Have you noticed that children don’t like being hurried? They love to spend time ‘smelling the roses’, watching a snail cross the footpath or listening to the rain rushing through a downpipe. When you have a pre-schooler at home, try to slow down and enjoy their pleasure in the simple pleasures of life.

Why not try walking in the rain? Put on rubber boots, raincoats and hats and grab an umbrella and take a walk around the block. Listen to the water rushing down the gutters and dripping off the trees. Talk about where birds go to keep dry and watch out for snails and other water loving creatures. Notice how different the world looks when it is all wet. Let your child get wet and have a splash around in the puddles - they will enjoy the novelty and can soon dry off or have a hot bath when you get home.

If we want our children to value the natural environment we need to teach them about it through experiences they will remember. Try an all-weather walk and maybe even take a photo, then you can look at it when the dry heat of summer comes and remember the day it rained and you got wet!

Judyth Roberts
Seaton Central

Most people would agree that organically grown food is better for you and the environment. Research shows us there are more nutrients, higher antioxidant levels, no chemical residues or artificial additives in organic food. It certainly tastes better than conventional produce and the odd insect you find indicates it is chemical free and hasn’t been in storage for many months.

As a vocal advocate of organic food the reason I hear most against eating organically is the cost. There is no doubt it is more expensive than conventionally farmed food, sometimes it can be double or triple the cost* which can be daunting for the average family.

Here are some tips to help make organic food affordable.

Consider your eating and spending habits around food
Look at the fortnightly/weekly budget and note how much is spent on packaged convenience foods, snacks, meat and alcohol. Ask yourself; could expenditure be reduced in any of these areas and reinvested into organic food? In the summer we can easily spend $15 at a quick snack stop for icecreams for our family of five. However when cherry season is here I have no qualms at buying a kilo of organic cherries for around the same price and forfeiting the snacks, the red juiced (loaded with antioxidants!) dripping grins speak more than words.

Consider the health of your family
View organic food as a preventative measure. Rather than spending money on pharmaceuticals or trips to the doctor see spending it on organic food as an investment into your health. I contribute my children’s healthy immune systems largely to organic food, with a visit to the doctor a rare event in our family. We occasionally take vitamin supplements but I prefer to ‘eat the vitamins’ within some great tasting food as well as getting the additional benefits of other nutrients at the same time. Don’t wait until you are sick or health issues arise, see preventative eating as a priority now.

Consider that broccoli is not just broccoli
Don’t be fooled by appearances of fruit and vegetables. A recent Choice magazine survey I read found that supermarket strawberries had up to 27 different chemical residues and not all of them washed off. When buying fruit and vegetables consider how long they have been in storage, what waxes or coating they have and with what and where they’ve been grown. Don’t be fooled by appearance and the cheap buy. Cheap bags of fruit and vegetables are often old, chemically grown and lacking in nutrients and vitamins.

Start small
There is no need to change shopping habits overnight, first try with buying a few organic items a week. A good place to start is buying organically those fruit that have known high amounts of chemical residues such as apples, tomatoes, pears, stone fruit and strawberries.

Consider Lifestyle
A change in not just our shopping habits but also our overall lifestyle may be required. Consider the way you live and how often lunch or dinner is quick snacks, fast food, or restaurant meals. Take a look at spending on family entertainment; are there cheaper options to be contemplated? There is no need to be purist or extreme, my family love to eat out and see a movie; these however are occasional treats not regular entertainment. Buying organically may mean more cooked meals at home, less takeaways and require a little more planning. These changes may be a little challenging at first but reduced stress levels and increased overall well being will be the long term benefits.

Look for seasonal Australian grown produce
If organic food is still a little out of reach try to look for Australian grown produce. A lot of fruit and vegetables in our supermarkets have come from overseas; in particular China. Although pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables are monitored in Australia, other countries do not have the same regulations regarding pesticide and chemical use thus there is no guarantee. Check the label for country of origin; if it doesn’t state Australia or have any label, chances are it has come from another country. Try and buy produce that is seasonal relative to where you live. This is often the cheaper option as well as superior tasting. For example; buying a peach in June in southern Australia tells me it has either been in long storage or comes from far away and will probably taste bland and flavourless.

Grow your own
Growing some vegetables in your garden organically is a good way of reaping the benefits of both the food and the gardening activity. It is a cheap option at around $2-3 for a packet of organic seed although it requires time and patience!

Consider your children
There is a wave of new parents starting their babies off on organic food. This is a great introduction to solids and support to their developing immune systems. I was saddened to learn that this dropped off dramatically once children hit the age of 2. It is worth considering that after the age of 2 there is still much crucial development and growth to happen. Studies focused on children and pesticide exposure have put them at much greater risk than adults. This is because they eat more food relative to body mass and being smaller than adults, doses of chemicals have a greater effect. I see fitting organic food into our budget as an investment into my children’s future health. Consider continuing with the great food provided for your baby into the years to come.

