Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Birthday Reflections
Sitting here wondering if too much fuss made on your birthday when you're young makes you feel miserable as you get older when less attention is paid to you. Or is it just that each year highlights how old you are getting which adds to the misery?
Either way I used to look forward to them and now I don't. I hate myself on that day, for feeling so sad. I really don't think any amount of attention would change that, in fact the more fuss made the worse I might feel. Though don't quote me on that and ignore it at your peril. I'm not grown up enough yet not to hold grudges...
As it turns out just looking at these thoughts today has turned it all around and for the first time I feel fairly philosophical about the whole thing.
I don't feel any pressure to feel happy today and yet I do.
That's quite neat :)
Happy Birthday me and well done for no tears today. A step closer to being a real grown up?
Either way I used to look forward to them and now I don't. I hate myself on that day, for feeling so sad. I really don't think any amount of attention would change that, in fact the more fuss made the worse I might feel. Though don't quote me on that and ignore it at your peril. I'm not grown up enough yet not to hold grudges...
As it turns out just looking at these thoughts today has turned it all around and for the first time I feel fairly philosophical about the whole thing.
I don't feel any pressure to feel happy today and yet I do.
That's quite neat :)
Happy Birthday me and well done for no tears today. A step closer to being a real grown up?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Happy Mothers Day!
A day not just to celebrate and appreciate our own mother (wonderful woman that she is :) but a day for us mothers to reflect on what it means for us too.
Handmade chocolates next to my computer this morning made me smile, she's a wonderful daughter and I'm truly lucky to have her. Funny, creative, intelligent and gorgeous :)
It made me take a look back and feelings of not only love for her arose but guilt also appeared. Guilt for so many things, how I could have done it better, given her more attention when she needed it, made better choices for her and it all got rather jumbled up.
The guilt of her being an only child is enormous though she has always assured me she is grateful for that but if she knows no different how can she tell? I feel a closeness to my two sisters she will never know, ah well, c'est la vie.
And of course I blame myself for her diabetes, there must have been something I could have done, not done, spotted sooner, acted quicker, bleurgh, more useless guilt.
Ok, enough of this, soften and flow, away with the bad feelings, I forgive myself for everything, time to clear the decks for a lovely day together.
Hope you have a good Mothers Day too :)
Handmade chocolates next to my computer this morning made me smile, she's a wonderful daughter and I'm truly lucky to have her. Funny, creative, intelligent and gorgeous :)
It made me take a look back and feelings of not only love for her arose but guilt also appeared. Guilt for so many things, how I could have done it better, given her more attention when she needed it, made better choices for her and it all got rather jumbled up.
The guilt of her being an only child is enormous though she has always assured me she is grateful for that but if she knows no different how can she tell? I feel a closeness to my two sisters she will never know, ah well, c'est la vie.
And of course I blame myself for her diabetes, there must have been something I could have done, not done, spotted sooner, acted quicker, bleurgh, more useless guilt.
Ok, enough of this, soften and flow, away with the bad feelings, I forgive myself for everything, time to clear the decks for a lovely day together.
Hope you have a good Mothers Day too :)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Protect Your Heart and Sleep Better By Following Your Body Clock
I was astonished the other day to hear that you are six times more likely to have a heart attack between 8 and 10am than at any other time.
The reason is that at that time your blood pressure is at its highest, your veins and arteries are at their least flexible and your blood is at its thickest.
Because of these three factors it is a bad time to exercise or exert yourself as your blood pressure may rise even more whereas later in the day, between 4 and 6pm exercise can reduce it by as much as 10%.
Blimey, so I was right, meditation really is the best way to start the day :)
Each part of the body has a clock (which can be seen rhythmically pulsing!) and, as one would expect, light plays a big part in some functions.
As we age sleep patterns become more erratic and this has now been put down to lower levels of light being received due to thickening of the lens with age.
Extra and brighter lights inside, or more time spent outside, can immediately remedy this and who knows, maybe that's the reason that a good daily walk encourages sound sleep.
There's also an interesting way to regulate being a lark or an owl. If you want to be able to stay awake later you need to get all your light in the afternoon and wear sunglasses in the morning. Conversely if you want to start being able to get up earlier get as much light as possible in the morning and wear sunglasses in the afternoon. Not quite sure how practical that would be but is worth playing around with.
Between 10am and midday you really are thinking at your best as nice amounts of cortisol are being released so it's a good idea to reserve this time for your best work.
At 2pm you are three times more likely to nod off than at 6pm so this is not a good time to be driving and if you are on a long journey be aware of this and take time out, have a coffee, or a quick nap around that time.
