There’s nothing better than a seaside holiday to regenerate both your body and your soul. Not everyone is lucky enough to live by the ocean, but there are ways you can fake it in your bathroom and still reap the benefits.

To get into the mood of a seaside vacation, decorate your bathroom with aquatic colours and accessories. If you have a blue or turquoise bathroom, all the better. Add some shells, a couple of candles, a couple of blue bottles or maybe even a mini Zen garden and aim for a serene look. This does mean getting rid of rubber duckies and ten different brands of shampoo hanging around place. A polluted beach is not relaxing.

Run a moderately warm bath and add a couple of handfuls of sea salt to it. This doesn‘t have to be fancy Dead Sea salt; any sea salt available in supermarkets will do the trick just fine. (It helps to dissolve the salt crystals in really hot water first.) It’s important for your circulation not to run a too hot bath. I love hot baths and once made the mistake of adding sea salt to a piping hot bath. I collapsed when I got out. Luckily, the bathroom was big enough and I just ended up on the floor without knocking my head against anything. Or did I …

Whilst the bath is running, light some candles and put on some music. An ocean sounds CD would be ideal, but any soothing music will do in a pinch. Rub some coconut oil into your skin much as you would massage in suntan lotion at the beach. The warmth of the bath will help your skin really absorb the oil as well as the minerals from the salt.

Now get in the bath and do what you would do on the beach. Read a book if you like. Just relax and let your senses be overwhelmed by the warm water, the candles and the colours. Close your eyes and breathe slowly in and out, inhaling the soft scent of the salty air and imagine yourself floating in the ocean.

If you’re feeling creative, you could write in your journal. Or visualize your ideal day. Relax and dream.

Your bathtub is an ideal place to meditate, too. Whilst lying in the bath, try chanting a mantra. Treat your bathroom as sacred space, a place for you to retreat to and regenerate.

Stay in the bath whilst letting the water run out. (Unless, like my son, you have childhood memories of imagining yourself being sucked down the drain.) Imagine the water carrying away all your worries and problems, down the drain, into the rivers and, eventually, into the sea.

You see, you’re not that far away from the ocean after all.


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Related articles:

10 Health Benefits of a Seaside Vacation
Sacred Space is Necessary for Your Survival
Take a Mini Vacation to Spark Your Creativity
7 Ways to Get Your Energies Flowing

I love smoking. And smoking loves me. I have friends who are die-hard non-smokers who have said to me that smoking "suits" me. That's how convincing a smoker I am.

After 33 years of smoking, I have no physical symptoms. My heart is fine, my arteries are clear and my children will testify to my lung power. I don't have smokers cough and my skin is still wrinkle-free. I don't live in the US or UK, where smokers are increasingly ostrasised by society. Here in the Seychelles (and in Switzerland, where I lived before), smoking is quite acceptable.

So why even bother quitting?

I want to love more.

Smoking is a heart chakra issue. I've noticed that when I don't have cigarettes I feel a yearning in the anahata chakra area, a need to breathe in more deeply. If I'm upset and don't want to cry (breaking down in public simply isn't my thing) I reach for a cigarette. If I'm angry and don't want to throttle the person near me, I reach for a cigarette. If I'm feeling insecure in a social situation, I reach for a cigarette.

The latter is the reason I started smoking in the first place. I used to be a very shy teenager and forced myself to sit in cafés nonchalantly sipping at a coffee and slowly dragging on a cigarette. I perfected the art of looking cool with a cigarette in my hand. There were different phases of coolness: the vamp in a pencil skirt wearing bright red lipstick with a cigarette holder, the existentialist dressed in black and smoking Gitanes, the patchouli-smelling hippy rolling Drums.

Those were the days! Actually, it was a lot of fun, but I've realized that I am very far from that shy teenager. I am now (and have long been) a self-confident woman who doesn't give a flying f*** what people think. "You've come a long way, baby!"

I am a loving feeling person, who cannot watch horrible things in the news without crying. Forgiving others has always come easily to me and over the years I have learnt to forgive myself as well. I am passionate about people, causes and many things under the sun. Watching a sunset or walking in nature often moves me to tears of joy. I even get angry quite well ...

