We have some exciting news to share: our Autumn issue is out and will be coming to a stockist near you this weekend. We have many treats lined up for you in this issue…
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August Vibes: This Month’s Pick of the Best Holistic Events, Getaways and Products
The Tidings of August: Summer is starting to give way to autumn, but not to worry: there are sure to be plenty more bursts of sunshine to enjoy this month! As always, we’ve been enthusiastically tracking down the best events, products, getaways and general news that Ireland’s holistic scene has to offer. Read on to learn more about the highlights we’ve picked out for you for this month. If you haven’t picked up our Summer 2018 issue yet, make sure you call into one of our stockists throughout the country soon. You can also subscribe here to get a copy delivered right to your door.
Discover the Benefits of Chi Fit Tea
Chi Fit Tea is an Irish company with a passion for high-quality, energising tea. They named the company after the Chinese word ‘Chi’, or ‘energy’, to emphasise the origin and heritage of their ingredients. When the founders felt that green tea, oolong tea and pu’erh tea were a little too bitter for them, they set out to create their own unique blend. They did this by blending a specific variety of powerful teas and spending months perfecting this blend until they were happy with the taste. They then set about finding an amazing organic tea producer in China. Now, Chi Fit Tea is composed of ten naturally powerful ingredients, full of naturally occurring properties that give drinkers an energy boost. This tea is great for pre-gym sessions, as the ingredients promote health and fitness benefits.
Vitality Expo to Bring Top Names in Health and Wellbeing to Dublin
On September the 8th and 9th, 2018, Dublin’s RDS will play host to the amazing Vitality Expo 2018, brought to you by Health Stores Ireland. The Expo will be dedicated to all things health-related, with a diverse array of wellness, lifestyle, fitness and nutrition talks being delivered by Irish and international speakers and natural health brands. The Expo’s Vitality Stage will play host to Alison Canavan, Vivienne Campbell, Rachel and Hannah Dare, Dr. Robert Verkerk Ph.D, Phil Beard, Dr. Sarah Murphy, Jessica Hatchett and Fiann Ó Nualláin (a bestselling author, horticultural therapist and community gardening advocate). All of the talks will be hosted by nutritional therapist Jemma Kehoe. For a full list of confirmed exhibitors and speakers, make sure you check out their website below.
Healing is Voltage: Check Out the New Book Making Waves
Dr. Jerry Tenant – a board-certified ophthalmologist in the U.S., who is now the director of the Tennant Institute for Integrative Medicine – has a revolutionary approach to healing that he outlines in his new book, Healing is Voltage. He explains that every cell in the body is designed to run at -20 to -25 millivolts. To heal, we must make new cells. To make a new cell requires -50 millivolts. Chronic disease occurs when voltage drops below -20 and/or you cannot achieve -50 millivolts to make new cells. Thus chronic disease is always defined by having low voltage. His book aims to tell you how to measure your voltage in each organ, how to correct it, and how to determine why your voltage may have dropped enough to allow you to get sick.
O’Brien’s Café Launches Healthy New Veggie Bowl
Well-known Irish café and sandwich bar company O’Brien’s has launched a new vegetarian Mediterranean Bowl – created with chef Rachel Allen and nutritionist Erika Doolan – and it looks delicious! The Mediterranean Bowl features grilled halloumi, falafel, spelt, kale slaw, houmous, Ballymaloe Foods beetroot, chunky salsa, rocket and mixed leaves. Pop into your local O’Brien’s and try it out today!
Positive Nights Presents: Kundalini Awakening Process with Venant Wong – Thursday August 2nd
Venant Wong, an expert in Kundalini, movement and energy, will be joining us at Positive Nights from 7.00 to 9.30 p.m.on Thursday August 2nd in the Central Hotel, 1 – 5 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2. Venant will discuss his Kundalini Activation Process: a direct Kundalini Transmission that activates our own personal Kundalini Awakening process. Venant has trained with three Kundalini Transmission masters: Adi Da Samraj (Fiji), Ratu Bagus (Bali), and Pi Villaraza (Phillipines) – after which the capacity to activate the kundalini in others arose. He has been leading Facilitator Trainings & Immersions in this modality, as well as open sessions for groups & individuals in Asia, Australia, and now in Europe. Click here to learn more and book your tickets.
WIN Two Tickets to Adyashanti Teaching Event in Dublin!