Two other points that were interesting were about the absorption of alcohol and food.
The same amount of alcohol consumed lunchtime will have almost double the effect as that drunk later in the day, so bear that in mind.
Also, our insulin decreases as the day wears on so a large meal eaten late in the day really isn't a good idea as the body struggles to metabolise it leaving the blood sugars higher than is optimum. Consistently high blood sugars are not good for the kidneys, eyes and nerves as diabetics know all to well. So a largish breakfast and lunch and a light dinner is healthiest.
A fascinating subject and interesting to see how a few small changes to your routine can protect your health and increase feelings of well being.
The reason is that at that time your blood pressure is at its highest, your veins and arteries are at their least flexible and your blood is at its thickest.
Because of these three factors it is a bad time to exercise or exert yourself as your blood pressure may rise even more whereas later in the day, between 4 and 6pm exercise can reduce it by as much as 10%.
Blimey, so I was right, meditation really is the best way to start the day :)
Each part of the body has a clock (which can be seen rhythmically pulsing!) and, as one would expect, light plays a big part in some functions.
Sleeping Better
As we age sleep patterns become more erratic and this has now been put down to lower levels of light being received due to thickening of the lens with age.
Extra and brighter lights inside, or more time spent outside, can immediately remedy this and who knows, maybe that's the reason that a good daily walk encourages sound sleep.
There's also an interesting way to regulate being a lark or an owl. If you want to be able to stay awake later you need to get all your light in the afternoon and wear sunglasses in the morning. Conversely if you want to start being able to get up earlier get as much light as possible in the morning and wear sunglasses in the afternoon. Not quite sure how practical that would be but is worth playing around with.
More Body Clock Highlights
Between 10am and midday you really are thinking at your best as nice amounts of cortisol are being released so it's a good idea to reserve this time for your best work.
At 2pm you are three times more likely to nod off than at 6pm so this is not a good time to be driving and if you are on a long journey be aware of this and take time out, have a coffee, or a quick nap around that time.
Two other points that were interesting were about the absorption of alcohol and food.
The same amount of alcohol consumed lunchtime will have almost double the effect as that drunk later in the day, so bear that in mind.
Also, our insulin decreases as the day wears on so a large meal eaten late in the day really isn't a good idea as the body struggles to metabolise it leaving the blood sugars higher than is optimum. Consistently high blood sugars are not good for the kidneys, eyes and nerves as diabetics know all to well. So a largish breakfast and lunch and a light dinner is healthiest.
A fascinating subject and interesting to see how a few small changes to your routine can protect your health and increase feelings of well being.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Pertineri Premium Members Club
I'm supposed to be writing a sales pitch type article to promote the new Pertineri Premium Members Club with its unreleased content, video shows and a chance to get up close and personal to Silvia and me, mastermind with us and help us with our research.
Instead I'm sitting here pondering what it all means and how momentous this occasion is.
It was almost thirteen years ago that Silvia and I first met. Not long after that we started creating excuses to phone each other and chat which quickly turned into daily two hour conversations.
The trainings we organised were simply a cover for our ongoing discussions about the human neurology, the conscious and unconscious mind, how energy and emotions work and on to real magic, how to create reality at will.
We spent years ripping apart the fabric of time and space and putting it back together again, any way we pleased. It was (is) immensely enjoyable above all else :)
Fuelled by our pressing problems, financial and emotional, and our personal iniquities, ideas and patterns came flying fast and were hurriedly written on Silvia's wall as we talked, a monument to our progress, our work together. It was exhilarating. Every day a new discovery. Questions started to be answered but only after the right questions were first found!
The day I realised that our lives were our work was a revelation, I remember exactly when that hit me and my life and how I lived it changed that day.
Silvia and I are such different people with wildly different temperaments, problems and drivers which has made our research all the more interesting and valuable.
Silvia's highly creative mind and relentless search for truth combined with my rabid need to know how, why and what's in it for me has led us into the most extreme areas of esotericism but always with a practical end result. We have always wanted to know how to improve our lives and how we are feeling while investigating the underlying structures of reality.
To have found out just what emotions really are and map the human energy system has been extraordinary and has had repercussions for us personally that have far surpassed our dreams.
EmoTrance was just one tiny pattern on the wall we chose to turn into a step by step useable form and present to the public. Just one of thousands of patterns shared freely with our followers on the lists which is now taught and practised worldwide and has brought blessed emotional relief to thousands.
We have done so much, we could just stop here, satisfied that we have achieved more already than most people think, let alone dream of, in a lifetime, but what would be the fun in that?
