To me feathers are the Symbol of writing. I see a feather and I think of a quill and the creative writers in the times of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Even in these days of my iPad notepad, I still love to write with a fountain pen. So when feathers started to appear in my life about a year ago, I started to wonder if there was any other more commonly known symbolism for feathers. I have always been fascinated by the meanings in signs and symbols but one of the key thing one needs do is ask themselves “What does it mean to me?” before racing to the bookshelf to get another person’s interpretation. As I was now curious to find out if a feather might mean more than just my Anchor for writing, I turned to my trusty books on symbols to find none of them had anything significant on the meaning of feathers and so the subject fell from my consciousness. That was until I turned up without a feather to The Path with Heart, Davina MacKail’s workshop introducing Shamanism and I realised that to the Native American Indians and shamans feathers are not only symbolic, but essential in [...]

Epiphany is my word du jour. It all started when I was explaining the importance of the 6th of January, or Epiphany, in the Italian calendar, as a day when La Befana fills the socks of children with toys or sweets if they are good or coal, onions or garlic if they are bad. My meandering mind then turned circuitously, via the origins and dual meaning of the word, to an epiphany of my very own triggered by a conversation about witches, witch crafts and covens.  In Italian folklore, La Befana is often depicted as an old woman or crone wearing shawl riding a broomstick, like a traditional witch. For Italian children, La Befana is like Father Christmas, coming down the chimney—explaining her sooty look. And just like children that leave food for Santa and his reindeer, Italian families will often leave a small glass of wine and some thing to eat for La Befana. According to local folklore, La Befana sweeps the floor before leaving.  There are a number of versions of the Christian legend behind La Befana, but one is that she was too busy sweeping and cleaning to join the Three Wise Men, [...]

For me 2012 is going to be the Year of Yoga, starting with a four hour workshop on 1 January 2012 with Katrina Repka at The Life Centre. I have been studying yoga with Katrina for more than a year now, so I might be a bit biased, but the yoga cocktail she teaches is just perfect for my otherwise frenetic mind.    I am already signed up to her private group courses until June and from zero a year ago to an agains the wall headstand 12 months later, I am really looking forward to joining her Saturday morning level two classes at The Life Centre. Katrina, author of Breathing Space: Twelve Lessons for the Modern Woman, teaches a blend of Hatha, Tantra, and Ayurveda, called ISHTA Yoga, which is the creation of yogiraj Alan Finger. Katrina, who has also co-author with Alan of Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-being, is the second only person to have achieved the yogiraj title in the west in the ISHTA yoga lineage. I started meditating years ago, but after a while I lost the momentum and fell out of love with the dollar amounts attached [...]

St. Paul’s Cathedral is a stunning landmark in London and one of my favourite buildings. I walk past it most days to and from work. When the sun is setting on the Sir Christopher Wren designed façade I never fail to be inspired by its beauty. At the moment it is “occupied” by a group of people that might have had a purpose when they started their protest a few months ago but now seem to have lost their vision and message; not too differently to how I feel right now. Although, unlike the occupiers, nine and a half years in the same job and the process of inner transformation well under way, I feel I am on the cusp of change. To me St. Paul’s is more than a landmark, it has become a metaphor for my own life’s journey, which like the Circle Line, can go round and round endlessly unless one remembers to get off. St. Paul’s is a place I always seem to come back to learn my lessons in both work and life. My work as a financial journalist over the last 18 years keeps bringing me back to the cobbled stones [...]

As I enter my personal year number five, where I am set to explore new possibilities, I am feeling unusually calm. Normally my mind races with the things I haven’t done, but this year I am feeling rather serene, despite the craziest September on record at work. Is it possible that all of this Yoga and Meditation that I have embarked on is making this Libran balanced? This new personal year is all about making changes, exploring different ideas, meeting new friends, and perhaps trying a new relationship, according to Colin Baker, author of Numerology. Sonia Ducie, author of Do It Yourself Numerology, says Year 5 is all about communication. This is a number that enables one to speak or write one’s mind more freely. This is further reinforced by Colin: “The more that [the words] carry the imprint of your own truth, the greater its impact will be.” Which ever way I look at it this is going to be a good year to let The Life Detective out of the incubator and see where it takes me. “Business endeavours can prove financially rewarding,” says Colin, but cautions, “If you do take risks on [...]

