It's not often you can get it.  Certainly it is something that you can't get in tin.  The taste is like a velvety.wholesome tantalising and delicious sensation.  To top it all you could well be taking a dose of nutritional supplements with every spoonful.

What is this soup of Specialness.  Why it's nettle soup of course!

Once you have a taste for it you are more than prepared to dedicate all the time and effort and face the very possible odd sting here and there to get at it.  It has a short season and we're in it right now. When you pick a lot of it you begin to notice the slight difference in taste depending on where you picked it.

So if you would like to become an afficionado of nettle soup then here's how to go about it.

First identify which weed is a nettle.  Check it out online.

Look for nettles that are in places that would be difficult for dogs and other animals to access for their (not to put too fine a point on it) toileting.

Pick the top of the stem so you are getting fresh young leaves - they taste better.

To pick you will need to wear rubber style gardening gloves.  Sometimes I have used scissors and cut the stem then very carefully trapped it in the scissors and dropped into a carrier bag.  You will most likely get stung somewhere on your forage but it will wear off eventually.  I've not tried grabbing a handful which is said to not sting.

Getting them ready for soup:

Empty the contents into a washing up bowl filled with cold water and swish them about to clean off any unwanted bits.  Take a colander full and rinse thoroughly under the tap, continue until all is rinsed.

You need a pan ful of nettle as it soon diminishes.

Now to the cooking stage

Soft fry one medium onion in a large saucepan.

Add one peeled potato and water or any stock you have from vegetables you have cooked (don't use concentrated stock as it alters the taste)

Add the nettles by cutting the leaves off the stalk and popping in the pan - Dont touch them use scissors.

You will see that they will almost immediately wither. Add one leaf of spring green cabbage  and a crushed clove of garlic.

Add a handful of fresh  herbs such as sage, parsley, rosemary, oregano etc do not use a lot of one herb.  This will act as the background stock taste.

Cook until the potato is soft then liquidise.  Add seasoning to taste

The potato is there to thicken the soup as it would be very watery otherwise.

Eat and enjoy. Become addicted.

Read this blog about the benefits of nettle and feel a little smug

http://www.mindandbodybury.co.uk/blog/read_76178/good-to-get-nettled.html

Last night in the Self-Hypnosis class we were talking about stretching your comfort zone and it made me thing about how difficult it is avoid being decieved into thinking you are doing something challenging when all the time you are reinforcing your comfortable zone.

If you are a from person you are most likely to move to comfort from challenging situations.

If you are a to person you will always be moving towards challenges and avoiding getting too comfortable.

Which is best?

Well its that old chestnut of extremes.  In moderation both are useful and comfortable yet challenging line between the two is certainly advantageous. 

As with most things taken to the extreme both could be your worst enemy too.

The Wilting Wall Flower

Many people undoubtable have more of the comfort seeking element to them.  However in the extreme these people are likely to be the ones that attempt to merge into the background and would love to think the could be invisible.  They shy away from any form of attention and avoid situations where they may experience attracting a little focus or interest.

They will eventually be taken for granted byeven the most careing of  their nearest and dearest and will quietly resist any expectations for themselves just going about their business in a submissive and downtrodden way - whether the are or not.

They will be difficult to have a meaningful relationship with as they will have no opinions and little to say for or about themselves.

What are they moving away from - well you've heard the advice - don't expect anything and you won't be dissappointed - that's it, they are moving away from being let down or disappointed and maybe the  thought of disappointment and attracting the disapproval of others. Don't forget you can't please everyone all the time.  So whatever you do at some point you will be attracting disapproval from someone somewhere.  The irony is that doing nothing is also something open to the disapproval of others. So the wilting wallflower can never win.

This person is also very disappointed with themselves as they see themselves as nothing and have all the desires to do something and be someone inside buring away.  They are angry with themselves deep inside and that anger is eating away at them so they have to keep that well hidden and begin to feel unworthy too. 

Their comfort zone would be stretched in so many ways if they communicated more or joined a knitting circle for instance.  However with someone so extreme they would probably need some help to get them through some of the hidden emotional baggage that they lug around with them.

Not many people are this extreme

At other extreme is the person who always has to be moving towards challenges. 

The Fidgeting Frantic Firecracker

This person is always facing challenges head on.  Nothing gets in their way including their need for a bit of peace and quiet.

