To me it seems that youth is like spring, an overpraised season - delightful if it happens to be a favoured one, but in practice very rarely favoured and more remarkable… Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
The decisions we make today affect our planet and our people and the universal intelligence to make these decisions lies within each and every one of us. Our personal decisions: What we eat, how we travel and what we buy, contribute to our overall environmental footprint. All being daily contributions to personal and planetary wellbeing, reinforcing that collectively, we have significant power, that being our collective consciousness. We need to nurture our sustainability consciousness that considers the long-term effects of our actions on the planet and future generations.
-Opting for plant-based meals can reduce carbon emissions associated with meat.
-Instead of driving alone, ride-share; this can minimise carbon emissions.
-Buying products with minimal packaging and prioritising reusable items reduces waste.
-Switching to renewable energy sources at home where possible and supporting sustainable energy contribute to a cleaner environment.
Winter 2025 is our 250th edition. “Odyssey Magazine, formed in July 1977, is and always has been, targeted at the conscious individual who is pursuing, or would like to embark on, a holistic, green and healthful lifestyle to enhance both their personal wellbeing and that of our planet.” Ed
The long-awaited and well-received Conscious Parenting Indaba 25 July, leads into the KwazuluSpirit Festival on 26-27 July. Conscious parenting encourages parents to deeply understand their own emotions, triggers and beliefs and how these influence their children and our future.
The KwazuluSpirit Festival™ , initially inspired by Bali Spirit, New Zealand North and South Spirit Festivals, has been curated with the reviews of 2023 and 2024 top of mind and is unequivocally a celebration of the human spirit, our humanity and divinity and a vibrant exploration of consciousness and wellbeing. We would love to connect with you here.
Tickets: www.kwazuluspirit.howler.co.za
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1 Editor’s Note
Odyssey Winners
8-10 The Great Grandmother
Steve Hurt
12-15 The Art of Listening and Questioning
Geoff Dalglish
16-18 The Sound of Silence
Kiki Theo
20, 21 The Rise of the Global Loneliness Epidemic
Yael Geffen
58-61 Equal to
Spiritual Living with Colleen-Joy
Spotlight on:
Parenting and Passages of Life
32, 33 Attention Crisis
Gerard Finnemore
34, 35 Parenting as Relationship
Colleen Wilson
36-38 A Sacred Dance of Souls
Gérraine Rozenkrantz
43-45 Parenting as a Living System
Megan de Beyer
46, 47 From Shelves to Minds
48, 49 Help Teens Build Healthy Habits
Mbali Mapholi
50-52 Togetherness: Survival in a Hostile World
Jon Luc Robinson
54-56 Redefining Retirement
Gidon Novick
Body Mind Spirit 11 Soil
19 Angelic Reiki 22, 23 Spiritual Band-Aids
Angelique Koster
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24 Open to Wonder
Philip Matcovsky
25 Africa's Leading Wellness Consultant
26-29 Reclaiming your Ancestors
Tanja Meyburgh
39 The Hidden Cost of Playing small
53 Embrace Your Most Authentic Self
57 Vedanta
62-64 Conscious Manifesting
Carolyn Chilton Casas
66, 67 Specialised Kinesiology
68, 69 A Healing Journey Within Neta-Li Gonen
70, 71 Grief as a Gateway to Transformation
72-74 The New Timeline
Chanel Lingenfelder
75 Journey to the Authentic Self
78-80 Chakras in Partnership with Astrology
Anastacia Sampson
95 Answer to a Fulfilling Life
Health
30, 31 St Francis Health Centre
40-42 Troubling Rise of Childhood
Obesity - Luke Mitchell
81 The Art of Healing
82, 83 Software for the Brain
Dr Arien Van Der Merwe
86-88 Is Gluten-conscious the Same as Gluten-free - Beth Rush
89-91 The Herbal Dog
Rita Hogan
92-94 Letters to Her Nicholas Neaves
96, 97 Blissexology: Sexual Healing
Anne-Marie Clulow
98, 99 Escape the Job That Drains
Kristy Weterings
Wellness Within: 102 -128
Travel, Retreats, Events
102 Transform Your Life in 3 Days
Brett Shuttleworth
104 From Debra's Desk
105 The Simbithi Story
106-109 A Pursuit of Slow Living
Lauren Manuel
110-113 Smiling Souls, Next Level
Gérraine Rozenkrantz
115 Nurture with Nature
116-121 Pyramids
Debra Stevens-Robins
122, 123 KwazuluSpirit Facilitators
124-127 KwazuluSpirit Bliss Booths
128 Conscious Parenting Indaba
Good Reads and Giveaways
29 3 Reclaiming Ancestors
Tanja Meyburgh
91 3 The Herbal Dog
Rita Hogan
94 3 Consultation Vouchers
Nicholas Neaves
Odyssey Thought Leaders
8-10 The Wilderness Within Steve Hurt 12-15 Earth Pilgrim
Geoff Dalglish 16-18 Money Alchemy
Kiki Theo
20, 21 Mental Health Advocate
Yael Geffen
58-61 Wisdom Teachings
Colleen-Joy
82, 83 Medically Speaking
Dr Arien van der Merwe
96, 97 Blissexology
Anne-Marie Clulow
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Words
“The Great Grandmother” is a reflective journey into the heart of Utah's Zion mountain wilderness, where the silent majesty of Zion's sandstone canyons reflects an ancestral spirit of the Great Grandmother. As I journey in the mountains in the predawn darkness, I encounter the living presence of a bristlecone pine - the great grandmother tree - guiding me toward an inner communion with nature. The story weaves together themes of ancient wisdom, spiritual pilgrimage and our enduring connection to the natural world."
Iam sitting alone in the mountains of Utah, where the
canyons of Zion unfold below me, carving majestic passageways through sandstone mountains. This is a place I have always wanted to visit, a land that evokes my imagination about the beauty of the natural world. As Edward Abbey once declared, “This is the most beautiful place on earth.”
I came here in the predawn darkness, as if pulled toward this place. The whole mountain calls; every part of it is a holy voice beckoning to the seeker. The ground seems to hold the threads of an ancient spirit, a living presence that is everywhere, a holy presence that makes me want to bow my head. And so I sit as a witness to this holy work, breathing in whole mountains, canyons and the ever-unfurling wildness of nature. This is holy ground.
I came here when it was still dark, wanting to sense more deeply into what had always been an imaginary landscape I had come to know through books and stories. There is a familiarity etched in my heart, a land that, many years ago, was imbued with the passing of knowledge from ancient Tibet across the world to the west for safeguarding. In my heart, I knew this place; I felt its living presence inside me, connected to the thread that binds all life in a sacred tapestry of love.
This was a pilgrimage, to sit here among these temples of the gods, to feel how the dust itself tells stories of mountains carved by time, of rivers that sprung from the ground when the world was still Eden. It is saturated with the spirit of the Puebloans and their generations of sacred worship. With cupped hands, palms turned to the sky, I could feel how this place held the imprint of a story far more ancient than us. I raise my hands in supplication to the spirit of the land and pray for my soul to return home. And with my inner ear, I could hear the Puebloan songlines echoing in chorus with the song of the earth, weaving threads of love and connection from hearts directly into the natural world. Everywhere I felt the spirit
of these people of the earth, so familiar and yet so forgotten, their story alive in the air, always calling us home.
It was here that I felt the presence of something more than my own inner dialogue: The unmistakable presence of an ancient spirit grandmother who walked in these mountains. I recognised this presence, her familiar gait, her weathered face with an otherworldly smile and the kinship of ancestral eyes watching over humanity beyond this mortal coil.
In those early hours of the morning when I came up here, I could see only the faint trace of cliff faces and trees. The voice of the grandmother was everywhere in the mountains, calling amid these temples of the gods, these colossal stone patriarchs. The stars were above me, swimming in the deepest, darkest black sky. Bitterly cold air cut into my warm chest, the icy breath of snowcapped peaks. She called with an aching pain in my chest, in air so cold it was hard to breathe without clenching my jaw.
Compelled by the call, I walked deeper into those mountains, into the dark blackness of the night. This was an act of trust and surrender to a sentience that pulled at my core. And as the sky turned its majestic starencrusted palette, I called inwardly for a path to be shown that led toward her. But sometimes the journey outward is a necessary ritual to enact the inner journey. Taking one step at a time in the darkness, without knowing where we are going, trusting each step, I embarked on an inward perambulation into the soul's wild labyrinth, wondering if such an act could ever be taken except in the darkness.
First, she led me down to the white sand riverbed and we walked in silence. The sand was like ice, cold and crisp. We laughed at how dark it was, how even my feet disappeared below me.
Then she turned my head upward toward the rising canyon walls and there above me I saw a ledge. “Come,” she said, “climb up.”
So I ascended, climbing upwards and inwards toward her in what had now become the faintest light of an imminent sunrise, pulling my body up a steep rock face, clambering higher up the smooth sandstone wall until my arms and legs grew tired. As the light grew faintly brighter, I looked around and saw that I was halfway up a mountain in the early morning dusk and there she was, sitting on the plateau, the grandmother tree. She was thousands of years old, a bristlecone pine, ancient and sentient in her presence. I knew in that moment that this was the place to sit and be silent. This was the plateau.
There we sat together and I felt that she was lending me her vision. I plummeted into that other world and saw how, for thousands of years, she had watched over this rock, greeting the pink dawn. She showed me how every living thing was an eye through which she watched the world and witnessed the manifestation of God in her being, every part of nature an ear, a touchpoint witnessing the unfolding song of creation; the oneness of life, the continuity of spiritual light through aeons. I sat with her, an enraptured participant, seeing, hearing, feeling the earth through the eyes of creation.
Then she showed me how I have been here too, on this hill, inside my heart, over many lives. She revealed that it was she who taught me to watch with the eye of eternity, who taught me stillness, who showed me the living of many lifetimes and the great circle of time, time like a river. She showed me how I have sat with her in every forest, every mountain peak, in the ocean, in the flowering spring Karoo. Always it has been her; always her presence has shown me the way, wherever I found myself.
Ritual is the way we enact this sacred experience in the world. It is how we imbibe wisdom and bring it back into the earth. The inner journey requires the act of sacred ritual to draw forth that wisdom from the depths and offer it to the earth herself. So when I stood and saw the empty canvas of white sand before me, I felt compelled to record this meeting in the sand for us both to see. I drew circles that spoke of wholeness, of union, of time like a river winding its way endlessly to the sea. I offered these circles to the ground, to the sky, to the water below, to the rising sun, symbols of recognition to this sentient earth that gives so freely of herself - a gift etched into her flesh, a love note for the gift of her presence.
And then the sun started to rise and I knew that the moment had passed, so I sat in silent witness to her majesty. In that moment, she became both the tree and the light that touched it; she was wholeness, she was every living thing. She was there in the canyons, flowing in the clear waters, dancing in the darkness of the earth. She was nourisher, bringer of life, midwife to new life. She was the sky and the ground and everything in between. She was the grandmother who watched endlessly over the world and had loved the earth so deeply that her heart now carried the world within it.
We continued this visionary journey as I descended the mountain in the fullness of sunrise, watching her light touch the rocks. It was like the mother greeting the mother, from heart to heart, inseparably entwined. Each rock came alive, turning its face to the sun in monolithic prayer, a gaze most ancient, the eternal worship between earth and God. And as I stepped down, the light filled the spaces where I had offered prayers with her. My searching for her had become her answering voice, and it was light touching light. The sun painted the mountaintops, the sky turned pink; I looked up to her on that high mesa of pine, now lit by the sun, and inside my heart I saw that sacred place clearly resting within me. This was the answer to my prayer: to find that thread which is always alive, that exists everywhere within us and in the world around us, the holy thread, the one spirit that binds us all from heart to heart, the holy mandala of creation.
These were the words given to me this morning, from the silence of the mountain dawn.
Steve Hurt's writing falls within the paradigm of spiritual ecology which approaches ecology from a spiritual perspective. His writing is influenced by shamanism, sufism and a deep love for the earth. Steve currently lives in South Africa and runs a business that trades in African medicinal plants, a trade that is driven by his wish to preserve the rich heritage of African medicinal knowledge for future generations.
To contact Steve: stevenlindsayhurt@gmail.com Website: http://thedanceoflight.co.za/
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by Odyssey's pilgrim-at-large Geoff Dalglish
“
Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something that you don't believe is right.
Jane Goodall, primatologist, anthropologist and UN Messenger of Peace
Walking Water has been an epic decade-long inquiry and journey made up of many millions of footsteps, countless questions and a determination to listen, harvest stories and set intentions to manifest outcomes that serve all.
For me it has been a life-changing experience and happily the journey continues with new opportunities and challenges looming large on my personal horizon.
Walkers like myself are answering a call to join a 21-day walk in September known as Lake to Lake where we'll link California's iconic Mono Lake and deeply controversial Patsiata/Owens Lake with our footsteps.
It is terrain we've covered before although this time it'll be with the benefit of fresh insights and a willingness to view this parched world with new eyes and what is often referred to as beginner's mind. Hopefully without prejudice or judgment.
What are the lessons? What are the opportunities? What is ours to do or be? How might we create a new and enlivening relationship with the waters and all other life?
Walking Water came into my life unexpectedly in 2013 as I completed a 124-day 2 500km walk through six European countries and four major mountain ranges as an ambassador for the World Wilderness Congress.
I'd barely arrived at the striking Congress venue in the beautiful medieval city of Salamanca, when I was approached by peace activist and water protector Kate Bunney, who asked, ”How would you like to keep on walking.” “That's my intention,” I assured, having committed to a world walk with climate change messages about treading more lightly and lovingly upon our beloved Mother Earth.
Kate outlined her vision of a Californian source to sea walk
that would attempt to start healing our broken relationship with the waters and with the indigenous tribes that are the original conservationists. Theirs is a history of living in harmony with their surroundings.
It was to be a two-year negotiation with the tribes to secure blessings to walk their ancestral lands, even though they had invariably been robbed of access to these lands and confined to so-called reservations.
Fast forward to 2015 and we were ready to take our first tentative steps on an 880km walk in three parts over three years. For me it was the deepening of a love affair with the spectacular contrasts of the land as we followed the waterways – natural and human-made – from the source high in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains to the City of Los Angeles and ultimately the place where the polluted and channelised LA River spills into the ocean at Long Beach.
The early weeks felt like a love letter to the Earth and particularly to the waters as we delighted in traversing areas of astonishing natural beauty at the time-honoured pace of our ancestors. There were also times of intense inner and outer challenge in the extremes of the desert as temperatures soared and sandstorms battered the travel-weary pilgrims.
Perhaps most challenging of all was the final fortnight walking through the city to the sea. Sleep often eluded us as we slept in city and state parks under bright lights, ceaseless traffic noise and the unrelenting busyness of the country's second largest city.
And yet there were so many highlights, not least of which was the warmth and enthusiasm with which many Angelenos welcomed us. Many truly are angels.
Appropriately the walk started, continued and finished as a prayer and a blessing and always the intention was to build bridges between the needs of the people of Los Angeles and those of Payahuunadü, the Paiute tribe's name for the Owens Valley.
It seemed especially auspicious that the start of Walking Water on the 1st of September 2015 coincided with a call by Pope Francis for a global day of 'Prayer for the Care of Creation'.
As millions of people around the world bowed their heads in prayer for the wellbeing of all life on Earth – including humanity – walkers, residents, county officials and elders of the indigenous tribes sang and prayed to honour the waters and invite new ways of being in relationship with the natural world and each other.
Now we are preparing to walk again, with our group of water protectors planning to reconvene for Lake to Lake. Significantly much of the original walk between 2015 and 2017 was undertaken against the backdrop of California's most devastating drought and a worldwide water crisis of epic proportions. Ultimately there was a last-minute reprieve for the city when heavy snowfalls in the Sierras allowed a deluge of water to be channelled through the LA Aqueduct.
It brought welcome relief to many city dwellers, although the deprivation in the Owens Valley continues.
The valley remains parched with vegetation dying because the level of the water table has been pumped to below where the roots of trees and plants can reach.
And Owens Lake, which was sucked dry within a decade of the opening of the aqueduct, remains a bleak moonscape that
is a symbol of the valley's deprivation and a reminder of what can happen when humans try to enforce their will upon natural systems.
In 2017, the third phase of Walking Water, we resumed on the 14th of October and immediately enjoyed another synchronicity – the walkers whose numbers included representatives of the tribes, were invited to join celebrations for the newly recognised Indigenous Peoples Day. The city had decided to honour the tribes and scrap the more usual Columbus Day commemoration of the controversial colonist's landing in 1492.
Certainly, history has not been kind to the indigenous people and part of our walk has been described as a trail of tears.
Historians point to two major events that precipitated an ocean of pain and heartbreak: 150 years ago the first white settlers arrived and forcibly displaced the native tribes who'd lived sustainably for thousands of years, while a century ago it was the turn of both the tribes and local settlers to suffer as the waters were diverted from the Owens Valley via a 377km aqueduct to grow the City of LA.
I have frequently witnessed painful reminders of the dominant settlers' worldview. An example is the museum in the head office of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). It completely overlooks the hardships caused to the people of Payahuunadü and ignores the fact that the tribes lived sustainably and had an effective system of irrigation ditches and canals long before the arrival of the settlers. The true history of this land needs to be told.
It is a core element of the inspiring story in the documentary film Paya that was screened to walkers and guests during an evening at TreePeople.
And yet there appears to have been a slight shift recently and a growing willingness by some water and political officials, along with some senior LADWP officials, to engage.
Steve Cole, assistant director of the city's water distribution division, joined us one evening, spoke of his love of water and answered questions. He expressed a willingness to expand on the initial contact and have follow-up meetings with Alan Bacock, water coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe.
Pivotal to his own career, which has spanned
almost three decades with the LADWP, was a time of crisis in the city after an earthquake. He was refuelling his vehicle and an elderly Asian man approached him and said simply, “Thanks for what you are doing.” It was a life-changing moment and crystallised his role as a servant of the city.
As we neared the sea we walked along a cycle path flanking the LA River and were joined by a number of supporters, including several indigenous activists.
Tahesha Knapp-Christensen, an Angeleno of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, carried the water container that would be emptied into the Pacific Ocean on the completion of the walk.
But first there were many songs and blessings, actress Maggie Wheeler leading the Golden Bridge Choir, while indigenous elders offered their wisdom and support. Among them were the late Harry Williams, a Bishop Paiute Tribal elder, Kathy Bancroft, a Lone Pine cultural resources preservationist and Charlotte Lange of the Kuzedtika Tribe.
During the walk WW core team leader and Big Pine Paiute tribal member Alan Bacock had deeply explored the question, “Can I forgive?” Standing on the shore he appeared to have found his answer. “I love the people of LA… and that means restoring relationships,” he said.
Visionary Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople and an important change agent in LA, insisted, “A new city is not only possible, but also happening.”
As in any journey, there were highs and lows. Sometimes there was suspicion and even mistrust and yet we all found our way and walked on together, carried by the strength of our common care and prayer. It seems that there are the tentative beginnings of a new dialogue and the exploration of new relationships and possibilities.
“So we begin to ask what impact has our walk had?” Gigi Coyle mused. “For the walkers and those that shared parallel walks in other parts of the world, it was significant for sure. We feel solidarity of care and responsibility growing worldwide. And for those 'in charge', making the decisions, at minimum we hope we have awakened respect and a willingness to listen deeply.
“We will look for the people's hearts to guide them as well as their minds, to widen the circle of awareness regarding who and what they serve, to expand their understanding of different approaches and to engage in some of the changes we and others are proposing. Time will tell.”
I believe the land and the waters of California are talking to us in ways that inspire awe, respect, intense emotions and a multitude of as-yet unanswered questions.
This is a place of extremes – the valley is one of the deepest anywhere in the United States and it is framed by the iconic Sierra Nevada and Inyo Mountain ranges. At 4,421 metres, nearby Mount Whitney towers above
all other peaks in the land, while Death Valley's Badwater Basin is 85 metres below sea level and the lowest point in North America. Furnace Creek claims to have recorded the highest air temperature anywhere in the world – 56.7 degrees C in July, 2013.
Petroglyphs carved into slabs of sunbaked rock thousands of years ago speak of the land's power to inspire, while a disintegrating network of irrigation ditches are reminders of how the Paiute tribes lived lightly and sustainably upon the Earth long before being displaced by the arrival of the first land-hungry settlers in 1860. The valley is also a place of often extreme viewpoints, its sparse population including indigenous tribes, survivalists, conservationists, cowboys, hunters, fishers, miners, devout Christians and countless employees of the City of LA's Department of Water and Power (DWP).
And if there is a strange familiarity for first-time visitors to these dramatic landscapes, it's probably because this is the cowboy country memorialised in around 700 Western movies that have provided Hollywood's glamorised take on the so-called Wild West.
