I’m quitting my job to save the planet.

For over a year, awareness raising about conscious living has been my job. Trouble is, my awareness got so raised that it can’t be a job any more, it has to be my work. A job is what people do to live; it’s what you do when you have no option - economically. Work is what you do when you have no option - ethically and conscientiously; it’s for life, not just for christmas presents. I’m no longer sure the two can be merged and seemlessly integrated, as I’d previously hoped, and thought I was actually doing.

There’s something insidious about ‘job consciousness’; the distinguishing question being: “would you do it anyway, regardless?”. If it’s to “pay the bills”, it’s a job. And jobs don’t save the planet. Jobs are part of that time-buying conspiracy that helps us kid ourselves that we’ll do something we really want to do, or that needs to be done, when the bills have finally been paid, goals achieved and to-do lists checked.

And just as it’s immoral to apply tax before profit, it’s morally indefensible to delay the ethically inevitable. The work of the past year especially has convinced me that the planet needs saving NOw, not when I’ve sorted my lifestyle out, got rich or achieved a level of acceptable comfort.

The phrases that sum up my raison de fait (did I get that right?) are Inspirational Dissatisfaction (I found this in Rob Hopkin’s Transition Handbook, from Rob’s interview with Chris Johnstone) and Blessed Unrest (the title of Paul Hawken’s recent book on “How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming).

Sure I’ve still got bills to pay. But that cart will now go behind the horse. It can’t be any other way.

Paul Hawken and Blessed Unrest

Rob Hopkins and Transition Culture

Free Transition MP3s

What I’ve been doing for the last 12 months

It’s not an easy time to be running a magazine, especially one that avoids the unholy trinity of celebrity gossip, preying on insecurity and rampant consumerism. Just ask the folks at Common Ground - the Totnes-based eco and lifestyle mag who I understand hasn’t been able to keep its head above water after just one edition. I remember too my own efforts in publishing (Vibes! - Sheffield’s guide to positive living) that almost drove me round the bend and certainly deep into debt way back in 1994. Being Assistant Editor at Positive News was also a big insight into the perils of postive publishing and the old adage that good news is still doing up its shoelaces, while bad news has gone round the world twice.

All that said, my deepest respect and admiration therefore goes to The Source, the “first stop for inspiration and information on all the things we all care about down here in the South West … our land, our community, our spirit and above all, our plans for a sustainable and positive future”. (Read on …)

I was slow to discover The Idler (there’s an obvious joke in there, but I won’t stoop to it) and its founding influence Tom Hodgkinson. Sure, I’d heard of it and him, but it wasn’t until something stirred in my waters yesterday, that I felt an urgency to visit www.idler.co.uk. Once there, my eyes went straight to Tom’s book - How to Be Free. I immediately called Waterstone’s, Exeter, who said a copy had just come in and they’d put it by. Within minutes, I had it in my hands and I was/am still enthralled. In a word: vindicated.

Names and keywords like John Seymour, Satish Kumar*, Eric Gill, Schumacher, Ruskin, permaculture, mulching and cooperation as well as Tom’s obvious hatred of CCTV, banks and watches struck an immediate chord and re-arranged years of random references into a recognisable constellation of vision and hope. I’m even thinking of taking up the Ukele.

And this afternoon, Tom popped up again on a BBC Radio 4 show - Nowhere Fast? - quizzed by (Read on …)

The idea of going for a scan can create anxiety. Whether for the purposes of routine screening or to double-check a medical suspicion, scans also tend to be rooted in the physical body. So the idea of a metaphysical or holistic scan – to look for energetic blockages – caught my interest.

It’s Kimberley Jones, a Torquay born and bred Art Historian turned healer and artist, who offers this insightful and unusual service under the banner of Quantum Coaching and Healing, and for anyone remotely interested in the connection between the emotions, the mind and health – she’s a must-see.

