For years I have been aware of the impact that wheat has been having on my health and I have finally decided to take the plunge and experiment with a month of giving up wheat. Follow the highs (and possibly lows!) of my journey as I give up gluten. I’ll be sharing the physical and emotional impact, as well as plenty of simple, healthy, delicious wheat free recipes.
Vibrant Alternatives is all about creating a space for alternative / complementary therapists to connect, to support each other, share ideas, as questions and help each other reach even more people who need us.
There is a desperate need out there for the work we are all doing, yet sometimes it can feel hard to break through our personal blocks, to take our practice to the next level.
That’s where having a strong network of supportive, like-minded individuals can really help.
Vibrant Alternatives is all about working together – rather than viewing each other as potential competitors! 😉
We each have a unique set of skills to offer our clients and there are plenty of clients who need our help.
So if you’re up for:
learning more about how to grow your business
discovering how to unblock the silent blocks that may have been sabotaging your practice’s growth
connecting with people who are happy to share their ideas, questions and experiences
… then welcome to Vibrant Alternatives!
Over the coming months, we’ll be publishing details of networking meetings, workshops, business expert articles and much, much more.
If you’d like to be involved, please take a moment to sign up for the Vibrant Alternatives mailing list.
You can also join us on Facebook – there’s no point in waiting, you may as well get started now!
It’s a ‘closed group’, so you’ll need to ask to join – it might take us a day or 2 to tick the box! But this means that all content is only visible to members, rather than being publicly visible. We figured that was a better way to encourage sharing!
Discover how to de-stress, relax, feel healthier, feel happier, calm your mind, discover your inner peace and have more fun with meditation classes with Clare Josa.
What Is Meditation?
Meditation helps you quieten your mind, to reach beyond the everyday, mundane aspects of life and reconnect with a deeper sense of “who you really are”.
It is a journey that will take you from a place of stress, drama and discontent to happiness, inner peace, contentment and connectedness.
Along that path, we all encounter things that need to be released, in order to set ourselves free from the habits, thought patterns and limiting beliefs that have kept us stuck and separate for so long.
Meditation is not…
Clare Josa, Meditation Teacher
I had been practising meditation for about 20 years, when I decided to formally train as a meditation teacher, so I could help others.
That’s when I realised that I had never really “meditated”.
It was a bit of a shock! Sure, I had done classes, retreats and had a stack of “meditation” CDs at home, but few of them took me anywhere near that point of stillness, that point of peace, deep inside, that I had been searching for.
Why?
Because the “teacher” never shut up and there was always tinkly music in the background!
After 2 decades of studying, I had never been taught how to be “ok” with silence; with stillness. All the techniques I had learned were still about “doing” – following instructions that popped up almost constantly.
Even though there are many meditation techniques that can be performed while you are active – even in a noisy environment – I had never experienced the beautiful feeling of allowing my mind to come to rest and just “be”.
Everything I had tried before had, in fact, been based on deep relaxation or guided visualisation. And I experienced a huge difference in the effect of those, compared to deep meditation, which has been profound and life-changing for me. 🙂
Meditation is NOT about twisting your legs into a pretzel, hiding in a cave and chanting ancient Sanskrit all day (though it can be!).
It is a practice that helps you change your life. It brings you peace, calm, stillness and a vibrant sense of being totally “alive”.
What Are The Benefits Of Meditation?
Some of the benefits of regular meditation practice include:
Reducing your stress levels
Getting your life back into balance
Developing a “longer fuse” – being able to remain calm, even in emotional situations
Improved physical, mental and emotional health
Feeling happier – even moments of spontaneous joy
Clearer thinking – you have been training your mind to chatter less!
Improved concentration
A sense of inner peace and stillness
Feeling the strength (and desire) to finally deal with the “stuff” that’s no longer working in your life
Dispelling Meditation Myths
Myth: You have to train under a “guru” and change who you are
Fact: Finding a good teacher helps, but even just 10 minutes a day of mindfulness can have a big impact. Check out the latest research from Sara Lazar, showing that meditation can even make your brain grow!
Myth: Meditation drop-in classes work Fact: You need commitment and dedication, to make progress.
Just as with any form of skill, to see results, a meditation student needs to commit to regular practice. A weekly, local meditation or mindfulness class is the ideal environment for this, because:
you can ask the meditation teacher questions – they have been trained how to teach this stuff!
you can benefit from the fact the teacher has probably faced similar challenges to you, on their meditation journey, and will have discovered some short cuts
you can get feedback on your posture (meditating doesn’t need to hurt!)
you can learn how to prepare for meditation, to get maximumm impact from your practice
you can learn techniques to get back into that ‘meditative calm’ state, even when time is short
you can share the experience with other students and even make new friends
this moral support can help you find ways to fit yoga into your life, to help you feel happier, healthier and less stressed.
Over the years, we have repeatedly found that people attending drop-in classes make much slower progress than those who make the personal commitment to attending a term’s course.
Myth: You have to change your religious beliefs, to meditate Fact: Meditation is accessible to everyone, regardless of their personal beliefs
Although the practice of meditation is rooted in ancient philosophy, to enjoy and benefit from meditation doesn’t require you to adopt any particular belief systems and it certainly doesn’t ask its students to have any particular religious background.
If you can daydream, then you can meditate.
Most cultures have practices that are akin to meditation. There’s nothing scary or cult-based about it.
