I taught an early morning class one morning and felt so enlivened I went for a walk afterwards to a nearby cove. The light on the water was amazing and I felt at peace. A bit infatuated with my mood, I started on up the hill and strolled past the Balmain Bowling Club. Wondering around the back streets in Balmain used to be interesting re encountering really strange people but of late it’s a bit tamer, populated now with large, four wheel drive buggies pushed by sleep deprived mothers dragging small white dogs.

Not so today. My mood was shattered by an oddly dressed late middle aged woman yelling as she walked behind me. My delicate nerves in their false cocoon of ,”Of how good am I feeling,” illusion,” shaken.

She followed me up a hill, not really following me, just going the same way, she was yelling really odd almost obscene things, but they were interesting, “What have I done to you?” “Get that away from my mouth.” ”Where are you going with that?”

She was wearing a really bad outfit, a short coat with big red flowers on it and her hair in a short blond bob was neat and ordinary looking and a tourette-like torrent of words jerked fourth from her. This is a syndrome where the sufferer expresses odd tics, words and gestures and cannot stop them.

The experience led me to think about the inner dialogue we all experience but don’t verbally express. The dialogue, the argument you suddenly find yourself embroiled in but it’s all going on in your head. This is the stuff that forms our actions, creating mental pathways, keeps you awake at night, creating nervous patterns of behaviour and disturbing your serenity.

To this end I attempt to replace any inner dialogue with simple phrases like, “Neck be free.” “Knees float forward.” I focus on really simple things like keeping my nostrils relaxed as I walk. I attempt to view the world thought a constantly cleaned filter relatively unclogged by unquestioned beliefs and guided by attempts at gratitude for what is as it is. Our blond neighbour reminded me to clear my head and my heart of dark thoughts and old beliefs that will taint and grab at me as I move through my day. I can’t afford to see the world through a filter sullied by inner dialogues, rehashed arguments, prejudices, bias or preconceived judgements.

So my serene little toddle was interrupted by a reflection of my own inner turmoil. I walked back home taking in the new builds, the renovations, the changes in the neighbourhood, ducking prams and letting my senses see what is as it is. The sun was weakly shining and I was bemused, engrossed in the window I created. Instead of being annoyed by the blond talker I was grateful that something out of the norm had taken place and it became my little meditation. My next mission is to see how I’m reflected in and reflect upon the ordinary events around me.

I do love the strange and unusual yet it is the mundane patterns and daily rituals that drive society. Unusual events alter your course, alter your way of dealing with your world. One of my friends a long term meditator said to me, “ You know Maggi, when I recognise that I have a habit, I change it.” Wouldn’t it be grand if we could change within the framework of ordinary events, see the ordinary in a new way, shine light on the mundane and not necessarily have to wait for the unusual or bizarre to influence us to gratitude for what is as it is.

I’m not personally a fan of the St Valentine’s Day, hoop-pa-la. The commercial, annual imperative to assuage the guilt of neglecting your partner/wife/husband/ or whatever seems like a kinda half assed approach to romance.

There are definitely levels of consciousness going from a desperate lowest level 1 to a transcendent level 7 and each is going to perceive and manifest their notion of romance differently.

Levels of consciousness and romance.
Level 1. Red roses and Black Magic (cheap as), choccies
Level 2. Add dinner out to the above
Level 3. Add breakfast in bed to both the above
Level 4. Use of imagination, thinking just what would my partner/ wife/ husband like and then acting on it.
Level 5. Making your partner feel like the centre of the universe, listening and creating an on going context for expressions of affection.
Level 6. Choosing to express love in the values of your partner, living in a way that apportions blame in your own direction, i.e. Taking responsibility to be friendly, listening and liking your life choices
Level 7. Unconditional love, the preserve of the saints.

So get on it, think about what your partner most values and attempt to imagine what they would like. Feel into yourself and see if you have any resistance to acting thus and if you have, ask why…what memories, what feeling are evoked, what resentments do you still carry. If you can’t overcome them, if you can’t see of feel into what your partner values and express your regard in those terms then maybe you need some help, some counselling, and if you can then have a great night….

Take Heart
Your relationships are not necessarily easy, they are often seamlessly designed to open your hearts, change your consciousness, develop you spiritually. One of my teachers, John Demartini said of relationships between men and women,”Women,” he said, “are designed to help open their partners hearts, and men,” he continued, “are designed to help stabilise their female partners.”

