Fasting from technology

Beloved netbook

I admit freely that I love technology, especially digital communications. I own three mobile phones, an mp3 player and a netbook, I even organised myself a wifi modem whilst living on the beach in India.

This may not be much technology, it may be a normal amount, it might sound like a lot. In other areas of life I find myself drifting back to low tech solutions: a manual juicer over an electric model, bicycle over car. I do find a computer to be essential: I'm a blogger after all.

So when my netbook got damaged at the weekend and was collected for repair on Monday, I became quite anxious, it was an unplanned loss. Just back from yoga camp I had a camera full of photos to upload, a blog post in mind and several new connections to follow up by email.  I wanted to hang out on facebook too!

I was without my computer for just over forty eight hours and it was quite a teaching. Day one: I used my free time to practice some new songs and revisit Patanjali's yoga sutras. Positive.

Day two was tough, I had enjoyed the break, but felt it was time to get plugged in again. I used the library computers for a thirty minute internet fix, which was long enough to check emails and not much more. I began to feel agitated.

There was uncertainty about the length of repair, as a replacement part was on order. I feel embarassed to admit how anxious I did feel. I was used to the presence of the flickering screen, instant access to my vast library of music, audio books and film. I had to be honest with myself and acknowledge that I was experiencing withdrawal!

Loving the radio again

I retrieved an old school analogue radio from a storage trunk and tuned in to BBC Radio Three. I was instantly soothed by the calming music.

I used to listen to Radio Three in every waking moment, before I got heavily into devotional music myself. I was reminded how awesome classical music is, high vibrational, healing and written by extremely creative individuals, often inspired by deep emotion and divinity.

My netbook and me were reunited a short while ago. The screen has been replaced, it is glossy, new and bright. My software has been tweaked a little too and upgraded, its a good result.

Other outcomes: A reminder about mindfulness and self-responsibility. An opportunity to check in with myself regarding a pattern of behaviour and make adjustments. I'm reinstating a weekly technology free day, most likely Sunday. I know that I used to do this, somehow I disconnected from the practice. The netbook will remain unplugged, no mp3 player either. 

Benefits:

• Reduced stimulation of the mind and senses, desirable from a yogic point of view and physiologically would promote lower stress levels. 

• Leading to increased creativity or just space 'to be'.

• Lowered electricity consumption benefits all. 

• And I will appreciate and respect my technology more.

The radio stays; I'm re-enamoured with Radio Three, right now I'm listening to a bio of avant garde twentieth century American composer Samuel Barber.

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

If you are in the Glastonbury area and need IT support I highly recommend  Ashley Brook for prompt, courteous and efficient service for a very reasonable fee

www.thecomputerhelper.bravehost.com

New Holistic Camp: Seeding a New Reality

The Flaxley site is large and spacious

We arrived late Saturday afternoon. Crossing the river Severn added excitement, leaving one realm for another, a good metaphor for camp. Everyday life is suspended in lieu of entering a world of magic and adventure. A temporary Utopia with participants actualizing a shared dream.

The UK summer is just right for this: between May and September our countryside is pervaded by a mystical magical quality that Shakespeare understood and was muse to his tale of love and play: A Midsummer Night's Dream.

There is an aliveness of hedgerow and forest, an almost tangible presence of spirit beings, tree folk and fairies. Long, light evenings are an invitation to play outside and share space and ceremony. Our beloved islands are cold, wet, chilly and dark for much of the year and we know instinctively to make the most of our time with the sun.

Woodcraft tuition

There is a  wide choice of camps and gatherings in the UK, reflecting the strength and diversity of the sub-cultures within the green and alternative movements.

It means we can hone in and attune to our individual vision.Last weekend for we might equally have attended Croissant Neuf,  Healing Field Gathering, Rainbow 2000, Rainbow Circle, Dartmoor Music Camp and  more besides. 


I would usually be at Healing Field Gathering, local to Glastonbury and full of familiar faces and good friends. This year I was travelling further afield. A fresh landscape, the beautiful and mystical Forest of Dean.

Workshop space loaned by Tipi Jean

New Holistic camp is in now its third year, re-energising a site with a great pedigree: the former summer home of the UK Rainbow Circle.