I'm a relative newcomer to the Owens Valley but after many consecutive days and nights outdoors, it has woven its magic spell.
What are the messages from the soul of the Earth? That will be for us to decipher when we walk again in September.
Please support my fundraiser: www.gofundme.com/f/geoffs-participation-in-lake-tolake-2025
Geoff Dalglish is a writer and spiritual and ecological activist dedicated to raising consciousness. He has walked more than 30 000km with climate change messages about treading more lightly and lovingly upon the Earth. He is an ambassador for the Findhorn spiritual community and ecovillage and is Odyssey’s ‘Pilgrim at Large’.
Visit: www.earthpilgrimafrica.com
It has been said that silence is golden, that it is best not to speak 'unless you can improve the silence'. But when does silence become a liability? To ourselves, to others, to the environment, to consciousness as a whole?
When does our silence, our inability or unwillingness to speak, become tacit agreement?
How many things could have been different across time if those who remained silent had instead chosen to speak? How many wars could have been prevented? How many atrocities could have been stopped? How much planetary destruction could have been averted?
And here we stand once again, at a crossroads in time and the many remain silent. There is a variety of reasons why people do not speak up, but the reasons all boil down to fear. Fear of standing apart - from the crowd or the prevailing norm, fear of being ostracised from the group, of being seen to be weird. Fear of loss - of position, possibly of income, of friends, of influence, sometimes of life and limb. Fear of being wrong – in one's assessment or viewpoints, or feelings. Fear of consequence for one's actions or viewpoints. And of course fear of fear itself. So the many hide themselves, they keep silent and they watch. Not willing to get involved, not willing to go into any discomfort and hiding behind others who are speaking out, standing out, willing to take the heat.
I have been fighting to protect mature heritage-protected trees in our area, while some want them gone – on the pretext of fire threat, but actually for better views and because trees shed leaves. So here I've stood in our neighbourhood group of some 60 people – being the looney one, for many years now. St James, like a few other Cape Town suburbs, is situated half way up a mountain. There is no road access here. Pedestrian steps join pathways which snake down, linking the mountains to the sea. Ancient trees gaze down pale blue plumbago hedges spilling over fences, shy pink lilies peek out between clumps of aloe and wild grass. It is lush overgrown terrain, home to squirrels, birds, bees, butterflies and insects. Not that long ago baboons hid in the open plot near us, which was then filled with pines, tall grass and shrub. A residential city
suburb, which seems like the middle of the wilds. A one in a million location in international terms and a heritage-protected area for this reason. Sadly, it is under threat of destruction by fear-mongering neighbours, who do not believe trees or plants are conscious in any way.
"Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish."
Munia Khan
I will not go into the details, or cover the difference between non-invasive and invasive alien trees, or the fact that the trees were there before us (some trees are 60 years old or more), or discuss that devious means are being used here to circumvent the law. I want to focus on those who keep silent, because they don't want to get involved. Some of them I know and others I sense. But they are all silent, for their own reasons. And they reflect the bigger problems we face in the world today, by others who also remain silent.
The silence of those not speaking out is always taken to mean that a handful of activists speak for the majority. Silence itself creates the illusion of a majority, whether a majority exists or not. Now majorities themselves are problematic. If history has taught us anything, it's that the self-proclaimed majority may not represent the actual majority, and also, that the majority may be way off track. The existence of a majority does not automatically make that majority correct in what they believe, decide, propose or action. The recent pandemic is a case in point, not to mention world wars, segregation of various kinds and the very many genocides. All of which are going on at this very moment, while so many remain silent.
“For we are living on the cusp Of wonders and terrors. Weird tensions flow beneath the age
Like great subterranean rivers. And never before has humanity, In such full consciousness, Drifted towards so momentous A moment in lived, measured time.” Ben Okri. Mental Fight
We may be a part of those many afraid to speak out or to act, but more importantly afraid to dream into this new chaos we find ourselves in. It is indeed the dawn of a new age. And yes, it is not a rehearsal. And if ever there was a time to speak, to stand up and say NO, but mostly to continue holding the space for a better future IT IS NOW!
Now, more than ever, at the actual dawn of a new age, we need to stand firm in our belief and faith: That all things are working together for good, that apparent upheaval and chaos is the preparation for wonderful things to come.
We also need to oppose and resist the things that go against the grain, that are wrong and unacceptable – like the felling of mature trees for no reason, the passing of ridiculous laws, the diminishing of goodness and light, the breaking down of community and the dissolvement of hope.
We need to manifest positive outcomes like never before and resist being swept away into a negative flow. We need to swim upstream. Leap and jump into new possibilities and seeming impossibilities to create a new future and a new world.
Right now, the world needs you. You must focus your intent. Be clear on what you want and ignore, yes, ignore, the rest. Unless there is something in your close and immediate field and world that you can do, to improve for the better, you have no need or time or reason to connect with anything else going on anywhere else. Unless you have the power to create some change – then you must rise up and be heard. Speak out! Do not remain silent.
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
Kahlil Gibran
You need to gather all your attention, focus, intent, positivity, prayer and goodwill and hold it like your life depends on it, because it does. Ground the goodness. Believe it. Allow it to expand and emanate from you, for the good of all. Create your best positive outcome pictures and play them to your mind, speak them to your friends, spread them as positive rumours to the world. And speak out for that goodness. Do not remain silent.
Infect the world with your optimism. Expect wonderful
things to happen! Not because you are thinking positively, as a feel-good plan, but because you are bringing these new realities into being. We, together, are bringing a new world into existence. What is the point of all these courses and healings and ascension talk and transformation you have been doing? If not to manifest the best possible outcomes for yourself and for the world. The time is now! You need to speak out!
So do not become disheartened. Do not become attached to the conspiracies and disaster theories. Let go of the blame and the outrage. They themselves are a bigger trap than whatever event they are highlighting. Hold on to the soundest values of the enlightened mind, as Ben Okri says.
Do yourself a great favour and get Ben Okri's Mental Fight book. It is a small book filled with profound wisdom and hope. A guiding light for this age, though it was written a quarter of a century ago now – to give hope for the then fears of impending doom in the year 2000. Yet it reads as if written for the apocalypse time we had some years back and also for this moment. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
“I declare this world is so beautiful that I can hardly believe it exists.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I talk a lot about parameters in my work. How we need parameters in order to contain. Parameters form the walls of our container and determine what we will allow inside and what we will keep outside our world, our container of self and wealth - and of life.
You cannot expect to be cheerful, hopeful or in a good enough state to manifest and create change if you surround yourself with the news, conspiracies and other negativity. In general you need to draw your parameters closer towards yourself. You need to bring them in, for the sake of mental and emotional health and sanity. Also for the sake of effective manifestation. Like the swaddling of babies keeps them feeling safe and warm. There is too much information – and you don't need it. You don't need to know what's going on everywhere, all the time. No. The internet is a huge energy field, made up of millions of subfields. Don't enter. Apart from the EMF frazzling to your own magnetic field which we mostly seem to ignore, there is the diminishing of your resonance, goodwill, joy and hope. The dimming of your light. Dispersement of energy, creating lack of focus. When you lose focus it's hard to manifest, when your resonance drops, it's hard to do anything.
Now, more than ever, we need to focus our intent, our goodwill, our belief in all things good if we are to survive and thrive in the days to come. We also need to speak out. Stand for what we believe. Do not add tacit agreement to things you do not want with your silence. Stand up and be counted for the good of the whole. Shine your light into the darkness.
Jane Fonda, in her acceptance speech for the Life Achievement award at the SAG awards a few days ago spoke about empathy. She spoke of great moments of social activism and change in the past and asked the audience to consider if they would have been one of the ones to stand up and change history, as we see those from the past do, in documentaries. Then she said, 'we are in our documentary moment, right now, it's not a rehearsal'. She challenged people to act, to stand together in community and in their beliefs. She said that we
have to be brave and protect the vulnerable.
“We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future.
One that is beckoning, welcoming and, to quote the novelist Pearl Cleage, 'On the other side of the conflagration there will still be love.
There will still be beauty. And there will be an ocean of truth for us to swim in.'
LET'S MAKE IT SO!”
Jane Fonda
It is time to drown the silence with joy, laughter, hope and light! It is time to speak out the new dawn.
Kiki Theo is a wealth expansion author and facilitator. Bridging money and energy, she offers a combination of business experience, based on her own successful background as an entrepreneur, including over a decade as the owner of a fund management company, and energetic transformations, based on her lifelong study and practice of energetic healing, Jungian psychology and metaphysics. She is the author of nine wealth expansion books and offers courses and one-on-one sessions focused on wealth expansion for self and business that create tangible results. www.kikitheo-wealthworks.com kiki@moneyalchemy.com
I had a strong desire to do Angelic Reiki for a very long time and, after some research, I found Colleen Tucker from The Angelic Reiki Association. She generously agreed to come to South Africa in September 2024 to teach me and a few other like-minded souls. The experience was nothing short of lifechanging—truly beyond what I ever imagined. I've always felt a deep connection to the Angels and this workshop brought me even closer to them in extremely profound ways that I could never have imagined.
The workshops involve a karmic and energetic cleansing, bringing profound, transformative experiences. You begin to feel a renewed sense of gratitude for your health and a deeper connection with life. Old energy needs to be released before we can align ourselves with the highest frequency of the Angelic Kingdom of Light.
Angelic Reiki is a gift we give to ourselves. It's like dropping a pebble into the water, creating ripples that touch every aspect of our lives - affecting not only us but also our families, friends and colleagues. Just like the changing seasons, our personal shifts happen gradually.
I am very excited and honoured to be the first healing academy in South Africa offering Angelic
Reiki for the Angelic Reiki Association, UK. The profound connection that you experience with this workshop takes you deep within and leaves you feeling very connected and loved.
I am registered with the Angelic Reiki Association at www.angelicreikiassociation.com and I am thrilled to be taking this workshop to Soul2Soul in Cape Town in April. Hello Cape Town!
The Angelic Guides are here for all of us. Angelic Reiki accelerates our connection to the Divine Channel, whether we're receiving a treatment or going through an attunement. We are all divinely guided; we only need to remember to ask for their guidance.
If you wish to deepen your connection to the Angelic Realm… contact Alanha Prior principal of Energencia Healing Academy: 082 329 1727 alanha@energencia.co.za www.energencia.co.za
Join the upcoming Angelic Reiki workshop in Cape Town on 25, 26 and 27 April 2025, book soonest as numbers are limited. Join your host Gina Ambrose principal of Soul2Soul Academy. Bookings: 083 377 9838 www.soul2soul.co.za
In a world where instant communication is literally at our fingertips, it's both surprising and deeply concerning that we're grappling with a growing global loneliness epidemic. It raises the question: How can we be so connected yet feel so utterly alone?
Isn't it ironic that in an era defined by hyperconnectivity, so many feel disconnected? Loneliness isn't merely a personal issue; it's a public health crisis, one that imposes significant costs on our societies. Yet, many still treat it as a silent struggle, leaving those in pain to navigate their feelings alone.
Loneliness and social isolation affect people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds and this crisis demands our collective attention as it profoundly impacts both our physical and mental health. Understanding and tackling the root causes is not just important; it is essential for all of us.
In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy highlighted this troubling reality, revealing that nearly half of American adults report feeling lonely. This statistic is alarming, especially when backed by research from sources like the AARP Foundation and Cigna, which underline loneliness as a significant public health risk.
Furthermore, United Nations reports indicate that loneliness is particularly prevalent in wealthier countries, areas where urbanisation and rapid technological advancements often isolate us further.
So, why does the increasing use of technology seem to exacerbate our feelings of isolation rather than alleviate them? Why have we created environments that, instead of fostering community, pull us apart? 'Community' should not
be a simply quaint notion but rather a fundamental building block of our lives.
The technology paradox: While social media and technology have made it easier to connect with others, have they also diminished the quality of our real-life interactions? We may have dozens of online 'friends', but does that really support our need for meaningful connections? The danger lies in mistaking superficial interactions for genuine relationships.
Urbanisation: As more people flock to cities, traditional community structures break down. Surrounded by thousands yet feeling utterly alone, we navigate life in a whirlwind of anonymity. What does it say about our urban design that we can feel isolated in a crowd?
Ageing populations: As societies age, our older adults face unique challenges that heighten feelings of loneliness. How can we re-engage seniors in our communities, ensuring they feel valued rather than sidelined? Their wisdom and experiences can enrich our lives dramatically.
Life transitions and cultural shifts: Major life changes - like moving to a new city, starting a new job, or experiencing a breakup - often leave individuals grappling with feelings of isolation. As our family structures change, are we losing a sense of shared belonging? Cultural expectations shift as well, redefining what connection means in our lives.
Cultural and societal shifts: Family structures are changing, with a growing number of people living alone or in nontraditional households. Moreover, shifting cultural norms, particularly in western societies, have led to a focus on individualism over collective or community-oriented values and all these changes can exacerbate feelings of disconnection and alienation.
Loneliness touches every age group differently and its effects can manifest as serious mental and physical health issues.
In adolescents and young adults, loneliness can often go unnoticed, especially given the pressures to appear socially connected on social media. They face unique challenges that can contribute to feelings of loneliness, including peer pressure, identity formation and navigating relationships. And the constant comparison to others on platforms like Instagram or TikTok can also lead to a distorted sense of selfworth, contributing to feelings of isolation.
Additionally, the transition to adulthood, such as leaving home for the first time or starting university, can result in feelings of loneliness as young people struggle to build new support systems.
One wouldn't think so, but our 30s and 40s can be a particularly challenging time for individuals who may experience loneliness due to career pressures, family responsibilities and societal expectations.
The demands of raising children, managing a career and maintaining a relationship can leave little room for self-care or building new social connections and many adults report feeling disconnected from others due to the lack of time to nurture friendships or engage in social activities outside their immediate family.
Sadly, older adults and seniors face some of the most severe and long-lasting effects of loneliness. As people age, they are very likely to experience the death of loved ones, retirement, declining health and physical limitations that restrict their ability to socialise.
According to the National Institute on Aging, approximately 28 per cent of adults aged 65 and older live alone and studies have shown that isolation among seniors is strongly correlated with depression, cognitive decline, serious health issues like strokes and even early mortality.
It raises a vital question: What are we willing to do as a society to combat this insidious epidemic? We need to approach this issue with both compassion and urgency.
As we contemplate solutions, let's ask ourselves: How can we cultivate a culture of connection together? Here are a few ideas to foster a sense of community:
1 Creating connections: Building spaces that encourage real interactions - community centres, local events, or simply welcoming environments where people feel safe to gather - is critical.
2 Raising mental health awareness: Mental health literacy must move to the forefront of discussions. By encouraging
open dialogues about loneliness in schools and workplaces, we can break down barriers that prevent people from seeking help. How can we foster an environment where vulnerability is welcomed, rather than stigmatised?
3 Strengthening networks: Reinforcing our family and community ties is essential. A simple check-in or a kind word can significantly impact someone feeling lonely. Reflecting on our own relationships, how can we be more present for those around us?
4 Promoting physical activity and volunteering: Getting involved in physical activities or volunteering can be empowering. How can we create more opportunities for shared experiences that also foster a sense of purpose? Engaging with others not only enriches our lives but builds the social bonds we all crave.
While loneliness often feels like an individual struggle, it is a shared experience that requires a unified response. And, as it's well on its way to becoming a global pandemic with serious consequences for both mental and physical health, it's an issue that urgently needs to be tackled sooner rather than later.
Reflecting on our collective responsibility, can we commit to building a world where no one feels alone? Let's take action and nurture the connections that truly matter, because, ultimately, we all yearn for that profound sense of belonging and community. Together, we can redefine what it means to be connected in a world that desperately needs it.
Yael Geffen is the CEO and shareholder of Sotheby’s International Realty, South Africa. She grew up in a real estate dynasty established by her grandmother, Aida, and, prior to joining the family business in 2009, she acquired extensive real estate marketing, brand building and business development experience in the United States.
Yael is also an accomplished public and motivational speaker and her broadcast experience includes hosting and producing her own radio show from 2013 to 2017. Yael is a sought-after Life and Business Strategy Advisor.
By Angelique Koster
In the world of Love and Light, there are band aids we use continuously which often create patterns of guilt, self-judgment and fear of being wrong or in chaos and all of this ultimately creates separation of who we are.
Humans have been known to look at the world through Ego, which is how we were designed. Ego is there to keep us safe, keep us alive – when it is healthy. An unhealthy Ego, however, locks us into a sense of entitlement which, even to people who practise meditation, journaling etc., can lock us into an identity of spiritual superiority complex or forms of spiritual bypassing.
You see, we cannot escape the 3D. We live in a very real, very three-dimensional world and often I find we misuse our tools of awareness to attempt to manipulate the laws that govern us spiritually. It is said that, on the plains of America, the bison are known to walk INTO storms instead of trying to escape them. This is the wisdom of nature for us to witness and learn from. The bison understand that by going through the storm, the storm passes by faster, instead of trying to outrun the storm, which delays the inevitable hitting of the storm and therefore experiencing it anyway.
One of my favourite mentors, Michael B. Beckwith, had once asked the question, “If where you are, never changes, what quality of being would you have to learn in order to be okay with where you are?” . I have found this to be the most impactful and powerful question of my career. I have more healing modalities under the belt than I even often times remember I have and through each and every healing modality there is an incredible magical thread that they all bring to us… The ability to clear our slate.
Breathworknervous is there to assist us in clearing our system of fragmented energy is there to help clear up our Meditationthoughts and intentions allow us to clear Various healing techniqueslimiting belief systems, personal experiences cluttering up our memory, being able to witness ancestral patterns etc.
As beings of duality with an internal and external reality, we often create these either/or scenarios for ourselves that end up separating us more from Source than walking through the storm. We forget we are here to experience what it is like being human.
Ask yourself these questions:
Where have I allowed myself no longer to experience life fully for all that it is?
What is my 'storm' that I am running from?
If I had to face my storm head on, what would I see?
Perhaps you'll find what you've been running from is less scary than you originally thought and it would clear your pathway for a smoother existence more quickly. Many of us at some point or another try smother life with band aid after band aid of spiritual bypassing.
“It happens because of my life contract.”
“I chose this before I came here so this is how it is.”
“Oh, I've been meditating so much and all is so divine that I no longer see the flaws.”
All of this is perfect, when it comes from a place of knowingness, of wholeness, of oneness beyond the Ego, but I can tell you from years of working with clients, it is rarely their truth. Under all the words there is no deepseated, heart-centred belief that all is well. It tends to be a scramble to keep all the so-called negative emotions, thoughts etc. under strict lock and key. Drowning them
by doing affirmations, drinking turmeric milk and calling self-care bubble baths. All of this is running from the storm.
I invite you to truly sit with yourself. Take a deep breath and put on your pessimistic glasses. For perhaps the first time, do not run from the darker, shadow side of who you are and what being human is. Human beingness allows you to feel overwhelmed for 90 seconds, where you truly see it for what it is and then you let it go. You go THROUGH the storm. Use the dual nature of who you are as a strength to experience life and from that experience you CHOOSE higher and higher paths, higher actions THROUGH using your tools of awareness, of healing to clean your slate. See these practices as your wipers on your windscreen DURING the storm so you can see the storm in every step and, once you pass the storm, you know to navigate it better and better until it no longer even phases you when it comes.
Trust me, your manifestations flow at Godspeed when there is no internal resistance and the best, purest way to do that is to go through the Shadow. We cannot be ONENESS when we are in separation of self, rejection of self. We see all of us, acknowledge all of us and then, with this acceptance, this deeper understanding of all our potential in perceived good or 'evil' are we able to be in wholeness/oneness/unity.
Angelique Koster is the founder of Asanak Healing, combining years of experience in alternative medicine with deep wisdom. Starting her journey at seven, she became the youngest South African Accunect™ practitioner at 17. With qualifications in various healing modalities, Angelique supports individuals and organisations in embracing their authentic selves and healing through duality and interconnectedness.
You are the shadows you see when you close your eyes, the figure on your internal screen, the shape, the form, the light and dark pattern. Shut your eyes and take a look. The design you see is how you are known beyond this planet, your name, if you will. It identifies your soul. Do you recognise it?
Peace carries through its design, this composition behind closed eyes, this gateway. You see it before falling asleep and while meditating; feel it pulling your energy inward, relieving you of wayward vibes you've picked up.
Is your consciousness familiar with it, this recurring vision you've had since childhood? You feel it now as you felt it then, like the energy a childhood toy carries, returning you to an earlier point of freedom and exploration, clear of stress and limitations. An innocent energy, uninfluenced by thought, or previous experiences.
You're not alone in seeing it
Your soul in the cosmos is recognised by this configuration you see with eyes shut. Your piece of God is known by its design. Your share of what is indistinguishable among all
By Philip Matcovsky
beings is magically discernible by its shape. Awaken to this.