The exploration of alternative ways of thinking and being through an expanded inner state aid you in surpassing your attachment to things, persons and events as they are and allow changes, problems and challenges to be the catalysts to allow you to grow towards self awareness, increased consciousness and spiritual actualisation.

Love is the greatest of all healers.
Love what you do and you will get to do what you love.

Counselling with Maggi Nimmo, is by appointment 0403095779. Sydney

The New Year of the Dragon is a new start….
Cause and effect as they manifest in your world are directly related to your belief systems.

What you believe and subsequently feel about yourself, by dint of constant repetitive thoughts and feelings within yourself and the resulting behaviour that comes from those thoughts and feeling-impulses creates your world.

The forces of life will give you exactly what you are thinking about, feeling about, not necessarily what you consciously ask for.

You will manifest around you exactly, exactly what you think, feel and believe within. For example somewhere you may have acquired the belief that you will always have more than enough money then that will be the case. The opposite is also equally true.

To change belief systems requires a little self monitoring.

What you believe and think with passion is your next reality and to the extent that you do not get that then you can be assured that underneath there is self doubt as to your ability, worthiness, or lovability or whatever in direct proportion to the degree that you do not get the life, object, financial success, life situation you would love.

You may not believe that anything is permanent, I think in respect especially to emotional issues. It’s probably derived from pre natal, preverbal and early childhood experiences and observations. The consequence is you behave in a way that makes getting what you would love difficult.

From my early experiences I acquired beliefs that I was less than loved, in fact I remember feeling distain from people as a child and was subsequently bewildered. Now I can behave in a way that at times borders on needy in intimate relationships which drives people away and of course I feel rejected and bewildered. When I behave in a way consistent with the belief that I am loved I feel and am loved.

If you behaved in a way that is healthy, nurtures yourself and those around you then a sense of stability, the best we can manifest as a facsimile for permanence in this world, would evolve and grow organically.

In terms of any of your addictions (smoking/ alcohol/ shopping/ control) I want you to imagine, the feeling of self worth you will gain from being healthy, see yourself full of vigour and alive.

Imagine yourself walking up a mountain in the Himalayas with you body still pumping your life.

See yourself still alive in 20 years standing tall with a grin from ear to ear as you race through the surf to dive into a wave.

Concentrate on the outcome not the day to day, that’s the start. You already know you can do it and you know how good you felt about yourself when you were behaving in a self supporting healthy way.

It takes one second to change. If you can see and feel the outcome you can do it and become it.

Humanism
I’ve been remembering events from my past and I’m constantly amazed by how memory works and how convoluted the process of remembering is.
I must have been maybe 3 years old, I remember eating potato crisps on the beach and when I opened the bag there was a paper twist of salt in the bag. I was standing on a pebbly beach in Bangor, Northern Ireland undoing the paper twist of salt my bare feet twisted over the stones on the beach and smelt chippy vinegar. I was sharing the bag with a girl called, if memory serves me rightly, Anne.

My family were staying at a beach side guest house, Anne lived there and we were new friends.
I don’t really remember much except that Anne had a Corgi, yep a Queen’s type Corgi. In a small tin she had her dog’s docked tail nestled in cotton wool and shrivelled into a dark wisp of hair and bone.

I don’t remember if it smelt but I was shocked to learn that they put rubber bands on puppies tails and the tail ends dropped off. I put a rubber band around my finger at breakfast the next day and by the time I’d finished the honey smacks my finger was throbbing and I took the rubber band off.

My attitude to Anne and her Corgi was sullied but still I must have remembered the day because when I was 9 I campaigned to get a dog and pushed for a Corgi if I remember rightly I used the line, “Let’s get a dog like the Queen.” I figured that line would work with my Royalist conservative parents and it did. We got a Corgi called it Sandi and it became a snappy waddler who only obeyed my mother, the most loyal Royalist in Suburban Melbourne.

I told this story to a friend a long time ago and she immediately conceived of me as being a politically conservative little bunny and god bless her she still was my friend. I personally would be questioning a friendship with someone who, as part of their philosophy and value system, had an attitude that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society, the capitalist survival of the fittest. I personally support grass roots personal change, social support for those who need it and the full force of medical and educational roles in producing a society that is collective, supports individual creativity and free thought.

