winter2011

WINTER %&'' PRICELESS ITS YOUR BRAIN Read the instructions: with Joe di spenza %&'%: THE BEGINNING Special Irish Event SECRETS OF A FENG SHUI GODDESS Amanda collins at home GAME CHANGERS: Social movers and shakers. FIND OUT HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS The inside story %&'% IN IRELAND Be where it’s happening FENG SHUI SECRETS Fall in love with your home LIFE ON THE LEADING EDGE Movers and shakers WINTER %&''/'% PRICELESS

Ballyvourney, Co. Cork Distributors of organic and conventional whole foods to the INDEPENDENT TRADE www.iihealthfoods.com

Contentment 4 Winter Vibes Eat, drink and be aware 6 Positively Newsworthy Going green and taking strides 10 Spirituality and the City Tales of love 12 CNM Get fit for winter 14 Astrology What do the planets say? 16 The Powers of Raw Food Fall in love with juicing 19 Positive Home Secrets of a feng shui goddess 20 The Law of Attraction Dance with the universe 23 Dee Wallace The best performance of your life 24 Ireland 2012 Be where it’s happening 27 Positive Power Pack your suitcase, we’re moving 28 Reshape Your Brain Reading this will change your life 33 Positive Beauty Early to bed, early to rise... 34 Awareness & Insight Explore the world inside you 36 Embracing Change Be the arrow and not the target 39 Yoga Saves the Day Open your mind, body and soul 40 The Good Life 2.0 Movers and shakers 43 Hans Wieland Bread matters 44 Winter Recipes Aduki bean stew and seaweed salad 47 Short & Sweet Hearts, happiness and homeopathy Publisher PC Media paul@positivelife.ie Editorial Patrick Bridgeman Katie Roche katie@positivelife.ie Design Simon O’Connor simon@postivelife.ie Ad Design Caroline Hanan caroline.hanan@gmail.com Advertising Paul Congdon paul@positivelife.ie 0861579518 Thanks to our advertisers, we can give Positive Life magazine to you for FREE. If you’re talking to them, let them know we sent you their way. Please use the information provided in this publication as a recommendation only to better mental and physical health. We strongly advise you to consult your doctor regarding health concerns that you may have. The views expressed by contributors and advisors do not necessarily represent the views of the publication’s staff. Printed, published, packaged and distributed in Ireland. www.positivelife.ie Beginning here now… “If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.” ~ Andy Rooney BRAIN. IT’S got me thinking. In our research this issue, I discovered that when you smile your brain releases endorphins: dopamine and serotonin, and this happens whether your smile is real or fake. ENDORPHINS in turn make you feel good. SMILE and release chemicals. Feel better, and this leads to another SMILE that releases chemicals, and on it goes. NICE SEQUENCE. SO smile your way through our new issue and keep smiling into 2012. THANKS to Patrick Bridgeman for being a brilliant editor so far and welcome to our new editor Katie Roche. Happiness of the season to YOU, our lovely reader. KEEP SMILING. paul congdon, Publisher PHOTO: DAVID KENNA

vibes 4 Your Power to Create 25th February Bestselling author Caroline Myss embarks on an uplifting examination of our power to create our own reality. In this workshop, she will enlighten listeners with ways to escape the most common traps that keep us from reaching our true potential. www.seminars.ie Win a Retreat A special offer is available for a lucky reader: a 50% discount off any detox pack- age at Cloona Health Retreat. To enter the competition, answer the following ques- tion: what town in Mayo is Cloona situated? Answers by email to info@cloona.ie, before the end of February. Entrants with correct answers will be entered in a draw and the winner will be announced in next issue. www.cloona.ie Learn... something new Angel Certification February 3rd-5th Charles Virtue, son of angel expert Doreen Vir- tue, is coming to Dublin to teach his three-day Angel Certification Programme. Afterwards, you are a certified angel healer and will be able to give angel readings and healings to clients, friends, family, and yourself. www.charlesvirtue.com winter Recharge... your soul Juicy Retreats January 2012 onwards Arc Healing owner Aisling Plunkett is teaming up with yoga guru Ken Ryan for retreats in 2012. For the past nine years, Ken has worked with juice master Jason Vale. Aisling and Ryan make an eclectic and very appealing retreat schedule by including activities like five-Tibetan yoga and sauna chanting. www.archealing.ie Detox with Me January 13th-23rd Yoga teacher Sinead O’Connor makes detoxing really simple with her 10-day detox with online support. Sinead gives a strong dynamic flowing practice that fast forwards the detoxifying process of the body, while also joining forces with nutritionist Catherine Brien who will give you detoxing tips. www.hushyoga.com “When there’s snow on the ground, I like to pretend I’m walking on clouds.” ~ Takayuki Ikkaku

vibes Eat... good food Superlife Superlife is a new Irish company created by Talya Lewin and Diarmuid Russell, who are both holistic health-and-fitness counsellors. Their passion is to make superfoods easy and accessible for all through their Superfood Blends – various toppings for breakfasts, smoothies or for snacks. www.superlife.ie Susan Jane Murray Nutritional cook Susan Jane Murray shares great recipes on her website. Whether you’re on a candida, gluten or wheat-free journey, there are recipes for all. Some are very tempting – try the raw cacao bon bons recipe and create 60 little chocolate delights in under half an hour. www.susanjanemurray.com Visit... new places Pure Spirit Oriental Medicine Centre Monk Cheongwol, also known as the Miracle Monk, has opened one of his Pure Spirit healing centres in Rathfarnham, Dublin. Cheongwol recently had his energy tested by Dr Masaru Emoto, and results showed his energy was in Emoto’s top five discoveries. www.miraclemind.eu Zest4life Patrick Holford’s Zest4life nutrition and weight-loss programmes are currently running in many parts of the country. They are run by qualified nutritional therapists, in a group or private setting. Holford’s low GL eating plan is used and results are long lasting and sustainable. www.zest4life.eu Give a gift... to loved ones The Alkapod This is a new portable alkaline water ionizer that allows you to transform ordinary tap or bottled water into healthy alkaline ionized water wherever you are. Alkaline water raises the pH in your body, boosts immunity, and hydrates you into your day. www.water-for-health.co.uk Meditation and Yoga Music Grace by Snatam Kaur is an uplifting and heartwarming album for anyone who likes to meditate, do yoga or simply enjoys peaceful music. It includes various mantras to make you feel grounded and balanced. www.snatamkaur.com www.dervishtrade.com Celtic Calender Author of Celtic traditions, Dolores Whelan, has collaborated with Cynthai Matyi, an American artist whose work specialises in modern interpretations of Celtic designs. Together they have co-created a perpetual Celtic calendar using reproductions of Cynthia’s paintings and insights about the seasons of the Celtic year from Dolores’s work. www.doloreswhelan.ie The Bobble Bobble is a stylish, reusable bottle that filters water as you drink, using an ingenious replaceable carbon filter. Every filter equates to 300 single-serve bottles. After a year, you’ve removed thousands of bottles from the environment, simply by filtering the water from your tap. Comes in pink, yellow and blue. www.waterbobble.com Irish Seaweed Kitchen Recipe Book Medical doctor and chef Prannie Rhatigan shows you how to cook seaweeds in dishes such as salads, soups, breads, cakes and even chocolate fondant and green tea ice-cream. Sourcing, preparing and storing seaweed for cooking are all clearly explained. www.prannie.com Emerald Forest by John Levine Alphamusic composer John Levine created Emerald Forest so that it can be played quietly in the background over the festive period, at family gatherings and events. Its spherical sounds have been known to bring listeners to an alpha state within four minutes; having a powerful effect on mood and feelings of physical wellbeing. www.silenceofmusic.com Human and Kind Skincare A down-to-earth company built around solving skin problems in an ethical way. Eating well is an excellent foundation, but it’s important that we look after our skin – the largest organ in our body. Their all-in- one range is made from natural ingredients like broccoli and birch extract. www.humanandkind.com Raw Food Hamper and The Spiralizer Ireland’s Raw Kitchen has a wonderful Christmas hamper with raw goodies to re-engerise yourself for the new year. Baskets include bee pollen, chia seeds, sea spaghetti and mulberries. Also, another must-have for raw foodies is the Spiralizer, which turns vegetables into pasta in a matter of seconds. www.irelandsrawkitchen.ie Hot o^ the... Positive Press Speak at Dublin’s new Speaking Suppers, speakingsuppers.com. Welcome Thich Nhat Hanh in April, mindfulnessireland.org, and Bikram Choudhury in March, bikramyoga.ie. Health Store Galway is now stocking lovely Pai skincare. Check out Thrive the movie, thrivethemovie.com. Go to cool events at the buddhabag.org, and party at the Foam Café, foamcafe.ie.

There’s a science to creating a world that’s happier, says neuroeconomist Paul Zak, who is also known as Doctor Love because he hugs everyone, and has been suggesting that people hug eight times a day as a way to connect to others. He thought he’d try this in New York City. Calling the event Love Night, he thought he’d be able to design an experience to get people’s brains to produce oxytocin – the brain chemical that makes people cuddle and bond – and then watch them connect with each other. Along with psychologist Emanuele Castano and writer Kio Stark, they designed events for people to do that they thought might cause oxytocin release. They also created thermochromic T-shirts for everyone to wear. These shirts change colour when they are warmed, so they actually changed colour when people hugged. On a Friday night at 7pm, over 500 people show up. Dr Zak welcomes everyone. “I discussed the science of oxytocin and then asked a guy next to the stage to come up and I gave him a hug to model hugging a stranger and show how the shirt changed colour. Then I appointed everyone with the special T-shirts to be hug ambassadors. I jumped off stage started saying hi and hugging people.” Then, people started circulating and hugging each other. And talking. And spending time with strangers. “Something magical happened. Something transformative. People were smiling and laughing. After about 100 hugs in three hours I felt ‘high’ from the constant oxytocin rush,” says Dr Zak. Many others felt similarly transformed. They collected data and found those attending Love Night said they felt closer to those in attendance, to 6 The Cuddle Chemical positively newsworthy

Tucked away beneath the backdrop of the Bluestack Mountains, in the town of Trummon, Co Donegal, lives 36-year-old Keith Corcoran. While walking over mountains and rivers on his travels in 2007, he began dreaming of a way he could think globally, act locally, and benefi t his own community. Little did he know the very process of these walks in nature would be the essence of his new venture when he returned home to Ireland. Weeks after his return he was approached by a family resource centre to see if he would be interested in setting up a walking group. “In a fl ash, I knew this was it,” said Keith. From his own experience he felt that reintroducing people to their natural environment could help decrease anxiety and stress, loneliness and depression, as well as having preventative health effects. The scientifi c world has backed up Keith’s gut feelings, proving that walking in nature for just 15 minutes per day has an impact in decreasing many physical ailments, as well as benefi ting mental health. After leading many walks and bringing communities together, the time was ripe for Keith to help take things to the next level. October saw the offi cial launch of the fi rst Green Prescription Programme in Ireland – a Donegal-based pilot programme integrating Healthy Walking Groups as part of patients’ prescription sheets, with local doctors coming on board. Keith’s vision for this initiative is that by 2015, Healthy Walking Groups will be established in every community in Ireland. He believes the difference between heading out for a solo walk and attending an organised group walk is crucial. One attendee of a walking group said, “It gives me the kick I need to get up and out. It has also, unbelievably, introduced me to areas within my own locality I never knew existed.” The Healthy Walking Groups are accessible and attended by all ages and backgrounds. They are also graded into 6k, 3k, and 1k walks, so there is something for everyone. Keith is currently writing a booklet outlining the process of setting up a Healthy Walking Group for those who are keen to take this to their own communities. He says, “Walking truly is a wonder drug. Getting hooked on walking can only make you feel better. All you need is a good pair of walking shoes and some rain gear. Well, it is Ireland after all.” Keith has just published his fi rst book, Journey in Wonder, describing his travel tales. It can be purchased from his website: www.journeyinwonder.com For more information on Healthy Walking Groups contact journeyinwonder@gmail.com Building a Walking Movement By Susan Quirke New Yorkers in general, and reported feeling more compassionate and happier than before they arrived. More thoroughly explained, oxytocin has been popularised as the love molecule that gets people empathetic and generous. It’s the chemical that motivates mothers to care for their children, or inspires two strangers to connect. Oxytocin release is a virtuous cycle: the more of this cuddle molecule your brain pumps out, the more your brain is triggered to release it. So the message is clear – do what the doc says and get your eight a day. www.neuroeconomicstudies.org “After about 100 hugs in three hours I felt ‘high’ from the constant oxytocin rush.”

