Buttercupchappati Chronicles

note to emo self

snap out of it

oh, okay, the allocated time allowed for feeling sorry for self has expired

But it's alright because I have watched all the Greys Anatomy it is possible to watch, eaten way too much sugar and actually logged some quality sleep hours which makes a whole new world emerge.

There is a plan, and no you can't just walk into Mordor.

(Life might be easier with a job type job, but I am built for other things, self-employment among them.)

The Arura web site will get a face-lift, that always makes me feel better and I am having a long serious conversation with the diary and the whole time management team over the easter break, they need firing. Also a few expectations, completely self-funded and developed, also need to be fired.

Of course as it is a work force of one, these redundancies will create some holes in the work place, but am looking to employ non-crazy people as replacements. Let's see how that works out for me!

And for a complete change of pace, a picture of the totally awesome Yorkshire pudding I cooked last night to go with a Kings Ransom of roast beef. Yes, wow.

 

 

I think I've given my journey away

How did I let that happen?

I was sitting at my computer working out the hours for the clinic over Easter, and all I could contend with was worrying about all the other people who might be angry, disapproving, disapointed - name a negative emotion they were all present - if I was not on tap and available for them over the short break.

I love working for myself. 

It's hard hard hard sometimes, and you are usually your best and only supporter.

I love what I do.

And the nature of that work means that sometimes I need to be available when the patients need me, not the other way around. That doesn't bother me one bit, but it does make me Robinson Crusoe.

And the really good bit is that if I had a "proper job", but one that involved shift work, there would be no questions, no problems about me being at work.

Interesting huh. When did I give away all that power, and why?

Easter is now officialy a Karen Think Tank. I need to get back on the map and away from the part that reads here be dragons ...

 

in the sweat shop

My own sweat shop, so I can't really complain about being exploited by myself, but I can try ...

Getting all kinds of stuff ready for my stand at the MindBodySpirit festival in about ten days time. I have done heaps of these events over the years from books, to wine (with believe it or not, some bread and cheese in between - yes I have a very comprehensive cv). But this will be the first time at an exhibition like this for my own business.

The sore feet, the worn out smiles, the ten million questions will all be exciting because this time it's for my stuff. It's exciting. I get to talk to people for three whole days about Tibetan Medicine! (I'm excited, hence over use of the word. And maybe a little too much coffee today.)

So I am sweat-shopping brochures, bookmarks to give away, signs and information sheets, slide shows of photos from Tibet trips, a crystal essence is in progress and Mindfulness Beads are in full production. As well as making sure I have all the odds and ends I will need on hand, that I have ordered all the things for the stall from the Expo people, organised some help for the two busiest days, and see a few patients in the odd spare  moment. I really need a clone of myself!

Mindfulness Beads, you really have to hold them in your hand to get it; but trust me on this, when I used to make these for my shop, lots of people went away seriously happy. And it has been FUN to get all this stuff out again and play play play.

just one more drink

hhmm, am starting think I have a problem.

I can't say no to clients. It will be alright, I'll just fit one more booking in, I'll have an early night.

Trouble is I am seriously overdrawn on rest and solitude (hey, they sound familiar, something about a new years list), and time without responsibility for anyone or anything.

What to do?

It is a perennial problem for anyone who is self employed, you just don't say no to work when it is coming in, because you don't know what next month will be like.

It's a bit of a self confidence issue too I suspect, not trusting yourself and the quality of your work.

And, last but biggest, my first instinct is to help, to heal, to get them better.

But here's the thing, I have all the signs that I am run down and don't need to get sick to prove myself right. Last year was a shocker, for lots of people not just me. Everyone seemed to have hoops to jump through, more than one obstacle for every endeavour, bad news, hard times, no money; it just kept coming didn't it.

I think we all need a holiday. We need to turn the whole planet into a giant galactic cruise ship for a few days and the whole world sit back, drink Long Island Iced Teas, and relax, (just like the Deathstar, but good rather than evil).

Naturally all this ruminating is not going to stop me fitting one more person into the week, but I may go and block out a few days for my own healing.

ps: 9 days into the new year and I have not bought a book yet, is everything alright I wonder?

a massage week

Lots of massage clients this week (it's not the only treatment I offer), which is great. I learn more and more about Ku Nye (Tibetan massage) with every one I do.
It is a wonderful therapy that really is so much more than just massage, that is selling it short I reckon. It is a really very comprehensive bodywork.

Anyway, back to what I was going to go on about before the free Ku Nye add manifested, lots of massage.

Massage being given by me, not received by me. And this is in a week where I have through other commitments been welded to the computer, and I do mean welded! So what's the problem, I can find a therapist and make a booking for myself. Yes, although I am fussy about who I let work on me, but that's another story.

The interesting thing for me has been that while my neck and shoulders should be kaput from all the screen time, working on other people has been as healing as getting massaged myself.
Bonus.
Because Ku Nye is such a dynamic form of massage, the therapist is not just standing and patting muscles, it is incredible the benefits that you receive in the process as well.

And it's always good to send people away feeling so much more relaxed and un-hooked from all their stresses as well as their physical pain. It works so well on the energy and emotional bodies as well as the physical.

Okay, I'm done with the self-promotion.
For now!

(Try Ku Nye, it's great mate!)

browse my new Etsy shop

buttercupchappati.etsy.com

Visit my new Etsy shop, all my jewelry is now available there.
Not everything is up yet, so do keep checking back!

Back to work

We put Dr Nida on his plane to Singapore yesterday, so sad to see him go but it has been great; now its someone else's turn to receive these wonderful teachings.

Then straight back into "normal" life with the family, house and healing centre. Jumped into work with clients from first thing this morning. I miss my healing room when I'm not there, it has become my room of my own.