One evening the subject came up. My friend came from a chaotic leftist family and thought that my conservative background had mediated who I now am. Although that is true and you can’t escape your first family influence you can become a very different animal as time, education and experience dictate. She was surprised by my leftist background. Still in the present context I think our current government is conservative and rather than align myself with a political party I might characterise myself as a Humanist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_psychology.

I really believe that people can change and that education and intelligent inquiry in any form is the key. Yoga is a humanist philosophy that is why I relate to it so strongly. I want to propose a philosophy group to perhaps examine some of the advice afforded by yoga texts such as, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Gheranda Samhita or Hatha Yoga Pradipika. If you are interested please let me know and we can organise a monthly meeting starting in March 2012.

Your anxiety, plastic brain and mindfulness. The treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as outlined in Brain Lock by Dr Jeffrey Schwartz has relevance to the practice of meditation and the quieting of your mind noise. Here is a link to a site to manage and help treat OCD http://www.ocduk.org/2/foursteps.htm

The steps, as broken down to manage this disease, can be applied very successfully to quieting your anxious thoughts. Thoughts are thoughts they arise from habits, experiences, mistakes and errors in perception they are not in or of themselves real, they are chemical messages we can hopefully choose to believe and act on or not.

Step 1: Relabel
Recognise that your intrusive, anxious thoughts and urges are stuck brain patterns that become more defined and stronger the longer you allow them and act on them. It’s not what you think that is important, in changing your habits, it’s what you choose to do or not do as a result of them.
Step 2: Reattribute
Realise that the intensity and intrusiveness of your thoughts or urges are caused by your habits; it is probably related to a biochemical imbalance in your brain that may be attributable to sticky brain processing, dehydration, deficiencies in your diet, lack of exercise, experiences and embedded memories that cause leakage behavior and perpetrate your anxiety still further. Your anxiety will have a biochemical instigation.
Step 3: Refocus
Work around the thoughts by focusing your attention on something else, at least for a few minutes: do something else, go for a walk, drink a glass of water, focus on your body parts relaxing, sing, listen to music, sit or walk and focus on your breath.
Step 4: Revalue
Your anxious thoughts are not important or real in and of themselves, which means realising that the feelings are not worth paying attention to and not to be taken at face value. Revalue it.
When the anxiety occurs, you will be prepared. You will know, “That’s just my anxiety. It has no meaning. That’s just my brain. There’s no need to pay attention to it.” Remember: You can’t make the thoughts go away, but neither do you need to pay attention to them. You can learn to go on to the next behavior. There is no need to dwell on the thoughts. Move ahead. Simply ignore them and get on with things.

Six almost instant ways to improve your mood

1. Your brain needs glucose for energy. If your blood sugar levels are too low, you might feel sluggish, irritable and experience difficulty concentrating. Not Eating Enough can definitely make you both tired and irritable..
Solution: Eat regular small meals, that include enough protein and good carbohydrates like vegetables.

2. The comfort fatty or sugary food you grab when you’re in a bad mood could actually be the cause of your bad mood in the first place. Diets rich in trans and saturated fats have been linked to increased depression. Additionally, new studies indicate that these diets can negatively affect your ability to think clearly. Junk food and fast food negatively affect the connections between your brain cells called synapses.
Solution: Look for foods packed with vitamins and minerals that will sustain you throughout the day instead of the fatty, sugary processed foods that may taste good, but leave you with no energy.

3. Consuming too much caffeine. Even in moderation caffeine, can in some people it can cause anxiety. Caffeine stimulates the brain, which makes it addictive. When people become addicted to caffeine, they may experience symptoms of withdrawal including headaches, fatigue and moodiness.

4. The correlation between sleep and your mood is no secret. But you could still be tired and cranky regardless of how early you hit the hay. Studies have shown that even dim light, for example the glow from your TV, reading lamp or even your alarm clock, in the bedroom may increases cases of depression. This light decreases the production of the hormone melatonin. Without steady levels of melatonin, your normal sleep patterns can become disturbed. Think about this the next time you wake up on the wrong side of bed.
See also my blog: Sleep is the New Sex http://magginimmo.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/sleep-is-the-new-sex/

5. Hormonal crankiness before a period is often due to changing levels of progesterone and can get nasty with menopause. Men also have a less obvious but non the less menopause symptoms.
Solution: omega-3s can help prevent the symptoms of PMS and menopause. Take 600 mg of DHA omega-3s daily. Fish oils, salmon
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docosahexaenoic_acid

6. Not drinking enough water can cause headaches, fatigue, dry skin, internal aches, constipation. Drink at least a litre plus of water a day and you will be a much happier camper.