Forget what you think you know is the truth. Unlearn what you have been trained to believe is real and open to wonder. For you are magical; your sisters and brothers are the planets and stars.
Tell the universe, the cosmos, you seek reality beyond this earth. Create an energy flow serving that desire and manifest spiritual truth. Pursue the extraordinary to advance your awareness.
As an empath, a prayer, a healer, an energy worker, a lightworker, you will see individual soul names through your spiritual work, your ethereal connections to others. Sharpen your awareness. Allow for it, give permission, ask for it.
Close your eyes and open to wonder. Unlock the door.
Philip Matcovsky is a lightworker, a grandpa and a cosmic traveller, though New York is his home. He has published in: Braided Way Magazine, Aethlon, Pangolin Papers and other literary publications. MatcovskyP@icloud.com
Madeleine is a seasoned behaviour expert. She works seamlessly with private individuals as well as business leaders, teams across all organisational levels. Madeleine facilitates individual sessions, workshops and conferences as well as hosting retreats. She is also sought after as a motivational speaker.
A passionate educator and human, Madeleine empowers people to overcome that which does not serve them or that which debilitates them. She an enabler, assisting her clients to overcome and conquer their challenges, enabling them to thrive and succeed.
Below is how Madeleine has redefined this outdated term psychotherapy and shares, as she sees it, below.
'Personal Growth Mentoring’
• Positive psychology coaching;
• Emotional intelligence development;
• Transitional Intelligence expertise;
• Mindful growth guidance;
• Personal growth guidance;
• Breaking through to bliss facilitation;
• Holistic wellness consulting and conferences;
• Personal transformation coaching;
Pretorius.
• Alternative strategies for wellbeing and conscious living;
• Conscious living guidance;
• Empowerment therapy;
• Life transition support;
• Personalised coaching and support;
• Podcasts - Voices of Africa (stories and testimonies).
Madeleine also finds the term counselling a total misnomer and embraces the term 'wellness navigation' , this being far more aligned with both her counselling and mentoring styles. She empowers her clients and patients to take the journey of transformative growth though holistic wellness practices.
Madeleine is able to unlock your potential with her expert guidance in transitional intelligence, mindful growth and personal transformation, to take you to where you want to be and were destined to be. This beautiful quote below by Marianne Williamson, reflects this.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”
https://madeleinepretorius.co.za/
by Tanja Meyburgh
Tanja Meyburgh, a psychologist and renowned family and systems constellations expert, teaches all over the world on the power of working with ancestral lineage healing. Through her work over the decades, Ms Meyburgh noticed a deep problem in modern humanity: Those raised in western systems have forgotten how to include ancestors, they have lost their connection to elders, community and to the land itself. Entire societies find themselves disconnected from a sense of belonging to each other and to their communities and it shows up as spiritual disconnection, meaninglessness and grief on a large scale. In her new book, Reclaiming Ancestors , she shows you what has been lost and suggests how to reclaim this.
My path of reclaiming my own ancestors started 15 years earlier at a party in Cape Town over a glass of bubbly in the year 2000.
I was chatting to a fascinating woman about our lives and the paths that we had each taken, when I said that I had to manage my stress since I had repeated bouts of 'chronic fatigue' since the age of 15. I'd never been sure about that diagnosis.
Under the glitzy disco lights and surrounded by glamorous people, she asked me a strange question:
“Is it possible that you have an ancestral calling?”
“What?” I had never heard of such a thing and found the suggestion a bit strange. “Why would you say that?”
She told me that she couldn't really say much more except that she had a feeling that I should go and see a sangoma, who would be able to assist me in my process of healing.
Well, where do you start as a white South African? Not only did I have no knowledge of what a sangoma was (a traditional African healer that divines and communicates with ancestors), I most certainly didn't know where to find
one. In my culture there is no such thing as an ancestral calling. In fact, I think my Catholic grandmother must have shivered and turned in her grave at the thought of me consulting with what the Christian missionaries to South Africa would have called a 'witch doctor'. Besides, I was pretty allergic to anything airy-fairy. I was a traditional psychology student trying to embrace the concept of the soul without any esoteric or spiritual fanfare.
A few serendipitous weeks after that discussion, I was guided by a friend to the home of a sangoma that had been recommended to her. I booked an appointment and was told to walk through the front garden and enter a little wooden hut hidden amongst the trees in the back garden. My palms were sweaty as I stepped through the door of the hut into another world. It was like being in a cave, a cottage in the woods, reminiscent of the medicine people I remember from myths and fairy tales. The hut smelled of herbs; bones and skins were organised around the traditional healer. He was an ordinary-looking man wearing black jeans and a T-shirt, with a cloth around his shoulders and white beads around his neck and wrists.
He asked me why I had come and then threw the bones – a collection of objects, bones, coins and trinkets that fell onto the mat between us. He checked the placement of each object and the relationship between them. He then slowly began to unpack what he saw.
“You have an ancestral calling,” he said. “At some point you will need to respond to the call. It is not a choice; it is something that you will have to do in order to become healthy.”
What that meant, in the traditional sense, was that I needed to learn to commune with my ancestors in order to heal and become well again. The next step was for another sangoma to confirm my calling and for me to then start the training.
It felt strange to try and fathom how my ancestors could call me into another tradition. My German and white South African lineage would have had no knowledge of these ancestral calling practices.
I decided to wait and see how it might be possible for me to pursue a path not so radically in opposition to my own cultural upbringing. I hoped I would be able to choose something that my German and South African ancestors could stand behind. I knew that if I did not act, I might succumb to the eternal sleep that my body craved. It's onto this fertile ground that my first family constellations experience landed.
I vividly remember the day I did my first family constellation. A family constellation is a group process that gives one an experience of the invisible dynamics that are present in your family system. It involves representatives of various family members standing in and allowing participants to look at the entire family system. In looking with this transgenerational lens, one is able to reveal hidden dynamics and underlying loyalties. It can bring about greater personal and family understanding and healing.
It was in 2002 and I was part of a small group, where I unexpectedly
volunteered to set up my own family. My chronic fatigue indicated that I was in some way disconnected from life and unable to receive sufficient life force from my parents. I used the family constellation model to set up my mother and father and both of their lineages. What followed was a glimpse into the lives of my German grandparents who lived during World War I.
The positioning of the people in the centre of the circle indicated that my mother was not able to look at me. She was looking past me, her eyes downcast. The facilitator then brought in representatives for her parents and a heavy and depressive quality entered the room. My grandmother cried and looked down at the floor and my grandfather could not look at her. The image made such sense to me as my granny lived with many depressive episodes over the years and my grandfather died of a heart attack shortly after World War II.
What the facilitator then did blew the picture I had of my family wide open. She brought in people to represent Jews who were killed by Germans in the war. I was shocked. I had no idea that this played any particular role in my life. As the representatives came in, several people lay on the ground in a row. I watched as the representative for my grandmother knelt beside them and wept as if at the grave of a loved one. The grief and heaviness I felt in that room mirrored the heaviness I experienced during my bouts of chronic fatigue. My mother was also looking at the victims and I stood there with no access to the female line. The facilitator offered them a few sentences to say out loud that acknowledged the difficult fate of the many people who died over that time. I knew that my family who lived in Germany got to keep their livelihood by turning the family business to making steel parts used for weapons, fighter planes and U-boats. Had they resisted they would have died.
But I saw in that moment the deep wounding and damage that it had caused in my family. It is a concept we call 'perpetrator history' and this was the first time I had come into contact with the perpetrator history of my very own German family. After the war so much was done to recover, repair and move forward that many things had never been acknowledged. My mother belongs to a lost generation of children who grew up in the rubble and on a land that was full of bloodshed.
I felt seen on a deep, deep level for the first time that day. The gravity from the chronic fatigue and depression suddenly made sense to me when I saw the bodies of so many lives lost in the war. Their experiences mirrored something I had experienced deep inside my soul but could never make sense of. The tears that had welled inside me for years were in fact the tears of my ancestors. What I felt in that moment was a clear answer to my ancestral calling. That day inspired me to dedicate my life to learning about and healing all the energy I carried as a victim and a perpetrator.
It was the start of a career that was a healing journey as well. Doing constellation work since 2003 has allowed me to meet and work with hundreds of clients and trainees and help them heal and transform in unimaginable ways. I have seen modern-day miracles of reunited families, deadly diseases cured, lost family members found, financial circumstances turned and relationships blossom. I describe it as seeing people coming into the right relationship with their surroundings in a way that serves life and love. Coming into their unique and rightful position in relation to family, elders, ancestors, land and nature. When we enter a rightful relationship, where we fill the place that is only ours to fill in the system, then we come into order. This rightful place means that we take a posture of humility and, at the same time, we receive strength. It allows all people and beings around us to come into their rightful place too.
When I first encountered family constellations there were very few opportunities to do the work in South Africa and most people hadn't even heard of it. I approached Dr Ursula Franke, psychotherapist and author, to assist me in setting up training in South Africa and, together with business coach and trainer, Svenja Wachter, we founded the first South African International Training and brought in
first-generation trainers from Germany. In 2010 I founded African Constellations, a family and systems constellation training programme to continue the work that we had started. As the work grew, other trainers joined the ranks and we then founded the Systemic Constellations Association of Southern Africa.
Today, African Constellations is an internationally renowned training institute and has been invited into partnership and collaborations with the top training institutes in the world. We are seen as the go-to institute for training and research for people wanting to work multiculturally and in a way that honours the African lineage root of constellation work that lies in the work of its originator, Bert Hellinger and his 16 years of experience in South Africa.
What I have to share about reclaiming ancestors is not new. It comes from an interweaving of what I have learnt from my many teachers, conversations with colleagues and my experience working with people and their ancestors. My primary background is trans-generational systemic family therapy and the tradition of traditional healing. The intention is to guide you in ways to connect with your ancestors that encourages inclusion of your spiritual path, ways that others have walked, your ancestor's old wisdom and what makes sense and is meaningful to you.
To create your own relationship is a modern path that encourages you to listen, observe and come into communication and the right relationship with your ancestors. What works for one person may not work for another. Some of what I am offering is not intended for you to teach or perform on behalf of others. To do that, the rightful and respectful way would be to train in a tradition and go through the necessary initiations to hold space for other people's ancestral processes. Initiation through a teacher or school of some kind is an essential part of doing ancestral work for others.
As the threads of entanglement unravel and you shift and heal your own field, so the ripples expand into the places where it is most needed around you. The best gift you can give your ancestors, your family, your children and your clients, is your own authenticity, presence and integration. It allows you to be in resonance with what is most needed for them without compromising yourself or your integrity.
As the author of Reclaiming Ancestors , Tanja shares her personal and collective journey of being a westerner searching for a reconnection to ancestral wisdom, and to the root of trans-generational systemic work that lies in Southern African traditional lineage wisdom. Realising what she had lost, about a life lived in harmony with nature and greater wisdom, she takes
the reader through a journey of how she reclaimed her own ancestors, and guides the reader to the beginning of a modern path of reclaiming one's own ancestors that honours their roots the lands from which they come. This book can be purchased on Takealot.com or online: www.tanjameyburgh.co.za/ and www.africanconstellations.co.za/
Odyssey Magazine is giving away 3 copies of this book. To enter, visit the following website link: https://odysseymagazine.co.za/community/ #competitions - giveaways or scan the QR code Click on the title of the book. Closing Date 30 May 2025
With over 30 years of experience let us help you activate the natural self-healing and balancing powers and processes in your body.
Nestled in the beautiful, unspoilt and tranquil Kleinemonde River Valley near Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa - the St Francis Health Centre with its magical, unique ambience and philosophy of balanced wellness and health, is the ideal retreat for anyone. We are specialists in stress relief, burnout management, weight loss assistance, fatigue and natural healing through a vision of therapeutic, preventative health measures, all while embracing nature's bountiful beauty and support as an environment conducive to your wellbeing.
Our dedication and focus are on the restoration journey to balance through treatments that are individually personalised within the available wellness retreats. Having exceptionally skilled and experienced therapists, our commitment to your well-being is through consultation and a programme that focuses on holistic principles, blending both ancient wisdom and modern expertise under the management, support and guidance of our specialist health practitioner.
Our current range of health and wellness retreats (three, six and 10-Day plus our monthly three-Day Nature Cure breakaway) are carefully curated to deliver the best outcomes for every guest, with a choice of either our detox or immune boosting eating plans, both of which have benefits to reach the goal of better balance, wellness and health of mind, body, heart and soul. These esteemed programmes ensure a life-changing health reset and impactful rejuvenation supported by nourishing vegetarian meals, herbal teas, 'pure' water, 'clean' air and a range of treatments including gentle massages and reflexology. In addition, we offer numerous other therapies (e.g. Ozone therapy, Acudetox, RIFE energy healing, Bioptron light, Iridology and a range of beauty 'spoils' such as Hydradermie, Moor and Guinot facials, manicure/pedicure and waxing) that can be added to your daily program at an additional cost.
We also encourage our guests to detox from electronic devices for a greater impact. The shorter retreats are ideal 'stress busters' while the longer options consolidate total rejuvenation and weight loss. Each one supports your journey to a healthier, happier you!
All our retreats include daily healing treatments and activities, such as aqua aerobics in our indoor heated pool plus Yoga and meditation on certain days while being surrounded by nature's rejuvenating embrace, promising to leave you refreshed and inspired.
Our Healing Haven, named in honour of St Francis of Assisi who is the patron saint of ecology, exists within his qualities of being humble, gentle, kind and nature loving while remaining in the space of unconditional love which is the inspiration and at the heart of what we stand for.
Founded in 1987 by Anneliese Cowley, we remain dedicated to her philosophy on stillness and simplicity and her deeply rooted faith in the divinity she saw reflected in each guest. Her mantra lives within and everything to do with the St Francis Health Centre - 'Whatever you do and wherever you go, carry with you love and gratitude.’
The thought and knowledge that Mrs Cowley put into the design of the St Francis Health Centre is mindful and pure. The layout of the buildings, along with their light energy and colours and the gardens' landscaping are designed to create a sense of tranquillity for those in them. The property boasts a generous diversity of landscapes, ecosystems, flora and fauna which can be explored via our marked-out walking trails.
A walk down to the West Kleinemonde River will take you past a small orchard of pecan nut and citrus trees to a tranquil spot on the riverbank while the other short trails reveal breathe-taking views of the river valley, the small dams and the indigenous vegetation of the area - a true sensory experience. Abundant birdlife and the opportunity to see shy nyala, bushbuck and scrub hare on our property are testament to the safe, quiet space we have created.
Two significant features on the property include our permanent Labyrinth and The Sanctuary . Our labyrinth is a Chartres Cathedral (France) replica with weekly guided walks facilitated for our guests. At its most basic level, the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey of life. It is also a three-stage pilgrimage to the centre of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are. Entering signifies cleansing, emptying and letting go (releasing) and deals with the past. Time in the centre signifies a time of focus, introspection and inspiration (receiving) and deals with the present. Walking out signifies integration, action, being grounded, becoming energised and empowered (reflecting) and deals with the future. This journey takes place in a safe space created by sacred geometry where the circular shape signifies wholeness and unity. Rose quartz strategically placed brings unconditional love and protection to those who walk our labyrinth. Walking our labyrinth is an exercise of body, mind and spirit.
The Sanctuary is a sacred space where you will find peace, stillness and silence, providing the opportunity for deep inner reflection and meditation. The design of the building is based on a profoundly mystical geometric configuration called the 'Grace' and the walls are painted violet which is a high spiritual vibration colour. The final key in the design is the Golden Ratio which underlies proportions in nature and ancient architecture. In The Sanctuary this proportion is reflected in the dimension of the building's square sides in relation to its height (floor to pyramid apex) - 1:1.618.
The St Francis Health Centre is located on the 300-hectare Ford's Party Farm property in the heart of the Sunshine Coast near Port Alfred and Bathurst and is straddled between the upper catchments of the West Kleinemonde and Riet rivers. The region has a temperate climate with temperatures seldom going above 27°C or below 7°C with more recorded sunshine hours than anywhere else in the country. Situated between summer (East London) and winter (Port Elizabeth) rainfall regions, rainfall is experienced throughout the year.
We look forward to being your partner on your path to health and wellness through your choice of retreat and to welcoming and hosting you at The Healing Haven we call home.
THE HEALING HAVEN - St Francis Health Centre
WhatsApp/Call: 082 718 2169 / www.stfrancishealthcentre.co.za
Our esteemed program that ensures
by Gerard Finnemore
The ability to concentrate adequately is under siege.
Across all age groups, but particularly among young people, attention spans have shrunk dramatically, making it increasingly difficult to engage in sustained focus.
Dr. Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span , has studied this phenomenon extensively. In 2004, her research found that the average person could maintain focus on a screen for 2.5 minutes before switching to another task. By 2012, this had dropped to 75 seconds. Today (2024), the average is just 47 seconds. This constant switching isn't without consequence - it takes time to reorient after every interruption, sometimes as long as 25 minutes, leading to fragmented work and a sense that the day has simply slipped away. The ability to control attention is closely linked to working memory and general cognitive function, making this decline particularly concerning.
The stress of fragmented attention
The modern habit of hopping between screens - jumping from work documents to social media, from emails to messaging apps - isn't just a neutral behaviour. Research shows that this constant task-switching is associated with higher levels of stress. When attention is frequently divided, the brain struggles to process information deeply, leading to more surface-level thinking. This has implications for productivity, learning and overall mental health.
Cal Newport, author of Deep Work , points out that, just as our ability to focus has declined, deep concentration has become one of the most valuable skills in the modern
knowledge economy. In an era of information overload, the ability to filter distractions and immerse oneself in complex tasks is a critical advantage. Yet, the very tools we rely onsmartphones, social media, endless notifications - are making deep work increasingly rare.
The role of working memory in attention
One of the key factors influencing our ability to focus is working memory, which is distinct from short-term or long-term memory. Working memory refers to the ability to briefly hold and manipulate information in the mind to some end or purpose. This could be following a set of instructions, performing mental arithmetic, understanding a complex sentence or just reasoning something out. It is a strong predictor of academic performance, often more so than overall IQ score.
Until recently, working memory was thought to be fixed, something you were born with and had to live with. However, new research on neuroplasticity suggests that it can be improved through targeted exercises. Swedish neuroscientist Dr. Torkel Klingberg was among the first to demonstrate that cognitive training can enhance working memory. His research led to the development of a programme designed to strengthen cognitive abilities. With over 130 published studies validating its effectiveness, this new understanding of brain plasticity opens doors to improving attention through structured training.
The impact of social media on attention
Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation examines the impact of social media on young people's mental health and attention. He argues that the rise of social media, particularly after 2010, has contributed to increased anxiety, depression and social isolation among adolescents. Instead of engaging in real-world play and face-to-face interactions, children and teenagers are increasingly immersed in screen-based experiences that are designed to be highly stimulating but ultimately unfulfilling.
For girls, social media platforms often amplify comparison, cyberbullying and pressure to maintain a curated online persona, leading to heightened anxiety and self-esteem issues. Boys, meanwhile, are more likely to become absorbed in gaming and online content, which can result in social withdrawal. Professor Haidt also criticises overprotective parenting, arguing that it has made children less resilient just as digital distractions have become more overwhelming. He recommends delaying smartphone and social media use, encouraging unstructured outdoor play and reforming digital environments to prioritise wellbeing over engagement-driven business models.
The link between nutrition and cognitive function
While technology plays a significant role in declining attention spans, nutrition is another crucial factor. Poor dietary habitsespecially high consumption of sugar and ultra-processed foods - have been linked to impairments in cognitive function. Johann Hari, in Stolen Focus, and Dr. Chris van Tulleken, in Ultra-Processed People , both highlight how modern diets are affecting brain health.
Excessive sugar intake leads to rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels, causing spikes in energy followed by crashes that impair focus. Research also shows that high sugar consumption contributes to neuroinflammation, which affects cognitive function. Similarly, ultra-processed foods - heavily engineered with additives and preservatives - disrupt normal appetite regulation, increase cravings, and contribute to metabolic disorders. Dr. van Tulleken conducted a selfexperiment in which he consumed an 80 per cent ultraprocessed diet for a month. The results were striking: He experienced weight gain, overeating, mood instability and cognitive sluggishness. His findings underscore the growing body of evidence linking diet to attention and mental clarity.
The consequences of declining attention extend beyond individuals - they affect education, work and even social cohesion. Students who struggle to focus find it harder to learn and retain information, impacting academic performance and future opportunities. In workplaces, reduced attention spans lead to lower productivity and increased stress, as employees struggle to complete deep work amid constant digital interruptions. Moreover, when attention is fragmented, critical thinking suffers. The ability to engage deeply with complex issues - whether in politics, science or business - depends on sustained focus. As attention spans dwindle, there is a risk that society becomes more reactive and less reflective, making it easier for misinformation to spread and harder for nuanced discussions to take place.
