Archive for category: Blog

Who will you be showing love to this year? There are plenty of people that need it.

We all tend to see St Valentines day as a time for the expression of romantic love, and for many it is. I have a another idea. In a world that is full of consumerism and recession there are many people out there that need to know that someone cares, that would benefit from a little love.

Statistics tell us that over 50% of us are on our own, or living as single parents. Some of us are on our own due to failed relationships and others due to bereavement and loss. And there are those who have lost all that they have and are living alone on the street.

How about we give Valentine a make over and extend our sharing of love to those, either in our own community, or across the world, that are needy of love and care. Who do you know in your community that would benefit from a card, a small gift, a visit, a kind word, or a helping hand?

In a world where we all show love and care for others everyone’s needs are met and community wellbeing rises. That has to be a win win. In the end, as John Lennon put, “love is all there is”.

Have a wonderful Valentines and share the love.

Take care,
Sean x

A message from our resident writer, Mr Sean Orford (originally posted on seanorford.com)….

Quite a few people have said they would like to join the detox this New Year and so Ed has put together an updated eBook that you can access via the forms below.

[contact-form-7 id=”1789″ title=”Detox Signup”]

SO WHAT ABOUT DETOX?

The other day someone accused me of being a yo-yo dieter. Well, never having eaten a yo-yo in my life I don’t know what they are talking about. If you have joined me for a detox before you will know just how good it feels. For over thirty years I have done a regular detox every spring and every autumn, and in between as well.

When I first began doing detox I was living in an Ayurvedic community living a life that was vegetarian, organic food, daily yoga and meditation. Working in teams of six we would each take a turn at going into silent retreat and either detoxing of fasting for a week. This meant that every six weeks I flushed my system.

The detox program I now follow lasts for around thirteen to fifteen days depending on when you come into the programme from your current diet. In day one we drop all heavy foods, meat, fatty foods and any thing stodgy. Day two we drop fish, day three dairy produce, day four wheat and cereals. On day five we focus on cooked veg, day six, raw veg, day seven, fruit, and then if you are up for it a day on simply fruit juice, and then if you are really serious a day on just hot water with some honey and lemon. If you have never detoxed before this may be to difficult to follow and therefore ignore these days.

Having flushed the system we now work our way back up, fruit juice, fruit, raw veg, cooked veg and so on until we are back to a normal diet. Of course on the way down we drop tea, coffee, alcohol and, all soft drinks other than fruit juice.

This is an ideal way to begin the New Year especially if you are starting a new weight regime or stopping smoking or drinking etc. weight loss varies, but for me it is around 6lbs.

When you detox it is more than simply your body. During the process your mind and emotions get a good clean as well especially if you do a little meditation.

Download the pack and have a look and maybe give it ago… all free of charge of course 🙂

[contact-form-7 id=”1789″ title=”Detox Signup”]

Take care,

Sean x

What is it all about?

Now at this time of celebration let the eating and the drinking begin. The time to celebrate and give gifts to those that we care about is upon us, though the way that we celebrate it will vary. For some it will have been the pagan festival of Yule on December 21st, for some Christmas Day on December 25, for others the festival of giving is on January 6th, the twelfth night, when the Wise Men were said to bring their gifts to Jesus.

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Today on-line carried out a survey in Singapore. 1,500 people responded making it Asia’s most comprehensive psychographic study in terms of the number of respondents, geographical coverage and insights into 16 key topics: Beauty, communication, education, entertainment, fashion, food, health, kids, love, luxury, media, money, sports, technology, travel and vehicles.

One of the key findings in the study revealed that 75.4 per cent feel that happiness is more important than making money.

Ok, so would you rather be rich or happy?

I love surveys like this one because they go to re-prove that money doesn’t make you happy. Psychologically we all know this to be true, so why are so many of us obsessed with becoming rich? I have been doing a straw poll of those I have met today and my instant findings are that when people are talking about happiness they mean feeling secure with nothing to worry about. We seem to collectively have the belief that if we have money we will then be happy, because at a deeper level we feel that it would give us security, meaning that we would then have less to worry about.

Well, I have worked with many very rich and very unhappy people and very poor and very happy people. I know you can be poor and miserable and rich and happy. But try this for size…

In the present, in the here and now, at any given time or point, we are both safe and secure. Check it out as you read this. Are you safe, are you secure, do you have anything to worry about right now this minute?

If you keep worrying about the future you will forever have an anxiety syndrome. If you keep worrying about the past you will be in a depressive syndrome. If you do both you will be anxiously depressed. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, healthy or infirm if you live in the present you can find happiness.

Live in the present and be happy now

Take care

Sean x

photo credit

I have a confession to make: I don’t use the mediation files that come with the ‘starter pack’ that we encourage our readers to download once they have purchased a copy of our Live in the Present book.

Why not Ed, I hear you ask? Well, I’ve thought long and hard about it and I think I’m finally coming close to answering that question. First of all, let’s look at the definition of the word ‘meditate‘:

2. To think deeply or carefully about (something)

Now, that allows me to leave behind the notion that meditation is about shutting off your mind completely, rather it allows you to shut off your mind to all but one thing.

I like to be inspired. I have no trouble relaxing, unwinding and generally not worrying about things (just ask my poor wife who despairs of my laid-back nature). Heck, I NEED inspiration to gear me up for the day ahead. I work alone most of the time so I haven’t got the benefit of a team of people and a shared energy source when working on a project (aside from my bi-weekly LITP meetings with Sean & Rie).

So rather than spending a quiet 5 minutes in the morning in silence I like to listen to some energetic music or watch a short video such as the one about (click here to see it). I’ll usually then be able to hit the ground running for the day and plough through my design work before lunch time.

There is no right or wrong way to live in your present. This is just one technique I use to make the most of my time.

How about you? Do you meditate regularly? Let us know in the comments below.