Check out organic and biodynamic food on the web for more information
Suggested links
www.cleanfood.com.au
www.organicfooddirectory.com.au
www.ofa.org.au

* See www.organicfooddirectory.com.au for reasons for the high costs of organic food.

Rachel Furbank
Sustainable living eco mum

We are half way through 2008 - can you believe it? - and so I have been reflecting on what I have achieved this year so far and what else I want to achieve for the rest of 2008. I would have to say my biggest achievement is the birth of my daughter Hollie. What is your biggest achievement this year?

This half-way point might be a good time for those of you who left New Year’s Resolutions by the wayside long ago, to use the new financial year as a fresh start. You could define a new vision for 2008/2009 with some new goals to see you through the rest of this year or for the entire new financial year. Just in case you want to do this, we have some information and tips for you to get to work on creating your Personal Vision Statement.

What is a vision statement?
A vision statement is a picture of what you want your life to look like in a designated timeframe, whether it is a year from now to ten years from now. It represents a dream that is beyond what you think is possible and it takes you out beyond the present. It’s a roadmap of your future and outlines the direction you are headed.

What does a vision statement look like?
A vision statement can take many forms. It can be written down on a piece of paper, it can be a collage of pictures and words on a piece of cardboard, it can be an audio or visual recording you have made of a collection of images and/or sounds.

Why create a vision statement?
Just like a street directory clarifies the direction in which you need to drive your car to get to your desired location, a vision statement clarifies the direction in which you need to move to get to your ideal place in life. It is like beginning with the end in mind - if you know where you are going you will be able to get to your destination much more quickly and easily. Would you try getting to a location you have never been before without our street directory?

How to create a vision statement?
Creating a vision statement can be an exciting and creative process and you can have lots of fun with it. Here are six easy steps to follow:

1. Set aside some quite time where you will be uninterrupted for at least half an hour.
2. Prepare all the materials you will need to complete your vision.
3. Create an ambience that will stimulate creativity with music, pictures, candles or scents.
4. Choose a date in the future, one year from now is a good start, or perhaps a special date like a
birthday or anniversary.
5. Start imagining what you want in your life, what you want to create, where you want to be, and what
you want to be doing.
6. Go for it, be creative and have fun.

Ideas for creating your vision statement
Here are a few different ways to complete a vision statement and I have listed some ideas below. Some of my clients choose to use one of the methods and some get a real kick out of using two or more.

Letter from the future
You will need a blank piece of lined paper and a pen. The letter from the future is a letter that you write to yourself one year from now (or the special date you chose). You write a letter outlining all that is happening in your life. Write it in the present tense as is it is happening in your dream life. Be as descriptive as you can and address all the senses, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it tastes like, what it smells like, what it sounds like.

Vision Board
You will need a big piece of cardboard, scissors, glue, coloured pencils and old magazines. Using pictures, letters and words from the old magazines cut them out and glue them on the cardboard to represent your dream life.

Whichever method you choose to create your personal vision, put it somewhere you can see it daily and use it as a constant reminder of where you are going. You can review it on your special date and reflect on all that you have achieved in that time.

Benefits of a Vision Statement
Vision statements create a vivid image in your head that will provoke emotion and excitement. It creates enthusiasm and poses a challenge that inspires you to take action, achieve yours goals and move forward.

Now you have all the tools you need to predict your future.

Danielle Ferris, Head Coach
ShapeShifters - supporting, guiding and motivating women to achieve their ideal weight, health and lifestyle goals

Fields as diverse as kinesiology, psychology, physiology, medicine, and neuroscience assert that physical activity helps prevent and treat mental health problems, increases subjective well-being, reduces stress, boosts self-esteem, sharpens thinking and improves overall quality of life. Studies have been conducted with populations ranging from children to adolescents to women during PMS, pregnancy, and all the way to menopause!

If any intervention is that effective, there is no reason for anyone to not do it, right?For most of us however, fear of loss is a stronger motivator than the attraction of gain. When it comes to undertaking exercise, the fear of “losing” time, experiencing initial low self-efficacy and dreading physical effort and discomfort may all weigh heavier than the perspective of feeling better, losing weight, and enjoying increased energy. That’s why mustering the motivation to regularly put on one’s sneakers seems an insurmountable challenge for so many.

So if I tell you that exercise has also been found to stimulate brain cell growth, I expect non-exercisers to maintain the status quo. However, if I say that recent progress in the field of neurobiology has found that both physical inactivity and stress shrivel and whither our brain - yes, not exercising actually speeds up aging and decreases the ability of your CPU - are you now tempted to go push a few pounds of iron?

