In this sneak peek from our Spring 2019 issue, renowned holistic coach Alison Canavan talks about the importance of cultivating compassion for ourselves as part of our meditation practice. You can read the full article by picking up a copy of the magazine or subscribing here.
Compassion
POSTPONED: Positive Nights Presents: Everyday Self-Care With Alison Canavan
PLEASE NOTE: due to unforeseen circumstances, this event, which had been scheduled to take place on Thursday August 23rd, has to be postponed. We will arrange a new date as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. People who have booked tickets for this event can request a refund, earn free entry to any other Positive Nights event, or be granted free entry to the new date for Alison’s event, once this has been organised. Please email positivenights@gmail.com if you have any concerns.
If you are a regular reader of our print magazine, you may recognise Alison as the author of our Positively Metaphysical column: offering her sage advice, issue after issue, on subjects such as mindful exercising, the importance of spending time in nature, or learning how to care for ourselves.
She is also the organiser behind the highly successful Full 360 health and wellbeing shows that take place on a regular basis around the country. Alison says: “People are more stressed and busier than ever and we all put enormous pressure on ourselves to be everything to everyone, often treating ourselves quite harshly and negatively. It’s time to practice self-care to cope with the demands of our busy world.”
Alison believes in living life according to five basic principles, which she calls the 5 A’s:
AWARENESS: Being aware and present for yourself and keeping an open and curious mind towards the world around you.
ACCEPTANCE: Accepting with grace where you are in this moment, which is the only place you can truly start from.
ACCESSIBILITY: Accessible practices that you can use every day like gratitude, mindfulness, movement and good food to help you on your personal journey towards freedom and joy.
ATTITUDE: Your attitude to life is everything and having a good one makes all the difference.
ALIGNMENT: Aligning with yourself, others and the world around you is important. It starts with your daily practice of going within.
You can learn more about Alison’s work by going to her website, alisoncanavan.com.
During our time with Alison, she will tell us more about how we can learn to care for ourselves, every day, in this hectic world. This fascinating event will take the form of a one-hour interview, followed by a short break and then a Q & A session.
Sneak Peek – Tackling Parental Guilt: Regain your parenting mojo after hard times
In this sneak peek of the Positive Parenting article from our Spring issue, Anna Cole compassionately addresses the issue of parental guilt: an all-too-common emotion to those who always strive to do their best for the children in their care. You can read the full article by picking up a copy of the Spring issue, or subscribing to have it delivered straight to your door.
By Anna Cole
‘Guilty feet have got no rhythm.’
The longer I work with parents, and the longer I am a parent, the more I realise that we all feel truck-loads of guilt. We instinctively don’t want our children to get hurt. Ever. We ardently wish we could make a perfect life for them. But, unfortunately, we don’t have the power to protect our children from all the hurts we wish we could: the loss of a beloved family member that knocked you, and them, for six; the move you did for work and the dislocation on your child’s schooling; or perhaps you stayed put, but the class bully picked on your child; maybe you got sick and haven’t been able to be there as much as you’d like; perhaps violence or impoverishment in your neighbourhood has affected your child, or perhaps, like many of us, you’ve been through separation or divorce and worry about the impact of that on your child. You will be able to add to this list, I am sure.
So here’s the headline: it’s not possible to make our child’s life perfect. And the good news is: it’s also not necessary. Children come with a simple, elegant way of recovering from hurt, which I will discuss in our next issue. Right now I want to focus on what we as parents can do to help ourselves so we can best help our kids.
The first thing you need to know is that you have done your best. It’s not your fault things got hard, but it is your responsibility to do something about it. Take your regret to your Listening Partner (for more information on Listening Partnerships and how to find one, see the link in ‘resources’ below). In your Listening Partnership you can cry, tremble, shout and rage about the things you regret. Shed those tears. They are the rain that falls and makes the flowers so sweet in the spring. Share the dark thoughts you have, then leave them behind, and when you start feeling bad again, go back and have another Listening Partnership. You have the right to be pleased with yourself, and that’s what your child wants for you. They don’t want you feeling awful. They want you to play. They want you to be there with them, present and relaxed.
You can read Anna’s full article in our Spring 2018 issue, available at your nearest stockist, or via subscription.
Competition: World Renowned Healer & Yogi Guru Dev Singh Returning to Dublin
“In stillness lies the sound, which is the creative existence of God. Whoever masters the stillness and the silence and can read it gets all the knowledge that exists” – Guru Dev Singh
World renowned healer and yogi guru Dev Singh returns to Dublin this October with a weekend workshop running from October 3rd. We have a free weekend pass to give away to one of you lovely people, and all you have to do is tag two friends in the comments of this Facebook Status to have your name entered into the draw.
