Welcome to the “in2thelight” blog-ezine with Penny Mckay
June 2009

Follow the voice of your heart, even if it leads you off the path of timid souls.
Do not become hard and embittered, even if life tortures you at times.
There is only one thing that counts, to live one’s life well and happily.
                                                                                               Wilhelm Reich.

Feature article –Energise through Effective Exercise
Personally yours- Bitchin’ with Blessings!
In the pipeline- T’ai Chi, Chi Kung & Meditation; Race for life; Healing; JULY workshops with me!
This months link – Carolyn Myss chakra meditation
Yoga yarns – Tales from the yoga mat…………

 

PLUS -

Book worms ~ reviews Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong
Kids corner ~ Your Children by Khalil Gibran 
Have you heard of………? ~ Cesar  Millan “The Dog Whisperer”
Energetic Antics ~ ways to channel energy to enhance every day living this month by sending energy forwards or back in time.

Feature article

Energise through Effective Exercise.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine current guidelines for exercise for healthy adults under aged 65 are as follows:-

Moderate intense cardio 10 – 30 minutes a day 5 times a week
Or
Vigorous intense cardio 10 – 20 minutes a day 3 times a week

to help maintain health and prevent chronic disease.

 We all know we “should” be doing some form of exercise. On some level we understand that it is good for us but do we really understand why it is good for us?
For many just the word “exercise” is a little like the word “God” with all sorts of images being conjured up. Most of these usually relate to horrible experiences of enforced cross country runs in the depths of Winter or equally horrible and very public humiliation at the local gym. Ask most of us about aerobic exercise and you can see the visions of lycra literally jumping in your head. Other symptoms usually associated with exercise may be pain, sweating, breathlessness and an inability to move for at least forty eight hours after. Not exactly energising or effective.

So how do we find our way out of these old beliefs to a fresh and new perspective about exercise that does energise us in a Truly effective way, long term?

Firstly, it’s important to realise that there is an incredible thing about the body and it is this, it adapts. It follows that the less you do, the less you want to do but more than that, the less you do, the less you are able to do. The old adage of “use it” or “loose it” is never truer than when it is applied to the body.
The muscles of the body are designed to contract and to relax, to function fully. In order to do this we must move the muscles by moving the body and the greatest muscle of the body that needs to be moved is the heart. The fitter your heart is, the more effective it will be at getting the blood to where it is needed.
Your lungs bring oxygen in to the body, the fitter your lungs are, the more effective they will be at bringing oxygen in and getting carbon dioxide out.
The stronger and fitter your muscles are the more easily you will be able to carry out everyday tasks but also handle better any daily tasks that may put you under pressure.
The benefits to the body, of embracing exercise on a regular basis are huge.

So how do we move beyond viewing exercise as just a painful body experience as opposed to an uplifting body and mind and spirit experience?

To be energised through effective exercise what you choose to do must embrace an awareness of body AND mind AND spirit.
Here another old adage springs to mind that of “the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak” or is it “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”? Actually either way, it doesn’t matter, if you are not on board in your totality, meaning body and mind and spirit then exercise won’t energise you effectively. The aim is to reach the point where your awareness in combination with exercise is supporting you on all levels and not costing you on any level.

To be energised through effective exercise you must be aware of, listen to and be guided by, your body.
Start gently and continue gently. This new way of exercising with awareness means being able to breathe comfortably and that the level you are working at is manageable, sustainable and enjoyable. Feel what is going on with your body as you move. If after twenty seconds of jogging you feel like you are going to die, you are working too hard and expecting too much – so walk instead! 
If it hurts, stop! There is no truth in the “no pain, no gain” mentality. If there is pain and you continue, you are not listening to your body and you will end up in trouble as a result.
The gauge for whether you listened to your body and worked with your exercise effectively is to ask yourself how energised do you feel at the end of your session?
As time goes on and your incredible body adapts, you will be able to work a little harder, but still making it manageable, sustainable and enjoyable
Feeling good physically, alert mentally and uplifted spiritually are what you are aiming for.