Solutions: Reclaiming focus in a distracted world
Addressing the attention crisis requires a multifaceted approach. Here are some ideas.
1 Reducing digital distractions. Setting boundaries around screen time, disabling non-essential notifications and creating tech-free zones can help restore focus. Digital minimalism, as advocated by Cal Newport, encourages a more intentional rather than undisciplined relationship with technology.
2 Enhancing working memory . Engaging in cognitive training exercises can help strengthen working memory, improving focus and problem-solving abilities.
3 Prioritising nutrition . Cutting back on sugar and ultraprocessed foods while emphasising whole, nutrient-dense foods supports brain health and cognitive function.
4 Encouraging deep work practices . Allocating time for deep, uninterrupted work and practising mindfulness can help retrain the brain to sustain attention. And, of course, getting enough sleep!
5 Fostering real-world engagement . Encouraging outdoor play, exercise, face-to-face social interactions and hands-on learning experiences can counterbalance the effects of screen-based activities.
The decline in attention spans is not an inevitable consequence of modern life; it is the result of specific environmental and behavioural shifts. While technology and dietary habits have played a major role in eroding focus, they also offer opportunities for change. By rethinking how we engage with digital tools, prioritising cognitive health and fostering environments that support deep thinking, we can reclaim the ability to concentrate.
The challenge is not just personal but cultural. If we want future generations to thrive intellectually and emotionally, we must address the factors undermining their ability to focus. That means making systemic changes in how we approach education, parenting, technology and nutrition. Attention is a finite resource - one that must be protected and cultivated if we are to navigate an increasingly complex world with clarity and depth.
What better way to conclude than to remind ourselves of the words of French writer Simone Weil: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
Gerard Finnemore has been a clinical psychologist for over 20 years after doing a mid-career change from being a writer. He has always been interested in helping people perform at their peak and has conducted research projects with extreme adventurers. Without ever losing the value of relationship and connection, he has a deep interest in harnessing the huge influence that both modern neuroscience and the quantified self are having on the practice of psychology. In recent years he has embraced many of the principles of functional medicine in his private practice in Johannesburg. www.gerardfinnemore.co.za
by Colleen Wilson
Cresting the hill on Springfield Road nose downward into town on a summer weekday was the moment my life instantly changed. Funny how those pivotal moments take us back to where we were, what we were wearing, the weather, the smells, the sounds, such is the imprint in our brains. It was 2010, the year South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup and the year my family dynamic began to truly shift. I was already studying conscious parenting but after hearing this, I started the greatest experiment of my life.
In my research to find equilibrium, flow and joy on the home front, I was listening to a parenting summit in my car. I had been driven to do so through my Enneagram 5 personality construct of needing to know , to understand and master the areas that matter most in my life. Parenting mattered. I felt I was flailing and failing. I could not understand how I had flow out in the world; my friendships were healthy and abundant, my career was satisfying and successful; I felt like I had myself together in most areas of my life but in my own kitchen, it was a dog-show. I was reactive, emotional and sometimes unhinged as a parent. I was easily triggered and (no surprises to those who know me) I had given birth to strong-willed children, but who had highly sensitive nervous systems and consequently were reactive, demanding and volatile. Home life was messy, to say the least.
It was Dr Laura Markham to whom I was listening on that significant day. She uttered these simple words: “Parenting is a relationship, it is not a hierarchy or model of authoritarianism or control - it is a relationship.” Bam! I
could feel my brain exploding with insight and realisation and my heart expanding within that simple truth. I wasn't here to control my kids. This wasn't about obedience, this was about relationship . Fast forward to 2025; my kids are 21 and 16 and my great experiment - the one that attracted judgment and criticism from those married to the traditional western parenting paradigm - has worked. My relationship with my kids is beautiful, cherished, open, connected, loving, respectful and kind. We see each other. We support each other and my kids know they are emotionally, mentally and physically safe with me. We have traversed a landscape of struggle during the 15 years since my epiphany. Within my home there is neuro-diversity, anxiety and ADHD. We have walked together through depression, acute and chronic illnesses and school refusal, alongside the usual challenges that come with parenting. Heart-led parenting through relationship has not been as smooth or easy as the name might imply, but we did it, and within a short space of time I started coaching and mentoring other parents in conscious, heart-led parenting with incredible results.
My work since then has been about making conscious parenting through relationship accessible to parents. People need granularity. It is amazing to explore the what of conscious parenting, but the how is another matter altogether. And it doesn't begin with a focus on the relationship, it begins with the focus on us , the parents. Running parenting workshops over the years, it consistently fascinates me to witness parents experiencing this 'aha' moment, by around module 2 of the programme, when they see the work is not about fixing or controlling their children, it is rather about them, the parents. As parents, knowing ourselves, our personalities, our hidden beliefs, our past imprint, our triggers, our emotional landscape, our stress responses and our values, is fundamental to knowing why and how we show up at home as we do. It requires a willingness to introspect, to seek understanding and to be willing to do the work. The aspirational state is one where we are deeply conscious of parenting the child in front of us , rather than parenting as puppets to our unconscious mental and emotional models, or to societal expectations. With this awareness, we learn to respond rather than react and we learn to regulate emotionally and mentally, in order to be that which our children most need us to be.
I am not talking about perfect parenting. Perfection is not aspirational and it is a disservice to our children. Rather, we model intention and embrace imperfection. We model forgiveness and grace. We model accountability and responsibility. My grace to myself was to be a great and intentional parent for 80 per cent of the time and to give myself the latitude to be human and imperfect for 20 per cent of the time. This 80:20 rule has been liberating for me and my clients.
Parenting through relationship is not permissive or laissez-faire , despite some common concerns or perceptions. Boundaries that are necessary are put in place firmly but kindly. Areas of conflict are collaborated on. Yes, I said collaborated. As parents we are leaders, but we are not dictators. When there are nonnegotiables, we put them forward as such with good, valid reasons and we ensure there is understanding. When children feel that they have some agency in the home, they don't need to push against the boundaries so hard. When children do test boundaries, or make mistakes, they are not treated as terrorists committing unspeakable offences. They are related to as growing and developing humans who are expected to mess up. It is their right to make mistakes. It is our responsibility to help them course-correct, but the blame and shame game is passé . Much learning and understanding can be
carried over the line through a discussion, through collaborative and creative problem solving and gentle stewarding. We need only look at the punitive model in society to see that it is not an effective deterrent of crime nor, with the rates of recidivism, effective in preventing repeat misdemeanors.
When children feel seen, heard and respected they learn to reach for this bar in return. When we as parents are rooted strong like an oak tree, we provide shade when they need it, a place to play and explore and an unshakable, unconditional presence. As I circle back to step one of this journey, I must share with you that this takes not only a deep commitment and a clear intention, but mostly it takes a level of self-love, self-compassion and self-respect; for us to continually want to do better. For me, heart-led parenting through relationship brought me home to myself; to someone I could live with and to someone I could love. It brought me home to my marriage. It now informs every area of my life where I practise seeing, loving and conscious intent . From a place deep within my heart, I thank my children for liberating me.
21 years ago Colleen became a mum. Her own challenges and experiences, enabled her to hone her focus on highly sensitive, high needs kids. Her unique approach is a science meets spirituality, heart-led approach to conscious parenting, looking through the lens of the nervous system.
Colleen will be a speaker at the KwazuluSpirit Conscious Parenting Indaba 25 July, at the Salt Rock Hotel on the KZN North Coast. www.kwazuluspirit.com tickets: https://kwazuluspirit.howler.co.za/
by Gérraine Rozenkrantz
As a parent, I've often found myself gazing into my children's eyes, wondering about the mystery of their souls. What brought them here? Who are they truly meant to become? Am I equipped for this? What is my role in it? And I must admit, those weren't always my first questions when reflecting. In the early days of parenting, my questions were more elementary. I wanted answers, clear ones, answers that would lead me to a great road map for parenting. Who doesn't love a step-by-step guide to life, right? Maybe something universal, that works for every one of my four kids?
But, no… That was never to be found. Ever. It was more like going to a 'haywire' disco and having to dance to a completely different song every 60 seconds… From classical to pop, from blues to heavy metal. Repeat. Repeat. Can you say over-stimulation in capital letters? Or just pure insanity? Well, in the end the dance must go on… there are children to care for and somewhere we just hope the answers will come through the crazy.
Eventually, if we persevere and our heart's eyes start to open - call it a mini parent-awakening of sorts - we realise that parenting doesn't come with a one-size-fits-all solution. Alas, there is no perfect answer, no golden rule. As with everything in life, the answers are fluid, shifting and evolving, just as we shift and evolve. So, for me now, parenting is not about finding 'the' answer. It's about learning to dance with the questions and the unknown and then finding peace within it all. It is truly a matter of the
heart, a sort of spiritual 'playing field' where our consciousness is brought under a bright light. It is within this playing field of consciousness that we can truly see ourselves more clearly, warts and all. How gloriously our children mirror us and show us our shadow sides… fun, right?
We, so easily and unbeknownst to us, become entangled in trying to do things 'right', searching for systems and methods that promise to solve our parenting struggles. We look for certainty, control and clarity but, instead, we often find ourselves buried in the unnecessary complexity. We overthink, overdo and, in the end, we're left with exhausted parents and stressed children - all of us caught in cycles of frustration, anxiety and burnout. Just to name a few.
I'VE BEEN THERE TOO . But stepping out of that endless cycle was a freeing journey, one that slowly crept up on me as I grew into my own parenting. Sure, my studies helped me but, looking back, I realise that much of it only fed into the ego - an ego that seeks control in an uncertain world. And when we parent from the ego, we begin to cling to the identity of 'parent', as if it somehow gives us the power to control our children's futures, behaviours and outcomes. Remember, the ego thrives on identity. And simply by calling ourselves 'parents' we create a sense of authority, responsibility and purpose.
But when we cling too tightly to this role, we forget the deeper truth: We are not defined by roles or labels, we are ever-evolving consciousness, souls on a sacred journey through time and space.
So, what happens if we put aside our 'parent label' for a moment? What do we find? We find ourselves - our authentic selves - on a consecrated journey of our own. And our children? They then too are simply their own souls, walking their own consecrated paths. For this moment, our paths align, but ultimately it is not ours to control. We are fellow travellers on the cosmic highway, together for a moment we can call 'now'. We simply are, here, together. And within that space of sacred soul togetherness, we find ourselves free from the internal and external pressures of 'musts' and 'must nots', of wanting and controlling, of fears and anxieties. A deep profound sense of peace is discovered when we simply step into the plane of soul journeys and the eyes of our heart truly begin to… see . When we approach parenting from a higher perspective, the role of 'parent' transcends the ego. It becomes this sacred invitation to a holy feast, to co-create with our children, to evolve together in a shared experience of love, trust and growth. At that round feasting table, they are not extensions of us but are equal souls with their own wisdom and purpose. Here, it is no longer about shaping our children into our image, but about allowing ourselves to be shaped by the experience of them too - allowing them to teach our souls just as much, if not more, than we teach them.
This realisation hit me in a particularly humbling way, on a very dark day. I remember sitting on my bed, feeling the weight of it alljuggling everything, feeling depleted and absolutely beyond empty. I was pulled to one of my favourite books The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. I read his piece about children as I've done countless of times before, but this time it was different. So, I read it over
and over again. Each time, something inside me unravelled. My 'parent' mould started to crack. And as it did, I simply let it - bit by bit, piece by piece. What was left was not just peace, but a profound sense of freedom and clarity. In that dark emptiness, I somehow found the grace and space to grow deeper into my own roots. (Isn't it always like that though? The dark leading the way to the light.)
In the breaking of that mould, I uncovered a truth far greater than any ego role I had clung to. I realised that, even with the best efforts, I had nothing to truly shape or control, I was merely a witness and sometimes a guide. The pressure to 'do it all' dissolved and was replaced by a new understanding: I am called simply to be present, open and authentic with my children, meeting them where they were, without the need for fixing, controlling, knowing or trying. In letting go of my attachment to the role of 'parent', I reclaimed pieces of my own wholeness. And, consequently, I discovered a deeper connection with them - one not bound by ego or expectations, but rooted in a pure, unfiltered space of love. Therefore, I would love to share Kahlil's words with you and journey into his wisdom from an inquisitive heart space.
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.”
This is the profound truth we must embrace: Our children are not possessions nor extensions of ourselves, but unique expressions of the Divine, longing to manifest and know itself. We are merely vessels through which life flows, not the source of it.
Our children are entrusted to us temporarily, yet they ultimately belong to the infinite. We are to honour this magnificent gift and then surrender into it. Parenting will then beautifully unfold into an act of stewardship. Yes, we can guide, nurture and love our children, but we don't intend to mould them into our image or impose our desires on them, for they are sovereign beings, each with their own thoughts, dreams and destinies.
"You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”
Our children's souls live in the 'house of tomorrow' — a realm beyond our control and understanding. We may offer our souls in love, but we cannot impose ourselves, fears, or expectations onto them. Attempting to shape their minds or spirits according to our ideals denies their connection to their own divine path. Each child is born into a new era and new dawn, carrying the seeds for a future we cannot ultimately know. How can the old then build the new? It can't. Life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday. So uncloak yourself from the old and welcome everything new, intuitively sensing the way forward, day by day. Just… be present.
“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
We as parents provide a dynamic foundation from which our children can be launched into the ever-unfolding new world. Like the bow, we can bend and sometimes endure challenges and growth to allow the arrow to fly. This bending is a humbling process, one that requires us to release and trust that our children's destinies are already unfolding. It can also be seen as the inner work and shadow work we find ourselves doing for the greater good of those we love. 'Custodian parenting' is about finding balance between holding on and letting go, between guiding and stepping back and this we can only find when we are
connected to who we authentically are – with our own connection to the Divine. Our role is not to micro-manage our children's paths but to nurture, observe and encourage them as they discover their unique journeys. By embracing this, we honour not only our children but also the Divine plan that flows through them — and through us.
So, let us step into the present moment and dare to look through unveiled eyes so we can behold our unique parenting journeys – for it is a journey of introspection and growth, of light and love. Let us hold our children — yes — but not too tightly. Let us guide them but also allow them to be the inspired authors of their lives. And, most importantly, let us love them fully and wholly, just as they are.
“The parenting journey is a glorious dance between souls. So may we revere it as such and simply… dance along…”
Gérraine Rozenkrantz is a seasoned NLP, EFT, mBIT Master Coach, with a BA (Hons.) Psych. Counselling degree, Gérraine brings all her experience into her daily life and surroundings with vigour! She lives fully and believes anyone can create their dream life, interwoven with grace, wisdom, love and joy. She touches hearts and lives through her writing, by hosting various workshops and with public speaking engagements. Her passion towards conscious parenting is founded on her love of working with relationships holistically, honouring it as a living ecosystem of flow. Beyond her professional pursuits, Gérraine is just a homeschooling mom of four gorgeous souls, a passionate writer, weaving mystical insights into everyday life to inspire transformation. For her, life is a daily practice of infusing spiritual awareness into every moment, with as much fun as possible. She finds immense joy in exploring the world with her adventurous spirit, as she believes that each experience is there to enrich our understanding of ourselves and the universe.
Gérraine is a keynote speaker at the Conscious Parenting Indaba 2025
For years, I lived within the limits I had unknowingly set for myself. I played it safe, kept the peace and avoided standing out too much. It wasn't that I didn't have dreams, I did. Big ones. But I told myself that I needed to be responsible, to focus on what was practical, to not take up too much space. Maybe you've felt this too. That quiet but persistent voice inside telling you that you're meant for more, but another voice, just as loud, whispering: stay where it's safe.
We all have areas in life where we play small, whether in our careers, relationships, or personal growth. Maybe you hold back from speaking up in meetings, knowing you have valuable insights but fearing judgment. Perhaps you downplay your accomplishments, dismissing them as 'not a big deal', Or you put everyone else's needs before your own.
The invisible weight of playing small: The cost of playing small isn't just about missed opportunities. It's about energy, the energy spent suppressing your voice, hiding your gifts and keeping yourself contained. Over time, this drains your confidence and dulls your sense of self. And yet, we cling to these patterns because they feel safe. After all, stepping into our full power requires risk. It means facing potential criticism, failure, or discomfort. But the truth is, staying small is also a risk, the risk of never truly living the life you're capable of.
Breaking free:The shift begins with awareness: So how do we break free? How do we step beyond the limits we've unconsciously accepted? It starts with awareness. Ask yourself… - Where am I holding back in my life? - What stories am I telling myself about why I can't go bigger?
- What am I afraid will happen if I take up more space?
Often, the beliefs keeping us small are inherited. Maybe you were taught to be humble, not to 'brag'. Perhaps you grew up in an environment where success was seen as risky or selfish. These beliefs, formed long ago, shape the way we move through the world today.
The shift:Expanding your capacity: Playing big doesn't mean being reckless or abandoning responsibility. It means giving yourself permission to express fully who you are. To own your talents, your voice, your presence. It's about expanding your capacity to receive, to receive success, recognition, joy, abundance.
The key is to start small. One courageous act at a time. Maybe it's raising your hand when you'd normally stay quiet. Asking for the raise you know you deserve. Setting a boundary, even when it feels uncomfortable. Each time you do, you rewrite the script. You prove to yourself that you can take up space.
At STAR Leadership, we help individuals step into their full power by breaking through the limiting beliefs that keep them small. Through our programmes, we guide you in recognising your patterns, shifting your mindset and embodying confidence, authenticity and leadership. You are not here to shrink. You are here to shine. If you're ready to step out of the smallness that no longer serves you and into the life you're meant for, we invite you to explore our programmes. https://starleadership.co.za
by Luke Mitchell
Once thought to be a high-income country-based issue, childhood overweight and obesity was not something that was expected to develop into somewhat of a global pandemic within a 35-year period. Childhood obesity has now grown into a major public health concern and more children are struggling with excessive weight gain, leading to serious long-term health risks. Contributing factors include poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, excessive screen time and the prevalence of sugary, processed foods. The impact on both physical and mental health is devastating, affecting children's quality of life and their ongoing physical and mental wellbeing. Obesity in children can also lead to lifelong health problems, such as type 2 diabetes
Obesity is more often associated with adults than children. In a quarter of a century, since 1990, the prevalence of obesity in adults has doubled. What's worse? It has quadrupled in adolescents, worldwide. Nearly 400 million minors aged five to19 years were described as overweight in 2022, of which a staggering 160 million were considered to be obese, up from 31 million in 1990 (a staggering 316 per cent increase). This means that 40 per cent of overweight children are categorised as obese. This signals an alarming increase in less than 35 years. Overweight and obesity both refer to excess body weight, but they are classified differently based on the extent of excess fat that is present. Overweight and obesity are diagnosed by assessing an individual's weight and height, followed by calculating their body mass index (BMI) using the formula: weight divided by height squared. BMI serves as an indicator of body fat, though other measurements, like waist circumference,
can provide further insight into the presence of obesity and the extent to which this extra weight will affect an individual.
Overweight in adults is typically defined as having a BMI between 25 and 30, indicating that a person weighs more than what is considered healthy for their height but not necessarily excessively so. Obesity, on the other hand, is characterised by a BMI of 30 or higher, signalling a more significant excess of body fat, where significant short-term and long-term health issues then become increasingly likely. While both conditions increase the risk of health issues, obesity is associated with a higher likelihood of serious conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. It can become tricky to translate these variables into childhood. However, one measurement strategy defines a 'healthy weight' for children as a BMI falling between the fifth and the 85th percentile. Overweight in children is a BMI between the 85th percentile and the 95th percentile and obesity is signalled by a BMI at the 95th percentile or above.
Circling back to the perceptions of overweight and obesity, in general, being a high-income country issue, one only needs to review statistics to understand that this is not the case at all. Despite the stereotyped reputation of the entire African continent having food supply shortages, the number of overweight children under five years has increased by nearly 23 per cent since 2000. Precise numbers on childhood obesity in Africa are unknown. Asia has also been labelled as a hotspot for childhood obesity and was home to approximately half of the globe's population of obese children under the age of five.
Childhood obesity is closely linked to mental illness, with various psychological impacts that affect children's emotional and social wellbeing at a stage at which they are meant to be developing confidence and self-esteem. Obesity can lead to low self-esteem and body image issues, as children often feel stigmatised or bullied by their peers for being overweight. This can cause feelings of anxiety, depression and isolation. The negative emotional toll of obesity can also contribute to the development of eating disorders, as children may turn to food as a coping mechanism for emotional distress, further worsening their condition – the dictionary definition of a vicious circle.
