You are currently browsing the archives for April 2009

Vibrating Platform …

  • April 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm

Vibration Training

Vibrating PlatformWhat I like about this handy, simple and effective gizmo, the Health Mark VF8 Platform whole-body vibration therapy machine is its the compact size and storage ability.  Obviously its not so light to travel with, but its ideal for the home or office … as you can place it wherever the mood takes you and just start your ‘work-out’.  Meanwhile all your friends and colleagues are getting their gym kit together and stressing about paying for a membership they are not taking full (if any) advantage of.

Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineGoing by the great name of the ‘Vibrating Plate Machines’ is due to the fact that you get a full body workout with so little impact, in either time or energy … its so 21st century. And of course some of us haven’t yet grasped how easy exercising can be now (if we embrace it) or perhaps we find it difficult to believe that ‘it does what it says on the tin’ …

After all it goes against everything we’ve been taught about keeping fit and how hard it is to burn off the calories, etc, so we’re expect exercise to be ‘hard work’ and good health to be something we chase.  This new information may seem contrary and ‘wrong’.  But of course that’s what they said to Christopher Columbus when he said ‘the world was round’ … Ah!  Yet another break-through to challenge our 20th-century thinking …

Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineThis technology works and this machine has all the qualities we’ve come to expect of these great vibrating platforms and this one has a great transport-ability factor …

Product Features:

  • Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineWhole-body vibration therapy machine for working core muscles and improving health
  • 2. 5-speed settings
  • 15-minute accumulative timer
  • Lift weights
  • Hold various stretch positions
  • Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineSupports up to 300 pounds (including dumbbells)
  • Consists of a 35 x 8 x 14-inch (W x H x D) vibrating platform on which you can stand, sit, or lean,
  • A remote LED controller
  • A pair of strap handles

Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineThis Great Device Helps To:

  • Builds bone density and muscle mass
  • Massage sore muscles
  • Decrease joint pain
  • Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineObesity
  • Osteoporosis

Increasing:

  • Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy MachineFlexibility
  • Posture

Product Description

Exercises several core muscles at the same time and improve your overall physical health. The ‘Osci Stadium’ which automatically engages the muscle groups in your abdomen, back, legs, waist, and rear, by employing the same technology used by strength-athletes over the last four decades to improve big-meet performance.

The device works by oscillating in several directions while you sit, lift weights, or stretch on the vibrating platform. As the machine moves, your body’s core adjusts to the movements, helping activate your neglected muscles, boost your balance, and improve your physical health.

Why Is This Technology So Effective

Researchers have found that rapid, whole-body vibration builds bone density and muscle mass, loosens and massages sore muscles, improves circulation, and can decrease chronic joint pain. Best of all, it’s completely low impact, so you can build strength without compromising your joints.

I hope you enjoy this Vibrating Platform technology Health Mark VF81003 Osci Stadium Whole Body Vibration Therapy Machine as much as I do and I look forward to hearing your comments.

Jane

Music – Leonard Cohen …

  • April 21, 2009 at 9:48 am

Hallelujah – He’s Still Singing!

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Music   Leonard Cohen ...I got a message from a friend, Victoria, on Facebook who has lots of photo’s on there and I was mooching around as you do and saw a reference to seeing Leonard Cohen in January.  So I was straight back on it :)

We to’d and fro’d with messages … I went to Glastonbury last summer simply to see The Man … (he is!) … A couple of friends, Alanah and Mark, had a stall at the festival (selling a great alternative to the plastic carrier bag) … and I was lucky enough to go help them out in return for the privilege.

So it was my first time at a summer event that has become the biggest and one of the longest running festivals, yet strangely my first visit, I say strangely because back in the day … they were an integral part of the summer season.

So Victoria and I have agreed to find one of his UK concerts this year and head out to watch or more importantly listen to him.  So what’s the relevance to this site … Well its the ‘feel good factor’ through the warmth of friends and music … a great combination.  Didn’t someone once say that ‘music soothes the savage beast’ … It taps into something quite primeval … as does dance and there’s nothing quite like a bit of ‘arms flailing’ abandoned (dance like no-one is watching) dancing.

