Beinspired by Wombling!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the environment and what more I can do to help heal this beautiful planet we live on. The ‘Found on the Beach in Guernsey (Beachcombers)’ Facebook group have inspired me, as they are always out wombling on the beaches collecting litter and held a large group event recently to clean up Le Grande Havre. 

Travelling by electric bike as much as I can (which has been positively life changing might I add and I can highly recommend), has made me realise how much litter there is cluttering the roads, lanes and hedgerows here in Guernsey. Then, while I was pondering all this, Elijah came from home from school and excitedly told me that the planet is currently being cleaned up as if it’s some agreed worldwide project! I loved the simplicity of his understanding of it. Yes, I thought, let’s just focus on cleaning up the planet, as if we were cleaning up the house, or cleaning up ourselves. The more I thought about it, the more I’ve started to consider that there is a link – the more we do clean up ourselves, the more we want to clean up the environment we live in, and the more we clean up the environment we live in, the more we want to clean up ourselves! 

We’d love it if you got wombling too, but off the beaches, in our many lanes and roads. Perhaps taking a bag out with you to collect litter while dog walking, or when you’re walking the children to school, or just taking a quick stroll around your neighbourhood; anything you can do to pick up litter will help! More hands make ‘light’ work as the saying goes. 

To start this off I thought we could have an impromptu Beinspired ‘Cleanup’ event this Sunday 19th January, 2-3pm. We could meet at Jerbourg main carpark and then split up to comb the area for rubbish on the cliffs, at the side of roads, in hedges and so on.

But whether you can join us on Sunday or not, please do share with us photos of your wombling efforts, which we can post here. Email to me , emma@beinspiredby.co.uk.

Happy cleaning!!

The full moon lunar eclipse

There’s a full moon lunar eclipse occurring tomorrow, this two weeks after the new moon solar eclipse, back on 25/26 December 2019.

It’s a Cancerian full moon too, and I must admit that when I heard this I expected it to be watery and emotional, especially as I am a Cancerian. However it has been anything but that for me, although there is still time!

I haven’t read too much about it because I really wanted to just feel into it for myself, and I have a sense that if you have been doing the work on yourself, then this moon will usher in the fresh energy that you have been working towards.

It will come as a relief after a tricky 2019, as we were repeatedly encouraged to let go of anything inauthentic and to dig deeper into our truth and who we are. This will have become clearer during the year, whether it was by choice or forced upon you by events seemingly out of your control.

2020 is meant to be the year of ascension and I do have a sense of this. Life needs to be lived differently, I think we are all realising this, and while it’s perhaps not clear exactly how this will look, we are all beginning to recognise the role we individually play in this.

We know that we have to live more sustainably, with greater respect for this beautiful planet which houses us. Many of us also know that we need to take greater responsibility for not only how we live, but how we relate to ourselves too - for our own health and wellbeing.

It’s time for us to be bold. To recognise our true values and live by these, regardless of whether they go against history and how life has been lived previously, whether they accord to expectation of not, whether that be family members, friends or society as a whole. It doesn’t matter. We have to find a new way and that new way is in each of our hearts.

We all know that living in accordance with the heart is tricky, because there is no script, no map to follow and no historic records to follow. It’s a big leap of faith but a necessary one. This is ascension really. A leap of faith. There’s no need for talking or discussing, it’s just a matter of getting on with it, being in the experience.

It’s a huge coming home to self and to the family and to what matters most. It’s a bit of a paradox - while there is the idea of ascending upwards into the ether, there’s actually a strong energy bringing us back down to earth and into the root, reminding me a little of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, food, water, rest and warmth - cosy and safe in the bosom of the world!

I can’t help thinking that Harry and Meghan are truly embodying this. Them stepping away from the expected roles they are meant to be playing in the Royal Family is bold! Someone wrote that Harry is following his heart, not his head. Well good on him I say. Meghan too. For being bold and having the strength to not only honour their hearts but to act on them and in the most public of arenas too. They’ve chosen to take responsibility for their mental wellbeing and to put the needs of their family first. They’re making a safe home for themselves and their son as they feel best.

