Blog Archives

Chicken Soup for the Soul

1/29/2015

BY KAREN THORNE
Karen is an Eating Psychology Coach. She is the creator of the Conscious Eating Programme: Changing your thoughts about food to transform your body and your life.
Find out more about Karen's work here.

As you all are aware, I recently became a juicing convert and during the past year have done three juice cleanses.

As the new year beckoned, I decided it was a good idea to rest the digestive system and do another juice cleanse. This time, I thought it would be a good idea to raise money for charity at the same time and I started my juice cleanse with excitement.

I had planned to do it for 7 days and had posted a daily video diary on my Facebook page for accountability. I don’t know why, but the juices tasted even more tastier than usual and I was enjoying each day and not thinking about eating food at all. As the week went by very quickly and with ease, I decided to keep on going and do another week!

Everything was fine and going to plan and I was really impressed how I organised my juicing around my daily activities when travelling and attending meetings. I planned ahead and made up an extra batch when leaving the house.

Then, on the 12th day I had a meeting in central London. Not to worry, I thought, I will have a juice just as I’m leaving home and take a large one ‘to go’ with me.

It was the day after the night of wild winds and the transport system wasn’t running as it should. I drank my juice as I was preparing to travel home so felt satisfied that the juice would keep any hunger pangs at bay until I reached home.

Well, London Transport had another idea!! It took me nearly 4 hours to do a 30 minute train journey... By this time, my stomach was screaming for another juice, but I didn’t have any more. I thought a packet of raw nuts would do the trick but my stomach wasn’t satisfied. It was now screaming “Feed me NOW!!”

So there was only one thing for it – my Chicken Soup for the Soul!

INGREDIENTS:

Organic chicken pieces
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Tomatoes
Red onion
Garlic
Ginger
Scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
Fresh Thyme
Freshly squeezed Lime juice
Tin of coconut milk
Seasoning to taste

EASY INSTRUCTIONS:
Gather all ingredients together and….. chuck in a large pot. Put the lid on and simmer until cooked. Then meditate while waiting!

Boy oh boy, did it taste good or what! I had no feelings of guilt whatsoever for breaking the juice cleanse. Life happens and it’s how we cope with it that matters.

Detox specialists suggest it’s not a good idea to eat solid cooked food straight after a juice cleanse. It is recommended to ease yourself slowly back into eating solid food by eating raw foods first for a few days, then gradually introduce wholesome cooked food.

For further information and a free Transform Your Relationship with Food consultation, please contact Karen Thorne, Eating Psychology Coach on 07804 529371

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Tap Your Way to Freedom

1/22/2015

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By Jennifer Davidson
Jennifer is a an EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) trainer, with offices in London and Zurich.
For more about these servicies, visit here.

If you have at least two fingers (!) and an issue that is bothering you, did you know you’re already well equipped to start resolving it?

"Tapping" (aka EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques) is a simple and very effective tool that you can start using right now to gain a general feeling of calm, or to address a specific problem—past, present, or future—that you’d like to clear.

After a workshop I gave recently for the National Youth Theatre in London, one director was eager to try tapping with his four-year-old son, who was driving his parents nuts by refusing to wear his underpants. The child vented “I hate underpants! I don’t want to wear them! Underpants are stupid!” while tapping. After just a few minutes, a small miracle occurred: off the boy went and, without being asked, put his pants on!

While you’re probably happy with your own underwear situation (and if not, it can certainly be tapped on) it’s not a huge stretch to imagine how situations that bother you could similarly be defused. Imagine, after a bit of tapping on “I hate doing my taxes!” or “my head hurts!” or “I’m terrified of...” feeling calm, relaxed, and at ease.

Like a psychological version of acupuncture—but with the big advantage of no needles—EFT involves stimulating, with your fingertips, a small number of key meridian points on the upper body, to defuse negative feelings or physical discomfort.

These tapping points, interestingly, are ones we use naturally in daily life, particularly when feeling emotional—we instinctively put a hand to our mouth when we’re shocked, clap a hand to our forehead, or touch our heart when we’re moved or scared.

The key to EFT is to concentrate on the problem—which can seem counter-intuitive if you’ve been taught to always think positively—and simultaneously TAP on the key points to flush away the negative.

TRY THIS SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE:

A very helpful variation is “FINGERTIP TAPPING,” which you can try right now. Using your thumb, tap the near side of the nail of the adjoining index finger (about seven times); using the same thumb, tap the side of the nail of the middle finger, and continue through the other fingers. You can do this in public— while in a queue, or stuck on the tube—without anyone noticing, or while watching TV, to feel more relaxed and balance your energetic system. (I’ll have lots more tapping tips for you in future blogs.)

So, don’t forget: if you have an issue that’s bothering you, the solution is—literally—at your fingertips!

Feel free to contact me for more info on EFT: jenniferdavidson@me.com

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Optimize Your Workspace

1/15/2015

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By E. J. Shaffert
E.J. is a certified feng shui consultant and educator. He specializes in transforming the quality of life by shifting the energy in homes and offices.
For more about these feng shui services, visit here.