Inner Calm

leonard cohen with hat 150 2625110452 2620db9ace Music   Leonard Cohen ...And no-one understands wild abandonment better than Leonard Cohen, with his deeply resonant liquid gold vocals, the poetic lyrics, Eastern European sounding string instruments, the warm musical tones and his gorgeous backing singers.  And although its very well documented as to what led him getting ‘back on the road’ … I think he’s loving it too.  When I saw him none of the kids around me knew his music, by the end they were wowed!

Who wouldn’t love such a raconteur as the space between songs grew to equal importance, as we hung on his every word.  He flirted on some occasions and humbly doffed his trilby at others, and sometimes just stood in silence bathing in the audiences appreciation.  He has a wry sense of humor and is simply adored.

I’m very happy the tour continues into 2009 and checking out dates for Victoria, who wants to come over to the UK to see him, I can see he’s playing all over Europe … wonderful news … may he never retire!

And just in case it wasn’t clear, :) he was magnificent, perfect delivery in every which way. Where most other acts filled their 60-minute set Cohen almost touched 2-hrs.  He understood the value of over-delivery and wanted to give back to the crowd.  I hadn’t seen him perform before (so nothing to compare) but it seemed as though the 5-yrs he spent in seclusion, at the Mount Baldy Zen Centre (ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk in 1994) were evident from his beautiful stillness.

Although I’m not sure where I’ll be watching him … I’m excited at the prospect and looking forward to it …

Jane

Go listen to this wonderful extract ….

Crystals – Tiger Eye …

  • April 20, 2009 at 10:58 pm

Stone and Crystals

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Crystals   Tiger Eye ...There is a lot of talk about Abundance and this week I am starting on an EFT …. trial with AnaMarie Herrara who is going to specialise in using EFT for Abundance, to support people in moving ’stuck’ habits and behaviors around money and finances …

It shows the correct use of power and the owner … The colors are yellow-brown to golden which high  light chatoyance.

Promoting Clarity of Intention

This stone is useful in identifying your needs and those of other.  It goes that step further as it differentiates between what you need and what the wishful thinking of what you think you need.

Its a stone of the Physical, Practical with Vitality.  Through the Chakras it comes from the root and solar plexus to stimulate action for self and others through grounding and focus.

It aids in engaging the powers of concentration and enables these to focus through the earth-bound requirements of the pragmatic, yet yielding to those around and ensuring that all needs are served.  Its especially effective for the manifestation of all forms and ensures intuitive synchronicity if one allows oneself up to it.

The practical reigns and clarity, concentration, especially where precision is needed.  Its great for anxiety making moments such as exam nerves, public speaking and meeting new people.

Tiger Eye

  1. Aids concentration on the task in hand
  2. Brings clarity of mind
  3. Encourages us to achieve our goals
  4. Enhance our decision-making abilities
  5. Grounds negative energy to the earth to be transmuted
  6. Highlights abilities and strengths
  7. Abundance – Manifests the things we want in life by attracting the right situation, person or opportunity
  8. Chakras – Solar Plexus (3rd) : Sexual/Creative (2nd) : Base (1st)
  9. Physical - Assists the eyes : Throat : Circulation  : Reproductive system
  10. Psychological – Lack of Self-Esteem : Self-Worth : Stress (including Exams, Presentations and Meetings)

This stone works particularly well when partnered with Moldavite as its positive transformational energy together with Tiger Eye invigorating energy help unstick us from held places and ruts.

Jane

Yoga – Pose of a Child …

  • April 19, 2009 at 2:02 am

Confusion

The StarThere seem to be different names for Pose of a Child as the Iyengar class I began Yoga with (8-yrs ago) called this posture by another name.  And their Pose of a Child was the one where you take your arms to the side and towards the back of you where your hands are somewhere by the sides of your ankles.

However when I started practicing the Scaravelli way (taught by Heart of Yoga trained teachers, James Jewell and Erica Rasmussen) who taught in Folkestone, I much preferred their Pose of a Child, because it felt more comfortable.   And this resonates with a style of Yoga which is more about what feels right for the body, rather than inflicting a strong regime on the body that it has to adhere to.

The Pose

yoga poac free iofoto080200477 Yoga   Pose of a Child ...This is usually applied in conjunction with the Down Face Dog and is found to act as a pause, or punctuation to the Down Faced Dog movement.

