I was waking the dogs early this morning and reflecting on how many people manage a “Hello”, or “good morning”.  I know there are good reasons for this….As a group, dog walkers are above average at acknowledging the presence of another human. Then Brenè Brown’s term The Wholehearted came into my mind.

According to Brenè the wholehearted are characterised by 10 things: Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think; Self-Compassion (easily as important as the previous one); Gratitude Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty; Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison; Cultivating Play and Rest; Cultivating Calm and Stillness; Cultivating Meaningful Work: Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance.

Let’s go!

Other underrated qualities in people I like are: showing up, being reliable, giving a nice hello, giving a hug, paying attention, noticing, and the ability to be still.

Rising and setting
On an early morning walk by the river today between Teddington Lock and Kingston, I noticed that sometimes the river is mainly hidden, and sometimes in full view. In Qigong there is a movement called throwing the ball, which involves reaching out, and letting go, again and again, side to side.

When I first did this movement in my teacher training, I remarked to my teacher that it felt to be that I was feeling for something, but that I didn’t know what it was.

Like the river, the Tao is always there, sometimes we glimpse it, sometimes not, and sometimes it is right there before us. When we glimpse it, sense it, or know that is there, the best we can do is notice it.

The main thing is to

Begin to cultivate a sense of wonder.  As a child you had this.  The way to greater awareness (happiness) is  through the active reawakening of this sense of wondrous amazement.   With an attitude of playful curiosity and acceptance you may begin to allow what is, to just be.  A useful tool is to start deliberately unnaming things.  Look at anything and pretend you don’t know what is it.  It immediately becomes more interesting and you may begin to notice that what we name things is not what they really are.  Everything is much more than the name we refer to it by.  Just notice this and allow it.

Recently back from a holiday in Nepal, where I achieved a lifetime ambition of seeing the Himalayas.  Sitting updating the website today I was just reminded of a young hippie in Canada, where I found myself age 25.  She gave me a book called “Be here Now” by Ram Dass and it struck me that as well as a great title for a book, it’s also great advice for life, and that perhaps I’m applying myself to that task with a little more success than I did back then, when I was just unknowingly beginning my journey.

September 2019

There is a part of us that lives outside of time in the now.  As well as our stay on this planet in the physical form which is measured by the turning of the the earth and the sun and moon, there is a part of us that is ageless and timeless and which lives on after our phyiscal body dies.  That part of us dwells in the stillness which cannot be measured by time.  Spend some moments each day and take time to befriend your timeless ageless self.

The last 4 years I have meditated every day. Previous to that I had meditated form time to time, “when I had time”. About 6 years ago in response to a colleague’s question about how my day was going, I found myself saying, ‘good, my day is always better when I meditate”. Still I did not meditate every day. Then at the beginning of 2014, I decided to try meditating every day. Why not make every day a better day?

Here is a guided mediation by Lori Granger that has proved poplular in our weekly Qigong class in Horsham:

March 2017:

In my Qigong class today we had a short discussion about the main differences between Tai Chi and Qigong.  The consensus from those who do both, was that Tai Chi encourages more Fire (heart) energy, while Qigong encourages more Water (kidney) energy.  For me it is the balance that is important

Qigong as well as encouraging core strength, flexibility, balance, resilience, fortitude and patience is also a way to explore our relationship both with ourselves and the Tao.   Here is the first verse from the Tao te Ching by Lao-Tzu.

The Snooks have arrived!

• homeopathy is about treating the individual
• homeopathy works
• millions of people successfully use homeopathy

Tuesday 22nd January 2014:

Recently I have seen a couple of cases of people who came for help with specific fears.  One was fear of flying in an adult, and one fear of dogs in a child.  I am happy to report that both cases have responded in a first class way.  Although in the homeopathic literature there are many references to remedies with fears, I have rarely been asked to treat specific fears.  It makes me think that my practice could help more people who have specific fears.  The fear of dogs came on after a bad experience with a dog, and the fear of flying was unrelated to a bad flying experience.

There is no shortage of villains in the world. Psychopaths – domestic and national – whalers, toxic waste dumpers, global eavesdroppers, billionaire tax avoiders and their army of accountants – all well worth campaigning against with the aim of getting them banged up or forced to cough up. Read more