Get half price tickets for the world’s largest sound healing event
This December something spectacular is happening at London’s Wembley Arena. The Big Om is the world’s largest sound healing event and will involve 12,500 people chanting the om at the climax of five hours of spectacular live entertainment and music.
If you’re quick you can get your hands on one of the 1000 half price tickets – watch a groovy animated video all about it here
The Big Vision
The Big Om is Barefoot Doctor Stephen Russell’s big dream – and from an idea conceived on a mountainside in New Mexico, The Big Om is set to become a reality in 2012 in one of London’s most prestigious venues.
Stephen explains: “My vision is for thousands of people celebrating human evolution, chanting the sacred sound of the universe – the OM – together and causing such a powerful vibration, the whole world feels it as an undeniable blast of healing.
“It will all be backed up in a spectacular display of light and sound by state of the art electronic dance music, the world’s finest DJ’s, free-runners, tai chi masters, street dancers, gurus and me, Barefoot Doctor, doing the unique shamanic crowd-working, sound-healing experience I’ve developed over the decades and honed in Ibiza over the past few years.”
The Big Om
Ibiza is known as the dance capital of the world, home to some of the world’s best trance dance clubs and DJs. Wembley Arena will be transformed into an Ibiza style super-club environment for the Big Om. Performers have yet to be confirmed – but expect some of the biggest names on the business. This is one of those events that you simply have to be part of – and if you get in quick you can get your hand on those half price tickets.
Try Dru Yoga – UK & Portugal
March 26, 2012 by Sue
Filed under latest news & views, learn, see & do, wellbeing
Having recently seen what a huge difference Dru Yoga has made to a friend of mine dealing with a number of debilitating conditions, I had to let you know about some upcoming Dru events.
But first, if you have never heard of Dru Yoga before – you may want to know that it’s aimed at relieving the pressures of modern living with soft flowing movements to increase energy levels, ease back pain and wash away stress. Designed to be practised by people of all abilities, fitness levels and age groups, it is a style of yoga that can be quickly dipped into or learnt in more depth over a lifetime.
Urban Mindfulness – Manchester UK
This course , taught over three weekends, helps you discover the physical body as a gateway to the quiet mind. You learn how to use the senses to enable moment by moment awareness and you meditate on the chakras to focus your internal energies for health and inner calm.
Course dates are April 14/15, May 12/13, June 2/3 at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester and you can find out full details here
Yoga & meditation holiday – Southern Portugal
Escape from it all from 19-26 May and bring a friend half price for seven days of yoga, meditation and sound in an unspoiled area of Southern Portugal, famous for its beautiful beaches and warm sunshine.
The retreat offers two daily classes of Dru Yoga and Meditation leaving plenty of time to relax on nearby beaches, take a swim in the pool or enjoy a rejuvenating massage or game of golf.
Staying at the Quinta Mimosa on a hillside above the historic town of Loule, near Faro, the retreat costs £795 on a shared twin room basis (and bring a friend for half price) or £955 for a single. Non yoga partners pay £575.
The venue is in three converted farmhouses set in beautiful orchards and gardens. Each house has ensuite bedrooms with a lounge, fully equipped kitchen, terrace and barbeque area. You’ll also have use of three swimming pools and you’re welcome to walk in the grounds and pick ripe oranges, peaches and nectarines from the orchard.
The yoga and meditation sessions will be held either outside or in the fully equipped yoga studio. This is a converted barn, with cool flagstone floor and air-conditioning, and it opens out onto the garden for outdoor sessions.
Find out more, and grab a place whilst you still can, here
Free health & wellbeing webinar with Dr John Demartini
March 5, 2012 by Sue
Filed under latest news & views, watch, wellbeing
If your new year’s resolutions around diet, exercise or stopping smoking or drinking didn’t last past January, then tune in for human behaviour specialist Dr John Demartini’s livetime webinar broadcast on 20 March or catch the replays between 27-29 March.