This moon is encouraging the same of us all. Many of you will have seen this playing out in your own lives as you’ve made decisions this last year that support your wellbeing and that of your family. Others know that the changes need to be made, but have yet to figure out how you might make that happen. I’ve a feeling this eclipse will help to move us all on in some way. How we respond to this is up to us. It’s watery, so it’s best to flow, life is easier that way somehow.

Enjoy the moon.

Love me xx

Jill's Nut Roast Recipe - not just for Christmas!

I can vouch for the yumminess of this nut roast and can see this becoming a regular dish in our household!

This quantity makes enough for a 1lb loaf tin.

2 banana shallots finely chopped

½ medium aubergine cut into small cubes

½ small butternut squash cut into small cubes

½ large courgette grated (or whole smaller one)

2 sticks of celery finely chopped

½ red pepper cut into small pieces about same size as cubes above

Handful of green beans finely chopped

Couple of tablespoons olive oil

1 flat tsp veg stock powder

50g brown breadcrumbs

70g mixed nuts (almond/brazil/pecan) blitzed to breadcrumb size

4 soft apricots finely chopped

50g pine nuts - whole

50g pistachios – whole

Salt and pepper

1 egg

Sage, parsely and thyme finely chopped

Or

1 tsp ground coriander and 1 tsp ground cumin plus handful fresh chopped coriander

1.         Fry onion and celery for a couple of minutes until onion softens then add rest of chopped veg, turn down heat, put lid on and ‘sweat’ for about 5 – 10 minutes.   Sprinkle over veg stock powder, mix well and leave to cool.

2.         In a large bowl combine breadcrumbs, blitzed mixed nuts, chopped apricots, pine nuts and pistachios.  Add salt and pepper to taste (remember veg stock powder has salt in it too).

3.         Once veg have cooled, add to dry mix and add egg.   Mix well.

4.         Depending on whether you want a herby roast or a ‘curry’ flavour roast, add your choice now and mix well.   You could halve the mix and make two smaller ½ lb roasts.   If you do this halve the herbs and/or spices. Grease your tin (s) and line with a strip of baking parchment.   Press mix down firmly.

Cook in oven at 175 for 45 minutes to 1 hour

For Christmas I topped it with a mixture of fresh cranberries which I had rolled in rice malt syrup and whole pecans.

You could use any mixture of vegetables and/or nuts but you do need the breadcrumbs and egg to ‘bind’ the mixture.

Happy New Year!

Namaste!

Hello, lovely people! I hope you are all well and enjoyed Christmas day with all that sunlight, like a gift from the heavens!

Now, as I sit here writing this on the new moon solar eclipse, the sun keeps disappearing as the rain pours down again. Still, the energy is very clear, and I feel positive for the future as we build up to the end of this decade and a new one soon beginning.

Like the Queen said, this year has been decidedly bumpy as we have been encouraged to let go of anything outdated and inauthentic, healing trauma and anything else that we have been unnecessarily holding on to, and (re)aligning ourselves more fully with our truth. For me it has been a year of studying and learning, embracing Ayurveda and the Scaravelli-approach to yoga, which has turned life on its head, and helped me to acknowledge what has needed to change.

This has been a challenging process at times - looking at ourselves honestly is never easy, nor is knowing how we might make the changes that need to be made. Still, once we take the first step, the universe conspires to do what it can to help us. I am reminded time and time again that it is only by shifting our inner world, that our outer world will change. I think too of Dr Usui’s teachings, 'that it is by mastering the mysteries of self that we learn to affect the mysteries of life’. So true! 

At Beinspired it has been a busy year, with a couple of retreats to Glastonbury and Sark, the annual retreat to Herm and the one to Goa too; the boys have done a lot of travelling! We’re letting go of the Goa retreat for now, and we are still waiting to hear if we’ll be returning to Herm…however, don’t despair as places for the September Glastonbury retreat and the October Sark retreat go on sale at the beginning of February so look out for that!

We’ve let go of our weekend yoga classes for now too. Vicki is taking a break from the Sunday morning class, and I shall be enjoying some time with the family when I’m not running a retreat, workshop or Reiki attunement session.

