relationships. And it was fun to some degree. I was a teenager with lots of energy reaching out, as you do at that age, seeking an identity. But I didn’t know myself, let alone these new people I’d only recently met!

I adopted the favoured demeanour of the livewire zany one. It made others laugh and helped me feel included and significant. This was a complete contrast to the studious intellectual person I was at school. But with the parental ‘earthquake’ that previous self-identity had gone out the window, and I’d also discovered drinking, not only as a social lubricant, but also as a means to be ‘in’ with my new friends.

 

Breaking Points

 

One night we all met round my friend’s house, and I remember feeling deeply uncomfortable inside, struggling to keep up with the energy and effort needed to slip into my caricature zany character when there was so much inner distress. And there was more beer to drink.

Did I really want to drink more beer? Not really. The weight of expectation ‘in my mind’ to be all the things I just didn’t FEEL like being was heavy. That night I was overthinking like crazy, self-analysing why I couldn’t slip into the spontaneous zany character and feeling very beleaguered inside.

While my friends partied inside the house, I took myself outside to try and snap myself out of it. I actually started doing press-ups outside on the pavement. Bizarre, I know, but somehow I associated doing exercise with something that could help, and in that moment, I was willing to try anything to ease my state.

Over time things became progressively more awkward with those friends – at least inside me, even if they weren’t aware of it. I felt a sense of love and affinity through the experiences we’d had together, but on some level I never quite got past the feeling that I didn’t quite belong and so I drifted away.

I wanted the sense of comfort I had with my own family, but of course there was no going back. All I really remember now is falling down a deep depressive hole that lasted about four years, save for a few chinks of light when I started to discover holistic therapies and working in nature.

 

Chinks of Light

 

The good thing about chinks of light is that they give you perspective. Looking back to that time, I had no clue what I was doing. I had no clue how life worked, no understanding of my own thoughts, feelings and emotions, no awareness of how to look after my body and certainly no clue about understanding what was going on in my mind or relationship dynamics. And as for learning a set of appropriate language, a narrative to explain my feelings, forget about it!

I didn’t want to be in my inner world, as it was troubled, but there’s a problem with this. At the tip of the iceberg of emotional unhappiness was my mind constantly trying to work things out. But trying to understand what my mind was actually trying to tell me about what I needed was impossible, it was just like a giant argument going on in there.

 

Fast Forwards

 

Fast forward to the present, and now I can perceive the subtlest shifts in my mental state and help other people to do the same. And as for the idea that behind all the painful chaos there was an actual intelligence at work – the intelligence of the soul, playing witness to what I was doing and trying to actually give me direction – well, forget about that too!

It might have sounded like a nice idea if someone had been able to explain it to me, but I still would have had no clue how to actually access or interpret that part of me. These days tuning into that level of my being is a core aspect of my work.

I also had no perspective. Now I can see my parents’ separation – amongst the sea of other experiences that can also be a source of pain – as actually a catalyst to make me explore life, to make me who I am today, and for that I’m grateful. How I wish it could have been possible to give my younger self a manual for life, as boy did I need a manual!

 

A Manual for Life

 

In fact, I almost feel it borders on negligent that we are never actually given some kind of guide to help us understand our experience on Earth. It should be the first book we are given – how to live and be a human successfully.

We get a torrent of information aimed at teaching us the intellectual and manual skills designed to enable us to get ‘good’ jobs (good in the sense that they will make you money and feed the rat race, not feed your soul) but what about information about being a good, satisfied human being who understands life, not just how to make a quick penny? Where is that?

 

So my experiences stimulated me to become a life mechanic – to work out why some things work, and others don’t. What are the nuts and bolts of the engine of my life and how do I get it in tune? This book offers you insights into helping to fix your understanding of life.

Now see what you can do with that.

 

Read more in my latest book Understanding Human Nature – A Users Guide to Life, available now

Where Do My Thoughts Come From?

Learn how your internal organs have a distinctive ‘voice’ that you hear in your mind as they tell you what they need! It’s amazing that even in the modern age there is such little understanding about the origin and nature of your thoughts.

Your AMAZING Abdomen!

Your Abdomen, for so many reasons is an incredible part of the body! It influences our moment to moment experience and perception of life in so many ways. In this video we look at 9 keys elements!

