Getting older

I recently had to renew my 10 year passport and I had to have the dreaded passport photo taken - I hated it - thought I looked old and weird!

I compared it with the photo in my old passport and wished I could go on using the old photo.

Then I remembered at the time I had hated that photo - thought I looked old and weird!

So, in 10 years time I guess I'll like my exisiting passport photo.

Which set me thinking - why do I have to wait 10 years to appreciate what I am now? OK I am getting older but I still have energy, my eye sight, my hearing .. I can still run and bike .. the physical body isn't in that bad shape ..

Dust If You Must..

Yesterday I went to the dentist for a check-up (nothing needed). While I was waiting to see the dentist I picked up a magazine and came across a lovely quote - here's part of it:

Dust if you must,
but there is not much time
with rivers to swim
and mountains to climb.
Unknown author

It really made me smile. I've used it on http://www.sportandme.com in the Sport For Women sub-section of sport for all.

I've really enjoyed getting quotes for the web site. How about -

"Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face."Dave Barry

or

"A runner runs against himself, against the best that's in him."
Bill Persons

or

"I love sport because I love life, and sport is one of the basic joys of life." Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian Poet, b.1933)

I love adding stuff to my web sites - it's great to know I can think of an idea in the morning, write about it and that by late afternoon someone somewhere will be reading it. Much more satisfying than writing books, although in the new year I do intend to get on and finish the revision of Geopathic Stress, but I may not write any more books after that.

Still pursuing good news

Although I feel that alternative medicine could really help people in Africa - it's low tech and it works - I was also heartened by this news:

Of the more than 100 billion dollars spent each year on health research and development, only ten percent goes into treating ninety percent of the world's health problems, found mostly in the developing world. Dr. Victoria Hale saw that part of the reason was that the pharmaceutical industry had traded its aim of developing affordable drugs to those in need, to a profit-seeking one. So, she founded OneWorld Health, the world's first nonprofit pharmaceutical company, with the mission to research, test, manufacture, and distribute effective and inexpensive medicines for people with infectious diseases in developing countries.

http://charityfocus.org/php-bin/qad.php?n=2060a

Good news ..

this is proving much more difficult than I anticipated - I did a web search on "good news" and didn't come up with anything useful - I hadn't realised this was going to be this difficult - I haven't put anything on Health and Goodness yet - it will have to wait till I get at least a few things

Good News & Happiness

I'm about to add a page (that will hopefully get very long) to my web site http://www.healthandgoodness.com for 'Good News'.

There's an awful lot of bad news out there, and while it's important o be aware of it and strive to improve things, we need to focus on what's good. I realise that 'good news' is a difficult term to define - I'm pleased that McDonalds is beginning to struggle, but if you've got shares in McDonalds you won't consider this good news, but I think there are some things that most sane people can agree on.

Here's some good news about smoking to start us off:

28% of men and 26% of women were cigarette smokers in 2001, which is very different from the early 1970’s when around 50% of men and 40% of women smoked.

Any good news - it can be personal random acts of kindness you've received or global improvements?

Alternative Medicine Interviews

as you may know I'm doing a series of interviews with alternative medicine practitioners for my web site http://www.healthandgoodness.com . I'm really enjoying them. I could get info on therapies from books or web sites, but the interviews give a real life to what I write.

Some of the interviewees have found the process very interesting too. Often they say they work with it all the time but having to distil out what makes their therapy special is very difficult.

I have grand plans for this bit of the web site - I intend that by the end of August 2006 I will have 10,000 therapists listed in the free international listing section, that I will have interviews for most of the therapies, that there will be a glossary covering words like chakra etc., that there will be a big symptom list cross-referenced to the therapies, and that there will be a summary of some of the positive research on alternative medicine. A major project but I'm excited about it

Christmas Stress

It’s sad that many of us associate Christmas with stress rather than happiness. This can be because we are not with the people we want to be with. It can be because we are with people we don’t want to be with. It can be because we feel there is too much to do, or not enough money to do what we want.

Quite a few years ago I decided I would answer the question - have you had a nice Christmas? - truthfully. Instead of saying something non-commital, I told people the truth - I'm not a fan of Christmas and I find it stressful. I was amazed at the number of people who looked totally relieved and said something like "I feel like that it - it's wonderful to find someone who also feels like that." Now things are more in the open, but still many of us feel the pressure to enjoy it.

If you flinch at any mention of Christmas prior to mid December, my defence is that I write a monthly column for my local newspaper and they've asked me to write about Christmas and stress for the December edition (out next week).

Babies, Web Sites & Journalism

What a mixture but it makes life interesting.

Last week I went on a journalism course at the Arvon foundation. Fascinating. I really enjoyed it - I learnt a lot about how to write a feature article and worked on one article specifically - about eating dirty food. I hoope to get this finished this week and submit it to a national newspaper - The Times, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail were all suggested by the tecahers so watch that space on that one..

On the way back I got to see my new grandson again - Max was looking a lot less red than when I last saw him on the day he was born - he's now 2 weeks old .. I won't bore you with telling you how wonderful he is.

In my absence John has been working on our new web site http://www.sportandme.com - it's not up officially yet, but you can see what we're doing by going to that URL.