“Hands up who in this room is a wounded learner? And now hands up which of you are products of amateur parenting?” In a room of some 100 people from all over the world, across all ages and occupations, in February 2006 it would seem that nearly all of us could identify with one or both of these statements. The questions were asked by Ian McDermott, founder of International Teaching Seminars, and teacher of Neuro Linguistic Programming, as an opening line for the first day of the NLP Practitioner Certification Programme. Ian explained that NLP was like a ”how to” to stop blaming the parents and teachers for our current state. These words echoed the sentiment of JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, as she delivered a commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association in June 2008. In her address, The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination, in which she highlighted her journey to success, she said: “There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.” This phrase took me to my [...]

I was asked the other day why The Secret was not in the Library, and the short answer is that it is not a book that changed my life. I do, however, believe in the concepts behind the book,  specifically the law of attraction. At the time the book came out I had already read Ask and it is Given, which is based on the teachings of Abraham, so I felt I knew the concepts already.  The premise behind Rhonda Byrne’s book is based on optimism or positive thinking: change how you see life and life will change, which is exactly what Dr. Wayne Dyer promises in his book The Power of Intention.  The Secret is not a new or ground breaking discovery, but Byrne has taken that concept and repackaged it. If the author’s own success can be used as a benchmark, then the concept clearly works. Like all clues, or pieces of a jigsaw, collect enough and you will eventually get the full picture. The order in which you find the clues simply determines how long it will take you to solve the puzzle. For everything in life, there are short cuts. For some The Secret, and its sister [...]

If you don’t take your Dreams seriously: love them, nurture them, respect them, invest in them and encourage them to become reality, who else will? I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the idea that if you wish for something hard enough, it can come true. These days, especially after hearing Dr Wayne Dyer speak in a lecture called Mastering the Art of Manifestation, I am starting to see why some dreams do seem to come true. But after I “failed” to become an astronaut when I was 17, I stopped dreaming. What if I picked the wrong dream again? From then on I meandered my way through more than a decade on automatic pilot because of the assumption that there is such as thing as a “wrong” dream.  I managed to move forward because I made things happen but it was a rough and at times bumpy ride. David Dawkins in his book Power vs. Force is an advocate of harnessing the power of life rather than forcing it to happen. This way life is less bumpy.   And yet, as I was struggling along with my life, little day dreams I had indulged in during moments of quiet seclusion were coming true: photos were published; exotic adventures [...]

A three pound supermarket bargain called Under the Tuscan Sun turned out to be the inspiration I was looking for. The film is a simple story for some and a million messages perfectly tuned to my ear, at this moment in my life. It is time to dream again. My attention was hooked when Patti (Sandra Oh) talks to Frances (Diane Lane) about empty shell people, like the ones I see every day on the tube. “What the hell happened to you? There came a time in each of those lives when they were standing at a cross roads: left or right,” Patti says in the movie. I sat up to listen; suddenly this movie might have some answers. After 10 years in the same flat; nine in the same job, I am just such crossroads. I knew the book was life affirming given it is based on a true personal journey, but sometimes movies either miss the point or try to be too clever.   This movie is very loosely based on the book but it shook me harder. It’s all about timing. It was when I strayed onto the bonus bits that I realised that in addition to some of the subtleties [...]

Setting an Intention can be a dangerous past time. We can pray and pray and pray for something to happen and it never does. I like to believe that this is because it is not meant to. Then you can have a fleeting ill-formed thought, like I did in the shower this morning, and bingo a misinterpreted version happens. Had I articulated my intention clearly and with detail I might have got what I wanted, the way I wanted it. But as it happened, I got what I wanted, indirectly, with a dash of drama.  Well after yesterday’s rant about The Long Way Round, I knew that the only option was to change gears and slow down. So today that is what I said to myself under the jet of steaming hot Water “its time to slow down and change gears.” The genie that only seems to work at my flat part time was clearly in residence this morning, as not even an hour later I was in the office scrambling in my hand bag for my mobile phone and wallet; both of which I last saw on the front seat of my car. There was no choice but to head home to save [...]