“All you need is compost, compost is all soil needs” – Hans Wieland offers some great gardening tips in this sneak peek from our Spring 2019 issue! To read the full article, just pick up a copy in your local stockist or subscribe here.
Sustainability
In this sneak peek of a powerful article from our Spring 2019 issue, Davie Philip discusses how we can use new stories of hope and resilience to inspire ourselves to tackle the challenges facing our planet. To read the full article, pick up a copy of the magazine at your local stockist or subscribe here.
The Elbowroom Escape Announces New Cookery School
The elbowroom escape, located in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, has an exciting announcement to make! Foodie and owner of The elbowroom escape, Lisa Wilkinson, and head chef Caitríona Nic Philibín have launched a sustainable, seasonal gourmet cooking school. Following their successful running of a vegetarian and vegan café in Dublin, this new venture uses only local, seasonal produce, much of which is grown in their kitchen gardens.
We Recommend: Celestial Aquatics’ Amazing Wearable Water Pendants
Looking for a truly unique form of wearable art? If so, you need to check out the work of Ruth Le Gear and Graham Reid of Celestial Aquatics. Ruth creates stunning water essences, while Graham is a glass artist. Together, they have created amazing ‘wearable waters’, in the form of unique handmade Water Orb pendants.
In this extract from our Autumn 2018 issue, Davie Philip talks about how we can change our collective mindset to one of collaboration and openness.
Thinking Differently
“With our thoughts we make the world.” – Buddha
By Davie Philips
Change is constant. However, recently the pace seems to be accelerating. To cope with this, and to make the transition to a healthy society based on fairness, wellbeing and sustainability, we need to shift worldviews and open our minds and hearts to fresh ways of thinking. So what kind of thinking would enable us to flourish in uncertainty?
Currently, we are locked into an individualistic worldview where reductionist or mechanistic thinking dominates. This mindset breaks everything down into parts to be analysed and measured. By understanding the parts and how they function, we presume we can understand everything important there is to know about something. This reductionism is useful for understanding inanimate things, or simple systems like machines, but can be destructive when applied to living systems. It also tends to lead to a silo mentality, which is inward looking and resists sharing information and resources.
We justify our superiority over the environment when we think we are separate and with this worldview we create fragile, linear systems. Through the diversity and complexity of their webs of relationships, and by sharing resources across their boundaries, living systems increase wellbeing and resilience. Observing these patterns and principles of natural systems might provide us with vital insights into how to redesign our socioeconomic systems to be collaborative, regenerative and resilient.
So, how might we shift our thinking?
Our current way of thinking is rooted in the industrial revolution. This period of human development was dependent on a mechanistic worldview and has dominated and influenced our behaviour ever since. In integral philosophy, worldviews evolve by including and transcending preceding worldviews. So rather than an ecological mindset replacing a mechanistic one, instead it provides a different perspective and access to another type of knowledge with which to navigate the world.
We cannot make the transformation the world needs without making an inner transformation in our thinking. With an ecological worldview we think in terms of process, pattern, flow, connectedness, and relatedness. I believe that as we become more conscious we evolve to hold an ecological worldview. According to theologian Thomas Berry, we will then realize that we live in a world which is a “communion of subjects,” not just a “collection of objects.”
Davie Philip is a group facilitator and trainer who manages the Community Resilience programme at Cultivate. Davie is collecting stories of transformational community led projects: if you are involved in something in your area, do send him an e-mail.
Positive Vibes – Summer 2018: Your Guide to the Delights of the Season
Summer is well and truly at its peak (and our Summer 2018 issue has hit the shelves), so we just had to share the Positive Vibes section from the magazine, which showcases some of the most exciting events, courses, products, and tasty treats that Ireland’s holistic scene has to offer this season. Sit back, read all about it, and while you’re at it, make a note to pick up a copy of the Summer 2018 issue in your local health food store. You can also subscribe online to receive this issue, and three others, straight to your door.
Summer Vibes
“Summer moonlight / All soft and fair… Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere”
(Emily Bronte)
Bloom n’ grow
Get Elemental
Thirsty to drink from the font of feminine wisdom which lies within you? Facilitator Sky Buitenhuis invites you to embark on ‘The Heroine’s Journey’, a four weekend immersion into the wilderness of nature and the self, to emerge empowered and attuned within. Come share in the rich tapestry of women’s wisdom awaiting YOU.
theearthisdreaming.com/womens-courses
The Peace Team
Ready to share the bountiful benefits of meditation and mindful living? The Meditation Teacher Academy® is now offering a 200hour certified teacher training course which enables you to confidently teach a variety of chill-out techniques. Think loving-kindness, yoga nidra, mantra and mindfulness. Let the peace ripple on.
Brain training
Optimal Brain is an advanced, personal transformation system designed to help you get the best use of your brain. With training, you can enhance just about anything in the realms of brain functioning; relieving stress and anxiety and improving sleep cycles, focus, attention and retention. Do you brain a favour and have a gander.
Hope and healing
Disenchanted and ready to embrace a new health paradigm? Paulette Agnew, in her book FAB Health, shares the story of her recovery from Lyme disease. A compilation of personal experience, research and interviews with leading health professionals, Paulette offers hope and a simply explained solution to antibiotic-resistant illness through Frequency And Biomagnetic (FAB) medicine.
Self-nurture
Human connection
Camp out in the Heartspace this August during a six day extravaganza of playfulness, celebration, learning and transformation. Expect a diverse range of workshops from African dance to circus skills and yoga, helping to deepen your connection with yourself, others and nature. You can bring the kids along too! See the Heartspace Facebook event for details.
facebook.com/events/164139600894707
Summer Escapades
Creacon Wellness Retreat, nestled in the lush Wexford surrounds, is the perfect place to plot your next summer escape. Whether you’re going solo or attending a specialized retreat or workshop, Creacon offers an abundance of ways to relax and rejuvenate.
