Catwoman, Cakes and Lakes

1/2 way through my 13 for 13 - the real challenge on Tuesday..
....maybe anyway. I've been told that the nearby lake may be open for open water swimming in which case I will be trekking up there with wetsuit, which poses a question - do you wear it in the car to drive there and look a little odd? or does one wrestle ones way into it upon arrival at the side of a cold lake? Who knows - and, faced with the prospect of getting into the cold lake - do I care if I drive up there looking like catwoman on her way to do, well whatever cat woman does? Or at least look as though I'm trying to look like cat woman - not sure she had quite the love of cakes that I do.

So at half way through the challenge I set for myself back in November last year, I'm about to face my most challenging one so far.  Part of the fun has been a saying yes to life really, playing with new things, trying stuff out and working more on things I've always wanted to give myself time to do.

 But open water swimming? Out of nowhere it came (or really I'd said no to it last year and it just came back again to tempt me). I love the idea and find it really appealing, but the reality? Tell you after Tuesday... my first outdoor session in preparation for my Great North Swim on the 23rd June.

If you'd like to sponsor me it's easy to do through Homeopathy Action Trust which means that Homeopathy for Health in Africa can get the Gift Aid on any money you donate too.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley1

 Coniston Lake on a cooler day (I hope it's warmer than this anyway!!)

My 13 for 13 so far
December - knitting
January - mindful meditation
February -pole dancing
March -  sewing
April - photography
May - crochet
June - open water swimming

Still to come yoga/pilates, guitar, roller blading, cooking/baking and two spaces to see what comes along...

Homeopathy and Sports

This year the Society of Homeopaths has focussed it's Homeopathy Awareness Week around sports and fitness, and with the Olympics fast coming upon us it seemed fitting that, unable to beat them, I join them!

It's maybe also a fitting place to mention my own sporting challenge - this year has been a year I've set aside for me, my fun, different activities to focus on that I may never have done or would like to do better and I gave myself a month to try out an activity.  It could be anything from meditation to guitar lessons, roller blading to knitting.  Interestingly, as an aside, on one exercise class it was great for me to overhear our instructor in my February challenge telling people in the group to take arnica to help with any bruising and that she should be on commission for all times she recommends arnica to people!  Good to hear the word is being shared...  At the start of my challenges, Nov 29th, last year, I had a lot of ideas of things I'd like to do but also some spaces in the 13th months ahead of me leading up to 2013.

Open water swimming was one that kind of crept up and took hold of me.  I now have a very fetching wetsuit, well OK, a wetsuit, the ability to swim a mile in a swimming pool, some borrowed goggles, and a place on the Great North Swim (a mile in Windermere), on the 23rd June, the day before the Olympic Torch goes through Skipton.

I've decided since I'm taking the plunge, I'd like to use the opportunity to raise some money through sponsorship and am donating this to Homeopathy for Health in Africa.  I'd love to raise at least £500 so if you could I'd really appreciate it if you'd sponsor me - it's easy to donate here.
In my head it's going to be a little like this....

so I do appreciate any pennies I get that am able to pass on to HHA!

Onto the newsletter...

As ever if there's anything you'd like to see mentioned in a newsletter, want to find out more about homeopathy or to book an appointment, feel free to get in touch at either em@homeopathyskipton.co.uk, through the Craven Clinic on 01756 796690 or direct on 07734 861297.

Like a Bridge over Troubled Water

I've over indulged in Sex and The City recently and amused myself that lots of my mental wanderings begin with 'I got to wondering...' a phrase used often by Carrie Bradshaw in the series...

So in my nothing like Carrie Bradshaw attire I walked around Embsay reservoir about 7am on a beautiful Saturday morning and, inspired by a little foot bridge, I got to wondering about water, bridges, life, and all sorts.  Mainly does such a thing exist as troubled water? My initial answer was a definite no.  The water itself isn't troubled, that's an emotion we give to it from our perspective.  We've decided it's troubled and oddly enough, til that point I'd probably sung along to Simon and Garfunkel and accepted that it was.  However each water molecule is just being. Perfectly balanced, in tune with where it's supposed to be in the world, be that swirling, falling, crashing into a lake from a 50ft waterfall or lapping the ocean shores.  I moved onto the metaphors with life and how we experience it.  Sometimes life is crashing, freefalling, smooth, beautiful, challenging to negotiate - but troubled? I'm not sure it has to be if we're able to be present in the moment, experiencing it to the full and aware of ourselves.

So after my initial - water can't be troubled moment, I walked on, enjoying the sunshine, the gentle breeze (OK - not quite true... the strong winds), the clanking of the boat masts but then played devil's advocate which I do tend to... What about the incredible work done by Dr Masuro Emoto on the crystals made by water after different words had been said, meditations done and from different sources?  The video attached gives some idea as to the concept here.  The research found that hateful, unpleasant words made disordered, messy crystals and the most beautiful crystals were from pure mountain sources when the words love and gratitude were spoken or thought of.

So maybe I need to backtrack.  It would appear that water can be troubled, less happy but when it's doing it's thing, free and in the moment, my guess is that troubled water doesn't really exist.

How long will it take?

is often a question we, or really I as I can only fairly speak for myself, am asked.  The answer is not a straightforward one - pretty much like my earlier wafflings on who might come to see a homeopath with what presenting complaint (or reason for walking through the door).

Not everything is a quick fix, although having said that other people can take one remedy, find their problem resolved and walk through the rest of their life with ease.  Difficult to say but this latter type of people may not have been suffering / experiencing their complaint for a long time.  Some homeopaths give an equation around the amount of time someone has had the complaint eg 12 years, and feel that it would take 12 months or so to help them to move to a place of better health ie a month for every year.

I struggle to pick an equation or decide a fixed amount although I think that is as much about me as anything else - I struggled to find a 'routine' with my daughter and even when we did get somewhere such like I insisted in calling it a 'pattern' as felt less fixed to me.  I also eat largely organic, frequently vegetarian food and don't drink alcohol very often - however wouldn't want to label myself with any of these and want to be able to move freely and do as I like (to a limit!)

And although I am often fairly patient, I think I'm somewhat impatient when it comes to wanting to see results - I like to see changes by the first follow up appointment - this doesn't mean I always do, and also am aware sometimes the remedy needs changing, tweaking, giving in a higher potency or it may have been slow to start acting.  So I suppose what I'm saying is that as a result of this desire I work hard to get as good a remedy match for a person as possible - this is one 'box' I'm OK about putting myself into.  And where the results mightn't have been as good as hoped, often after that 2nd appointment you can get closer and more of a change is noted. Cases can be harder to 'crack' - after all we're complex and so very individual things us humans - I'm fairly tough on myself - and I probably often forget that frequently people are coming to see us Homeopaths after they've been through the NHS system and found themselves at the end of the line with either drug choices or options.

But hey - that's how I found myself sitting in front of a Homeopath - no options for frequent headaches and migraines apart from Migraleve as required then Beta Blockers and now I can't remember my last migraine and headaches few and far between.  I am grateful on a daily basis that I'm involved with this amazing system of complementary medicine and the journey that it has brought me on.