We are working differently now, we have dropped the lists and want to concentrate working with an elite group of people to share our work and experiences and test new patterns with us. A unique mastermind group to continue the ongoing research.
These are exciting times and even though we have achieved so much already I feel we are just on the edge of finding more extraordinary secrets and patterns and create momentous time space events.
The new technology available will make masterminding with individuals across the planet easier, and fun too. Who would have thought you could sit in the comfort of your front room and beam a live video show around the world a relatively few short years after faxes seemed like magic?
We're keeping the group small so it's more personal and while this piece hasn't turned out exactly as I expected I invite you to become a member of our club if you know our work.
Our problems will never be solved from the places they originated so join us on this adventure to find new places, new solutions and a whole new way of being.
Pertineri Premium Members Club
Instead I'm sitting here pondering what it all means and how momentous this occasion is.
It was almost thirteen years ago that Silvia and I first met. Not long after that we started creating excuses to phone each other and chat which quickly turned into daily two hour conversations.
The trainings we organised were simply a cover for our ongoing discussions about the human neurology, the conscious and unconscious mind, how energy and emotions work and on to real magic, how to create reality at will.
We spent years ripping apart the fabric of time and space and putting it back together again, any way we pleased. It was (is) immensely enjoyable above all else :)
Fuelled by our pressing problems, financial and emotional, and our personal iniquities, ideas and patterns came flying fast and were hurriedly written on Silvia's wall as we talked, a monument to our progress, our work together. It was exhilarating. Every day a new discovery. Questions started to be answered but only after the right questions were first found!
The day I realised that our lives were our work was a revelation, I remember exactly when that hit me and my life and how I lived it changed that day.
Silvia and I are such different people with wildly different temperaments, problems and drivers which has made our research all the more interesting and valuable.
Silvia's highly creative mind and relentless search for truth combined with my rabid need to know how, why and what's in it for me has led us into the most extreme areas of esotericism but always with a practical end result. We have always wanted to know how to improve our lives and how we are feeling while investigating the underlying structures of reality.
To have found out just what emotions really are and map the human energy system has been extraordinary and has had repercussions for us personally that have far surpassed our dreams.
EmoTrance was just one tiny pattern on the wall we chose to turn into a step by step useable form and present to the public. Just one of thousands of patterns shared freely with our followers on the lists which is now taught and practised worldwide and has brought blessed emotional relief to thousands.
We have done so much, we could just stop here, satisfied that we have achieved more already than most people think, let alone dream of, in a lifetime, but what would be the fun in that?
We are working differently now, we have dropped the lists and want to concentrate working with an elite group of people to share our work and experiences and test new patterns with us. A unique mastermind group to continue the ongoing research.
These are exciting times and even though we have achieved so much already I feel we are just on the edge of finding more extraordinary secrets and patterns and create momentous time space events.
The new technology available will make masterminding with individuals across the planet easier, and fun too. Who would have thought you could sit in the comfort of your front room and beam a live video show around the world a relatively few short years after faxes seemed like magic?
We're keeping the group small so it's more personal and while this piece hasn't turned out exactly as I expected I invite you to become a member of our club if you know our work.
Our problems will never be solved from the places they originated so join us on this adventure to find new places, new solutions and a whole new way of being.
Pertineri Premium Members Club
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Top Twitter Tip Survey
Please feel free to leave any tips in the comments if you would prefer!
And thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. The test was a success and I can highly recommend using the form in Google docs to create a survey. Excellent :)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Requiem For My Father
It's 6 years today my father died. Lying in a hospital bed, the life draining away from him and the doctors saying it was only the drugs keeping him alive now. So we let him go.
He was a wonderful man. Not particularly brave or courageous or even a 'manly' man but he was my father, made me feel safe and I respected him, for all his foibles and weaknesses.
In a way I understand him better now, how his life shaped him and how his shaped mine.
We worked together very closely in the family book business for years and our day couldn't start before we'd had our early morning coffee and finished the Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle.
He was both lenient and hard on me and I carried my fair share of heavy boxes down to the basement from huge trucks laden with palettes of overstocks. Pricing by hand, the smell of new books, papercuts from the pristine covers, often working in companionable silence, two people just doing what we loved.
I thought it would never end, the shop would always be there, but the recession took it away in the early 90s, after 100 years. It was a sad day and a huge hole was left but nothing compared to the huge hole my father's passing has left.
And so I sit here listening to the last album he loved, Eva Cassidy's Songbird, crying, lost in the painting I did for him soon after his death and reflecting on our life together.
Rest well. I love you Dad.