We have a number of places still available for the Yoga Pause on Saturday 18 January.
This is ideal for those of you who would like to deepen your practice and enjoy a whole morning of uninterrupted yoga - a treat, and a much needed pause in our busy lives…sometimes a pause is all that is needed to shift the perspective more positively. I’m excited about this. Please sign up here

There are also some spaces available on the Yoni Yoga session, one of my favourite sessions of the year which you can sign up for here

The Reiki courses are such a treat, Reiki (and yoga) saved my life and I absolutely love sharing it with others and witnessing how it positively touches lives - the more people practicing Reiki, the best for the planet! There’s two spaces remaining on the Reiki Level Two course on 8 February 2020 and 1 space left on the Reiki Level One course on 1 March. I’m intending to run further courses later in the year so keep an eye out for those. We’re taking deposits for these courses (another lesson learned) and we hope this helps people to commit.

There is something new in 2020 for those of you Reiki Level Two attuned - I am now ready to offer Reiki Master attunements! This will be conducted on a one-to-one basis, with certain criteria met before I am prepared to do this. A big thing for me at the moment is the loss of sacredness in yoga and Ayurveda and I am starting to see this filter into Reiki too. Just to stress that I am not prepared to attune anyone to Master level who is not doing it for the right reasons, it is a calling, not for a title or business. Please find out more here.

The other exciting development for 2020 - we’re giving away our 6-week anxiety video pack for free! We’re aware how many of you suffer with anxiety and we are hopeful that this may help. To access this, click here. Please do give us your feedback. We’re not intending to do any more videos for now, that’s another thing we’ve let go of this year, time for new projects ahead!

We’re still working on our Family Yoga Book, which we hope to finish this year! Steph has now moved onto new pastures and we are lucky that her younger sister, Katie, has taken being my most wonderful helper, and we are all three, keen to see this book come to fruition finally! 

I’m also still editing my third manuscript, and would like to think I might get a chance to finish this too, but lets’s see! My time is limited as the children are my priority and with Eben starting pre-school, I expect I’ll be cycling to drop-off and pick-ups even more than I am already! 

However, if I do find some time, I will also be offering Ayurvedic consolations and Yoga Therapy sessions, which combine Yoga and Reiki on a one-to-one basis, which is a really healing combination. You can find out more by clicking on the links above.

Ah, the other big news (I almost forgot!) is that I have a card reader! Woo hoo! On the basis that it works then this can be used to pay for yoga classes, drop-in or blocks of tokens, and also for Ayurvedic and Yoga therapy sessions. I won’t be using it for Reiki attunement sessions or retreats for now.

For me personally 2020 is about doing what I can to restore the sacred, and to embrace the home. I’m excited that after a 9-year absence, E and I are returning to Nepal with the children in March. This has been a dream since before they were even conceived, I’m sure it’ll be a very different experience to our previous trips. This is a home-coming as much as anything else, as I always considered Nepal my second home, but also an opportunity to truly tap into the sacred which permeates this beautiful part of the world. 

I’m very much looking forward to seeing my Nepali friends again, and will miss Devika who is now living with her family in the US. I am also looking forward to visiting the Namaste Children’s Home, which is very close to my heart. I’m hoping to scout a place for a potential yoga retreat, but I’m very aware that this might be a step too far with the children being the age they are - we’ll see!

I’m also headed to Stonehenge for the summer solstice this year and am keen to explore the sacredness of the Guernsey landscape, which is rich in energetic hotspots. Sacred spaces are a big thing for me and I am giving some thought to this...watch this space!

This just leaves me to wish you all a new year that brings great pease, wisdom, and choices that enrich your life, other’s lives, and the healing of the world!

Love Emma and the lovely team at Beinspired. 

Letting go with a burning bowl ceremony.

Today we held the yoga class to let go of 2019, followed by a burning bowl ceremony.

I was introduced to the burning bowl ceremony back in 2005 when I was in the middle of my Reiki training and I was part of a lovely group of Reiki students who met once a week with our teacher, Dr Alyssa Burns-Hill, for meditation and angel cards. I loved this hour, each Thursday evening, 6-7pm, on the way home for work. Not least because we got to sit and meditate together, Ally often leading us through guided meditations, and enjoying angel cards and the insight they provided, but because, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged.