Sure I was intrigued to learn that Kimberley “reads” bodily energy with her hands and can feel colours - red, blue and green - which reveal different types of energetic information all over the body. But I was relieved to be greeted by a very normal looking and sounding person when I went for my initial consultation.

“I have sensed ‘energy’ since I was a child - although I wouldn’t have called it that,” Kim told me when I quizzed her about her background. “I just knew what people were thinking and feeling.”

“Growing up I found my sensitivity made it hard to be in the world so I started numbing myself with alcohol and cigarettes at a very young age. I convinced myself I could get a respectable job and perhaps be a ‘businesswoman’, whatever that meant,” Kim revealed.

“Nothing satisfied me and I moved jobs regularly. I buried my abilities deeper and deeper until I forgot about them. I got more and more stressed,” added Kim whose mother it turns out was also highly psychic.

Following her mother’s death in 1997, Kim started experiencing violent psychic events and her abilities were blasted wide open again, far stronger than before.

“I went into a ’spiritual emergency’, a crisis that often leads to a breakdown of some kind,” Kim told me. “I also became physically unwell. Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2000, I became unable to function in any normal way and had to stop work.”

“The one thing that had a strong effect on me during these years was healing. Whether spiritual healing or Reiki, each session led to a huge improvement in my condition and my reawakened extra-sensory abilities.”

“Eventually I was strong enough to start my own research and training, using myself as my own guinea pig,” she explained. “I began by studying Reiki and am now a Reiki Master.”

Soon after Kim trained in “energy mastery” and the “energetics and spirituality of business”, followed by a voluntary apprenticeship to a leading European re-birthing therapist, which enabled her to learn more about how pain, both emotional and physical, is just energy held in the body’s energetic fields.

“This is when I started to see and sense how energy behaves in and around the body according to what we are thinking. It was a huge breakthrough for me,” she said.

Kim has now developed all of her learning into a system called Quantum Coaching and Healing where she uses her abilities as an “energy intuitive” to scan people’s energy fields and offer guidance and healing according to what she finds.

“I have found this cuts through to a truth that is validated by my clients time and again,” she told me. “People are regularly referred to me by their psychotherapist or body work therapist. Your energy fields never lie. They always speak the truth about the deep issues underlying anything you want help with.”

Kim reckons our masks, inherited beliefs and attitudes are like our ‘words’, and she calls the real us revealed by our energy, our ‘music’, claiming that if our words and music don’t go together we get imbalance and eventually dis-ease of some kind.

“I see my job as something resembling a choir master, bringing your words and music together so you can sing your own unique song in the world with health, confidence and joy,” says Kim who also offers support to those highly sensitive to the energy of others at work or at home.

Her Quantum Coaching and Healing sessions involve clients lying down fully clothed and relaxing on a treatment bed. Kim then passes her hands over and around your body sensing energy fields as though she has “eyes in her hands”.

Kimberley’s approach – after an initial and thorough pre-treatment discussion - is a really interesting blend of off-the-beaten-track energy work and hi-tech methodology. Lying on her treatment table, I was at first aware of her ’scanning’, but soon drifted off into a much-needed snooze, comfortable in the safety of her already-healing space.

Before I fell into too much of a slumber however, I saw how Kimberley transcribed the sensations felt and ’seen’ through her hands into coloured shading on an outline of a human body – representing me and my energy on this particular day - on her laptop screen, for later interpretation.

It must have been around 30-40 minutes, when I felt Kimberley’s healing touch on my arm inviting me to rejoin the conscious world. A little fuzzy still, I returned to the consulting area to be greeted by a pretty map of my metaphysical energy and to hear Kimberley’s insights, findings and ideas about what it all meant.

Depending on what is needed, Kim uses healing, visualisations, breathing, relaxation techniques and energy meditations, drawing on her toolkit of training and experience combined with intuitive and psychic sensing.

