by Gyl Rae, teacher, Scotland. 

Recently I had a session with a very wise Esoteric Practitioner around my need to have children. What came up in our discussion was the question: had I ever been in a relationship where we seriously talked about having kids? I hadn’t, but I had had two abortions when I was younger, that if I am honest, I carried guilt around for years, and didn’t want people to know about in case of what they thought about me.

These thoughts can come from pictures, beliefs and ideals we are fed that having an abortion is the ending of life, from the imposition of the world’s ideals and beliefs and the Church – all of which can come through both women and men, where we are told a woman does not have rights over what she can do with her own body and the choices she makes.

Just recently, 4^th of February 2017 – under a new law passed in the state of Arkansas, in the USA¹, “A pregnant woman’s husband will have the power to stop her from having an abortion, even in cases of spousal rape”. How far lost are we that we can pass a law that allows a man to rape a woman and stop her from aborting the child? In this one law we are saying rape, abuse, and controlling a woman and her body are okay.

Continue reading “Abortion – a responsibility.” →

by Jessica Gamble, Psychotherapist, M.GestTherapy, Tintenbar, NSW.

At 18 years of age I should have been a fit young woman who wanted to grab life with both hands. Although I wasn’t depressed and did not have anything physically wrong with me, I had certainly adjusted to living a life that lacked true health and wellbeing.

At 174 cm tall I weighed 80 kilograms and had little vitality or motivation. I felt sluggish and often woke up with enormous back and shoulder pain, a tight jaw and felt constantly dehydrated. I remember having to seek support from my mum who was a qualified bodyworker, as most mornings I physically couldn’t get out of bed without a back rub, allowing me to stand up straight and proceed with my day. During this time I was on the contraceptive pill and had been since age 15, so my periods were falsely manufactured and I therefore had little knowledge of just how much my body was struggling. After I finished a long-term relationship at age 20 I decided to go off the pill, in order to see if I could shift some of the excess weight and regain some aliveness in my body, as my libido was now well and truly dead.

Continue reading “From Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome to regular periods through Esoteric Healing” →

by Alexis Stewart, care worker with the intellectually disabled and yoga teacher, Sydney, Australia.

When I was a girl I used to go to friends’ houses for tea (‘tea’ being a word in England that refers to an early dinner. My favourite tea was macaroni cheese and chips). Going to other people’s houses was always a bit odd, because other people’s families never did things quite the same as my family did; for example some Mums used to tell their kids to wash their hands before eating, which is something my family never did. So when issued with the command to wash my hands by someone else’s Mum, I would dutifully file into the bathroom with the other kids and copy the way that they waved their hands in the general direction of the taps. There was one thing however that most Mums seemed to have in common and that was the nagging suspicion that the kids had not actually washed their hands! Funny that!

Continue reading “The gift of constipation” →

by Matts Josefsson, Student in Behavioural Science, Sweden 

I find the body absolutely extraordinary in the way it functions. Just this morning I was reminded how amazingly it just keeps on doing what it does, regardless of what we do to it, up until the point that it cannot support us any longer. What I also came to think about was how and why things occur in the body and how the way we are living with the body must have an effect on it. Science these days knows a great deal about how the body functions but still there are the questions that go unanswered as to why things actually occur. There are extraordinary experts in knowing how to deal with something once it has occurred, but the bigger struggle is still trying to understand why things occur. For example: why do cells starts to divide in a way that later on leads to cancer? Continue reading “Our Body and Its Amazingness” →

by Carmel Reid, Somerset, UK 

I recently had a hysterectomy; it was the final solution for a vaginal prolapse that had been around for many years, although I had largely been unaware of, until it became too uncomfortable to ignore.

What is a prolapse? Well basically, a weakness in my pelvic floor muscles and vaginal wall, so that what is normally held inside is no longer supported, and begins to protrude on the outside, making walking uncomfortable.

What caused it in me? Many reasons, I suspect. Giving birth is acknowledged as a common one, and new mothers are always encouraged to do their pelvic floor exercises afterwards. I didn’t, so that may have contributed in my case. Add to that was my attitude to what I felt my body could do. I played squash 2 or 3 times a week; that’s a game that can be pretty hard on many areas of the body. Not only that, but I was strong and therefore allowed myself to lift heavy things, and enjoyed the weekly battle with a wayward shopping trolley and all the heavy shopping, not knowing how much lifting heavy things was affecting my pelvic floor muscles. Continue reading “Prolapse and Hysterectomy – Appreciating Myself as a Woman” →

by Rebecca, Student, London UK

Recently I undertook a research project at Bath University, looking at the effect epigenetics can have on the formation of breast cancer. What I found was really amazing, and very relevant given the current trends of breast cancer worldwide.

Breast cancer is now so common it is hard to find someone who is untouched by the disease either directly or indirectly through friends and family. It has become the enemy within and women across the board are now encouraged to check their breasts for any sign of breast disease. October has become synonymous with pink ribbons and raising money for breast cancer research.

I have seen so much in the news and in general about the few options available for women with breast cancer when it comes to treatment and prevention. The most common option for treatment, and now also for prevention, is the removal of the breasts, and sometimes the ovaries too, even before any cancer is diagnosed, if the women are deemed to be at high risk of developing the disease.

Scientists have isolated the ‘breast cancer gene’ and can give genetic counselling to women with this gene as to what their options are. However, what I have found interesting is that the research or information I talk about below is seemingly not taken into consideration, let alone placed equally alongside all other treatments and preventatives. Continue reading “The prevention of breast cancer – the answer is in our bodies” →

 By SD, medical administrator, UK

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition that has both chronic pain and chronic fatigue as its markers.

I had been experiencing pain in my legs for which I was seeking the perfect pair of shoes to remedy, and deep exhaustion for which I was supplementing myself with plenty of sugary foods to keep me going.

But these coping mechanisms eventually could not stand against the tide of fibromyalgia which came crashing down around me. There came a moment when I looked down at the page on my work station and saw the words spinning; by the time I got home I could hardly move or breathe.

The next few months were spent trying to figure out what was ‘wrong with me’ until eventually the doctor gave the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. He said it was a chronic condition, that I would spend the rest of my life in pain, and then he prescribed me some anti-depressants and referred me to a physiotherapist and a consultant who specialises in chronic pain.

Continue reading “Healing Fibromyalgia with Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and Conventional Medicine” →