The Down Face Dog has usually been worked towards in the practice (as it is a strong pose) and will be carried out several times with the Pose of a Child acting coming at the end of the sentence, as a respite, where you will rest and restore in readiness to start a Down Face Dog again.

The Instructions

  1. If you look at the picture above
  2. You are stretching forwards from the same point as in Tadasana, the lower back to middle
  3. The upper part is going forwards, culminating in the arms being outstretched on the ground
  4. The lower part is sitting back on the heels as much as possible
  5. Neither should compensate for the other
  6. If one of them has to yield it should be the upper body as the emphasis tips towards being on the heels
  7. If the imbalance is too great and the bottom is too far from the heels then the arms/hands should rest on a block rather than reach beyond their capability
  8. Alternatively you can rest your head on a block
  9. You should feel balance and take your attention into the two-way stretch
  10. Explore it and find out what that is telling you
  11. Be easy with it

Then you’re ready to go back into Down Face Dog.

When carrying out this posture with the Iyengar teacher she would come around to the students who weren’t managing to get their buttocks onto their heels (me included) and sit on your bottom (facing away from you) to draw the lower back and buttocks away from the torso.  It gave you a good stretch, but in hindsight it says more about the western Iyengar approach than it does about my limitations in the pose.

What have your experiences of the Pose of a Child been like?  Please share your experiences and get in contact.

Jane

Johan Ekenberg – Cancelled …

  • April 18, 2009 at 10:56 pm

The Seminar and The Workshop

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Johan Ekenberg   Cancelled ...Unfortunately the Seminar with Johan was canceled as too was the Workshop that should have been held today!  What a shame … but there was just no interest and think this may have been due to Lack of Interest … Is the UK just not ready for this wonderful stuff!   Is it just too ‘touchy feely’ for us stale-whart Brits with our STIFF upper lips?

Out of My Comfort Zone

I’m so disappointed … I was looking forward to stepping out of my comfort zone … and into a bit of the unknown!

However Cim Bartlett and Johan are coming back in the summer … around July and Johan will have a book out by then … good times …

Jane

Crystals – Rose Quartz …

  • April 17, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Stone and Crystals

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Crystals   Rose Quartz ...I’m in the process of opening up to the mystical world of Stones and Crystals in all their ancient beauty. Its apparent that each has its own empowering characteristic to convey.

Some people can physically detect the energy of crystals while holding them and although we may not sense them this way, they make their presence felt. I’ve found them calming in meditation where their individuality filters through and some enable a great depth in super quick time. If you allow them to they can become an integral part of your personal journey and they have a knack of showing up at the most appropriate moment.

The Calming Effect

a range of rose quartz martinan081000210 Crystals   Rose Quartz ...I first bought some Rose Quartz on recommendation from a hypnotherapist friend some time ago. She told of their calming ‘grounding’ quality that takes you out of your head and into your heart … And my experiences have shown this.

I visited my local high street where Sheila Baynham runs Rainbow Bridge Crystals in Folkestone (a seaside town). She loves her shop and has an innate intuition for them. You can go along with an idea of getting a present for someone and before you’ve given any background she’ll just tell you what you came in for and she’s uncannily accurate …

Rose Quartz

  • Unconditional love and infinite peace
  • It draws away negativity and replaces it with lovely feelings
  • Excellent for use in trauma
  • Emotionally this is the best healing stone
  • Good for attracting a love partner
  • Very good for Alzheimer’s : Parkinson’s : Senile Dementia
  • Chakras – Heart (inner healing and self-love)
  • Physical – Adrenals : Circulation : Fertility : Kidneys : Mid-life crisis : Vertigo

Jane

Crystals – Green Amethyst …

  • April 16, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Stone and Crystals

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Crystals   Green Amethyst ...My working with Stones and Crystals is progressing well as I find the calming centre that they offer. especially in their assistance during Meditation.    I bought a Green Amethyst at Sheila’s Rainbow Crystals with the sole purpose of getting better motivated because at that time, I had poor sleeping and eating patterns.

Lifting the Mood

green amethyst free lapidaries090300139 Crystals   Green Amethyst ...

The attributes of the Amethyst crystal are the same whatever the color.

