Category: WELLBEING | HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Simplicity

by Joseph Barker, 35, Graphic Designer, Melbourne

I enjoy simplicity.

When I read something put simply, it is incredibly powerful. When I see a drawing that is simple, it touches me inside. It has a sense of strength. It is clear, direct and easy to understand. So why is it I have let my life get so complicated at times?

I have been working on my CV recently. It’s tempting to say so much – to lie or reinvent. It feels like this is because of fear, a fear of being rejected. To say ‘here I am’ in clear daylight seems risky. What if I am not ‘enough’? Continue reading “Simplicity” →

Responding to the Call

by Joel L, Western Australia

I have heard the term ‘Responding to the Call’ in a few different settings…..

A leadership group I have been a part of used it; I have heard mainstream religions use it; I have also heard the term used at Universal Medicine. It has been my experience with the latter where I started to truly feel what this is asking of me.

Before Universal Medicine, ‘responding to the call’ meant to do something that someone asked of me from within that group. If an alumni of the leadership group called me, I would be obliged to ‘respond to that call’ because of our shared alumni status, regardless of whether I knew them or not. Continue reading “Responding to the Call” →

Life’s Classroom

by Chrissy, NSW, Australia

… A little flashback to when I first stepped into a room at Universal Medicine… a little awkward in myself, shoulders rounded, eyes averting a confident gaze, a little defensive even… Sidney Poitier’s students in “To Sir, With Love” for some reason come to mind… Continue reading “Life’s Classroom” →

A Different Kind of Sunday Session

by RB

It was only 3 years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, that I would be at the pub; listening to live music, drinking a beer or glass of wine after having smoked a joint before leaving the car. I would feel anxious about being there, worrying if I looked good, nervous if guys talked to me, and really quite uncomfortable… but, to avoid feeling all of that, I would just get stoned and have another drink. I would eat junk food as it was easy and cheap. I wasn’t really enjoying myself, but it’s what everyone else was doing, so I thought that I should be doing it too. I did not know any other way. Continue reading “A Different Kind of Sunday Session” →

Me, Mum, Dementia & Re-Connecting through Touch

by Yasmin Lang, Aged Care Nurse / Massage Therapist, Byron Bay

I was invited to give a presentation at an Aged Care Centre, to bring awareness of the benefits and support massage can provide. I did not know what I was going to talk about until I stood before fifty or so residents and staff and began sharing what felt right from my own experience.

My mother suffered from dementia, and she came to a point when she no longer recognised me or knew my name. Having a conversation only created confusion for her, so I used to hold her hands and then gently massage them, and the feeling between us re-awakened and she called me daughter! Continue reading “Me, Mum, Dementia & Re-Connecting through Touch” →

Abuse – my understanding so far

by James Nicholson BNat, Somerset, England

The origins of the word abuse come from the Latin abus – ‘misused’; from the verb abuti, from ab – ‘away’ (i.e. ‘wrongly’) + uti ‘to use’. Yet we see that the law defines abuse as ‘the mental or physical mistreatment of a person, frequently resulting in serious emotional, mental, physical, and/or sexual injury’. In my mind, when I think of abuse I used to think of it as domestic violence – a man beating his wife; or sexual abuse, with the extreme connotations that I had been conditioned to think of it.

So what is it that we define abuse to be? Surely it should not only be any extreme action, and how can we define ‘serious’? Continue reading “Abuse – my understanding so far” →