Furthermore, the physical limitations caused by obesity, such as difficulty engaging in physical activities, can exacerbate feelings of frustration and ostracisation. Studies also show that childhood obesity can alter brain function, particularly areas associated with mood regulation. Over time, these psychological struggles can also develop into a vicious cycle, as mental health issues can further hinder efforts to manage or reduce obesity. Addressing childhood obesity involves not only focusing on physical health but also providing emotional support and interventions to improve the mental wellbeing of affected children. Apart from the mental strain, childhood overweight and obesity have clear physical implications that will generally worsen with time. Excess body weight places additional strain on the heart, increasing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and eventually the dreaded heart disease. Obese children are also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes due to insulin resistance. Joint problems are another common consequence, as the extra weight puts pressure on growing bones and cartilage, leading to conditions like osteoarthritis later in life.
Respiratory issues, such as sleep apnea and asthma, are more prevalent in obese children, as excess fat can restrict lung function. Furthermore, childhood obesity is linked to liver disease, particularly non-alcoholic fatty
liver disease (NAFLD), which can cause inflammation and even liver damage. These physical health issues not only affect the child's quality of life but also increase the risk of developing chronic conditions in adulthood. Early intervention and lifestyle changes, such as healthier eating habits and increased physical activity, are essential to mitigate these physical risks and improve overall health outcomes.
“There are a variety of influences that have played a key role in the rapid growth of childhood overweight and obesity. It is often a combination of various factors that lead a child to obesity, as this is considered as an extreme condition, especially in children.”
The rise of ultra-processed foods has contributed significantly to the increase in weight problems among minors. These foods are often high in added sugars, unhealthy fats and artificial additives, while being low in essential nutrients. They are designed to be inexpensive, convenient and highly palatable, making them an attractive option for children and teenagers who are not fully educated on the attached health risks. As children consume more of these foods, their calorie intake increases without providing the necessary vitamins, minerals or fibre for proper growth and development, which is most often coupled with a lack of exercise to regulate weight gain. The addictive nature of sugary, fatty and salty foods can also drive overconsumption, making it difficult for children to make healthier dietary choices and also promotes a lack of discipline early in life – which makes it significantly more difficult for obese adults to overcome their condition. Modern advertising tactics and social media have been identified as key players in influencing the eating habits of minors. John Patterson explains that, although public health authorities have clearly recommended stricter marketing activities, the “lack of action leaves children exposed to pervasive marketing tactics that encourage unhealthy eating habits, making it increasingly difficult for families to make nutritious choices.”
The frequent exposure to such content also 'desensitises' children to the health concerns that may follow, as they often believe that what is seen on social media is a representation of normality and day-to-day life.
It is also undeniable that the increased access to and use of electronic and digital devices has grown in parallel to the increase of unhealthy weight amongst children. Physical activity, primarily in terms of hobby sports, has decreased as it has become somewhat 'obsolete' in the minds of modern children, who are as influenced by electronic means as the current generation. Dr. Panagiota 'Yiota' Kitsantas, a professor at FAU Schmidt College of Medicine, explains: “Encouraging organised, enjoyable activities rather than competitive ones can help children achieve necessary physical activity levels.”
Overcoming or limiting obesity in children requires a combination of strategies that address both physical activity, healthy eating and mindset. By making gradual lifestyle changes, children can develop healthier habits that promote long-term wellbeing. However, relative circumstances sometimes declare a gradual lifestyle change as not enough, due to serious and potentially life-threatening conditions that need immediate attention.
One of the most effective (and obvious) ways to prevent and reduce obesity is regular exercise. Schools, communities and families MUST encourage children to be more active. For example, organising family walks, bike rides or playing sports together can make physical activity fun and engaging. Schools can also integrate physical education programmes into the curriculum that focus on teamwork, fun games and fitness. Parents can set screen time limits to encourage more outdoor play or enrol children in after-school sports or other physical extracurricular activities to keep them moving. It must be psychologically understood that children suffering from extreme weight issues are very likely to reject any competitive exercises and so activity that can be gently integrated into life is often the most viable and realistic starting point for a child who is likely to be both physically and mentally compromised to begin with.
A balanced diet is essential for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. Parents can lead by example, preparing meals with whole, unprocessed foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats. Involving children in meal planning and preparation also helps them to make healthier choices while learning about nutrition. Schools can also offer healthier meal options in the cafeteria/tuck-shop and educate students about making better food choices, where such options are available. An example might be substituting sugary snacks and drinks with healthier alternatives like fruits, yogurt and water.
One of the primary contributors to childhood obesity is excessive sugar consumption, particularly from sugary drinks and snacks. Parents can help by replacing sugary beverages with water, milk or homemade smoothies. Offering healthier snacks like nuts, fruits or vegetables can also curb the craving for processed junk food. Teaching children to read food labels and understand the hidden sugars in everyday products is an
essential step in developing long-term healthy habits.
Encouraging children to listen to their bodies and eat until they're satisfied, not full, can help avoid overeating. Smaller portions can reduce the likelihood of consuming excess calories. Using smaller plates and bowls and offering balanced meals with healthier portion sizes can prevent overindulgence. It's also important to teach children about mindful eating, allowing them to focus on their food rather than distractions like television and social media.
Support from family and peers plays a crucial role in weight management and should help to create an environment that fosters good habits. Schools can contribute by providing education about nutrition, cooking classes and physical activity programmes, all of which empower children to make healthier choices. Additionally, involving children in cooking and grocery shopping helps them develop a sense of responsibility for their eating habits and overall health. Even in the case of adults, people suffering from obesity are likely to reject any form of condemnation and need to feel inspired and secure in order to make a practical lifestyle change.
By combining these practical approaches, families, schools and communities can help children build a foundation for a healthy lifestyle, preventing overweight, obesity and their associated risks. These steps not only support physical health but also promote mental health and wellness, which will play a critical role in the maintenance of healthy weight once reached.
The rise in childhood obesity is a growing global concern with far-reaching consequences for both physical and mental health. As children face an increasing number of environmental, social and dietary challenges, addressing this issue requires a collective effort from families, schools and communities. Promoting healthier eating habits, encouraging physical activity and creating supportive environments are essential steps toward combating obesity. By prioritising prevention and intervention strategies, we can help ensure that future generations lead healthier, more active lives, ultimately reducing the weight of obesity-related diseases worldwide and proactively improving overall wellbeing.
Statistics: World Health Organisation, 2024
Quotes: Wake Up World, 2024 - Additional Sources of Information: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/are-parents-responsiblefor-childhood-obesity www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.202 4.1430418/full
‘Human society prospers best when it functions according to the principles that operate in the natural world.'
I'm curious; 'How can we parent, keeping the earth in mind?' 'What does nature and the earth teach us about how to parent?'
After nearly 30 years as a psychologist, I completed another masters in 2012, in holistic ecology, a subject that examined complex adaptive systems and our place in the greater ecology. It awakened in me not only a deeper knowledge of our planet, my home, being within the web of life, but also my awe of and gratitude for all that is of nature. I discovered that wisdom means listening within, to a more refined or higher consciousness. From an inner stillness, I listen closely to an evolutionary impulse that flows easily through the natural world. There is an intelligence and a guidance when we engage with nature's rhythms and cycles. In all the times I was counselling people indoors and running workshops for thousands of parents in cold classrooms, I was actively seeking personal time in nature to resource myself. For me the wild is not about danger, it is rather about feeling a part of the life that formed from almost 2.4 billion years of adaptation and growth. Nature is our teacher and our ally and we need to listen to the lessons we are being taught. Living systems can give us the key to how to parent – illuminating ways for us to do so that are meaningful and valid, no matter what age, gender,
background, interests, capabilities or temperament of the children we parent.
I believe that bringing nature closer into our homes is pretty straightforward, if one follows these three ways:
1 Running sustainable or 'green' homes, engaging our children in simple practices that uphold ecological value – recycling, composting, using bio-friendly cleaning products, planting pots or our garden with healthy vegetables and herbs and so on.
2 Finding a local environmental cause that's easy for teenagers to engage in, like picking up plastic from oceans, cleaning up trails, clearing aliens, planting gardens that attract birds and bees or supporting animal projects.
3 Spending more time outdoors, hiking or camping or generally encouraging our teens in sports that take them onto the earth, into the sea or up mountains.
For me there is a fourth route, which could have the biggest impact and alter the way future generations live. It points to raising our consciousness and widening our perspective. I think it can help inform parents today and lessen their anxieties.
How do we parent as a living system? How do we learn to parent from nature's principles? And mostly, can we let the rhythms of nature inform us about what our children's lives need?
4 This fourth way changes how we think about our place in the world, enabling us to develop values and beliefs that are in synch with or come from nature's wisdoms. We have sculpted a transactional world that ignorantly exploits nature's resources and objectifies the wilderness as a utility. It's always about what we can 'get' or how we benefit. Yet, how to follow nature's lead? The simplistic answer is to examine how animals' parent. There are many clear examples of tough love and strict rules in the wild – lionesses who train their cubs using growls, tail flicks and hard wallops and bites. We would use the word instinctual or fierce survivalparenting here. There are genetically inbred cues that all mammals obey. Generally, though, parents in the wilds appear to use a 'top-down approach' and this was not the practical example that I was searching for.
As parents we want the 'good life' for them – but what is this? Image, status, fabulous holiday destinations… often seem a priority. Yet, stress, anxiety and poor mental health are showing up in buckets! Maybe we need what matters the most. The basics: The happiness in our homes.
I believe that, by improving a family's connection and commitment to nature, all the necessary bio-psycho-social aspects can be addressed at the same time. By this I mean physical health, mental wellness, empathy and pro-social behaviours – all proven to improve with increased immersion in nature. There is an urgent need for parents to help children and teens reconnect to nature as a way of healing, of reconnecting to the values that will help our planet recover from its endangered position. As parents we need an 'ecosophy' that promotes a way of being in the world that minimises harm to nature while enhancing feelings of awe, wonder and belonging and, in so doing, to align homes with the mother of all homes, Gaia. In his book Nature Principle, Richard Louv says it is necessary for every aspect of being human – from our senses, intellect, bodies, emotional, mental and spiritual development – as well as for strengthening our bonds to others and all living creatures. There is a growing awareness that a child's or teen's access to nature is not a luxury but a necessity for health and mental wellbeing. Numerous psychological studies have confirmed that 'indoor childhoods' are causing psychological and health problems. In his book, Beyond Ecophobia, David Sobel suggests that children today associate nature with danger and apocalypse. We no longer let our young teens explore, we demand no mess and we emphasise the dangers of spiders and snakes, of falling out of trees, or of getting lost.
An ecosystem is an example of a living system. It is always in dynamic relationship with all its parts. Biology tells us
that ecosystems have a reciprocal and an adaptive relationship with their niche.. Your teenager's niche may be school and home and it constantly influences him. He may be influenced by a relationship with a sibling and by the values of the school he attends and both may impact on his character and behaviour. He, in turn, adapts to his niche but he also influences it. As parents we like to look for blame or the cause of a problem yet, with this view, there is no real cause but rather a series of interactions that have no real beginning or end. This view asks us to listen more, understand more and have a much wider view. We did not create our children; it happened naturally in line with the principles of evolution.
Let's look at ways to apply these unifying principles to what shows up in our homes and families. Everything in relationship. Nature, the largest living system, is all about co-operating and networking in constant reciprocity. There are no strict separations – there may be boundaries, like the bark on a trunk of a tree, but most are permeable. It is very difficult to find one thing in nature that actually operates completely separately. The smallest flower relies on the system in which it is nested. There is a constant interconnection, communication and resource-sharing on so many levels. For instance, the forest canopy with its birds; the mid-level of a forest with its bugs; the soil with scurrying life and microscopic life – and all of it is combined with every element – air, water, earth and fire – in a nonwasteful system where every leaf or piece of bark is reused for the benefit of all. The forest is a beautiful system of cooperation with its own communication system, ensuring that it is abundant, giving and non-wasteful.
The more families I observe, the more I realise that we need a philosophy about parenting that upholds the need to synchronise our approach, like an ecosystem. From this ecosophy parents create a foundation within which a technique or a rule can be tried out. This means a boundary is not just imposed on a teen in a top-down way. It means there are networks and relationships that he already trusts, that offer him a safe holding space, before there is disciplining or individual-skill building. If we have a conscious and responsive approach to parenting, boundaries can more easily be negotiated and applied when needed. We can pick them up and let them go again. The teen's voice or reaction could also form an important part of the feedback loop. If we could trust that there is a deeper wisdom available to guide us, we could be less fearful and allow a more fluid movement, for instance, between the values and ethics of your family and another family – between schools and different communities and between different ethnic groups. It is the fear of the unknown that drives us towards needing control through rigid and strict rules and prejudice. Families can acknowledge that interdependence and interconnectedness are healthy (including teens' social networks) and open to it more.
New generations have fresh eyes for the world and parents can make room to discover things through teen eyes. Many homes operate according to a submission/dominance pattern. Children must be trained to obey the adults. Yet few relationships in nature are completely hierarchical or competitive, even though we like to believe in the outdated idea of 'survival of the fittest'. The reward/punishment system or the submission/dominance style could be replaced by a growth mentality and be more relationship-focused, looking for interconnections. In this way disruptions become processes of growth and learning, fostering the most productive or the best bonding times. In this way we develop strength of character. Parents can aim to provide a reservoir of wisdom, where children are given more leeway to experiment within certain ethical and moral boundaries. It's the classic 'firm yet fair' approach – yet it's not hierarchical in the sense that only parents have all the answers. It is not about letting go of all boundaries but instead inviting a social field of trust and growth as a priority; followed by embracing development and dynamic change as normal; as opposed to everything being top-down, isolated, separate and disconnected.
If you look around you in a forest, for example, you will see plants, algae, animals, fungi, the undergrowth, soil, leaves – all forming different types of relationships with one another. And what we discover in living systems is that the more participants, the more relationships and the more resilient that ecosystem becomes.
Natural systems are resilient. Resilience is the ability to 'bounce back', the ability to adapt, the ability to continue to grow and develop even in complex circumstances. Nature uses 'diversity, redundancy, decentralisation and self-renewal and self-repair to foster resiliency', according to biomimicry. This resilience of nature depends hugely on diversity in each system, so that, during a disturbance, only some loss occurs but at the same time there is self-repair. In our own families we can welcome the diversities and the numerous relationship types that occur in a school or a community and learn from them, as opposed to shutting them out because they are unfamiliar. The more difference there is, the more growth and vibrancy there is. Life is vibrant, dynamic and full of difference and therefore resilient. Following the lead of nature, we become more open to different events, friends and activities. Adopting the view that 'this too will pass' or 'everything in its own time' allows our teens to befriend different cultures or religions; we as parents can also be less judgmental and open to exploration. The questions then become: 'What are we learning from these relationships? What do you enjoy and celebrate here? Do you find this relationship uplifting?' This is very different to saying: 'I don't trust that friend of yours. I don't want her in our house!' Asking questions born of curiosity and interest as opposed to shutting down or out does not mean you need to change your own values or boundaries. There is still room for: 'We have Sunday lunches together, even if your friend doesn't.'
We are not separate.
We'd do well to remind ourselves of how much we simply receive from being alive. For all the elements of air, water, earth
and fire in so many forms, be grateful, soften and let go of holding on out of fear of lack. We often fear that there is only so much energy or achievement to go around and it can be depleted or someone can take it away; yet this is not in line with nature and, therefore, from this viewpoint is not true. It is our belief system that has created this fear of scarcity and we instil this fear in our children. As parents we can teach our teens ways to resource themselves. If they tend to be hyperactive and fixated in one direction and expend all their energy at once, we can teach them about inner resourcing or self-soothing, like spending a little time alone, walking out in nature, lying in the sun for a while just to regenerate the system. We can help teens to understand that their mind, emotions and body all are created as one entity; how we treat the one will affect the other.
Megan de Beyer, MA (Psychology), MSc (Holistic Ecology) is an international Psychologist and group facilitator. She has facilitated many successful and well-subscribed Mothers and Sons courses at most Independent boys' school in South Africa. She has been invited to run parent courses in California, Australia and UK on numerous occasions; as well as presenting at conferences on parenting. She is the author of “How to Raise a Man - a modern mother's guide to parenting her teenage son” published by Penguin. An eBook is available.
Megan runs wellness & mindfulness retreats in Cape Town, and presently works throughout Africa in mental health for the Singita Safari Company. Overall, Megan's conscious living philosophy is the foundation of her healing work. She exemplifies three fundamental pillars of healing – radical tenderness, passionate kindness, and extreme peace. More info: Megandebeyer.com @megandebeyer
PARENTING AS A LIVING SYSTEM PART 2 will be published in our Winter Edition which is also our 250th commemorative edition, an article not to be missed.
Megan will be a speaker at the KwazuluSpirit Conscious Parenting Indaba 25 July, at the Salt Rock Hotel on the KZN North Coast. www.kwazuluspirit.com tickets: https://kwazuluspirit.howler.co.za/
Survey shows slight improvement in South African book ownership, but challenges remain,
Johannesburg, 22 January 2025 – The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) has released findings from its 2024 survey on book ownership, revealing that 31 per cent of respondents own fewer than 10 books – a modest improvement from 41 per cent reported in 2022. However, access to books remains a significant challenge for many South Africans.
The survey also found that approximately 67 per cent of respondents own 50 books or fewer, while 17.4 per cent reported owning more than 100 books. This represents a slight positive shift from 2022, when 80 per cent of respondents said they owned 50 or fewer books and only 8.6 per cent possessed more than 100.
“While we're seeing some improvement in book ownership, the numbers still paint a concerning picture,” says Jane Molony, executive director of PAMSA. “Access to printed books, particularly for young children, is crucial for developing literacy skills and fostering a reading culture.”
The survey results come at a critical time, as literacy rates in South Africa continue to face challenges of unequal early learning outcomes and extremely poor primary school literacy, with nearly 80 per cent of Grade 4 learners struggling to read for meaning. Additionally, only two per cent of children's books published commercially in South Africa are in local African
languages, despite eight out of 10 people speaking a home language other than English or Afrikaans.
To be part of the solution, PAMSA has announced its support of the Book Dash 2025 campaign, an initiative that aims to make books more accessible to young readers. Book Dash has already distributed over 4.5 million books to children across South Africa and creates books in multiple local languages.
Dorette Louw, director of programmes and operations at Book Dash, adds, “According to National Reading Barometer 2023, the vast majority of South African adults agree that reading to children before they can talk helps them learn, but sadly only about a third of parents actually read with children aged six and under.”
Louw explains that just like other healthy lifestyle habits, like eating well or exercising, there's a gap between awareness and action. “Even when parents know it's important to share books with preverbal children, they need an incentive or 'nudge' to actually do it.”
She adds, “Physical, hard-copy books at home can provide that nudge, in a way digital books or books at school cannot. That's why Book Dash is working hard to increase book ownership in homes and why the support from organisations like PAMSA is crucial.”
Paper-based books remain popular among readers, with the survey showing that 34.7 per cent of respondents prefer physical books for leisure reading, compared to 7.4 per cent who opt for tablets or ereaders. Notably, 57.6 per cent of respondents disagree or strongly disagree with the statement that 'print is dead'.
“Paper books play a vital role in early childhood development and literacy and create a stronger educational foundation,” Ms Molony explains. “Research consistently shows that paper-based materials promote better reading comprehension and information retention compared to digital formats. This is particularly important for developing brains.”
The commitment to Book Dash aligns with PAMSA's goal of promoting literacy and sustainable paper usage. Paper books are not only renewable and recyclable, but can be easily shared and passed along, extending their impact within communities. Through initiatives like the Book Dash partnership, PAMSA aims to help address the book access gap in South Africa and contribute to improving literacy rates, particularly among young readers who need exposure to books in their early developmental years.
The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA), acknowledged as the 'voice of the pulp and paper industry', promotes the use of paper as a renewable and recyclable material for communication, packaging and a myriad of other applications. Some of its members rank among the top 20 pulp producers in the world, making the South African pulp and paper manufacturing sector robust, well-regulated and highly developed. For more information: https://thepaperstory.co.za/
by Mbali Mapholi
The teenage years can be challenging as young people navigate new experiences, an increased workload, and hormonal changes in a short space of time. This is also an impressionable time where bad habits can be picked up, or good habits enforced with the right guidance. Mbali Mapholi, Laager Rooibos partner dietitian, has shared insight into helping teens build healthy habits in 2025.
“After spending a full year as a mom to a teenage boy, I've come to realise raising a teen is a mix of challenges, growth and wonderful learning moments,” commented Mapholi. “The coming of autumn and the new school year brings fresh opportunities and it's the perfect time to help your teen adopt healthy habits. As parents, we play a crucial role in guiding them towards routines that not only improve their wellbeing in the moment, but set the stage for a healthy future. Here's how you can help your teen build healthy habits that are achievable, sustainable and empowering.”
