Of course there are lots of answers, but when they are drilled down from ‘I want to be creative’ or ‘I really want a loving relationship’ you come to the same bedrock answer which is they want to be happy.  Which of course we all want, and in her book she helps you to see reality as it is and then use the power of your mind to create a happy and harmonious life.

As an experienced self-help author (15 books and counting) she writes clearly and simply about complex metaphysical issues and breaks them down with great clarity.  If  you have every felt a ‘victim of circumstance’ then reading about how your underlying beliefs determine your experience may be a challenge, but there are plenty of practical tips and tools to help you get the other side of that and focus on your ability and power to choose both your thoughts and your actions.

The Awakening Human Being  - A Guide to the Power of Mind  by Barbara Berger is published by O Books and visit her website at http://www.bean team.com for lots more information on getting real – start today!

Now is the Time

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child’s training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.

My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?

What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

~ Hafiz ~

(The Gift – versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

That day the sky looked strange but somehow unthreatening – blue gave way to purple and black and the air deadened and pressed in upon me.  I shrugged it off –omens and portents  belong in books and the cinema not when gazing out of a 10th floor office window.   I do a lot of that  – gazing into the distance a habit I acquired at school and have never given up even after spotting the local gamekeeper exposing himself outside the pavilion at the far end of the field – not impressive, just another of the odd things I assumed men did as part of their complicated male rituals.  Though on the ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ scale he wasn’t going to win any prizes.  The window catch had a bit of rust so it was hard to open and shout at him, though the half empty vodka bottle in my bag might have got through – but who wants to waste it?

The smell of cinnamon brought me back to the office as it was one of the endless office birthday celebrations. This time with donuts dusted with sugar, chocolate or cinnamon and even some with raspberry jam and bramble jelly – we are in an upmarket area after all.   I shift uncomfortably in my seat – take my advice and never buy cheap knickers from a market stall – these have labels where no label ought to be and seams that might please a nun in the depths of the night but no good to me .

I fish around in my bag in the vain hope this is the day I have a spare pair – living in hope as I am going out for drinks after work – but no, only a bag of cheese and onion flavoured crisps – why when I can’t stand the flavor?  A cough by my ear disturbs me and I look down to see a pair of brogues with one untied shoelace  It is Angus, who rather like a four year old – but less charmingly – always manages to only have only shoe tied at any one time.

It is that frustration of emails going into cyberspace and into the void – nothing but nothing comes back.  I am not wishing to complain to Rodale – indeed I want to purchase a book they sent me email details of  but their website doesn’t offer any options other than the US or Canada.  Nor do they want me to respond to their blandishments to buy their other – other than by buying their book – which I can’t do because I live in Europe.

Now I know Rodale are not a fly by night organisation, but their sales email or sales webpage offers no opportunity to contact them – no email customer service or phone number.  Diligent research gets me the company’s home page where there is a US phone number and wonderful news, an email contact form.  I have filled this in twice over the last 2 weeks but sadly no one has replied and I feel disinclined to make an expensive phone call to a company who clearly are not interested in my business.

Recession, what recession?

The health benefits of a traditional Mediterranean diet are now well known and are one of the elements that can promote a healthier and longer life.  The key ingredients of this are a diet high in ‘Omega’ unsaturated fatty acids from oily fish, antioxidants from virgin olive oil and specific flavanols found in red wine together with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables.

MASQUELIER’s® Mediterranean Essentials contains the first 3 ingredients but the sunshine and your daily 5+ of fruit and vegetables is down to you. You would not think the French would need to produce a capsule when they have all the necessary ingredients to hand but you can’t stop scientists from experimenting.  In this case it is Professor Dr. Masquelier, an expert in the field of nutrition and health, whose previous claim to fame was in discovering how to produce an extract from the bark tree and maximise its health benefits.

If you can’t get to the Mediterranean this year then take heart from the fact you are by proxy visiting the Dordogne, not far from Bergerac in the south west of France, which is where the grapes used in the supplement come from.  You can congratulate yourself on being even more virtually widely travelled as the fish oil it contains comes from South America and is extracted from anchovies from the Pacific Ocean and your international health trip even calls in at California where the olive extract is produced.

No passport, no problem – you can visit the Mediterranean and give your heart a healthy boost and you don’t even need to pack!

Halleluiah — Mary Oliver

Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I’m not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.

From Evidence by Mary Oliver

Sounds like a political campaign doesn’t it, but one of the things I am least enjoying about getting older is inheriting the family tendency to arthritis.  Having discovered it in my knobbly fingers and then in my neck I thought I had come to the end of it, but no it crept into my knees as well.  If you have any mobility difficulties then you know how frustrating it is to be walking along freely one day and then halting and foundering the next.