He was a wonderful man. Not particularly brave or courageous or even a 'manly' man but he was my father, made me feel safe and I respected him, for all his foibles and weaknesses.
In a way I understand him better now, how his life shaped him and how his shaped mine.
We worked together very closely in the family book business for years and our day couldn't start before we'd had our early morning coffee and finished the Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle.
He was both lenient and hard on me and I carried my fair share of heavy boxes down to the basement from huge trucks laden with palettes of overstocks. Pricing by hand, the smell of new books, papercuts from the pristine covers, often working in companionable silence, two people just doing what we loved.
I thought it would never end, the shop would always be there, but the recession took it away in the early 90s, after 100 years. It was a sad day and a huge hole was left but nothing compared to the huge hole my father's passing has left.
And so I sit here listening to the last album he loved, Eva Cassidy's Songbird, crying, lost in the painting I did for him soon after his death and reflecting on our life together.
Rest well. I love you Dad.
Peter Oppenheim
22.04.25 - 16.02.03
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Self Healing With a Little Self Love
While away on holiday recently I had an interesting healing experience.
I was bitten the first night by a mosquito. I react badly to bites and the next morning my right hand was starting to swell up as was my face, chin and forehead. The last time this had happened on both ankles it was 10 days before I could walk again. By the second morning the pain of the swelling over my knuckles was excruciating and hadn’t responded to anti-histamines at all and I went down to breakfast looking like Quasimodo and was feeling quite miserable and angry with myself.
My partner was holed up in our room with food poisoning which didn’t help the mood of things either. I stood in front of the large shiny coffee pot unable to grasp it with my right hand and proceeded to throw scalding coffee down my front trying to pour with my left. More misery. So I grabbed some ice from the champagne bucket, wrapped it in a serviette and sat down with the makeshift icepack and alternated holding it on my hand, face and my newly burnt stomach.
I was angry, firstly at not having thought of mosquitoes in Southern Spain in January then just general anger at being so pathetic, which turned into loathing for my hand that had reacted so extremely and prevented me from getting my caffeine fix (and why hadn’t a staff member noticed and offered to help, useless hotel…)
Oh dear oh dear I thought, stop this right now, it is up to you how you are feeling, you have the power to change this immediately.
So I laughed a bit at the preposterous state I had got myself into, rose to the challenge and started to do something about it.
So I started doing a little Beauty T on it, a technique a colleague had created to overcome poor body image. I looked at my hand and forgave it for being like that and said sorry for feeling so hostile towards it. I stroked it gently and said, I love you and I’m so sorry I let this happen. I then forgave myself for not anticipating mozzies and bringing along repellant. I forgave myself for being angry with my body for always reacting like this to bites.
I thanked my hand for all the good things it does for me and apologized for how much I took it for granted. It really did look ugly, the skin stretched tight, all the knuckles with extra swollen rolls over them and the skin close to my wrist all wrinkled with the distortion yet I managed to focus on its beauty and the extraordinary underlying engineering that lets it do what it normally does.
The upshot is within 2 hours all the swelling on my hand was gone. My face still looked gross but I hadn’t focused on it because there was a lot less pain involved. I’d done nothing differently for any of the bite sites except give my hand some focused love. They had all had equal ice time and I had barely been able to touch my hand because of the pain so the couple of gentle strokes couldn’t possibly have made a difference in dispersing the fluid. And yes, the other bite sites took a full 10 days to return to their normal state.
So next time something hurts, for whatever reason, whether through an accident or general illness, give that part some love, really let it know you don’t blame your knee, leg, shoulder or whatever it is, and forgive yourself for the suffering you’ve caused it.
It can’t make things any worse, and you never know you may just have as interesting an experience as I did.
Let me know.
More information about Beauty T and how it has become an awesome alternative to plastic surgery :)
I was bitten the first night by a mosquito. I react badly to bites and the next morning my right hand was starting to swell up as was my face, chin and forehead. The last time this had happened on both ankles it was 10 days before I could walk again. By the second morning the pain of the swelling over my knuckles was excruciating and hadn’t responded to anti-histamines at all and I went down to breakfast looking like Quasimodo and was feeling quite miserable and angry with myself.
My partner was holed up in our room with food poisoning which didn’t help the mood of things either. I stood in front of the large shiny coffee pot unable to grasp it with my right hand and proceeded to throw scalding coffee down my front trying to pour with my left. More misery. So I grabbed some ice from the champagne bucket, wrapped it in a serviette and sat down with the makeshift icepack and alternated holding it on my hand, face and my newly burnt stomach.
