Flying

Here's a quote from today's Guardian newspaper:

"Last week the Guardian obtained a leaked copy of a draft treaty between the European Union and the US that would prevent us from taking any measure to reduce the environmental impact of airlines without the approval of the US government. This, though it might be the widest ranging, is not the first such agreement; the 1944 Chicago convention, now supported by 4,000 bilateral treaties, rules that no government may levy tax on aviation fuel."

You can read more of this article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1719728,00.html

Later in the year I want to fly to New Zealand and cycle the length of the two islands, but am I justified in doing this? My actual visit will be low impact but what about getting there? Hmm

More is not a goal ..

David Krueger has signed up for our free therapist listing, and I was looking at his web site, which has lots of good information.

I like his Life's Ground Rules - there's 32 of them. Here's a couple as tasters:

“More” is not a goal, but because it is elusive, it has appeal as a container of hope and happiness.

and

We criticize, perhaps to prove that we do not posses the fault.

You can view the rest at: http://www.mentorpath.com/articles.htm

over 50 and enjoying life

There's more and more evidence that being over 50 (as I am) is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of enjoyment of life. Although some people feel there life is overe when their chidlren leave home, or they retire, many others find their satisfaction with life increases. Here's another study that makes this point:

"Experts who questioned more than 1,000 volunteers found that while their sex drive has reduced with age, the 50-pluses enjoy themselves more than men in their 40s and a lot more than the least satisfied age group, men in their 30s. "

View the full study here:
http://health.dailynewscentral.com/content/view/0002125/31/

using our skills and knowledge

I'm receiving lots of emails praising the new therapist listing, which is really gratifying.

I got this today from a therapist:

"I am grateful to be included in this Listing and I must congratulate you on an excellent and high quality Website. I have recently been accused of treating my skills as a hobby, and told in no uncertain terms that I am depriving people of valuable help by not promoting/marketing myself properly. I admit that is true, but until now I have not felt it the right time to go 'big time'. Now I know that it is time to get out there and do a lot more."

I hope and believe that getting an email from me about the therapist listing was part of what has led to this change of feeling. I hope so.

I absolutely agree with the idea that it is important to use our skills and knowledge to benefit others. This can be a way of helping insecure practitioners to get out there and publicise themselves more because this thought focuses on what you are depriving others of rather than how you feel yourself.

Google Ranking

I'm pleased to see that in just over a month from its launch our newest web site http://www.mytherapypractice.com has achieved a Google ranking of 4. This is a very fast and good start. Now I want to build on that to get even higher.

http://www.sportandme.com has been ranked too - it's a 2 - it has much less original material, so I'm not surprised it has a lower ranking, but it's a start.

The ranking for http://www.healthandgoodness.com has gone up from 3 to 4, so that's an improvement too. We now have almost 1100 practitioners listed in over 40 countries so it's important we have a good ranking so that more of the public will search for a therapist on our site.

I've already had a thank you from someone who's done just that.

Also I've had two articles accepted for the email newsletter for Federation Of Small Businesses. This goes out to 11,000 members, and will give publicity to all three sites.

All in all a good couple of days :-)

The brain as a muscle?

I've jus read an article with this title from Genome Biology - it's really fascinating and given me some ideas for an article for our therapist web site http://www.mytherapypractice.com

Not sure how soon I will get to it though, as I'm not doing much original writing at the moment. Ok'ing the therapists who are signing up for our listing at http://www.healthandgoodness.com is taking up a lot of time - there are laso a lot of queries too. Anyway we now have 977 practitioners listed in over 40 countries - not bad for a listing that started a month ago :-)

Been doing an interview with Ken Digby on water filters - lots of people are concerned about water so this will hopefully be a good page for people once I get it finished.

To live content

This great quote came from Charity Focus today:

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony. -- William Henry Channing

They send uplifting stories and good quotes to my mail box every day:
http://charityfocus.org

Therapy infighting

Our new therapist listing is doing well - we have over 700 therapists from 32+ countries. As ever I'm impatient for it to be bigger still - patience is not one of the virtues I possess in even minute quantities. Of course, the good side of that is that I push ahead to make things happen, but there are downsides to it too!

I've been saddened though by the emails and phone calls I've had about the listings where people don't want to be listed under a particular umbrella term because it means they'll have to share it with some other type of therapist that they don't approve of. Some people would rather not be on the listing than do this.

There is enough opposition out there to what we do without creating even more. It's really makes me sad.

But I must keep it in perspective - it's a very very small proportion of people, and lots of practitioners have written me congratulatory emails.

Placebos

So much of the talk about placebos revolves around alternative and complementary therapy, and while I'm sure placebos are a factor, they're also a factor in mainstream medicine too.

I was heartened to read an article in The Times on Feb 18th by a practicing doctor, Dr Copperfield.

“Sick people get better more quickly if they are given a definite diagnosis, even one that is made up on the spot by translating their presenting symptoms into Latin.”