I was relatively new to this world back then, the holistic one, with angels and chakras and crystals, but there was something about the energy of all this, the way it felt then, that just, well, felt right. The people were friendly and welcoming, and despite my naivety, I never felt judged or out of place. We’ve all gone in our own direction since Ally left the Island and I wouldn’t probably recognise many of them now, but I’ve always been extremely grateful for this very light fuelled time of my life.

One of the ladies was an American who has since moved back to America, and it was her who suggested one night that we do a burning bowl ceremony. i don’t remember the ceremony itself, but I do remember feeling a huge sense of relief that there was this opportunity to let go of things. Until that point in my life - I was approximately 29 years old then - I had no idea that we could let go of things that were no longer serving us. Mind you, there was lots I didn’t realise we could do back then, I was only just beginning to recognise that we create our own reality and that our thoughts create this. I was only just awakening.

So the burning bowl ceremony had quite a profound effect on me and I have done one every year since. Often these were with one of my best friend’s Hayley, with whom I spent a number fo new year’s eves. I’ll never forget on new year where we burned our letters in a saucepan and the whole thing was in flames and there as a complete panic that we ere abut to set the house on fire! How we laughed! Clearly we had a lot to let go of that year, but actually we did every year, and I’m never sure that back in those days the cava helped much!

One year, maybe when I was 34 though, my cousin, Yolande, and I were joined by my friend Samata, and we conducted our burning bowl ceremony at the fairy ring here in Guernsey, one wild afternoon when we were all sober! It was a blustery day and it was a challenge, it has to be said, to get the flame going, but Yo got it going and with that up into the air went all the things we wanted to let go of - I have a feeling that smoking was high on my list of priorities back then, to give up that is. That year, 2010 I did. I recognised that sober burning bowl ceremonies were best!

Burning bowl ceremonies are powerful. Potentially. I should caveat that. As I said to students this morning, you have to really feel it. No point writing down that you are going to let go of things that you know that you have no intention of truly letting go of from your life. Or after too much cava so that it becomes more of a wish list with ‘not drinking so much cava’ top of it, ha ha. You have to feel ready, as if there may be some possibility, with a little help from the angels and the universe generally.

Letting go is an interesting concept. I’ve worked a lot with it over the years, and this year I have been working with it a lot. What I’ve noticed is how difficult it is to let go! Even though we might think we want to let go of some childhood trauma, or some hurt that happened to us with maybe an ex-boyfriend, or whatever it may be, when we truly look at it, we realise that we’re holding onto it because on some conscious, some crazy level, we want to be pained! I know it makes no sense when you read that, but think about it. We’re all holding onto something. Some hurt, some pain something that stops us being totally free of suffering. I’ll be surprised if I’m wrong about that.

So what stops us letting go then? I suppose in many respects we form our current reality based on what’s happened to us in then past, so if we let go of some aspect of our past, well then that has the potential to change our current reality, and as much as we might want that, well it can be scary because it’s new and unwritten and we don’t know what it might feel or look like. Better to keep things under control, the way they’ve always been…only that deep down we know that hat isn’t serving us either. It’s a dilemma.

It’s like smoking. What good comes from continuing to smoke? And yet when we’re a smoker, so much of our identity is tied up in being a smoker. What will happen if we want a time out? What about our friends who smoke and our relationship with them if we don’t go fo sneaky fags together? And all that sneaking around? What happens when we just start being a ‘normal’ non-smoking human being, you know one who doesn’t feel crappy for smoking, who isn’t rebelling against parents, society, whatever it might be. Or if we’re smoking the wacky backy, what happens when we stop numbing out!

For so many years I kept smoking mainly because I liked to smoke the wacky backy. It was such a part of my identity and yet I hated smoking generally. But how to give up one and not the other. Impossible. I had to really look at that very honestly and come - in my own slow time - to recognise that while I may have thought I was having these wonderful spiritual experiences smoking cannabis, and somehow becoming more ‘spiritual’ (whatever the hell that means), I was actually just numbing out from life. I was self-medicating, in the same way that some might take anti-depressants or other ‘acceptable’ drugs.