‘Discover the hidden intentions behind your health and well-being routines’ is a 45 minute webinar with Dr Demartini during which he aims to help you understand your behaviour around health, wellness and your physical body. So if you have trouble appreciating the way you look or struggle to make the changes you intend, this free 45 minute talk could help you shift your behaviour.
You will have the chance to ask questions before and during the broadcast and the event will be recorded so if you are unable to attend live you will be able to listen to the rebroadcast.
The broadcast is accessible through Dr Demartini’s Facebook page on the LiveStream tab, where you can find the exact times and dates of the broadcast and replays.
Reframing the 10 Commandments
Barefoot Doctor Stephen Russell’s latest series of healing satsang meditations is based on his book The Message – Vision for a New Golden Era.
Reframing the 10 Commandments
The series focuses on reframing each of the Ten Commandments to evolve a new way of living together as we enter possibly the greatest transition of conditions ever experienced by humankind.
Stephen explains: “The theme of the book is that by eliciting love, by accessing the angelic presence within via the Taoist internal alchemy, enlightenment occurs, along with a natural empathy-born ethos of decency, for which amazingly/ironically the Ten Commandments provide the perfect guideline, in that once enlightened it’s obvious you put no other lesser gods before the one presence, it’s obvious you don’t want to kill, or steal and so on. It’s a fascinating exploration and gives rise to the deepest insights and template for living together in a new way in a new golden era.”
The satsang series offers meditations on reframing the commandments as the underpinnings for a new world.
What is Barefoot Satsang?
Satsang is an ancient sansrkit word meaning sitting together in truth, in authenticity, without artifice or pretence, to commune with the core of each other and so elicit an experience of the Tao (the ineffable divine presence).
If you’ve never been to a Barefoot Satsang before, all you need is your computer, preferably with some headphones. Each satsang comprises Doc’s 20 minute reflection on the topic being covered before he leads you into a 20-30 minute guided meditation. Then there’s the opportunity to ask questions on what’s come up in the session or on any issues or challenges with which you would like Doc’s help.
Stephen’s believes that attending a satsang elicits: “the sensation of basking in the Tao’s love. Not only does it fortify and align you to be able to experience and perform at optimum levels for the week ahead, it clarifies your mind and focus and so helps you in making those difficult decisions and choices. It also sends out a force field of positively charged healing energy throughout the collective field and so helps accelerate evolution for everyone. And as far as I can see, this is fairly crucial for the human experiment at this momentous time.”
Meditations on a New Golden Era
The 12 session satsang series starts on 6 March and runs until 27 May in two blocks of six. The topics covered are:
Tues 6 March Tablets to Tablet – Why reframe the 10 Commandments?
Tues 13 March Commandment 1 – God, the Tao, the Great Blah – “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”
Tues 20 March Commandment 2 – Mistaking dolls for the divine – “Thou shalt not make any graven image or idol of the Lord your God”
Tues 3 April Commandment 3 – Force or intention – “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”
Tues 10 April Commandment 4 – Holidays & holy days – “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”
Tues 17 April Commandment 5 – Honouring the presence – “Thou shalt honour thy mother and father”
Sun 22 April Commandment 6 – Hurting & healing – “Thou shalt not kill”
Sun 29 April Commandment 7 – Reframing our relationships – “Thou shalt not commit adultery”
Sun 6 May Commandment 8 – Internal integrity – “Thou shalt not steal”
Sun 13 May Commandment 9 – Lies, damn lies – “Thou shalt not bear false witness”
Sun 20 May Commandment 10 – Yellow leopard skin hat – “Thou shall not covet”
Sun 27 May Vision for a New Golden Era
You can book the sessions individually, or save some money by booking all 12 at once or in two sets of six. Book your place at:
No ‘plan B’?
I downloaded an image someone had posted on facebook this week. It said: “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”. The quote grabbed me because it’s a simple truth – confronting fear enables you to move on with life. Yet how many times do we resist that, pulling our comfort blanket around us and staying where it’s cosy and safe?
