Eden & Elle Magazine February 2009 - Page 1 - Contents 3 4 7 8 10 17 18 22 32 35 40 42 44 Editors letter Debra – Woman of loving Prosperity Ekaterina – Worldly woman Ward – Wingman of Thoughts Richard – Healing Man Tips for an even more beautiful you Tine – Lifes’ Broken Circles NEW! 97% Model of the Month – Heart throbbing Hanneke Paula – Empowering Connection NEW! The Monthly Alternative Shears - Mystery Awareness NEW! Poetic Thoughts & Feelings The five most important words in your life Editors letter Dear Gals & Pals, Welcome to the February 2009 issue of Eden & Elle, the magazine for ‘everyday’ women and men who are out of the ordinary – which means YOU!! It combines eye opening, true to the heart articles with timely information on a multitude of subjects, advice revealing to the reader insights not found anywhere else, and features the 'everyday' woman – women of all shapes, size and ages in a photo shoot showing that they can look just as beautiful posing for a glamour photographer as the latest centerfold. One of the best advantages Eden & Elle has as an independent magazine , is the possiblity to expand the quality content it embraces and stir things around. Due to technical challenges we do not have an interview this month, nor an Erotic Joy, but no fret, we do have 3 new contributors that have written their articles with a passion few can achieve. As a platform for everyone, it is only natural to encompass the thoughts contributors wish to share with our readers, in Eden & Elles’ desire to reach out and help others. One thing that will always be a steady factor in Eden & Elle is our 97% Model of the Month. Hanneke graces the pages this month, hereby crushing any prejudice that ‘everyday’ women are not beautiful or deemed right for a glamour photo session. We would like to introduce you to Paula, a woman so extraordinary and passionate, we are honored that she has taken the plunge into unfamiliar waters to share her intentions with you. Our mystery man Shears, is one that you will appreciate due to his razor sharp tongue in cheek thoughts that hit the truth mark way up high, leaving you in consideration of how your life truly is. Tine, you may remember from a previous issue , has taken on the daunting challenge of sharing her daily life with you, giving you a first hand preview of what an illness like fibromyalgia can do to a person. Richard Gentle, our guest writer from last month has generously contributed a 6 page article that will captivate your mind and leave you heading straight for the online store to buy his book! While Debra shares her seasons holiday experiences that give you the heads up on how to live your life to the fullest. Sadly, Ekaterina will no longer be able to contribute to Eden & Elle on a monthly basis, and we thank her for all her effort and time she has given to the magazine. We wish her lots of success in her new endeavors and look forward to guest contributions from time to time. Off course we do have Ward de Craene with his perception of male versus female which is quite an eye opener and fun to read! As you can see, Eden & Elle has been shaken and stirred, but like James Bond knows, good ingredients prepared with skill and joy give the recipient an enticing and lyrical mix. Let the articles written here wrap themselves around your mind, and with it bring out the best of you. Enjoy! Yours warmly, Désirée Deul Chief Editor Debra – Woman of loving Prosperity Debra Schneider is a single mom with prosperity consciousness, is old enough to have wisdom and young and healthy enough to enjoy it. After having travelled extensively through Europe and The States, she now resides in New York State together with her daughter. HABITS THAT PAY OFF When I was in Paris for the Christmas holiday I decided that I was going to go with the flow as far as my eating habits were concerned. We had our breakfast as part of our hotel price so I was clear we were going to have a hearty breakfast every morning. Most mornings I would have yogurt with prunes (for obvious reasons) and a fried egg with a croissant and a little smoked salmon for protein. This would be topped by a glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. For the rest of the day we would subsist on crepes and street food. This is far more than I usually eat for breakfast. My normal at home meal consists of a protein shake with bananas, strawberries and pineapple. I also make a pot of fresh chai, made with 17 ingredients. OK, I will take this time to give you this recipe as it is not only a divine elixir, but, as everything prepared according to ayurvedic tradition, it is also medicinal. I begin with a chunk of ginger the size of my two thumbs. This is put into my blender. Into this I add ½ stick of cinnamon, about 10 pods of cardamom, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of salt, a pinch of nutmeg. I add about a cup of water and blend this on low for about 5 seconds. I then pour this into a pan. I use about another cup or two of water to rinse out the blend of remaining spices and add this to the pot. Into this pan I put two bags of organic green tea, a teaspoon of turmeric (an amazing anti inflammatory), and a teaspoon of Roobis tea. This blend is brought to a boil. I then remove this and put on the stove in another larger pot about 2 cups of milk (I use a combination of soy and skim but you can do this any way you