As more and more people think about sustainable living there is a desire to bring this into all areas of our lives. There is much attention in the media to healthy eating and good food, but what about the drugs we put into our own or our children’s bodies?

Of course good nutrition is important and we need to make our relationships, job and living situation sustainable in terms of their impact upon our bodies. But if you do have a health problem how are you going to treat that? Modern medicine is generally very good at diagnostics, but the conventional solution is to treat the symptoms and not to address the cause.

Homeopathy, and other forms of alternative or complementary medicine, seek to understand the causes of illness and to treat them. Homeopathy is based on the principle of treating ‘like with like’, and thus stimulating the body to respond; whereas conventional medicine treats with opposites to suppress symptoms.

Homeopathic remedies are not tested on animals, but tested on healthy human volunteers. The remedies are made in local pharmacies and generally supplied with minimal packaging. The only waste products of manufacture are water and alcohol, and some glass ware.

The minimum dose, preferred by homeopaths is non-polluting with no chemical residues getting into the water supply. Few resources are used in the manufacture of the remedies, as they are produced through a process of dilution and potentisation, and given in small and often infrequent doses.

I am seeking to make my Homeopathic Practice greener by switching from plastic dispensing mini envelopes to paper and by looking for a green energy server for my website.

If you would like to read more about Homeopathy order my Special Report: Homeopathy what it is and how it works available at http://www.westsussexhomeopathy.co.uk/?p=productsMore&iProduct=14

Mike Andrews RSHom Registered Homeopath clinics in West Sussex, central London and online

mike@westsussexhomeopathy.co.uk

First - imagine an authentic society:

Imagine an authentic form of government - perhaps a little like the ones you see in Science Fiction where a committee of wise, ego free, elders engage the community and guide it with compassion and care.

Where taxes are levied on things that the society wants to stop (like pollution) and not on things it wants to encourage like working for the greater good.

Imagine authentic education that helps every child to find their inner brilliance and how to apply it in adult life. Teenagers emerging confidently rather than confused into adulthood.

Imagine authentic businesses that contribute as much to society as they do to the bottom line. Creating great products that help society to function sustainably, healthily and peacefully, whilst also creating inspiring and fulfilling working environments without exploitation of people or planet.

This has been imagined before. Utopia is not an original idea.

So given that we have had quite a bit of time to work this one out, how is it that we have not made greater progress?

I think there are two things that have held us back before, and which will hold us back again unless we can include them in our transformation. This goes for cultural change at any level - in a business, community or a society.

The first is integration. Transformation cannot be done separately from the rest of society. When it is done separately all you do is to create factions, who generally end up in conflict.

At a societal level integration involves family and finance.

Family is the fundamental building block of humanity, any transformation that does not have successful family living at it’s heart will not succeed on a large scale. This includes the current experiment where many families are put under intolerable strain by the way many of us earn our living.

Which is the link to finance:

In todays society financial security is as important as physical security. Not necessarily in a literal sense, but certainly in a practical sense. Most of us reading this e-mail enjoy sufficient physical security that financial security replaces physical security in our concerns.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs we can see that security, including financial security, forms the base from which we can build. Without a sense of security it is very difficult to broaden our considerations to others, or deepen them spiritually.

It is a sense of confidence and security that enables us to progress to a wider sense of the world than our own ego self, which is the second thing that might hold us back.

Until those who lead us in government, business and education can feel the confidence to go beyond their own fear driven, ego thinking, transformation will not be widespread.

An authentic transformation has to be profitable.

If we want to see our society, or community or our business transform we have two related things to do - we have to build self confidence for ourselves and those around us and we have to build financial security.

Fortunately for the transformation, authenticity is great for business.  As I discovered in the research for my book “Authentic Business”, authentic businesses are able to spend up to 80% less on marketing and motivation than their conventional counterparts.

There has been a level of conversation in the community of progressives, transformers and social change agents that sees profit, money and sometimes business as a ‘bad’ thing.

If we are to create a sustainable transformation we have to overcome this thinking. Profit, money and business can be fantastic agents for social development and empowerment. It is exploitation that we need to avoid.

If we fear money, growth, success or profit we are seriously limiting our potential, both for ourselves as individuals and our ability to influence the direction of our society.

I am writing a new article on Authentic Business as an update on the book. The article will look at the businesses I wrote about in the book, some new ones that have started since and some other inspiring businesses.

If you have a authentic business story you would like to share, I would love to hear from you.

I have a great deal of experience authenticity in business, helping authentic businesses to start, build and profit. Also helping established businesses to become more authentic. Perhaps I can contribute to your business? Let me know if you want to have a chat.

with love

nx

neil crofts - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk
www.authentictransformation.co.uk

Show up
Be Present
Tell the truth
Let it all go

Harrison Owen - creator of Open Space Technology

Spring is starting to gather full momentum and it is delicious to feel some heat on the limbs again after the winter. Feng Shui study is a paradise for nature enthusiasts, as quite often our trainings take us outside into nature to look at topographical features in the landscape, types of plants growing in certain areas and what they signal, how water is flowing and even the sound the water is making. Advanced feng shui is all about a fine-tuned nature awareness.

So, I am really delighted to see the Eco debate being taken more and more seriously by the public at large and by businesses and homeowners. I have been flying the banner of green and eco since my teens and while I don’t always live up to my standards (I drive around the UK on Feng Shui consultations, so my carbon footprint makes me shudder), I do recycle and compost and purchase the Carbon Neutralisation option when booking a flight….and yes, am not entirely convinced it works but I figure that planting a few trees rather than none must be good in the long run….