Sometimes however, there is no choice. Life throws us a curve ball and we must confront our fears and get on with it. In March 2011 when the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant explosions in Japan shook the whole world, incredible examples of ‘ordinary’ people behaving courageously in all sorts of extraordinary circumstances came to the fore.
A BBC documentary ‘Inside the Meltdown’, one year on, allows us to see footage of the unfolding incident. People from the local area, Tepco executives, workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant and the army personnel, helicopter pilots and firemen brought in to help, even the Prime Minister of Japan himself, describe their feelings throughout the disaster and in the aftermath.
So much owed by so many to so few
A quote from former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill about the Battle of Britain in the second World War sprang to mind as I watched. “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. In this case it was “never in the face of natural disaster has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
Most of us probably didn’t realise it at the time, many still don’t, just how close we came to a catastrophe ten times worse than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
It could have paralysed Japan, condemned thousands to death, put hundreds of square miles of land out of use for centuries. But the consequences for Japan and the world at large were mitigated thanks to courageous people facing unthinkable challenges.
Picture yourself in their shoes – were earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear meltdown to strike where you live, could you rise up with similar strength and stoicism? Would instinct and experience kick in to enable you to think through what to do and just do it? Or would you struggle with your panic and fears and your desire to just get away?
Terror and tenacity
Not surprisingly, it seems to have been a combination of terror and tenacity for everyone involved at every stage. Yet what needed to be done was somehow done. What shoes to be in!
The nuclear complex survived the earthquake – it had been built to do so. The three working reactors shut down automatically and emergency generators came online to control electronics and coolant systems.
The tsunami that followed however, knocked out the reactors’ connection to the power grid and flooded the emergency generators. When the pumps for the cooling system subsequently failed, nuclear meltdown was inevitable.
Astonishing as it seems, there was no plan B. Why? Executives of Tepco, one of Japan’s largest companies and owner of the Fukushima complex, stated simply that they had never imagined that one of their nuclear plants could lose all power – so “they had no plan for what to do next” when the backup generators failed.
No comfort blanket
As the incident unfolded, everyone had to think on their feet and play their part – no excuses, no having a duvet day, no procrastinating of any sort – and certainly no comfort blanket.
With no electricity, there was no information about what was going on in the reactors. It was crucial to get vital monitoring instruments working again. Improvisation was required – car batteries did the trick.
And after the first hydrogen explosion, engineers knew the second reactor must be vented to prevent another explosion. But how? There was no electricity to power the venting system and no plan showing how to do it manually. They had to go back to basics. Find the blueprint for the plant and work it out from there.
Quick thinking and tough decisions 
Quick thinking and tough decisions were required as the situation evolved. The documentary showed a simple white board on which was scribbled the date, time and the rising radiation levels. One can only imagine the increasing fear and panic on the part of the power plant workers in that average looking office.
Choosing to vent the second reactor meant knowingly releasing radiation – in a country which understood all too well the effects of radiation sickness in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But there was no other option.
Choosing when to vent meant weighing up waiting for all local citizens to be evacuated, against the risk of explosion in the vessel containing the nuclear fuel rods, rendering large parts of Japan uninhabitable for centuries.
Critical hours
How would you have coped making such a decision? The decision makers in those critical hours were ordinary working people, engineers struggling with failed equipment. The future of their whole country, not just their immediate colleagues and neighbours – many of whom were recently bereaved, homeless, and still searching for missing relatives – was in their hands.
The plant manager, apparently a man known for his straight talking, had a stoic but stricken expression, which conveyed the position far more eloquently than his words ever could. He knew nuclear meltdown had begun and prepared to send in a “suicide squad” to vent the reactor and assess the cooling issue.
The workers faced with venturing into the most highly radioactive areas, in 40 degree heat and pitch blackness, were stepping into the unknown with no guarantee of success. Spend more than 17 minutes in those areas and death from radiation sickness was definite. Being there at all would likely bring a more lingering death from cancer after the event. Some received more than five years worth of radiation in one dose.