Dev Singh will lead a two day workshop guiding participants to a deep silence, so deep in fact that it allows you to recognise how someone else is suffering, to have compassion for that suffering and to understand its origin.
Workshop Dates: October 3-4 2015, 8.30-5 pm.
Venue: The Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15
Cost: €100 per day. No prior experience is required.
Facebook Event Page
As a precursor to his much anticipated visit, the organisers will run some prior events too to get you perfectly in the zone. These are not however a requirement to participate in Guru Dev Singh’s event.
Workshops in the Meditative Healing Art of Sat Nam Rasayan, Meath & Dublin
The Ancient Art of Sat Nam Rasayan uses a specific state of meditation to bring about healing. Effective for all ailments and conditions. Sat Nam Rasayan brings balance back to the system. Patients experience profound states of relaxation and a deeper sense of well being.
In These Workshops
- Explore and experience deep states of meditation and silence.
- Learn how you can heal others using only your awareness.
- Immerse yourself in a deep meditative experience.
Dates & Locations
September 24th, 7-9pm, Swynnerton Lodge, Slane Rd, Navan, Co. Meath
September 25th, 7-9pm, Surya Yoga, 4 Maxwell Rd, Rathgar, Dublin 6
September 26th, 11-1pm, Harvest Moon Centre, 24 Lower Baggot St. Dublin 2
Each of these are priced at €15. For information and registration contact HarKiratKaur0013@gmail.com | 0863722653
The Courage to Be Good
We’ve all probably been in situations where there was an opportunity to do something good for someone else but something held us back. Maybe this was the right decision at the time, or maybe afterwards you contemplated, like I have many times, why you didn’t take the opportunity that arose. Sometimes these situations appear and although ‘being good’ seems so simple in theory, we quickly ‘react’ in a different way or come up with all kinds of reasons not to follow through in a positive way. Some new studies indicate that mindfulness meditation may be part of the key to bridging the gap between what we’d like to do in those moments, and what we currently do.
In one study published by Psychological Science and titled ‘Meditation Increases Compassionate Responses to Suffering’, it was found that people who took an eight week mindfulness meditation course were “significantly more likely than a control group to give up their waiting-room seat for a person on crutches.
“We utilised a design where individuals were confronted with a person in pain in an ecologically valid way. If, as suggested by Buddhist theorising, meditation enhances compassionate responding, participants who completed a brief meditation course should more frequently act to relieve this person’s suffering.”
Not long after, a second study appeared, ‘Compassion Training Alters Altruism and Neural Responses to Suffering’ also published by Psychological Science and with similar findings.
People who had practiced a mindfulness-based “compassion meditation” for seven hours over a two week period were more likely to give money to a stranger in need than those who hadn’t. After completing their training, the meditation group also showed noticeable changes in brain activity, including in networks linked to understanding the suffering of others.
The following is an excerpt from The Dalai Lama’s Book of Love & Compassion … “I feel that television and newspapers usually report negative things. Killings, for example, or unfortunate events are immediately reported. In the meantime, millions of people are actually receiving help, or being nourished or looked after by human affection, such as millions of children, sick and old people. But usually in people’s minds these good things are taken for granted. They are not seen as something to which we should pay special attention. Actually, this shows that the very nature of humanity is compassion or affection. We simply ignore all the work of affection because it seems natural. But we are surprised at things like bloodshed; it shocks our minds because our nature is not of that kind.
Anyway, I think it is equally important to make a clear presentation to the human mind of the other, good, human qualities. … If we let hatred guide us then we can be so cruel and so destructive. But on the other hand, if we promote good human qualities, then wonderful actions and marvelous things can happen. Likewise, the media should show both sides. That is what I always feel.”
Luckily for us, its becoming more and more easy to access Positive News stories. On the internet alone, there’s at least a dozen decent positive news websites from all around the world, reporting on everything from Renewable Energy breakthroughs to Free Hugs campaigns.
Here’s a sample…
Chocolate Car’s Breakthrough Voyage
Andy Pag and John Grimshaw, traveled 5,280 miles from Poole in England to Timbuktu in Mali, using 454 gallons of fuel made from four tonnes of waste chocolate. It became the first carbon-negative voyage in the world. For more, check out http://www.positivenews.org.uk/
The Longest Walk
In San Francisco, California, on February 11 more than two hundred participants began the Longest Walk 2, a five month cross-country journey on foot to spread their message that all life is sacred. For more, check out http://www.positivenewsus.org/
Hugging phenomenon continues path across Asia
More and more people are exchanging hugs as a way of showing support to one another. For example, Korean students are now organizing their own hugging events to offer support after exams are completed and Naver, a Korean online portal has reported that literally thousands of people have joined an online hugging community. For more, check out http://www.only-positive-news.com/
Stay tuned for more Positive News Stories next issue. :)
Namaste…Patrick.