The choice is yours. Usually, though, the difficulty resides not in understanding why we should exercise, but in finding and maintaining the motivation to get it done. If you need extra help committing to an exercise routine, here are my top 10 recommendations, based on positive psychology research, to help you overcome the challenge:

1. Sleep enough and eat nutritiously.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate that sleeping enough and eating nutritious foods including complex carbohydrates that give pre-exercise energy are clearly part of the equation.

2. Get into a good mood.
Sonja Lyubomirsky describes that happy moods help us be more productive, more active, healthier and more resilient. These are all ingredients that facilitate exercising. Before you jump in your sneakers, make sure to add a skip into your step by listening to upbeat music or calling your funniest friend.

3. Other people matter
Says Christopher Peterson. Those who are new to exercise do better when accompanied by a training buddy. My recommendation here is to find more than one: if your usual partner can’t make it tonight, there’s somebody else to keep you motivated and accountable!

4. Use your strengths
States Tom Rath. High on hope? Reach for small, achievable goals that will boost your self-efficacy. Known by your friends for leadership? Focus on the example you are setting for your loved ones. Love to learn? Investigate a new exercise at each visit to the gym. There are endless ways to express your strengths via exercise.

5. Enjoy the burn.
Loehr and Schwartz write that many newcomers to the gym only make a half-hearted effort, hardly break a sweat, and quickly get discouraged because they don’t feel the benefits they signed up for. Unless your doctor advised otherwise, don’t be afraid to feel your heart rate go up and learn to love the burn in your muscles. Just like some people enjoy the burn of spicy foods and others don’t, it’s mainly a question of choice.

6. Involve your mind.
Many people say that training is too repetitive and therefore boring. Keep learning. Once you learn more about all the training areas (cardiovascular, endurance, strength, and flexibility), you’ll be stimulated to find the most effective exercise combinations.

7. Measure.
As Chris Peterson puts it: “What is valued gets measured, but what is measured also gets valued.” Start measuring your training. Mark a calendar with your workout days on it. Keep a journal of your training routine. Build a chart showing your progress. Measure whatever works for you, but keep track of what gets done and congratulate yourself when you are doing well.

8. Get in flow.
Foster flow by breaking down each session into smaller episodes, matching the challenge to your skill set, regularly assessing your progress, and applying your full concentration to the activity, suggests Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. For example, if you aim to run a total three miles, rather than worry about the full distance, think of it as three times one mile and try to achieve your personal best on each.

9. Use the peak-end rule.
Barry Schwartz describes that we remember how much we like an event by how much we liked its peak and its end. By managing your routines so you love their end, you are more likely to remember your sessions favorably and therefore to repeat the experience.

10. Get good mind fuel after exercise.
Exercise facilitates brain cell growth, shows John Ratey, and while your muscles are recuperating after the effort, your brain is actively busy building new synapses. What you do post-exercise is therefore essential to reaping the full benefits of your activity. Capitalize on how potent the next hour is by filling up on what you deem worthwhile - and avoiding what is not.

Next time you’re about to turn on your TV, take a minute to review this list and find something to get you into your gym gear. Most of the excuses for why we don’t exercise - the need to relax, the lack of energy, or the desire to put our children first - are actually reasons why we should.

In the end, if none of what I’ve written here nor anything you’ve ever heard about exercise sufficed to convince you to try it out, I’d like to suggest you give the following a quick thought: “The difference between tenacity and stubbornness is that one comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won’t.” - Anonymous.

Enjoy your workout!

This article was first published at Positive Psychology News Daily.

Marie-Josee Salvas, MAPP, is the lead consultant, coach, and speaker of Optimal Living, an enterprise that offers workshops to help people achieve increased performance, engagement, meaning, fulfillment and balance. She has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at workshops internationally

Hello Julia again….

Ever noticed how stress creeps up on you? At first it’s nothing but then all of a sudden you’re not sleeping and things snowball out of control! It seems never ending - but do you take action to do something about it?

Let me tell you from recent personal experience don’t ever, ever put off doing something about your stress levels! I have had a rather stressful week. Little sleep added to the mounting nightmare then to top it all off I missed a flight to Sydney for an important conference (big oops and massive stress!).
It was Friday night and I had 20 minutes before I had to meet friends for dinner in Gouger Street. I was at the Central Markets so it made sense to get a massage from one of the many little places there.