I respect and admire all those who take on the role of camp organiser. In this case Starcus Baal, a kind and generous friend with years of practical experience and festival know how.

The countless hours of hands on work and months of pre-planning will never be compensated in financial terms. Truly an offering from the heart.

The whole camp is a powerful seminar in living beyond money. As per Rainbow tradition; commercial activity is limited or bypassed, so that a free circulation of energy exchange can take place.



The experience for me was virtually money-free. A friend gifted me the ride and caravan tow from Glastonbury as a part thanks for some bodywork. I was a crew member by virtue of giving workshops, with an entitlement to free entry and meals prepared in the central kitchen and announced with the sounding of a conch shell. I eat high raw in the summer and travel self-sufficiently with sprouts and a manual juicer, nonetheless I was tempted into the convivial atmosphere of the cafe for some robust and tasty vegetarian meals.

Forest School in session

Workshops were free, and there was plenty to do: woodcraft, tarot, amulet making, poetry, singing and crafts. Individual sessions with healers and astrologers were also offered at no charge.

I found this particularly powerful and loving and it raised the vibration of the experience. We were living a new reality of abundance, sharing and receiving, close to nature in an open community, established on an ethos of caring and trust.


The principles of Rainbow are not new; and yet how fresh, radical and relevant they are today as we witness powerful world economies struggling to survive. The choice is on offer: what kind society do we prefer?  What are our values and can we dare to live them into reality?

At home in an ancient Oak grove

One of the unexpected gifts of camp was night after night of deep, prolonged sleep and dreaming.  A blessing in itself.

My companion, knowledgeable in druidic traditions and earth lore suggested we set up by an ancient Oak grove. The roots below and branches above forming a cosmic cradle holding us in safety.

We witnessed misty sunrises, scarlet sunsets and the fat golden August Harvest full moon. During the chilly evenings we warmed ourselves around the central fire and took turns getting blasted with wonderful wet heat of a steam bath constructed ingeniously in a bender and manned by a youthful, energetic crew.

The compost loos were well maintained; workshops took place in loaned teepees, yurts or outside in the bright steady sunshine, which kept us company most days.

Voluntary simplicity is good for the soul; we left after five days feeling revitalised and relaxed.

See more photographs of camp on my facebook page: 

If you would like to get involved for 2012 visit the website: www.new-holistic.co.uk

Directory of smaller camps and gatherings in the UK www.campscene-directory.co.uk

Response to London riots

Community spirit emerges in Clapham

This morning I awoke early and began trawling the mainstream media. I wouldn't normally begin my day this way,but like many others I am following the extraordinary events currently unfolding in London and other cities across the UK.

My mood was buoyant and optimistic. Yesterday evening  I was cheered by press images of doughty Brits bearing brooms aloft reclaiming the streets of Clapham. Clean up groups were mushrooming online, powered by community spirit. I joined a facebook group: Stay Home and Drink Tea. A feeling that the worst had passed.

Alas another troubled night of violence, with more and more urban centres affected. I live snuggled away in Glastonbury, a peaceful new age nexus. No high street chains to loot here; when Woolworths closed in 2009 the premises re-opened as a wholefoods store and organic cafe. It is unthinkable that violence and rage would penetrate this far.

And yet, cycling past the Co-Operative store in the early evening I counted five police vehicles and one very sorry looking miscreant being detained.

The high drama continues then. It is real and it is happening now and I am feeling affected.

Looting

Firstly, I feel a sadness, a soreness, that London is suffering. London is my birth town and where I spent my early childhood. I returned as a newly hatched teacher in the early nineties and grafted hard in inner city schools in 'troubled' areas for ten intense years. I do have a genuine sense of personal upset and loss.

I am also feeling the deep poignancy of the inevitability of it all. The death throes of a  paining, dysfunctional society, writhing in anguish as its structures collapse. Volatile finacial markets, plummeting shares are the economic backdrop to this; money systems across the globe are destabilising, on the verge of collapse. Society is burning out*

I feel deep compassion for our troubled urban youth; a generation of lost boys and girls raised on poor diets, in ugly environments, conditioned to worship celebrities and to desire and expect a lifestyle they could never afford or attain: luxury branded goods, expensive personal media and technologies, fast cars and beautiful bodies. The crisis of a life lived without depth or meaning: lacking any intrinsic sense of belonging, self-esteem, dignity, value or worth.