prefer) with a sprinkle of saffron and a couple of drops of vanilla. I heat this and before it boils, I turn off the stove, and add the strained ginger mixture. To this I add a drop of Lemongrass Oil and a drop of Bergamot Oil. I also add Wisdom of the Ancients Sweet Leaf Stevia, because it is the best stevia product on the market. You can add honey or maple syrup, or sugar if you must. I avoid processed sugar at all costs. This goes into my tea pot and I sip on it all morning. I use to pride myself on saying that I never get sick. I would get the occasional 24 hour thing my daughter would pick up in school but a cold or the flu evaded me from the time I became a mother….until the flight home from Paris. And I got whammed by the worst flu I had ever had. At one point I was running 103.5, so I am told a dangerous temp for an adult. I am clear why I got sick. And I am clear why my system is so strong that while many suffer with this kind of flu for weeks, within 4 days, while still weak and jet lagged, I had no fever and was able to begin to eat again. Back to the habits…. HABIT NUMBER 11 Do not underestimate the power of a good nights’ sleep. As soon as my daughter started school (she was in a Steiner school, or Waldorf, for her early years) we were admonished to keep her away from media of all types, and create a regular schedule of sleeping and eating. As her father was still living with and he is a marvelous vegetarian cook, eating great food was a cinch in our house. What was more of a discipline was regular sleep. My daughter was in bed at 7:30, 8 on weekends, until 5th grade when we moved her bedtime to 8. When she entered a public school that began at 7am (statistics show that moving this time up only 1 hour radically increases grades) we maintained an 8pm school night bedtime hour. As her alarm goes off at 5:50, this gives her plenty of sleep, and I too maintain a solid 8 hours as well. When there is illness going around, neither of are smitten and she is a high 90s student, which I attribute to brains, fed by good organic food and plenty of sleep. When we were in Paris, I was unable to sleep. We went to sleep late, and it wasn’t until the wee hours that I nodded off, and awoke too early to be well rested. I have also learnt that I will NEVER again go through 6 time zones for one week. So with the lack of adequate sleep, and an absence of my health inducing morning elixirs, my weakened body succumbed to the bug that was floating around the airplane. HABIT NUMBER 12 Pick fresh organic foods whenever possible. I guess this is a duh huh? I guess not, as while the demand for organic food is growing, it is still miniscule compared to heavily sprayed, sewage sludge laden foods we in America find on the grocery shelves. This is not only sustainable for your body but the planet as well. Did you know that the nutritional content of non organic foods is often negligible, which means while you are paying less for it, it is like eating sawdust. It may fill you up, but it will not sustain your body. Why is this kind of food produced? Well because it is cheaper for the companies that produce it. AND THEY COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH. The sicker part of this is that in fact many of the food companies and the drug companies are in business together, which means they profit when you get sick. HABIT NUMBER 13 You have to take care of yourself, as the government nor corporate America has any interest in you as a person, only as a consumer. I am as excited as the next guy that we have a real human being about to become the next President of the United States. I suspect he will make some real changes in the laws concerning health care, energy and the economy. This does not mean that it is his responsibility to take care of our health, our energy usage and our economic stability. This is still our job. I suspect this may sound cynical. But I do not trust corporate America to ever take responsibility for the damage they cause. Their job is to make money…...period….Yours is to make sure that you take care of your health and your finances to the best of your ability. Another truism I heard from my mother which has unfortunately proven true both in my marriage and in my investment portfolio…you can never swear for the motives of anyone other than yourself….even then, you have to be vigilant and make sure you are thinking long term…as my meditation teacher says….Is it beneficial or is it pleasurable? We can certainly enjoy something that has benefits, while the pleasurable may be short lasting. I wish I had always considered this sage advice earlier in my life. HABIT NUMBER 14 Never regret what you cannot change I leave you with this one, as it is the one I have the most difficulty with. It is my current practice to examine what I could have done differently so that I can learn from a situation. To make myself or someone else wrong, will only lead to unhappiness, and after all, happiness is the goal of a sustainable life. Hugs, Debra Debra can be reached via thoughts@edenandelle.com Ekaterina – Worldly Woman Coming from Russia, Ekaterina lived in 4 different countries and speaks 4 different languages. She worked as a financial analyst of banks and as a headhunter and currently is writing a PhD thesis in the UK. In her spare time Ekaterina writes, dances, reads Tarot cards and studies shamanism, tantra and