Mbali's top tips for building healthy habits with teens:
1. Start with achievable goals
Teens thrive when they feel a sense of control and accomplishment. They need to understand it's about progress not perfection. Rather than overwhelming them with big, abstract resolutions, work with your teen to set realistic, actionable goals. These could include:
•Healthy hydration e.g. drinking a glass of water or a cup of homemade Laager Rooibos iced tea with every meal.
•Limiting screen time and stepping away from devices at least 1 to 2 hours before bed.
•Stretching for 5 to 15 minutes every hour if using screens or studying.
2. Be a role model
Your habits set the tone for your household and teens learn far more from what they see than from what they're told. If you want them to limit screen time before bed and you're glued to your phone, they may push back. Show them what healthy living looks like by:
•Preparing balanced meals and involving them. Even something as simple as asking for their opinion on which protein to include for dinner can make them feel more invested.
•Participating in activities they also enjoy such as a hike or sports. I have committed to working out at 5am with my son at least four times a week to support him and it's a win-win.
•Practising stress management techniques like mindfulness, journaling, or prayer, to stay present and calm.
3. Create a healthy home environment
Your home environment plays a huge role in shaping healthy habits, so stock your kitchen with nutritious, teen-friendly snacks like fresh fruit, nuts, whole-grain crackers, low-sugar health bars, frozen fruit for smoothies, popcorn and yoghurt.
Try to make mealtimes relaxed and inclusive and, rather than lecturing, focus on positive messaging that highlights the benefits of eating foods that fuel their energy and make them feel good. Dinner time should be a space for connection and catch-ups, not conflict. If conversations become tense, consider setting aside a different time for sharing one-on-one.
4. Encourage restful sleep
Sleep is essential for your teen's physical and mental health, yet can be often overlooked when school demands or late-night gaming keeps them up. Help them develop a consistent bedtime routine by:
•Encouraging screen-free time at least 1 to 2 hours before bed.
•Suggesting calm pre-bed activities like reading, playing cards as a family, or sipping Laager Rooibos tea.
•Setting a regular bedtime and wake-up schedule, even at weekends, to reinforce a healthy sleep cycle.
5. Make physical activity fun
The key to physical activity is helping your teen find movement they enjoy. Whether it's soccer, skateboarding, swimming, dancing, or hiking, encourage activities that make them feel good, relieve stress and
build confidence. Focus on the joy of movement rather than fitness or weight goals.
6. Celebrate their wins
Teens thrive on positive reinforcement so celebrate their progress, no matter how small. Whether they stuck to their goals for a week or tried a new activity, acknowledge their effort and let them know you're proud. Instead of rewarding achievements with food, celebrate with a fun, healthy meal or a shared experience like a movie night.
7. Keep the conversation open
Teens value autonomy, so empower them to take ownership of their habits while offering the guidance and support they need. Check in regularly to see how they're feeling about their goals. Ask open-ended questions like:
•“What's been working for you so far?”
•“Is there something you'd like to adjust or try next?”
•“How can I support you better?”
•“What can we do to keep our family meals on track?”
“The teen stage is one that many parents dread, but this is a crucial developmental stage for our kids where we can build trust and habits that set them up for a healthy and balanced start to adulthood,” commented Candice Sessions, Laager Marketing Manager. “Incorporating a healthy beverage such as Laager Rooibos is an easy way to boost your teen's health simply and effectively. From improved heart health, digestion and sleep to the many benefits of antioxidants, Laager Rooibos tea has lasting health effects for all ages. It can also be enjoyed as a homemade iced tea during these warmer summer months!”
Find out more about Laager Rooibos and access many healthy recipes, advice and tips at www.joekels.co.za or via @LaagerRooibosTea on Facebook and Instagram.
It's a question that's been plaguing me for years at this point and one that only grows more pressing as time passes. It began as a single seed, the desire to understand how I could go on when the world around me seemed not only hopeless but hellbent on remaining hopeless. I watched the choices of people with far more power, influence and wealth than I will see in all my lifetime, water that, choice after choice, through greed and deed, until I stood in a garden. And I was alone.
And I was afraid.
How do we survive in a hostile world?
Hell, what even is a hostile world? There are so many things wrong with modern society, with each problem interlinking into a dozen other problems, all of which are rooted in several lifetimes worth of mistakes, that a single article or even a single writer can't hope to explain them all. I will draw a thread between two interlinking factors and three interlinking solutions, to guide you through the isolation of social media to the value of third places and the kindness of community and potential for mutual aid.
I'm excited to write about solutions for once, I am. But first comes isolation. First comes social media.
In 2009 Eli Pariser described the concept of a 'filter bubble'. Essentially this is the way the algorithm weeds out any content on your platform of choice that isn't in your particular interest, political belief, or part of your social group and serves you only a repetition of what you've enjoyed before.
The reason for this is twofold; firstly, you will stay locked to your screen, using the app longer and returning to it again and again if you have a guarantee of seeing more of what you liked before. Repeat customers see more ads. Secondly, by narrowing down which content you enjoy, the clearer your digital fingerprint becomes. i.e. What products can be marketed to you?
Now, despite the horror of the previous paragraph, there are merits to this system which are worth discussing. Convenience is key; the practicality of not having to spend potentially hours searching for something you might enjoy. Accounting for potentially infinite personal taste is hard and allowing individual people effectively to filter based on their own taste works around the issue. Additionally, there is an undeniable value in marginalised and vulnerable groups such as people of colour, immigrants, LGBTQ and disabled people being able to form communities online which intentionally filter out hateful and bigoted content and news.
Online forums not dominated by algorithms – such as Discord or chat forums – administer themselves through human moderation, self-selection by reading the topic and
by Jon-Luc Robinson
the ability simply to leave a conversation if it no longer interests the user. There is no algorithm to filter ideas in these spaces; instead, human beings must navigate each other's humanity in a wonderfully human way. The result is that there are valuable connections to be made through this option, especially if you make friends with people outside of your own country, allowing you to enjoy perspectives vastly different from your own, or if you have a situation or disability hindering you from engaging with a community outside the confines of your own room.
But there is a distinct difference between that selfselection and the invisible hand of an algorithm. As Eli Pariser said in his 2011 TED Talk, we aren't always aware of what's being filtered out of our sight by the algorithm. We don't often get to make a choice. “When you turn on Fox News or MSNBC, you have a sense of what their editorial sensibility is,” Pariser said on the subject.
A hostile world is one that slowly pulls us apart from each other, using hidden strings to remove unchallenging ideas and alternate perspectives from our view. A hostile world keeps us ignorant of each other because it prevents us from seeing the puppeteers holding the strings; the ones causing the real damage to our lives.
In his 2022 comedy special X , sandwiched between two excellent jokes too inappropriate for print, comedian Daniel Sloss said “I'm trying to talk to people who I disagree with. Because either they strengthen my argument, or they change my mind and neither of those things are bad.” I will never agree with someone who does not agree with my right to exist as a trans person and that gender affirming care should remain legal, but I did not arrive at that opinion in a vacuum or independent of help. I spoke to trans people, I did research on transitioning and I not only arrived at the perspective that was right, but I discovered a valuable truth about my own identity. There was value in my learning from the trans people in my life. I hope you will find value in learning from me.
How do we survive in a hostile world?
When we've walked away from these platforms. Where do we find alternatives to the social media spaces we've been living on for so many years?
We look at the world beyond our screens. We look at third places.
If a first place is your home and a second place is where you work, then a third place would be the places you visit beyond these two.
Understand that the isolation of social media is not all that creates a hostile world, but also how we mentally transition from a state of work to a state of relaxation.
To explain:
Let's say that the act of working is also the act of renting out your hours to a job. On average, you rent out eight hours per day to your job, for five days of the week. You are subsequently paid for those hours. Then an unspecified number of hours must be dedicated to dealing with chores and assisting with your family or household; this could be grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, maintenance or more.
Hours given to your first and second places play out as I've written above. Any remaining hours are yours to do with as you see fit. So, the question remains: How do you use those hours? After all, if your work owns your time from nine to five, but you spend all hours from five to nine recovering from work and preparing yourself to work for the next day, do you truly own your own time?
How you use the hours which remain to you matters. It matters so much.
This is the value of a third place. Somewhere you are intended to exist without the purpose of productivity. A place where you may exist in timelessness, as Mouhamad Mbacke wrote in his 2023 article on third places. In a third place we can simply exist in the moment, drifting outside the expectations of routine and productivity.
A third place could be many things; a sports club, a coffee shop, a bar, a board-games store, a park, or many other options. It does not have to have a social element to it; getting a cup of coffee and listening to music counts but finding a third place with a social element is preferable. Remember back to what I discussed earlier? We're escaping our filter bubbles, escaping isolation and meeting new people.
Speaking of which…
How do we survive in a hostile world?
At this point we've escaped our filter bubbles; we've found a third place… What next? What else is there to do? I'm sorry to say but now we're at the scary part – We're going to have to talk to strangers.
A question: Do you know the names of your neighbours? The last house where I knew my neighbours' names was one which I lived in over fifteen years ago. Since then, my family's interactions with neighbours have been confined to brief waves in passing. Beyond that we've all kept to ourselves. Isn't that bizarre? In a time where every neighbourhood has its own WhatsApp group making it easier than ever to communicate with every household nearby; how often do those groups get used for anything other than asking, “Is anyone else's water off?” and “When's the power coming back on?”
We can do better than that.
The tale of Hulbert Street comes to mind. In 2023 Shani Graham gave a TEDx Talk on community building. She recounts going from door to door with her daughters across her neighborhood, asking neighbours to attend their picnics. By the end of this process, about a hundred people had agreed to join them. People brought food, they talked,
neighbours met for the very first time. And it was not the last time they would meet.
The budding community continued to hold gatherings as time went by, coming together to spend their time in each other's company after work, or during the day at weekends. The community found strength, friendship and closeness in each other.
This community was formed directly before the Covid 19 pandemic.
Suddenly, isolation once again. We all remember what that feels like.
But this community kept in touch as best they could. They had geographical proximity, after all. Even lockdown could not prevent some form of hello from a safe distance. Mrs. Graham recounted how a car from their community drove down the street, with a musician in the back, performing for their neighbours who sat in their yards.
The result of this community building was the formation of a mutual aid society. Mutual aid is a term with a very simple explanation: “If you need help, I help you. If I need help, you help me.”
This is exactly what their community did. They put together a contact and information sheet which had, as described by Mrs Graham, “the lists of skills and resources and things people have and things that they're willing to give. As well as what people need. No one buys a fridge trolley in Hulbert Street. Adam and Brian have the fridge trolley.”
Perhaps it doesn't sound like much, until you realise that this can be scaled to so many other needs. Food, cookware, clothing, new skills, raw materials, labour, or even the company of community members with empathetic ears.
If this sounds appealing to you then, please, go talk to your neighbours after reading this. Step out of your filter bubble. Join a third place. Form a community.
If you're scared about talking to strangers, that's understandable, but that's why you bring an icebreaker. Bake a set of muffins or something similar yourself and bring them with you! Invite them to a potluck, a neighbourhood movie night, or to watch the bokke. More people will say yes than you think.
Humans are social creatures; this is a fact. Pulling us apart, teaching us to hate, reducing and quantifying us, exhausting us and removing us from community… placing us in a hostile world will not work for long.
It's been tried before.
The sheer fire of the human spirit wins every time. How do we survive in a hostile world?
Together.
Jon-Luc Robinson (she/her) is a transfeminine writer, researcher and anarchist. She aims to challenge the status quo with her writing, arguing for futures and worlds without suffering, built on the co-operation of mutual aid and community. Currently raising funds to self-publish her first book, she is happy to talk if you have assignments to discuss with her.
Contact: j88lucrobinson@gmail.com
We are living through transformative times - times that challenge our physical, financial, emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing. As consciousness evolves, our unhealed wounds rise to the surface, asking to be acknowledged and healed.
Awakening is a journey that calls us to take ownership of our healing, growth and wellbeing.
If you're reading this, you are probably already on this path.
Does this resonate with you?
• You're ready to stop wasting energy and start living a life that nourishes your soul.
• You seek lasting change - shaping how you live, love and lead.
• You long to express more compassion, authenticity and purpose in the world.
• You're curious about your blind spots and unconscious behaviours.
• You're ready to ignite your full potential and inspire others.
A growing community of seekers understands that true transformation begins from within. Yet stepping into your authentic power isn't always easy. It requires breaking through layers of conditioning, fear and limitation, including:
• Unconscious thought patterns keeping you stuck in self-sabotage;
• Ancestral wounds or generational cycles holding you back;
• Collective fear and overthinking stifling your progress;
• Outdated coping mechanisms reinforcing trauma;
• Karmic imbalances or unresolved soul contracts obscuring your path.
There are countless techniques and teachings to help shift these inhibiting loops.
But until we learn to work with our innate archetypal patterns - the underlying forces behind our behaviours - we will continue to meet resistance and self-sabotage our healing efforts.
Understanding and aligning to these patterns, we move from resistance to flow, from survival to soulful living. Life becomes clearer, more intentional and fully aligned with our highest purpose.
Are you ready to align your choices with your soul's calling?
This journey may feel daunting - we often fear what lies within. Yet, within us is where all the answers reside.
Meet Celeste, your holistic soul alignment coach
Celeste Du Toit is an intuitive life coach, Kahuna bodyworker, retreat leader and storyteller. Through powerful questioning, constellations therapy, archetypal work, mindfulness and bodywork, she offers a holistic approach to deep self-awareness, meaningful relationships and inner harmony.
“If you seek a space to heal, transform and feel empowered, I'd be honoured to walk this journey with you. Together, we will unlock your fullest potential, awaken your soul's purpose and create a life of clarity, balance and joy.”
As Rumi wisely said: "As you start to walk on the way, the way appears."
For more information on how we can create meaningful change together, visit celestedutoit.co.za or reach out at hello@celestedutoit.co.za.
For decades, retirement has been associated with slowing down, simplifying life and quietly embracing the golden years. However, a growing body of research suggests that happiness follows a 'UCurve' throughout life, with contentment and fulfilment reemerging in our later years. This resurgence of happiness is not merely a by-product of having fewer responsibilities - it stems from the freedom to explore new adventures, pursue passions and live on our own terms. In this thought leadership piece, Gidon Novick sheds light on this exciting shift, which challenges traditional perspectives on ageing and retirement.
According to the 2024 World Happiness Report, South Africa ranks 100th out of 137 countries. While the report highlights happiness trends across different age groups, it also reveals that older adults often report higher levels of life satisfaction than younger individuals, supporting the U-Curve of happiness theory.
As part of the development team at Circle Senior Living, I've seen first-hand how this understanding of later life is reshaping the design and ethos of retirement communities. For many, later years are no longer about slowing down but rediscovering freedom, purpose and joy. This redefinition of retirement reflects a broader cultural shift in how we view ageing.
The Rocktirement podcast, which I (Gidon Novick) recently hosted, featured inspiring guests aged 70 to 80, including notable figures such as Dr. Ali Bacher, PieterDirk Uys and Ruda Landman. Their stories highlight how this chapter of life is being redefined. Guests shared invaluable lessons about letting go of titles, positions and possessions and embracing the present moment with renewed purpose.
A recurring theme from these conversations is the conscious effort to rebuild community as family dynamics and friendships evolve. There's also a profound desire to share wisdom with younger generations. Health and fitness remain a priority for these individuals, but it's balanced with an unwavering commitment to live fully and enjoy every moment. Their approach to ageing serves as a powerful reminder that life's most meaningful chapters are still ahead.
The U-Curve theory suggests that after the pressures of midlife - careers, family responsibilities and financial concerns - begin to ease, people experience a renewed sense of contentment. With fewer external demands, older adults can focus on personal growth, wellbeing and joy.
“
The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Interestingly, this resurgence of happiness is not simply a result of fewer responsibilities. It reflects a shift in priorities, with people embracing passions, forging deeper social connections and engaging in activities that align with personal values. In essence, it's a phase of life where self-prioritisation returns, bringing with it a sense of freedom and fulfilment often missing in earlier decades.
Retirement as a time for renewal
As developers, we are increasingly aware of how these shifts in expectations are transforming the landscape of retirement living.
Today's retirees are challenging the traditional idea of retirement as a period of rest and retreat. Instead, they seek environments that support their desire to stay active, socially connected and intellectually engaged.
At Circle Senior Living, we've embraced this shift. Our communities are designed to foster independence, encourage social interaction and promote wellbeing. The goal is not merely to provide a comfortable residence but to create a holistic living environment that empowers residents to thrive.
The role of environment in shaping wellbeing
Both research and practice have taught us that the environment plays a critical role in shaping wellbeing, particularly in later life. While the U-Curve demonstrates that happiness naturally rebounds in our later years, it's clear that this sense of joy is deeply influenced by the spaces we inhabit.
Environments that encourage social interaction, foster personal growth and promote active living can profoundly enhance the quality of retirement. For developers and planners, the challenge is to create communities that go beyond meeting basic needs to address the emotional and psychological aspects of ageing. Retirement communities must be spaces for growth, engagement and connection - not merely places to live but places to thrive.
the narrative on ageing
What we're witnessing is the beginning of a new era of retirement - one that challenges outdated perceptions of ageing. The later years are increasingly seen as a time for renewal, growth and discovery. It's a chapter of life in which people can pursue passions, find purpose and cultivate joy.
At Circle Senior Living, we are committed to aligning with this new narrative. Retirement is no longer a period to step back but a time to step forward into a new chapter. Our goal is to provide environments that support residents' pursuit of happiness, fulfilment and wellbeing every day. We believe that redefining what it means to age also redefines what it means to live well.
Gidon Novick, a non-executive director at Circle Senior Living who is also known for his entrepreneurial ventures that include the founding of South Africa's first low-cost airline, Kulula , as well as Home Suite Hotels and, more recently, LIFT Airline - Novick and the property development team at Circle Senior Living are committed to transforming the retirement narrative. Guided by core values of compassion, integrity and innovation, the staff understands the challenges and joys of ageing, supporting and enriching the lives of residents. With a focus on creating a vibrant, supportive environment, residents are empowered to thrive and live their best lives every day.
For more information about Circle Senior Living or to book a site tour, visit www.circleliving.co.za
Reference: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/
Vedanta is a science of consciousness that employs impeccable logic to reveal the true nature of the Self, consciousness and reality itself. It is a timeless teaching , universal in scope, addressing the fundamental questions that have shaped human inquiry since the dawn of time.
All that's required is an open, questioning mind . Vedanta follows a structured methodology - each step unfolding with precision, guiding the seeker toward understanding, integration and Selfrealisation . The result? A profound shift in how one perceives oneself and the world.
Instead of seeking happiness in external objects - people, achievements, or fleeting experiences - you uncover a limitless source of happiness and wholeness within. This is mokshaliberation. Some call it enlightenment. I call it freedom
Vedanta teaches that our sense of limitation - the feeling of being incomplete, always searching for more - is rooted in ignorance of our true nature . And the only cure for ignorance is knowledge. Just as light dispels darkness instantly, Self-knowledge dissolves the false identification with the limited mind-body-ego and reveals an expansive, boundless identity as pure awareness
This freedom from suffering is the highest goal of human life. Yet, Vedanta is not mystical or esoteric - it is a practical, structured system of Self-knowledge , relevant to all who seek clarity, peace and an unshakable sense of wholeness.
The journey of Self-discovery is not about acquiring something new but removing misconceptions that cloud the truth. Vedanta does not ask for blind faith. Instead, it invites inquiry, reflection and direct experience . Through this process, the fundamental nature of reality is revealed - not as abstract concept but undeniable truth that transforms life.
As Swami Dayananda put it:
"Vedanta is a universal message and relevant to everyone, everywhere, even though not everyone will be interested in it. The message of Vedanta can be given to anyone because it is relevant to everyone… Without it, one's life is a search that never comes to an end.”
To make these teachings accessible to all , we have developed the Vedanta4All app - a resource designed to support sincere inquirers. The app offers free content , including teachings, meditations and retreat recordings. For those who wish to explore deeper, structured courses such as Intro to Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita and The Three Gunas are available for a small monthly subscription . For a more personal exploration, you can also book a private online session on the website. https://bodytalkwithlucua.setmore.com/services/s8e323c21226b7 524e6ce973236b3cf7aa8619059?source=easyshare
The path to freedom begins with understanding. Download the Vedanta4All app and take your first step toward Self-knowledgea journey that will change your life. https://www.vedanta4all.com/
Whenever I've faced tough things - mountainhigh decisions, hurtful relationships, painful consequences, speaking on stages around the world, health problems and the fear of “What if…”Wisdom helped me with this teaching.
This single, simple insight helped me claim peace-filled power and the courage to get unstuck.