And yet I feel I am blocking my heart chakra. I fear that one day, I will no longer suppress my feelings consciously with a couple of drags on a cigarette, but that my emotions will no longer flow freely. Maybe I'm at the tipping point and, unconsciously, have realised this. Hence the urge to stop now.

I'll be working on my heart chakra in the next couple of weeks. Here's my plan:
Reiki, focussing on the heart
Deep breathing
Meditation for relaxation and centering in my sacred space
Walks along the beach to recharge my energies
Swim in the ocean to cleanse my energy field
Enjoy the moment to experience joy
Watch Bollywood movies to make my heart sing

And who knows, I might finally open myself so much to love, that my soul mate will show up and I can indulge in some loving sacred sex ...



"Ask and ye shall receive" I'm told. So here goes: if you like this article, please stumble, add to a social bookmarking site or donate. Thank you.

These are two pages which are charged with Reiki healing energy. Whenever I need a little boost or feel a need for healing I visit these pages.

This page is charged with healing energy from various Reiki practitioners and is very soothing. Beautiful imagery as well.

The Reiki Threshold shares this page of free Reiju. It's a picture of Usui Sensei which seems to send out his healing energy. Very effective.

If you know of any other sites that offer this type of healing, please let me know. I'm always on the look out for Reiki or other types of energy healing.

I can think of a few reasons why you should love your belly:

• In many cultures a big belly is seen as a sign of prosperity.
• Guys like soft bellies to lie on.
• So do many women. (We don't care about six-packs. Guys do.)
• Buddha was a wise guy and look at his belly!
• Ever seen anyone rub the Buddha's belly in a Chinese restaurant for luck?

In Japan, the belly (hara) is seen as the source of spiritual strength.The word hara refers both to the belly and to the qualities of character that emerge as a person activates the life force concentrated in the belly. A "person of hara" is one who lives with creativity, courage, confidence, purpose, integrity, and endurance. Even in English, someone who is "gutsy" is thought to be brave, adventureous, earthy and in touch with their instincts.

In the yogic energy system, both the solar plexus chakra (life force) and the sacral chakra (creativity, sexuality) are located in the belly. All twelve primary acupuncture meridians are, according to Chinese medicine, energetically connected to the abdomen in some way. Physically, most of our organs are in the abdominal cavity as well. (A book I read written by an SAS guy suggested rolling into a ball as a defence when getting beaten up. I hope never to have to use this knowledge, just as I don't really want to use the V-strike on anybody.)

One way to honour and learn to love your belly is through hara massage. A self-massage of the stomach will bring fire to the belly (for both men and women!) and is deeply relaxing and grounding.

How to give yourself a hara massage

• Spend a few minutes doing deep abdominal breathing. As you inhale, feel your belly expanding and, as you exhale, feel it fall. Every time you exhale, allow your whole body to relax more and more deeply.
• Gently rub around the outer area of your stomach in a clockwise motion.
• Press gently under the right ribs and then the left.
• Press around the solar plexus in a clockwise motion.
• Press around the sacral chakra area (below the navel).
• Rub the whole stomach region in a clockwise motion.
• Relax with your hands on your abdomen and breathe deeply into your belly.

Deep breathing, hara massage and becoming grounded are of bringing energy to the lower part of the body. This is why, although many advocate doing abdominal massage in the morning, I prefer rubbing my belly in bed before going to sleep. It tends to pull the energy away from the head and into the lower energy centres of the body.

Whether you then choose to go to sleep or engage in other activities is entirely up to you...

Can you think of any other reasons you should love your belly?

Living on a tropical island, I am lucky to have a large supply of one of nature's most beneficial foodstuffs. Coconuts as well as coconut oil have always been a mainstay of the Seychelles diet.

Coconut oil is a food, and is one of the best cooking oils you can use. Unlike most vegetable oils, coconut oil's chemical structure is kept intact even when used in higher cooking temperatures and is therefore resistant to mutations of fatty acid chains. Research shows that the fatty acids found in coconut oil raise the body's metabolism, boost the immune system, and help provide greater energy which can also lead to weight loss.