Touch, Attention & Connection

Talking about the human instinct for touch, attention & connection, and the pathology of what happens when it comes out of balance! Interestingly, a deficiency of these elements in our life often create a paradoxical mindset, where we then start to try and convince ourselves that we don’t actually need them!

Chakras: The Intermix of Earth and Spirit

I occasionally get what can appear to be downloads of information regarding functions of the body-mind, in this case chakras! During meditation I received some information explaining how or why the qualities of each chakra differ depending on the proportionality of ‘Earth energy’ as compared to ‘Soul or Spirit’ energy.

Acupuncture Is Not Only For Pain Relief Says Harvard Prof

According to the latest research from at Harvard Medical School, pretty much everybody can benefit from acupuncture, not only those that look to use it for pain relief. As it moves mainstream, it has also been helping millions worldwide deal with allergies, stress, pain and more.

The Big AI Debate: Will Robots Learn to Meditate? Or More Importantly, Will Humans?

Bengali writer Basab Dasgupta states this week that he does not believe that robots will be able to meditate anytime soon. With the proliferation of modern technology and 24/7 communication culture it’s not really a stretch to also apply this same statement to humanity!

Key Principles Of What Your Body, Mind & Soul Need

This life thing isn’t actually as complicated as we make it, only we live in ways that are so imbalanced against what we need as human beings, and separate ourselves from activities which allow us naturally feel good, through the body.

Understanding The Intimate Chaos of Relationship Dynamics Using The Chakra System

Understanding two relatively basic concepts, vibration and the chakra system allows a quick and simple way to understand what can seem like the complex dynamics of relationships. We can then learn why we get triggered in unique ways by each person we meet.

Sweetness and Light

It’s not always all good in my world either! Just incase it looks like the sun is always shining in my world, I get my challenges too. At these times it’s essential to have your ‘anchors’ – practices which help you find your balance.

What’s Your Overall Life Commitment & Objective?

Have you contemplated your overall life objective and commitment? This is our ‘vertical’ commitment to our individual life path, as opposed to ‘horizontal’ commitments we make with things around us. Once we are clear, it helps us to fill the journey on the way with supportive choices. Richard offers wellness coaching, yoga and acupuncture in Islington, Crouch End, Marylebone & St Albans

The Microcosmic Orbit

The Microcosmic Orbit is a Taoist internal energetic alchemy exercise – essentially it helps to balance your main Yin and Yang energy channels (meridians) within the body, which harmonises both your ability to move into action, and ability to rest.

Yin & Yang and The Forces of Nature

Looking at our relationship to Yin & Yang and the natural environmental forces that act on us and move us through life. Living in modern day, shielded environments from nature can skew our awareness and attunement to natural flow and compromise our health. How attuned are you?

Relationships: Commitment, Resistance, Perspective & Ties!

Relationships! The word commitment crops up all the time, but commitment is multi-faceted. Firstly you need to straighten out what you are committed to in your life, your ‘life objective’ to then make sure that the relationships that you are calling in to your life are in alignment.

Fatigue – The Holistic Perspective

Are you managing both the external stress factors in your life – e.g your job, relationships, home life AND also looking after your internal health with plenty of strong relaxation practices? An imbalance either way can lead to fatigue. It’s good to remember that Tension consumes energy!

Are You Trying Too Hard?

Sometimes we push towards what we ‘think’ we need rather than what the deeper intelligence inside our body tells us. (For me, on this occasion it was a beer, burger and ice cream!) Doing things that are ‘familiar’ can connect to something really deeply embedded within us and help reset the body.

Being Seen

How much of yourself do you really show to the world? And how comfortable are you with showing all aspects of who you are? Often we ‘cherry pick’ with what we like to show to the world!

Body-mind Connection: Core Strength

Been enjoying Pilates I’ve recently taken up with Josue Nunes at Alma Sana Yoga. Been noticing the beneficial effects on my mind as well as body – that I seem to be able to also hold the core of a idea and the integrity of my mental state better as well as the core strength in my body.