Celebrating with community at Paddington Farm

I read the violence as the expression of the repressed contents of collective consciousness,  a volcanic eruption, as described by progressive mystical psychologist Carl Gustav Jung a century ago.

From his perspective, modern western civilisation is largely soulless and thus profoundly unreal and imbalanced. The psyche is a self-balancing mechanism and as we have gone too far in a certain direction this reaction is an unavoidable consequence.

Contemporary teacher Eckhart Tolle commenting on the cataclysmic events that rocked our world in September 2002, uses the expression collective insanity:

The collective insanity that is in the human mind has a grip on the world and has enormous momentum

It becomes obvious when we see such a violent manifestation of it, violence inflicted by humans upon each other, it is a manifestation of the human condition 

There is something arising now on this planet that is different, that is new, that is not part of that insanity 

There is an acceleration of the new energy coming in and an intensification of the old which is playing itself out, that is the core of the madness

The sickness or insanity can only be dissolved in the individual, because the collective is only the sum total of the unconsciousness in the individual, the collective follows

A personal teaching: any outer circumstance affords me a window into my own soul, I ask myself:

What am I learning about myself? 
How am I moved by this? 
What are my responses and my reactions?

Drinking tea for peace on facebook

I am grateful that what is missing in the lives of my brothers and sisters in the cities is present in my life. Glastonbury is a spiritual, creative community. Here you can experience belonging.

Far from perfect, yet we endeavour personally and collectively to practice what we preach; growing our own food, sharing resources, joining together to pray and celebrate. Love and caring circulates here. I recognise it, I value it and I wish it for others.

On the inner level; I am becoming more and more established in knowing my inviolable value and worth. Shifting from an identity based on the external self, what I wear, what I have, how much money I have or even the work that I do or don't do. We were created by a loving source, we are here, we are good enough.

I have been singing songs of peace and chanting mantras, primarily to calm myself. We can all be agents of peace. Creating tranquility and harmony in our individual lives is a meaningful contribution to the collective energy field at any time and particularly now.

This beautiful prayer, is buzzing around my head comes from a song by Adrian Freedman who performed it  recently at a concert in town:

Dear God our Divine Mother, our Divine Father

Please help us to hold the light in our hearts

Please help us to transform our pain

So we may live our lives in peace and dignity

Aho to that.

Resources:

*Charles Eisenstein investigates current state of society and presents a future forward vision with authority, eloquence and compassion in his books: The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics.

Peace invoking, healing, sacred song from Adrian Freedman. Buy, listen and sing to yourself and everyone you know.

Audio interview with Eckhart Tolle Even the Sun will Die recorded September 11 2002

Read Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious in his collected works, Volume 9 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

Facebook group Anti-riot Drink a cup of tea

Welcoming wet weather

Kitty is unimpressed by wet weather

Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.  Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Langston Hughes 

UK weather always makes for great discussion. Summer 2011 has been hot, balmy, raining, windy, and chilly; changing erratically and frequently, often from hour to hour. Definitely wild and wonderful.

Yesterday it rained a lot. Car-free with an active outdoor lifestyle, I have little choice but to engage with the weather, on the weather's terms.

Much as a barometer, conditions outside permit me to gauge my prevailing mood. As I awaken and open my curtains to reveal the new day, am I irritated by the overcast dawn sky or acquiescent?

In truth, I do enjoy the cooler climate of a British summer. I can be active without overheating and I quite enjoy the variety and unpredictability of weather. I have fond memories of living low impact and watching our ducks as it rained. Traversing the field with joy and enthusiasm, lustily quacking their contentment as they investigated small pools and crevices where water collected; gargling and bobbing with delight.

Christopher Robin explores a large puddle

Young children also show the way. Look, there's a big one! Exclaimed my six year old neighbour as he and his gang stormed a series of puddles which were forming on the pavement. The rain was a good thing! An opportunity for even more fun, adventure and laughter!