They successfully vented reactor two, but the incident was far from over. There was still no cooling system to pump water into the reactors. Getting a steady supply of water to the plant was crucial. The army were drafted in as a second blast shook the plant.
The situation continued to decline. Evacuation was discussed. The plant manager was prepared to stay and die but he didn’t want all 250 of his men to do so too.
Leading the way in a dangerous place
The prime minister, who had visited earlier in the incident, now appeared by video link explaining to the workers that the fate of Japan was hanging in the balance and calling for all those over 60 to stay and “lead the way in a dangerous place”.
The Fukushima 50 stayed behind – 50 brave souls locked down in the central control room in high levels of radiation, knowing all three reactors were unmanned and unstable.
A third explosion occurred, exposing pools with discarded radioactive fuel rods to the atmosphere. If the pools boiled dry, fire would result and the contamination would be even worse than reactor meltdown.
Desperate measures
Desperate measures were required. Drawing on the only experience the world had, the government chose to do what was done at Chernobyl – fly over the reactors and dowse them with water from the air. The Chernobyl pilots died.
A Japanese pilot talked movingly of his wife giving her blessing for the job he had to do – knowing if he didn’t fly at the correct height, he too could be subject to life threatening levels of radiation.
Live TV footage conveyed the pilots’ efforts to the world. The plan failed. Strong winds took most of the water. Although some hit the target, radiation levels at the plant remained critical. More desperate measures were required – they simply had to get water where it was needed by whatever means.
Tokyo fire fighters, with no training whatsoever for these kinds of conditions, were drafted in and handed dosemeters to monitor their safety. Their task – to place a fire truck at the shore and lay pipe from it to a crane to spray a steady, continuous stream to cool the stricken reactor.
They had precisely one hour to complete the task to avoid being exposed to excessive radiation. This plan worked. Radiation levels decreased enough to allow the hundreds of workers on standby to return to the plant to lay more pipes to increase the flow of water and stave off the consequences of a full meltdown.
The invisible enemy
The workers said they felt like soldiers carrying the flag of Japan into battle at the nuclear plant. Radiation levels were still very high and there were few dosemeters. One said: “It was an emergency operation, we were in a hurry. No one complained, we understood – if it broke the rules, we kept quiet about it.”
Like everyone involved in bringing the situation under control at Fukushima, they did what had to be done in the full knowledge that their own safety and health would more than likely be compromised.
At last, the “invisible enemy” was defeated. “That it did not get any worse was God’s will,” said the Japanese Prime Minister.
Nine months after the disaster, the authorities finally declared the plant to be stable. It will take decades to decontaminate the surrounding areas and to decommission the plant altogether.
When there is no ‘plan B’
As at Fukushima, sometimes things happen in life which are so unexpected there is no plan B. Whilst we may not be faced with nuclear meltdown, or life threatening decisions, our ‘no plan B situation’ may require all our wits, experience, knowledge, cunning and ingenuity.
We too will have to confront fear – our ‘invisible enemy’. We too may be called on to ‘lead the way in a dangerous place’. We too must do what needs to be done to get through. Desperate times require desperate measures, and in such times, we too are forced to think on our feet and make tough decisions.
Sadly, it can take having just such a situation thrust upon us for us to face up to our fears and move on in life.
We may lose our job, forcing us to consider a new career or self employment. We may be bereaved or have our partner leave us, causing us to look at life without that relationship. Foreclosure or bankruptcy may make us finally change our lifestyle and address our relationship to money. Health issues may make us realise how short life is and how much we still have to do and to contribute.
Creating a ‘plan B’ 
In such seemingly disastrous circumstances, we have no choice but to draw on our wits, knowledge, experience and ingenuity – just as the team at Fukushima did. But what if we were actively to employ all those positive traits, skills and characteristics that we know deep down we possess to create our plan B and go out and live it?