8 Taking a Leap My name is Karoona Jhugaroo. I’m originally from Mauritius, grew up in England, and have been living in Ireland for seven years. One year ago I took a massive leap – I let go of my secure and well-paid job, and started my own reiki centre called Rainkoat Energy Therapy. In the beginning I thought the word reiki sounded odd and mystical. It was ironic when I discovered the name karuna reiki – it’s the original Sanskrit of my name, which means compassion. I think I was searching for something more meaningful in my life, but I was afraid of change. When I discovered that reiki was energy and frequencies, it made sense to me. From witnessing sickness at home as a child, I always had an innate feeling that we can do more about healing and refuelling ourselves. I began a journey into the unknown; a little journey into me. I learned so much during my years of reiki training. It helped me let go of the layers and conditioning. Confl ict at home had an immense impact on my childhood. Like many second generation offspring, my sister and I felt confused as we were expected to be Westerners at school and traditional at home in aspects such as discipline, dress, food, and living in general. It seemed that we had to be part of a culture we didn’t really know about. Then my parents’ marriage took a turn for the worse, making a stale and extremely sad home. It’s funny that as children we’re asked to learn from adults. And now as adults we’re searching for that place we had as children – shedding the conditioning, fi nding clarity, and peace. I’ve come to realise it’s about faith in yourself and taking responsibility for the circumstances that surround you. You are the lever for change and your past has equipped you for it. Everything we have been through means we have all the experience and wisdom required to handle today. Everything seems relevant to me now; every coincidence and every circumstance. Synchronicities indicate that I’m on the right path, but of course I am – where else would I be! Many of my parents’ traditions were based on natural remedies like respect, chakras, and yoga. The ironic thing now is I’ve done a full circle, returned to my roots, and made peace with my past. It’s funny how you can always join the dots when you look back. You know it’s amazing how the body can heal itself – even a group of people together can create such a fl ow of energy in one room. Like last weekend, I had a gathering of friends and we all lay on the fl oor with duvets and meditated. Looking back I can’t believe where I am today. If you take a leap the prospects are amazing. Embracing change is important because change is the only thing that’s constant. Did you know that there’s no cell in your body now that was the same seven years ago? That means we go in cycles. We keep evolving, in fact, we have to. To recognise this, one needs to be still. Then you have the ability to open up your desire to know more. By taking that fi rst leap the rest will follow. I can vouch for that. www.rainkoat.com In conversation with Katie Roche.8 Kilbarrack Fire Station Goes Green By Ruth Carson Kilbarrack Fire Station is the fi rst carbon- neutral fi re station in the world. It is completely independent of electricity, composts all organic waste materials, has a recycling bay, and four biodiversity gardens that protect insect habitats and ecosystems. All this work has been instigated by fi refi ghter Neil McCabe and carried out with the help of staff, including retired fi refi ghters at Kilbarrack. Over four years ago Neil recognised the need for increased staff morale and the refurbishment of his workplace. He began implementing exercises like recycling batteries. The attitude of the staff shifted as they discovered that taking leadership and implementing changes costs nothing. These actions are part of Neil’s brainchild, known as the Green Plan, which has won many awards. He spent the initial two years working on the plan in his spare time. His Green Plan is now built into the business plan for Kilbarrack Fire Station. Over 300 projects have been completed and a fi nal 40 projects will see the plan fully realised. The Green Plan will be implement- ed in all the fi re stations across Dublin. Killbarrack Fire Station is full of fantastic stories that have benefi ted local businesses, communities and the environment. Last year, over 200 children celebrated Halloween under Bram Stoker’s original porch in the fi rst commemorative garden for fi refi ghters. The porch had been vandalised in a city park and the fi refi ght- ers refurbished it back to its original glory. Children were taught wildlife games and learned about biodiversity. They were also given four educational gifts: seeds, home- grown compost, bird boxes, and bat roosts from the gardens at the station. These community efforts also brought a decrease in the emergency turnouts from the station; the surrounding areas experienced a happier Halloween. Neil McCabe’s hard work and the collective dedication from staff in their spare time has created a ripple effect with benefi ts for the workforce, the environment and community. With collective action it’s amazing the changes that can be achieved. www.irishfireservices.ie PHOTOGRAPHER: RUSSELL KENDELLEN

!"#$%$&'&()*!&#+%*,)-,.!!&/ Creating a Better You for a Better World Learn to use more of your brain and expand your mind with the renowned Silva Method programmes. Our powerful, comprehensive training in subjective education teaches you SPECIALISED TECHNIQUES to put you in greater contact with your true potential. Through the use of guided imagery, focused awareness, and positive thinking, you can achieve all your goals and create the life of your dreams. Everything is possible with The Silva Method SILVA has the RIGHT PROGRAMME for you. Silva Life System: learn THE life-enhancing techniques that have helped millions of people achieve outstanding success in life. Silva Intuition Training: develop ESP/Intuition, inspiration, creativity and spiritual awareness. Silva Self-healing: activate your body’s natural healing abilities to facilitate renewed health & wellness Courses offered throughout Ireland.Visit our website for course schedule.www.silvamethod.ie Facilitated by Dr. Alma Quinones-Prone and Dr. Denis Prone, Psychologists and Researchers Enquiries: info@silvamethod.ie or call 086 - 3199215 MADE IN IRELAND will help you in many wonderful ways. Simply the best available support for your immune system! Grapefruit Seed Extract Read ‘The Authoritative Guide to Grapefruit Seed Extract’ by Dr Allen Sachs www.aislingfoundation.com t: 027 51567 The Aisling Foundation, Bantry, Co. Cork Eating Disorder Resource Centre of Ireland Suzanne Horgan, Director & Founder Certi"ed Trainer in Practitioner Skills for Eating Disorders and Obesity !"#$"%#&'()#*"#&"+,#&'*)#-."-/.# .0-.+'.12'13#.4*'13#5'("+5.+(#"+# -."-/.#&)"#)46.#7""58#9"5$#"+# &.'3)*#'((%.(:# #e Eating Disorder Resource Centre of Ireland, in a$liation with the National Centre for Eating Disorders (UK), wish to o%er you the opportunity to embark on a one year, part time fully accredited Diploma in Practitioner Skills for Eating Disorders. 2012 Course commencing in May Venue: Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Naas Road, Dublin For further information please log on to www.eatingdisorders.ie where you can download a course prospectus and synopsis or alternatively you can contact us at Phone: 01-4953577 Mobile: 087 2056560 Email: info@eatingdisorders.ie Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment

spirituality & the city “Love Stories” Patrice McCauley and Luc Escot Patrice: We met in the summer of 2010 on an energy healing course in Hawaii. It was clear that we were both attracted to each other. The setting was beautiful; we stayed at a gorgeous retreat, swam with dolphins and studied with a wonderful teacher who created a loving and supportive space. I returned to Australia where I was living and Luc returned to France. We both had a strong feeling in our hearts about each other, but it felt complicated. There was a nine-year age gap, a language and cultural barrier, and the fact that we lived 10,000 miles apart to consider. My biggest lesson with Luc has been learning to trust in my feelings. When I had courage to follow my heart, the ‘difficulties’ just melted away. Luc: This journey with Patrice has completely changed the direction of my life. We both moved to Dublin, and in six months I’ve gone from having a few basic words in English to being almost fluent. I stayed true to my belief in finding love and being in a conscious relationship. Our journey has shown me how a couple can help, support, and accept each other. Through Patrice’s love, I’ve learned to accept myself the way I am and to simply receive love. Ben Flood & Patricia Fitzsimons Ben: We met online on the dating agency website match.com. I looked at her photo and saw her in a long dress outside her house with her dog. She seemed like the type of person I wanted to meet. Trish has a really sexy voice on the phone – I even got my friend John to speak to her on the phone and he was bowled over by her voice. When you get separated, things can really seem like nothing is ever going to happen again in your life as regards love and romance. I learned from my relationship with Patricia that I can love again and be loved again. Patricia: I arranged lunch with Ben. When we met he came across as open, vulnerable, and loving and we had a second date on a beach in Strandhill. I was testing his commitment and he passed with flying colours. We got married last October and while the last year has been a steep learning curve for me – I had lived on my own for 25 years – it has also been the most pleasurable and exciting year of my life. I have learned that I don’t have to be perfect to be lovable, and that a committed relationship provides you with a safe place to be yourself.

Aaron & Sarah Lennon Ross Aaron: On New Year’s Eve in 2001, we ended up at the same party. We got talking about the book Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain and became immersed in conversation for much of the night. The next day was spent hanging out together at which point Sarah informed me that we were now an item. Sarah’s perspective on the world and the energy she carries is unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I’ve learned that all of the qualities that are required to be an authentic person are also required for being in an authentic relationship such as being present, following your bliss, and taking full responsibility for your life. I’ve learned that the greater our capacity is for loving ourselves, the greater our capacity for loving others. Sarah: Aaron and I have a great relationship, and we work at it. We are together ten years this New Year’s and I feel that each year that passes, our lives become infinitely more fulfilling and inspiring. Life itself is not without its challenges, the difference is that now we’ve figured out the tools that help us to take them in our stride. From the beginning we always set time aside at the kitchen table to discuss what was going on with us and how we were feeling in an honest and clear way. We really listen to each other and don’t take things personally anymore. This means that we don’t have arguments and we usually figure out what the real problem is pretty quickly. 11 Anne Lillis & Victor Terentiev Anne: I had just performed cabaret in Dublin’s Spiegeltent, experiencing the powerful energy of its Marlene Dietrich history. Victor, a Russian, came up to me. I had just been reading about the romantic Russian painter, Chagall, so I was fascinated. I fell in love with him as we walked through Dublin. We talked for hours. He said he wanted to suck the passion from life’s very marrow. He said it was like he had known me his whole life. For me, it was like a revelation of a love that had always been there, waiting... a dazzling, which was the name of a song I later wrote for him. Six years later I am still dazzled. I have learned that there may be ancient bonds between men and women, harmonies of swans, that the universe is yearning for them to discover, often after journeys from darkness to light. I have learned that, as a lover, I am the portal to the source of creation and its mysteries. As an artist, I am still working to weave the straw of my limited understanding into gold, worthy of beholding that moment of dazzling. Victor: I have learned to be patient, more gentle, to just be with Anne... I have learned that everyone is an artist. I have learned new English words like kooky because Anne is kooky. I have learned some Irish: Níl eagla orm. I have no fear. I learned to love. “I have learned that, as a lover, i am the portal to the source of creation and its mysteries.” 11

By Áine Fanning, Naturopath & Herbalist Winter is upon us again and it can mean different things to many people. To some it symbolises Christmas, family occasions and memories, to others it brings the images of snow and ice, and to many it means the usual winter coughs, colds and generally feeling more tired. Embracing winter as part of the natural rhythm of our lives gives us an opportunity to change our habits a little, to become in tune with our bodies, and to support our immune system. 1 FEED YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM »Increase warming soups and stews. These are a great way to get lots of nutrients into our diet, boosting your body’s immunity and warming you from the inside. »Be sure to include lots of sweet potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables in your diet. They are full of antioxidants and contain carotenoids that have immune-boosting effects. They also often contain polysaccharides that have an immune-stimulating effect on the gut. »Eat your greens! Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and cabbage are high in vitamin C and other nutrients that boost your immunity. They also contain cancer- preventing isothiocyanates. »Mushrooms such as shitake and reishi have many immune-boosting properties. They are a great addition to stir-fries and curries and also make a great immune-boosting broth. »Eat good quality wholegrain carbohydrates to give you energy throughout the day so your body doesn’t have to run on empty and get run down. »Avoid junk food and lots of processed sugars that do little for your nutrition levels and can also put pressure on your immune system. »Don’t mind the smelly breath, garlic is too tasty and too good for you to avoid. Garlic is a decongestant and contains allicin – a compound proven to have antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. »Make sure you get lots of immune- boosting vitamin C that is found in citrus fruits, berries, red peppers and leafy green vegetables. Don’t forget zinc also, which is found in nuts, seeds, seaweeds, wheatgerm and seafood. fit for winter _ `abcdefabghi jchkl be mbanhop qlrr 12