As we move through life such playful attitudes tend to harden into annoyance and cynicism. Cycling through Street, I witnessed small clumps of pedestrians protecting themselves under shop awnings; their faces speaking of dismay and discontent.

The inner voice appeared: To be afraid of the weather is to be afraid of life.  Fundamentally all weather is good, it is given to us with love from Mother Earth. There is a bigger picture, we can see it if we choose to widen our view; the weather isn't happening to us; we are part of an integrated living biosphere and our localised experience is part of a powerful, dynamic self-regulating system, deep and wise and intelligent.

Rain gives us an opportunity to rise above thoughts of duality and negativity: sunny weather = good; wet weather = bad. Such thinking is never helpful and keeps us in a state of disconnect from our true, loving  spirit. 

Keep smiling and carry on

Summer is as much as anything a state of mind; I bought  a beautiful bouquet of sunny golden and orange flowers, to evoke the warmth and light of the sun; instant upliftment.

I took an awesome swim in a near empty outdoor pool. The warm steam rising, the rhythms of  breath and  moving water under moody grey skies made for a very lovely experience.

Lifeguards sat stoically under large umbrellas in bulky cagoules and us few swimmers smiled at each other, acknowledging our happiness and good fortune.

I have a pair of waterproof trousers that fold small that I carry around. When I wear them I feel fearless and intrepid, quite childlike. I can greet the rain with glee and positivity, I can keep going, it's just different, that's all. The gentle summer rain is a blessing;  a thousand sweet kisses falling on my face.

Later in the afternoon I joined friends at a poetry gathering in a mongolian yurt on the lower slopes of Glastonbury Tor. The theme: Earthmatters. The rain was powerful, striking the canvas forcibly, thunder and lightning echoing outside the thin skin. This added a dramatic dimension to our chants, stories and songs, a natural percussion.

A reminder that we are supposed to be living much much closer to nature and all the elements. Changing weather is a dance that we are invited to participate it and not hide away from behind heavy walls and technology. Everything can be fully felt and celebrated. An invitation to presence and aliveness. 

Wet is a physical sensation, just as dry is. A contrast. Modern lives protect us from such extremes and I wonder whether in our search for maximising comfort something primal and vital been lost. 

It's only rain and I love it.

Your thoughts?

Jennifer

  

Self-love as spiritual practice

What does self-love mean to you?

I posted this image on my personal facebook and received a torrent of positive feedback from friends. I decided to sit with the question What does self-love mean? 

Self-love is a complete statement that requires no qualification or definition. As an idea or concept it is fully satisfying in and of itself. I find it pleasing, comforting to roll the phrase around my consciousness. Invite the vibration in now for yourself. Self-love,  I love myself  How does that feel? Pretty good yes?

In a recent, powerful dream I stood  alone in the centre of a room, surrounded by menacing invaders, growing closer and closer.  My heart was a glowing pink crystal pulsating in my chest and I was affirming I love myself, my heart is open.  In the dream I grew tired, but maintained my defences. 

Meaning? Positive loving thoughts and an open heart create a steady centre from which to keep negativity at bay. Maybe my psyche is reflecting back to me the results of my endeavours, hours and hours of positive affirmations, listening to teachings and soul work. My heart chakra is working! Its an upgrade from dreams of being chased, terrorised and hunted down by evil assasins. I'm also using the dream as a teaching, a reminder of how to behave towards myself when feeling stressed or challenged by life.

Nourish yourself with the vibration of love

I have experienced self-love as a state of being, a feeling spontaneously arising within. Words can't always justice to such powerful sensations but maybe self-love is something like warm honey flowing from the chest and emanating throughout my whole being. I feel happy, secure and cared from and I am grateful that my inner being and myself are consciously connected and communicating. 

Equally, self-love can be an attitude, a perspective, something to be cultivated. A choice to be made, moment to moment. Something I can choose to defer to, to invoke, to meditate upon, to summon from within. In other words a spiritual practice in its own right.

I am getting better at watching my thoughts, and in particular thoughts about myself that are critical, harmful and judgemental. Negative stories I am creating and reinforcing. On one hand, yes witness them, give them space and detach from them, I can also choose to love myself as well. Love can always be invited it as a higher presence.