The Impact of Online Dating & Dating Apps on Society

As we’ve evolved a great deal of the technology we’ve developed has impacted on real time human interaction. With dating apps, they actually feed the connection paradox. We reach out for them as we are feeling deficient of nourishing contact, and they fuel our desire to connect, but…

Why You Need To Do What You Love – Heart Electromagnetic Field

Did you know the Heart has an electromagnetic field 5000 times stronger than the brain’s? Often who we think we are is what computes from our brain, but the contribution to our thoughts and feelings from what goes on in the body has a much stronger impact than you think!

Understanding How Your Mind Works

Even with modern science there’s much conjecture as to what the mind is and how it works. I explain: How the mind moves between the external & internal senses; How ‘inner chatter’ is created and the origin of the different ‘voices’; Who’s the ‘observer’; Plus 2 meditations!

Listening To Your Heart Is More Than An Idea!

Your Heart has it’s own intelligence system which feeds back to you – in the moment – your direct experience of life and whether it feels fulfilling to you on a deep level. This is essential information as the Heart is an expression organ of the Soul, so you can gain awareness of whether something has really deep meaning for you.

The Importance of Sleep

While eating well and exercising are essentials many focus on to better their wellbeing, quality sleep is a pillar of good health most of us tend to forget. Regular lack of adequate sleep not only wreaks havoc on your body clock, but also takes you a couple of steps back, health and fitness wise.

Yin & Yang of Awareness: Mind + Matter = the Alchemy of Creation

Yoga and meditation practice facilitates the alchemical fusion of the Yin and Yang aspects of our being – the conscious fusion of mind and body. These forces often become separated, but when bought together with awareness it has an immense energetic, creative potency!

Stress Relief Simplified!

It’s great to find myself in collaboration with other renowned thought leaders sharing our unique perspectives on practices to help us heal. At Stress Relief Simplified summit I explained; Life Purpose in relation to wellbeing, living in tune with nature and simple practices for your daily routine!

Destiny…Spoken Word!

Your destiny is within you. Avoid the trap of thinking it’s something that is ‘going to happen to you’ at some point in the future. It’s your path of highest potential and the blueprint for this is within your Heart – the Alchemical fusion centre where your Soul feels your physical world through your body…

Sun Moon Dance

Since the late 90’s I’ve taken part in Sun Moon and Drum Dances. These dances came over to the Western World through a vision that a Native American, Beautiful Painted Arrow Joseph Rael had. At these dances you dance for 2 or 3 days without Food and Water. Sounds extreme?

Spiral Walk Meditation – Mental & Emotional Cleansing

“Letting go.” If only it was as easy to put it into practice as it is to coin the phrase, which appears so regularly in alternative and spiritual practices. I’ll add that I’m in the camp of understanding that life is always a balance of yin and yang. The ceremony begins by lighting a candle

Addictions: Part 2

In Part 2, we look at the dynamic of understanding your reactions through your body (as opposed to predominately the mental level, where we can misinterpret the gravity of our thoughts) and the importance of practices which integrate the different levels of ourselves.

Addictions: Part 1

I had a bit of a difficult time recently with some of the strain of the busy urban lifestyle and following on from it decided to film a video blog about addictions, the relationship to Stress and how we experience addictions on the different levels of the body, mind and spirit. Hope you find some of it useful!

Autumn Detox

As well as having an acupuncture practice in London and running Creative Yoga London, I also teach, treat and run workshops at Moinhos Velhos, renowned detox centre in the Algarve (rated top 10 in the world by Times Newspaper) as part of their programmes. Part of being healthy is attuning to the energy of the seasons and how they influence our body.

Holistic Wellness Coaching

So for those of you who might be wanting a little bit of help with finding some way with a more holistic way of life, I can be of assistance through my Holistic Wellness coaching business. In my holistic coaching I roll together many threads of my knowledge and experience which will help you to find more balance in your life. It’s tailored to your needs, just like a acupuncture treatment is.

Stress!

Stress – not the most desirable thing in life. We can buffer a certain amount of strain in life, certain amount of stress but the longer term consequences are that the body enters into a pattern which sends the natural movement of energy within the internal organs into a state of imbalance.

The Singing Plant :-)

This fantastic piece of equipment at Moinhos Velhos, (originally from Italian community Damanhur) picks up and interpretes the vibration of a plant as music. So therefore as you interact with the plant, so it changes it’s tune accordingly 🙂

Spring is Coming!