In their relationships their family will always take second place at best as their need to beat another challenge take precidence everytime

If they stop, they are extremely uncomfortable as they too have hidden agenda that they really don't want to look at and as long as they keep busy with energy consuming targets and remain fully focused then they don't have to stop and think about their inner demons

Many of these people reach high and get demanding jobs that then require that they are fully committed and over worked.  

They believe that relaxation is a competitive game of golf or some other form of demanding exercise which pumps them full of endorphines that temporaily make them feel good but arely relaxed.  They thing that stretching their comfort zone is mastering a new sport or hobby.

For these people their comfort zone stretch is found within  and rarely do they take the time to look there.

Both the Wallflower and the Friecracker are hiding from their inner demons.  In the extreme they need some form of help to get them to release their need to hide and to be able to be free from the restrictions and able to move more towards the centre ground.

So  whether you are dead centre or a little off centre, stretching you comfort zone is a really empowering thing to do providing you know where your comfort zone lies.  Take a moment and think about it.

Here are some really simple examples to kick start your progress:

Smile at someone you don't know (in a safe environment)

Look for the fun in everything you do (I promise everything has the potential to be fun)

Limit what you expect  from yourself - just enough.

Do something daily no matter how you feel.

Good luck! 

Let us know what you have done to stretch your comfort zone (that might be another stretch) it might help others with ideas too.

In this funky age of diverse availability of yoga styles and studios the constant influx of mobile and reasonably healthy people into classes is a relatively easy prospect deal with for most competent yoga teachers. While many young people can be stiff and awkward in gait if they have not exercised for years they have some advantages in that they still have young muscles and soft tissue. This gives them something to develop and in a few months they can be well on the road to having more flexible and toned dimensions.

Many people out there who are passed mid life or not and have unwanted weight after years or decades of inappropriate diets and lack of exercise are often deterred from yoga classes thinking they'll never cope because they are inflexible and frumpy. This is sad because these people are missing so much .

You do get a few who find the courage to give yoga a try if its only because they are badgered into it by a friend or partner but they can soon be disheartened if their progress is slow or they struggle to cope with the postures.

 Chunk Things Down

What does a yoga teacher then do if they are confronted with a student who is overweight and imbalanced and even finds it tricky to walk evenly and in their first mixed ability class! Hmmmm!...That class could make or break their future in yoga. If the class is pitched above them they can go away disheartened never to return. If its pitched to them the remainder of the class can go away dissatisfied.

A remedial yoga class could be the answer where low key yoga is practised making plenty of allowances for student capability. This gives them time to gain in strength and flexibility and they can often surprise themselves at how they progress within months. After a while they will be ready to attend a regular beginners class.

Or after discussion with their teacher if they still feel more comfortable with remedial long term this can still be beneficial to them.

A useful approach to yoga posture for students with limited range of movement is to use posture de-construction. This principle is usually a teachers tool but even students reasonably conversant with a range of yoga postures can apply deconstruction.

De-construction is fairly simple and basically means chunking down or breaking down a posture so that students are aware of a range of stages that may of may not bring them to the ultimate true form of the posture. In other words they just go in the right direction and stop well short of where the posture becomes over challenging.

This kind of approach can also be used with advanced postures and more capable students and even with advanced and difficult poses. So for example it can be tremendously beneficial to work with sequences that in theory “prepare” for an advanced posture, say Patient Crane Pose, Handstand, Headstand etc Even if a student never achieves the objective pose the foundation work can still bring great dividends.

So going back to basic de-construction, if there are 4 stages before the ultimate positioning it may be within student capability to reach stage 2 and keep returning to this stage until they can go to stage 3 and so on.

Of course a skilful yoga teacher can quickly assess their overall student capability identifying one or more students in the group with poor or potentially poor range of movement and deftly build into their class sequence de-constuction of any challenging poses giving all their students an option they can cope with.

 When Easy Yoga Still not an Option

You may say “Well what if the student can't even cope with stage one!”

Well the skill then becomes quickly suggesting an even more modest position than stage one. Or it could mean in the last resort getting them to relax and imagine they can move into that stage one position. I think this last resort stage is perfectly acceptable in extreme cases and it at least gives the struggling student the chance to

see themselves in their mind achieving something until they move on the next posture.