Example, five minutes ago as I am blogging this, a neighbour knocked on my door, asking to use my printer. Right now? I asked, I'm in the middle of writing something and I want to keep in the flow.

Green Tara

Apparantly it was urgent. We had recently reconciled following several weeks of low level energy draining tension. I wanted to preserve this newly hatched and fragile harmony and capitulated. 

Suddenly this guy was in the bosom of my private space and I felt mad! Angry with him and myself for having weak boundaries. Why did I let him in? I should have been firmer. I was really, really upset.

I recalled the dream and summoned the vision of the pink crystal heart I love myself, My heart is open In the moment I couldn't extend to loving and accepting him, it was enough to work on myself. This is always enough.

Alongside more vigorous sounding virtues such as courage, confidence and passion, self-love could seem softer and passive, yet it is profoundly powerful. Self-love is a core skill, much overlooked but now featured on the curriculum of  humanity's great re-learning, it certainly shows up regularly for me as a soul teaching.

What are the attributes of self-love? Sharon Saltzberg, esteemed Buddhist teacher speaks of kindness in her book The Force of Kindness, I feel that she could be speaking of self-love when she says, 

I really do believe that it is one of the most powerful forces in the world and liberates us and helps to free others... 

 It's a quality of attention and care, a steady presence in our lives of unconditional caring.

We are all quite capable of it, it's a capacity inside for wisdom, kindness and connection, that is never ever destroyed. It maybe covered over, maybe hard to find, maybe hard to trust, but it's there.

We are returning to that capacity, we are learning to abide there and to nurture it, to really bring it forth into our lives.

Suggested practices for self-love:

Lotus mudra

Open yourself to the idea of self-love, allow yourself to know that you can get there, results will follow and that the practice is worthy in its own right, regardless of outcome.

Discipline and commitment are required.

Self-love and I love myself are affirmations to be used as a mantra: Focus your mind upon the phrase, concentrate and repeat, internally or aloud.

I sometimes practice without words, invoking the feeling of self-love directly as a sensation.

Use mudra, sacred hand gestures, to direct the flow of subtle energies around the body. All mudras are good, Lotus mudra, is great (pictured) Keep hands level with the heart centre, fingers lightly touching. Variation: spread both hands wide and place flat across the heart area, left below right. Inhale and exhale through the heart to strengthen and purify.

Beautiful music assists in opening the inner portals. As I write, I am listening to Celestial Yoga from Johnathan Goldman's album Inner Light.

Kwan Yin

For full cosmic power, work with a deity, Green Tara, the Buddhist mother goddess of compassion was my first thought. Kwan Yin is another female boddhisattva represented across Eastern traditions and is said to dwell in the heart centre. 

Energize your practice by lighting a candle, burning incense.

Repeat your mantra inside your head last thing at night as you fall asleep and in the morning upon awakening, before you open your eyes. At these times the subconscious mind is most receptive. 

Rose quartz crystal is associated with love and heart healing, I have one beside my bed.

Thank you for reading. I hope that this is helpful, there is so much to explore around the idea of self-love and I would like to keep this conversation flowing. I warmly invite you to comment and add your personal experience, below or via email.

Blessings from the heart

Jennifer

www.sharonsalzberg.com Lots of free resources and links to purchase Sharon Salzberg's materials

www.healingsounds.com Musician and sound healer Johnathan Goldman's site

Visit to Glastonbury Healing Gardens

Contented chickens

Another food story! On August 1st we celebrated the celtic festival of Lughnasad, the first harvest. Also known as Lammas in Christian and Anglo-Saxon tradition. Now we can look forward a season of ripening fruits and bountiful produce as the power of the sun gently fades.

A good time to drop into the Healing Gardens, a community food growing project blossoming into a co-operative.

Conceived and directed by Juliet Yelverton, the land lays behind Wearyall Hill,  a gently sloping field with stunning views of the levels and Glastonbury Tor.

The vision: to create an environment where the community can enjoy the benefits of eating fresh organic produce grown with love, environmental and spiritual awareness.

I love this part of town, such a clear, light energy, wonderful open vistas and a marvellous feeling of spaciousness. The growing beds are configured in an expanding mandala, and one finds oneself meandering along curved paths with treats everywhere.