Travelling light
Downsize your baggage and travel ultra-light with Mooncup; a reusable, portable silicone menstrual cup to replace disposable tampons and pads. If you’re heading off the beaten track this summer, Mooncup will be your best travelling companion!
Summer sustenance
Brain Food
Lion’s Mane mushroom is a delicious variety of mushroom, with a special affinity for the brain. Mushroomstuff creates 100% organic, highly bioavailable, Lion’s Mane in capsule form to enhance and protect those precious neurons in your noggin’.
Impeccable pesto
Small-batch, unhurried production prevails in Stoneybatter, Dublin, where Genovese Foods have been crafting their gourmet, additive-, gluten- and GMO-free pesto products since 1999. The oldest producers of fresh pesto in Ireland, their flavoursome little jars are well worth the dip.
Rise and shine
Mushrooms are all the rage. We tried the mushroom coffee by Four Sigmatic: rich, earthy and delicious, it sends positive vibes coursing through your system. The mushroom works with the caffeine and neutralises the jitters, replacing them with a balanced feeling. Wake up and smell the mushrooms.
Mother natures’ bounty
Medical Medium Anthony William’s fascinating book, Life Changing Foods, reveals the healing properties on physical, emotional and spiritual levels of fifty fruits and vegetables which the earth provides us with. Discover the choices for healing, health and recovery you can make each time you sit down to a meal.
medicalmedium.com/life-changing-foods
Soul fuel
Way of the heart
Share in the “most healing, centring, transforming and enlightening thing” in Kevin James’ life this July, as he arrives to Dublin for an evening of chanting heartsongs, mantra and kirtan to reconnect with the intelligence of the heart. Come spread the love!
Spiritual momentum
Marianne Williamson will be winging her way to Dublin this October 10th for what’s sure to be an inspiring, uplifting and empowering seminar. Marianne is author of twelve published books and shares stories and wisdom on love, the spiritual journey and miracles. Check out the Seminars website for more.
Melting pot of positivity
Come simmer in the power of positivity and an atmosphere of inspiration, sharing and enlightenment during the summer series of Positive Nights. Bring an open heart and an open mind and expect to meet more of the same.
positivelife.ie/positivenights
Be the Divine You
Mother Meera, native to India and embodiment of the Divine Mother, will be in Dublin this July bestowing her blessing on all those who feel the call to enlighten their inner divinity. In total silence, experience a purification of consciousness and a bestowal of light upon the soul.
Teen Empowerment
Treasa Traynor, director of Chrysalis Wellness, is on a mission to bring the strengths of a yoga practice into school communities. Specializing in programmes such as ‘Time out for teachers’ and ‘Wellbeing workshops’ for teens, Treasa seeks to help young people and their teachers cope with the many challenges they face during the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Essential Healing: Flower into Your Full Potential With Ian White
Ian White is the founder of the Australian Bush Flower Essences (ABFE), a fifth generation Australian herbalist and author of numerous books on the use of ABF Essences for everyday family life. Ian will arrive to Dublin this month to share with an Irish audience, the healing potential of these gentle yet powerful remedies.
In advance of his arrival we spoke about his upbringing in the Australian bush, the journey which led to the founding of ABFE and his vision for ABFE to be incorporated into family life all over the world.
Essential Healing: Flower into your full potential
By Alison McEvoy
INITIATION
Ian was introduced to the healing power of plants during his upbringing in the Australian bush (meaning outback or countryside) by his grandmother. Their homes backed onto a National Park and it was here, when he should have been at school, that Ian was initiated into a deep respect for, and understanding of, the health-giving capacities of Australian bush flowers. This continued for the first nine years of his life until his grandmother passed away.
Ian went on to study a science degree and it was in a roundabout way that he was led back to his grandmother’s teachings and the decision to continue the family tradition of herbal healing. It was during his own herbal, self-healing journey after he became ill in India that his passion for plant cures was reignited.
THE HEART OF THE ISSUE
The premise of flower essences is that physical symptoms stem from emotional imbalances. To treat emotional upsets is thus to treat a potential, or actual, cause of physical illness. The beauty of flower essences is that they are vibrational in the same way that emotions are. They are constantly sending out healing signals/vibrations. All we have to do is tune in to find out which essence can help us in this way.
Speaking of Waratah, the plant logo of the ABFE, Ian observes, “They’ve got this beautiful heart shape, and it’s very much working at that heart level, giving strength, giving courage, it’s for faith. We tend to use this flower for black night of the soul.” These flower essences are helping hands for humanity to gain and maintain equilibrium on all levels, especially during our darkest moments which call for great strength.
A NEW WORLD THROUGH ABFE
Ian would like to see every household stock the ABF Essences so that children can be brought up with the support they provide. For every hurdle in a child’s life there is an essence which can make these transitions and challenges so much easier. He wants to see children grow up supported emotionally and mentally so that their hearts can stay open, expressing their love, so that they are given the confidence to pursue their dreams and goals, and their physical health remains in balance. Who would not want to life in the world created by these children as adults?
Ian’s workshops will take place from Friday May 25th to Sunday May 27th at Malahide Castle in north Co. Dublin. No previous knowledge is required to attend and you are promised a fun, enjoyable day and to leave confident in your ability to use the essences on family, friends and/or patients. On Monday 28th there will be a special event for health food retailers and pharmacist staff.
Friday May 25th – Female Health Issues (Fertility, Pregnancy, Relationships…)
Saturday May 26th – Spotlights mental and emotional health
Sunday May 27th – A question and answer masterclass with Ian