To be energised through effective exercise you must enjoy it!
Be inspired in what you choose to do and where you do it.
Keep thinking body AND mind AND spirit. If your mind is bored, bored, bored you will not be energised, what you will be is mentally exhausted.
Variety is the spice of life so get outside in nature and mix it up.
Go off roading in the forest by horse riding or biking. Get on the beach and go power walking or surfing. Try Rhumba or Zhumba or a funky groove dance class that will both challenge you mentally and physically but will also be great fun, thus giving your spirit a lift too.
The list is endless so think outside of the gym box and get creative.  

To be energised through effective exercise you must be able to participate little and often.
Gardening is great but in the long run it just won’t do it, not unless you have a large lawn, an old fashioned lawn mower and fast growing grass. Exercising every other day, to a time frame and level that your body and you enjoy, will do it.
This time frame and level may change from day to day depending on what is going on in the rest of your life. Have no expectations of how it will be, just go with how it is.

Effective exercise becomes effective and energising because it just “is”.
If you are wholly committed it costs you nothing. You make it part of your routine and part of your life. There are no “shoulds” about it and you don’t have to make the effort to do it. You move towards it easily and with the understanding that it is a vital part of your supporting yourself as the whole. There are just no excuses not to do it anymore.   

Ultimately the health of your body, your mind and your spirit are your responsibility and it is up to you to begin to take those steps to engage with your body and exercise in a way that is supportive and helpful to your overall well being. It just means taking a small step to move out of your comfort zone, but it comes with huge implications that will ripple out in to the rest of your life.
So in the words of the Nike advert “just do it”.

Personally yours

Bitchin’ with Blessings!

So last week I met with an old friend for coffee and a catch up. It was really lovely to spend time just putting the world to rights until a few days later when I started to feel quite ashamed about the level of my conversation that day. My shame actually followed after a day of yoga that had led me deep in to my unknown heart.
It’s a usual kind of thing to chat about other people when the cappuccino and cake are rolled out. You know the kind of thing I mean. Who’s doing what? Who’s with who?
Who’s doing what to whom?! Whether we’re chatting about family, friends, work colleagues, celebrities or even politicians, it’s what tea and coffee were invented for.
But sometimes there is a fine line between having an opinion about people and what they are up to and sitting in judgement and I came to realise that I was doing a lot of judging. Yet even more appalling, on some level I knew what I was doing because I completely justified myself by letting my friend know that I knew.
“I am terrible for saying this….” and “This is going to sound so judgemental…..”
You know why? Because it was! 
And another one of my favourites from Carolyn Myss when hounding us about sitting in judgement, she says “Send them blessings and judge them anyway, you know you’re going to because it’s a habit”
Yes it’s a habit but its no excuse, and really sending blessings to soften the vibrational blow just isn’t sitting with me anymore.

So back to the yoga.
The Sunday prior we had concentrated on postures that help to strengthen and support the heart and this Sunday we were consolidating that work. So I found myself following a sequence of postures with a slightly bemused smirk on my face, because I had absolutely no idea where it was taking me.
My body was still moving but my poor little mind was being dissolved!
I know from previous personal experience with yoga and with clients that what you don’t know about is the stuff you don’t want to know about. So I left the yoga that day feeling very out of sorts and with the feeling that something was definitely brewing. But what that something was I was yet to consciously know.
That night I found myself in a deep place of pain in my heart.
I could actually physically feel it.
In my mind I saw a metaphoric shard of glass that I had placed in my heart. It was both a shard and a guard and it went in deep. Now it floated out somewhere in front of me and I was left with the fullness of the deep pain it had created. That I had created.
I couldn’t get a handle on it. I couldn’t even reach the tears I so needed to shed to help ease this pain. So joy of joys, I just had to “be” with it.
So that’s what I did for the next 24 hours.
Then my shame at my level of conversation over coffee with my friend; began to offer some answers and revealed that at the heart of the pain in my heart, was an intense feeling of separation.
Slowly pinpricks of loaded tears arrived and I felt my energy start to flow again and, with that flow came more understanding. Feelings flooded through and I just knew that this pain was rooted in deep feelings of separation that were experienced at the moment of birth. I had no memories, no words just these huge feelings, which is all there is when you are a tiny baby.
As I let go of the tears and pain, I let go of the shard of glass that was also acting as a guard. For a few days I felt very vulnerable and then I began to emerge from a new place of my heart where I no longer feel separate and neither do I long to belong.
So I guess in my sharing of this I hope that if you find yourself being swept along on a wave of sitting in judgement on others, that, next time you stop and bring your awareness to this habit. That next time you will see that in judging others you are potentially seeking to reinforce a sense of separation with others and that it is the light within others that you could be seeking to honour.
But even more importantly your judging is just a reflection of an even deeper judgement that you hold within yourself, about yourself, and you’re relationship with the world and that really its time to start honouring the light that is within you and is you.
They say old habits die hard, I’ll say they do, but not in the way that that saying originally intended!