2 BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM WITH HERBS »Echinacea (Echinacea spp.): Echinacea has received lots of press over the last few years and rightly so. It is effective against bacteria and viruses. It is considered to be immunostimulating; stimulating the body’s infection-fight- ing immune cells and increasing the production of other immune-fighting compounds such as interferon. Its action is at its highest during the first two hours after taking it. So it is best used at low doses in two-hour inter- vals at the first sign of infection and throughout an infection. »Elderberry (Sambucus nigra): The beau- tiful native Irish elder tree is a medicine chest in itself. In herbal medicine, the leaves, berries and flowers are used for many conditions. The berries and flow- ers have traditionally been used to treat the common cold. They help decongest, aid in reducing a fever and have an antimicrobial action. Recent studies have also shown elderberries to have an inhibiting effect on the swine flu. »Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): With such a lovely flavour, thyme is great in roasts, soups and stews, and it also has many amazing medicinal qualities. Thyme is high in antioxidants and has expec- torant, antibacterial, antifungal and antimicrobial actions. Use it regularly in your cooking and it can be taken as a tea for an acute infection. »Astragalus (Astragalus membrana- ceus): Used for more than 2,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine to increase vitality and resistance to disease, recent studies have shown that astragalus helps strengthen the immune system in many ways. It has also shown activity as an adaptogen; helping to increase resist- ance to stress, trauma and fatigue. »If you do get a cold, have a relaxing bath and add a couple of drops of thyme, eucalyptus, tea tree and lemon essential oils to help decongest, bring down your temperature and ease body aches and pains. 3 DON’T FORGET YOUR MIND & BODY Exercise regularly. Science has proven that regular exercise – at least 30 minutes most days of the week – increases immune function. It also helps release stress. If you do start to feel unwell, listen to your body and give it some essential immune-enhancing rest. Get an early night or relax and finish that book that you have been trying to read for ages. The mind plays a powerful part in our health. Stress and anxiety have many effects on our bodies including our hormones and immunity. Finding ways to help deal with your stress and anxiety such as stress release and relaxation techniques, yoga, meditation, conscious breathing or talking to someone, play a vital part in staying well. Studies have also shown that happiness, laughter, and optimism are qualities that people who live longer, healthier lives tend to have. Áine works for the College of Naturopathic Medicine and also has private practices in Dublin 2 and Dublin 14. Contact her for a consultation on 086 378 8857 or aine.fanning@yahoo.com

By Margaret Gray MSW D. Psych. Astrology In embracing the month with the least daylight on our island, remember that you are not alone. Like fireflies, we each have a bright shining light going constantly on and off. Eventually, there will be so much light everywhere that, even in the moments when our own light is not shining brightly, there will be no darkness to get lost or confused in. Until that time comes, we can all help each other through reaching out and holding hands. Whoever’s light happens to be shining at that moment will help maintain the light around us, until we are all shining brightly. Watch how easily children do this. Playing and laughing with them can help lighten your energy. Illuminating your surroundings with beautiful candles can also assist you in brightening your environment as you celebrate the ending of 2011 and the start of 2012. 14 astrology The Time is Now Moving from 2011 to 2012 WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE OFFERED IN THIS FINAL MONTH OF 2011 BY THE PLANETARY ENERGIES? December starts with Venus (the goddess Aphrodite) joining Pluto (the god Hades) in an exact conjunction in the heavens. Symbolically, this represents a day in which one of the most powerful gods of change and transformation unites with the goddess of beauty and love, offering us an excellent time to assess our values – particularly our self-value and self-love. This is a good time to ask ourselves what requires transforming in this arena. As a collective, the theme of ‘what we value’ is particularly pertinent at this time, in terms of our structures and resources, including the natural beauty and resources of planet earth, as well as our financial resources. With the Sun joining Mercury, the god of communication, as it goes back and forth in the sky over the North Node in Sagittarius, a bright light is shone on our collective desire to engage our thinking on a deeper level. This is the ideal time to align our thoughts with our soul self through meditative and contemplative practices. In approaching the end of December, the Sun lands on Pluto, shining a bright light on outworn personal and collective structures that are ready to be released back into source energy. This is a wonderful opportunity to release and let go of whatever we no longer require in all areas of our life, including home, relationships, work and friendships. It can be comforting to remember that as everything is made of energy, nothing is ever destroyed, as it merely returns to source. Cleansing rituals can be very helpful at this time, to release the old, making space for the new. For a simple, free, energetic clearing exercise, visit sriandkira.com. Also, Karen Kingston’s tiny book Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui offers wonderful practical tools on how to go about clearing clutter of all sorts. WELCOMING 2012: THE MAIN ASTROLOGICAL FEATURES AT A GLANCE 1. Neptune moves into Pisces on Feb 4th 2012 where it will stay for the next 14 years, indicating a powerful, prolonged period of spiritual awakening. 2. Venus makes a conjunction with the Sun in Gemini on June 6th 2012, offering opportunities to re-evaluate and re-align our thoughts with our values. 3. Uranus and Pluto will form an exact square to each other on June 26th 2012. The potential to innovate our core structures is very powerful at this time. 4. On November 13th 2012 there will be a total solar eclipse. This is likely to be an intense time of emotional transformation. 5. Dec 21st 2012 at 11:11am GMT is the “You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour... It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.” ~ Hopi elder, Hopi Nation Oraibi, Arizona

apparent ending of the Mayan long count calendar, which coincides with the rising of the Sun in the galactic centre. This is potentially a time of major awakening and change on our planet. In the months to come, I will describe in greater detail how we might engage with the above events. However, future manifestations and healing of the past is created, as always, by what we choose in the present moment. MEETING THE MAIN PLANETARY ENERGIES OF JANUARY 2012 As Mercury, the god of communication, encounters Pluto and forms a square in the sky with the Promethean energies of Uranus, opportunities to express underlying frustrations and desires for change are likely to be highlighted during this month. With so much energy focused in the mental realm, relaxation and grounding in the body is helpful, particularly for anyone with natal Sun, Moon or Ascendant in the early degrees of Capricorn, Aries, Libra or Cancer. With Venus moving back next to Neptune and Chiron, idealism is likely to run high, offering powerful visions of a more equal and just society. The healing power of love is especially highlighted. The new Moon on January 23rd offers inspiration to Ireland, inviting us to reassess our ideals as a nation. In fact, with Uranus continuing back and forth over the chart of the Republic of Ireland’s Arabic Part of Fortune, the start of the year offers us a rich time of innovative change through our ideas, concepts, inspirations and communication with the rest of the world. On February 4th, we welcome the long awaited entry of watery Neptune into its natural home sign of Pisces, where it joins Chiron. This invites us to make a major shift in consciousness on an individual and collective level. At its most expansive, in thinning and ultimately dissolving the veil between dimensions, Neptune in Pisces offers the possibility of remembering and reconnecting with our soul self and our interconnection with all via dream work, the imagination and the arts, as well as meditation and spirituality. Together with Chiron, our natural healing abilities can truly blossom at this time. At its least expansive, we can be tempted to embrace the Dionysian world of chaos and confusion through addictions, psychic intrusion and ego inflation, potentially resulting in wounding of self and others. These themes are particularly powerful for anyone with Sun, Moon or Ascendant in the early degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini. They are also very important if you are between the ages of 50 and 52, as you are currently going through your Chiron Return, which is a time of potential resolution of past wounds and reawakening of your healing skills. As the veil continues to lift in 2012, notice the increasing reconnections with members of your spiritual family. In reaching out and resolving, forgiving and releasing unfinished issues, we can assist each other, at this transformative time in history, in integrating all aspects of ourselves with loving kindness on our journey home. Margaret Gray offers psychological astrology consultations, seminars and workshops in Ireland, Hawaii and California. For further information, visit: www.astrologypsychological.com or email margaret@astrologypsychological.com “Like fireflies, we each have a bright shining light going constantly on and off.”

By Aisling Plunkett For almost a decade now I’ve been practising and teaching holistic therapies. I noticed a reoccurring pattern emerging in relation to the importance of cleansing and clearing the mind, body, and soul. I soon discovered that no matter how much clearing of chakras or meditating I did, I felt that something was still not right. So, I decided to attend a seven-day long juicing detox programme in Turkey, which included some gentle yoga and exercise. While there, I discovered that by cleansing my body of toxins through juicing and yoga, I felt so in tune with myself and my surroundings. It was an amazing feeling. I had so much energy – my skin was glowing and my eyes were bright. After a week of juicing it’s not wise to go straight back to your normal diet. It was recommended that for a few days we eat lightly with salads, fruits and whole foods. At the time I wasn’t aware of raw food, but when I look back I can see this was my first dabble with it. Today I am 80% raw and learning more about this wonderful natural plant- based diet. It was that first detox week that made a huge impact on the way I live today. It was also that gained knowledge that aided me through a huge change in my life – in August, I found a lump on my breast. My life turned upside down when I was diagnosed with grade-three breast cancer. Why me? I was healthy, fit, energetic and only 31 years old. Everything I have learned over the past 10 years holistically and nutritionally helped me to stay focused. I had all the tools at hand and was supported by the universe in every way possible. Through eating raw foods, juicing, taking supplements, daily meditation and reiki sessions, along with some homeopathic remedies, I’m delighted to let you know this particular journey was a brief one. I had a lumpectomy removed in October and was told a week later that I was all clear. From the time I was diagnosed to when my surgery took place – three weeks in total – my tumour had shrunk by almost 20% from 25mm to 21mm. There is no doubt in my mind that the shrinking of my tumour was down to my positive attitude. My diet had a major impact too. I was taking some supplements and superfoods: chlorella capsules, chia seeds, wheatgrass juice, essiac, and raw apple cider vinegar. Chlorella is known to be effective in reducing the symptoms of numerous types of cancers. Studies indicate that chlorella accelerates and restores the population of white blood cells. It increases the rate of healing in tissues, and also boosts the immune system and fights free radical damage. Wheatgrass juice is one of the original superfoods. It is extremely rich in iron, which helps the body regenerate and reactivate blood cells that provide oxygen to the body. If taken regularly it helps the body detoxify. It cleans the lymphatic system, and flushes out the intestines and the colon. It’s a real energy booster too. Raw apple cider vinegar is my favourite. The presence of the acetic acid, which gives vinegar its sour taste, is known to lower pH levels, creating an inhospitable intestinal environment for bacterial and fungal infections. Whatever your complaint, a daily dose of this is a must. At less than €4 for a bottle, it’s just amazing. www.archealing.ie The Powers of Raw Food “Today i am 80% raw and learning more about this wonderful natural plant-based diet.” 16

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positive homesecrets of a feng shui goddess By Amanda Collins Considering we spend over 80% of our time indoors, it’s vital that our home is supportive and nurturing for us. When you enter your home, you should feel as though it is hugging and embracing you. Your home is merely an outward expression of what is going on inside its tenants. This is why it is so important for your home to reflect the life you want to live. I am always asked what the first step in feng shui is. Most importantly, I suggest that your home is clutter-free. That means getting rid of anything that is no longer serving or honouring you. This includes clothing you have not worn in a year, things that are broken, things you don’t need, use or love. Oh, and if someone gave you something and you do not love it, get rid of it. Clear it out and pass it on to someone that needs it, give it to charity or recycle it, always honouring Mother Earth. Want to attract love? Dress the home up like you are already in a loving relationship. Have all the items in the bedroom in pairs, night stands and lamps, etc. Make space in the closet showing you have time and space in your life for a relationship. Bring in artwork and statues that show a romance and intimacy. The bedroom is for rest and romance, and anything that is not serving this should be removed. Keep photos of your family, friends and past lovers out of your bedroom. This year, the southwest corner of your home is the area for love, place some rose quartz and a small water fountain there. Want more abundance? Make sure your home is reflecting that. Get yourself fresh flowers every week. Make sure your front entrance is warm and welcoming to invite the energy into your home. Do not put a cactus by the front door; it will deter the abundance from coming in. Position your bed in the ‘command position’ and avoid sleeping under a window or overhead beams. Have a solid wall behind you, and be able to see the door from your bed. The same rule goes for your desk positioning: do not align the desk with the door, but be able to see it as you work. By doing this it allows your nervous system to relax so you can be more focused on what you are doing. This 19 invites opportunities into your life, not having your back to them. The southeast location of your home is for wealth. Place related items in this area. To improve your health and well being keep the kitchen clean and bright. Keep all EMFs (Electromagnetic Fields) to a minimum and away from the bedroom. Replace old, digital alarm clocks with a battery-powered clock or keep your clock away from the bed. Let go of the microwave. Bring as much natural light and fresh air into your home as possible. Have lots of fresh, live plants to improve the air and beautify your home. Invite all the elements of nature into your home: natural gems, gentle water fountains, fresh flowers, and natural sunlight for the fire element. Create a special altar; an area that you can meditate and dream. Keep a journal; a special, sacred space that’s private for you. Keep your toilet lids down to avoid spreading germs throughout the bathroom. Get rid of toxins and chemicals in your home. The centre of your home represents health, so make sure it is not cluttered. Live in harmony with the earth, be grateful and love your home. Amanda Collins has been featured on FOX News and other major networks as a leading Feng Shui consultant. She’s a master trainer for the International School of Feng Shui, a Deep Yoga teacher and a guide for sacred journeys around the world. www.amandacollins.me

