Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: wellbeing

  • The Way Through the Woods

    The Way Through the Woods

    The green witch’s guide to navigating life’s ups and downs

    A beautiful quote attributed to Rumi is at the beginning of Chapter Eight in Rebecca Beattie’s wise and gentle book The Way Through The Woods which says, ‘You were born with wings, You were not meant for crawling, so don’t: You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.’

    In this gentle, captivating book, Green Witch Rebecca Beattie sets out in a very practical and user friendly style the pathway to being able to fly once again, despite or in spite of the life pathway you have been on, or are in the process of travelling.

    She reaches out through personal experience and learned knowledge, using the analogy of walking a pathway through the woods, a place of deep mystery, occasionally danger but immensely full of wisdom and healing. Rebecca is a Gardnerian Wiccan.

    Dividing life’s journey into seasons is a very comfortable way to be able to take a look at how life tends to move in tune with the seasons, which also falls in with the Wiccan spiritual pathway utilising feminine spirituality and the teaching of Tarot to offer healing and enlightenment.

    As you work through the chapters, which are best read carefully and slowly, there is a second tier to the story that of an archetype, perhaps yours, perhaps not but complimentary to learning, understanding and accepting the healing being offered throughout the pages.

    Beginning with the Winter season, that of coldness, death and rebirth, she discusses the death of a loved one and the emotional trauma that we, in the modern world, fail to accept as we move forward so quickly, setting out a lovely incense recipe and a simple and yet effect ritual to undertake in Memory of your loved one.

    This sets the style for the rest of the book, each chapter commencing with a small but significant slice of poetry, and the Tarot card relative to the topic of discussion. As each of the seasons unfold, each chapter holds much wisdom, many life lessons and a gentle, positive way towards acceptance and healing, which culminates in The Manifesto of the Perfectly Imperfect Life.

    Once again the final Section commences with a lovely piece of poetry from Rudyard Kipling which leads into a most appealing statement of intent and motivation. This then concludes with the invitation to go out and find your perfect ‘tree’, sit under it, take a deep healing breath and listen to the beauty in the world around you.

    The perfect ending to a charming, eloquent and very comforting book on travelling life’s pathways through the often difficult and troubling woods in which we all live.

  • Sleep Sense

    Sleep Sense

    At last a book full of common sense, easy to use technics, and well-presented explanations as to the role sleep plays in the health and well-being of the human body, and the fall out when the basic fundamentals of getting a good night’s rest are ignored.

    Commencing with warm welcome from the author Dr Katarina Lederle, followed by the Introduction where you are immediately offered the concept of being able to understand the complexities of sleep, sleep habits, and how to make positive change if your sleep habits have gone off course, all in easy to understand language, which certainly helps when discussing such a complex aspect of health.

    Lderle has begun her research by asking a range of people, commencing with her own family, what they considered the most important aspects of sleep, what they thought they needed to be able to improve their sleep patterns or habits and proceeded from this fundamental base. This makes fascinating reading and presents even more interesting concepts as to how to make, often small changes to improve sleep and overall emotional and physical health.

    Sleep and dreaming are still areas where much is being discovered by Scientists and Researchers as there is still much, they do not understand, such a dreaming and why it is done, jet lag and the significant difference that can be made by changing sleep habits slightly before flying long haul, to identify just two of the many areas under discussion.

    Sleep disorders such as nightmares, sleep walking, sleep related eating and sleep paralysis also provided a fascinating insight to conditions that are very real, cause a raft of issues for the sufferer and offer solutions that are easy to understand and try, or recognise when there is the need to seek medical advice for other more distressing sleep disorders.

    Divided into four specific sections, with the middle two considered as the core to understanding and changing sleep disorders, this is a work that impresses, offers a scaffold toward healthy sleep and also presents what Lederle considers as the three pillars of good health: Physical health, mental performance and emotional wellbeing.

    She shows with easy to relate too case studies, that if any of these three areas are out of balance, out of sync because of poor sleep habits, what effect this has on overall health and offers a way forward to a happier, healthier sleep habits which can be immensely beneficial.

    By the end of the book, a better and more comprehensive understanding of sleep, the important role it plays in heathy bodies and the fall out when sleep patterns go wrong will be well understood.

  • Love Laughter and Longevity – The Art and Science of Wellbeing

    Love Laughter and Longevity – The Art and Science of Wellbeing

    Written from a been there , discovered this and it really works perspective, Wellbeing Educator and Speaker Janni Goss introduces a world of wellness that is both easy to understand and so simple to carry out and enjoy, so much so that taking responsibility for your own health and wellbeing becomes a happy component of everyday life.

    The benefits of reading and working your way through this refreshing look at creating positive change and positive emotion are life changing, as they focus on what could be considered as a wellness check for your mind, body and soul, tapping into the massive benefits of laughter, exercise, knowledge and something rather intriguing, Laughter Yoga.

    Goss, over the course of her life has faced up to some tough stuff, earning a permanent dose of PTSD, otherwise referred to as Pissed–Off and Totally Stressed-out Disorder, giving this debilitating condition a much more user friendly term.  She had to learn to live a healthy and happy life, or face the alternative, and so she set out to discover a better and much happier way to live. In Love, Laughter and Longevity she shares all the many things she discovered on her journey to wellbeing.

    As each of the chapters deals with different issues, such as how to better understand the trigger points which lead to poor health and stress, offering alternatives, particularly laughter, which is definitely considered the best medicine, to enable  serious and healthy changes in your life.