Saturated fats have received a bad press in recent years. They've been linked to raising cholesterol levels and causing cardiovascular and other diseases. Coconut oil is rich in saturated fats, so many people put it in the same category as animal fats. Actually, in contrast to animal fats which contain cholesterol, coconut oil has no cholesterol.

There are two types of saturated fats: medium chain and long chain fatty acids. Coconut oil is mainly composed of medium chain fatty acids, which are easily digested and converted to energy. They do not raise cholesterol nor increase the risk of heart disease. Animal fats are long chain fatty acids, which have the ability to raise cholesterol and are easily stored in the body as fats.

Are there any people who live on saturated fats who are healthy? Yes! People who live in tropical climates and still have a diet high in coconut oil are healthier, have less heart disease, cancer, colon and weight problems, than unsaturated fat eaters. Two groups of people which have been studied are Melanesians and Mexicans from the Yucatan area. These people are slightly hyperthyroid (faster metabolism) because of the thyroid stimulating effects of coconut oil plus a diet which includes protein (fish) and adequate fruit (stimulates thyroid function).

The health benefits of coconut oil:

• Thyroid-stimulating and anti-aging The cholesterol-lowering properties of coconut oil are a direct result of its ability to stimulate thyroid function. In the presence of enough thyroid hormone, cholesterol (specifically LDL-cholesterol) is converted by enzymatic processes to anti-aging steroids, which are required to help prevent heart disease, senility, obesity, cancer and other diseases associated with aging and chronic degenerative diseases.
• Weight loss stimulating Because the thyroid gets stimulated, the metabolism gets boosted and calories get burnt faster resulting in the pounds coming off.
• Anti-cancer Studies have shown that in chemically induced cancers of the colon and breast (it does seem mean to do that, but researchers will be researchers...), coconut oil was by far more protective than unsaturated oils. One study showed that 32% of corn oil eaters got colon cancer whereas only 3% of coconut oil eaters got the cancer. Many other studies since the 1920's have shown an association between consumption of unsaturated oils and the incidence of cancer.
• Antimicrobial (antiseptic) Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids. One of these is lauric acid, which has strong anti-viral properties. It is present in breast milk and protects infants from viral, bacterial or protozoal infections. Lauric acid also has adverse effects on other pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, yeast and fungi. There has even been a lot of research recently on the benefits of lauric acid in HIV infections.

So how can we benefit from the wonderful healing properties of coconut oil? It can be used for frying, instead of other fats in baking, in puddings; it's up to your imagination. One of my favourites is coconut rice pudding. Yummy! The kitchen beckons ...

I found this little video gem the other day and would like to share it with you. It shows you how to relax using deep breathing techniques. This quick and useful guide will teach you how to master the basics of breathing in order to relax the body and mind.


How To Relax Using Deep Breathing Techniques


Step 1:
Make yourself comfortable
You can do this technique in any setting, but it is better when your mind is calm and your body is relaxed. Find a quiet place if possible. You can either be seated or lying down. Once in position take a few deep breaths.

Step 2:
Focus your attention
Close your eyes and begin to empty your mind and clear away all thoughts. Pay particular attention to your body and your breathing.

Step 3:
The inhale
Begin by placing your hands on your stomach. Slowly inhale through your nose, filling first the abdomen as you feel your hands rise while the air enters. Continue filling the lower lungs, and finally the upper chest around the heart.

Step 4:
The exhale
Now, slowly exhale the air out the mouth, going in reverse order, first emptying the chest then the lower lungs and finally the stomach, allowing the belly button to fall towards the spine.

Step 6:
The rhythm
Now that we've practiced the form, it's time to set a tempo. Different patterns of breathing have varying effects on the systems of the body. For relaxation, we will attempt to slow the heart rate to calm the nervous system. The key to achieving this is to make the exhale slightly longer than the inhale. This can be done by counting slowly to 5 on the inhale.1..2...3..4...5. then count to 8 on the exhale. 1..2..3..4…5…6..7…8.

Step 7:
Putting it all together
Now that we've got the style, it's just a matter of practice. It is good to start out with sessions of about 5 minutes each. This will be enough to slow the heartbeat, lower the blood pressure and improve the functioning of the all the body's systems.

I'm sick and dying this week, so I've been looking for some inspiration online and browsing blogs on holistic and alternative health.