By Jenny Grainger Since I left my TV production career six years ago, I have held a very clear intention for my work and I have been consciously working with the Law of Attraction to co-create the life I desire to live. Part of my dream was to have a more healthy, balanced and fulfilling career. Somehow, I now find myself running five businesses! Of course, things can get a little busy from time to time but ‘healthy balance’ is still one of my main focuses. I now know that when I am clear on my desires, take inspired action and let go of attachment to the outcome, the universe steps up and leads the dance much better than I could. Actually, this article is a perfect manifestation of this deliberate co-creative dance and how effortlessly and magically my life unfolds as a result of it. One of the first things I do each Monday morning is ‘draw my circles.’ On a sheet of paper, I draw one circle in the middle and in it I write my intention statement for my work which says “to have fun helping people to create positive and meaningful change.” Next, I draw five overlapping circles around the central one (a little like a Venn Diagram). Each circle represents one of my businesses. So, for example, there is a circle marked ‘Positive Living Network’, one for ‘Irish School of Life’, one for ‘FreshStart Coaching’, and so on. In each circle I then write my ‘To Do’ or ‘Action’ list for that business for the week ahead. Since my intention is to have fun, I only put down actions that feel like fun to me. This approach is not taught in business school. A few months ago, I became conscious that this process had limitations from a Law of Attraction point of view. Firstly, it was all about the action I was going to take which implied that I was solely responsible for making it all happen. Secondly, if I wanted or needed something to happen but it did not sound like fun to me then I simply left it out. This meant that I was limiting my work hugely. So, I was inspired to add another circle headed ‘The Universe’ in which I include all the ways that I would like support in my work. This includes the big dreams I have and the support I need in terms of the things I do not have fun doing (like the accounts). The first time I did this, I wrote in the universe circle, “I would love to write a regular magazine article about Law of Attraction.” Imagine my excitement when, less than two hours later, my mobile rang and Positive Life asked me to write this. living the law of attraction I am still regularly awed by the power of the Law of Attraction. As you look forward to 2012, rather than writing down a list of resolutions, which you probably will forget about by February, maybe you could draw some circles instead. In the centre, write down your intention for your life in 2012. Then, add a circle for each area of your life in which you would like to co-create positive change. Write down a few fun action steps that you are inspired to take in each area. Whatever you do, make sure you draw a circle for the universe and include in it any support you need for your desires to manifest in 2012. Then, you just have fun and trust that the universe is leading the dance much more gracefully than you could ever imagine. Simple! “In the centre, write down your intention for your life in 2012. Add a circle for each area of your life in which you would like to co-create positive change.” Jenny Grainger is running a full-day workshop called Create Your Ideal Year in Dublin on Friday 30th December and will be starting another of her one-year Law Of Attraction Success Groups in January 2012. Full details can be found at www.irishschooloflife.com20

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23 by Dee Wallace It was by no accident that I became an actress and learned a technique that allowed me to channel so that I could learn how to create my life. More simply: my acting technique taught me creation. And that evolved into the understanding that everything I thought I knew about life was incorrect and misleading. A rather large lesson to learn at the ripe age of around 40 something. I had always been taught that life happens and we manage it: there is a greater Being (our family called it God), and that entity somewhere out there blessed you with lessons so you could become a better person. It was always interesting that those ‘lessons’ contained so much struggle. When I found my acting technique through Charles Conrad, I was free as an actor to soar with abandon and perfect creation. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered this was the secret to creating me, and my life, also. So, allow me to introduce, in simple and succinct ways, the metaphor of my technique as life. Charles’s fi rst rule: don’t judge. As soon as you judge your acting partner, the material, the director, the audition, your own ability, etc., the creative fl ow stops. You go into your head and your mind begins looking for reasons to give you an out. Your creative channel closes and then the only place you can rely on is your mind, which can only supply you with the limited experiences it has already created and warn you to stay safe within them. When you enter the creative arena with blind faith and trust, a world of all possibilities opens up for you. It is obvious how this applies to life and self creation. Who of us would rather be limitless than limited? Who of us, whether it is the creation of a creative endeavour or the creation of the greatest endeavour (Us), wouldn’t choose a new, limitless, exciting and powerful possibility? Charles’s second rule: get your energy high. Everything was based on energy in class. It is true that, when your energy is high, it takes you ‘out of your mind’ and turns you over to the open channel of inspiration and unique divine information. What ‘everyone’ does in an audition and performance never burdens you because the energy creates a state of being that lives absolutely in the moment, and awesome, exciting, unknown things happen to you. It’s a ride you never want to give up. Most of us are afraid of that ride in life. Like me, we have been taught to micromanage life from a point of damage control, and to ‘be careful’ in the choices we make. That is not authentically who we are. Authentically, we are creation itself. When we live in a high energy state, all possibilities fl ow through us. Charles’s third rule: Trust. Trust yourself, the page, the reader, the hits you are getting, and your talent. In other words, trust the creation of you. Now, that is easier when the high energy keeps you out of your mental mind whose job it is to keep you in doubt. Doubt is really the only thing in the way of us trusting our own creation. After all, “God helps him who helps himself.” Right? So, the fi rst one we must trust is the God of our own Being. I trust myself. I trust myself to know, to choose, to love, to create… Me. That is our greatest performance. And we are all in the process of creation every moment. So, how do you see the glass of You? Half full or half empty? Your perception of you creates you and your world. See yourself as a magnifi cent being of unlimited possibilities. Then choose to let go and allow the creative force to work its magic. You won’t be disappointed. Dee Wallace has worked as an author, teacher, dancer and actress in film, television and the stage for over 30 years (E.T. Cujo, The Howling). Her book, Bright Light, tells that tale and shares the spiritual lessons she has learned from a life in acting. iamdeewallace.com the best performance of your life

2012: WHAT’S UP? When we look around the world today, it is clear that there is an increasing amount of change occurring on many levels. We are living through a time of transformation and renewal – the Hopi Indians call this “The Time of Great Purification.” There has been much speculation about what’s going to happen in 2012, stimulated by prophesies from various different cultures and mystics. Among the most well known are the Mayan prophesies, particularly as their Long Count calendar is counting down to the date 21/12/2012, at which point it will reset, which some people believe indicates an ‘end of days.’ Unfortunately, much of what we read about 2012 picks up on and magnifies the apocalyptic scenario, since fear has a strong influencing power and sells. In contrast to this, the living Maya of Guatemala urgently want it to be known that their ancient prophecies have been distorted and misportrayed as doomsday predictions. BIRTH OF THE NEW SUN In Mayan mythology, the Dark Rift is understood as the birth canal of the Cosmic Mother, and to them, the sun being ‘reborn’ from the Cosmic Mother signifies the creation of a new world age. Just as the sun is reborn every year at the winter solstice, after which the days start to get longer again as we progress towards spring, so in the larger cycle of the great year, the sun is currently being reborn as it crosses the galactic equator, emerging from the birth canal of the Cosmic Mother. To continue the analogy, we are moving out of the darkness of the ‘galactic winter’ of the last few thousand years – the Kali Yuga referred to it in Indian Vedic texts as a time of deep unconsciousness and upheaval – and into the light of galactic spring with a ‘new’ sun for the first time in 26,000 years! SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS So, what’s actually going to happen? Life is a mystery and no one truly knows! But through our conscious participation, we humans can have a big influence on how the social, environmental and economic aspects unfold on a local, national and global scale. When we look at the cycles in the natural world, we can see that we humans are the only ones that are out of balance with Mother Nature. We have projected our internal imbalance outside of ourselves, into our societies and onto the planet, over the past few millennia. It is entirely within our abilities to come into balance within ourselves, and it’s happening. We individually and collectively have an opportunity to create a different kind of world. As we take responsibility, become more self- empowered and act from a place of greater integrity, the institutions we create will change – governments, religious bodies, corporations – reflecting our increasing alignment with living our truth, and coming into balance with the whole. FEAR OR LOVE? YOU CHOOSE As we move through this global healing process together, we can choose to respond with fear or love to the changes we experience. On an individual level, our duty to ourselves and to humanity is to heal what arises within us as we become aware of it, and through healing ourselves we heal the collective whole. By realising we are interconnected, we can begin to create a much more humane, sustainable, joyful society. We are the ones we have been waiting for. IRELAND 2012: BE WHERE IT’S HAPPENING! Recognising the unique energetic opportunities of this once-in-26,000-years alignment heralding the birth of the ‘new sun’ as it crosses the galactic equator and we move into a new era, this national event is going to be Ireland’s biggest indoor conscious celebration for winter solstice 2012. The intent is to come together and create a powerful focal point for manifesting our collective intentions for a peaceful, love-filled world at this turning point of great awakening. For more info, visit www.ireland2012.ie or Ireland2012 on Facebook. 24 Ireland 2012 By Richard Stone and Enda Donellan

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By Olga Sheean I’ve moved a lot in my life, having visited or lived in 35 countries around the world. It can be exciting, inspiring and life- changing – if you don’t mind launching yourself into the unknown. I found my husband after moving to Switzerland, due to a gut feeling that I needed to be there, and I forged a new career in Canada, following an apparent chance encounter with a Vancouverite in the jungles of Peru. Yet ‘chance’ is what inevitably happens when we let go of our usual anchors and open ourselves up to new possibilities. Being anchored can be good, of course. If you feel stable, inspired and content in your life, you’re probably anchored in the right place. If, however, you feel unsettled, agitated or unfulfilled, a move may be required. But the move itself is the easy part. Even plotting a journey halfway round the globe can be done with just a few clicks of your mouse. It’s the insecurities, self-doubts and negative projections that get in the way. In fact, whatever your goals in life, these are usually the only things getting in your way, and they may have nothing to do with your hoped-for destination. Here are some signs to look for, if you’re wondering about moving, in terms of your career, health, love life or geographical location. 1 Your limbs are achy or your bones feel heavy. Our skeletal system is designed for locomotion and to enable us to remove ourselves from uncomfortable or unsafe situations. Any negative childhood experience can cause us to shut down emotionally and physically, which can then cause us to stay stuck in certain areas of our lives. If we’re disconnected from our body’s inner prompts to move, we usually end up feeling it in our limbs. If so, we must exercise vigorously to free the body from constriction, to release the trapped energy and to access whatever information is trying to reach our conscious minds, so that we can move forward positively with our lives. 2 You’re dwelling on petty things, arguing over who’s right or wrong. This is a sure sign that some movement is required – usually in terms of communicating more openly and practising greater emotional honesty. There’s a whole world of possibility inside us, waiting to be explored and expressed, and there’s really no good excuse for holding ourselves back. You can’t blame it on anyone else, unless you’ve been gagged and bound. If you’re sweating the small stuff, try to let go of the need to be right (even if you are!) and ask yourself who you’re blaming for feeling stuck. When you’re 85, sitting in your rocking chair with a head full of regrets, it won’t just be the trip to India that you’ll think about; it will be all those heartfelt things you left unsaid. 3 You’re drawn to other cultures and philosophies, and are yearning for something. Explore another country, take yourself beyond your current boundaries and find out what’s missing inside. Travelling can be a powerful way to discover what we’re made of and what really matters. When we strip away our usual busyness, routines and distractions, we’re forced to be present. We must respond to new cultures, languages, regulations, and values, and our usual ways of doing things will not work. By placing ourselves in a foreign environment, we expand our vision of humanity and we can reinvent ourselves without the constraints of our native culture. So don’t wait to be moved or the move may be made for you – by your boss, a dissatisfied partner or an ailing economy. While inertia almost always leads to regrets, daring moves keep us vibrant, engaged and living a life of creative fulfilment. Olga Sheean is an author and personal empowerment coach who teaches a unique system of self-mastery designed to put you powerfully on track with your life. www.olgasheean.com olga@olgasheean.com are you waiting to be moved? 27 “Being anchored can be good, of course. If you feel stable, inspired and content in your life, you’re probably anchored in the right place.”