For those beginner students who find most yoga postures inaccessible if there is no remedial or restorative class available then it might be useful to do some simple exercises for a while – even if only in a chair. If you think you are in this position don't be afraid of approaching a yoga teacher and asking their advice on how to proceed.

My message though is to give yoga a chance but be prepared to have to practice patience as well as the postures. If you persevere with yoga practice you will reap many benefits over time. It's a strong medicine that takes a little while to work but when it does it will surprise you. Think about making yoga a way of life rather than a quick fix to get you more flexible. Remember also that yoga is not just about posturing. It's also about correcting and strengthening your breathing, learning how to become an expert at relaxation and finding out more about your body, mind and spirit so that you can improve the quality of your life and how you relate to others.

Barry Todd (HathaYogaMan)

In this funky age of diverse availability of yoga styles and studios the constant influx of mobile and reasonably healthy people into classes is a relatively easy prospect deal with for most competent yoga teachers. While many young people can be stiff and awkward in gait if they have not exercised for years they have some advantages in that they still have young muscles and soft tissue. This gives them something to develop and in a few months they can be well on the road to having more flexible and toned dimensions.

Many people out there who are passed mid life or not and have unwanted weight after years or decades of inappropriate diets and lack of exercise are often deterred from yoga classes thinking they'll never cope because they are inflexible and frumpy. This is sad because these people are missing so much .

You do get a few who find the courage to give yoga a try if its only because they are badgered into it by a friend or partner but they can soon be disheartened if their progress is slow or they struggle to cope with the postures.

What does a yoga teacher then do if they are confronted with a student who is overweight and imbalanced and even finds it tricky to walk evenly and in their first mixed ability class! Hmmmm!...That class could make or break their future in yoga. If the class is pitched above them they can go away disheartened never to return. If its pitched to them the remainder of the class can go away dissatisfied.

A remedial yoga class could be the answer where low key yoga is practised making plenty of allowances for student capability. This gives them time to gain in strength and flexibility and they can often surprise themselves at how they progress within months. After a while they will be ready to attend a regular beginners class.

Or after discussion with their teacher if they still feel more comfortable with remedial long term this can still be beneficial to them.

A useful approach to yoga posture for students with limited range of movement is to use posture de-construction. This principle is usually a teachers tool but even students reasonably conversant with a range of yoga postures can apply deconstruction.

De-construction is fairly simple and basically means chunking down or breaking down a posture so that students are aware of a range of stages that may of may not bring them to the ultimate true form of the posture. In other words they just go in the right direction and stop well short of where the posture becomes over challenging.

This kind of approach can also be used with advanced postures and more capable students and even with advanced and difficult poses. So for example it can be tremendously beneficial to work with sequences that in theory “prepare” for an advanced posture, say Patient Crane Pose, Handstand, Headstand etc Even if a student never achieves the objective pose the foundation work can still bring great dividends.

So going back to basic de-construction, if there are 4 stages before the ultimate positioning it may be within student capability to reach stage 2 and keep returning to this stage until they can go to stage 3 and so on.

Of course a skilful yoga teacher can quickly assess their overall student capability identifying one or more students in the group with poor or potentially poor range of movement and deftly build into their class sequence de-constuction of any challenging poses giving all their students an option they can cope with.

You may say “Well what if the student can't even cope with stage one!”

Well the skill then becomes quickly suggesting an even more modest position than stage one. Or it could mean in the last resort getting them to relax and imagine they can move into that stage one position. I think this last resort stage is perfectly acceptable in extreme cases and it at least gives the struggling student the chance to

see themselves in their mind achieving something until they move on the next posture.

For those beginner students who find most yoga postures inaccessible if there is no remedial or restorative class available then it might be useful to do some simple exercises for a while – even if only in a chair. If you think you are in this position don't be afraid of approaching a yoga teacher and asking their advice on how to proceed.

My message though is to give yoga a chance but be prepared to have to practice patience as well as the postures. If you persevere with yoga practice you will reap many benefits over time. It's a strong medicine that takes a little while to work but when it does it will surprise you. Think about making yoga a way of life rather than a quick fix to get you more flexible. Remember also that yoga is not just about posturing. It's also about correcting and strengthening your breathing, learning how to become an expert at relaxation and finding out more about your body, mind and spirit so that you can improve the quality of your life and how you relate to others.

