Penny Mckay

CHINESE HEALTH QIGONG WORKSHOP
SUNDAY 5 SEPTEMBER
RINGWOOD, HAMPSHIRE

Faye Li Yip, President of the British Health Qigong Association and Director of the Deyin Taijiquan Institute (GB), is coming to Ringwood to teach two of the four routines selected a few years ago by the Chinese Government to promote Qigong as a health regime:
         ·        Ba Duan Jin (Eight Treasures)
          ·        Wi Qin Xi (Five Animal Exercises)
 
 In the morning session,  the routine introduced will be the Ba Duan Jin, often called the ‘Eight Treasures, or the ‘Eight Silk Brocades’.   The movements are straightforward enough for a beginner to pick up, but there is also plenty for the more experienced student or teacher.  
 
In the afternoon, we shall look at the Wu Qin Xi, known as the ‘5 Animal Frolics’. It is regarded as the oldest form of medical Qigong in Chinese history, dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).
 Some of the proven health benefits that  Ba Duan Jin and Wu Qin Xi can provide are:

         ~ Improvements to circulation and the functioning of the heart;
        ~ Increased mobility in some chronic joint problems such as arthritis;
~ A more efficient digestive system, with relief from conditions, such as indigestion and constipation;
~A strong immune system.
Students will get the chance to try exercise sets taught by a top level Chinese teacher.
 
Date:  Sunday 5 September
Venue: Ringwood Waldorf School,
Folly Farm Lane, Ringwood, BH24
Time:  10:00-12:30 - lunch-break - 13:30-16:00
 
Suitable for all levels of ability
Cost: £45 for both sessions, £25 for one session, per person in advance. £55, or £35 on the day.
 
To book, email
nicole@qihealing.co.uk or call Nicole on 07941 052578.

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Friday October 15th - Sunday October 17th, 2010

 Fully residential – home-cooked vegetarian food 

As we approach the extraordinary energies of 2012, Earth Healers around the world are now coming together in groups to raise the vibrational frequency of all who share this planet. This retreat has been designed for anyone who feels drawn to the healing of Mother Earth and feels the call to work in Circle with their brothers and sisters. No previous experience or psychic level is required as full guidance and supervision is given in a safe and caring environment.

A few months ago I introduced you to “J’oga” (see March archive) which is “jogging with awareness” and combines two of my great loves; jogging and yoga.

I do recognise that I may be in the minority with this outlook (particularly the love of jogging bit) and for many just the thought of jogging is tedium itself. So to reach the point where the trainers are on and you’re heading out the door is actually truly miraculous and you really are to be congratulated!

However, if you really want to transcend any thoughts of turning back and find a new sense of enjoyment when you jog, it is at this critical point where tedium goes out the back door (or whichever door you are not leaving by!) and J’oga comes in to its own. Here’s how I discovered how.

A few years ago I found myself engaged in a particular yoga practise.  The practise comprised of a number of asana or postures which I truly found beneficial, nothing too unusual there. However at that time and with that practise I did yoga, pretty much, every day for the year. There may have been odd days that I missed but generally when I hit the mat, I did the same routine, every day, all year and I loved it. The great thing I discovered and uncovered through this practise (which was not intended it just sort of happened) was that no two days of practise were ever the same and as a result I never got bored.  How could I? Every time I got on the mat I was different and my body was different and so every day of practise was a whole new journey of discovery even with the same old postures.

Uncovered was an awareness of the same posture, revealed, in a different way to the day before. It was quite incredible and to be honest I have never practised so consistently since that time, but what I uncovered remains with me and helps me as I seek to bring that sense of presence to the days when I’m not on my yoga mat.

Try this one. Say you have a regular drive to work along the motorway. You leave the house every day at the same time and follow the same route year after year. For you it is a familiar, known quantity and holds no surprises and no break from the norm. Without awareness it appears that the  daily experience never changes but if you can engage in bringing a sense of presence to it you will find that every experience, every day is completely different.

Every day you will never encounter exactly the same configuration of cars on the motorway.

Every day you will never encounter exactly the same climatic conditions.

Every day you will never encounter exactly the same “you”.