Simply picking up this magazine, feeling the texture of its pages and reading these words, has physically changed your brain. In fact, science tells us that every experience we have rewires our brain’s neural pathways, changing its structure and function, as we adapt to our environment. This ability of our brain to change and evolve is called neuroplasticity. In our search for a deeper understanding of neuroplasticity and how we can consciously shape our brain and change our inner and outer realities, we invited Dr Joe Dispenza, famously known for his roll in the docudrama, What the Bleep Do We Know, and Professor Ian Robertson, of Trinity College Dublin, to offer their piercing insights into this reality-bending subject. While speaking with Joe and Ian, I learned some simple, yet powerful methods that have allowed me to consciously change my brain and transform my personal reality. During our conversations, what struck me most was the simplicity of the methods used and how profound and far-reaching they are. Let me share with you some of this knowledge, so you can experience as much positive change in your life as I have in mine. REALITY Here’s what Joe Dispenza says about reality. “Your personality creates your personal reality. So if you want to create a new personal reality, then on a fundamental level, you would have to change some way you think, act or behave, otherwise you’re trying to create a new personal reality as the same personality.” This is why so many of us get stuck before getting off the starting blocks of our personal transformation journey. The process of conscious change recommended by Joe is achieved in two stages. First, he tells us we need to become aware of what we want to change, and secondly, to think about who we wish to become. This, he tells us, can be achieved through contemplation and meditation. MEDITATION Joe teaches mindfulness meditation as a powerful technique for transforming our brain, mind, and personal reality. Using meditation helps to make our inner world more real than our outer world, which allows the brain and body to change in accordance with our thoughts. Here’s what Ian Robertson has to say about training our attention, Reshape Your Brain… 28 By Kevin Curtis

which is the most essential element of this meditative practice. “At first, your attention will drift after a minute or two, but like a muscle, it can be trained and strengthened. So you start by holding your attention for a minute, slowly increasing the duration each time you practice. By setting goals, eventually you will be able to maintain your attention for 20 minutes, half an hour or longer.” As we apply our attention, reminding ourselves of whom we no longer wish to be (as in the first stage of the process), Joe explains, the frontal lobes quieten down the circuits in your brain connected to the old you. Because neurons that stop firing together stop wiring together, your old personality is gradually unlearned. As we imagine who we want to become, in the second part of the process, new circuits light up and begin forming the new you. In this case, neurons that fire together wire together, so a new personality and reality begin to emerge. THE MENTAL GYM A powerful technique used for changing our behaviours and enhancing our real life skills is something Ian Robertson calls the mental gym. This is a form of active meditation, where we are imagining ourselves carrying out actions or specific behaviours. In this way, it is a perfect method we can use for the second stage in our transformational process. To teach us about this amazing tool of the mind, Ian explains what it is and how we can use it. “If we realistically imagine doing something, such as having a difficult conversation with our partner or boss, the more practised and rehearsed we are, the more automatic our behaviour will become and the less vulnerable we will be to the real-life nerves at the time of the actual conversation.” In other words, the more you practise something, the more immune you will be to the effects of performance panic and anxiety. Ian says, “the amazing thing about this is that you don’t have to practise in reality, although it helps; you can learn to do very detailed rehearsals in your mind’s eye, not just visualising, but hearing the sounds and feeling the sensations in your body, engaging all of your senses in the experience. The more you mentally rehearse and the more detailed you can be, the better skilled you will become. Being thrown off by performance anxiety will also be less likely. This is because when you imagine an event or performance, you use most of the brain circuits you would use while performing in reality.” Ian also points out, “an important element of this method is not to run through the imagined event quickly, but to see yourself doing it in the same time frame as you would in the real world.” We can use the mental gym as a way of changing our emotional reactions. Doing this, Joe tells us, “when the body is signalled to emotionally believe an event has already happened ahead of the actual experience, we are biologically changed, and that’s when the event finds us. This is the law of attraction.” MIND-BODY RELATIONSHIP To better understand the process of change, Joe describes the mind-body relationship. “Every time you have a thought, you make a chemical. Specific emotions turn on certain circuits in your brain that fire in various combinations and Reality “The moment you begin to feel the way you think, because the brain is in constant communication with the body, you begin to think the way you feel, and the cycle continues.” JOE DISPENZA

to produce a level of mind. That level of mind stimulates another part of your brain to release a chemical so you can begin to feel exactly the way you think. The moment you begin to feel the way you think, because the brain is in constant communication with the body, you begin to think the way you feel, and the cycle continues. This cycle, for some people, can go on for 20 years. The repetition of the cycle conditions the body to memorise an emotional reaction better than the conscious mind, and whenever the body knows better than the mind, it’s called a habit. “The repetition of this cycle creates a state of being. A state of being is when our mind and body are working together and our thoughts and emotions are aligned to a concept. So a person says I am insecure or sad... etc. “Most people, because the body doesn’t know the difference between stimulation from the external environment and fabricated emotions, live in the past, basing their reactions on past experiences.” BREAKING YOUR EMOTIONAL CONDITIONING One of the most interesting facts I learned while speaking with Joe was that the hormones we produce from an emotional reaction only last in the body for one to three minutes, unless we keep them going by our own volition. In which case, they can last for many years, as in the previous example. We can benefit ourselves and escape this trap by learning how to shorten our emotional reactions to things. Joe tells us, “If you don’t know how to control your emotional reactions and there’s a refractory period, and you let that emotional reaction linger for hours or days, it turns into a mood. “So you say to someone, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ The person says, ‘I’m in a mood.’ Then you say, ‘why are you in a mood?’ They say, ‘well, this thing happened to me five days ago and I memorised my initial reaction.’ If you keep that refractory period going for weeks and months, you’ve developed a temperament. If you keep that same refractory period going on for years, it’s called a personality trait,” says Joe. “When we begin to develop personality traits based on our emotions, we’re living in the past and that’s where we get stuck. Teaching ourselves and our children to shorten the refractory period frees us to move through life without obstruction.” THE KEY TO CHANGE Joe explains the key to lasting change. “If you fully allow yourself to participate in the two-step process described, to the exclusion of everything else, your frontal lobe begins to quieten down all the circuits in the rest of the brain, and your present thought becomes your experience. The moment this happens, the experience produces an emotion and you begin to feel like that new ideal of yourself. As you begin to feel differently, your body becomes conditioned to a new mind.” This is where the magic happens: where our thoughts become reality. UPGRADING YOUR BRAIN A few other things we can do to enhance our brain function include keeping hydrated, eating a brain-friendly diet (including foods rich in omega-3 oils such as flax seeds, oily fish, walnuts, and olives) getting daily exercise, and trying to learn something new. All of this helps sharpen the mind and grows new brain cells in a process called neurogenesis. Lastly, the brain needs a constant supply of oxygen to function, so proper breathing habits, which can be enhanced by hyperbaric oxygen treatment, are essential. THE BOTTOM LINE Your brain is physically changing and rewiring itself every time you have an experience. We can, if we choose to, guide this biological process in a positive direction by making small changes to our lifestyle and how we use our mind. “Decide who you want to be. If your personality creates your personal reality, and you are clear about who you want to be, you will move into a new state of being; a new state of being means a new personality, and a new personality creates a new reality,” says Joe. How liberating and comforting it is, knowing we can give conscious direction to this process. So now that you have this knowledge, will you choose to apply it and become the sculptor of your own mind and reality? Kevin Curtis is founder of the Formless Art school; facilitating personal evolution through movement, posture, and meditative practices. He is currently writing a book called Bending Reality: A Warrior’s Guide. www.formlessart.wordpress.com Further Reading Dr Joe Dispenza’s latest book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Loose Your Mind and Create a New One, will be available in February 2012. www.joedispenza.com Professor Ian Robertson’s latest book, The Winner Effect: How Power Affects Your Brain, will be available in June 2012. POSITIVE TIPS FOR THE BRAIN t
Consciously change your thoughts; retrain your thinking t
Take omega-3 oils or eat fish, walnuts, and flax seeds t
Breathe properly to increase oxygen flow to your brain t
Meditate to sharpen the mind and learn to let thoughts pass t
Visualise positive outcomes and it will become automatic behaviour t
Learn something new and allow brain neurons to make new connections IAN ROBERTSON

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positive beauty By Mary Berkery This summer and autumn, new directions opened to me as a wellness coach. I followed my dream of many years to study equine-assisted learning, which took me to the USA for over four months, working and studying in this methodology. It was a wonderful and rich experience. So, for those who know me as the living beauty expert, I now share another aspect. I will integrate this work I do with horses, allowing them, whenever possible, to facilitate transformation in my coaching and retreat work. After the expansion and excitement of summer and autumn, I want things in life to happen now. Yet, in my daily quiet time, the wisdom within says, “Rest and allow this deeper life expression to unfold.” Rather than push it with goals and tasks, which is normal for me, I need to let it be, allowing the new year and spring to put voice to it in a clear way. This brings me to the point that I want to get to for this winter issue – how to rest. What does rest mean? Particularly, what does it mean in winter time? Last winter, I wrote an article titled ‘Less is More in Winter’ for Positive Life. The theme also applies this winter, for me and perhaps for us all. A good educator is said to repeat themselves often until one gets it! We live in a world where everything is fast. There’s instant contact with others through text, email and telephones. Cars, aeroplanes, etc., move us from A to B rapidly. TV with news and conversation coming fast. Foods prepared quickly. Beverages like coffee and sodas speeding up body functions to an almost constant state of movement and excitement. To drop inside oneself, to find or feel our own natural slower rhythm can be difficult. More than any other season, winter is the time to consciously be more within, to rest, to be, to allow our bodies to replenish and our souls to reflect. So, what does rest mean? I believe it means much more that just physically resting, although that is important. For me, it means resting the mind. To be able to stop the inner clatter, to look at a sunset or a tree and look at it without the mind racing ahead or worrying. Stop rushing. Our society seems to encourage responses such as, ‘I’m busy. No time right now.’ I have a dear wise friend, a renowned body rolfer. He has made a commitment not to rush when talking, walking or doing, and is a joy to be with. Another way that helps me pace myself is to run my day through before living it; see if there is space and time or if I’ll be running from one task to the next. Jennifer Thomson of Raw Food Bliss says, “Sleep well and early. Sleep may be the single most important thing we can do to help our immune system.” It truly does allow the nervous system to relax. Sleep more in winter and watch less TV. Since the return from my travels, I have not watched any TV. Do one task at a time. This is difficult with Christmas looming. So, how about keeping your mind on the task that you are doing, rather than thinking about and planning another? Complete a task when you start it. This is challenging for me and I am committing to this as a practice. I have not given obvious vitality or beauty tips. However, when we can find this inner rest, mental calm and innate rhythm, we connect to a self that maintains health and emanates a glow that makes others feel at ease in our company. So, rest within well… Enquiries: mary@livingbeauty.ie Rest for Vitality & Radiance “More than any other season, winter is the time to consciously be more within, to rest, to be, to allow our bodies to replenish and our souls to reflect.”33