Adyashanti, the world-renowned spiritual teacher, writer and international speaker, who graces the front cover of our current summer issue, and who you may also recognise from his fascinating SuperSoul interview with Oprah (video link here), is coming to Dublin this August for a Special Intensive teaching event. This will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday August 19th, in the Gibson Hotel, Point Square, North Dock, Dublin 1. The exciting news is that we have two tickets to give away to this incredible event! This competiton is being run on our Facebook page. All you have to do to enter is click on this linked post, comment who you would bring with you and why, then be sure to like the post and our page for a chance to win! The winner will be announced on August 17th. Good luck, Positive Pals!
Special Yoga Event Invokes the Energy of Ireland’s Ancient Pirate Queen
Kitty Maguire, a yoga teacher who – alongside a variety of musicians – specialises in offering ‘Yocella’ classes (yoga accompanied by the music of the cello) has another exciting event coming up this month at the Fleadh Cheoil in Drogheda, Co. Louth. She is teaming up with fellow yoga teacher Gráinne O’Kane to tell the story of the historic Pirate Queen, Gráinne Mhaol, through the media of yoga, voice, fiddle and bodhrán. Gráinne will lead a Warrior of the Heart practice – inspired by hatha yoga – to fully embody the strength and resilience of the Warrior Queen. Kitty will then lead a Peaceful Warrior session, based on yin yoga. This will be a soothing practice of stillness throughout the body, to the sound of the bodhrán’s heartbeat, that will bring the Pirate Queen home. Kieran Gallagher will play the bodhrán and Ben McKenzie the fiddle. This event will take place on Monday August 13th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., in St. Peter’s Church of Ireland Parish Hall, Drogheda. To learn more, check out the event page here.
By Elva Carri
For as long as I can remember, I’ve gotten the heebie-jeebies at the first smell of autumn. I smell it before I can see it, and that first whiff catapults me from the wonderfulness of summer to the cold, dark and difficult associations I have with autumn in Ireland.
To me, autumn means going back to school, carrying a heavy bag and wearing an uncomfortable amount of clothes. The dark mornings and evenings aren’t the worst – they actually feel like a relief from the greyness of the daytime. Black skies are far superior to murky, stagnant daylight. Over the years though, I’ve found some ways to cope. I still don’t quite look forward to it, but I know I can survive it.
Wear Sunscreen
If I could give you one piece of advice for coping with autumn, sunscreen would be it. We all know it’s good for our skin to wear it all year round now anyway, but my reasoning is a little different. Just like the smell of autumn affects me, so too do the smells of summer. I took to sniffing creamy, coconutty suncream as a teenager, and it’s got me through many a dark day. If smells aren’t your thing, try putting on your bikini/mankini and some old summer chart hits, indoors, with a cocktail umbrella in a hot chocolate, and give autumn the finger. It cannot defeat your colourful imagination – hard as it may try.
Nurture in Nature
After realising that the suncream and bikini combo is only a temporary, denial-style alleviation, it’s time to go outside and embrace it. I recommend going as far into the west of Ireland as is possible. Once I’m up close and personal with the reasons autumn needs to happen, I feel somewhat consoled. Autumn has a role to play in our landscape, our flora and fauna. Being amongst it all helps me shake off my selfish desire for summer to never end. A blast of cold wind and a downpour can also help you uncling yourself from summer memories and focus on the more immediate need to get dry and warm. Before you know it, you might find yourself laughing, playing a board game and drinking tea by a fire.
Dormancy & Germination
Just like seeds need to be in colder temperatures, in dark and damp, to eventually begin to sprout, maybe we do too. The time in nature reminds me of that. I take the pressure off myself to be presenting things to the world when the annual darkness rolls on in, and instead, I focus on brewing away like a nice pot of tea on a stove. Mulling over ideas, trying things out in secret, before I pop up through the soil with something new to show off in spring. Decide on some idea or project or inner world to cultivate and relish the generous amount of indoor time you’re about to have to do that.
Have you got any tips of your own? I’d love to hear them. Tweet how you embrace autumn to @positivelifemag.
Elva Carri is the founder of GirlCrew. GirlCrew.com. Twitter: @elvacarri
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Positive Life Optimistic October: Samhain Festival, Yoga gathering, Tantra @ Positive Nights & More!
Optimistic October! Autumn is here, bringing the beautiful colours in the foliage, the chills you feel when the wind blows on the early mornings and that lovely craving for the best hot cocoa in town! As every year, we get ready for Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve or simply Halloween and look forward to even more cozy nights next to our loved ones! Our Vibes this month is filled with beautiful events and as always lovely recommendations for your mind, body & spirit! Remember our Autumn issue of Positive life Magazine is now out! Sign up here to get a chilled copy in your postbox! Loads of love, from all the team. Join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if you haven’t already.x
Samhain & Yoga!