Barry Todd (HathaYogaMan)

If you like sound baths and yoga then this could be your dream experience.

As a yoga teacher I was a bit sceptical at first then after being emmersed in the vibrationals of a Pluto Gong whilst deep in the release of a Child pose it seemed to cry out ha ha!.

During some practice runs with the Gong Master D, I initially thought that the gong was best as a complement to more energising and dynamic postures. Indeed you could well be lured into believing that this is where the gong is best served in yoga practice but while this may have some truth the deep sonorous tones of the steely disc play and reverberate with the threads of you senses so well when you are released into the labyrinths of any deep pose that it creates almost the wonders of a sensory symphony within the human dimension.

Unlike the vibrations of mantra and chanting where you have to make the effort to give voice with the gong you simply have to move through your yoga sequence focusing on the bodily sensations but with the added colour of the sometimes powerful and the sometimes subtle tones of the gong maestro.

The player is forever piosed at the metal face with softened hammers waiting to strike the appropriate notes taking her cue from the yoga instructor and the class before her. There is a kind of dance between the motions of the class and the skillful manoeuvres of the players upper limbs.

There is a sense of added power from the instrumental accompaniment as you enter into a more dynamic pose as its builds to a crescendo giving weight to the energy the posture brings.

Gong yoga is fairly new in some parts of the UK but I can see how like some of the other unconventional forms of yoga practice it will take hold and provide another dimension to an already growing yoga diversity. 

Barry Todd (HathaYogaMan )

.

Stretching your comfort zone

What is a comfort zone?

Literally a comfort zone is an area where you are able to feel emotionally comfortable and unchallenged. If you compare it to muscles it is the area in which you can move your muscles without feeling any strain or stress at all.

Things that challenge your muscles are clearly defined and common to everyone.

Things that challenge your emotions are much more complex, varied and individual to each person.

What is a challenge to your comfot zone?

Walking into a roomful of strangers may challenge some people.

Standing up and giving a presentation others.

Asking for direction from a stranger may be a stretch for some.

Making a decision without running it by someone might be a real stretch too.

Why do we need to stretch our comfort zone?

Before you know it you will have a much bigger zone in which you can feel comfotable.

Andrea Lowe Senior Hypnotherapist at the Mind & Body centre

Course Tutor, Hypnotherapy Practitioner Course

www.andrealowehypnotherapy.co.uk

Imagine this:  Absolute quiet interspersed with the sounds of birds singing , clocks chiming,  the wind rustling through the trees and occasionally carrying the sound of the waves rythmically washing the bPicture this: A country house in it's own grounds with views of the sea and the mountains, lots of quaint features and an atmosphere reflecting of yeateryear mainly because thankfully many of the original features have been preserved and maintained.

Friday evening:  Gradually our yoga enthusiasts arrive and each expresses their wonder at the tranquil location.  After a refreshing drink  suitcases  are unloaded that without exception appear to be packed for a full week rather than the weekend.

Imagine being greeted as you arrive by truly free range hens who are tame and almost come when you call.

 

It's time for a very welcome post journey yoga session to loosen up a little before dinner.

Dinner is a three course vegetarian delight first with butterbean soup followed by lentil and nut roast with accompanying veg. and lemon sponge and custard or apple puree and ice cream (soya) for Gluten Free.  All home made by the sisters who make us feel very welcome.

Before retiring for the night we have a yoga session to prepare for sleep and it works, everyone is eager to get comfortably to bed.

The mattresses are bouncy and yet firm, very comfortable.  There is a wash basin in each bedroom and plenty of toilets, showers and baths dotted along the corridors.  There are also brew points with ample supplies of drinks and kettles, biscuits etc for a last drink before bed.

For those brave enough to get up in time for 7.30 (and I believe everyone did) there was a wake up Yoga session before breakfast.

After breakfast on Saturday  a guided visualisation relaxation helps the food go down and everyone attended.  A stroll around the grounds proved to be a photo opportunity as well a bird spotting exercise - we definately heard a woodpacker peck pecking at the trees.  This was fololwed by an energising yoga class with postures to prepare for lunch which was a 3 course meal with vegetable soup,a fantastic selection of imaginative salads and a choice of puddlings.

All yoga classes were in the chapel to the sound of silence a wonderful luxury not to be contaminated with music however relaxing.