In our purest state, we are awareness, but our awareness of this state is rarely pure. Usually, we perceive through filters of ‘I am…’, ‘This is…’ and ‘The story so far…’ We also tend to listen to the commentary of the ego and pay heed to its advice. However, if you were to let go of all of that, and focus your attention on what’s actually happening here and now, you would come to know your self in the way that you truly are. Try this: For as long as you like, perceive the things around you without putting labels on them – just look, listen, taste, touch, feel and be. Every time your mind goes to put a label on something, let the words pass through you without sticking to your perception, and keep on perceiving the experience in its pure form. This will free the moment from your ‘story’, and allow a peace and presence to blossom in you. Try it now, if you like. With this peace and presence comes an increased awareness of what’s going on behind the scenes. If you pay close enough attention, you can catch glimpses of the inner workings of life and the nature of reality. You will see beyond the veil, and be able to use this knowledge to improve your quality of life. Channelling Channelling is simply being aware of the more subtle aspects of existence, and consciously allowing non-physical energies and intelligences to flow through you. The more clear your channel, the more clear will be the insights you allow through. They can come as information, guidance or impulse. I channel when I’m dancing, painting and writing. I channel very consciously when I’m facilitating a healing session for a friend or a client. I even had an out-of-body experience when I was acting on stage many years ago. For about 30 seconds, I was standing behind myself, watching myself perform in a different way than I’d rehearsed. It worked. It flowed. And then I was back in my body, performing as normal. Projection Projection is the opposite of channelling – making up stories about what’s happening and how people feel, coloured by our own, often misguided, beliefs. In the Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City is ruled by the great and powerful Oz, who is actually an illusion created by a scared little man behind a curtain. In the same way, we can be ruled by the illusions of the ego. But if we do pay attention to the man behind the curtain, we can choose how to respond to his suggestions, instead of reacting like Pavlov’s dogs to a bell. It can be quite tricky to distinguish between that which you are channelling and that which you are projecting, but with practice, it can be done. The previous exercise will help with that, and so will the following one. Now try this: Follow these words as they enter your eyes. Where do they go? Let your awareness recede back into your head to make space for them. Once they have gone inside, feel free to close your eyes to help you focus on the inner part of the journey. What direction do they take? How far do they go? Where do they end up? You can also follow sounds or other sensations if you find that works better for you. Try it now, and see what happens. Perceiving purely on the outside or the inside will take us to the same place – an understanding and experience of our true self. It is true that we are all One, but this One is made up of two parts: awareness and creation. There is a whole universe inside of you, ready to be birthed through your experience. Practise awareness and conscious creation, and get to know your self for real. www.patrickbridgeman.com “If you pay close enough attention, you can catch glimpses of the inner workings of life and the nature of reality.” PHOTO: KASEY LENNON34 awareness & insight By Patrick Bridgeman By Patrick Bridgeman

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Humans have a paradoxical capability to both adapt to change and at the same time an inherent resistance to change. Our ability to adapt to change is why we are here as a species. Our resistance to change is what allows us to function on a day-to- day basis, if we only thought about the imminent change then we’d never do what we do every day because we’d only have to change it. So, in this sense, not changing and changing are things we have to embrace depending on the circumstances. Everyone has had a year with lots of changes – good, bad, or otherwise. With some changes we’re on top of the world. With others, we may feel as if we have lost our foundation. In these times it is tempting to look inward, withdraw to within safe boundaries and wait for things to happen. But, if embraced, change can give birth to our greatest life successes if we open ourselves up to the possibility. Ruairí McKiernan recently left his job to explore new possibilities. For the first time in his life, he is unsure of what’s next and he’s loving it. He is founder of the multi-award winning SpunOut.ie National Youth Organisation, and was a co-host of the Dalai Lama’s 2011 visit to Ireland. “I’m interested in embracing change because I want to realise my full potential during my short time here on planet earth,” he says, “There’s something in humans that crave security. However, previously secure systems are now insecure so we might as well embrace the massive changes of the embracing change 36 by Katie Roche

moment,” says Ruairí. He refers to what Michael D Higgins said at an event recently: we need to “be the arrow and not the target”. Change can be exciting and empowering, and act as a catalyst for inspiration. Noeline Kavanagh, artistic director of the performance group Macnas, is someone who never lets a good crisis go to waste. She likes to see change and challenges as a chance for personal growth and renewal. “If your mind is open to certain things, you’re going to be constantly responding to inspiration. You’re going to be imagineering continuously,” she says. It was when Ireland started changing she conjured up the idea of The Boy Explorer – a 15ft eight-year-old who travels the country gathering ideas about how to make Ireland a better place. “When changes happen, we can like them or dislike them, but either way we have to adapt to them,” says Suzie Cahn, co-founder of Carraig Dúlra, and owner of the OutOfOurOwnBackYard (OOOOby) store in Co Wicklow. She’s been very aware that profound changes have begun in society and believes people are making big changes in terms of how they live. “We have a choice when faced with challenge, and it’s various parts of our lives and the world that makes us feel like we don’t, but we, and the well-to-do West, have a great deal of choice.” These choices include adapting in engaged optimism and making a decision as to where to direct your thoughts. “Positive thinking says it’s easy to do that. But it’s important to make the choice to continue that. I started with a fairly optimistic outlook. You can fund your pessimism throughout life if you want, but you can also fund your optimism too. You can shift it.” Thinking outside the box and thinking big are two things needed to be done in times of challenge, to gain a sense of perspective and to yield the things you want. “You tell me this is the way and it’s the only way it can be done, and I won’t believe it”, Suzie laughs, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It is this way of thinking that manifests all the great things in her life, like, for example, when she set off in an old Volkswagen with her family and dogs for a year, travelling around Europe and meeting other families. She didn’t know what was going to happen, but it turned out to be the most amazing and reviving time in their lives, and it funded the life they now live. Thinking big means training yourself to see not just what is, but what can be. Expert on motivation, Dr. David J Schwartz, says, “A big thinker always visualises what can be done in the future. He isn’t stuck with the present.” Susan Jeffers, author of Embracing Uncertainty and Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway, thinks that it’s letting go of trying to control the unknown that gives you a sigh of relief – again, restating what Suzie shares above: it’s how you choose to live. Jeffers shares good insights: “There is a great adventure in the unknown that propels us to discover powerful parts of ourselves that we didn’t know were there.” She talks about incredible freedom there is when one recognises that we don’t really know anything, as Leo Tolstoy observed long ago: “The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.” In a world of discovery, instead of blind certainty, we can relax and let go of our need for things to be a certain way. Of course, it still means that we can create change, but we can let go of how things were ‘supposed’ to be or how they ‘should’ turn out. Anything is possible if you think anything is possible. We can make whatever changes we want in our lives. Life likes changes. Accept this and see what unfolds. It is the cosmic dance of change and movement, and understanding the nature of our reality that assists us to be more in harmony. And when you make that choice to embrace change, and look at the bigger picture and see the whole panorama, then wow… life is beautiful. embracing change “A big thinker always visualises what can be done in the future. he isn’t stuck with the present.”

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39 yoga saves the day “To watch these enhancing changes is amazing. A different life begins and the body expresses a happiness never felt before.” On a cold and dark Tuesday night, I am tired after work. I head towards Oscailt Mews where, every Tuesday for the past five years, I teach the 6.15pm yoga class. As I get the open empty space ready, I begin to feel better. My body relaxes and my mind softens in anticipation of the class. Familiar faces emerge through the door, some like me: tired and weary, others enthusiastic and eager. As we gather and greet each other, I am filled with warmth and tenderness. For the next hour and a half, we will practise and play together. By 7.45pm, tiredness will have given way to aliveness – the room will feel very different. Yoga is a transformational practice. Every time we practise, we transform inside and out. As we roll out our mats, we are consciously making space for ourselves in our busy lives. One of my teachers, John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, calls it “serious play.” Stepping onto the 7ft by 3ft mat is a serious act of commitment to ourselves as we find freedom in ourselves and reconnect deeply with our hearts. Most of us live in bodies that are conically tight and minds that are relentlessly busy. When we start yoga with stiff bodies and distracted minds, it takes effort to align our bodies in postures and open our minds in meditation. There can be deep resistance – all we can think about is getting out of one pose into the next. Frustration comes and our inner terrorist starts to rant. An impulse to throw one of those cork blocks at the teacher arises. If we lovingly persist with an attitude of curiosity and kindness towards ourselves, we learn that experiencing the pose opens us up. When we welcome intensity of sensation and meet the emotions, the body and mind expands and we taste the deliciousness of freedom. As we get stronger and more spacious on the inside, the stiffness melts away. With each practice the effort decreases and something pulls us back to our mats for more. Speaking about yoga the great Italian yogi Vanda Scaravelli said, “Practice transforms us. We become more beautiful, our faces change and our walk gains in elasticity. Our chests expand, the muscles of the abdomen start to work, the head is lighter on the neck. To watch these enhancing changes is amazing. A different life begins and the body expresses a happiness never felt before.” I have witnessed these enhancing changes; this happiness in my students but also in myself. And that overflow of natural joy is not just physical but happens on all levels. Yoga builds strong vibrant bodies that pulsate with Shakti or the life force. Practised in the tantric tradition, as we do in Anusara yoga, it is a remembrance of our divine nature in these bodies. We experience a union between body and mind, and the ego and spirit. It teaches us to be present; to listen; to embrace everything and deny nothing. No repression, no escape, no avoiding, no renunciation. Hurray! Ireland has some beautiful spaces to practise in – Oscailt Mews, The Yoga Room and The Elbow Room in Dublin, and Ennis Yoga Centre, Yoga Shala Galway and Yoga Boann in Drogheda. Life in 2011 has been exciting and challenging. Everything feels unstable and there are lots of unknowns. Yoga is a sophisticated technology from a 4,000-year-old tradition that offers us a practice to radically engage with being human: to open and to fear, find our steadiness inside and celebrate being alive. Mari is a yoga teacher and transformational coach. She is doing a yoga workshop called “Coming Home to Yourself and Finding Space Amidst the Merry Madness” on December 18th in The Yoga Room. www.yoga.ie 39 by Mari Kennedy “As our body, heart, mind and spirit open, each new layer we encounter reveals both great freedom and compassion and deeper and more subtle layers of underlying delusion.” ~ Jack Kornfield

The Good Life 2.0 community resilience in a changing world This really is a period of extraordinary change. Institutions that we have depended on are failing us, but there is a new world emerging and you can be part of it. In this Good Life 2.0 column, I have been exploring strategies and initiatives that could build our personal and community resilience to help us cope with the change. In this issue, I want to enquire into how we might discover the new in the midst of the breakdown of the old. There is a permaculture principle that states, ‘use edges and value the marginal.’ If you are not familiar with permaculture, it is a design process that helps us to apply lessons from living systems to what we do. From a permaculture perspective, we can observe that in nature the edge is the most fertile ground, therefore if you increase the edge or the boundary between two systems, for instance the edge of a pond or a forest, you will increase productivity. The principle is simple; if the most productive area of a system is the edge, then design to increase and utilise it. “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut 40 the fertile edge of resilience By Davie Philip

The fertility of the edge is not confined to the biological world, the same patterns are found in the social world. Most of the ideas I’ve covered here in Positive Life, like permaculture itself, collaborative leadership or community- supported agriculture, are all marginal activities, developed and practised generally by a few folks out on the edge of society. Most new thinking comes from the edge and, in these turbulent times, we really need to value these marginal approaches to build our resilience. Innovation rarely comes from the centre. It most often comes from thinkers on the fringe, doers at the edge and makers at the margins. Fresh thinking and new ideas can come from all sorts of unexpected places, often from people or communities that have been marginalised. The edge in culture is not usually respected or listened to by the mainstream, but I am convinced that many of the responses to the crises we face will come from those willing to rock the boat, who are not content with the status quo and are willing to take a risk and try something new. As Einstein famously said, “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” No one can predict the future, but what is certain is that it will be characterised by uncertainty. More than ever, we will need to develop our capacity to cope with surprise and become competent in doing a lot more for ourselves. No one is coming to save us, which means we are all going to have to step up, demand change and play our part in the future that is emerging. As I write, there is revolution in the air. The protests inspired by the massive public uprisings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the Campanadas in Spain are popping up everywhere, from Wall Street to Dame Street. Although these movements are leaderless and are often criticised for having no clear goals, they are intensely democratic and are doing a lot more than simply demanding change. By utilising processes like the people’s assembly and consensus decision-making, the activists are self-organising and are exploring possible solutions as they strive for a fair and just society based on participatory democracy. They are, as Gandhi would say, being the change they want to see. The mainstream media response to these gatherings was at first to completely deny they were happening. Then, as the more liberal press picked up on them, there was an attempt by most of the corporate media commentators to label the occupiers as naive and unrealistic. Mass arrests have been reported from many of the public squares occupied by the activists. This is what you would expect, as Gandhi observed, “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” So will these protesters succeed? In these occupied public places, ordinary people, with a conviction that things are not quite right, are discussing brilliant ideas and innovative strategies for change. They share an understanding that the difficulties that people are facing are due to an underlying structural systematic problem. They aren’t claiming to know all the answers. What they do know is that, by discussing the problem and sharing perspectives, responses to our challenges will emerge. They know that we need to come together, not only to stand up to the small percent that are undermining the future for everyone, but also to begin to build the new system. As Buckminster Fuller, the famous systems thinker, said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” What these recent protests do is bring together a number of very dispirit ideas and begin to popularise them. Most of these have been bubbling up out on the edges of society for decades. Those active in these protests and the hundreds of thousands around the world working for ecological sustainability, equality and justice are catalysts for change from the old to the new. The old system that is centralised, individualistic and highly dependent on hierarchy and control, and the new that is decentralised and is characterised by openness and fairness. As these actions become connected, a powerful movement with influence on a larger scale is emerging. The innovators aren’t the rich and powerful at the centre, they are the incredible number of people on the periphery who are resisting, reconnecting, rethinking and revitalising the world in which they live. To respond to today’s crises and develop our resilience, we will need to listen to and appreciate these ideas from the edge. The greater the diversity of resilience strategies available to us the greater our ability to respond to the challenges we face. As Jack Kerouac declared, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes – the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.” Davie Philip runs the community resilience programme at Cultivate and is a resident of the Cloughjordan Ecovillage. He conceived and directed Surfing the Waves of Change, a new Cultivate short film that introduces the concept of community resilience and can be seen at www.cultivate.ie “Responses to the crises we face will come from those willing to rock the boat, who are not content with the status quo and are willing to take a risk and try something new.”