What Makes Beyond Alchemy’s Meditation & Mindfulness Classes Different?
Rather than expecting you to turn up, rushed and stressed, twist your legs into a pretzel shape and suddenly empty your mind and feel inner peace, our meditation & mindfulness classes focus on good preparation first.
In order to be able to meditate successfully, you need to be relaxed and able to concentrate.
Is it time to tame your 'grasshopper mind'?
Few of us can do that spontaneously, as part of our busy lives. Most of us are more like grasshoppers, flitting from one thought or action to the next.
So our meditation classes typically take students through the following stages:
Physical movement, to help you release the body’s tension and start to relax
Deep relaxation – sitting or lying down – to help you let go and unwind
Concentration techniques, to help you train your mind to focus on just one thing, rather than being a mutli-tasking grasshopper
Training on how correct posture during meditation can impact the effectiveness of your meditating
Discovering meditation and mindfulness techniques that work for real people, with busy lives
Our students tell us that they really value the level of preparation they get during the classes and see it as a ‘gold standard’ of meditation experience. This helps them relax and de-stress more easily during their day-to-day lives, and means they are more quickly able to get into a relaxed state of body and mind, to meditate at home.
How will I feel afterwards?
Students leave their classes feeling more balanced, less stressed, energised, refreshed and revitalised.
The goal of our meditation and mindfulness classes is to help you find a point of stillness, deep within you, that you can connect with, no matter how busy and stressful life becomes.
Why Bother With A Meditation Class?
Why on earth bother going to a meditation class?
Why not just listen to a CD or read a book?
Clare Josa, our meditation teacher, shares her personal story on this one in the video on the right.
Our research shows that a regular meditation or mindfulness class can have a major impact on the results you achieve.
Books and CDs are a great start, if you don’t have a good meditation class locally. But they have their limitations, too:
Most ‘meditation’ CDs are in fact guided visualisations or deep relaxations. Whislt they help you relax, they are unlikely to take you to a real experience of meditating.
Books can teach you techniques, but the experience of being guided through that technique by a real, live teacher is very different.
You can’t ask a book or CD questions!
Meditating with other people creates an wonderful space that allows you to go even deeper.
A good teacher can tailor your meditation class to the needs of the individuals in the group. A book or CD has to be created to work for the ‘average’ student.
Attending a weekly class gives you the moral support (and kick up the butt!) that most of us need to actually commit to regular meditation practice. It’s by far the quickest and most effective way to make progress and experience deep-acting results.
Weekly Classes
Our spring 2012 term of meditation and mindfulness classes will be starting soon.
They will be held near Forest Row in East Sussex.
We’ll be publishing times and dates, as soon as they are finalised.
Find Out More / Reserve Your Place
To find out more and reserve your place, please call Peter or Clare on 07919 11 4440. Or you can fill in the contact form below and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.
Can’t Make It To A Weekly Class?
We run regular yoga and meditation weekend workshops in the East Sussex area (Forest Row / East Grinstead / Ashdown Forest). If you’d like to find out when the next course is running, please get in touch!
Being mindful is about a state of being – a particular way of choosing to experience life, in the present moment – rather than letting our mind run riot over past mistakes and future worries, whilst sleep-walking through what’s actually going on around us.
As you can no doubt imagine, this is a handy skill to develop.
Experimenting with a simple raisin (or other small piece of dried fruit) can help us get back into the present moment.
Most of us eat raisins by grabbing a handful, throwing them in our mouth and giving them a quick munch before swallowing. This next raisin is going to be a quite different experience!
Grab a raisin – just one – or a similar dried fruit, if raisins aren’t your thing.
Sit comfortably.
It’s time to wrap your senses round your raisin. Look at it. Really see it. What do you notice? Can you see its texture? What about the bumps and lumps? Is it shiny?
Have a sniff. What does it smell like? Let your fingertips really feel the shape and texture. Allow yourself to become fully absorbed in the experience.
If your mind wanders during this experience, just allow it to be gently guided back to your raisin.
After a few minutes, pop the raisin in your mouth – but it’s not time to chew yet! Spend a little while focussing on what it feels like in your mouth, with your tongue and your teeth.
Then, when you’re ready, take a bite. Have a good chew. Notice the full experience of the raisin’s flavour – how it builds in your mouth. How incredibly sweet it is.
When you have swallowed the raisin, you’ll notice you can still taste it for a while.
How did this experience compare to your usual raisin-munching experience?
Chances are it was much more vivid.
Did you notice things you wouldn’t normally notice?
Did you enjoy it more?
What have you learned about how being mindful – aware, in the present moment – can impact your experience of eating a raisin?
How could you take these learnings and apply them elsewhere in your life?
We’d love to hear about your experiences, via the comments box below. P.S. If you’d like to experience more mindfulness techniques and discover how ten minutes a day can change your life, you might want to join in with the 28 Day Meditation Challenge.
You’d have to have been asleep to miss the recent controversy over bean sprouts and E. Coli infections.
According to prominent scientists, the only ‘safe’ way to eat bean sprouts – or any other form of sprouted seeds – is very well cooked.
But ask any raw food enthusiast worth their weight in miso and they’ll point out that the major benefit of the sprouted beans and seeds is the myriad of health-giving enzymes they contain, which are pretty much destroyed by cooking.
You can also join us on Facebook – there’s no point in waiting, you may as well get started now!
What Is Meditation?