Massive period of growth going on here, how are you? So as ever with the more seasonal newsletters we try and place our human experience into the context of nature that we so often become disconnected from in our modern urban lives. So Spring is all about growth, around us and within us – as since I always like to remind you – you are part of nature too, even if you sometimes forget!

Latest Appearance on Trusseau TV

In my regular appearances so far I’ve discussed the philosophy behind my yoga and wellbeing classes; how acupuncture works and what it can treat; the challenges of the modern urban lifestyle (in particular connection with other people) and the Native America style Sun Moon Dances I attend – where you dance for 3 days without food and water! More on those…

Who Are You Really? And What Do You Really Need?

It’s been a long few weeks since Christmas for me and the Creative Yoga project. We’ve been going through a massive expansion and it’s taken a monster amount of work from me and the team. The events we’ve been running have quadrupled and I’ve been trying to make sure the same thread and essence of connection between people has remained the same, true to it’s roots and development.

New January, New You? Blah Blah!

We don’t do empty cliches at my yoga business Creative Yoga London, and the whole ‘New Year new you’ thing is something which is readily wheeled out the closet all too often by business’s without really understanding the energetics that are at work!

It’s Christmas Time!

So it’s coming up to the festive period again (I say again, as the older I get the quicker it seems to come around!) which tends to bring with it a fair few challenges for most of us. So what is nature telling us? It’s a big theme in my acupuncture and yoga work to observe the natural patterns of energy that are going on around us

The Energetics of Autumn and Winter

Autumn and Winter can be the ideal time to receive treatment as at this time, particularly in Western culture, we can become more predominantly out of tune with the energy of the seasons, and what our natural tendency at this time of year would guide us towards.

Philadelphia: Urban v/s Nature

Having spent a good few weeks in the beautiful abundant settings of Moinhos Velhos in Portugal, this is what I noticed on being very quickly deposited into the ultra urban New York and Philadephia!

Destiny…Written Word!

Destiny is within, not some distant object or intangible ether matter that is outside of you. It’s who you are, the connection between your Heart, inspiration, willpower, assertion and resources…

Being ‘Embodied’

Staying ’embodied’ while meeting another person – I notice often that when we are alone we can hold our presence and awareness in our own body, but when we meet another person that can prove more difficult – we tighten up and our energy can become scattered!

Naturally More Attractive – The Power of Your Heart Energy

I did a couple of Singles Yoga events with the legend that is leading dating coach Hayley Quinn. Hayley is extremely well known in the Dating Industry and is unique in that she’s a lady who intensively coaches guys as well as women. Part of what she coaches is how to approach women and my blog is about how from an Holistic perspective the radiance of your Heart Energy can influence this and how attractive you are!

Nature and Negative Ions

Don’t worry I’m not about to get all hippy on you now (I think it’s probably too late for that lol!) I love lots of things about city life and the creative consciousness that it brings, but it’s good not to lose connections with our ‘natural roots’ and the benefits connection with a natural setting can also bring. One of the difficulties of modern living, particularly urban, is that the ‘vibrations’ we often experience around us aren’t ideal.

Journey Back Into The Body. Live There, Or In Your Thoughts?

The biggest thing we forget is as human beings we are also part of nature and governed by the same natural laws as it, the same natural forces acting on us as the rest of creation (Like the effects of the seasons for instance) We forget because we spend so much time in our left brain

Interview with John Wilson about Sun Moon Dance

A chat with John Wilson about Native American Style Sun Moon Dance, where you dry fast (no food or water) for 3 days!

‘Life Path’ Stagnation & Free Flow

I came across some old notes i’d made a while ago around ‘stagnation’ both to do with our physical body and our ‘life path’ Stagnation is the term we use in acupuncture to describe a state where energy isn’t flowing smoothly and freely through a particular meridian or area of the body. Movement can often free up stagnation and make the energy flow more freely, hence why we can sometimes feel better after doing some exercise.

Dance and Movement – Authentic Movement

I’m a big fan of dance and movement, its a fantastic way, similar to acupuncture and Yoga to disperse what we think of as energy stagnation and enable the body to work more efficiently (and put a smile on your face) Stagnation can effect us on many levels – from musculo-skeletal and spinal stiffness to contracted muscles to digestive problems – all signs that the body isn’t flowing as efficiently as it should be.