One blog I found that is nearly overwhelming in the information it offers is The Holistic Care. Tons of useful articles on yoga, energy medicine, ayurveda... you name it, it's there. Also offers free Reiki attunements. I'm a Reiki II and will be "upgrading".

Doc Robert's Holistic Health Blog brings you the latest news updates in alternative health. I am addicted to "the latest study shows" type of health news and this blog delivers it.

I love eating. I love eating healthy food (never mind the occasional binge on the not-so-good-for-you-stuff). Laurel on Health Food is all about healthy eating and offers some mouthwatering recipes as well.

Living near the beach in a holiday resort, I often pretend I'm a tourist and go on a mini holiday. I usually take a book with me, some sun tan oil (which I never use otherwise), a colourful pareo and go plonk myself in one of the sunloungers at a hotel. It's lovely to while away the afternoon sipping (sometimes laced) coconut water and going for occasional dips to cool off. The people I meet invariably think I'm on holiday as well and I've struck up some really good conversations and met many interesting people from all walks of life. At other times, I will go down the beach to be on my own, writing in my journal. It's amazing how a mini vacation can recharge your batteries and fire up your creativity. Try it!

Pack a big bag with:
some munchies
a journal or notebook and pen
a flask of your favourite beverage
a good book
some cash in case you feel like mixing with people in a cafe
a yoga mat or whatever you feel you might need

The key is to not plan ahead exactly when and where you plan to be. If you're going to the beach or woods, let your intuition guide you to the best spot. If you're visiting your town, be spontaneous and do exactly what you feel like doing at the moment. This might be sight-seeing, going to the museum or busking in front of a cafe. Let the day just unfold. Celebrate being. That's what you do when you're on a "proper holiday", isn't it?

Sleeping isn't the only way to recharge your batteries. I don't particularly like sleeping, so I need other ways to get my energies flowing. Here are seven ways I have found both helpful and fun. Try and make time everyday for at least half an hour to indulge in these healthy pursuits.

1. Move your body
All forms of exercise are great for relieving stress, and it works in many ways. Firstly, it releases endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers that improve your mood. It also removes the build up of adrenalin that can occur if you are stressed and relaxes your muscles by warming them up. If you're not very sporty (like me!), try dancing and going for walks.

2. Picture this
At the end of the workday, imagine your stress liquefying and running out of your body so that with each step, you leave a coloured footprint that represents your stress. Then, notice that the further you walk from work (whether in the home or outside), the fainter the footprints become - until the stress has disappeared.

3. The scented touch
A massage with essential oils is absolutely heaven! When you breathe in the oils, they send a direct message to your brain via your olfactory nerves, where they affect the endocrine and hormonal systems via the hypothalamus. Odours have an amazing effect on our emotional states, because they hook into the "emotional" or primitive parts of our brains (the limbic system, also known as the rhinencephalon - the "smell brain"!). Aromatherapv massage benefits the physical, the emotional and the psyche. Create your own massage oil by adding up to 30 drops of a blend to 30 ml of pure vegetable oil, such as grapeseed or almond. The massage oil can he used for a full massage or spot massage at pressure points for quick effect. Anyone offering?

4. In comes the good air
Babies breathe naturally, but most children learn that shallow breathing seems to reduce feelings of emotional pain. Think of the furious child who holds her breath. These emotions don't go away, though. They accumulate in the form of stress and tension in the solar plexus, where they can cause all sorts of physical ailments. Shallow breathing also depletes our intake of oxygen, which can cause anxiety.
Relearning how to breathe is an important step in releasing stress. Try practicing natural breathing for five minutes a day. Imagine your breath rising from your feet and travelling up your body to the top of your head as you inhale. On the exhale, feel your breath descending again to your feet.
Do this also whenever you feel yourself getting tense. Lean back in your chair and just breathe.

5. Sound advice
Since so many sounds can be stressful - the 3 a.m. wail of your baby, the 6 a.m. screech of your alarm clock, the 6:10 a.m. screech of your alarm clock, the 6:20 a.m. screech of your alarm clock - it's only fitting that other sounds should serve to soothe. Why not take a 20-minute "sound bath" anytime your knickers are in a twist? Put some relaxing music on your stereo, then lie down near the speakers with knees slightly bent and allow the music to wash over you. The washing imagery is important; you should feel the music rinsing away the day's stress from your tired body.