Although the picture of the green crystal here is quite green and glacier looking, they can be rather opaque and vary greatly in color, bordering on pale white with tinges of green through to turquoise looking and the better known purple varieties. Its usually the choice at the time.

My philosophy is to chose from the presented range in good faith that it will provide you what you need at the time, the emphasis being on the energy it emits as opposed to the look.  If you’re anything like me the aesthetic comes into play. But doesn’t it all come round to the same thing anyway?  Any Crystal seller will guide you to let your Intuition come forth when selecting, and its as well to follow their good sense, as they tend to know a thing or three.

Amethyst is also known to help with over-indulgence and addiction.  It’s also great for enhancing the environment and inducing calm.

Green Amethyst

  • A very spiritual stone that enhaces psychic ability
  • Lifts the mood and calms the mind
  • Brings contentment and harmony
  • Chakras – Heart (to aid past hurt and release emotional blockages)
  • Physical – Arthritis : Depression : Insomnia : Headaches : Hormone (production increase) : Memory : Motivation : Nightmares
  • Psychological – aids with Overeating : Smoking : Alcohol : Drug Addiction

Jane





Yoga – Standing Forward Bend …

  • April 15, 2009 at 10:19 am

Legs Up The Wall

The StarWell this pose doesn’t necessarily have a name … or not that I know of … can’t say I’ve seen it in books …

But its an incredible tool for revitalizing at the end of a busy work-day … that time between the day and the evening … just before you eat … when you feel the need of something and if you don’t STOP and take a breathe … you can so easily take yourself into a completely different direction to the one you wanted …

A Tricky Time of Day

This is the time when we need to take a moment and re-charge the batteries. So to the process:

  • Start by lying on your back
  • Have your bottom right next to a skirting board in the room
  • Which means the legs have no place to go, but up the wall
  • The legs can fall apart as far as is comfortable, as they rest against the wall
  • Its important for the bottom to be snugly up against the wall with as little space between them, to create a right angle
  • The feet need to be flat out, away from the wall, meaning they should not just slump but instead be themselves at a right angle
  • The arms fall to the side and can relax out from the sides of the body, as feels comfortable
  • Close the eyes and relax
  • Rest there for as long as feels comfortable
  • This provides a great rejuvenation

Perpendicular Creatures

The benefits are manifold, in the main because the legs carry so much of the body’s debris.  As we are perpendicular creatures, spending most of our time either standing upright or sitting down, gravity takes it toll and rubbish collects and sinks into the leg and ankle area.  This pose provides an ‘antidote’ to gravity and allows waste, etc, to galvanize and make its way back up the body.

Iyengar

Gary Carter (my teacher on an Anatomy and Physiology course for Yoga Teachers) stated that Iyengar once said that the diaphragm was another muscle, but he wouldn’t want the west to know it because they would use it as such.  Wat he meant was that

  • The west overuse and abuse the muscular system
  • That the diaphragm has a connection with the leg muscles
  • That the breathe can be used to make that connection
  • Then a realignment can be made to re-balance the imbalance that gravity causes
  • In other words if we just go about life and don’t re-adjust this then the waste materials will continue to collect in the calves and ankes in particular
  • Realignment is imjportant and that broad calves indicate a lack of movement which indicates a dis-function in the system

And Relax

Once the Rejuvenation is complete, you can get on with the rest of the day …  Have you got any other suggestions along similar lines?  Do get in touch and share … would love to hear from your ideas.

Jane

Meditation …

  • April 10, 2009 at 3:53 pm

Research

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Meditation ...According to this Research Site more than 600 research studies have been published on the Transcendental Meditation program (alone) in more than 160 scientific journals in 33 countries.

And Doctors are increasingly being found to recommend it as a healing tool and research has shown that its good for us in the following areas to name but a few …

  1. Decreases Medical Care Utilization and Hospitalization
  2. Reduces Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors
  3. Lowers Blood Pressure
  4. Decreases Cholesterol
  5. Reduces Congestive Heart Failure
  6. Decreases Free Radicals
  7. Reduces Metabolic Syndrome/Pre-Diabetes
  8. Decreases Depression, Anxiety and Insomnia

snowflake water crystal pattern aqua kgtoh0812009111 Meditation ...The many benefits medically proven to occur from the simple action (or non-action) that is taken when we engage in the process of withdrawing into ourselves continues to be scrutinized equally by western medicine and alternative treatments far and wide.  There is resounding agreement that the body at rest (once or twice a day) provides vast benefits and this is what gives Meditation such a great reputation.