It was difficult to let that go. You know what I mean? Who are we when we let go of whatever we are holding onto?

How about that childhood trauma (we’ve ALL got childhood trauma, it comes with being human), what happens if we just let that go? Gosh all of a sudden we get to take responsibility for our lives and our experience of it. Maybe we finally get to stand on our own two feet. Scary.

That hurt from those who took advantage of our kindness or who rejected us? Gosh, well then we have to accept the fact that actually it was us who put ourselves in that position and it is us, only us, who can really do any self-loving and who do a huge amount of the abandoning. We can’t keep blaming such and such for messing us up (even if he/she did…but we chose he/she in the first place). so all of a sudden we have to stop being the victim. Ouch.

I’ve been through all this. It’s the breath that really made me take note. A full breath in? Receiving all life can give? Am I worthy of that? The exhalation, letting go, truly…am I prepared to do that, who will I become?

I’ve been hauling my past around with me, like a heavy bag hung over my shoulders, weighing me down, making me play out unhelpful behaviour patterns all the time, attracting much of the same (crap) into my life despite the intentions and the affirmations and all the stuff I hope might change things.

You have to be ready. You have to get to a point where you’re done. I’m done. I no longer want to be defined by my past. There is only this moment and this moment can be whatever you want it to be. But for it to be unhindered by the past, tossed around, you need to let it go. It is not you. Just like the thoughts that run through your mind, day in and day out, are not you either. They’re thoughts. Your past is your past. In the past.

All the great spiritual teachers and masters teach one thing. Live in the present. You can’t live in the present when you’re carrying your past around with you, anymore than you can live in the present when you’re obsessed with the future.

But how do you let go? You just do. Like a hot potato. You just let it go. No need to analyse, to question, to write about it (ha!), justify it. None of that. Like forgiveness, you just feel it and you just do it.

A burning bowl ceremony helps enormously. Burn, burn, burn!

Today, lots of beautiful students wrote down the stuff they want to let go of from their lives and this evening E built a fire and burned the notes. I stood and watched, with a sliver of a new moon behind me, the sun having set and creating the most beautiful light on this unusually still and magical winter day, and I thought how wonderful, this letting go. In the flames. Fire to smoke and up into the air, transformed as we too, with our letting go are transformed (and eventually transformed from this body to spirit). Magic.

If there’s one thing I wish for all of you it is to transform, again and again and again, and I’m pretty certain that letting go of our past, of beginning anew and anew and anew is a fairly powerful way of doing this. Live in the present. Set the past down. Aside. Look back at it with LOVE.

That’s the key. My friend, Michelle Johansen reminded me of this recently. Look back at your past for the blessings it gave. That hurt, that betrayal, that trauma, that crappy thing that happened to you, look back with love. Say thank you, feel gratitude, know that helped to make you the most amazing human being that you are, helped you to awaken and heal, to take steps to heal, time and time again. It made you YOU. That’s worth celebrating huh?

So here’s to a new decade, a lighter one too, without that haul of the past weighing us down and continuously limiting our future.

Let go!

This is a most powerful power (in my humble opinion) about letting go, shared by my doula, Anita Davies, which has been really impactful on my life, through birth and beyond…

She Let Go

by Safire Rose

She let go.

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear.

She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.

Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.

She didn’t read a book on how to let go.

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go.

She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened.

There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing.

Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort.

There was no struggle.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.

It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face.

A light breeze blew through her.

And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…

Love Emma xxx

Beinspired supporting others to help themselves

Each month, Beinspired donates funds to the Ayurvedic Professionals UK charity work in Sri Lanka via the Ayurvedic Clinic with whom I studied to become an Ayurvedic lifestyle and nutrition practitioner.

I love that through yoga and Reiki we are not only helping ourselves and the planet by positively raising our vibration (and this having a knock on effect on everyone else with whom we interact and the planet as a whole), but that we can help others directly too.

The Ayurvedic project supports children in Sri Lanka, affording their education and helping them to cultivate their own herbal gardens. The herbs that they grow are cultivated and used to help produce the Ayurvedic medicine used, in part, by the clinic (after going through rigorous process), earning cash for the children and their families.