6. Laugh it off
Laughter is a very effective stress-buster. When we let out a belly laugh, our bodies let out endorphins, those painkilling darlings of the exercise set. Related to morphine, endorphins make us feel good, which in turn makes us more resistant to stress. But it's not enough to sit back and wait for a coworker to fall facefirst into a custard tart. Humour must be actively sought out. One easy way to do this is to imagine how the writers for a TV sitcom might handle your most stressful "snags."

7. Craft it
The power of creating a bedcover, a garden or a cake can't be underestimated, especially if it reflects some aspect of you. It's great when the project turns out well, but there's also value in the doing. The act of concentration can become meditative, even trance-like, and mind clearing.

If I'm suffering from a creative block, I can often get through it by sitting for a few minutes with my hands in the ushas mudra position.

A mudra is a yoga hand posture that facilitates the flow of subtle energy in a specific way. Our thumbs, fingers and the palms of our hands are constantly emitting currents of energy. By creating certain postures with your hands, fingers and thumbs you can stimulate certain energies and send this energy to particular chakras. This is a mudra which activates the sacral chakra (centre of creativity and sexuality) and hence is good for getting your creative energies going.

Mini mudra meditation for creativity
Put your hands in your lap, palms up, on top of each other. Ladies, interlace your fingers with palms facing upwards. Encircle your right thumb between your left thumb and index fingers. Guys, interlace your fingers with palms facing upwards. Your right thumb rests on top of your left thumb with gentle pressure. (This is because our energies rotate differently. But you knew that one already ...)
Concentrate on the sacral chakra at the sacral bone (on the lower back). As you sit, remember to pull your belly button towards your spine. This helps circulate the energy in the sacral chakra area.
Breathe gently.

You can do this as a mini-medition a couple of times a day for 10 minutes or even whilst doing something else. Mudras can be done anywhere and anytime. I often do mudras whilst vegging out in front of the TV. You don't have to concentrate on the mudra, just keeping your hands in the position (and sitting up straight whilst doing it) will do the trick as well.

You will also feel an increase in sexual energy, as creative and sexual energy is basically the same. If you don't want that ... well then: sublimate, my dear, sublimate.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just flick a switch and turn on your creativity? Sadly, at times, tapping into your creativity can feel like turning the tap to find that the water company has switched off the water again. The good news is, there are ways of encouraging creativity and one of these ways is through balancing your sacral chakra.

Chakra is the Sanskrit word for moving wheel; the chakras are vortexes of energy present in the ethereal body and in corresponding locations of the physical body. There are seven major chakras and they function as pathways for energy to be taken in.

The sacral chakra, sometimes called the spleen or navel chakra, is located in the lower abdomen, approximately two inches below the navel. It governs sexuality, self-worth and creativity and is also associated with desire, pleasure, emotional balance and the abundance that you allow into your life for the fulfillment of your desires.

If this chakra is functioning well, you will experience enriched creativity, enhanced emotional gratification and courage, sexual vitality and positive self-esteem. If this chakra is blocked, however, both sexual and creative frustration occurs. You may have difficulties tapping into your creativity. Or you may have brilliantly creative ideas, but problems with manifesting your projects. A blockage can also manifest physically with lower back pain, sciatica, problems of the reproductive system, lowered libido and urinary problems.

Luckily, there are many tools to help balance the chakras. I’ve listed some of the correspondences for the sacral chakra together with guidelines on how to use these tools to balance this chakra and hence enhance your creativity.