Here is the teaching.
Wisdom:
You are not 'minus'.
You are not 'plus'.
You are 'equal to’
How many times does our ego and body's survival response have us posture as 'minus' (hiding, minimising, avoiding) or 'plus' (exaggerating, trying too hard, controlling)?
What if neither of these is true?
When I notice I feel 'minus' - less than a challenge, inferior to another person, stuck in doubt or fear - I take a few minutes to face and get 'equal to' the imagined worst thing I'm afraid of. My fear of loss or failure,
the wisdom teaching that helped me speak on stages, face conflict and build an abundant business
clinging to something or someone, my hoping to be seen as clever, good, or kind. This stops me from overcompensating by swinging into 'plus' - trying too hard, exaggerating or feeling superior.
This has helped me speak on stages, turn nightmares into new realities of abundance, set boundaries in relationships, heal from loss and face the daily challenges of being human.
It's my wish for you to find the peaceful power of being 'equal to'.
Here are four applications of the 'Equal To Wisdom'.
Back in my late 20s, I was mid-speech to a small group of about 70, teaching intuition skills. A short, grey-haired man sitting in the back row, his cheeks flushed red, interrupted me mid-sentence and shouted, “Nonsense!”
Now that he had our attention, he continued, “This intuition thing is rubbish.”
It felt like a gut punch. I wanted to attack, to defend my point of view. Who does he think he is? How rude .
All eyes were on me.
If I let my first instinctive response take charge, I would position as 'plus', trying to make him feel as small and 'minus' as he'd made me feel.
But I knew another way. I felt deeper inside myself for wisdom, setting an intention to be 'equal to' this man and this moment. This created a new choice.
'Equal to', I thought to myself. This can feel like bowing, accepting, understanding and owning.
I invited myself to be 'equal to' his point of view, 'equal to' his interruption and 'equal to' his fiery personality. It's more like the fulcrum of a pendulum that is stable - its 'equal to' both extremes.
'Equal to', I repeated until I could feel the contraction in my gut, heart and mind release. With more openness, a different way of responding arose.
I smiled (a real smile) and said, “Well, you know, for the price of popcorn and a movie, if you want to think of this talk as cheap bad entertainment, you're welcome.”
He looked puzzled for a moment but then also smiled. “Touché,” he replied. And I simply continued my talk.
Ironically, he became a regular student and we had a lovely connection for a couple of years.
Being criticised comes with the job of being a mentor and coach, so I've used this wisdom often.
' Plus ' and ' minus ' are two sides of the same coin. They are both survival instincts expressed through ego. They're not wrong or right , but they create more of the same. When someone positions as 'plus' to intimidate you, you may feel like you only have two choices - to act small and 'minus' or to attack back as 'plus'.
If someone positions as 'minus' you might join them or feel sorry for them as you position in a 'plus' - which is different to empathy.
'Equal to,' like the fulcrum of the pendulum, is the state of compassionate detachment. It is giving cleanly without needing anything in return and receiving gifts gratefully without guilt. I believe it also gives others the opportunity to leave their 'plus-minus' state, where we can meet on the 'equal to' bridge of understanding. And even if the other remains 'plus' or 'minus,' you are free of
the entanglement.
What would it give you to be free of the positive and negative judgments of others?
'Equal to' “What if!”
Our minds hold us to ransom with imagined outcomes.
When we get truly 'equal to' the best and worst imagined outcomes, we take back our peaceful power and claim what I call the 'untouchable self' - the true self.
“Colleen, what do you suggest I do?” my student asked, panic in her voice. “I'm facing a custody hearing this Friday. I'm terrified of losing custody of my children, but my ex-husband has money and influence. I can't sleep. I don't know what to do.”
I explained my 'Equal To Outcomes' process:
1First, visualise the worst-case scenario your mind is imagining. Picture yourself in a scene where the worst is happening - not to traumatise yourself, but simply to face what your imagination is already holding over you. Picture the conversations you need to have, face the loss and witness the events.
2Then, imagine that the worst is over - that it's in the past. Place yourself in a safe, tranquil scene of your choosing, whether a peaceful spot in nature or a comfortable room. Breathe, let go and tell yourself that the worst has passed.
3Now, search for what I call the 'untouchable self' by asking: “Even though the worst has happened, what is still true that life cannot take from me?” Contemplate this and claim one or more untouchable truths.
Over the years, I've heard responses like: My ability to experience love, beauty, peace and joy . Others have said: I still have my creativity, humour, talents and purpose .
4Breathe in these truths, allowing your heart, mind and body to absorb them. Show yourself that even if the worst happens, these untouchable truths remain. This is how we take back our peaceful power.
5Finally, notice how your feelings about the imagined worst scenario have shifted. With the untouchable truths to strengthen you, face the worst and feel the words, “I am 'equal to' this.”
Once we've completed facing the worst-case scenario and claiming the untouchable truths, it helps to also face the best-case scenario, where hidden fears and resistance sometimes hide.
So, we repeat the same process, but this time facing the best outcome
I offered this process to my student as a way of preparing for her custody battle. A week later, at her next class, she told me what had happened.
“Col, I did what you said, even though I was worried that by imagining the worst, I would be attracting it. When I faced the worst-case scenario, I cried a lot, but the truth I found was that my children would always be my children, even if I lost legal custody. This did bring me peace. What surprised me was that when I faced the best, I realised my ex-husband would also always be their father. This was also my untouchable truth.
“When I went to the custody hearing, I was not as afraid and I was much more present. I was less triggered by my ex and more open to giving him a place. Amazingly, we agreed to shared custody, which I never thought was possible.”
How would it feel for you to feel 'equal to' your mind's 'what if worst and best future outcomes'?
'Equal to' failure and success
In the early years of building my business, overwhelmed by decision-making fatigue and cash flow nightmares, I would regularly use my own 'equal to' process to imagine the collapse of my business.
I would face needing to disappoint many people, handle the complexity of financial debt and accept the loss of my dream. Then I would claim my untouchable truthsthat wisdom, intuition and my apple tree purpose would still be true even if my business failed.
In this space of clear seeing, I would sometimes ask myself, “If it all collapsed, what would I do next?”
And each time, I knew - I would build it again. Then I'd face the best-case scenarios, getting 'equal to' new levels of complexity, responsibility and abundance.
I'll tell you, each time I got 'equal to' a new level of monthly income in this way - by feeling the reality of the bigger numbers - without fail, my business would earn those new, bigger numbers within a few months.
By learning to be 'equal to' both the failure and success of every project, from sending emails to my database to pitching for life-changing multimillion deals, I've stayed in the flow.
Because, as wisdom has taught me, when we are not 'equal to' our imagined futures, we hold back our life river - then wonder why even the smallest rock blocks us. When we are 'equal to', we open the full power of our river of life, 'equal to' the rocks and waterfalls ahead of us and so we flow around and over them with grace and courage.
'Equal to' human and
I'll leave you with a fable that an Indian friend, who used to be a monk, once shared with me.
“The big bird represents our expanded, higher consciousness. The small bird represents our human, limited consciousness. By trying to be the big bird, we keep ourselves as the small bird. Only by accepting our small bird does the big bird automatically arise.”
Being 'equal to' being human - the best and the worst of it - is how we discover the true self.
My final message to you.
May you be 'equal to' the valleys and summits of life. Know yourself as 'equal to' pain and pleasure, gain and loss. This is the true self.
After recovering from a home invasion armed robbery years ago, I asked wisdom if I had attracted this traumatic event into my life. This is what wisdom showed me:
“ Winter is not your fault . Do you have any idea the courage of your soul to be born, to bleed and to die? You are that which is 'equal to' life . You are that sovereign being.”
Colleen-Joy trains natural coaches and leaders online to become in-demand, wisdom-led 'InnerLifeSkills Master Coaches' with door-opening ICF certification. She also guides an exclusive group of licensed 'Wisdom Partners' in building conscious international businesses. Her free monthly masterclasses and video courses can be found at innerlifeskills.com. Her paid Master Coach certification courses often sell out four months in advance.
Odyssey thought leader Colleen-Joy will be speaking and sharing her wisdom on both Saturday and Sunday at the KwazuluSpirit Festival 26 and 27 July, 2025. Tickets @Howler
Carolyn Chilton Casas
My Reiki teachers all said, once we started practising Reiki, we should be prepared for our lives to be shaken up, since sometimes opening to be a channel for healing brings our own unresolved life issues to the surface.
This happened for me. After my first Reiki class, it seemed as if there were a big sister looking over me saying: “Okay, so you think you are ready to help others; how
can
you
do that when
you haven't completely healed your own stuff?”
Later, in the months following my first master class, I was given the opportunity to work on emotional healing with my mother. She is in her 80s and I am the only family member who helps her out. Things would soon happen to push the healing of our relationship into overdrive.
In May of that year, my husband and I flew to Europe to meet up with our son and daughter in Croatia and then travel on to Prague where our son was living. What I didn't know during our relaxing two weeks away, was that my mother had become ill in my absence.
Our trip home from the Czech Republic involved three flights, 20 hours of travel, two nights with little sleep and a nine-hour time difference. Once we reached home, I fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up a couple of hours later to a text from a woman who cleans and does other odd jobs for my mother, telling me that Mom had been sick again while I was gone. For a few years, she had been experiencing serious on and off bouts of symptoms from an autoimmune condition, but she'd been feeling fine before we left on the trip. By the time I got to her house, she was very weak, but it still took me three days to convince her to go to the emergency room. Once in the hospital, they gave her IV fluids, did a blood test and then sent her home
without any answers. Some days later, when her doctor received the lab results, he called to tell us my mother had an infection perilous for someone her age.
Sleep-deprived and jet-lagged, I was thrust into the mode of caregiver and decision maker. It was rough. She was frightened, cranky and determined to stay home.I was frustrated and worried, wishing for someone to help me make decisions. I was doing what needed to be done each day, but emotionally I was on a downward spiral. The communication between us grew more tense the more ill she became.
After she was finally admitted to the hospital, one morning I was able to go home to shower. Standing under the hot water, I desperately asked the Divine for guidance. I needed inspiration for how to deal with what was happening. I also asked what lessons between us had yet to be learned.
Still in the shower, I remembered a book my daughter had lent me to read when we visited her - The Law of Attraction , by Esther and Jerry Hicks. During our time in New York, reading before bed each evening, I'd finished half the book. When we flew home, I'd left the book there. Then, as I was walking through our bedroom, there was a copy of the book on the bed stand. How had it got there? Had I ordered it before leaving for Europe? I must have, but the synchronicity of seeing it in plain sight when I wanted to read it seemed synchronistic at the time.
Where to begin, I couldn't remember the page where I'd left off and, as I picked it up, it fell open to the section about deliberate creation…
What is the law of attraction? A quote from the book clearly explains it: “Without exception, that which you
Carolyn
Chilton Casas - a er the Lord's Prayer
Source of us all, that manifests in every particle of creation, sacred be our knowing of you. Let your nurturing be a paradigm, your goodness a practice to emulate, on our planet and for the whole of creation.
Give us these fleeting moments, manna of immense grace. Tolerate our mistakes as we bear the missteps of others. Allow us to understand the trials we encounter are but baptisms for the sake of evolving. For ours is the magnitude, and the fortitude, and the splendor of existence, now and forever.
Amen
give thought to is that which you begin to invite into your experience.”
This concept works equally with positive and negative thoughts. You can tell whether or not you are in alignment by how you feel. What this means is, dwelling on something you don't want to experience will cause a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, a reminder that you are out of balance. Okay, this resonated with me. I was experiencing that sensation of unease; I had been feeling it almost incessantly since I found out my mother was not well.
Over the years, I had read about the law of attraction works from many different authors. I had also studied it in depth in Science of Mind classes 30 years before. It seemed I needed a refresher course, though, because I was sinking deeper into despair every day, facing what was happening.
There is an exercise in the book where, in order to start turning your thinking around, instead of concentrating on all the things that are happening that you don't want, you first write down one thing you do want. I thought I wanted freedom; so, I wrote this on a piece of paper. I had been the main caregiver for my father and, now for several years, I had also been helping my mother. Journaling, I stopped and sat with the idea of freedom being what I wanted to manifest. Was that what I really wanted? No, what I really wished for were peace, love and joy. That was it exactly.
After completing this exercise, every time my mother and I didn't see eye to eye, I said my new mantra silently – peace, love and joy. Sometimes I removed myself from her room for a few minutes to give me some separation to focus on my new mantra. In the following days, when I was clearer, I wrote down a more detailed list of what I wanted in my life. Most of the items on the list weren't about her. I wanted time to keep our household and business running efficiently, to give and receive Reiki and to exercise. I wanted time with my kids and husband, time to read, write and do creative projects. I wanted to spend time in nature because that is where I feel most peaceful. I wanted solitude.
Of course, I also wanted my mother to be happy, healthy and have all the help she needed so she didn't feel exclusively dependent on me. From then on, when my heart started to race upon seeing her name light up on my phone, I remembered to focus on my intention of peace, love and joy. Little by little, this seemed to work, and things got easier.
A big chunk of the puzzle to ease the anxiety I was feeling came from a section in the book that discussed the difference between tolerating someone's behaviour and allowing it. Tolerating comes from a place of negativity because there is judgment, anger, frustration and wanting the person involved to change.
“When you are tolerating, you are not allowing.”
The art of allowing is described as “…I am that which I am and I am willing to allow all others to be that which they are…” Allowing my mother to be however she was, meant I needed to let her live her life the way she wanted to, without judgment, but at the same time I could affirm a different way of living for myself. “When you can look at this world and feel joy all the time, you are an allower.” Reading this section helped me transform how I was reacting.
The miracle, though, was I began to notice my mother was changing as I changed. Over the next weeks, I saw steady progress in how she related to me. She wasn't as quick to judge. She was kinder and more appreciative of my help.
“If something you want is slow to come to you, it can be for only one reason: You are spending more time focused upon its absence than you are on its presence. Every thought you think, positive or negative, if you keep thinking it, will eventually become powerful enough to attract the essence of itself into your experience.”
On the list I made after reading that chapter on deliberate creation was wishing I had a sibling to to share my mother's care with. This was not possible, I knew, but still, I made the wish. Not long after, we found a wonderful woman from a local volunteer centre to take over some of my responsibilities. Over time, they became friends and we had something close to what I'd wished for. And with the help of Reiki, we continued to learn how to interact more easily. The Law of Attraction was a lifesaver. I'm still amazed at how quickly things turned around after I followed the tips for deliberate creation.
Carolyn Chilton Casas is an Usui/Holy Fire® Reiki master teacher, a Karuna® Reiki master, and an Animal Reiki practitioner whose joy is in exploring ways to heal in the articles she writes for energy and wellness magazines in several countries. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal and Thin Spaces & Sacred Spaces . More of Carolyn's work can be found on Facebook or Instagram and in her newest collection of poetry Under the Same Sky
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“Your body's ability to heal is greater than anyone has permitted you to believe.”
The philosophy behind this branch of kinesiology is that human beings are created as perfect, interconnected systems. We are designed to live in homeostasis – a perfect balance of mind, body, emotions and spirit – fully equipped for the things we want to achieve in life.
However, sometimes we find ourselves in distress, whether it be mentally, physically or emotionally. This is our body's way of indicating that we are 'off track', not living to our full potential, or not coping in one or more areas of our life. Kinesiology is the study of muscle movement and is a powerful holistic and complementary modality that focuses on - and stimulates - the body's self-healing capacity, based on the neurological workings of the body. Having gone all the way back to the original source of our disease or anxiety, kinesiology works by bringing all systems of the body into balance on a physical, mental, emotional, biochemical and energetic level. This means that the corrections have been done on the underlying causes that resulted in dis-ease, rather than simply treating the symptoms or suppressing the issue.
There are different adaptations of kinesiology and what is being described here is often referred to as specialised kinesiology. This is differentiated from applied kinesiology, which is at times incorporated into physiotherapy and chiropractic practices. In practice, the specialised kinesiologist checks how your muscles respond to different tests (also called muscle bio-feedback) to determine which stimulus stresses the body and how that stress can be decreased. A kinesiologist is not a dispenser of healing to the client, but rather the facilitator of the body's own wish to be healed and whole - we simply follow the clues your body provides through muscle responses and then follow
up to restore balance to your body systems. Simply put, kinesiology is used preventatively to stay healthy, or curatively to become healthy again. In addition, kinesiology aims to make you feel better about yourself, so that you can gracefully evolve into your potential.
As kinesiology is a complementary therapy, it is a treatment that complements our western allopathic medicine and may be included in an integrative health system.
Kinesiology was originally developed by the American chiropractor Dr George Goodheart in the 1960s to enhance and improve the quality of his treatments. It has since evolved into many different branches, all based on the scientific, neurological workings of the body and, in South Africa, these modalities include Touch for Health (TFH), Emotional Kinesiology, Neuro-Training, Neural Organisation Technique (NOT) and Stress Indicator Point System (SIPS).
There are two ways of studying kinesiology in South Africa and these courses have many benefits at all levels, as you can: Engage in some self-exploration and personal development in your life and health; gain knowledge and tools for self-care and wellness at home; incorporate the knowledge and tools that kinesiology offers into what you already practise; or actually become a practising specialised kinesiologist and make this your career. Please visit https://www.kinesiologysa.co.za/ or contact our instructors (in advert) for more information.
Kinesiology is suitable for everyone and only you can heal yourself. But through muscle monitoring and this gentle, non-invasive healing approach, we help you change unhelpful patterns to enhance your health and life.
By Neta-Li Gonen
Life has changed significantly since Covid. …I am seeing more and more clients who are struggling to move forward; clearing traumas, anxiety and depression are a few examples. Even just to process emotions is hard for some people. I feel life is calling people to let go, awaken and just be within peace and stillness.
The Journey is a powerful, deep healing method for those who have this yearning, clear whatever is holding them back in living their pure authenticity by coming home to themselves. Sometimes, it is about changing beliefs, vows or the labels that keep a person going in circles. Other times, facing and feeling the terror, rage and loneliness for the first time because there are avoidance strategies in place or simply permission is needed to feel. There are also instances where emptying, what never has been said and how the pain cost is needed to come out. Journeywork is not for sissies. It is for those who really have the calling to move the inward pain into transformation. It is an invitation to dive where you have never been before. Your own soul is guiding you as to what is coming up for freedom. So you know anything that comes up, your soul is ready to let go. All you have to be is open and willingly surrender to this unknown journey. It is also about trusting the process and going with the flow with whatever is revealed. Every process is different depending on what comes up and is uniquely designed along the way. No two processes are the same.
Journeywork assists with so many issues:
•Abortion
•Life Purpose
•Trauma
•Depression, anxiety
•Different forms of loss beyond bereavement
•Physical 'dis-eases’
•Abuse including emotional, mental, physical and sexual
•Your ego, faults and flaws
The Journey has given me many gifts. I was one of those delegates who didn't know how to process my emotions, express myself clearly and had unhealthy beliefs like feeling anger, resentment is bad; crying shows weaknesses; not believing I was deserving, worthy or good enough for all kinds of abundance including money, relationships, success or even my dreams. While practising Reiki Self-Healing I would identify in-body cell memories following that with a The Journey process.
I discovered so much. Forgiving the unforgivablethat healed me from traumas. I had to allow my body to forgive when I was beaten up by girls and boys at school, the teacher who had a 'blind' eye or who did not care.
The depths of The Journey is unimaginable. Experiencing freedom of 'I am', 'just be' and 'everything I seek is within' was more than I bargained. I also learned what my issues are and what others' are. This resulted in my NOT taking responsibility for other people's emotions, triggers, choices or ego reactions. It was realising that not everything is my fault. My triggers started to transform into glimmers of light within myself. My light started to shine when they disappeared. There are some triggers which don't take over me. The pain is at a much lower level. My pain just no longer consumes me.
The Journey taught me to trust my body, as Brandon calls the body the barometer of the soul. In every situation that I am unsure (and I also teach this to my clients), I tune in. If the body cringes – STAY AWAY. If body is free and at ease, go with it.
The titles that we say of ourselves no longer mattered as they come from ego because everything comes from love. Nothing more is needed.
My favourite Brandon Bays quote is: “When you are willing to shine the light of love:
•Onto the parts that you are not proud of •Onto the unaccepted parts, the unloved parts, the unwanted parts, the unwanted emotions into the darkened corners of your soul,
love will suffuse them, embrace them, until you are left as nothing but love itself. Love arises when you expose everything.” From my experience, this quote is a true pathway to healing and enlightenment.
I have become a stronger, an emotionally empowered and aware person. The Journey has provided me (and many) with a beautiful supportive community including Brandon Bays and her husband Kevin Billett.
