For me holidaying and homeopathy go hand in hand...

My kit means that we've lots of things to hand that can help us with first aid type situations from splinters to sickness and bruising to bellyache.

However you don't need to buy a kit to get the benefits (although I do recommend them and wouldn't want to be without mine!) - you can just get a couple of bottles of remedies from Boots or a Health Food Shop to get you started and gradually build on it from there.  I thought I'd suggest 10 remedies here that are ones I'd recommend as a starter kit...

What to start with? Arnica springs to mind as one of the most well known and with due cause (I was recently listening to a dance teacher wax lyrical about it and how she should be given shares in Arnica sales as she's always recommending it).  You can buy an arnica cream as well but the remedy is one I think anyone should be well stocked up with.  Great for bruising but also wonderful for helping with jet lag for those longer holidays.  Good for people in shock as well - particularly where they say they're fine but clearly they aren't.

Apis, whilst we're on the A's, is another good one to have to hand - good for stings, especially insects but also burns as well - use where the skin is red and inflammed and feels better from a cold application.

Arsenicum is great to have to hand and is best known for it's use after food poisoning.  Often the person may have burning pains and discharges yet feel chilly.

Belladonna is worth having for those sudden onset fevers - come on rapidly and the inflamed area/person is burning up, hot and red.  A rapid pulse, they may be angry and a good keynote is that they are thirsty and may desire lemonade.

Cantharis which is thought of highly for intense burns and sunburn is well worth a mention - pains are cutting and burning. people needing it have an intense thirst but feel worse for drinking - particularly cold drinks.  Also helpful in cystitis.

Hypericum is brilliant for nerve injuries - particularly to nerve rich areas such as trapping your hand/fingers in the door or falling and hurting your back.  The pains feel to shoot along the nerves and are better for warmth.

Ledum - great for puncture wounds such as bites from animals and insects, area is swollen, blue and cold but feels worse for heat and better for cold applications. Also good for black eyes when that campsite game of rounders goes wrong (although thinking a friendly tennis ball shot by mistake rather than a scrap).

A holiday kit can't go without a mention of Nux Vomica - the number one hangover remedy! In fact each time I create a list of remedies - party season, holidays etc Nux Vom seems to get included.  Over indulgence of food and drinks can be eased with the remedy (no place for lectures from me that maybe you shouldn't have overindulged in the first place - it is all about the holiday after all!)  Good planners can take one tablet a couple of hours before going to bed for best results (although plenty are known to take it the morning after).

Rhus Tox would be your first to think of in the case of sprains and strains.  Pains are usually around joints which ache and feel stiff and sore.  Pain is worse on first movement but eases with continued movement.

Lastly for my group of ten is Silica which is great for helping to force out splinters, foreign bodies or hard plugs of ear wax.  It does come with a warning though and is advisable not to use it if you have a pacemaker, metal pins, breast implants etc.  Good also for painless wounds which are slow to heal.

When taking remedies and you've determined which you'd like to take by matching the description of the remedy to that the person is experiencing take one tablet and wait.  Should symptoms improve don't take anymore until they return.  If nothing happens you can repeat the remedy after a time (say around 20 minutes for acute situations) and wait.  If after 4 doses of the remedy there's been no change it's worth re- looking at the symptoms and checking the remedy matched what was going on for the person.

If in doubt in a first aid situation always call for medical assistance before prescribing remedies.

Lastly just to mention that if you need any help with any of the above or have any questions on matters homeopathic, feel free to get in touch either through email em@homeopathyskipton.co.uk, through the clinic 01756 796690 or direct on my mobile 07734 861297 (please leave a message if I'm not able to answer and I'll get back to you as soon as I can).

Our Great (in the North) Swim and Dalai Lama wisdom

I feel like I've been talking about it for ages, blogging about it forever and finally I've done it. Well, kind of anyway.  Weather conditions were such that the Great North Swim was cancelled on the day we were due to swim so that was off.  As the Dalai Lama said when I saw him speak on Sunday (amazing, inspiring and moving as well as full of humour and humility); “If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”

We were all set for a film afternoon when a text came asking if I wanted to swim a mile in an alternative location. About turn again and off we set!  Off to Capernwray Dive Centre which was just outstanding.  The disused quarry setting meant the water was calmer - with still some waves which were fab - and so beautiful. Flowers growing on the rock face, beautiful clear blue water and fish - lovely fish that I didn't expect to like and really did!

I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who's sponsored me - so far I've raised over £300 for Homeopathy for Health in Africa which I know will be put to great use and really appreciated. I'd still like to raise more and with another swim coming up I'm extending the date I can recieve sponsorship to the end of July 2012 so if you haven't and you'd like to then it's easy to do here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley1

After a week which started on Sunday with the Dalai Lama then to Dynamis to learn for the week - camping, bonfire, solstice party and dancing in the rain under the trees it was a fitting end to be peacefully swimming in a serene, beautiful setting with a good friend.  And for more feisty race swimming, I'll be at the Epic swim event at Ullswater on the 15th of July to do another mile... that's if we don't swap to the 3.8km swim...

Open water swimming and great big fish...

Well, after last years saying no to the Great North Swim this year it was a big YES (well probably quite a timid, shy one really but it's a far more confident one now)!

Open water swimming became June's challenge on my 13 challenges (or playtimes) leading up to 2013 and has been a lot of work, learning, discoveries - and fun!  I thought I'd like the concept but not the reality (the cold, huge fish and enormous weeds bothered me) but it turns out although I'm a little bit less happy with the weeds, I've not seen an enormous fish in either Coniston Hotel lake or Malham Tarn as yet and I can deal with the cold.  I'm raising money for Homeopathy for Health in Africa - of course - who are doing such incredible life changing work in Tanzania.  They work largely with people who have HIV and AIDS, using Homeopathy alongside the conventional medication their patients are on.  So far I have been pledged over half of my £500 target and it would be wonderful to smash through this altogether.  If you'd like to sponsor me the link here will take you to the page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/emmacolley1

Reflecting last night whilst swimming and looking back over the time since I started this mission back on the 29th November, there's been a whole lot of 'I can''s going on - I have learnt lots of new skills, revisited old ones, become more adept or at least less rusty at others.  It's been an incredibly positive experience which I would recommend to anyone and am so very pleased I started it. 

Next stop T'ai Chi July and roller blading August - eeeeekkkk!!

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.