magic. She has her own blog, well worth reading: http://otterwisdom.blogspot.com Not really saying goodbye… We all have moments in our lives when a lot of things suddenly start changing. I should be used to this pattern already. After all I moved to four countries in my life, and have tried different jobs. However, suddenly now, being in a small town in the UK and doing my PhD, I feel overwhelmed. Which is a surprise, because for the first time in my life I live in a small city, I enjoy a very satisfying job, and on the surface, I lead a perfectly settled life. However, as they say, still waters run deep. And this expression basically summarizes my life at this moment. Which leads me to say goodbye to the magazine for now, as I need to focus on other aspects of my life. Doing a PhD is perhaps one of the most satisfying aspects of my life at this moment, but also very challenging. I need to read a lot and I need to write even more. Together with my desire to write a novel at the same time it turns out to be very demanding. Then, I met this guy. A gorgeous British fellow. Which is also very demanding, as I want this relationship to keep going. At least for now. Finally, I also need some time to read. I can’t live without books. I spend as much time on reading as I spend on writing. And I also need time to stay in touch with my friends all over the world via Facebook, the very network I study for my PhD and which is also time-consuming. In all things I do in my life I strive for quality. And unfortunately, I noticed that in the past couple of months my quality of writing for magazines is not as I would like it to be, simply because I have too many other things on my mind. And therefore, after a talk with Desiree we decided that it would perhaps be better if I appeared as a guest writer from time to time. After all, doing things from the whole heart and enjoying what you are doing, is what life should be about. I simply enjoy too much my life at this moment, but have little time for anything else. I prefer to read good-quality articles by other writers. This is not a real goodbye, is it? Ward – Wingman of Thoughts Ward de Craene (°1970) works as a music buff (or village idiot) at the local public library of Aalst. His natural clumsiness led him to sympathize with all the underdogs (and women) in the world. Needless to say he adores Cary Grant, the Peanuts-character Charlie Brown and had developed a focus on redheaded girls when he was still in his teens. These things have all helped him to try and at least empathize with others, even with his school bullies, but alas, being too empathic can lead to weird circumstances. Music is his passion, hailing from a musical family, with a professional classical singer as a sister, his mother a retired music teacher and his father as a retired amateur conductor who has obtained wide acclaim by his professional colleagues. Ward is married (but not to a redhead: he grew up a little), he has two children and he tries to combine the joy of music with a happy family life, which may sound jolly, but is not always that easy. In August last year, the BBC came up with an interesting idea. A limited number of celebrities were asked to try and take up a conductor’s baton to see what this would produce within a distressingly short amount of time. These celebrities entered into a conductor’s camp and then went into competition against each other. I’m still thoroughly regretting to have missed out on the complete series, but on Christmas Day I was with my family at my parents’ home watching an interesting epilogue-program about it. As an experienced amateur-musician myself, it goes without saying that the memorable moments and bloopers of the series were absolutely fabulous. I have to admit it: I profoundly roared at certain moments with some excerpts of a few performances by some rather untalented celebrities. It was good, though, to see the painstaking effort it had all cost for the contestants, their mentors and the orchestra involved. All suffered immensely at certain points. I may have laughed loud, but I did realize that I probably wouldn’t be able to achieve what they had done. The program clearly showed that conducting is not just swirling a wooden stick about. It masterfully pointed out the technical problems a conductor has to endure, with him- or herself, with mastering the score and with getting the orchestra in line with the conductor’s own wishes and interpretations. If ever you would have been watching, you would have had no other option than to realize that conducting is mentally and physically extremely hard work. The stress of the responsibility, the demand of having to be infallible in tempo and body language to a crowd of over sixty people is enormous at a high level. The two revelations of the series were Dance DJ Goldie and eventual winner, comedian Sue Perkins. They both achieved success in their own style, Goldie more on charisma and personal phlegm, where Sue clearly had the best technique and she was the best in communicating with the orchestra which had proven fundamental in clinching victory. Sue was a deserved winner when it came down to delivering the best performance. I have to take my hat off in respect, especially to her, but also to all the people involved in making the program. It must have been a grand idea in getting people to listen to classical music who usually