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Ah, those memories of growing up in a little village in the 1950s in Germany with local dairies and butchers, sleeping under cherry trees on balmy June nights, fishing for trout on Sunday mornings at 5am in July, eating grapes from the vines in September, pressing apples in the co-op, and then that smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the small bakery – my uncle’s bakery – on the way to school. I can still see and smell it when we bake bread at home. Fast forward to 2011 and the smell of fresh bread in a certain German superdiscounter. What has happened? What is fresh bread? For thousands of years, bread has been made in the same way – flour, water and salt combined with yeast as a raising agent – but in 1961 a new method known as the Chorleywood process started the industrial breadmaking era. Hard fats, hydrogenated fats and fractioned fats, flour treatment agents, bleach, soya flour, various emulsifiers, preservatives, and about 10 different enzymes have all become ingredients to reduce the time it takes to make bread and the labour input. The Chorleywood breadmaking process mills at high speed and high temperatures and allows the flour to absorb more water. In fact, nearly half of your industrial bread is water. It also uses two or three times the usual amount of yeast compared to traditionally made bread, and the large increase in the amount of yeast is cited as one possible cause for the growth of yeast intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome and candidiasis over the past few decades. The large amounts of salt used, double to that in traditional recipes, has been linked to heart disease and raised blood pressure. Under normal circumstances, bread takes a long time to rise. Sourdoughs, for example, contain a mixed strain of ‘wild’ yeasts and the whole process from dough to finished bread takes around 24 hours. Long yeast fermentation conserves the highest level of B vitamins. For example, around half of vitamin B1 is lost in rapidly made white bread. WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO INSTANT INDUSTRIAL BREAD? I think, firstly, a change of mind would help. Like the change that has happened with coffee. Freshly made coffee with freshly ground coffee beans is the order of the day, even in a hotel you would now expect to get freshly made coffee rather than instant coffee. So, ask for and buy freshly made bread from basic ingredients and support the real bakers. Secondly, bake bread yourself and get that smell back into your kitchen! The time you invest will be paid back in highly nutritious bread. For making fresh coffee you need a coffee grinder and a coffee plunger. Ideally, for making fresh bread you would have a grain mill. The advantages of producing your own flour by milling whole grains compared to buying white flour are obvious: wholegrain flours are richer in vitamins A, B and E, and niacin, and they have a higher content of the minerals potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron. The dietary fibre, which is also a constituent of grain, fulfils very important tasks in our digestion: it remains in the stomach for longer, stimulates bowel activity, and can prevent diseases of the colon. You could argue that a grain mill is expensive, but here is a little “Milchmaedchen Rechnung” (a simple calculation): If you buy whole grains and bake your own bread, you could save up to €3 per loaf compared to buying the same loaf, that would mean savings of nearly €300 in three months if you ate one loaf of bread a day – the price of a decent grain mill! Get organised, the choice is yours. Essential reading: Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley For more information and courses: hans@theorganiccentre.ie For information on grain mills: gaby@neantog.com the wonder of “fresh” bread baked with freshly milled flour positive food “Bake it yourself and the time you invest will be paid back in highly nutritious bread.” 43

positive food I’ve been looking forward to this season because I adapted a delicious recipe from Daverick Leggett’s book, Recipes for Self Healing, which I think is perfect for this time of year, served with some chewy brown rice and steamed green broccoli. During winter months, we crave long-cooked beans, hot soups and stews. They take their time to release their heat and energy into our body, giving a feeling of grounding and strength. Unless you have a greenhouse, or buy it in a bag, gone are the days of quick growing lettuce and tender leaves. These are predominantly Yin foods, they grow quickly and their energy is dispersed and used rapidly. Now, however, we need the Yang foods, which are generally condensed or small in size and take a long time to grow, such as beans, seeds, barley and millet. The longer and slower they are cooked for, the longer and slower their energy release will be, ensuring we are kept cosy and supported from the inside at this cold time of year. Japanese Aduki Bean Stew 250g aduki beans (2 tins cooked beans) 6 shitake mushrooms 500 ml dashi broth 1 butternut squash 1 medium sweet potato 500 ml vegetable stock 2 tablespoons soya sauce 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger 1 tablespoon honey Freshly ground black pepper Pre-soak and cook the beans with a strip of kombu until they are soft. To make dashi broth, soak the shitake mushrooms for 30 mins in water from a recently boiled kettle. Meanwhile, peel and chop the squash and sweet potato into fairly small pieces sgl _db et ueovihecv ueewhop By Joanne Faulknerwinterrecipes

incredibly rich in the minerals that are often missing in our diet due to decline in soil quality. So, although cucumber is a naturally cooling food not usually recommended for this time of year, the purpose of the next recipe is the seaweed. Dulse in the following recipe is said to have over 200 times more iron than green leafy land vegetables. It is exceptionally high in iodine and manganese, which is great for keeping our digestive enzymes and metabolism in smooth running order. Cucumber and Seaweed Salad 50g dulse/dillisk Juice of 1 freshly squeezed orange 1 cucumber Soak the dulse in the orange juice for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the cucumber paper thin and place between paper towels with a weight such as a breadboard on top to press out some of the fluid. Return to the seaweed, which should now be soft, take it out of the orange juice and finely chop as if it were a herb. Toss this through the pressed cucumber and serve as a fresh accompaniment to a warming vegetable curry. It’s also yummy in a chicken sandwich. The organs linked to this seasonal time and the salty taste are the bladder and kidney. It is the spark created between the two kidneys that is said to fire our energy and will for life. So, lets be good to them. Don’t let them get too cold (so no crop tops in the snow please). One of the best foods to nourish and warm the kidneys, while at the same time assisting the expulsion of toxins from the body, is barley. At this time of year, toss it into as many soups and stews as possible. But, to use it as a medicine, make the following barley water ,which is great for any urinary infections and can also help in strengthening digestion, especially for those with candida. Barley Water 100g barley 2 litres water To remove some of the laxative qualities of barley, dry roast it in a large, heavy- based pan for a couple of minutes, then add the water and bring to the boil. When it has reached this point, turn the heat down and allow a slow rolling simmer with the lid on for at least an hour – up to two hours if you can. Strain the barley from the water and allow it to cool. If the liquid is very thick, use it like concentrate and add water. Also, for flavour add lemon or barley malt. The liquor can be kept in the fridge for up to five days. It is possible to eat the leftover barley too. Add some nori flakes just to further nourish those kidneys which, at this time, need to rest and restore, ready for us to enter the spring for another year coming. Joanne is a fully qualified shiatsu practitioner who specialises in acupressure and food to balance the body. To book a treatment or consultation, please contact her on 086 607 0432. For information on wholefood catering or to book a place on her one-day cooking courses, email joannefaulkner@live.ie Upcoming dates The Beehive: Mindfulness, Meditation and Contemplation Retreat – 29th December to 2nd January. Also, Conscious Cooking for the Bladder and Kidney coming in January 2012. PHOTOS: EMMA BRERETON and steam until almost soft. Following soaking, finely slice the mushrooms and combine with the aduki beans, squash, sweet potato, dashi broth, vegetable stock, soya sauce and ginger. Simmer together slowly until the liquid has reduced by at least half and the flavours have condensed. Take it off the heat; add the honey and black pepper, letting them melt into the stew, and serve. The taste for this time of year is salty, and the best way to get this flavour is sea vegetables, which are 45

The 5 Rhythms ® is a movement meditation practice- simple, profound, joyful and transforming. “ e dance that lives inside us is like a dream, only we can dream it, only we can set it free, give it physical form and live it. It is unique to us, if we don’t dance it no one will” Gabrielle Roth. I o#er a variety of workshops and classes throughout the country for women and men of all ages and $tness levels. e practice of e 5 Rhythms ® helps us become aware of how we live our life moment by moment and day by day. It is about how we can change our way of being, our emotions, our reactions and our habitual tendencies that can make life di#cult for us. e practice helps to free our bodies, to clear our hearts, still our minds, reduce our stress levels and alleviate depression. Contact: Caitríona Nic Ghiollaphadraig, Finisglen, Recess, Connemara, Co. Galway. Tel: 095 34664. Email: info@deorade.com Web-site: www.deorade.com New DVD featured on website.

short & sweet 47 Imagine starting your day with this phrase: life loves me. Imagine your diet being infl uenced by a dictate like ‘I will lovingly nourish myself with good food.’ Regardless of the stresses you face, the thoughts you choose to think about yourself will be the foundations of your day and your life. Your attitude and approach to doing anything is how you do everything. Just this instant, think negatively, and see how your mind and body reacts. Now, turn those thoughts positive; imagine you are looking in the mirror and loving what you see – a wonderfully energised person. See the difference already? This transformation is called healing your life: letting honesty, truth and real feelings in. It’s the Heal Your Life philosophy made famous by Louise Hay. There is nothing new about this philosophy. It is everyday and it is real. It simply involves changing your thought process, becoming aware of how thoughts shape lives, learning to care about self, value self, and through that, others. It’s so powerful to let go, to allow loving, abundant thoughts and experiences enter your life. Learning how to forgive others for not being the way we want them to be has been the most freeing and rewarding lesson in my life. It has allowed me to welcome things into my life experiences I would never previously have imagined. Sharing this work with others is a huge privilege. For more information on either the teacher training or the two- day Heal Your Life workshops, go to www.eileenclair.com Change Your Thoughts By Eileen Clair

Singing Happiness By Sharyn Cunneen There are many things we can do to confirm to ourselves that we choose happiness. Lately, I have been singing. It is working for me and it has worked for thousands of years for others too. Singing is connected to your heart. This is one reason why, in religions all over the world, there are devotional songs. Devotional singing is an expression of love or praise for a god. Mothers instinctively sing to their babies. If someone is extremely happy or in love, singing happens naturally, but it can also be applied the opposite way: sing first and feel happy later. I have been singing anything and everything: nursery rhymes, narrating what I am doing, and sometimes popular songs that get stuck in my head. I usually get an instant lift when I sing, especially if I sing with my partner. Singing together with others will have a stronger effect, as sharing and connecting with others in any way is also opening for the heart. Because singing is a direct link to your heart, it has many benefits. As well as the obvious feelings of love and joy that come from the heart, singing also helps to release fears and to express yourself in all areas of your life. This is often inspiring for others and can help to lift their spirits too. Sing and discover for yourself all the magical and wonderful effects it can have on your feelings and your life. www.singingday.ie Facebook: I Choose Happiness48 by Katie Roche Looking after your heart is important, and it’s something that many people, no matter what age, must start to think about more and more. Alongside with exercise and eating healthily, there has been evidence to show that the amino acid L-Arginine can aid heart health. Mr Sherif Sultan of University College Hospital Galway and the Galway Clinic emphasises the importance of nutrigenomics in maintaining cardiovascular wellbeing, identifying L-Arginine as a key compound. Nutrigenomics involves the study of the impact of foods and their constituents on gene expression. The nutrients coenzyme Q10 and L-Arginine were Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, and the latter compound is regarded as a leading amino acid in cardiovascular repair and regeneration. L-Arginine helps to reduce blood pressure and lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, otherwise known as bad cholesterol. Sultan says these two agents have “singularly led to cardiovascular cures, even in life-threatening situations, without the need for more invasive intervention”. After a Galway financial consultant heard about Sultan’s theory, it resulted in the formation of a company that is now producing a food supplement containing all the elements of Sultan’s wishlist ingredients. The result, Revive Q10 Plus, is manufactured in sachet form by ABC Nutrition in Shannon, Co Clare, as a single water-soluble supplement. Not only does it comprise coenzyme Q10 and L-Arginine, but other key ingredients also like L-Carnitine, magnesium, glutamine, and B vitamins. Revive Q10-Plus supplement is already selling in a number of pharmacies and health food shops. www.reviveq10plus.com Heart Health short & sweet