With love.

Yoga yarns

Tales from the yoga mat and the Traditional Yoga Foundation Course.

Sunday 3rd,17th and 31st May 2009

Days seven, eight and nine – We continued to journey this month in to a deeper experience of our practice of yoga through further exploration in to Patanjali’s teachings. We worked with postures that allowed to us to have a new experience of our hearts combined with mudras that strengthened and supported our sense of heart.
To focus our meditation we sounded the Pranava Mantra “OM”
We prepared for and practiced balancing postures that not only have an effect on the physical but also the mental and emotional bodies.  
Postures – Setu Pati Asana, Viparit Karani Mudra, Sarvangasana (shoulder stand)
What I uncovered –A shard and a guard in my heart - see personally yours
Quote of the month- Wait and see; breathe and be.

                                                                        Courtesy of Arjuna Marchant  

Book worms

….for books and authors from the body, mind, spirit genre  

This month beautifully reviewed by Vicki Poole. Many thanks babe!
 
Title: Grow Your Own Drugs - Easy recipes for natural remedies and beauty fixes
Author: James Wong
ISBN: 978-0-00-730713-5
Price: £16.99 or much, much less on Amazon

 James’ passion for mother earth and the natural remedies she provides is evident in this fabulous book. 
What sets this book aside from other natural remedy manuals is that James has brought age old recipes and techniques into the present and given them his own, highly energised, spin. 
The recipes are easy to follow and most ingredients can be found in your own back garden or in local fields/woodland – in fact, James has included a plant guide to help you find what you need and understand how you can grow them yourself.
I highly recommend the restorative nettle soup as a very easy recipe that will be of benefit whether you feel you need it or not!  (I now have bags of nettles in my freezer to tide us over!!)
A book to aid in the nurturing of your tummy, as well as the rest of your mind, body and spirit!

Kids corner

……a place for parents to share body, mind and spirit hints and tips for the kids.

Your Children

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you
You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit
Not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them
But seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite
And he bends you with his might that his arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies
So he loves also the bow that is stable

                                                                         The Prophet
                                                                                     Khalil Gibran

Have you heard of………? Cesar Millan
Who’s he? “The Dog Whisperer”, author, trainer and international presenter.
What’s he into? Dogs! The power of the pack and calm assertive energy.
“I rehabilitate dogs and re-train their owners”

How do I find out more ? www.cesarmillaninc.com

Or watch him in action on sky three 6pm on freeview

Energetic Antics

ways to channel energy and intention to enhance every day living.

By sending energy forwards or back in time.

1. If there is something coming up that you have concerns about then you can send an intention and energy forwards to smooth the way and ease your worries.

2. Perhaps you have a hospital appointment.Take a moment to just sit and be still and breathe. Then in your mind envisage the day of your appointment. Breathe deeply.

3. See yourself arriving in plenty of time for the appointment.

4. See yourself easily finding a parking space or being dropped off or whatever, but with calm and certainty.

5. Put in place, by asking, for there to be angels for you every step of the way. Whatever type of angels they need to be.

6. Ask that everyone who deals with you to be at the start of their shift and happy in their work.

7. Whatever your concerns are be specific in addressing it in the now, ready for then.

8. Give thanks and let it go! Know you have put in place all that you need to so you don’t have to dwell on it or be concerned until it is the actual day.

9. Use this technique for interviews, presentations or any situation which may be causing you distress that are yet to come.

10. If there is something in the past that has upset you, you can also send energy back to heal that time and that place.