skip it on the dial, but now wanted to see their idols in an unusual situation. But still, there is one point that struck me: you don’t see that many female conductors in front of a symphonic orchestra. One traditional aspect of the problem still persists in classical music as in many other careers : whenever children come along, the career usually gets subdued, but I shouldn’t solely be focusing on this even though it well possibly may be the main reason. The world of classical music apparently still is a very conservative world and women achieving leading positions in and in front of orchestras on average still need to fight harder for their acclaim, just like any other woman in the hard world of business. Marin Alsop is a good example. As one of the leading conductors in the US, residing at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, her appointment as musical director did not come about without any controversy. Apparently some senior members had their doubts with her taking up the baton of the orchestra, about a year and a half ago. All is now settled and discussed. Marin is doing fine and well, but it did show that sexism in classical music is still lurking about. On a positive note: it does seem that with the entry of Marin Alsop as chief-conductor, the general conservative (or should I say ‘discriminative’) mood towards women is altering. At 53, she did have a long wait for recognition, but it finally came about and there are more to follow her as an example. Britain saw the appointment of Polish born Ewa Strusinska, as assistant to Mark Elder at the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. The name of this respectable orchestra may not mean that much to outsiders, but if you know that this orchestra has never ever, in its 151st year, has seen a woman at the baton, then this is an ancient local stereotype blown. The appointment of Strusinska is extraordinary given the fact that with her 32 years of age, she still is quite young to be leading an orchestra. And I have to admit, she is good looking and has quite some charisma. But overall, there is hope for women in classical music. In non-vocal soloist terms, these days, many young trumpeters are having their wet dream with playing along with Alison Balsom in Vivaldi’s Concerto for two trumpets and orchestra. The young lady (or would you allow me, as a male chauvinist pig and ardent admirer of her, to say ‘the blowing blonde bombshell’, it sounds ever so demeaning, but honestly, the lady can play and she is very good looking) is still only about to approach her thirties and is currently overtaking Russian prodigy Sergey Nakariakow’s fame on the classical brass-front. Adversaries of her obviously might say she’s just better looking and therefore more interesting and there you go with sexism lurking about again … I still blame myself for not letting my daughter play trumpet or flugelhorn to help eradicate at least this prejudice. My own mother pushed her towards the piano with the argument that a brass instrument is “not a feminine instrument” to learn and play. My father agreed and supported my mother’s thesis. Consequently for the sake of my parents, I gave in. In this way, I also made myself guilty of keeping up some conservative stereotypes in the process, but I suppose I also have a responsibility to preserving happiness for my parents and providing them with a goal in life. For my mother, this was helping out her granddaughter with playing piano, for my father, this was sitting next to his grandson at band-rehearsal playing euphonium. All seem to be happy so far and the kids are still young enough to switch instruments and learn each others as a second (although, I don’t think that will happen with their busy school curriculum). But I still think Theo should have learnt piano and Ruth should have been playing a brass instrument. I wonder how Alison would react to reading this, or in Jazz-terms, New Jersey born Kiku Collins (a studio-musician to Beyoncé Knowles). But then, these are professionals. These ladies are in it for the money. I guess for a female musical amateur, perhaps dignity does not equal emptying a metal reservoir with a bodily fluid on a floor. Ward can be reached at thoughts@edenandelle.com Richard – Healing Man Richard Gentle was born in England, UK in 1961 and currently lives in West Yorkshire. A creative childhood coupled with a stressful school life led to early spiritual development. In the 1980’s he took up the martial art of Kung-Fu, spent some time in the Rosicrucians, attended talks and workshops on psychic and spiritual development and spent a weekend with healer, Matthew Manning. One outcome of these experiences was the writing of a booklet called ‘How We Perform Negative Miracles’. Richard works publicly in education and teaching - developing the use of new technologies - and also privately as a healer. He has spent over 30 years exploring the unseen nature of the universe and believes, along with a growing number of others, that we create our reality from the power of our ‘now’. If there is one message to spread, it must be to become fully conscious of our participation in all creation. The Secret of Keeping Good Health Introduction Before I ever thought about health as an issue, I’d already come across the notion of healing people through non– medical means in the mid 1970’s when reference was made to a