So how to apply this to your jogging?

Generally we perceive our days as being the same. We seek constants and familiarity to give us a sense of certainty, a sense of feeling safe and sometimes we cling to these constants of  people, places and things. But perhaps we do so to our detriment because nothing is constant and no day is the same and somehow we have to find a way to achieve a sense of balance in a constantly changing reality.

So (again) what’s all that got to do with jogging?

Well, when you head out of the door to trot round the same old route you are usually on automatic and sometimes that isn’t a bad thing, to just zone out and off you go. But if familiarity is breeding contempt (for your regular route) it is time to bring your full awareness to be present to your jog.

The beauty of Groundhog day is in its predictability (did you see the film - where the guy woke up day after day and it was the same day but eventually he worked it out and realised what he needed to change in order to get the girl he loved?); the beauty of your J’oga is in its unpredictability. When you apply J’oga you realise you do not have to experience ”groundhog  jog”!

Every time you set off on that same old route remember this, it is a new day, a different day and a different you and so a different run. Bring your awareness with you when you jog and eventually you will bring your joy.  Notice your breath, your body, your soul. Notice nature’s nudges that ask you to pause and to “be”.

If you can bring a sense of presence to the so-called familiar, you will be in awe of what you find anew. Not just when you are jogging but in all aspects of your life and not just one time but every single time, over and over and over again.

Joyous jogging xx

The practice of non attachment is a key part of Buddhist philosophy. If we are able to see through the veil that is this existance, this “reality”, then we will see that non of it is real and that non of it really matters. What does matter, though, is our level of awareness while we function in this so called reality. It is the ultimate paradox.

So how do we remain aware, vital, joyous and “committed” about living a full and purposeful life?

And how can we begin to understand what it means to do this in a way that is ”non attached”? 

Just recently I have been asking, to be shown ways in which I could understand this paradox in a real way. Or should I correct myself in that I wanted to be shown in ways that I could more easily relate to and share with others.

It was interesting that the first insight in to ”commitment versus non attachment” that I was shown, came when my cat appeared in my lounge with a shrew in its mouth. I had my usual reaction of freaking out, shrieking and generally waving my arms in a shooing motion to scare the cat back out of the patio doors. She did go and promptly dropped the shrew in the middle of the back lawn. There it pretended to be dead. So I decided to sit in, on the vigil with my cat and the shrew and the longer I sat, the more I got in the moment and the more I got in the moment, the more I began to see the commitment my cat had to its prey. It was a waiting game and the shrew took its time. Eventually, it did begin to move, little by little,  though cautiously at first. My cat also took her time and watched and waited, fully committed to watching and waiting. It was brilliant to witness and it lead me to consider how can the predator be attached to the prey, for they have to eat it for survival! The predator fully commits to the process of catching the prey in the knowledge, of the outcome, it will be eaten. (Only not on this occasion because as soon as he was able I popped the shrew under the shed, out of harms way! ) Was my cat bothered? Did she sulk? Did she have a hissy fit and give up? No. Committed but not attached.

Then my mind began to move in other ways.

Consider baking? Cooking? You know that to achieve something that is edible you commit to a process that involves the appropriate ingredients, in the appropriate quantity and that they are dealt with in the appropriate way.  You invest time and effort (and sometimes blood, sweat and tears) towards an outcome that means your food will be consumed(hopefully). Your finished dish cannot be kept and looked at and admired, for as with all food it will spoil. So it must be eaten, savoured, enjoyed, celebrated and through this process we let it go. Committed to the process but not attached to the outcome.

How about gardening? Similar theme here too. All gardeners know they have to be committed to tending to their plants needs. Through careful planting, the appropriate soil, feeding, regular watering and exposure to the sun there will be rewards to reap. By being commited to nurturing the plants the fruits of the labour are admired or consumed. But not held on to. That glorious rose can only be glorious for a fleeting few days and it will wither and it will die. Those tomatoes or beans or strawberries must be picked and eaten, harvested in celebration at the optimum time or they will rot. What an incredible teacher nature is. Committed to the process but not attached to the outcome.