I am amazed at how the business world has changed over the last 20 years. Not long ago, "going to work" usually meant an arduous commute. But now, we have the option of working from home, often sitting at the kitchen table, or even balancing the lap top and a latté at the local coffee shop!

Wherever and however you choose to work, there are feng shui principles that will you help you feel relaxed, energized and productive.

Foremost, look for solidity. Whenever possible, put yourself in the Command Position, which means having a solid wall behind your back, with a view to the entrance of the room but not directly in line with this entrance.

If working at the dining table, or in the middle of a coffee shop, finding this placement might be challenging, but it is worth seeking out the best seating, if you really want this flexible workstyle to pay off!

At home or in an office, you should definitely consider optimizing your desk location. In my own life, I experienced a very large shift when I was living in NYC and moved my desk to this proper position.

Before that time, my desk was tucked into a corner of the living room, facing the wall, and I realized that I NEVER wanted to sit at the desk. I once forced myself to sit there to pay some bills, and never went back!

Years later, when I studied feng shui, I realized why I had such an aversion to sitting there, and I moved the desk to a very prominent position, which practically dominated the room. And guess what? I found that I truly loved sitting there, and it was usually the first place I went. after I came home. And, not long after, I was offered a full time position that literally changed my life.

In addition to the placement of the desk, I decided to paint the wall behind me a bright shade of red, which gave me a huge boost of energy. While this color change might not be appropriate in some rooms, here are some additional ideas for giving greater support to your Command Position:

Consider placing a picture of a large mountain behind you, so you have the suggestion of solid support when you are seated. It may sound silly, but this suggestion of strength and solidity can be a wonderful subconscious cue.

In addition, it is a classic Chinese feng shui cure to put a statue of a turtle behind your desk chair, as the turtle's back is considered to be as supportive as the side of a mountain.

Explore ways to bring the solidity you need, so you can have command of your work, wherever you are.

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Waiting To Exhale...

1/7/2015

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By Peter Strange
Peter is a specialist in quickly resolving both chronic and acute pain and empowering lifestyle change to improve performance levels both for sport and life in general. For information about his work, visit here.

Breathing is the most important mechanism to support life because every cell in your body requires a regular supply of Oxygen for it’s proper function. We can survive for approximately three weeks without food, three days without water, but only three minutes without Oxygen.

We breathe on average over 25,000 times per day and so it is pretty important that we do this correctly. Because it is so crucial to our survival, the body will sacrifice the proper function of other systems in order to maintain the function of breathing, often resulting in pain and numerous other issues of poor health.

The three most common faulty breathing patterns are

inverted or chest breathing
mouth breathing
chronic breath holding

Inverted breathing occurs when the abdomen is tightened rather than relaxed on inhalation. As a result the diaphragm is not utilised correctly and tension is built up in the overworked muscles around the neck, shoulders and chest.

Proper diaphragmatic breathing is essential for joint, organ and hormonal health and helps to maintain mobility in the ribcage and spine whilst massaging all of the internal organs thereby promoting better circulation, digestion and detoxification. This also improves energy levels, reducing the need for sugar, coffee and other stimulants.

Breathing predominantly through the mouth occurs when breathing through the nose is less easy and in times of stress. This leads to forward head posture, which further compromises breathing function and can result in pain in the neck as well as elsewhere in the body.

Nasal breathing properly filters and cleans the air coming in and stimulates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which has a calming effect on the body, promoting growth and repair. Mouth breathing, on the other hand, elevates stress hormones and suppresses the immune system.

If you can’t breathe easily through your nose then you may have food allergies or intolerances, or be eating certain foods too frequently. The most common culprits are sugar, dairy and gluten containing grains, although we will discuss this further in future posts.

Chronic breath holding is associated with the stress and in particular the fear of failure or being judged by others, which stops us from moving forward and reaching our full potential.

If you are waiting for your life to change …… stop waiting and take control of your life …… don’t hold your breath!

The following two exercises will help you improve your breathing which in turn will also improve your physical, mental and emotional health and control fear.

ALTERNATE NOSTRIL BREATHING

Use a finger to close one nostril. Take a slow relaxed natural breath in for 5 seconds and then out for 5 seconds through the open nostril, alternating nostrils after each complete breath for a total of about 3 minutes.

Amongst many other benefits this exercise balances the left and right sides of the brain, improving mental clarity and calming the mind and is useful if you are having difficulty getting to sleep.

DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

Lie on your back on the floor with your eyes closed and place one hand on your belly and the other hand on your upper chest. Take a slow relaxed breath in through your nose ensuring that only the hand on your belly moves for the first two thirds of the breath.

Complete the inhalation by allowing your chest to rise once your belly is fully expanded before visualising breathing out any negative emotions as you allow the air to escape naturally through your nose or mouth. Perform this exercise for at least 3 minutes as a meditation before going to bed.

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Chicken Soup for the Soul

Tap Your Way to Freedom

Optimize Your Workspace

Waiting To Exhale...

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