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At the beginning of the year Zen was a mess
Then we had open days
We've had great summer solstice art and chakra workshops bringing out the talents in participants
Hypnotherapy and yoga training/yoga deepening
Charity events
and some very weird and wonderful happenings
Halloween and ghost talks
Christmas
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Sprouts That Shout
Sprucing up your sprouts is a great idea as those little balls of green are packed full with essential vitamins and minerals to protect our health in the winter, yet not to everyones liking.
We tried something on the solstice that had people going back for more. Give it a try and let us know how you like the suggestions:
Creamy sprouts
There is something about raosting sprouts that seems to chainge their flavour. This recipe involves Steaming the sprouts until they are almost ready to eat and them popping them in the over on a medium heat with a little olive oil and some finely chopped onions until they are beginning to brown and the onions are clear.
Remove them from the oven and place in a saucepan with double cream to taste. Season with salt, black pepper and a little nutmeg.
Roast Sprouts and mushrooms
Similar idea
Roast the half cooked sprouts with finely chopped onion, chopped mushroom and crushed garlic. Cook until the sprouts are beginning to brown. Season with salt and black peppet.
Enjoy your sprouts.
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A lot of the things we do at the Mind and Body Centre are about stretching.
It's is fairly obvious that if you stretch your muscles they become more flexible and you move more freely even when you are not stretching. There are fantastic health benefits associared with keeping your body and muscles stretchy and suppke.
Going a little deeper, Yin yoga is able to reach beyond the muscles to the joints, soft and connective tissues.This is extrememly useful for joint health and care.
Other things that can benefit from a good stretch:
Your perspective, especially in this current climate, being able to see things from more than one perspective can be very useful and enlightening. They say that travel broadens the mind ....and thus stretches your zone of refernce.
Your imagination, the more you can imagine the more possibilities you can create for yourself and your world begins to open up for you.
But most of all the one things that you can stretch, ....that is the one thing that most people shrink from ... is your comfort zone.
Stretching your comfort zone mneans putting yourself into situatiosn that you don't feel comfortable in. Doing things that would normally make you squirm. The more you stretch it the looser it becomes and the more situations start to fall within it rather than on the outside of it. In other words less things make you squirm.
One of the things that make many people squirm is taking a look at the restrictions that they impose upon themselves. The fear of addressing the cause of limitation and resiirction in ones life is almost like an invisible cage.
A course of therapy can liberate and open the cage, but often enbarking on therapy means stretching that comfort zone and beginning to open up. It also means facing emotions that are lurking beneath the surface and taking them on rather than hiding from them and pretending they're not there.
Once you decide to brave the stretch then you can fairly quickly see a liberation of your emotional restrictions and find yourself doing things that you never believed you would be able ot.
So come on 1 2 3 streeetch
Andrea Lowe Senior Hypnotherapy and Course Tutor
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Professor Jeanette Edwards from the University of Manchester has revealed some worrying evidence about chldren as young as nine years old being exposed to online games lsuch as "Plastic Surgery Princess", "Little Skin Doctor" and "Pimp My Face" that could be contributing to mental health problems in young people.
The report identifies several factors that are encouraging young people in particular to focus on body image.
These include increasing levels of anxiety around appearance, the rise of social media where photos can receive positive or negative ratings and the popularity of celebrity culture, complete with airbrushed images and apparently perfect lifestyles.
Prof Edwards called for cosmetic procedures to be banned for anyone under 18 unless they involve a multi-disciplinary team of specialists, GPs and psychologists.
"Under 18s should not be able to just walk in off the street and have a cosmetic procedure.
"There are legal age limits for having tattoos or using sun beds. Invasive cosmetic procedures should be regulated in a similar way."
There are risks with cosmetic surgery and it shouldn't be taken lightly.
Young people are bombarded with the need to conform and social media acceptance is strong. Low self-esteem is not unusual for this age group as they struggle to find themselves. Also children who are bullied naturally try to change themselves to be more accepted.
Unfortunately the mental effect of any surgical changes is only skin deep and the low self-esteem still lurks beneath.
Rather than turning to surgery or injections to change their appearance they need to change their mind and develop a confidence in themselves that does not require the approval of their appearance by others.
Hypnotherapy can help young people to change their mind and not their appearance. It is an ideal time to look at clearing out any baggage that has been collecting, before the restricting baggage begins to influence their life choices and patterns. Before it too becomes burried deep within..
Andrea Lowe Senior Hypnotherapist and Trainer
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, You may have read a recent blog of mine - Are they lying?
That was mostly about people who deliberately and knowingly tell lies and avoid the truth for a variety of reasons. About how to spot them and save yourself the frustration and the questioning of your own sanity..
Now I am going to be talking about a different kind of truth. The truth of reality.
This is not so easy, as everyone has their own individual reality and like a fingerprint no-one's reality is exactly the same.
You all know that frustrating feeling when you just don't seem to be able to get through to someone, something that is your reality.
How do we develop our reaility?
As with most things it usually begins to establish when we are young. Inevitably the culture that we are brought up in will influence what we see as real. Also the behaviour and beliefs of our parents, educators, family and friends. Things we hear on the news - usually the perspective of others will also form an impression for is
Yes but how does that become our reality?
We have so much information being constantly thrown at us that we develop filters. A great example is - islanders, who depend on a boat bringing supplies from the mainland, can hear it long before visitors because it is important to them for their survival.
The brain controls the amount of information in all forms that we take in. For instance usually we are not aware of the way our clothing moves against our body or even someone brushing against us slightly in passing.
If someone asked has anything touched you in the last 5 minutes you would answer no but clearly unless you were naked then your clothing would have touched you. Your reality is different from what might be seen by some as the truth. Yet if you answered yes, my clothes, you may be judged as facitious.
Yet we would be very aware if we felt that slight brushing against us on a dark lonely night. We woudn't need to be asked if something had touched us the blood curdling screams would be enough.
If you take two chairs apparently the same and ask the question are they the same or different? You might answer the same because in your understanding the are identical. Someone else night answer they are different because to them they are clearly not the same chair. Reality also depends on circumstances of course.
These may seem like simplistic examples but actually our lives are full of similar reailities based on perception and learning. Also too our reaility is often based on beliefs and unfortunately as beliefs are just that. unlike the chair or the clothes there is nothing to debate as the only evidence for those beliefs is subjective and open to other interpretations. However, that can be someones reality that they will protect and argue for against all comers.
Esprcially with beliefs that contribute to reality those filters are working hard so that you do not notices any alternative options.
As you get older and have more experiences, especially if you are prepared to stretch your comfort zone a little and experience things out of your norm then your filters get a bit stretchy too and start to loosen up giving your more options.
Therapy is often all about questioning some of your filters that are causing you problems and allowing you to develop a wider perspecitive with more options.
So next time you feel frustrated with attitude, give a little thought to what the reaility behind it might be and cut them some slack
Happy days.
Andrea Lowe Senior Hypnotherapist and Trainer