Nor am I alone as one in three adults over 40 suffers with knee pain from common problems such as osteoarthritis, tendinitis, bursitis and meniscus injuries; along with the additional strains, sprains and injuries cause millions of people agony.  Looking gloomily ahead to my potential future, there has been a 5.7% increase in the number of knee replacements last year so I decide to try something proactive before it is too late.

Having tried various knee supports in the past with hilarious results – they gradually crept down my leg to decorate my ankle or cut off circulation to the point my leg went white – I have found a solution.  Instead of shooting pains that would start within 5 minutes of walking I can now stride out confidently – although bulkily – and without strain.

The useful device is a Neo G™ Stabilized Open Knee Support which really has stabilised the knee joint and is very comfortably padded.  Not being over blessed with practical skills it took a few minutes to work  out the straps and the first walk to realise you don’t want a velcro strap against your skin.  Once mastered and lashed in however it has made a huge difference.   I can walk freely while feeling certain my knee is being fully supported and although I found it for my arthritis it can apparently help with rheumatic joints,  bursitis, meniscus injuries, moderate to severe cruciate and collateral ligament strains, and instability.

The last puzzled me until I realised it meant a joint and not a personality disorder, but it is worth every penny of £34.99 and you don’t have to faff about deciding on the right size as it is a universal size which can be adjusted to fit all everyone – even if your knees are knobbly.

If you can’t find it in a local store then visit the website at  www.neo-g.co.uk

These are the top five regrets she witnessed, with my own comments on them:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

What were your dreams that have been abandoned?  How often have you ‘sacrificed’ yourself for the validation and respect of others?  What could you do now to embrace at least a part of what you have given up?

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

This is a classic isn’t it?  No one ever regrets not spending enough time at work because what is important is the life you were meant to be living and that is a rounded one that embraces every aspect of who you are.  Working flat out is essential sometimes, but not as a way of life as it restricts your opportunities to experience love, life and laughter with your family and friends.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

The staple of all romantic novels, the misunderstandings and reluctance to ‘make a fool’ of ourselves.  Being a fool for love means living fully and expressing your hurt, anger and disappointment makes for a much healthier life than constantly suppressing those feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

If you died tonight who would you miss the opportunity of saying goodbye to?  Attending someone’s funeral is not nearly so life enhancing as staying in touch with them regularly.  They were your friend for a reason, revisit it – and them.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

We somehow abdicate happiness as being not our birthright – but it is. Fear is usually at the bottom of this – fear of change, not being good enough or not able to achieve the happiness we seek.  You can do it – don’t leave it too late.

What’s your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die?

There  is nothing new here but, as with all personal development, it depends if you are ready to hear it and like the form that it is expressed in.  He makes the points that it is not the events in our lives that create our reality but our reaction and response to them and that in the three major areas of life we can master our responses for optimum outcome and benefit.

The areas he talks about are self-responsibility, emotional intelligence and maturity – and don’t make the mistake of thinking that means your age.  This book is essentially aimed at leaders but anyone could benefit from applying this very basic, fundamental wisdom and insight.

His sub title is ‘A Manual for Becoming a Secret Agent of Love & Transformation’ – and much as I hate seeing the & sign in a title it rang a bell as my meditation group have mentioned they are members of SALT.  I was not sure what they meant by this,and I am not certain why it needs to be a secret, but it is an invitation to become a leader in every area of your life whether that is at work, in your community or with your family.

I liked the way he talks about self-responsibility which he describes as you being the hub of change – another way of saying become the change you want to see in the world.  If we all operated from that premise life would be more harmonious for all of us so if you want to be James Bond in the world of spiritual development this is the book that will show you how to shake, not stir, your world.

IF YOU ARE WAITING FOR A SIGN

FROM THE UNIVERSE

THIS  IS IT!

NOW GO BIG!!!

Well how could you miss that? But is it big enough, prominent enough, obvious enough for  you to pay attention to?  My experience of signs from the the Universe is that they start out small and discreet and morph into earth shattering noise and obviousness the more I ignore them so this is a medium size wake up call.

We all want a sign, what we never seem to quite realise is that we are the best sign writers in the world if we will just trust our instincts and follow our heart.  What is the sign you are waiting for?  What would you write large on a placard to help shift yourself into a state or an action that every instinct in you knows is right but that old taskmaster and judge that you wrap around yourself won’t let you listen to?

Do you know that old and cliched story about the man perched on his roof while the flood waters rose around him and who refused the help of a rescue boat and a helicopter because he was waiting on God to rescue him?  There are many versions of this but they all end the same – the man drowning and feeling abandoned and God frustrated because how many more signs of help did he want?  The truth is he wanted the ‘perfect’ solution – and so ignored the very real possibilities for rescue that came along.

Cliches get a bad press, but they are cliches because they contain a universal truth that we shrug and say ‘oh that’s such a a cliche!’  Well yes, because it’s true and contains information whose value has not been diminished through over use, but rather dismissed through its universality.

What is your sign going to say?