family friend who “did healing”. Over a number of years, I read books, attended talks and workshops on spiritual development and generally started to ‘have a go’ myself. To date, I have worked with people enduring conditions from minor injuries, aches and pains to HIV, AIDS and Cancer. Some positive results exceeded expectation while others left me wondering what was going on. In this article, I will discuss some of the reasons why injury and illness serves us and show that, through a change in mental approach to our circumstances and developing an understanding of health in combination with Personal Action Intervention, we can learn to take more responsibility for our own health and well-being. Background Illness and injury have become an accepted part of our lives. However, we can all do more to help ourselves and others gain an improvement in health or achieve complete recovery from illness. For over two decades, I have practiced healing and helped with the recovery of several people. Choose to be Well There are many reasons why people suffer poor health. There are also many symptoms whose causes may not at first seem clear. I was once told that our natural state is one of health, but no one really explained what that meant and why so many of us become afflicted with such a variety of ailments. Over time, I have realized the truth of this statement and come to understand its’ amazing message: You can choose to be healthy. Getting Started To start on the path of good health, you need to understand something of the nature of your own being and the creative energy within you. Illness is often perceived as a serious issue for those suffering – whether it be the individual with the illness, or a partner, parents, children, relatives, friends, or associates. However, if you want to see improvements in health, it is important to have a broader understanding of why illness may arise and to then see how it may be reversed – or ideally, prevented from occurring in the first place. Many of us now appreciate that treating symptoms does not always heal causes. Treat the causes and you alleviate or reverse the symptoms. And when I say ‘treat the causes’, I am not referring here only to perceived physical causes. The Conventional Spiritual View Some people attribute their well-being – or lack of it – to certain beliefs they have developed. For example, if we suffer persistent illness, we might have cause to wonder if we have done something wrong in our life... but not just our current life – our past lives too! Unfortunately, holding rigidly to this view may prevent a person from moving forward and realizing his/her full potential in the life that he/she is now experiencing. Visualization Most people are familiar with the concept of visualization – consciously imagining things in the mind through pictures and sensations which in turn affect your mood and your body and which are also projected from you into the universe. What you may not realize is that we visualize all of the time – not just when we consciously choose to visualize (perhaps through meditation or daydreaming). And very often, what we visualize most is what ‘plays’ on our mind – such as when we worry about something. Illness as Servant Children often learn from an early age that illness can gain attention. A parent will often comfort a child in pain and a child may occasionally pretend pain and cry for attention. As an adult, we may have an unconscious memory of being comforted when we were ill as a child. Having something wrong with us is a legitimate reason for gaining attention – love and concern, extra help and companionship. The society many of us experience has become a lot less tactile and more separate over the years. People are busy looking after their own interests and time spent with children has been replaced with extra toys, television, and video games. Like all humans, we try things out until we gain the feedback for the result we are looking for. Unfortunately for many of us, this feedback becomes linked with how successfully we can manipulate our well–being. You might think that my focus on children doesn’t apply to you as an adult, but stop and think of any time when you have perhaps used illness for gaining attention – whether it be from someone you want a show of love from, or simply to demonstrate your unique special condition. The rarer you can make your illness, the more special you feel! The long–term problem with this is that you may find it difficult to reverse what you have created. This is when illness takes control of you, rather than you having control of it. At this point, many of you may be protesting, saying things like, ‘I don’t need attention! That doesn’t apply to my situation. I am genuinely ill and I don’t want sympathy from anyone!’ If that is the case, ask yourself this: Why do you think you are ill? The legitimacy of Illness Okay, here’s another example of using illness. In much of society, illness is the only legitimate reason not to have to do something – whether it is work-related or leisure-related. It’s no use phoning the boss and saying you’ve decided not to go into work because you don’t feel like it today! But if you explain instead that you are too ill to go to work, the boss simply wishes you a quick recovery and tells you to come back as soon as you are better.
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