Samhain Yoga Retreat
Date: 27-29 October 2017
Location: Old Head of Kinsale, Cork, Ireland
Wild Atlantic Way Yoga invites you to celebrate the Celtic New Year with a 3 day relaxing retreat in Cork! The retreat includes vegetarian cuisine, accommodation and yoga classes.
click here to get your tickets and learn more!
Angel Therapy at Positive Nights
Corin Grillo / Angel Therapy
Positive Nights Event (Powerscourt Theatre)
Date: October 26th, 2017
This evening we welcome Corin Grillo to the stage. Weaving a combo of both traditional and energy/intuitive based therapies Corin provides an ideal environment for clients to make profound and often rapid positive changes. She works collaboratively with clients and help them tap in to their own inner voice, so that they can listen to their own wisdom on how to support and ignite their path towards healing.
Corin will also be hosting her own weekend workshop in dublin, find out more below:
You can learn more about Corin here!
Clothing with a Conscience!
Grown A clothing line with personal values that is conscious of the effects retail companies and their associated energy consumption has on the environment. For this reason they produce clothing with a shared responsibility for such impact. One TREE is planted for every T-shirt made. Their clothes are also very lovely! Slip them on this autumn and feel the vibes.
You can check them out and do a little shopping here!
Vitamin C for a Healthy Autumn!
Abundance & Health : fresh new product: Altrient Vitamin C sachets. This high strength nutritional supplement is made to pharmaceutical standards to crash through your body’s absorption barriers -to get high potency vitamin C where you need it most, to your cells.
Visit abundanceandhealth.co.uk to get them and stay healthy and ready this season!
Yoga Gathering 2017!
October 27-30th, 2017
Seagrave House, Dunany, Co. Louth, Ireland
The first annual Kundalini Yoga is a moment when the timing is just right for a big and beautiful experience to unfold! Kundalini yoga teachers, inspirational speakers and Kirtan musicians will come together to share an elevated consciousness with anyone who feels the call to participate.
For tickets & more info visit wellwithin.ie/yoga-gathering
The Organic Trust in Ireland
The Organic Trust was established as a voluntary not-for-profit organisation. The Trust is the centre of excellence when it comes to organic inspection and certification. They have a very broad range of organic technical expertise available within their organisation.
You can learn more about their services and their work by visiting organictrust.ie
Queen of Tantra @ Positive Nights!
Date: October 5th, 2017
Positive Nights event.
The Powerscourt Theatre.
7:30pm – 9:30pm
On this very special evening Paul welcomes back the queen of Tantra, Dawn Cartwright! We will for sure have another beautiful evening to enjoy her wonderful guidance and insights into love & relationships.
Join Paul & Dawn for an evening of love and intimacy that is sure to inspire. You’ll be guided through Tantra practices that open the heart. A journey into the far reaches of human sexuality and Tantra.
Time to Express Your Heartfelt Desires
By Andrew Smith
This is taken from our Autumn 2015 issue. Subscribe here to have the next four issues delivered direct to your door, in print.
Having reluctantly emerged from the warmth and security of her recent embrace with Sol, an invigorated, self-orientated, youthful Venus lights up our early morning skies this coming Autumn. Her appearance as the morning stars heralds the dawn of a time where the old fear based, poverty values can be released; and a death knell tones as the slavery of your time, your energy and your creativity by a system designed to shut you up and dull you wavers, further reinforced by other Autumnal Cosmic omens.
Henry Thoreau once said that “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them” The song he refers is not music per se but the creative essence of Infinite Intelligence within you seeking an outlet; that song may not be music at all, but maybe something that gives greater expression to your divine nature, to the creative life-force that flows through you.
Yet for many, it is difficult to confidently and unequivocally speak openly and honestly about topics that matter. I am not referring to public speaking, but to initiating an authentic conversation about the values that you hold dear. Perhaps it has something to do with residing within a world that encourages you to not believe in yourself; wherein your opinions do not matter; and, moreover, that you do not really matter? Perhaps it has something to do with the innately human desire to be accepted, to fit in?