I just received a note from Dr Deepika, who is the founder of the Ayurvedic Clinic and the doctor with whom I initially connected when I discovered Ayurveda back in 2006, and who taught and inspired me on the course last year and thought to share it with you all, so you can read for yourself the good work done by attending class etc:

“I wanted to write to you personally to tell you about the progress of the child you are supporting. I am pleased to say that they are doing so well. They have sent us handwritten thank you letters in English which we are attaching to this email and sending to you by post.

With the support you have given them they are continuing to cultivate their herbal gardens and are able to attend school and continue their education and helping their families in so many ways.

I would personally like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness because I know that this money is going as far as it is possible to go and making a huge difference to their lives. From all of us at the clinic, we want to extend our heartfelt gratitude and best wishes to you and your families. The good Karma that you gain from such acts of humanity will stay with your soul forever. The blessings of these children will go with you always far beyond this life.”

Here’s the letter from the child

Beinspired also supports the Namaste Community Foundation in Pokhara, Nepal. This was initially the Namaste Children’s Home, which supported the housing facilities for about 60 orphaned children of Pokhara, Nepal, and which I visited on my first trip to Nepal in 2007. I found the whole experience deeply moving and was struck by how little support there is for orphaned children by the state, so that if it wasn’t for NGO’s like this children’s home, these children would literally be on the streets (or trafficked to India).

Since the time I visited, new projects were added as it became evident that there was much more to be addressed than just the orphaned children, and the name was changed to the Namaste Community Foundation to reflect this. Its mission now is to help as many children, single women and communities as possible in a sustainable way.

The Foundation helps to secure childhood in giving the children a nice and safe home as well as providing a good education and ensuring a positive perspective for the future (giving them options). It also supports parents in taking care of their own children and provides widowed and abandoned women with the skills and opportunities to work for their own livelihood and for the education of their children.

I know people say that charity should begin at home, but I think that when you visit these communities, you realise how much we are supported in the West by the state as much as by those charities within our own communities. In Nepal there is no state help, you are really on your own, it is one of the top ten poorest countries in the world and if it wasn’t for outside help then I dread to think what would happen to the people.

The culture is different too, and for women life can be hard. For example, if a woman is widowed or abandoned, through no fault of her own, then she if often stigmatised and it is very difficult for her to support herself, especially with young children as there is absolutely no state funding. She is literally on her own with the children unless she is lucky enough to have extended family who can help support her.

If not, then she is on the streets, and sometimes women will give their children away because they cannot look after them. Of course these children are easy prey for traffickers, and the children may end up in India - the statistics of the number of Nepali children that are trafficked to India each year is shocking and depressing - how can it be that fellow human beings create so much pain by promoting and buying into the sex trafficking industry?

So for me it is a no brainer to try to do what I can to help the Namaste Children’s Foundation and I am hearted to see the support they have received from others over the years - in fact Angelina Jolie provided them with their initial capital to get going, and they have since been supported by Joanna Lumley, although I only realised this recently.

We are headed out to Nepal in March, the first time in 9 years, it’s been a long time waiting and I am so excited about showing the boys this lovely country, a dream come true, and am intending to visit the Foundation and see first hand the good work that they are doing. Here’s a link to their website in case you feel like learning more or supporting them, they do take volunteers incidentally - https://www.ncf-nepal.org/about-us/

What i love about both these projects is the fact that they are helping people to help themselves, by empowering them and providing them with skills to work and earn money, and of course education too. It’s so easy to take this all so for granted here in Guernsey where we have free access to good education and people to help support us in securing jobs and a state to support us if we are not able to manage this.

So thank you, all of you, for the support you give to me, so that I can support these charities and the children who benefit directly. It is my wish that I can continue to support them in years to come and increase the level of funding too.

Love Emma xxx

The climate and separation urghhhhhhhhhhh!

Hi, I can’t believe how much the climate debate is creating so much fear and separation. Suddenly you’re a really bad person if you take a flight at the moment, especially if you’re a Guernsey deputy going for a day trip to discuss climate change! It would be funny if it wasn't so crazy!

