We are excited to share this sneak peek from our Winter 2018/19 issue, exploring the incredible healing journey of Dr. Alweena Awan, who now leads Ho’oponopono Harmonising Circles (HHC) all over the world, giving people an understanding of the theory and philosophy behind Ho’oponopono – an ancient Hawaiian practice of forgiveness. Read on to learn all about it.
Are we living in a ‘virtual reality’ of sorts? And if so, what can we do about it? What implications does that have for our everyday lives? This sneak peek of our exclusive interview with Tom Campbell, the physicist and consciousness pioneer, appears in our Winter 2018/19 issue. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, check for your nearest stockist or subscribe to have the magazine sent direct to your door.
Interested in attending a workshop with powerful potential to realign yourself with your highest purpose? Check out Orla Phelan’s Soul Goals workshop, taking place in Tulfarris, Blessington, Co. Wicklow, from 9.45 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. on Saturday November 17th.
Orla Phelan entered the world of meditation, energy healing, wellbeing and facilitating spiritual workshops in 2003. She created her Soul’s Goals workshops as a way to tune into inner guidance and live each day with greater satisfaction and fulfilment. Over the past seven years, it has become the model she lives by to continue living happier, more fulfilling days. It is her delight to share this approach with others.
This Saturday 17th November, from 9.45 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., she is running a Soul’s Goals workshop in Tulfarris, Blessington, Co. Wicklow. She will be joined by the gifted light language artist Delphia An Ra, from the Netherlands. During the workshop, you can expect to:
The event page on Facebook contains a video by Orla and further details. Places are limited, so if this resonates with you and you would like to book your place, contact Orla as soon as possible.
She says, “Life is calling you to listen and receive the most beautiful visions for your life and for this world. Are you ready to anchor in the light?”
The Soul’s Goals process is all about attuning to your inner guidance and the journey that takes place from here. The day will include workbook material, sharing, lunch, chats and time to sit/ meditate/ walk in nature and welcome inspiration.
For more information on the Soul’s Goals workshop programme, click here.
The full cost for the day is between €69 and €88, depending on what feels right to you and what you can afford. Everyone who is curious about the process is welcome: no previous experience necessary. A €39 deposit secures your space, with the rest payable on the day. You can pay your €39 deposit by: using cash; clicking here; organising a bank transfer with Orla; or using the ‘donate button’ on her home page, orlaphelan.com.
November‘s News: It’s official. Winter is here, and it’s time for the gloves and scarves to come out. Our summer heatwave is a distant memory … but there are many things to look forward to about this time of year. What could be better, for instance, than sitting beside a roaring fire, dressed in cosy pyjamas and enjoying some delicious hot chocolate, while the cold rages on outside? We have picked out a number of treats for you to check out this month, ranging from our very own Positive Nights events (look out for our extra-special speed dating event or Heartsongs with John Bowker) to an in-depth look at the gorgeous Calm Rooms of Monkstown, Co. Dublin.
Following our successful speed dating events last November and April, we are ready to bring it to another level and help singles to connect once again. From your hosts with the most, Orla Bass and Paul Congdon, we present to you an evening of Speed Dating From the Heart on Thursday the 22nd of November, from 7.15 to 10.00 p.m. in Bewley’s Café, 78/79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2. Doors open at 6.45 p.m. Click here to learn more and get your tickets.
Also make sure you keep an eye out for our Heartsongs with John Bowker on December 6th, and our event with Andrea Hayes on December 13th. Details will be announced soon – watch this space!
The Organic Trust is the organic certification body of choice for professional organic producers in Ireland. The Trust describes their mission as, quite simply, “upholding the integrity of organic food.” The organic food sector in Ireland is in a continuous state of development, and the Organic Trust are proud to certify a huge range of organic products on retail shelves in Ireland (with the bulk of Irish-produced organic food being marketed under the Organic Trust logo). If you are an organic producer who wants to learn more, make sure you check out their website!