Our plan be need not just be there for when disaster strikes. Our plan B can be ‘b’ for blueprint – blueprint to live the life we really want rather than the one we’ve settled for. We may need to become our own leader in a dangerous place, thinking on our feet and making the tough decisions required to turn our life around – but what if we did?
What if we not only thought the unthinkable could happen, but actively made it happen – stepping out of a relationship that no longer works; leaving the monotonous job for something far more fulfilling; forgoing the cosy, steady life for an adventure; enacting our bucket list, not just writing it down?
Write it down
So I ask. Do you have a plan B? Have you written it down? Do you have a timescale? Have you taken the first step?
You can create a new blueprint for your life. You can cross the fear barrier and reach out for everything you want. The only thing stopping you is you – and you know it!
The challenge is not to wait for disaster or intense pain to propel you forward, but to to draw on your reserves at will and use them to throw off the comfort blanket, get out of the cosy routine, stop sleeping through life and start living your dreams.
If this year is a year of reckoning for you and you’re girding your loins for change, imagine you’re one of the Fukushima 50 thinking about what you will do if you ever get out of that plant and survive.
What’s the plan B for your life? What will you do, where will you go, how will you spend your time, with whom and why? How will you feel when your dreams are realised?
Don’t wait for disaster to strike to cobble together a plan B. Write your plan B down, visualise it, take action one small step at a time and make that change. Use plan B to turn your dreams into your reality.
Fukushima photo credit: AFP Photo/HO/Tepco via JiJi Press
Barefoot Doctor Live in Leeds for Healing Sounds and Movement
Barefoot Doctor Stephen Russell will be in Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 February to help ‘Heal You and Your Life through The Tao of Sound and Movement’.
As a modern day Taoist, martial arts master, musician and energy healer, Stephen has spent his life practicing and teaching skills that were once the preserve of emperors and warriors in ancient China. Kept secret from the masses for centuries, Stephen has brought these simple, yet profoundly effective, techniques bang up to date for busy people in the modern world.
His simple routines help you:
- SHIFT YOUR ENERGY
- CLEAR YOUR BLOCKS
- GET IN FLOW
- MAKE THE ABSOLUTE MOST OF YOUR LIFE
Once learned these powerful techniques take you just a few minutes and can be used alone or incorporated into any daily practice.
So if you’re feeling stuck, lacking in vitality and zest or just wanting to make 2012 your most successful year yet, don’t miss these powerful, many would say life changing, sessions with the Doc in Leeds this February.
The Friday evening talk will give you an overview of the Taoist system and an experience of it to take home with you. Then on Saturday, Stephen will share with you:
- SIX ANCIENT HEALING SOUNDS and how to harness their power to flush out pain on every level, and to heal all aspects of you and your life – we’re not just talking physical pain, but psychological issues, emotional trauma; personal, social or professional pain – even financial stresses and strains
- ACUPRESSURE & SELF APPLIED MASSAGE – simple pressing techniques which clear energy blockages from your mind, body and life, so you can feel better, perform better and make the absolute most of your life now and in future
- QI GONG EXERCISES to increase your vitality, strength, stamina and stability, whilst bringing a deep sense of relaxation – these are simple exercises you could incorporate into daily life whenever you feel stressed or need a boost.
No previous experience is required – just an open mind and a desire to make positive change so you can live the life you really want, rather than one you settle for. Barefoot Doctor is known for his engaging, entertaining style, so these events will be lots of fun.
Because Stephen’s appearances in Yorkshire are rarer than hen’s teethm grab your seat for Barefoot Doctor’s Tao of Sound and Movement whilst you can. Numbers are limited (particularly for the workshop) to ensure everyone gets the absolute most from the sessions. For more details and to book go to:
http://barefootdoctorinleeds.eventbrite.com
New F**k It website & retreats
F**k It author John Parkin and his wife Gaia Pollini have said F**k it to running their award winning Hill that Breathes retreat centre in Italy and embarked on a new adventure.