The world is crazy at the moment though. Usually I’m all up for craziness, but this is a dark craziness, and as much as I like to stay positive and trust that the light follows the dark, I wonder how much darker we have to get first (but maybe this is all OK as it’ll bring in a while heap of light, let’s hope so).

It just seems so crazy to be judging each other for our actions in this moment when it’s actions of old that have created our current reality, and really, we are all as much to blame as each other, if we’re going to play this blame game. We each continue to contribute in some way or form to the planet being in the state it is in, whether it’s been about our choices for travel, for food, for clothes or the thoughts we think and the words that come out of our mouth.

All that is happening, as a result of the mass fear and hysteria, stirred up by the media as usual, is to create greater separation. The planet does not need separation. Humanity does not need separation. I’m sitting here listening to Coldplay’s latest album (which is genius btw, I applaud them for their recognition of the oneness that is so needed and so lacking at the moment in these confusing and chaotic times) and these lyrics catch me…

“What in the world are we going to do?
Look at what everybody's going through
What kind of world do you want it to be?
Am I the future or the history?

'Cause everyone hurts, everyone cries
Everyone tells each other all kinds of lies
Everyone falls, everybody dreams and doubts
Got to keep dancing when the lights go out

How in the world I am going to see?
You as my brother, not my enemy”

I suspect we’ve all had those moments, those glimpses, whether the birth of a child or the death of a loved one, when time stands still, life tis timeless and all that exists is love and an overwhelming sense oneness. Just the briefest of glimpses into the very heart of the universe, where nothing else matters and there is an overwhelming sense of everything being OK, the ultimate surrender to all that is, and then as soon as it happens, it’s over and the clock ticks and here we are again, in the 3-D world full of fear and limitation.

But we know this, deep down, we know this. What I loved so much about Coldplay’s recent album is the fact they shared this most beautiful Persian poem, that I read on the internet was written by Saadi Shirazi (but don’t quote me on that!) and here it is (if I can get it to upload…) 

We knew all this so long ago and look at us now, where has progress taken us…pretty far away from the Divine and the heart that’s for sure.

Even in the ‘heart’ holistic world, I see separation and judgement as people argue over crazy things like whether green tea is good for you, and the impact of eating a plant-based diet versus a meat one. let alone whether this form of yoga is better for you than that one. Who cares! The trouble is the holistic world has become big business and where there’s business there’s competition and there’s generally a fairly big amount of ego too.

I always think of David Attenborough and his life lesson he gave which went something along the lines of while they should live the way they wanted, the trick was “just don’t waste”.

That does it for me. Slightly challenging with a 3-year old who loves to waste everything, soap, shampoo, cleaner, whatever it is and he can get his hands on - he even cut through the cord of our blinds the other day too, so they now don’t work, wasted, but you know, we do our best! We’re not perfect, but no one is, that’s the thing that’s so crazy about this whole climatic change shaming thing.

There’s another element to David’s perspective that struck me. It was something I was taught by one of my mentor’s – live your truth and don’t worry what everyone else is doing…if green tea makes you feel good drink it, if not, don’t, who cares what anyone else thinks on the matter, we’re all different and we all have our own different experiences and perspectives.

So there we go. Aside from wanting to share how marvellous I think Coldplay’s new album is (I have track 3 on repeat,), I just wanted to vent a little about how crazy we have become to judge each other on our climatic short comings (and holistic offerings) to share the love. Love, love, love, love, love. We should shower ourselves in rose quartz. Oh yes, I did! Rose quartz, love, love, Rose quartz, and a sprinkling of Reiki. Let’s create a new craziness that is based on a whole heap of love. From me to you. Love xxx

The November Herm Retreat!

I’m biased of course, if I didn’t love running retreats and spending weekends in lovely spots, then I wouldn’t run them. But, I have to say that that was another wonderful retreat we just held on the beautiful island of Herm!

I wasn’t sure how it would work out, as we are running it much later than usual, due to changes on Herm and them opening the white House Hotel much later than normal, into October. Typically the weekend coincided with the first Christmas shopping trip to Herm too, so I was imagining the Island packed with other people, which is not perhaps ideal when we have been running these retreats out of season for 10 years now, to make the most of the out-of-season-lack-of-other-people-on-Herm experience.