Summary:
Eat enough
Eat regularly and properly
Careful with your caffeine intake
Sleep well with good sleep hygiene
Look after and be aware of your hormone balance
Drink more water

Health and Simple Choices..

People come to see me because they have health issues, problems or emotional issues. There are many ways to approach health problems but when I question people I usually find they they already know what they are doing to exacerbate their ill health.
“Yeah I know I should drink less coffee and more water, but it’s so hard to remember, I get so caught up at work.”
“I probably eat the wrong foods. Too much take away and too late at night. I,t’s hard to get up and start by having a big breakfast or any breakfast when I’m so tired in the morning. “

Well what’s hard, from my perspective, is suffering perhaps dehydration, the resultant irritation, stress on your kidneys, general swelling and inflammation. The long term effect can be pretty serious, and then you can be not just tired but unable to work because you are so ill or unable to play because you feel exhausted by debility.

So what stops you from changing? Often it’s the inherent knowledge that if you give up something there may be a period of withdrawal from that food or drink and that can be extremely confronting, painful even overwhelming. For example you may suffer withdrawal headaches for a day or so when you stop drinking coffee, so for a short term benefit of no headaches people keep on keeping on with coffee, the long term result being liver dysfunction, an acidic body system, agitation and nervousness. It’s the price you pay.

Not changing can also be the result of culture. Often work functions and meetings expose you to fatty foods, alcohol, stimulants like sugar and lack of sleep all leading to relative ill health. Families may have a habitual environment where comfort food is unhealthy and that habit impacts your health.

You all know exactly what constitutes healthy eating, more vegetables, more water, moderate food portions, more fruit essential fatty acids and good lean protein. You all know that exercise is super important to keep your joints, bones and muscles functioning at peak efficiency. So what’s stopping you?

In the short term you want to be free to live as you like, in the long term you want to be free of pain and discomfort or ill health. In the short term you are afraid of pain, headaches, ridicule from work mates, friends. In the long term you are afraid to admit that time will erode your health if you don’t act now to improve it. In discovering and overcoming whatever prevents you from caring for yourself is where I can help. My job as a healer is to help you identify your self limiting fears of change and overcome them so you can achieve the joyous feeling of health in the present and an optimistic healthy future to look forward to.

Hypnotherapy is most useful to remove inner blockages towards change.
Homoeopathy is brilliant for correcting acute and chronic mental and emotional imbalances.
The Sacro-Cranial technique really helps nervousness and long term recovery from debilitating accidents.
The Bowen Technique is one of the most efficient methods to correct muscular and skeletal aches and pains.
Yoga is an extremely beautiful way to maintain your body, balance your mind and calm your spirit.

Contact me for information and appointments..magginimmo@bigpond.com
Regards and love Maggi.

I trust you’re about to have an absolutely fabulous week. The wonderful sunny weather is kicking in. It’s time to get up early, I tell you it’s beautiful in the early morning. The next three week early morning yoga course starts on Monday 21st November, on Monday,Wednesday, Friday at 6:30am

This next course is focused on an organ regeneration practice. The breath work will be dynamic and challenging and the emphasis of the indicated practice will be on creating strong and graceful limbs and practices that are anti-aging.
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Anti aging tips:
DOS
Drink more water, hydration not only plumps and supports up your skin but every other tissue and organ too. Your brain is particularly subject to changes in mood, memory due to dehydration.
Eat more vegetables, especially watery salad vegetables. Inflammation is the main cause of cancer and aging. Vegetables have an anti inflammatory effect on your digestive tract.
Use turmeric as a spice daily. It is al well known anti inflammatory and in some American laboratory tests turmeric killed uterine cancer cells on contact.
Moisturise daily and exfoliate with used coffee grounds, it will leave your skin really silky. If you don’t have access to coffee grounds then use sugar.
Drink at least 2 cups of green tea per day, it is a wonderful anti oxidant.
Use sunscreen to prevent photo aging.
Exercise more. It will give your more energy, build your muscles, increase the blood flow to your skin, help prevent high blood pressure, lessen anxiety, strengthen your bones and raise your metabolic rate so you lose more weight more quickly.
Getting enough sleep is one of the most important habits for anyone over the age of 40.  When you sleep your  body releases growth hormone which stimulates cell turnover.  Your skin will suffer if you don’t get the beauty sleep you need.  
Reduce Stress, take up yoga and meditation. If you’ve had a stressful day things will be even worse – stress hormones suppress the immune system and accelerate the aging process.  So stress less and sleep soundly.
Cut down on red meat it is known to exacerbate inflammation in the colon that may lead to colon cancer
Listen to music it enhances the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine and enhances your memory
Have fun, enjoy yourself with people you feel comfortable with.