The Range

And Transcendental Meditation, which I learned back in the 1980’s, is just one of many meditation practices.  I prefer to free-fall and draw on a raft of hypnotic deepening tools and visualization techniques to get into a meditation.  Its all about personal choice and will soon be providing  a range of  suggestions.  Its simply a matter of finding the best ‘fit’ for you and really is each to their own, so it may involve testing out a few different methods until you find one you really like.  As with all things keep at it until you find one or two that work well for you.

If You Don’t Go Within You Go Without

I heard this phrase from a wonderful Yoga teacher, James Jewell www.yogamountainyogasea.com – whose very memorable Yoga Retreat, in Andalusia, I attended almost 3-yrs ago.

Meditation is increasingly being recommended as a place of personal retreat … to find our inner connectivity with what I would consider to be a universal energy grid, similar to how electricity works.  It can be so deep and restful, where the mind can clear, and often a wonderful nugget of clarity will just drop in there to play out as intuition.

The Release

The act of meditation simply requires a peaceful environment, it need not be a santuary, and 5-minutes is better than nothing at all.  The 1960’s  hippy image of eating macrobiotic foods, dancing round a fire waving Tingsha bells is wholly acceptable but by no-means essential.  Meditation now has a modern image, possibly hanging on the coat-tails in association with Yoga, which itself is experiencing great popularity and re-invention.  And as with lots of great complementary remedies, Meditation is beginning to take its deserved position as yet another ancient practice that has been revived, as we begin to open our hearts and minds to the ancient past of perceived wisdom.

The beauty of Meditation, is the simplicity of its gift to ourselves.  And you can always burn an oil (in a water diffuser), an incense stick or an oil to enhance the experience.

Jane

Johan Ekenberg – How Alive are You …

  • April 9, 2009 at 11:34 pm

Rediscover Your Sparkle

Tranquility Centre logo 50 Johan Ekenberg   How Alive are You ...A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Workshop in London on the weekend from 17-19 April to discover your passion.  Following Johan’s visit to the UK to run ‘Discover your Sensuality and Sexuality’ workshop in Woking last weekend, there has been a change of plan and instead there are now 2 different events you can attend.

The Seminar

On Friday the 17th there is a 2-hr Seminar where Johan Ekenberg talks about ‘The Essential You’  teaching how to discover your essence and how to tap into it in order to improve relationships.   The message is in wakening up the senses and engaging fully with life.  Only £15.00 …

You can watch a short video * where Johan describes it better.

* This is unsuitable viewing if you are sensitive to crude ‘body parts’ language (or anyone under 18-yr).

The Workshop

Following his sell-out courses in Scandinavia Johan Ekenberg, the Swedish equivalent to TV’s ”The Sex Inspectors’ is introduced to the UK for the first time by Cim Bartlett, The Sparkle Coach and Owner of Rediscover Your Sparkle.  Ekenberg’s – Sex: A Highway to the Divine is an introductory workshop which guarantees to show you how to approach sex from a heartfelt intimacy that can make a positive impact on other areas of your life.

During the Weekend Learn How to

  1. Increase your sexual confidence and competence
  2. Have a better relationship with your body and emotions
  3. Make a deeper connection with your inner self
  4. Feel more sensual
  5. Get more fun out of life

Improve Your Love and Sex Life – Live from Your Passions

  1. When  – Saturday, 18  April 2009, 9AM- 9PM (latest) I day only
  2. Where – Mysteries Bookshop Reading Room – Covent Garden – London
  3. Cost   – £75.00

About the Workshop – Sex A Highway to the Divine

Both Johan and Cim, the course organizer, assert that most of us have a much greater capability of love and creativity than we are aware. And that its possible to see a partner with new eyes, with or without their being present, and reach a place of intimacy where love can flourish.  The workshop is suitable for singles, couples or anyone who wants to go along without a partner.  Go here to check out Cim’s site and book your place today

Jane