I got a neck and shoulder massage and OH MY ….! It was (and I don’t say this lightly) better than Haighs chocolate! My left shoulder had tightened up so much it was causing a massive headache and I felt like my shoulders were around my ears! But after that simple 20 minutes on my neck and shoulders it was as if a world of pain and stress just melted away and I could see clearly, think clearly and just felt HUMAN again!

As a Remedial Massage Therapist I could talk for pages about the HUGE rang of benefits of massage but really when it comes down to it, it makes you feel good! And when you feel good that spreads to everyone around you!

The endorphins you get from massage are the same as when you exercise; not to mention the toning and toxin removing and a myriad of other health benefits. And there are so many types of massage out there for all types of price ranges!

Go to the Central Markets or any of the Westfield shopping centres and get one of the Chinese massage quick fixes! The only problem with that type of massage is it’s a one size fits all type approach - and it can be quite painful if you haven’t had a massage in a while.

Then there are day spa’s. They are awesome when combined with a facial or a pedicure but you pay for the ambiance and the products so it tends to be a once off or special occasion. Not to mention that the beauty therapists aren’t often trained extensively in massage, so it tends to be a light, fluffy ‘put you to sleep’ kind (which means you may miss out on the therapeutic experience but the perk is you might catch up on missing sleep!).

The dream person to find is a massage therapist who is in between. The benefit of these people is that they are mid priced and they get to know you and your body.

They will tailor the massage to just what you need and want which can change each time you get a massage, due to a number of different reasons.

The massage is more than just removing the knots from your body - or at least it’s more than that for me as a client on the table. It’s a chance to “let go” both emotionally and physically in a safe, warm place.

This advice is not just for mothers but fathers as well! You both need to be on the same page to be able to communicate well as partners and parents!

Bottom line - Get a massage! It makes you feel so good! Get them regularly as it helps to keep that good feeling lasting longer in the body. Speaking professionally, a lot of people wait until they are in pain before getting a massage and it takes so much more time to undo that damage than if you get a regular massage before there is a problem. Besides, prevention of stress and pain is always better than cure!

Julia Fry
________________________________________________
monsoon massage & infant massage centre owner
certified infant massage instructor
trainee doula
secretary of Future Families Inc

040 77 24 628
www.monsoonmassage.com.au

Recipe courtesy of www.thefoodcoach.com.au

Low GI, Low sugar, Wheat Free
Lightly spiced and full of vegies, this soup is also low GI, guaranteeing this meal will see you through to breakfast the next morning. You’ll be hard pressed to finish the whole bowl!

Ingredients:
¼ cup olive oil
6 cardamom pods lightly bruised
1 onion finely sliced
1/3 cups blue lentils, washed
1 litre chicken stock
1 can whole tomatoes
1 bunch English spinach
½ cup natural yoghurt
2 organic chicken breast fillets chopped into bite size pieces
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp ground turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cumin
½ bunch coriander

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 60 mins
Ready in: 70 mins

Suitable for: Dinner, Lunch

Method:
Cook olive oil and cardamon pods and spices in a large saucepan for 2 minutes. Discard the cardamon pods and add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft.
Stir in the lentils and add the stock, tomatoes and chicken pieces. Bring to the boil and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes until lentils are tender. Add the spinach and cook for a further 2 minutes. Season to taste.
Serve with a spoon full of yoghurt and chopped coriander leaves.

Makes 6 servings

For more delicious recipes from Judy Davie The Food Coach please visit www.thefoodcoach.com.au

Generally speaking, June’s energy pattern is one of confusion and uncertainty. Mercury in Gemini continues in retrograde motion until the 20th. As a result, the beginning of the month requires that we pull back within ourselves and regroup.

As always with Mercury retrograde, and especially since Mercury is in Gemini, communications are bound to be misinterpreted so be careful! Often unexpected mistakes manifest and technical glitches will occur.

If you are applying for a loan, and need to sign documents, if possible, delay the signing until after the 20th, better still delay the purchase altogether!  Why I can hear you say? Major purchases made under these influences are likely to be problematical for a long time to come.

It is basically a time better spent on reflection than on outward activity. Generally, actions begun during the Mercury retrograde cycle have to be repeated, so that is a good time to pull back, rest, and bring to completion those projects already started.

You may like to have a sneak preview of our new Zodiac Child Products http://www.astrologymatters.com/chart_babys_birth_chart.htm  They make lovely unique gifts for you or your friends.

And I will also be appearing at the Melbourne Mind Body Spirit Festival, 6-9 June 2008 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. 

Helen Hartley

consulting astrologer, coach, public speaker, educator, writer, radio presenter

Zodiac Greeting Cards http://www.astrologymatters.com
Free Monthly Astrological Updates http://www.astrologymatters.com/
Business & Corporate Astrology www.synchronicitymatters.com.au
Email: helen@astrologymatters.com