There was also concern about the weather, the closer we get to the darkness of winter, the higher the winds, in theory anyway, albeit there’s no guarantee for October either. So it was a relief to see that while higher winds were forecast, the boat was still able to travel in this.

It was a touch on the rough side though, and I can’t say I’m a fan of boat journeys when its quite so rough, but this seems to be a theme for the retreats to Herm and Sark, so I’m getting used to it now! It’s almost like that obstacle on the spiritual path. If you can pass the boat journey all will be well!

On Herm all was well, warm and cosy and ideal for retreating ahead of the new moon, as we were settling almost into the dark moon (which naturally asks us to turn inwards and see what might be lurking in the darkness). I hadn’t booked the retreat with an awareness of the moon cycle, but I have no doubt that it was well timed, and it definitely does affect the energy of a retreat.

i’ve had a few full moon retreats these last few years, it’s not forget that famous retreat on Herm three years ago when my water’s broke seven weeks early. There was a full moon on both the Glastonbury retreats this year too, and the first one, back in May. was particularly potent and there was many a tear and challenge for each of us in our own ways.

So for me anyway, this pre-new moon, on the cusp of the dark moon timing was interesting, beautiful and ideal really. It’s been a challenging year for so many of us, and it was a relief to be able to experience a gentleness for a change. I really felt this collectively.

It’s the first time on Herm at least that everyone has attended the first three classes, so there was a real sense of group energy. Understandably a few stayed in bed on the Sunday morning with our early 7.30am pranayama and meditation session, before asana and relaxation. About 14 of us met for the swim on the Saturday afternoon, but a number of others had swum on their own, so there was that energy too, of being connected to the sea, to nature and to the elements. A record number attended the chanting session with me too.

For me this was the most special part of the weekend. I love collective chanting of devotional mantra (Bhakti yoga), and have always found it deeply nourishing, enlightening and heart opening, my soul loves it! Tp have the opportunity to sing with other ladies who are open to it was a joy. I also love Vedic chanting, and am still studying this, so am not really in position to teach it as such, but we did explore AUM, and this was beautiful. We shared crystals and Reiki too, and it touched me that we unintentionally ended up sitting in a heart shape as a group! I should have taken a photo!

The sun shone when it wasn’t expected to, and I credit all the sun salutations! I made the most of it with Vicki and the family to go and see the Herm cows and get some fresh air. The shop was open so we got to peek in there too. It wasn’t as busy as we had expected and I still felt that I was getting away from it all!

Because of the shopping trips and the Mermaid being busy, we took our breakfasts and Saturday lunch in the Ship. This did work well, and I’m grateful to the hotel staff who are probably meant to be on holiday, who came in to serve and make it all happen for us. The evening meals were taken in the Mermaid as normal and I am grateful to the staff here too and especially the chef who had to juggle a number of food insensitivities and still managed to produce tasty vegan, gluten-free, soya-free and nightshade-free food - thank you!

I managed an early morning dip (I stress the word dip) on the Sunday early morning in the darkness, down at the beach in front of the hotel, slightly concerned that I might meet the Herm seal, and just thought how wonderful to have this opportunity. To be able to stay in the White House hotel and enjoy those views of the East coast of Guernsey, and spend my weekend with such lovely souls.

I’m grateful to Sarah Thackeray, Sam Le Compte and Jo de Diepold Braham for offering magical treatments and Athene Sholl for her jewellery making. I’m also grateful to Vicki Eppelein for helping me during the classes, and my Mum for making sure there were yummy snacks available and that all was well. Ewan and my Dad did a marvellous job of looking after the boys too, they love all this retreating, especially with Baba in tow!

A huge thank you to all the beautiful students who joined me this weekend, for their openness and going with the flow attitude - I found the weekend nourishing and transformative (some interesting dreams and processing) and I hope they might have returned touched by the magic of retreating on Herm too.

While I thought this might be my last Herm retreat on a count of the fact I don’t want to hold another one in November (I miss the October morning and evening skies), it seems that I might be able to get a date in October 2020…so I’m just waiting on that!

Lots of love and gratitude.