Meandering pathways

I particularly love that so many  flowers have been planted: I counted several varieties of nasturtium, sweet star shaped borage, vibrant poppies and abounding sweetpeas.

I picked a small amount of green leaves for a lunchtime salad: red veined chard, fresh tender spinach, romaine and a good handful of mint to make a fresh tea infusion.

I could see bushy bright green carrot tops, cherry tomatoes  almost ready and courgettes swelling steadily.

Enormous artichokes towered into the sky and pale young cabbages sheltered under cloches. Everywhere abundance.



I will be writing a blog for the co-operative's new website, in exchange for produce, grown organically by the members, many of whom are already friends. How lovely is that?

Superfresh salad leaves

I am looking forward to the fabulous food, of course. And  it feels good to think of meeting new people, strengthening community and moving into a system based on sharing, collaboration and exchange.

Circumventing conventional economics. Sidestepping the supermarkets and the innumerable ethical dilemmas they pose.
Reducing, indeed eliminating packaging. Zero food miles. From field to plate within minutes.  Eating organically every day.

Being the change, part of the solution, living sustainably in a way that honours nature's rhythms and the sensitivity of our living landscape.

Sounds tempting? Juliet is actively recruiting new members and is hosting an open day this weekend.

Here are the details:

Healing Gardens Co-operative Open Day
Saturday 6th August 12pm - 5pm
Gardens behind 73A Tor View Avenue, Glastonbury
Website www.glastonburyhealinggardens.com
  
You will receive a warm welcome and I hope that you will feel inspired to support the project.

Jennifer

Love your summer skin with coconut oil

Here in the UK we are enjoying a much appreciated steady spell of warm, sunny weather. One of the great joys of summer is baring my skin to the air. I love to feel the heat of the sun penetrate me almost to the bone, stimulating vitamin D production and giving a golden glow.

I believe that our skin functions best in a warm climate where it is exposed to air, breeze and the unseen subtle energies of the natural environment.  We also get to sweat which is a normal and healthy function and one way in which the skin and the whole body detoxifies and self-cleanses.

During high summer, the skin needs a minimal routine. Now is not the time to overload the body with heavy oils, creams and unguents. However it is important to pay attention to preventing sunburn and to be mindful that prolonged sun exposure can lead to aging, which is essentially accelerated cellular damage. 

Jar of creamy goodness

My summer skincare solution is close at hand, in the kitchen cupboard.  I reach for coconut oil.  Often a misnomer in a northern European climate where it is usually waxy, opaque and solid at room temperature and sometimes labelled coconut butter, the higher summer temperatures cause the butter to slightly melt into a soft gloopy mass: not quite a liquid, but soft enough to give a delicious sensual experience as I dip my fingers into the jar.

It gets smeared onto face, arms and backs of hands, anywhere that is exposed and receptive. You can even run your fingers through your hair and give yourself a scalp massage. Warmed by the heat of the hands, coconut butter/oil spreads quickly and is absorbed easily, doesn’t leave a greasy film and begins at once imparting its goodness. I love the simplicity and playfulness of looking after myself this way, this is not an elaborate beauty ritual!

Nature provides and the health benefits are well documented: coconut oil contains a superior level of anti-oxidants which counter cell degradation caused by free radicals in our diet and environment. Coconut oil contains good fats, complex and stable tri-glycerides which are digested or assimilated through the skin. It is rich in polyphenols and vitamin E and has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.

  

In ayurveda, coconut oil is promoted for its cooling properties, hence its particular suitability for summer use and for the face and scalp (the head should generally not be heated).

Coconut grove, south India

The scent of coconut oil is instant summer.  As I move through the day, I receive delicious wafts of fragrance which carry me away to the tropical beaches of Kerala in south India, where every part of the coconut seed and plant are used  for food, drink, construction and devotional worship and more.

My preferred brand of coconut oil which I recommend to you comes from UK based food co-operative Essential Trading. Ethically produced, reasonably priced and widely available at health stores it comes in a large, wide mouthed jar so you can get your hand in and be generous!  Buy online here.

Love the summer! Love your skin!

Jennifer