New Life

Yesterday I held my new ( and first) grandson in my arms - MaxThomas Thurnell-Read - he was less than a day old. He looked just as his father had looked at that age. Both his mother and father were white with exhaustion but also deleriously happy. I wonder what difference he will make to his parents' lives. It was because of Max's father that I got started in kinesiology. I was looking for a solution to his health problems that didn't involve drugs, and kinesiology provided that answer.

Alternative Medicine Interviews

I'm putting interviews on alternative medicine on my main web site http://www.healthandgoodness.com. There's lots of info out there but I feel that doing an interview with a busy practitioner gives a more lively feel to what I describe. I've just been interviewing Dilys Gannon-Bone about naturopathy.

I've never met her but, boy, just reading her emails and talking to her on the phone you can see what a dynamo this lady is - and she's 71 and had cancer in her 50's. She didn't just lay down and die as so many people do - she went and looked for a cure for her cancer and found it in the form of naturopathy. A great lady.

I hope to get the interview with her on my web site later today

So to sleep

I'm feeling tired after a hectic day of working and plammin, plus a bike ride and a beading class (finished a lovely necklace - hurray!).

The sleep survey is coming on so well - I'm touched by the number of people who've put themesleves out -Robert Rush has even hosted a page on his web site where people can complete the survey online. Other people have sent on the survey by email to other people they know, or phoned people up and interviewed them to get results for the survey from me. Who says people are mean and unfriendly? I feel surrounded by people who want to help me, who enjoy supporting me.

I'm looking forward to analysing the results and putting them on http://www.healthandgoodness.com with tips on how to sleep better.

Now to bed ..

A sleep pattern is emerging

thanks to all the people who have completed the sleep survey. I'm a bit short of men (for the survey only!) and women over 60, but an interesting pattern is emerging - I don't want to write about it yet, because I don't want to influence you if you haven't completed the survey yet.

700 seemed a lot of people but some people have really helped me by emailing on the survey to other people. Robert Rush has even put the survey online for me.

I woke up the other night worrying about getting enough men for the survey!! I have already stopped men in the street, in shops and at a railway station. They've all been very good natured, although 3 builders made a lot of ribald remarks when they knew it was about sleep - good job I don't blush easily.

In due course the results will go on http://www.healthandgoodness.com

Eczema, Psoriasis & Tumours

I wrote in this month's newsletter for therapists http://www.lifeworkpotential.com about this wonderful product Fruit Force and how it seems to work very well for eczema and other skin diseases and also for some tumours. I'm not related in any way - financially or otherwise - to the companies involved, but I wanted to publicise it because I think it's a fantastic product (http://www.fruitforce.co.uk).

Today I received an email from the company saying: "your article was the best written, most concise article that I have ever seen that actually informed people of how salvestrols work." I was really touched by that.

Death and more

In the week I heard that someone I knew had been stabbed to death - possibly in a burgalry that went wrong. It certainly makes you think. I last saw her a few weeks ago and she was optimistic about the future, but now she's dead.

Major events like this put the rest of our worries into perspective. My mum always used to say "Well, think of the starving children in Biafra" or something similar when I was moaning. I was very impatient with that sort of sentiment then, but over the last few years I've begun to feel that there is some sense in that sort of remark. I have the precious gift of life and health - Jean doesn't.

New Fragrance Kit

I'm making the new fragrance kit and it's very difficult.I always seem to suffer when I make the kits. When I made part of the bacteria kit I got a chest infection. This time I keep getting confused. It's taking me about 5 times as long to make it as it should, because I keep getting confused. I can't find starting samples even though they're sittng in front of me. I forget what I'm doing. It's interesting that I am experiencing this kit in this way, because fragrances are taken in via the nose and in part affect the brain, so my poor brain seems to be going into overload.

I was reading an article saying that fragrance-free air will become an issue just as smoke-free air is now. I think that may be right. I certainly hate a lot of the perfumes that are out there, but if you're standing next to someone you get to breathe it in whether you like it or not.

To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

I am conducting a survey on whether or not people have problems sleeping. I want 500-700 respondents, currently I have 40+ but I've only just started. Most people have some problems sleeping and the most common reason so far is anxiety and repetitive thoughts. Hardly anyone gets woken by disturbing dreams which I found surprising.

How Wacky Is Wacky?

Last night I did an interview on the radio about my web site http://www.healthandgoodness.com . It was on Net Talk UK, a relatively new digital channel. I was on for an hour with Ross Hemsworth, a genial and lively presenter.

In many ways I was an odd guest - their normal guests are people interested in the paranormal and conspiracy theories. So what's 'wacky'? Many people consider I'm wacky. In turn I consider some other people as wacky. Is 'wacky' a negative word? Some of the people on this show certainly wear the wacky label with pride. They like to be different and not part of the crowd.

If you want to listen to the interview, which lasted for an hour, you can do so for the next week at http://www.net-talk-uk.com/ and scroll down for last week's show.

My first blog!

I'm new to the world of blogging, but here goes. I write enough anyway so adding a blog doesn't seem difficult.

Right now I'm really excited about lots of new projects that I'm involved with - more on these over the next few months. I want my epitaph to be "she lived passionately" - I want to live as close to my potential as I can, remaining excited about life and my place in it till I die.