What Katy Louise Did...

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Katy Louise writes about health, wealth, happiness and relationships, and the spiritual insights she gains along her path. She is currently editor of Top Sante magazine (www.topsante.co.uk). Prior to that she was editor of Bodyfit magazine (now Your Fitness www.yourfitnesstoday.com) and the launch editor of Soul&Spirit magazine (www.soulandspiritmagazine.com). Katy is also a certified Fitsteps and STOTT Pilates instructor. She is the go-to girl for all matters relating to health, wellbeing and spirituality.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Tick Holistic!

Has your census landed on your doormat yet? If so - and you don't know what to put for 'religion' - then consider writing 'holistic' to encompass an all-round approach to spirituality.
Spiritual author and holistic campaigner William Bloom is one of the champions of this idea to get as many spiritual practitioners as possible to write 'holistic' on their census, so as to reflect the diverse, changing, non-religious nature of the country's people.
Visit http://www.holisticmap.org/about/campaign.htm to find out more!

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Period power!


Having attended the Flying Solo 1 workshop in Glastonbury the weekend before last at Healing Waters (time is certainly flying for me as it seems like ages ago now, as I’m fully entrenched back into my manic work schedule), I wanted to tell you all how amazing it was. Lead by Gabriella Guglielminotti Trivel – who calls herself the flying witch because as a child, she always thought it would be cool to fly on a broomstick to travel speedily and easily from place to place, and because she IS now taking flying lessons! – I learned so much about my menstrual cycle, and how, if I keep track of it and the changes in my body, I can learn so much from my own inner wisdom and that of nature. I was struck by a few interesting insights as the day progresses, including how I had been suppressing my natural hormones – and therefore, according to Gabriella, my intuition – for so many years in my 20s when I was taking the contraceptive pill. When you’re young, you try to be responsible and do what you think is right, and you are never given any alternative advice from healthcare professionals – who are only too keen to get you on the pill – about how perhaps there is a more natural way, i.e. methods where you track your bodily changes to work out when you’re ovulating. So this for one has given me food for thought.

Seasons of change
But what was most immediately gratifying and enlightening was learning how to liken each stage of the monthly cycle to the seasons of the year. So, for pre-ovulation, it’s your spring: this is a time for ideas, outwards energy, initiating projects etc; then when you are ovulating, this is your summer: a time for being a social butterfly, reaping the rewards for your hard work in spring, being active and ‘out there’ including being more receptive to potential partners; then, when you are premenstrual it’s your autumn phase: this means the energy is turning inwards now, decreasing, you feel less like going out and may be tetchy with people; it’s also a time, I discovered, when the inner critic can be strong and you doubt yourself and your decisions (I laughed when I heard this and asked what you could do if you thought you were in a perpetual Autumn, as I have suffered severe bouts of doubt and indecision in the past!). Finally, menstruation is your winter phase, when the trees are barren and you turn inwards towards yourself; it’s a time for rest and recuperation, and when psychic impressions, intuition and dreams are said to be stronger.

Knowing yourself
The whole point in learning this knowledge – which you track for yourself on the worksheets Gabriella gives you as hand outs – is to get to know when you are in which phase, and to understand that some times might be better for certain activities than others. Already I can see this helping in my life; I look back to a few weeks ago when I made a major decision about something which at the time seemed right, where as now, in my ‘autumn phase’ I have had plenty of doubts creeping in. But now that I am aware that this is a natural tendency, I can just acknowledge those doubts and, as Gabriella suggests, say to them, ‘Thank you for your concern, but I choose to stay on this path, or stick to this decision’ or whatever it is. It was so interesting too see how these thoughts of positivity and optimism changed to ones of doubt and uncertainty when in the latter half of my cycle. 

That’s just one of the great things I learned. To find out more about these Flying Solo workshops, visit Gabriella’s website at www.flyinginspiration.co.uk, or email flyinginspiration@yahoo.co.uk. I attended the workshop at Healing Waters Retreat Centre in Glastonbury, but she also does them in the Luton area.