The Calm Rooms is a brand-new wellness hub in Monkstown Village, specialising in therapeutic treatments, meditation, yoga and pilates. This new business is hoping to establish themselves as a premium centre for wellness and relaxation in the city. We can’t wait until they announce their full range of treatments! Check out their website or Facebook page to learn more. You can also watch our recent Facebook live video that we did with them to get a sense of what they’re all about.
We are pleased to introduce a meditation track we have always wanted to do for you: a 20-minute visualisation in which you get to actively enhance your resonance with health, love, abundance and your personal purpose. This track was co-created by the Positive Life team and Judith McAdam. Judith is a renowned theologian, kinesiologist, holistic life coach and author of the beautiful book The Source, and we are thrilled to have launched this new collaboration with her. To learn more and download the track, just click here.
In this extract from our Autumn 2018 issue, we spoke to Sinead Mitchell of the renowned nutritional supplement and research company Pharma Nord. She had some exciting news to share about heart health, based on a revolutionary Swedish study! If you haven’t had a chance to pick up our Autumn 2018 issue yet, click here to find your local stockist, or here to subscribe to the magazine.
by Aisling Cronin
Pharma Nord is a Nutritional Supplement Brand renowned for its revolutionary approach to nutritional support. Its high grade supplements are backed by rigorous scientific research, which documents their products’ safety and superior bio-availability (which, in laymen’s terms, refers to how easily absorbed they are). Pharma Nord’s research database contains over 9,000 scientific studies which serve to inform their impressive product development program. To date, more than 300 scientific studies involving Pharma Nord products have been published, one of the most striking being the KiSel-10 study, carried out in Sweden.
I spoke to Sinead Mitchell, Product Trainer for Healthcare Professionals at Pharma Nord to learn more.
‘The KiSel-10 study was a five-year, placebo-controlled, randomised double-blind study,’ Sinéad explained. ‘Two Pharma Nord products were used in the study: Q10 and Selenium. While there has been a lot of research done about the benefits of selenium for heart health, and the benefits of Q10 for heart health – when taken separately – there wasn’t a lot of research out there investigating the relationship between them, or the potential impact of their combination, which was the primary focus of the KiSel-10 research. The KiSel-10 trial was carried out in a small town in Sweden, with Swedish citizens who were aged 70 to 88. 443 participants took part, making it a very rigorous trial.’
The aim of the study was to observe how Selenium and Q10, when taken together, would affect participants’ heart health. Participants were divided into two groups. One group were administered 200 milligrams of BioActive Q10 Gold every morning, combined with 200 micrograms of BioActive Selenium, while another placebo group did not receive either supplement. Once the five-year study was complete, the results amazed researchers: those receiving the Q10 and Selenium combination were shown to have a 54% reduced risk of mortality through cardiovascular disease.
‘In addition to the reduced risk of mortality measured by the KiSel-10 study over the five years, positive effects could also be seen in all of the inflammatory markers, which are used to measure heart health,’ Sinéad revealed. ‘In fact, in many cases, the supplementation eased the inflammatory markers to a point lower than would be considered ‘normal’ for the participants’ age group, which is fantastically encouraging.’
The KiSel-10 study is now referenced extensively in a number of leading health and scientific journals, including the European Journal For Clinical Nutrition. An additional fourteen further studies have since been pulled from the original KiSel-10 data, as health professionals seek to gather even more insight into the heart-protecting effects of long-term Selenium and Q10 supplementation.
It has been known for decades that Q10 – particularly when consumed in the high grade form, ubiquinol – is a very powerful nutrient, so the KiSel-10 study results, demonstrating the immense impact of both Q10 and Selenium on heart health, are not all that surprising.
Coenzyme Q10 (as it is formally known) is a natural, vitamin-like compound that all cells require in order to produce energy. Levels of this nutrient peak in our twenties and decline from that point onward. However, the discovery of coenzyme Q10 by American scientists in 1957, and the array of scientific studies done in the interim, has empowered us with a tool to potentially prevent this ‘energy drop’ from taking place. Selenium, too, has long been known for its incredible immune-boosting qualities. However it appears that these two nutrients have an even more powerful potential when used in combination.