Then I considered how we value a fine wine. Many are stored for years in the commitment to mature and deepen the body and flavour. Again there can be no sense in needing or keeping or grasping when it comes to a fine wine. It has been created to be savoured and appreciated. That savouring and appreciating is fleeting, gone in a moment. You can not just look at a fine wine in a bottle, you must drink it, celebrate it and let it go!

How about having children? Now we’re talking. Herein lies a process of commitment  without attachment, which begins at the moment of conception. The moment a child is conceived is the moment of supreme non attachment for we must let our children grow and let our children go to become adults themselves, eventually. You can give your child the biggest hug in the world but you cannot keep him held. Commitment through non attachment.

So check out where you are, are you grasping and clinging to things? Car? Work? Money?

Are you holding on to people? Your children?

Why not celebrate the fantastic job you’ve done of being committed to those things or that person, by letting them go?

And gently start to practise the art of commitment through non attachment.

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The five freedoms… what’s that all about? The five freeedoms are based on the welfare needs of animals and are as equally important whether you are keeping livestock in your back garden or have a small holding.

What are they then?  

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour

2. Freedom from discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area

3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment

4. Freedom to express normal behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind

5. Freedom from fear and distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

What else do I need to know? According to the Farm Animal Welfare Council “These freedoms define ideal states rather than standards for acceptable welfare” (hmm - interesting)

How do I find out more? For loads more check out www.ciwf.org.uk

Recently I have been trying a spot of barefoot jogging or to give it it’s correct title “Natural Running”. Which in its “natural” state is jogging without footwear (no, not without clothes, though I’m sure they’re doing that somewhere in the world!). I actually read about it in a magazine article and I am one of those people who when they like the idea of something they have to try it. The thought behind ”natural running” is that many of our modern day joint problems and postural problems are more as a result of the shoes we are wearing, the surfaces we are walking on and the habitual way in which we are moving. So for many of us it is about getting your shoes off  on a regular basis, connecting with the earth and actually encouraging your bones, joints and ligaments to do what they do best and that is to absorb the impact on and support the body. So that’s what I’ve been doing. Now don’t get me wrong I have no intentions on becoming the next Zola Budd or anything (though she was incredible and very brave) but once tried running barefoot is incredibly liberating and I am hooked.

Today was the second time for me to brave getting my tootsies out whilst moving at faster than walking pace and the experience was as liberating this time as it was the first.

When I made the decision to take my trainers off for the first time, it was pretty early in the morning and there weren’t too many people about to point and stare at some nutter without any shoes on! And I was at the beach. That seems to help somehow because it is deemed as acceptable to take your shoes off at the beach anyway so I felt somewhat less conspicuous than if I were jogging round the block from home. The decision was also made more for me, than by me, by the sight of the golden sand looking so clean and incredibly inviting, all new and fresh first thing in the morning. The sun was glinting and winking on the sea and seemed to ask it of me. Why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t I indeed? So with that off came the trainers and off came the socks and came a sense of freeedom and reconnection that was totally unexpected.

It was the same today. It’s as if the minute your shoes and socks come off your child comes out. Being barefoot is so indicitive and so evocative of that child state of running free with boundless energy and gay abandon without aches and pains. I felt this. But not just this.

What I felt beyond this was every footfall. Each time my foot struck the sand, the sand moulded and mirrored my foot giving “me” total support where I needed it. I actually felt the earth beneath and I actually felt my body respond. It was as if, with each strike there was a wave of response from the earth, that travelled back up through my body.  I also felt a return to something completely unadulterated and totally natural and my body seemed to breathe this incredible sigh of relief  as it let go. Through this sense of connecting down as each foot hit the earth, I was communing directly with the earth and she was responding. My joints were absorbing the impact and supporting me as a team and I just wanted to keep going  in this natural state with the wind in my face and the sun on my back. My feet and legs being rejuvenated by the waves of the sea and the waves of energy from the earth. With that gay abandon of old I splashed through the shallows until the stones at the shoreline (a recently added feature to Bournemouth beach due to an alleged surf reef being built!) finally drove me up in to the soft sand of the beach and back in to my socks and trainers to continue on the promenade. Just fantastic!