• Colour: Orange - Surround yourself with orange. Wear it, eat it (preferably in the form of food) or paint your studio or workspace with it. If you meditate, visualize orange around the area of this chakra.
• Music: sensual flowing music with passionate rhythms (think Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”) - Try belly dancing or just dance, using your hips. Gyrate, baby, gyrate!
• Gemstones: any orange stone (e.g. carnelian, orange jasper, fire opal, moonstone). If you can't find a gemstome, try a piece or bead of coloured glass. - You can wear these stones as jewellery or carry them in your pocket or purse.
• Essential oils: sandalwood, jasmine, ylang ylang, clary sage, bergamot, orange blossom. - Shower gels and other cosmetics sometimes have these aromatherapy oils already added. Burn oils in an oil burner. Combine 10 drops or use singly on a washcloth during your shower. (This is particularly effective as water is the element governed by the sacral chakra.). Put some drops on a handkerchief and sniff it when you need inspiration. Make yourself a massage oil by adding a few drops of essential oil to coconut oil.
  

Now you know what to do to get your creative juices flowing; go take an essential oil shower whilst eating a mango, come out and drape yourself in orange clothes and jewels and start swaying those hips to a cool groove.
Then, go create!

A couple of nights ago, my daughter came to me complaining that she couldn't fall asleep. This was no great surprise, as she had been busy chatting on msn two minutes before retiring and was still too buzzed to sleep. Now whilst I don't usually recommend going straight from the computer to bed, here's a tip in case you are too wired too sleep.

Kundaline yoga left nostril breathing is a very quick and effective way to wind down and get into sleep mode. This is because the left nostril is connected to the right hemisphere of the brain, which can activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system counteracts the stress effect, calming you down, slowing heart rate, cooling you down, increasing digestion, and so on. The right nostril is connected to the left hemisphere of the brain, which activates the sympathetic nervous system and is activated in times of stress. It causes the "flight or fight" response, and all the biological components of that including dilation of the pupils, increased temperature and sweating, increased heart rate, and so on. Not the state you want to be in when going to sleep.

Our breath naturally changes dominant nostrils approximately every 2-1/2 hours. You can tell which nostril is your dominate one at any time simply by blocking off one, then the other. The dominant one is easy to breathe through and the less dominate one feels like it is blocked. This alternation controls and regulates metabolism, temperature and many other physiological functions.

How to do it:
Use the thumb or index finger of the right hand to close the right nostril. Breathe long and deep for three minutes or until you fall asleep. You can do this sitting or lying down (getting into the horizontal position always helps me, though...). Lying on your right side will help open the left nostril. If the left nostril remains congested, try rubbing a tiny bit of Tiger Balm around the nostril and sinus area. (This "cheat" works within seconds.)

Many people who have insomnia don't have trouble going to sleep, instead they wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. Again, breathing through the left nostril should do the trick.

I wish you deep sleep and great dreams.

"I can't go on. I will go on." is a Samuel Becket quote that my mother has hanging in her kitchen. Now, I understand that this is supposed to be motivational and inspire one to perseverance (I think), but I've always found it somewhat defeatist. Isn't this how so many people are living their lives? Staying in the daily grind, justifying to themselves their need to stay in the mold because life is so difficult? These people think that life creates them instead of the other way around. I prefer to create my life.

The first thing to do on your way to a creative life is to make space in your life. Modern life is incredibly busy and tends to fill up our minds and free time. To be able to create, you need not only physical energy but emotional and mental energy as well. If your life is cluttered with bad relationships, work stress and trying to cope, there is no room for creativity and intuition.

So what is the solution? You need to declutter and simplify your life. It's a question of defining your priorities and redistributing your time. For instance, my most creative time is at night and my least productive during the morning, so at one time, I took on a half-day job that didn't require much input in order "to pay the bills". In this way, my creative energy was not used up during the day. Everybody has different priorities, but, if you want to make space for creativity, you will need to downsize and FREE UP TIME. Many people suggest that you schedule a certain time everyday for your creative activity, but I have found that this sheer doesn't work. If you limit your creative time to a schedule, you don't leave space for intuition to flow and this is vital for creativity. You need to make enough time for just "being" and going with the flow in your daily life. Suddenly, your intuition and creativity will soar!

I moved to the Seychelles, islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a couple of years ago. Living on a tropical island pretty much forces you to live the simple life. Everything is slower and time loses it's relevance. It's easy to get into the flow here. I do understand that it is more difficult in an urban environment, but it is possible.

So do yourself a favour and simplify your life. Cut out all the extras that eat up your emotional, mental and physical energy. Make time and space for creative simple being and your creativity will flourish in no time.