DON’TS
Don’t smoke. If you smoke you need to stop. It’s as simple as that. You may not be able to completely reverse the damage smoking has done to your body but you will stop the damage getting worse.
Don’t gain or lose weight repeatedly.  Skin that does not respond to weight loss by shrinking looks loose, empty and haggard.
Don’t eat excessive amounts of sugar, it is very inflammatory.

The Five Protocols

I had a dream, it was one of those saga dreams, full of adventure, long convoluted stories. I woke up with three words in my head “The Five Protocols.”
As any modern girl would do I Googled it and there are five protocols for putting on muscle, i.e. bulking, there are five design protocols, there are five cleansing protocols for hand washing for surgeons, but no mention of anything useful from my point of view. So I had a think about it and decided that I’d design my own five protocols, after all I take a dream seriously.

The thing that interests me most and my highest value would have to be consciousness, awareness and perception.
So here are The Five Protocols for the Development of Grown Up Behaviour:
Vigilance is the ability to maintain attention and alertness over prolonged periods of time, it is a state of alertness.
Self contemplation is the act or process of thinking about oneself or one’s values, beliefs, behaviour, etc.
Action is an act or doing something, it this case based on your vigilant observations and self contemplation
Change means something has become different, for good or ill, a transformation in behaviour has occurred or a habit altered
Balance is a state of equilibrium, usually relatively instable. Usually requires attention to maintain
Moderation and Maintenance. Moderation is the ability to self restrain, impulse control if you like. This leads to your ability to stay balanced and in a good state of mind.

Even if I do say so myself, it’s a pretty impressive list of objectives. Think about it even if you just started to make vigilance a priority you’d have to change. For example, you’d have to be bright and bushy tailed so you could pay attention and be alert. That means good sleep, not eating food that makes you heavy lidded, drinking water. Did I mention drinking water? That’s mega important, as hydration really helps you to stay focused, yet it’s super simple.

So there you are just by deciding to be vigilant you have to look at what stops you from being same (self contemplation) and then take some action, even if it’s just getting more sleep that may cause you to become more balanced and who knows you might like it enough to keep doing the stuff that makes you feel more alert, or at least stop doing stuff that makes you feel dim-witted, daft or dopey.

It’s a matter of attitude….

From many people’s perspectives I have a bad attitude. I don’t accept the status quo, I question everything, I presume that every person or event has a multitude of influences, good and bad. I think I have a good quality attitude (as I would) but I do question the obvious and behave in a way that is not consistent with the common man. As one of my teachers said if you want to have an extraodinary life do the opposite of the common man.

I think each and every one of us should seek and do what we love, check out Steve Job’s TED talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I think I can take care of my own health and I’m happy to ask for help to do so, have a look at my website: http://magginimmo.com/mainindex/mainframe.html Click on Articles and Choose Basic Back Care

I think that as a culture we should educate our children to be compassionate: http://blog.ted.com/2011/09/02/compassion-and-the-true-meaning-of-empathy-joan-halifax-on-ted-com/

I think the highest form of meditation is love and gratitude for what is as it is
I think that as a planet we could eradicate hunger
I think that to stop war you have to find a way to stop fighting yourself
I think polite and friendly behaviour is better than rudeness (tempting as it is)

Yup I really believe it is possible to change. The difficulty is each individual’s inherent inability (in varying degrees) to get out of their own way.
So what constitutes our obstacles?
Unquestioned belief systems that lead to prejudice, envy, jealousy and bullying
Feeling helpless in the face of emotional or physical pain. Heavens there are so many of us willing to help, you don’t have to go it alone or be clueless as to what to do, just ask?
To develop communications is the key to inner, inter personal, community and international progress. I have included this TED talk by Matt Ridley to express this: http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html