So, if you fancy the idea of natural running, jogging or walking too, pick your where and when carefully. Clearly grassy areas are going to be more comfortable then concrete, but you may find you will be doing the dog poo dodge more than jogging unless you can find a no dog area. So if you have a beach nearby I’d head for that option. I’m also not suggesting you do barefoot anything for very long. No, we aren’t use to it, yet, but it is our natural state and I’m sure that somewhere within your physical structure and your psyche you will remember what it is all about. 5- 10 minutes willl be plenty for starters. Combine a walk with a little jog until you feel you are coming alive to your body again.

Finally, if you have any form of joint problem endeavour to connect with your body and connect with the earth in a natural state (without footwear) more frequently. Who knows, it could help?

For more information and courses (particularly if you are prone to injury) check out www.naturalrunning.co.uk with John Woodward who has a background of working with Alexander Technique. How he works is very interesting indeed.

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Aspartame? What’s that? A potentially deadly artificial sweetener (aren’t they all!)

Where will I find it? In food, sweets, cereals, as a sweetener itself such as nutri-sweet, in drinks such as orange squash and fizzy drinks too.

What’s so deadly about it? There are cited to be 92 different side effects associated with consuming aspartame ranging from kidney problems to neurological problems.

What can I do about that? Start checking the lables of what you are consuming. Then stop eating and drinking products with it in.

What else do I need to know? Manufacturers are clever with their marketing and will promote a ”no added sugar” drink so you think its healthy, but if there’s no added sugar there will be added artificial sweeteners. Look for products that claim to have no artifical sweeteners. A little natural sugar is actually better for you long term because your body knows how to deal with it. For many of us it is a drip feed effect, we have been consuming products with this stuff in for years and its not natural, so the body tries to adapt to it, eventually we may become ill. Switch back to naturally occuring sugars such as honey.

How do I find out more? Google it, there is tons of stuff on it and other artificial sweeteners such as sucrolose.

Take a deep breath in now and connect with the power that is the life giving force of the ”in breath”

Can you feel it? 

Can you sense the soft movement of prana as it is called to caress the inside of your nostrils? 

How aware are you of its gently gliding, sliding journey past the back of your throat?

Are you able to notice this wonderful, whispering life force as it arrives deep in the heart of your lungs?

As you draw this breath in, ask yourself, is this an expansive breath? Can you get a sense of your body opening and expanding to welcome this life giving force. Or is there restriction? Do you have difficulty in allowing the “in breath” so subsequently it is shallow and inhibited? Could it be that by restricting your breathing you are restricting your potential to connect with life and for life to connect with you? A shortlived breath that perhaps leads to a shortlived life.

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Well, for me, it’s actually a case of  ” to bed - perchance to sleep” in all reality.

Am I alone in this? Is there anybody else out there who goes to bed tired, yet full of hope night after night? I Truly wonder what it feels like to fall asleep as soon as your head hits the proverbial pillow? I wonder…. 

So I was lying in bed last night wondering, nothing new there. I was pretty relaxed and I wasn’t worrying about anything. You see this is the thing, if I had things “on my mind”, I wouldn’t mind just lying there and I do know the best thing to do if you have “things” on your mind is to write them down so they don’t bug you at night. But I don’t have anything on my mind so I don’t fit  into that category.

Don’t get me wrong, on some level I was enjoying just lying there but only because I’ve been through the being frustrated and annoyed about being awake and I’ve come to terms with the fact there’s no point to any of that because it doesn’t matter how frustrated and annoyed you get, you are still awake! (breathe) As I was enjoying lying there all I could hear was my husbands regular breathing.

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SUNDAY 4TH JULY

10.30AM - 4.30PM at 10 Eastfield Court, Ringwood

£5 entry please

Sessions include T’ai Chi/Chi Kung; Yoga; Voice Overtoning; Movement and the Breath

Kids welcome from 2pm (free)  for Yoga for Kids & Dance for Kids

Breads, Cookies, Cakes and Cupcakes available to buy

Food & Drink provided plus facepainting, paddling pool fun and ice cream!

Prayer ribbons for Haiti and loved ones.

All are welcome!

All proceeds going to the Haiti Hospital Appeal.