Not even thinking about looking at all my class notes for at least a week, well maybe a few days... I am a nerd after all. (Actually I lie, I already looked at them today, but I was just looking something up, really.)

How many chickens have you eaten in your lifetime?

I don't really want to do that sum for myself, and I am very glad that the bird we had enjoyed for our dinner was a genuine free range organic chicken. After watching the second episode of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's three part programme on the chicken meat industry, if we had eaten anything else I think it would have been like poison in our stomachs.

Most people would know Hugh from  his River Cottage show, all about self sufficiency, small holdings and eating real food that you have hopefully grown or collected yourself. He comes across as a bit of hippy, bit of a prat sometimes, but entertaining. The thing I have always liked and respected him for is his stance on raising animals for meat. If you are going to eat meat, make sure the creature has the best possible, most natural and humane life it can have before you take its life.

Hence this tilt at the chicken industry. And it is truly frightening what a cold and cruel operation it is to bring an average bird, cheaply, to the table. The statistics are horrifying, the footage of his own intensive farm (started as an example because none of the commercial growers would allow him to film in their sheds - and that says plenty doesn't it?) is awful. Last night, in the daily cull of small, sick or injured birds - a job which is clearly killing him - we saw a bird taken out to have it's neck broken; but the kicker was it was the first time that bird had been out in sunlight since the day it was delivered to the shed in a big cardboard box as a day old chick.

How can we do this to fellow creatures? I agree the whole meat eating issue is charged with emotion and not cut and dried. But surely we can give a little more kindness and respect to these animals that sustain us.  What is this sort of food doing to us anyway?

I urge everyone to visit the site and register as a supporter or at least have a look at what he has to say.

I am a bit of a hypocrite I know, we keep chickens for eggs and there is no way I could kill a bird for the pot, but I will buy a free range organic bird to cook for the family. It is important to me to know that animal has had the best possible life and most humane death.

Chicken out

Last day at The Key - really! and forever!

What a day, yesterday was my last trading day at The Key.

Sad, happy, emotional, stressed and very touched by the number of people who took the time to drop by with thanks, good wishes for my future endeavours, all that mushy stuff! Flowers even! And some dear Woodend friends came with champagne and snacks and company and help for the packing up part of the afternoon. And they bought young Finnegan with them, his first big outing for his five weeks of life so far.

Not so much stock left that it will be a problem, more shelves and stuff than is really convenient, but we will put them into storage for a bit and worry about it later.

Some reactions have been predictable, some surprising. Some people have been really helpful and supportive and others who I thought may have stepped up disappeared. Such is life!

I had had discussions with a local yoga studio to take a room there for the continuing healing business, but I had a few reservations about the size of the room, very nice but a little small. Especially for the Tibetan Massage. But with all on-goings with closing the shop, and Dad still in hospital I thought to leave that one for later. Then a room became available this week, the perfect size and really good location. It is big enough to continue the meditation classes and because I will have more time I can start teaching other things like reiki.

So things are synchronising is a positive way. at last. All we need now is to get Dad home again and life will be going forward in a good way.

I will process the key more in the days to come I'm sure, seven years is a big chunk of anyone's life!

Back from many different places!

What a roller-coaster the last 3 weeks have been! I have been home for a week and this is the very first chance I have had to sit down and put some thoughts out there.

Forwards or backwards? I'd like to start where I finish with the Dalai Lamas' five days of teaching in Sydney, but once I get started on him, it is hard to stop.

So start at the start.

Seven day retreat with my Tibetan Medicine teacher, Dr. Nida. We were at a beautiful retreat centre in Healesville - Maitripa, it belongs to the Kaygu Evam group from Melbourne. Is always lovely to stay here, we are fed and looked after so well by the lovely Sue Ellen and it is a comfortable funny old building with little rooms everywhere in a beautiful bushland setting, wombats and lyrebirds everywhere.

The retreat itself was a profound and amazing week. We were embarked on the Yuthok Nyingthik Ngondro, a seven day preliminary practice taught by Yuthok Yonten Gonpo (the father of Tibetan Medicine). It is the spiritual side of Tibetan medicine and is a wonderful purification practice for any one who works as a healer. And it is a complete ngondro done in 7 days - that is unbelievable! Most other forms of ngondro take at least 4 to 6 months as a full time retreat, or 3 years plus fitting it around your normal life. There is more information here if you are interested: Yuthok practices.

Yuthok Yonten Gonpo - The Younger - lived in the 12th Century, and is known as the Father of Tibetan Medicine. It is said that Yuthok The Younger left a legacy of ‘two jewels’, namely the Four Tantras (the Classic text on Tibetan Medicine) and Yuthok Nyingthig (a very important - and the most compact - spiritual practice for practitioners of Tibetan Medicine). Yuthok The Younger predicted that ‘in the future, doctors would be so busy that they would have no time for spiritual practice’. So saying, he composed a very concise practice - the practice known as Yuthok Nyingthig, taught it to his one best student, and also passed onto him the transmission. This practice has subsequently been passed down from one generation of Tibetan doctors to the next, in an unbroken lineage.

Now, Dr. Nida was off to Sydney after this week to teach Ku Nye level 1, Tibetan massage. I had been going to study this last year, but the course was cancelled and after finding out that it was part of the fourth year module of TTM - Traditional Tibetan Medicine - I had decided not to take it further. During a conversation we were having after diner one night when I when I was doing some work on the computer for him he made some comment about oh we can do that next week in Sydney. Well, we could if I were going! But of course Dr. Nida is hard to say "no" to and I got home late that Saturday; on Sunday washed my knickers, re-acquainted myself with the faces of my family and was on a plane to Sydney early Monday morning!