Speaking openly, an expression of the Libran zodiacal archetype, the sign wherein Mercury rests this September, requires courage because to confidently “sing your song” is one of the most raw and vulnerable experiences that you can have. To have an authentic conversation you will have to take a path through a dimly lit region at the edge your soul, a place called fear – fear of rejection, fear of not being accepted; fear of not being loved. Yet in spite of the fact that you may fear that you won’t be loved, to openly speak your truth is one of the most important things you can do in creating a world that truly honours your voice.
Imagine what your world would be like if you stripped away the layers of external thought forms that influence your reality and focused only on what you truly feel, think and believe! During the Libran/ September Mercurial retrogradation you have such an opportunity. It would be prudent to reflect on whether your voice, and what you speak of, is genuinely yours or does it come from external sources such as your parents and family members; your educational/religious/socio-economic conditions; or from your karma.
As Venus’ luminosity gradually increases through late Autumn, the Cosmic Mind is infused with a charge of energy to better enable you to express your heartfelt desires on your own terms. This process culminates as Venus and Jupiter, in the form of the Archangels Haniel and Tzadkiel, embrace on the 25th October. This beautiful pairing’s offer is to open your heart to what you really value; to show you the truth of how much you trust in your own creativity to generate the life your heart desires; to remind you that you live within an infinitely abundant state and that you don’t need to focus on money as a means to enable you to pursue your true path.
Aniel’s presence enables you to develop and maintain a harmonious relationship with gOd and those souls that you come into contact with; to discover creative inspiration for artistic projects as well as to increase their productivity; and to help you find hope. Tzadkiel’s presence radiates comfort to you when you are afraid, wounded or grieving and kindles a desire for spiritual development in your heart. So if you are seeking to heal your heart or your loss of confidence in your creative spirit; to find joy; to seek comfort if you are feeling insecure; to open your heart in complete trust of life, of love and of spirit, tonight is the night to hold a space for grace to fill you; joy to flow through your heart and for pure radiant abundance and love to emanate from your spirit.
As winter dawns, we will once again return to focusing on the veils that bind us to the dying hierarchal paradigm. The gradual erosion of those Veils merely enables you to feel how oxygen starved you have been as those tentacles of conditioning loosen and their hold on you is released. This cyclical dissolution of what you think you believe in is better can only be attained through a process of surrendering, trusting and letting go. Fighting the system will not work. The outer conditions of your world are merely a reflection of your inner world and without facing and friending your own illusions and prejudices the world, your world, will remain within the hold of the security paralysis paradigm.
If you face; name; understand; heal and ultimately embrace your shadow, or in simple terms you get to a point where you can LOVE your shadow, it no longer has a hold over you. By cleansing your inner world, you cleanse the outer world. Without those inner vanities the system has no hold over you and cannot exist. So will you accept this gift and willingly embrace the ordeal of rearranging your perceptions and transforming yourself and therefore your reality?
Andrew’s private practise is in Blackrock, South Dublin. Email him on dastroc@gmail.com for further information on consultations, workshops or classes. Join him on Facebook for daily updates.
Pause and Reflect
Autumn 2014 brings space for stillness.?
By Andrew Smith
The changes just keep on coming as the ‘Quickening’ continues until March 2015! This autumn’s celestial tides are much calmer than they have been in recent months, affording us an opportunity to pause, reflect and enjoy the fruits of the seeds that have been planted over the past three years.
During this time a portal to your higher Self has been opened up enabling you to cut old cords, to face your past, to speak your truth, to stand your ground, to seek out others who share the same vision, to go beyond the limits of the existing order, and to weave new pathways.
With the waning of August and opening of September, you will experience a brief continuation of the deconstruction themes of eliminating deep seated issues from within you and within our society as we face the continuing exposure of scandal and deceit in the affairs of those invested with power in religious, educational, political, security and social institutions.
As the turning point in the seasons at the Equinox is reached, you will feel the collective mood lighten as there is an invitation to shift like the new season upon you. The 25th September provides an excellent time to risk setting far reaching goals. The opportunity to fully blossom is something to be freely grasped and to do that you need to detach from external, limiting, past conditioning, and feel confident to move towards the unknown. Unfettered from the beliefs, judgments, possessions, and social/religious norms, the soul that has emptied itself may be filled with the nectar of divine inspiration. After all, who can be more at rest than the person of single intention? No small task, I hear you say, especially given the busyness of our lives! Therefore a great grace is needed to elevate your soul beyond the myriad distractions of a deconstructing world. So too are stillness and reflection.