    For anyone who is, or has ever suffered with stress, dis-stress or dis-ease, is aging and facing some hard facts, or simply wants to have a happier, more relaxed feeling as they travel life pathways, this book is a definite must read.

    Filled with information on all the most important aspects of ageing and wellbeing, each chapter has details and references that can be followed up at a later date, along with a little section at the end with pertinent questions to be answered. This certainly helps identify any aspects which could to with a little bit of extra help, as the object is to be able to enjoy every moment of Healthy Longevity by outsmarting that nasty little creature called Stress, which has a bad habit of working its way into your life, almost undetected.

    There are also some serious funny, pointed and laugh out loud quotes throughout the book, adding a light and happy touch to a subject that should be dear to everyone hearts, that of living a happy, healthy and enjoyable life

    In the immortal words of Mark Twain: ‘Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret ANYTHING that makes you smile’.

      And remember. ‘We who laugh…….last’.

  • Career leap : how to reinvent and liberate your career

    Career leap : how to reinvent and liberate your career

    Never a truer world was spoken than “gone are the days of slowly making your way up the corporate ladder to retirement”, or any other employment ladder for that matter. The business world is changing faster than any other time in history, with a move away from hands on to what is referred to as the ‘gig economy’, changing expectations from employers as well as employees, which has left many wondering and worrying about the way forward.

    Presented in the form of a workbook, and career guidance manual, Gibbings uses her extensive skill base in helping to prepare employees and employers for the ‘future of work’. That knowledge base is now presented in Career Leap, which sheds a refreshing light on how to future-proof your career in a manner which is easy to understand, pulls no punches, but will help educate and inform enabling you to research your strengths and weakness to improve your work life, in preparation for the years to come.

    Gibbings address the issue of change; not just in career choices but career directions which over the course of a modern working life are now the accepted norm. Gone are the days when jobs were plentiful, manufacture was booming and life in general was pretty straightforward.

    Exactly the opposite is now considered as normal in the Global workplace, where the skills once needed to be able to work in an industry or profession of choice have changed considerably. Experience and a blunt honesty on a personal level, nerves of steel and the ability to make changes in order to keep abreast of modern workplace requirements are a necessary component of the modern workforce, to be able take advantage of opportunities as they are offered. Making and being prepared to adapt to fit the requirements is also essential. But how do you go about making the changes both mentally and emotionally?

    Designed as fitness and wellbeing check for your career and ambitions, Career Leap offers a wellness check as the first thing required to be undertaken. This is followed by discovering your hidden potential, exploring options, a look at choosing which area to progress, constructing a plan, shaping your new career identity and then taking a serious look at influence and how this will affect your marketplace.

    Then, Focus, Accelerate, and get set to Launch the new, workplace savvy you.

    Each of the chapters is introduced with some very wise words from many people who have overcome adversity to achieve their goals. Rumi, Lao Tzu, Denis Diderot, Geronimo and Florence Nightingale are all quoted. Back in their day, what is now considered as wise words, were probably created from a once again changing world!

    It somehow helps to place the modern workplace in some kind of perspective: scary but able to be managed with the right tools, a good dose of personal honesty and understanding of the shifting ground that is now the modern workplace.

    The single factor tying the chapters of not just this book, but your career together is well stated in the words of Gorgi Coghlan, when she says ‘Regret is far worse emotion to live with than fear’. So as both Michelle Gibbings and many others have discovered, do the tough stuff, undertake the career wellness check, be prepared to leap and reap the rewards.

  • Diving for Pearls: The Wise Woman’s Guide to Finding Love

    Diving for Pearls: The Wise Woman’s Guide to Finding Love

    Maggie has led an amazing life, one full of awareness and devotion to Buddhism and the truth. She became ordained in the Buddhism path and she spent her years gaining inner wisdom, and understanding herself. The author has chosen to share her life story with us, elaborating on the methods to use to find what you are looking for, therefor the book describes in-depth methods for ways to achieve peace, meditating and gaining inner wisdom, as well as her own story.

     Meditation became enormously important to Maggie after the death of her father. She describes the importance of breath awareness and the experiences that true meditation brought to her. She developed the art of being able to ask any question, from “Where should I park, or How do I find love?” and to know the correct answer from the voices or thoughts she would have, discovering the answer correct answer would feel open and expansive, and would come from love not fear.

     There is a large chapter on inner wisdom.  The author considers it to be beyond intelligence, a combination of the head and the heart making decisions. She discovered that it is absolutely necessary to let go of your own thoughts and needs, to surrender to the unknown and to think and live ethically. By doing this, it felt like losing control, but Maggie discovered, it can begin to feel comfortable in the unknown.

     Maggie describes to us how the loss of her beloved father, and her first love affected her wellbeing. She moved into a safe house, where she could grieve and heal. At that time, she was depressed and it was some time before she could resurface to accept a new job. The author suggests that there are ways of helping yourself when you are feeling under pressure. Accept yourself when you are feeling sad, and don’t resist the urge to dismiss unhappy feelings.  She then has quite a long list of things to do when bad times do arrive.

     Eventually, Maggie fell pregnant and was ecstatic to give birth to a baby boy. Her relationship with the child’s father had been a kind and friendly one, but not that of a long and lasting love. They lived together and co-parented for some years, but when an opportunity came for Maggie to move to the country, her partner went as well and so the family unit was still close, but not in the same house.

     Later, true love has come Maggie’s way, and she believes she now has the answer to finding your soul mate. Her pearls of wisdom are inspirational, and as gentle as the manner in which she has written this book.