Holiday Chill Out Techniques

I remember once hearing that most people need to take a holiday for at least 10 days to really unwind, turn off the busy brain and really enjoy a complete break. Well, this of course depends on many factors. Are you a completely obsessive compulsive e-mail junky? Do you go on holiday to rush around sightseeing. Do you view you holiday as a duty to the family or are you really seeking a space to not think about anything in particular?

As I have spent the last few years taking retreat time for myself as well as organising and running regular retreats. I have found that I now seem to have a more natural capacity to turn off my brain much quicker when on a trip or holiday. Yes I have had more practice than most people and yes I have been using yoga and meditation in my life for many years, which obviously have had some very positive effects. However the capacity to distance yourself from the everyday concerns, is not always so easy to do. So what assists you to control the brain, thinking and worrying and let things go? What helps you to self-sooth? Is it music, a beautifully quiet environment or wonderful scenery? Can you turn the mobile phone off and remain out of touch? Let me know what most counts for you as a way to really chill out on holiday.

Stepping into Summer

Mandala of Flowers and Vision Boards.

Being away on retreat, women join together to be creative and have fun. In June I am really looking forward to taking another group to our new venue in Sussex to work with summer colours, energy and walking close to nature.

Have you ever worked with chakras, mandalas, healing and reflection using nothing but yourself.
I love to relax with a chakra visulisation based on flowers. I design my mandala in my head, walk through the garden choosing plants and flowers to make a wreath and then I paint the mandala based on the scents, colours and patterns.
Balancing my chakras with the use of crystals and reiki.

Do come and join us if you can. We supply the accommodation, a spectacular English Stately Home and private gardens to walk in. We share healing and wonderful metaphors straight from mother nature.

Mindfulness in May

I am planning a wonderful Spring retreat here in Sussex, England which is centred on the theme of colours of Spring. ots of lovely time outside in the countryside being mindful of the all the new life blossoming around us.

It reminded me of a workshop that I attended sometime ago which had the participants walking mindfully around a cornfield which was indeed an introduction to walking meditation. It was such a great thing experience to be so close to nature that you can use all your senses, to tell the season, the weather, the time of day.The sounds that Spring holds is very different to those of September or indeed any other time of the year.

Try this exercise. Close your eyes and use all your senses : firstly to listen to the sounds furthest away from you, outside the space you are in. Then listen to the sounds in the space you are in and decide what is it that you hear that makes it definitely Spring. I can hear sparrows chirping outside and someone cutting their lawn. I can smell the Clematis in the garden and scent of bluebells and pinkbells! I can close my eyes and see the colours of Spring. You can just imagine the bluebell woods in Sussex or the pale purple Wisteria draped over houses and fences.

So I am drawn to designing a visualisation around using the colours of all these flowers to match the colours of our chakras. A Spring Flower Chakra Visualisation for all the wise women choosing to take time on Retreat. I knew I would find some inspiration if I started blogging again. It has been a while.

Enjoy your visualisation!

Spring's lessons.

In the depths of winter it is so difficult to remember what the warmth of the sunshine is like. The minute we change the clocks and spring time arrives we welcome the longer hours of light and our energy levels rise.

Easter always reminds me of the dark overcast days of Holy Week in Greece. The weather was strangely depressing as the week progressed and on "Good Friday" you could feel the depth of mourning, even if you were not particularly religious. The slow church bells ring and as the procession of the coffin is carried through the streets the darkness seems to return.

As the resurrection takes place, Easter begins and the mood swiftly changes to that of joy and celebration. From a place of suffering came release. From a place of despair came hope and the Easter message spreads by the tradition of sharing candle-light and ringing of bells.

Let us remember the simple message. Often we have to visit the scary places before we see the light. If you know of someone who has challenges and a heavy load to carry right now, share a little light this Easter.

Executive Depression

Executives of all backgrounds are suffering the most awful pressures whether from their workplace or from not being in work. Just look at the number of articles being written everyday on the increase in mental health problems, suicide and depression and anxiety cases.

"Prime minister Gordon Brown may have made a 'slip of the tongue', according to his spokesman, when he recently referred to the recession as a 'depression', but there is no confusion about the association between economic problems and poor mental health.
An increasing number of studies are linking the recession to ill health - particularly anxiety, heart disease and stress. For example, academics at the University of North Texas have found that three to five years after periods of job loss and financial insecurity, there was a marked increase in the number of heart attacks.
Meanwhile, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine report that surveys following the break-up of the Soviet Union showed that the regions with the highest rate of job loss also had the highest death rates."

Let's get really active in offering our support. As Retreat Coaches we are trained to support and allow for reflection. This is our time as thousands are looking at their "Crisis of Meaning" a theme that we used to associate with the mid life crisis stage. It is hitting hard and our executives are losing face, confidence and jobs. Many of the values that they held so dearly have been wiped out in the business world and people are looking for guidance and support to find new meaning and purpose.

As their lives crumble there is the need to work with resilience, values, positive mental attitude, CBT and almost every tool in the Retreat Coach toolbox.

Look for the sign http://www.nursingtimes.net/depression/1996457.article

and step up to the cause. Be sure that coaching is the correct intervention, that medical assistance has been received and that you have your professional intentions set and contracted for.

Dorothy Larios

Taking Meaning from Kindness.

I went walking the other day around my local area to post a letter, pick up a prescription and generally let the sunshine brighten my mood. As I looked at the sudden colours of spring blooming in the gardens and people taking the first steps towards awakening their passion for gardening, I began to see the goodness of our world.

As if through fresh eyes and ears which had borne the winter's economic depression, I saw things afresh. A little girl was sad as she left the doctor's surgery and her Mum bent down to meet her eye to eye to explain that taking medicine wasn't really so bad as it would make her feel better. The headache and sniffles would stop and she would be able to go out to play again!

As I continued along the pavement beside the parked cars, I noticed that someone had designed a really beautiful Birthday Message and lain it over the windscreen of one of the parked cars. " Happy Birthday Steve- Have a good one!"

It lifts your spirits to experience such little tastes of gentle kindness amongst the usual day to day routine of any normal neighbourhood. It brings a spring smile to my face and thoughts of " the majority of people are truly kind." There are so many cynical people telling us what is wrong in the world we forget that there are more goodness and kindness out there that you can ever imagine. Like all good news it is seldom told.

I am reading "All Will be Well" by Michael Meegan and would love you to enjoy it too.

Finding Purpose on Retreat

" When I last stepped away from my life I felt so guilty about going way and leaving my husband with the children for three whole days. On the train to my retreat venue, I began to slow down and as I flicked through a glossy magazine my mind reflected on the green countryside whizzing by and how much I had forgotten my rural childhood roots."

" My whole life had become a lovely, homely family whirl of children, schools and husband. The whirl was great at times but somewhere I had forgotten about me. Who was I before I had children? What had I become? Was my life of any real meaning?"

My client wrote this as she set off on her first retreat in her specially chosen retreat journal. Her yearning for a few days peace allowed her the time to think about what was her life all about. Her children were happy and healthy, she had a hard working, high earning husband and a busy contented life but she had a hole somewhere inside that just cried out for something more! There was an emptiness that had been concerning her but she had always avoided thinking too much! She was scared to look too closely for fear of discovering a ghost, a memory or worse, herself.

So many of us lose touch with what we believe in. We rebel as teenagers against the faith or belief our parents introduced us to. As students or young adults we begin to look further and
often we turn to other spiritual practices to find meaning and purpose. Where are you on this
journey? What do you connect with? What do you turn to in a time of need?

Our spirituality is the the very core of our being.