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utrigenomics- the new approach to cardiovascular health /%/% 0"&'$1$..%0"&'$1$..% 2&)(%2&)(% )!"%3%1!4$#)!"%3%1!4$# !5$!5$ A New Year Dawns Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It’s your chance to begin again, to startafresh. Wake to a new day – leave the problems of the past behind, welcome the day ahead and the adventure of your new life that is to follow. Come on a journey of self-discovery, get to know yourself, find out who you really are, learn to believe in the power within. Psycholytics, rhythm of life–the complete approach to healing and well-being. Courses, seminars & healing workshops –www.psycholytics.com psycholytics THE BOOK THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! What if … God were to come down amongst us? What if … he had our undivided attention for half an hour? What message would he have for us as we struggle with personal difficulties and global problems? What if … the skies opened, the light shone through, and for half an hour Heaven and Earth merged into one? What if … within the still encounter, like a whisper, God versed the truth? Take half an hour to sit with God. Read His words of inspira- tion and hope. Re-discover a lov- ing and accepting God who is always with you, no matter how hard your life becomes. Re-con- nect with a God who seeks only to help you, to lead you away from your problems to a new life of serenity and joy. Wake up to a new beginning. Read HalfAn Hour With God– it might be the most rewarding 30 minutes of your life.. Tel. (01) 443 3061 or your local bookshop (ISBN 978-1-908417-25-1)
12.50 online from www.writteninireland.com writteninireland.com BOOKS WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED IN IRELAND // BOOKSTORE

“Bobble will change the way you drink” www.waterbobble.com Now available at Arnotts, Clerys, Stock Design, Menarys & many more stores nationwide A two week spiritually uplifting journey to visit the Casa Dom Inacio, a healing sanctuary in Brazil. This is the home of Joao De Deus, John of God, one of the most renowned healers of our time (sometimes known as “The Miracle Man of Brazil”). The journey will be led by Ann Maria Dunne, a registered guide of the Casa. Sacred Journey to Brazil 7th - 22nd January 2012 For Application form & further details contact Deirdre Ahern Tel 087-2809279 email: dmjoy@iol.ie www.sacredjourneys.ieThe Wonder of Homeopathy By Liz Keegan Homeopathy treats individuals rather than diagnosed diseases, and it recognises that individual people function on several levels: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. The aim of the treatment is to get to the root of the problem. The Greek physician and teacher Hippocrates emphasised the importance of accurate observation of the patient, saying, “I would rather know what kind of person has a disease, than what kind of disease a person has.” I have been interested in complementary medicine for many years, so six years ago I decided to take the plunge and enrolled in the Irish School of Homeopathy for their four- year teaching course. I decided on homeopathy as my future profession after seeing how effective it can be, even in the case of serious illness. A close member of my family suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for years. After trying all conventional treatments, she decided to give homeopathy a go. Initially her condition got slightly worse, but it had been explained to her by her homeopath that this sometimes happens and is usually a sign that the treatment is starting to work. Over the course of my studies and in my own practice at the Novara Centre in Bray, I have seen many cases like this. Her condition improved – so much so, that she is now off all medication and her quality of life has greatly improved. www.thenovaracentre.ie www.ish.ie 50 short & sweet active balance clinic www.farinfrared.eu t: 0872711215 In Ireland for over 25 years Amatsu is a Natural Japanese Therapy it is a gentle therapy that realigns bones muscles and ligaments. Also gets the cranio sacral/ digestive/emotional and nutritional system back into balance. Other Therapies at the Clinic include clinicactive balance Bowen, Massage, Reflexology, Indian Head, Aromatherapy

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One to one healing at Glendalough Co. Wicklow from only €50 Night classes “Worry less, laugh more” in Bray (beside Dart) €75 / 6 weeks Healer Training (7 Saturdays over 7 months) commencing in 2012 in Dublin. As seen on RTE 1 TV recently Noirin Callanan HEALER “What her clients say ‘a"er one session the pain was gone’, ‘the condition cleared up completely’, ‘ I had an overwhelming sense of peace and love and the pain went completely’, ‘the doctor cancelled the operation’ www.healer.ie or call Noirin on (0404) 45948 anytime for more information. Your NEW life could start with a phone call ! Put Your Passion into Purpose Nutritionists are becoming increasingly in demand as more people are becoming interested in taking better care of themselves. As people become more aware of their health, they are going to turn to professionals for guidance on proper diet and eating habits. That’s where nutritionists come in. It is the job of the nutritionist to develop menus and dietary guidelines based on an individual’s specifi c needs. Since 2002, the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health (IINH), based in Bray, Co Wicklow, teaches people with a passion for nutrition how to help themselves and others achieve better health. Experience is its key asset – its four primary tutors have, between them, over 75 years of clinical and teaching experience. Its programmes are designed for people aware of the benefi ts of good nutrition, who want deeper understanding and a range of practical skills – backed by a professional qualifi cation. Its next course is Nutrition in Health Care and Complementary Practice, which starts in January 2012. Practitioners often face conditions aggravated by poor diet. This new programme, taught over weekends, provides the key nutritional understanding, skills and clinical experience needed to enhance treatment outcomes. Other courses include Nutritional Therapy Diploma and Nutrition and Health Coaching Advanced Diploma; it is about to launch its fully supported e-learning format for the latter. Graduates may also then progress to various degree programmes. They will gain the knowledge and skills to guide individuals and groups, including paying clients, towards a healthier diet and lifestyle – and make it stick. www.iinh.net

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Investing in the Future by Bernadette Bohan The stories in The Survivor’s Mindset are of ordinary people who gained the power to turn their lives around. Martin is one of those incredible people. He is a successful businessman and was part of today’s chaotic rat race: a workaholic. This lifestyle came with a heavy price tag when he learned he had a fatal disease, myelofibrosis, and he had approximately five years to live. Despite this severe blow, he decided to try and save his life. I explained that the basic principle is to kick start the immune system and boost the defence functions of the body. He adopted some commonsense steps into his life and began juicing. He converted his shopping trolley into an organic-only zone and developed a taste for a vegetarian diet. As he began to invest the same effort into his health as he had into his business, he influenced his recovery and tipped the scales in his favour. Taking the time to invest in his health was the single most important step of his life. “I am on top of the world and really well. Sticking to the programme has become so much easier now that I’ve started seeing results. I feel foolish now in saying that it appeared to be a mammoth task to get on top of. The life of hope you introduced me to replaced the cloud of fear I lived under. There is no downside to having hope. It gives us a reason to strive.” www.changesimply.com www.facebook.com/changesimply Healing with Sound By Tony Lawless I’ve started to blend craniosacral therapy with sound and vibration healing, and the results have been so profound. At the core of every healing modality is intention and energy. Taking time to allow a person to settle down and relax is critical as it allows a client’s body to communicate openly with a therapist. The object of a session is to remove restrictions and barriers by connecting with the fascia. Craniosacral therapy is all about working with the fascia and allowing it to release restrictions, which may have been imposed by either physical or emotional trauma. The fascia is the thin layer of continuous connective tissue that links every part of your body to every other part of your body; allowing energy to flow through our neural pathways more efficiently. Introducing sound and vibration healing methods, which were developed by SomaEnergetics, was an easy decision. The tuning forks, which restore balance on a cellular level, are introduced through the auditory system, and this provides access to the central nervous system. Sound healing also connects the right and left side of the brain, which helps re-establish balance and harmony in brain function. When we introduce vibrational body tuners into a session, they link into the connective tissue and gently facilitate a releasing of tension from the fascia. It’s with this combination of these manual and vibration healing therapies that allows for a more balanced and efficient healing process. www.health-plex.com 53 “Sound healing also connects the right and left side of the brain, which helps re-establish balance and harmony in brain function.”

My Favourite Things Julie Owens Occupation Owner and manager of Restore healthfoods and clinic. Book Mutant Message from Down Under by Marlo Morgan. My dad gave it to me to read years ago. It’s a captivating story that embraces the Aboriginal connection with the planet. Film It ranges from The Shawshank Redemption for its determination, humanity and positivity to Avatar for its creativity and compassion. All the Star Wars fi lms too. They rock. Music My general rotation at the moment is Kate Bush’s Sea of Honey. Also, The XX. A lovely customer who’s a rockin’ DJ copied this for me recently and I can’t stop playing it. Website Without sounding corny, my own one because I’m just getting it up and running. I just love it. Food I’m a bit of a contradiction between healthy and bold with my palate. The extreme goes from loving a green salad fi lled with raw sprouts to the occasional lemon slice from The Cake Cafe. Venue Anywhere by the sea. I’ve gone to the south of France quite a bit camping. I love the pier for a Sunday afternoon. If I can travel in Ireland it’s defi nitely The Burren. Event Most recently a small gang of us went to a remote eco retreat in Newtownmountkennedy called Sli Na Bande. We danced, meditated, and formed spontaneous drumming circles. Destination The journey is the destination. This is something I read recently and have only really found great solace in realising. What a relief! Pastime Dancing. I just couldn’t do my life without it. Also, cooking for friends. Exercise Bikram yoga, swimming, and dancing. Spiritual Practice I practice the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and chant daily. It’s changed my life in so many ways. Spiritual Teacher Daisaku Ikeda, Gandhi, and Marianne Williamson. Quote “Be the change you want to see.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi short & sweet 54 Why do people feel pain in a hand that has been amputated? There is a paradox of reduced signals being interpreted as an increase in pain. The brain does strange things in the absence of accurate, sustained, sensory information. It fi lls the hole in the body map with pain. This is confi rmed by studies showing that people with long- term lower back pain actually receive less sensory information from their lower backs. If this cycle is not broken, we learn to get better and better at feeling pain. When we are in pain most of us try and limit the amount of sensation we are feeling. We should do the reverse; feel as many other sensations alongside the pain as possible. Break the pain cycle by enhancing the mind and body connection. Increase your body awareness and get more in touch with the multitude of signals being sent out by your body. There is always more to feel than pain. Instead of the brain guessing, we can reteach the brain the real state of the body. The natural plasticity of the neurons will use enhanced, accurate signals to create new connections and unlearn the pain habit. This understanding is essential to biodynamic craniosacral therapy. At the heart of cranial work is the development of meditative body awareness, supported by the gentle touch of the therapist. The work feeds the brain useful information and allows it to form the accurate body maps essential for health. www.bodyintelligence.com/dublin How the Brain Maps the Body By Steve Haines

Calm Natural Limited Europe Magnesium helps most people to Sleep Better - Feel Better “Best Selling Magnesium Supplement in the USA (US Brand Name Natural Calm) !"#$%&'$(')#*$+,$)$#"-./ 01')2*$,345'#$2-"6$5($4"#'$27), 8"3#$2+4'*./ Calm Natural Limited Unit 5 Sgtation Road Industrial Estate Thatcham, Berkshire, RG19 4QY www.naturalcalm.eu Order Desk +44-118-321-8987 !"#$""%#"&#'"#()*#"+'#,"&-#./0/' www.mindfullnessireland.org Cooling the Flames Tour - Ireland 2012 Public Talk: The Miracle of Mindfulness 11 April 2012 Convention Centre Dublin Retreat: (all ages welcome) Living Mindfully Today 12 - 15 April 2012 Killarney Convention Centre