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.

Destination Unknown

I have, as I explained yesterday to the group of women I meet - all brilliant self employed business women from very different businesses - been playing ipod roulette recently.  Probably sounds a tad more glamourous than it is that way - ipod shuffle on a non-glam moment!  It's been really quite amazing and brought up some incredibly relevant songs for the mood or place I was in at the time.  After a day with some equally brilliant women at a session in Manchester where we dealt with everything from birth to death in very moving ways my treat was Beautiful World by Take That which seemed to sum up the day well.

So back to yesterdays treat - a Top Gun classic - Destination Unknown.  I thought about the song as I drove to the meeting and it's relevance to life as I'm knowing it.  As I explained to them, I knew what I was going to be when I was 7.  I had a great plan at 16 and at 17 entered my destination unknown phase.  No longer was I about to be a vet (latterly an equine acupuncturist - I hadn't realised that by 7, it was just a vet), I really didn't know where to go.  So I found something that fascinated me and did it.  I went to Manchester and studied Psychology and Neuroscience.  By then my horse had been treated with Homeopathy which that was great (no more sedating and steroid injections into her eyelid, or wearing pirate masks with one eye blacked out so she could go out on sunny days - hoorah!) but no idea where I was heading. 

Time passed and much as I loved my course I always knew I was alternatively bound. But where? So I went to Australia.  And loved it.  And returned.  Life at the time was 'interesting', I was sent to see my Homeopath by my mum - probably because she'd had enough!  It was my Homeopath at the time who suggested Homeopathy and that made absolute sense.  Once again something that absolutely fascinated me.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that I've ended up in an incredible place where I love what I do by no grand plan but by doing what made me tick.  I've had lots of plans along the way and still make them now, mixed in with my To Do lists, separately or verbally and whilst I do follow them to some extent I feel it's important to make your own path flexible if need be, follow opportunities that arise and feel good, and, most of all to follow your heart.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or When is a Mistake not a Mistake?

I'm finding it interesting that I keep trying to write this blog and then deleting it and coming back to it in a few days. Presumably I think I'm making mistakes with it...

However what I'm trying to get across, through my starts and stops and starts again is that magical knowledge (maybe it's taken off us when we're given a pencil and it's natural accompaniment - the eraser - at an early stage) that there are no mistakes.

To explain I'll draw a little from my personal experience - I've had situations that have ended and thought 'What WAS I thinking?', however, with enough distance from the event it's been so clear that that experience led me to that next stage.  Just like childhood illnesses are often followed by a period of accelerated growth or learning, I've seen that my 'mistakes' haven't after all been 'failures' at all but steps to a far, far better place.  I've learnt some of my best lessons and grown so much from life from these events that really I have to thank my best teachers and appreciate the journey.

As my dad would say 'It all makes up life's rich tapestry' and I'm inclined to absolutely agree.

What would the average person coming for Homeopathy be, say or have?

I've been asked this a few times recently so have been pondering and musing more over it, particularly on my walk this morning, but really getting no further than my initial response. 

'Anyone, anything or anything really.'

It really doesn't get any more complicated than that. Or more simple whichever way you wish to look at it really.

I might see people who have a cold, prescribe remedies to help with healing from an operation, or see someone with hayfever, ulcerative collitis, migraines, chronic pain, ezcema, anxiety, depression, IBS symptoms, not feeling quite right but can't put a finger on it, (just thinking of a few examples from the couple of wks) or really absolutely anything you can think of.  Which makes it difficult, or easy to answer the question.

It doesn't matter about the age - my youngest client to date (apart from babies whose mum's have taken remedies to try and kick start their labour) is 4 weeks old and oldest nearly 90.

Distance really isn't an issue - although it's great to work from the Craven Clinic I am looking into working with Skype so am available longer distances than I used to be.

So really all there is is I could be about to see 'Anyone, saying anything and having anything really.'  And that would be something I really love about my job.

If you've been wondering whether Homeopathy might be of benefit to you feel free to get in touch - it'd be great to hear from you.