11. Perhaps at the time you were so caught up in it you didn’t realise the detrimental effect it had on you.

12. Take a moment to be still, breathe and recall the time and place when you were so upset.

13. Hold the intention of sending energy back to that time to yourself, to the situation and to anyone else who may have been involved.

14. Have a sense of softening the experience so that it doesn’t sit so firmly in you heart.

15. Keep going with this until the memory seems less powerful and less charged for you. It’s not about forgetting necessarily but it is about freeing up the energy from that time and place so that you are stronger for now.

16. When you feel better about it, give thanks, breathe and let it go!   

Junes link –Myss.com

Click on features on the top tool bar
Then visual meditation
Then view flash presentation

http://198.65.153.209/features/meditation/movie.asp

In the pipeline

REIKI / ENERGY HEALING AVAILABLE FOR DONATIONS
ON
MONDAY 1st, 15th AND 29th JUNE
6.30pm-9.00pm
AT
BOURNE SPRING COMMUNITY CENTRE
SPRINGBOURNE
(on the corner of Holdenhurst Road and St Mary's Road - BH1 4QP)
TO BOOK CALL
07929 433552
 THANKYOU

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Tai Chi, Chi Kung & Meditation Workshop                         Friday 5th June 

In this workshop we will use Tai Chi Fundamental exercises, Taoist medical Chi Kung and Five Elements Chi Kung, guided meditations and Chi healing to release stress and tension, heal heart, mind and body and allow chi, universal energy, to flow freely in your body for health and well-being. The workshop will help you feel calm, grounded, centred and positive. We will particularly connect with the energies of the Earth Element.
Venue: Bisterne Village hall, Bisterne (just outside Ringwood).
Date: Friday 5 June 9.30am-1pm.
Price: £20, payable in advance
For more details www.qihealing.co.uk  or phone Nicole on 07941 052578.

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RACE FOR LIFE
SUNDAY 21ST JUNE
11AM and 2PM
The seafront, Pier Approach, Bournemouth
Just get down there, cry loads and give your support!

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NEW FOR JULY – NEW FOR JULY – NEW FOR JULY – NEW FOR JULY

WITH ME!

WHERE THE SPINE AND CHAKRAS CONNECT
Explore your amazing spine and your incredible chakras and find out
how to connect the two in relation to recurring back problems.

SATURDAY 4TH JULY
10am - 12noon
Ringwood
£15 payable in advance

 

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IT'S FREE TO BREATHE!
Evening workshops which focus on the breath and the body.
TUESDAY 7TH JULY 6.30PM – 8.30PM
 or
WEDNESDAY 22ND JULY 6.30pm - 8.30pm in Ringwood
FREE!
(Donations will be accepted for MUKTI - helping orphaned kids in India)

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Walk and Talk to freedom
Do you just need to talk?
Is there something that is weighing you down or holding you back that you can’t share with anyone?

This one to one session, involves being outside in nature, walking and talking and seeking to find a symbolic solution within our surroundings.
The intention behind forwards walking, with awareness, is the potential for you to literally walk and talk your way right out of whatever it is that has been weighing you down or holding you back.
Confidentiality guaranteed.

Requirements – you must be able to get to an agreed meeting place and wear trainers or good walking shoes.
Walks by arrangement

Call Penny on 01425 474758 / 07967 122371
Email penny.satsang@talktalk.net 

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The Way of the Mystic Warrior with David Hand

Sun28th June ~ Glastonbury, Somerset, 1pm-5pm, cost: £15
(plus small entry charge to Chalice Well Gardens)

Glastonbury Tor Initiation

The Glastonbury Tor Initiation, including the purification and healing rite at Chalice Well, aims to open a portal into the angelic and elemental realms that can connect you with the beings and energies that are aiding you on your soul’s mission. David has chosen this incredibly powerful sacred site as it acts as a meeting place between our world and the subtle realms that surround us. Wisdom, insight, practical help and healing may be freely given as we connect with the guides of our path and the ancient guardians of this sacred place. Ultimately, on our journey of initiation, we invoke the powerful energies of Michael, the Archangel of the element of fire, to transform our lives and facilitate a strong bond to souls.
For further information and bookings please call Julie or David on 01202 429300 or e-mail david@mysticklight.com