She’s good and she’s accurate. Coming from a very loving and supportive place – and not in any way ungrounded or annoyingly new age – Kim really gave me something to think about and a number of useful tips to help me through what she saw as my energetic blocks. I’ve always thought the body never lies, and Kim’s energetic extension of this theory takes things a convincing step further.

Kimberley Jones’ Quantum Coaching & Healing is available in Totnes and Netwon Abbot. Call 01803 868282 for more information or a consultation. Or visit: www.quantum-coaching.co.uk

Check this out: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/…jan07_booklet.pdf

Whilst on a recent trip to Thailand researching new treats and treatments, I had the chance to check out Healthlands, a small chain of spas, with branches in Bangkok and and Pattaya.Rushed there after a sumptuous seafood dinner (yes I know I did it the wrong way round), I was ushered into a lift and led to a delightful minimalist bodywork suite complete with oversized massage table draped with thai silk, a James Bond shower with more jets than I could be bothered to count and carefully designed lighting that had my blood pressure lowered on entry.

My tiny masseuse, Tina, invited me to take a shower and as I alerted her to my for-what-I-am-about-to-receive-may-the-lord-make-me-truly-thankful state of readiness, she re-entered the room and greeted me with “underwear - no!”.

Thoughtfully and dramatically turning her face to the wall, Tina’s limited grasp of English was immediately transcended into a clear communication - hurry up and get naked.

I needed no further invitation, and throwing British reserve along with my boxers to the floor, went for the birthday suit option and delighted in the combination of crisp white linen and soft silk against my skin as I hit the pleasure plinth face-down.

Tina’s smoothing moves took me down another octave on the relaxation scale, my bliss interrupted only by my own foolish gluttony and timing as the preceding seafood feast made its presence felt - pushing back from the depths of my belly.

In no time, Tina was up on the table with me in true Thai style, not sparing the horses and putting an ant to shame in terms of bodyweight leverage. As she commented “very hard” (which I took as a comment on my muscular tone; not a prescription) she seemed to morph into an eastern European weightlifter, certainly in terms of pounds per square inch pressure.

Pampering quickly turned to my new discovery pain-pering’, a concept me and my hedolst buddies are not too familiar with. Hedolism by the way, is my own hybrid lifestyle that marries hedonistic pleasure to holistic principles (for life and not just for Christmas). (see: www.hedolistic.com)

So hedolistic it wasn’t, but I’m not complaining.

Childbirth-like specialist breathing got me through the toughest parts of this wellbeing workout, along with the gentler parts of Tina’s routine that had me purring like a kitten. Knuckle cracking was complemented by luxurious long strokes, which reminded me that massage is the ‘mother of all therapies’ (even if at times it appeared to be an over-strict, disciplinarian father).
Incidentally, this mega-massage - billed as aromatherapy - was not preceded by any sort of consultation, or perhaps more appropriately, riot act. No western style contra-indications were discussed either; it was straight down to business at this urban oasis where it’s a matter of buyer beware.

Dispensed with too were the prissiness and discomfort of the sensuality/sexuality issue. Certainly in my experience of British therapy rooms, the boundary is so clearly marked that it becomes an issue in its own right. While I’m not suggesting protection for therapist and client alike are important, I am saying the Thai approach - that allows massage of the chest, buttocks and high thighs without inhibition or embarrassment - is something we repressed Westerners can learn from. In other words “Get over it!”.

Anyway, enough body politics.

Finishing with some deep pressure from Tina’s elbows into my now ‘throw whatever you have at me’ shoulders and some implausible stretches that made me quite proud of myself, my Thai tormenter turned tension-tamer gently called time and suggested I take another shower.

Back on my feet, the world assumed that lovely, a little mushy, ‘there is a god’ feeling and back in the decompression lounge, I sipped warm fragrant tea as well as chilled water amid thoughtfully designed water features, floral arrangements and other post-massage guests. Massage therapists lined the inviting corridors with Thai-style grace and greetings, making you feel like a king or queen, yet I couldn’t help feeling I should be the one bowing in respect for the skills so gratefully received.