I'd like to quote the whole article, but I can't for copyright reasons, but it's well-worth seeking out.

a quotable quote on destiny

I've just rediscovered this fantastic quote:

Destiny is the source of energy

This can be interpreted on so many levels.

Unfortunately I can't remember who said it.

On a more personal note I'm sitting here typing away while my three month old grandson sleeps. His mum and dad have brought him to see me for a few days - they live near Southampton and this is only the 4th time I've seen him since he was born. I've encouraged his parents to go out for the moring and get some quality time together. It's somewhat nerve-wracking looking after such a small life -something I haven't done for over 20 years.

Failing the test

one of the most interesting things about alternative /complementary medicine is how it often fails the test, when it's put under the scientific spotlight. I have personal experience of this myself. some years ago I was having great success with leptin recognition and weight losss. I have a friend who is a University professor of nutrition - she was intersted in what I was saying - and so we got a student to look into it as part of their M.Sc. nutrition project. The results just weren't there - I felt very crushed by this at the time, and still have lots of questions about why that was the case.

This was all brought back to me this morning when I was surfing the web and came across some scientific studies of kinesiology showing they don't work. Inall cases the number of participants were small, but nevertheless they don't make encouraging reading for us.

The UK Daily Mail had a piece earlier this week which included an assertion from professor Ernst of Exeter University that there's no evdience that kinesiology works.

But I and lots of other practitioners know it does. Over the 20+ years I was in practice I worked with total sceptics, the severely mentally handicapped, animals and small babies and got very good results - in fact my heart used to sink when someone came in who had total faith that I was going to make them well - I much preferred the sceptics!

So what's going on? I've decided to start a new topic on our forum http://www.mytherapypractice.com/forum/ and see if others have any views on this.

I think this issue is important and it affcets other therapies not just kinesiology.

Doctors & Drug Companies

over the last week I've posted two interesting articles on my web site http://www.mytherapypractice.com relating to drug companies and doctors and initiatives being taken by some doctors themsleves to change this. The information makes frightening reading - for example there's one drug rep for every 15 doctors in the USA - drug companies would not be paying them if they didn't think they were value for money.

Here's a site which explains why patients should be concerned and what they can do about it:

http://www.nofreelunch.org/patients.htm

Being a sad person

People are often apologetic when they get pleasure from small things - with a self-depracating laugh they'll say: "Aren't I a sad person?" and everyone laughs. But really they're a wise person - being able to get pleasure in small things in life means that you will be happier more of the time - what's sad about that?

Auschwitz

I have been booking a trip at the end of April to Auschwitz and Krakow (Poland). I've always been fascinated by concentration camps for reasons I can't fully explain. I've felt for a long time that I wanted to go and visit one, but it's not an easy thing for me to do.

Tom, my son, is going to be there for two weeks at the end of April researching people's motivation for going, so I'm going out for a few days at the same time.

Is it possible to go to such a place and not be changed by it? I'm not sure - time will tell if it changes me. Last year I read "Man's Search For Meaning" by Victor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz. It's a slim, but surprisingly uplifting book - I think I'll read it again either beforehand or while I'm there.

Doing something that you love

I was interviewing Misty Cech yesterday about aromatherapy for the 'alternative medicine' section of http://www.healthandgoodness.com

She expressed a view very similar to mine about making money and being successful - do something that you love and with service to the wider community and you will succeed. This isn't the only way to make money, but it sure beats the others because an inner peace and happiness comes with it.

8 or 9 Day weeks

I've got a lot on at the moment with the revamp of http://www.healthandgoodness.com and the introduction of http://www.mytherapypractice.com, and lots of other projects. I was talking to a business colleague who asked me if I had 8 or 9 days in my week!

One of the best systems I know for managing time is that advocated by Steven Covey in his book/tape: First Things First.

If you're not familiar with it have a look at this review:

http://www.healthandgoodness.com/ManagingLife/FirstThingsFirst.htm

happy managing your life!

Nice quote

don't know who said this, but it's good:

Anytime you are unhappy in the present or feeling unsuccessful, it is time to learn from the past or plan for the future.

Respect

my partner, John, is a Buddhist and we were talking about oneof the central messages for him of Buddhism - respect - not just for authority but for people who most people don't respect.

It reminded me of a story in one of Bernie Siegel's books. Bernie is an oncologist and has some amazing stories to tell about people can control their blood pressure etc. even under full anasthesia by him simply asking them to do it during an operation, but the story that's really stayed with me on a personal level is the stiory of an old tramp who came to see him. He was smelly and generally unsavoury - Bernie searched for soemthing to overcome his distaste for the man, and noticed that the man's shoe laces were tied really neatly. He used this as a lever in his mind to give the man respect. The man came back a few weeks later and told Bernie that their meeting had turned him round, because Bernie was the first person who'd shown him any respect in a long time - he was now beginning to sort out his life.