Anyhow, I recently wrote and delivered a talk on “Feng Shui – the original green design!” at the Homes for Good exhibition in Somerset and was delighted by the feedback from those who attended the talk. I drew upon influences such as Ecopsychology, Feng Shui and Sacred Geometry to demonstrate how Feng Shui really is the original eco design. It doesn’t matter how much non-toxic paint you use or whether your furniture is recycled or not, if the Feng Shui is wrong you are not benefiting from nature’s healing forces, which is a shame, because nature wants to help us and wants us to engage in co-operation.

As a Feng Shui consultant of nine years experience I am delighted to be able to help people reconnect themselves and their environment to forces of vitality rather than negative forces. So, if you are planning an eco interior or an eco-build this spring you would do well to consider hiring a feng shui expert to help you create a magical and healing space.

Anyhow, enough about me (!), I thought I would start this Feng Shui blog by perhaps surprising many a reader by pointing out that Feng Shui is not really that much about interiors and more about landscaping and nature. Did you know that the way your front door receives energy from the outside is 60-70% influence on your overall luck?    Did you know that trees in certain areas of a garden can be beneficial or very problematic?   I take a long walk around an office, house or flat to assess the natural and man-made outside influences before looking inside a premises.

To honour the role that nature plays in our lives and certainly in my work, my company purchased land in 2004 via www.naturefund.net and I would like to bring this wonderful charity to your attention. Nature Fund was founded in 2003 by a good friend of mine Katja Wiese, winner of the Yves Rocher 2007 Woman of the Earth award. Her vision is to protect 20% of the worlds wilderness by 2020 and you can become a land patron by purchasing small inexpensive parcels of land and receive regular updates on wildlife activity in your area!

Talk again soon!

Sarah 

http://www.fengshuiagency.com

I saw the BBC TV news for the first time in six months last week and I was shocked.

The news was incredibly depressing. I went to bed in feeling genuinely distressed about the state of the world. I wondered how these calamities could have crept up without me noticing. I do read the news, why had I not seen these stories building.

I went back to my regular internet based news to check. I found the stories, the same stories, but the presentation was different. They were just news, not good news, but not terrible either.

What effect does it have on a population to be drip fed disaster?

It is easy to imagine that this persistent hammering in of negativity could lead to a sense of pessimism, hopelessness and even depression.

With a consequent apathy, unwillingness to engage and inability to rise to the challenges we face. These are all symptoms that we see in society.

I am not suggesting that it is all the fault of the media, but our media has a huge responsibility and so do we.

Neither am I suggesting that we bury our heads in the sand and avoid the news altogether. I am suggesting that whatever we do, including absorbing media, we do it consciously. More specifically that when news is shocking we check other sources to see how they portray it.

Even more than that, we seek out the positive and inspirational and we share it with as many people as possible to offer some measure of balance.

And perhaps the greatest responsibility we have is that make the communication of our own news, thoughts and ideas as positive and uplifting as we possibly can.

That we all seek to inspire in every interaction we have with anyone whether it is family and friends or colleagues and shop staff.

We need to be creative to solve the challenges we face as a society and most of us are at our most creative when we feel the pressure and also feel a sense of opportunity and possibility.

Depression replaces possibility with apathy.

Inspiration replaces apathy with intention.

Inspire someone with their opportunity today.

For more ideas on your potential to inspire…

Download my free e-books “Authentic Leadership” and “What is my Purpose” at www.authentictransformation.co.uk if you find them inspiring, recommend them to others.

With love

nx

neil crofts  - coach, consultant, facilitator
Authentic Transformation - join the evolution
neil@authentictransformation.co.uk 

www.authentictransformation.co.uk
If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough  Mario Andretti

It amazes me how much difference it makes. It’s just oxygen and carbon dioxide.
 
On Saturday I began to experiment with my breathing. I was at the gym for my twice-a-week session and was using the leg extension machine. You know, the one which works your quads where you bend you knee and then straighten your leg, lifting the weight.
 
Before I lifted my warm up weight, I breathed in deeply, and out. In … and out… In … and out… I felt myself focus and my muscles harden … and …. lift off! I could of completed twenty repetitions. It was easy. No soreness, no strain on the last few repetitions like I usually have. Excellent.
 
So I put the weight up a few notches. This time I would lift a weight that was just under my recent best. Why not eh? I breathed in and out. In … and Out …. IN …. OUT …. In …. OUT…. I felt really centred and focused and I knew I would lift it. I did it easily and managed to straighten my legs more than ten times. I actually forgot to count as I was enjoying myself so much.
 
I caught my breath for a minute. I was ready to play a bigger game. A smile crept over my face. I put the weight up to 12 pounds more than I have ever attempted. Would my new found breathing technique help me enough?
 
I worked myself up by breathing deeply in … and out… In … and  …. Out …. IN … AND …. OUT ……. IN ….OUT … IN … OUT and as I breathed in I focused and tensed my muscles. I felt powerful and strong. I was 100% focused. I breathed out as I PUSHED …!!!

 I did it! I lifted it about six times. It felt really heavy and my muscle was equal to the task. Wow. I could feel the endorphins rushing around my body, coupled with the sheer ecstacy of the moment. My moment.
 
Since Saturday I have been experimenting with deep slow breathing in all kinds of situations. Stress, anxiety, feeling sleepy. Why have caffeine when you can work yourself up to a high using your own lungs. It’s cheaper and much more healthy.
 
Will my life be the same again? (IN .. out … In …. Out …) No way!
 
Dan Elman - Self Developer