Rarely do we, as a society, encourage the recollection of our senses or give homage to the inward reflection of our soul. And yet, pauses are inherent within nature. In music, for example, the spaces between notes are often as important as the notes themselves. If this sounds strange simply imagine listening to someone giving a speech who never paused for a breath! Not only is it exhausting to keep concentrating on the constant stream of words issuing forth from the speaker’s mouth, whatever nuggets of inspiration the speaker is sharing with you will eventually become lost within this unending and ultimately monotonous stream of sound from which you will eventually crave relief from. Likewise with music it is important to provide spaces, allowing the listener to absorb each musical phrase before the next one starts.
October is an invitation to exhale deeply in gratitude for this opportunity to be held in the darkening season where you are being prompted to once again journey within and to replenish your body and spirit. The dark offers you the support to go unconscious and to travel through other worlds. For the third time this year, Mercury, the planetary archetype that reflects your Mind, will move from a Water Sign back into an Air sign.
You live in four worlds – the world of feeling (or Fire), the world of body (Earth), the world of thought (Air) and the world of emotion (Water). The ancients call these worlds, the elements. In creating reality you need a balance of all four worlds. It is the combination of your thoughts (Air) and emotions (Water) that creates what you feel (Fire). Those feelings are ultimately your beliefs and perceptions, which orders the sequences of DNA inside your body (Earth). In turn your DNA codes the matter surrounding you, be it a person, an ideal or an event; and it is those ‘things’ which are what your feelings are all about!!
As Mercury moves from Water back to Air, you have the opportunity to reflect on the quality of your emotional (Water) mind (Air), therefore the realities that you live within. Thought alone lacks the potency to create your reality, in the same way that your power source, emotion (Water), needs a guidance system to direct its energy. The coupling of thought and emotion creates your feelings (Fire) and it is your feelings about ‘stuff’ that directly impacts your reality (Earth) and creates feedback from your world which in turn generates further thoughts and emotions!
Not only does your destiny change with both your thoughts and your emotions, the feelings that are created by those thought-emotions change the environment around you, which in turn transforms you at a cellular level, raising your vibratory nature to a higher level, again supporting you to raise the level of your awareness. To do this, all you need to do is to hold space, go inward and to continue to change the limiting thought forms that lie deep within by asking yourself better questions. This is the gift of October’s retrogradation.
The Autumnal months reflect a time of rest to allow yourself integrate what has come out of this great healing, and allow the medicine of your discoveries to deepen into your being. Remember that your life has become abundantly rich with opportunities and you are living within a cornucopia of possibilities, no longer bound by the limitations of your past thoughts.
Andrew’s private practice is in Blackrock, South Dublin. Email dastroc@gmail.com for further information on consultations, workshops or classes.
Highlight’s of Autumn’s Cosmic Activity
Sept 5 Cleansing of impurities as Jupiter quincunxes Pluto
Sept 14 Mercury enters his Shadow Phase
Sept 23 Libran ingress/autumnal equinox
Sept 24 Libran new moon
Sept 25 Innovation abounds as Jupiter trines Uranus
Oct 4 Mercury retrogrades in Scorpio
Oct 8 Arian lunar eclipse
Oct 16 Rebirth of the Cosmic Mind
Oct 23 Scorpion ingress and solar eclipse
Oct 25 Mercury direct in Libra
Nov 10 Mercury exits his Shadow Phase
Nov 22 Sagittarian ingress and new moon
Nov 27 Turmoil as Saturn octiles Pluto
Immunity From Within
Photo credit: Sammy Murphy
Grow your inner garden.
By Deirdre McCafferty, recipe by Tony Keogh
A tasty way to boost your immunity this autumn and winter is with some warming stews, bakes and soups and by adding some wonderful tummy friendly fermented foods to your diet. Currently, we’re big fans of the vegan brie and cashew blue cheeses created for Cornucopia by Tony Keogh. Healthy fermented foods help populate our digestive tracts with the bacteria that help protect us from the inside and help you grow your inner garden.
Changing seasons, shorter days and colder, wetter weather can all add to the challenge our immune systems face so our thoughts for recipes now naturally turn to health boosting meals. Here we have a great recipe for a vegan, Irish style stew, with a twist – lots of spices! It’s chock-full of other immune boosting ingredients too; seaweed with its iodine, kale with its antioxidants and oats with calming, supportive, nerve boosting qualities.
GRAB THE RECIPE IN THE AUTUMN ISSUE OF POSITIVE LIFE. PICK UP A FREE COPY IN ONE OF OUR STOCKISTS, OR SUBSCRIBE FOR €15 (4 ISSUES) AND BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO GET A COPY EACH SEASON.
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