I was angry, firstly at not having thought of mosquitoes in Southern Spain in January then just general anger at being so pathetic, which turned into loathing for my hand that had reacted so extremely and prevented me from getting my caffeine fix (and why hadn’t a staff member noticed and offered to help, useless hotel…)
Oh dear oh dear I thought, stop this right now, it is up to you how you are feeling, you have the power to change this immediately.
So I laughed a bit at the preposterous state I had got myself into, rose to the challenge and started to do something about it.
So I started doing a little Beauty T on it, a technique a colleague had created to overcome poor body image. I looked at my hand and forgave it for being like that and said sorry for feeling so hostile towards it. I stroked it gently and said, I love you and I’m so sorry I let this happen. I then forgave myself for not anticipating mozzies and bringing along repellant. I forgave myself for being angry with my body for always reacting like this to bites.
I thanked my hand for all the good things it does for me and apologized for how much I took it for granted. It really did look ugly, the skin stretched tight, all the knuckles with extra swollen rolls over them and the skin close to my wrist all wrinkled with the distortion yet I managed to focus on its beauty and the extraordinary underlying engineering that lets it do what it normally does.
The upshot is within 2 hours all the swelling on my hand was gone. My face still looked gross but I hadn’t focused on it because there was a lot less pain involved. I’d done nothing differently for any of the bite sites except give my hand some focused love. They had all had equal ice time and I had barely been able to touch my hand because of the pain so the couple of gentle strokes couldn’t possibly have made a difference in dispersing the fluid. And yes, the other bite sites took a full 10 days to return to their normal state.
So next time something hurts, for whatever reason, whether through an accident or general illness, give that part some love, really let it know you don’t blame your knee, leg, shoulder or whatever it is, and forgive yourself for the suffering you’ve caused it.
It can’t make things any worse, and you never know you may just have as interesting an experience as I did.
Let me know.
More information about Beauty T and how it has become an awesome alternative to plastic surgery :)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Getting Things Done
Ok so it’s now 2009 and thoughts turn to getting organized, once again.
I’ve just been reading a thread on Friendfeed about this and all the different ways other people organize their to do lists.
Text file
Whiteboard
http://rememberthemilk.com
Emailing self
Notepad (real paper not the app!)
And I’m nodding my head down the whole list because I USE THEM ALL, in addition to iGTD, and that surely is where I am going wrong!!! No wonder my mind is so fragmented most of the time, wondering not only what I need to do but where it might be written. Duh.
David Allen in Getting Things Done says it’s important to write everything down, get it off your mind so you then have space there to actually DO stuff. I got that bit right at least though now I understand why I still wasn’t actually getting much done. It was all out there just not in an organized form so I could act on it.
Years back when I was running a huge family business, pre-computer/internet days, with nearly 30 employees and hundreds of accounts and suppliers to keep an eye on I used just one A4 sheet of paper every day with all my to dos on, split into four.
Top left - business ‘to dos’
Top right - business ‘to buys’
Bottom left - home ‘to dos’
Bottom right - home ‘to buys’
And that was it.
I would do or delegate each task and next morning simply transfer undone jobs/buys to today’s list.
Hmm, and now I’m wondering with the huge variety of projects and tasks I currently have on if this will work as well but there’s only one way to find out, so here goes and will report back after a week, or maybe two.
How do you organize your life, what works best for you?
I’ve just been reading a thread on Friendfeed about this and all the different ways other people organize their to do lists.
Text file
Whiteboard
http://rememberthemilk.com
Emailing self
Notepad (real paper not the app!)
And I’m nodding my head down the whole list because I USE THEM ALL, in addition to iGTD, and that surely is where I am going wrong!!! No wonder my mind is so fragmented most of the time, wondering not only what I need to do but where it might be written. Duh.
David Allen in Getting Things Done says it’s important to write everything down, get it off your mind so you then have space there to actually DO stuff. I got that bit right at least though now I understand why I still wasn’t actually getting much done. It was all out there just not in an organized form so I could act on it.
Years back when I was running a huge family business, pre-computer/internet days, with nearly 30 employees and hundreds of accounts and suppliers to keep an eye on I used just one A4 sheet of paper every day with all my to dos on, split into four.
Top left - business ‘to dos’
Top right - business ‘to buys’
Bottom left - home ‘to dos’
Bottom right - home ‘to buys’
And that was it.
I would do or delegate each task and next morning simply transfer undone jobs/buys to today’s list.
Hmm, and now I’m wondering with the huge variety of projects and tasks I currently have on if this will work as well but there’s only one way to find out, so here goes and will report back after a week, or maybe two.
How do you organize your life, what works best for you?
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