Based on the promising results of the KiSel-10 study, it seems that long-term consumption of these vital nutrients could have the power to unlock new potential for longevity and improved health.
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.
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.
These heartwarming stories from our Autumn 2018 edition of Positively Newsworthy are sure to lift your spirits! If you have not yet picked up your copy of our Autumn 2018 issue, check your local stockist or subscribe to receive the magazine direct to your door!
Local solutions to global problems
By Alison McEvoy
There are so many ways to interact with the ‘challenges’ the world is encountering. What I love most about the ‘zero heroes’ which are emerging in response to pollution and excess waste production, is their ingenious creativity.
These people, who wish to create a world in which there is zero wastage, have come up with some of the most pioneering and novel ideas around. Take the Recycled Island Foundation for example. They have recently launched the world’s first floating, recycled park on the Maas River in Rotterdam.
The students of Rotterdam University joined in and pioneered the idea of the floating hexagonal building blocks which form the basis of the floating landscape. On top of these is packed all the plastics which the foundation has retrieved using litter traps from the river and, similar to a roof garden, upon these is planted all kinds of greenery, from moss to small trees, and plenty of native plant species.
Not only does the park soften the river’s edge through creating a buffer of green, it also provides a nesting and breeding place for marine life below the water’s surface and bird and insect life above.
These kinds of initiatives clearly show us that ‘waste’ need not be wasted, that there is value in every material that exists, in whatever form it exists, and, if we engage our creativity and problem solving, we can discover new value in what was previously discarded.
The foundation are now looking for new cities and locations to continue their mission!
Brave pup saves the day
by Aisling Cronin
Dogs are true heroes in so many ways – bringing comfort, love and solace to grateful humans all over the globe – but their heroism is never more evident on those astounding occasions when they save their humans from serious injury or even death. This summer, Paula Godwin – a resident of Arizona in the U.S. – was spared a shocking ordeal thanks to the courage of her own dog, a sweet golden retriever named Todd. She, Todd, and the other canines of the household were out on a walk one day in June, when their stroll was interrupted by a not-so-welcome visitor: a rattlesnake.
‘It was a carefree, beautiful morning,’ Paula recalled, ‘but as we were walking down the hill, I literally almost stepped on a rattlesnake. My hero of a puppy, Todd, saved me. He jumped right in front of my leg, where I surely would have been bitten.’
Todd was left with a number of injuries as a result of the snake bite, but he made a speedy recovery thanks to the veterinary care he received. He was later honoured in style at a Diamondbacks American football game, where the crowd were thrilled to see him. Paula is deeply grateful to him for saving her from what could have been a deeply painful or even lethal experience. ‘This is what a hero looks like,’ she declared. ‘Please say a prayer for my sweet hero.’
Bin man builds free library
by Aisling Cronin
Twenty years ago, Jose Alberto Gutierrez – a waste collector living in Bogotá, Colombia – found a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that had been thrown out in one of the wealthier areas of Bogotá. He decided to rescue the book from the rubbish, and thus began his passion for salvaging high-quality books from the waste system and offering them for free to Colombians in need.
Gutierrez has now collected over 20,000 books, spanning a wide range of genres. These books form his free library service, Fundación La Fuerza de las Palabras (Strength of Words Foundation), located in his home in South Bogóta. Gutierrez keeps childrens’ books, classic novels by authors like Margaret Mitchell, Mario Vargas Llosa, and fellow Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, as well as textbooks covering subjects such as science, business and medicine, to name just a few.
The library is open to community children at weekends, and Gutierrez and his wife ship books to other communities in need all over Colombia. Their books have reached over 450 territories in the country. Gutierrez has become affectionately known as ‘the lord of the books’ in his neighbourhood. As he puts it: ‘In an area that lacks access to many resources, a book becomes a symbol of hope. Listen, if humans treated each other as they do in many of the books that I’ve read, this planet would be governed only by love.’
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