Hot toast dripping with butter and marmite or a thin crust pizza oozing with molten mozzarella, hot pepperoni and chillies; my kind of culinary heaven. Lunch day-in and day-out has to be a Prêt smoked salmon sandwich, which I probably should not admit to wolfing down faster than some people sneeze. And this year Easter without hot cross buns soaked in butter and jam is going to be just plain odd. So what is happening here? Something is responsible for the chronic abdominal pain and a distended belly that has made me look several months pregnant, so I intend to find out exactly what is behind this. Instead of throwing all the usual suspects of sugar, wheat and dairy into jail at once without a trial, I have decided to catch the culprit causing this pain and uncharacteristic weight gain in action.  When my local GP turned my life upside down with yet another unsubstantiated evidence free verdict and announced that my pains were signs of an impending the menopause, I declared a mistrial. I am not usually confrontational; in fact I would rather eat my own arm than have a face to face discussion [...]

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit” –Aristotle It has not quite been the first quarter of the year I had planned for 2013. It was not, however, until last night when I was attempting to bake a cake that I finally got what has been bugging me for a while now. A month or so ago—24th February to be precise—exasperated by my life as a One Armed Warrior, I turned to my favourite oracle deck to pick a card that I hoped would inspire me out of the sticky physical and mental mire I was sinking into. The deck handed me the Cosmic Carrot, a card I have never seen before. It made me giggle. I do like alliteration; and carrots for that matter, raw not boiled.  I have to admit that while I love the divinatory purpose of the Tarot, I personally use cards for creative guidance and inspiration, having not yet found time to study them in the depth they deserve to be of more use to me. The first thing that struck me is that the Cosmic Carrot is the 28th card and 28 just happened to be [...]

Today I enter my personal Year 6: a year that represents the start of a change. Without even knowing this as a fact, I feel it intuitively. Last weekend I started a year-long Yoga teacher training course. With all the yoga, the Meditation and philosophy I will be learning over the 200 plus hours, a mind, body, spirit transformation is inevitable. If the last 18 months of ISHTA yoga practise are anything to go by, the next year is not going to be just any ordinary journey. ISHTA is both an acronym for Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda, but also the Sanskrit for individualised or personalised. In the last few months, I have felt that I am finally entering my own mind and body, the latter of which ironically is thinking quite seriously about a change of its own, but that is another story. As I spent the summer watching the Olympics and painting my flat, I reflected on this very strange sensation; that of contentment. It has been 11 years since I moved into my flat; 11 years of stories: drama, death, heatbreak, love, lots and lots of lovely godchildren, a niece, the longest [...]

“I realised that the way I had been skiing was a reflection of my life.” This was co-author Robert Kriegel’s epiphany, but they could have just as well have been my words. Inner Skiing is full of anecdotes such as these, making it, the right book for me but more importantly at the right time. It’s been sitting unread on my shelf for a couple of years all the while I have been wrestling with why I just can’t seem to “get” skiing. I have recently come back from Switzerland on a high because for the first time I skied beyond my fear to achieve new limits.  And what’s more, I enjoyed the whole experience, not just the fresh Air, fun friends and coffee stops. Until I read Inner Skiing—after the event—I did not know why or how such a transformation had occurred. So with renewed enthusiasm, I grabbed the book off my shelf to see if it had any answers. The timing was impeccable. I know now that had I read this book before I had experienced my own epiphany on a subject that has challenged me for two decades I would not have been [...]

It’s a warm turquoise blue sky day in March the diamond encrusted snow crunching underfoot is the only noise penetrating the crisp silence of these heavenly un-crowded slopes. Suddenly everything makes sense. I always feel an intense connection with life when I am up in the mountains, especially in the winter. It is a connection that always makes me feel intensely grateful, intensely alive, and intensely hopeful. I think this is why have I always refused to give up trying to learn to ski. For a few moments as the lift drags me higher and higher up the mountain, the pure, white uncomplicated snow reminds me that everything however complicated it may seem does make sense. I get this elated feeling until I get to the top that is, when I look down to see my inner demons peering up at me over the edge challenging and goading me.  But this year, I finally get it. After years of trying, I finally get it. I finally believe that I know how to ski. I probably knew how to ski after the first or second lesson, but somehow skiing became inextricably associated with the things in [...]

“When one door closes another door opens,” Alexander Graham Bell was right. I did not even get a chance to wallow in regret after last night’s realisation that it was time to graduate from the brand & buck translators of spiritual concepts to the original works of some of the great masters. My next teacher appeared to me in the body of Michael Fassbender the cute actor playing Carl Gustav Jung in A Dangerous Method, which I saw last night. At the moment, I am finding that the mainstream spiritual lecture circuit is about more about selling books and courses than the sort of insightful discussions that I crave. They have, however, been instrumental in opening my mind, giving me ideas and ultimately getting me to the place I am now. There are still of course many great teachers living that I want to learn from, but the time has come to look to look beyond the gurus to the teachers that inspired them. I was feeling rather deflated after Stephen Russell’s two hour monologue about his new book The Message on Thursday and more convinced than ever that it was time to take a [...]

This will be my first encounter with Stephen Russell, aka The Barefoot Doctor, and if the energy and humour in his book The Man Who Drove with His Eyes Closed is anything to go by, the evening at Sadler’s Wells is going to be fun. I have so many books piling up asking to be read and concepts jumping up and down dying to be explored that right now another author and teacher to connect with is the last thing I am looking for. But the event came with two endorsements that made me think this avenue was worth at least investing a little time, money and energy in. The first endorsement, and for me the most important because it was personal, was from my teacher and friend Davina MacKail mentioning the upcoming talk in her own New Year newsletter. The second was the enthusiastic forward, written by author John Parkin for Stephen’s book The Man Who Drove with His Eyes Closed. I love the idea that Stephen Russell has studied with masters ahead of, as John put it, “an era before you could do Yoga in your local gym, tai Chi in the church [...]

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, [...]

The Mayan long calendar is ending but the world is not. The year 2012 has the power of the number five and, while it might be a roller coaster ride for some, five is all about change. The energy of the number five is about exploring the structure, says Colin Baker in his illustrated book on Numerology. Five is a number not constrained by convention; it sees new possibilities in existing structures and communicates them with enthusiasm, says Colin. Five is about being on an exciting voyage of discovery, which is very much in line with the dawning of The Age of Aquarius. On her Way Ahead tour, Shelley von Strunckel gave us an insight about what it will be like to live in The Age of Aquarius for the next 2,150 years. This is the era of the individual; the time of the alpha female (and the metro-sexual man); it is all about what you as a unique individual have to offer not who you know, says Shelley.  Last year I discovered the Alpha Female Club launched by a lady in the hedge fund industry doing a tough job during the day and a [...]