Chilled to the max, it occurred to me that the suitably named Healthlands, a country within a country, a numinous nation state that all should be lucky enough to visit at some time in their lives, was the perfect blend of original barefoot healing arts, contemporary styling plus heart-warming Thai service and attention to detail.

I’m applying for citizenship.

As soon as I saw Randy Gage had written this book, I had to get a copy. And believe me I wasn’t disappointed!

If you want to be free - in health, mind and wealth - “Why You’re Dumb, Sick, and Broke and How to Get Smart, Well, and Rich!” by Randy Gage is a great place to start - it’s inspiring. If you buy it and don’t like it - I’ll refund you your money!!

Enjoy!

Get it here: click

Amazon synopsis: This title adopts a no-holds-barred approach to overcoming negative beliefs to attain success.

This practical, yet inspirational book combines timeless principles of wealth-building and success with no-nonsense guidance on how to succeed in today’s complex, competitive world.

Brash, thought provoking, and always entertaining, Randy Gage explores all the issues that affect personal health, happiness, and prosperity. Holding nothing back, he takes on the educational system, organized religion, dysfunctional families, and a culture of victimhood and entitlement, revealing how all these forces conspire to keep most people dumb, sick, and broke.

Then, Gage reveals how to break the cycle with a powerful action plan that will help readers get smart, healthy, and rich. This insightful book offers solutions for eliminating negative beliefs and behaviors, and replacing them with positive thoughts and actions to br! eak the cycle of victimhood forever.

Readers will discover how to turn motivation into action, think like the rich, and understand the virtue of selfishness. The modern world conspires to keep us dumb, sick, and broke; Gage offers straight talk on how to escape mediocrity and seize greatness! Randy Gage (Miami Beach, FL) has been dubbed “the Millionaire Messiah,” because he believes it is a sin to be poor, and you are meant to be rich.

His own experience rising from a high school dropout to a multi-millionaire uniquely qualifies him to share this message of abundance.

Get your copy here: click

The Hedolist bigs up therapists who are raising the bar for outstanding performance in holistic therapy…

Today’s spa star is Jason Bradford, a former baker turned massage therapist with reassuringly big and warm hands. Those years of kneading and shaping dough were not wasted.

This guy deserves a gong for a thoroughly relaxing and very unusual workout that I received recently - sat in a chair. Not a special chair, mind you, Jason is a ‘para-masseur’, able to drop in with the least amount of fuss, working with the conditions he finds.

For me, there was half an hour to spare, so he grabbed the nearest chair, sat me down and went to work.

I expected to be eased and relaxed in this guy’s capable hands, because on an earlier occasion, just a little way into inspecting his diploma certificates, I lost the will to live and asked him to get on with it - such is Jason’s copious technical depth.

In practice, the man matched the quantity of his on-paper credentials with a quality most practitioners would die for.

Without wanting to sound like a Motown songwriter, I have to say ‘warm and tender’ is the phrase that comes to mind, but the biggest and surprise was to come.

This delightfully relaxing session, I soon realised, was entirely pressure-based and devoid of the stroking, kneading and sweeping moves that I automatically expect when receiving massage – couch or chair-based.

Now I know pressure sounds, well, unrelaxing and vaguely medicinal, but try Jason’s beautifully timed, leisurely and systematic ‘hold and release’ method on all of your main muscle groups and the result is under-the radar bliss.

‘Pass the drool-tray’, some five minutes into his routine, was my last recognisable thought, as this master of his art went about his business.

Surprising (in a very positive way), time and cost effective, and seriously calm-inducing, Jason Bradford’s chair routine is one to try before you die. He’s got a gift and a passion for bodywork that you can feel through his fingertips; let them find their way to you soon.

You can book him for this, and a range of other massage-based approaches to relaxation and pain-relief on: 07909 960 884

If you want The Hedolist to review your therapy style (excellence, uniqueness and delight ONLY please), email: spastar@hedolistic.com