The whole F**k It thing began when Gaia and John began teaching F**k It Weeks at The Hill seven years ago, but they’ve now decided they prefer to be spreading the F**k It message around the world than running a retreat centre in just one place.
Whilst The Hill will remain home to the couple and their kids, it’s now closed to visitors and F**K IT RETREATS has been born instead. This will see John and Gaia teaching F**k It weeks, and other great stuff, in amazing venues … on a volcano (yes, you read that right), in a luxury country estate and spa, and more.
The retreats will mainly be held in Italy and the UK for 2012, but there are plans for other venues later.
If you feel like learning or revisiting how to say F**k It (it’s the ultimate spiritual way) with John and Gaia, check out their new website, featuring a cute video of their young boys talking about F**k It (or ‘Fooook It’ as they call it in their Italian accents):
Positive Message Music from Barefoot & Leakster
November 27, 2011 by Sue
Filed under latest news & views, see & do, wellbeing
Boost your confidence, lift your spirits and open your heart through the power of Positive Message Music.
Barefoot Doctor Stephen Russell and fellow musician Russell Leak (Leakster) offer their debut live performance of music from their new album this week at Naked Dragon, Crown Hotel, Chertsey, Surrey, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on Wednesday 30 November.
The evening of spiritual rhythm ‘n blues’ utilises music, rhythm and positive messages to create a healing effect. Doc will give a live and spontaneous talk on how to formulate and use positive messages for maximum impact in your life and explain how to combine those positive messages with the ancient Taoist wu wei manifesting system.
Then Barefoot and Leakster will present their first ever live jam session with full audience participation.
Doc says: “We’re going to get everyone toning together. There’s no amplification or tricks, just everyone chanting together as we segue into a sound healing based song cycle with affirmations and beats. It’s very informal, deconstructive and fun – so come!”
Full details and tickets are available from Naked Dragon
If you’re within travelling distance of Surrey, this is one not to miss!
Pet reiki & readings from the White Isle
November 20, 2011 by Sue
Filed under latest news & views, wellbeing
This is an unashamed plug for my friend Jinny from the UK who now practices remote reiki and oracle readings from the magical Mediterranean island of Ibiza, known as the White Isle, off the south east coast of Spain.
Recognising that it can be difficult to find unique Christmas gifts, she’s offering gift vouchers in exchange for a donation, which can be redeemed for readings or reiki for pets.
Just go to Jinny’s Faery Forest Magic site to learn more about Jinny and obtain a voucher.
Love, God & The Art of French Cooking
November 20, 2011 by Sue
Filed under latest news & views, mindset, read, wellbeing
Musician and author James Twyman and his co-author, French chef Roger Dufau are offering some rather interesting incentives for downloading the first three chapters of their new book ‘Love, God and The Art Of French Cooking’.
The book explores how the simple act of sharing a meal can change your life, since spiritual mastery is often achieved through our most ordinary experiences. It is based on James’ experience on meeting Roger, the owner of a small bed and breakfast outside Toronto, who dishes out lessons on love and God as easily as he does the most delicious cuisine.
Win a weekend for two
Download the first three chapters and you will have the opportunity to win a weekend for two at Roger’s‘Drew House’ in the village of Elora, where he also runs cookery classes. The area is well-known for its rich cultural heritage and natural beauty as Elora lies along the Grand River, with its picturesque gorge and hiking trails,fly-fishing, canoeing and kayaking.
As well as being entered into the draw for the free weekend, download the first three chapters of Love and the Art of French Cooking and you will also receive three video lessons with Roger sharing some of his favorite recipes plus a live video chat with James and Roger.
Sharing & spiritual mastery
In the book you’ll discover Roger’s philosophy for increasing joy in your life and how love can turn an ordinary meal into an extraordinary experience. You’ll find out why James and Roger believe our lives need to be crushed like garlic and why one of the most famous chefs in Paris would choose fried eggs as his last meal on earth.
Well worth a read I’d say. Head here to get to the sneak preview
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