Neta-Li was connected with Brandon Bay's book, The Journey , and later on wanted to experience The Journey. The healing provided Neta-Li with profound, deep, long-lasting shifts. At some point, there was a calling to become an accredited journey practitioner. Neta-Li discovered her purpose is to: Be the light; Heal with light; Teach the light, So that people can blossom into their own light.
Her passion continues with The Journey as she still volunteers mostly for Journey International to assist newcomers on their own journey. Neta-Li has continued sharing the light by forming The Healing Collective, a group of healers providing individuals opportunities to experience shifts and upliftments on various levels from multiple modalities. She sees clients face-to-face in Johannesburg and online in many parts of the world. Contact netali.gonen@gmail.com
by Jock Brocas
Increasingly, evidence points to the growing issue of spiritual emergencies being wrongly labelled as pathologies. Researchers such as Stanislav and Christina Grof have explored this phenomenon extensively, suggesting that it remains a field in constant development with ongoing research. There are gaps in research that, if identified, may bring new insights into spiritual crisis and how to treat the crisis in a psychotherapeutic way. The psychologist Roberto Assagioli asserted that those on a spiritual path could also suffer from a spiritual crisis because they become over-absorbed in the spiritual experiences they continually seek. It is because of this overuse and the desire for these experiences that psychological imbalances become a potential problem. Thus, there is potential for spiritual crisis with spiritual seekers or those who are forced into a spiritual experience. In particular, grief can also become a potential for spiritual crisis and one does not have to suffer from prolonged grief disorder, which is a labelled as a pathology by psychologists and psychiatrists.
The experience of grief is often dismissed as a psychological process with emotional expressions, but what if grief is also a catalyst for profound spiritual transformation? Perhaps it is a grave mistake to pathologise something that can, in fact, be transformational. When we lose someone dear to us, the rupture is not just emotional. It fractures our understanding of reality, identity and even our connection to existence itself. As a consequence, we become disconnected from who we really are. This is where grief transcends the conventional boundaries of mourning and enters the realm of spiritual crisis.
My personal grief journey
In my journey through loss, I found myself caught in a liminal space. An alternate space at one where the presence of the departed felt both absent and profoundly tangible. It was a paradox that defied conventional models of bereavement. The pain was not just in the heart; it was in the very fabric of my being, unravelling everything I once believed to be true. Was I merely experiencing an expected grief response, or was I undergoing a spiritual emergency? In reality, I suffered the loss
of many close family and friends in such a short space of time. This profound loss exacerbated my own grief and I had to conclude that I was suffering a spiritual crisis. The very fabric of my spiritual reality was shattered and I questioned my own connection. The disconnection that was felt internally became my personal spiritual crisis and I felt loneliness at a level that was unsurpassed.
For many, grief becomes a doorway into the unknown, where the structures that once held life together dissolve. In this collapse, the psyche may seek meaning and this quest often leads to encounters with transpersonal experiencesimpressions, synchronicities, or even spontaneous mediumistic episodes. While some may frame these occurrences as mere coping mechanisms, others find them to be initiatory moments, forcing a radical re-evaluation of consciousness. This becomes the catalyst to a transformational episode.
Mainstream psychology, with its rigid diagnostic frameworks, often cannot accommodate the complexity of these experiences. Instead, prolonged grief disorder or bereavementrelated phenomena are pathologised, treated as disorders rather than transformations. This is where the issue deepens: By labelling these experiences as mere psychological disturbances, we risk severing individuals from the very process that could lead to profound personal and spiritual growth.
Could it be that grief, when allowed to unfold naturally, serves as an initiatory process - one that not only reshapes the self but also alters one's understanding of existence itself? And if this is the case, how do we reframe our approach to grief so that we honour its transformative potential rather than suppressing it with clinical interventions?
Grief, like any altered state of consciousness, requires discernment. Just as the medium who reached out to me struggled with her transpersonal experience, those grieving may also find themselves in states of altered perception that require guidance rather than diagnosis. What if we began to treat grief not as something to 'recover' from, but as a path that demands integration?
This opens a new line of inquiry: Could grieving itself induce the same transpersonal crisis observed in mediums, mystics and those undergoing spiritual emergencies? And if so, how might we redefine the landscape of bereavement care to include a more holistic, spiritually informed approach? This approach is one that does not reduce the profound experience of loss to a set of symptoms, but honours it as a sacred passage. We can learn so much from our indigenous brothers and sisters. We often pathologise something we do not understand, such as schizophrenia. However, a schizophrenic could actually experience a transformative journey and its catalyst could have occurred because of an aspect of grief. It does not mean that grief is only about the loss of a loved one or a deceased individual. Grief can express itself in many aspects of life. The problem is that we cannot recognise the potential or the mechanics of the experience. Those who counsel, or who offer therapy may also fail to recognise the expressions as a spiritual crisis.
Is it a spiritual emergency or spiritual emergence?
This presents a serious issue over the ability to discern not only if it is a spiritual emergency by the therapist but also highlights the imbalance in discernment from the professional. What may present as a possible psychosis or mental imbalance may actually be a spiritual emergence. Spiritual emergence is a natural process in which an individual experiences an accelerated expansion of consciousness, often marked by profound insights, heightened perception, or mystical experiences. When this process becomes overwhelming or destabilising, it can develop into a spiritual emergency, where the individual struggles to integrate these experiences into their daily life. Researchers such as Stanislav and Christina Grof have explored this phenomenon extensively, suggesting that it remains a field in constant development with ongoing research. I prefer my own term, aptly called Spiritual Personal Interventionist Integration or SPII. More about this in a followup article.
This misinterpretation of pathology supports the assumption made by Dr Assagioli and is further corroborated by researchers like David Lukoff, PhD, who asserts that this potential spiritual emergency could be misinterpreted and labelled as a serious pathology. Ken Wilber, one of Grof's greatest critics, also agreed that the model warranted further research as mystical or peak experiences, as described by Abraham Maslow, were often wrongly pathologised as psychosis.
This is because of a lack of discernment and therefore requires appropriate psychotherapeutic intervention. The problem lies in the absence of empirical evidence for a possible parapsychological phenomenon that could blend transpersonal experiences with parapsychological explanation and offer a path to integration.
This leads me to my research, where grief, willful possession, influence and the altered state could be the catalyst to psychosis and potential schizophrenic episodes. This distinction further reinforces the idea that grief can serve as a catalyst for transformation, rather than merely a pathological state.
Individuals experiencing spiritual experiences, spirit influence or parapsychological phenomena often report significant shifts in perception, emotional depth and even heightened states of awareness. These are elements that align more with transformational processes than with psychiatric disorders. Understanding these occurrences through a broader lens of spiritual crisis rather than pathology allows for a more integrative approach to healing and growth, supporting the notion that grief is not merely an affliction to be treated, but a journey that reshapes one's understanding of reality itself.
It is also a potential area of future research to identify spiritual emergency by researching the transformational experiences of the grief journey. There is a very high potential to gain empirical evidence through direct recording of evidential phenomena. This is an area that needs more of a developmental approach to research, which does not allow for empirical evidence. A more experiential approach would allow a deeper understanding of grief as a transformational process.
Transpersonal psychology has advanced understanding of spiritual emergency. There are gaps, including limited empirical evidence and mislabelling spiritual emergencies as pathologies. Integrating phenomenological and empirical methods could enhance understanding of phenomena like spirit intrusion and willful possession. Grief after all, can be your greatest nemesis or your greatest teacher.
Jock Brocas is a renowned evidential spiritual medium, bestselling author and respected paranormal researcher. With an unwavering commitment to authenticity, Jock blends his rich spiritual experiences with extensive scholarly study, inspiring thousands across the globe. His intuitive abilities and dedication to truth have fuelled his popular books, such as Deadly Departed and Powers of the Sixth Sense . Jock uses his deep understanding of the afterlife to support those grieving, providing comfort through afterlife education. An influential figure in his field, Jock continues to captivate audiences with his fascinating insights into the spiritual realm and the unexplored corners of the human psyche. His work reshapes our understanding of life, death and what lies beyond, offering us a unique lens into the extraordinary.
If you would like to sign up below, you will get access to my free meditations and parables that will help you through your journey of life. https://jockbrocas.com.
Greetings I am Kuthumi.
Beloved ones, as your friend I conduct my energy through this being to be able to share with you in words that which your Higher Self communicates to you in frequency.
Known or unbeknown, a new doorway awaits, beyond which an enhanced frequency (timeline) greets you. This doorway of your (sacred) heart allows entry into your divine essence. This leads to planes beyond your personal Golden Pyramid. This higher heart-mind frequency is overseen by your Over Soul / Higher Self.
A new frequency brings new energy
This is the promise of the 'new' codes of enlightenment bestowed upon you. You experienced this recently first hand, your authentic exciting Angel Warrior Codes. It's an amalgamation of previous codes. It is light, liquid and alchemical! The current energy finally flings the doorway to the Aquarian Age wide open and we are here with you!
The planet blesses you with its eternal elemental codes. Unlike Lightworkers, most are rather oblivious of these divine gifts of nature. The only blessing about being oblivious is discovering that you no longer are!
Expect the unexpected
As this frequency aligns with the essence of Pluto moving fully into the Aquarian energy, it brings with it a new promise of great revelations such as clarity on many things you couldn't find surety about. Things that troubled you but couldn't quite put your finger on yet felt the need to understand.
It reveals the 'bliss of the unknown'. Aquarius is all about newness - discoveries, technologies and modernising things with an upshift in frequency. It also
brings to the fore things you shy away from. That which no longer serves you will reveal itself in many different ways!
Mostly this will present itself in non-offensive ways at first, but unexpected curve balls reveal the indifferent side to the Aquarian energy. That cold shoulder who irritatingly snubs. The absent-mindedness that 'wanders off in mind' whilst engaging in conversation, to return innocently without recollection. This shared 'fragment' will be evident on all levels.
These are your 'new' grounding years of this frequency. You are entering the greatest transition ever, which presents a new profound way of looking at all things differently, with inner sight.
As 2025's '9' numerology brings things to a close, a new timeline awaits. 2026, albeit the start of a new cycle, also brings a powerful transformative three-year process to a close, SO EXPECT BIG CHANGES from now on, BIG revelations.
If there ever was a time to embrace change it is NOW. Your experiences of the past 24 or so years created this doorway. For most, it has been a time of 'deep surges', feeling as if you are dragging your feet and facing constant challenges. Many are still opting out of this density.
2006/7 played a significant part in what is happening now, as many face similar transitions.
Be brave, break down the high walls that surround you, then dismantle the fences beyond that. Let go of self-inflicted obstacles set deliberately to keep everyone away.
Pull the drawbridge down and empty your moat! It is time to unveil the New You which was initiated in 2012. It's all about alchemy, discovering the renewed you, as in juxtapose and paradox there is nothing new
The Aquarian Age Gateway reveals 'never before discoveries' including much you never knew about your amazing magical self. Up to now many still felt the heavy stubbornness of the 'old' preventing passage into the new, especially over the past 18 months.
Close the door on rigidity and dogma. Although becoming anew means working on yourself, the frequency has shifted from 'I must' to 'I want'. Laugh at your setbacks. Let go of the insecurities you've locked yourself within. Open your wings and become the Human Angel that you are!
This is a rebirth into your desired timeline!
If you always do what you always did you will always get what you always got.
Put this into practice. Creating the life you dream of may not be an easy ride without complications. But see those complications as opportunities instead of stumbling blocks. Let go of the instability within the emotional body especially. This will support the mental body to expand beyond lower understanding. Integrate this into your new frequency, the discovery of (as you must have heard) your awakening chromosome pairs and 'junk' DNA! It's all there!
Now is the time for that which you always considered 'junk and dormant' to unveil new perceptions!
Unbelievable? No beloveds. You are gifted with enhanced building blocks to transcend your consciousness from survival to living life to the fullest.
Love is in the air!
Amethyst, violet and emerald frequencies are blasted throughout this planet, not only by the master overseers but by every one of YOU who experienced the many activations and initiations! This happens at a beautifully blissful oblivious level (smirk). You, the planetary Lightworkers are doing this and there are many, many, millions of you!
Your collective is shifting and expanding ALL the time. The average frequency of the 'general brain wave' is shifting to accommodate the new energy, so they too may 'consciously' discover newness in the mundane and dare to explore what lies beyond their yellow brick road. Beloveds, so that they too may in their expansive mind and dream astral state, discover their golden doorway, thus become conscious about consciousness!
These transformation codes emanate from you naturally, the Earth Keepers, with every move you make (hands and feet), every breath you take, every thought you entertain and every word you speak. This is what you've been trained for. To integrate newness and to understand the recalibration transition from the old into the new and spread it!
This will support the planet's collective in working with this energy. Become aware of the senses of Gaia, the elements of the Earth. The essence of the winds of change, water which carries and reacts to thought, frequency and memory, fire which changes, disperses and brings new life and air which allows all to come into being. All in support of rebirthing consciousness.
Embrace the blessings of this planet like your own. Take on your coat of many colours, your cloak of many fragments. The alchemist never ignores these senses along with their own; smell, taste, sight, touch, hear and knowing, not forgetting, your higher senses.
Work with the elementals, the sylphs (air), undines (water), gnomes (earth), salamanders and fire dragons (fire) to mention some. These beautiful creatures exist in interdimensional space which is becoming more evident as the veils become thinner between worlds. Set the intent for a 'tune-up' of your third eye as this energy is becoming prominent and 'alive' along your timeline of new discoveries!
From the millennium to 2012 was 12 years and from 2012 to the timeline of 2024, another 12 years. This energy you are entering into will be very similar to the post-2012 era.
We gave you many pointers at the time which some chose to ignore. To the dismay of many, from a collective point of view, the period that followed felt like an uncomfortable silence. We left the group we worked with back then in their sarcophagus for three months during their final 2012 initiation. We closed the lid and doorways to their initiation chambers, not for the faint of heart…
Beloveds, to survive in complete 'darkness' you must hold yourself in an enlightened state. Where your light shines, darkness cannot be! Your ascension chakras facilitate this by introducing a heightened state of consciousness whilst functioning consciously on any level. Hence, juggling third, fourth and fifth dimensional awareness and more.
We invited that group to 'resurface' three months later in 2013 with the hope of eliminating fear from their being - and many did! Beloveds, many of you, in your own way, faced similar fear levels since 2012. Many groups such as the one this channel worked with at the time laid cornerstone foundations for the past 12 years since 2012. We referred to them as the Golden Phoenix.
If this new timeline demands of you to become the Phoenix once more, to be reborn from your ashes again and again, do it fast, do it quickly, get over it and move on! Let go of all that robbed and restricted you from freely expressing yourself fully and completely. We will share various aspects of the new energy over time.
For those that follow our teachings about anchoring your sacred Golden Pyramid Sanctum, infuse as much emotion, frequency, senses, elements and whatever else you resonate with, making your visualisations as real as possible. That is how you enter into and traverse through your higher frequency Golden Door. ** Note – I will be starting online teachings about this soon – Chanel
A most important alchemical tool
Beloveds, visualise your pineal, pituitary, major brain nerve plexus (carotid and choroid), hypothalamus and thalamus in separate crystalline mother-of-pearl star tetrahedrons and spin their frequencies. This aids third eye activation on yet another level.
Visualise etheric electromagnetic sparks emanating from the spinning third eye gateway glands filtering into all your bodies, rewiring your DNA. Address your DNA with INTENT and LOVE!
“I AM a Multifaceted Multi-dimensional Magical Magnificent Being of Light”
Let your cauldron of all possibilities brew something incredible for you! YOU came to push every button and rip open every envelope! Do so with LOVE.
You are guardians of the New Earth Flames and New Earth DNA. With new frequencies comes a clearer understanding of timelines, some you are congruent with and some not. You will learn how to cope with multiple and then there are those timelines that entertain...
Set the intent to tap into (gamma) cosmic energy (crystalline frequency) to aid the rewiring of your DNA! Connect to the Christ Consciousness crystalline grid to expand this. Tap into and awaken your dormant spiritual DNA, which will rewire your frequency magnificently!
Until we meet again, I am Kuthumi, I am the Lord and Master Cohan of the Golden Rays of Love and Wisdom.
Invite Christ Consciousness within as without to guide your every way. Instead of panic call upon us. Call upon the universal flow of Light to, through the Cosmic Seas, bless unto you every opportunity that you so deserve. Let go of the restrictions of the mind that create insecurity and know that not now or not ever can you be alone. Adonai.
Chanel lives in Howick South Africa. Author of From Party Patsy to Praying Patricia - www.visionoftheheart.co.za. Transvoice channel for the Ascended Masters since 2006 after surviving a mind-blowing extraordinary ordination.
In the previous article we covered and brought up the idea of the I and the O as being two aspects needed for creation to unfold.
We compared this to the 1 and 0 of electronics and then tied it up to our biological computers with neurons that fire together wire together.
We expanded on the idea that this is also shown in the m I nd and b O dy, two aspects of this creation that we came here to experience.
We are all are aware of theI as this is what we were brought up to believe we are. The m I nd is formed with information we received while growing up which in turn created theego the false sense of self.
With this understanding we can see why our reality is the way it is as it is creating an I -society.
Once we realize that the only thing that differs in all of us is the information that we have accumulated we will direct our focus to something greater.
In this course material we came to understand that this entire reality is a creation of g O d-m O m known as our divine parents.
The divine masculine-g O d and divine feminine-m O m.
This course material came into formation when the self was navigating to find answers as to why we are so fragmented as a society, let alone all the abuse that this I went through along the journey.
As thisI did not want to personalize the course material a character was made up called TIA which was an acronym for T his I A m.
Then once this was done the course material started to flow in accordance with what needed to be expressed.
Naturetunesy O u
Numberscalibratey O u
Activationsintegratey O u
As anI there were doubts many times as this course was unfolding yet TIA kept on persevering forward to see what the outcome would be.
One of the tools we use is Gematria which is the breaking up of words to numbers to see how they resonate with one another.
THIS I AM = 79 = NATURE = 79 = M O THER = 79 = I AM LIGHT = 79 = THE B O DY
This immediately made sense to TIA; we separated from m O ther and once we did that, we became an I -ego forming the m I nd.
Activations is a way to bring source energy into our relative experience to elevate our frequency.
The best way to express this is with the atom with the particles ( I ) that occupy the 0,0000001 % and the space( O ) the 99.9999999 %.
Activations is the tool used to open our energy centres (Chakras) to allow them to operate more efficiently.
We learn about base activations which connects us to our mother; heart activations that open the heart centre to make us more intuitive. Other tools we learn is the wOOsh-wOOsh to remove any energy vampires that are attached to our sacral centre, and further tools to bring balance to the lower three energy centres.
This entire creation comes from our m O ther, so we are really one b O dy, it is theego-them I nd which creates the separation and in turn the reality we are experiencing.
Visit site for more and free preface download. www.ene-g.co.za
Just for today I will not worry.
Just for today I will not get angry.
Just for today I will be honest.
Just for today I will count my blessings.
Just for today I will give love and show respect to every living being. So simple, So powerful - What we think we cannot do for a lifetime, we can do for a day
Today RASA, a longstanding and credible association founded in May 2001, has trained thousands of practitioners over the years. RASA is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of Reiki healing and teaching in Southern Africa. Our unwavering commitment, demonstrated through consistent quality education and competency, ensures comfort for both prospective students and healing recipients. www.reikiassociation.co.za
072 199 0783
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Usui
More and more fields of medical practice are beginning to appreciate that emotions and unseen energetic aspects are intertwined with physical wellbeing. An understanding of energy medicine is a powerful tool when working within the holistic modalities of healing.
Remembering the origins
Reiki is a practice stemming from Japan in the early 1920s. As of this current time Reiki has now been practised for over 100 years, across many parts of the world. Reiki is well-known as an energetic and noninvasive practice to balance the chakras. It is important to appreciate that the concept of the chakras and Vedic astrology, is dated to thousands of years ago and traced in the Sanskrit texts linked to India.
The chakras are difficult to describe and, in some ways, it is helpful to imagine chakras as energetic vortexes or portals through the body. Often a picture of a flower or rotating wheel is pictured when conjuring up the chakra. Chakras have been assigned colours and, depending on who you may speak to or what source you read, the colour assigned to each chakra may vary. There are seven main commonly known chakras and these will be the focus in this article. Some cultures or belief systems may recognise less or more. Each chakra has polarities of masculine and feminine and to correlate this to Vedic astrology, we see it through the zodiac signs and planets associated with each chakra.
The Mūlādhāra , or the root chakra, is associated with Capricorn and Aquarius, ruled by Saturn. Saturn deals with our doubts and fears. The root chakra is about meeting our basic needs for survival, it is about having a safe home environment and having enough money and food for our essential needs. When we have stagnant energy in this chakra we can be overwhelmed in a storm of doom and gloom, anxiety and depression. As our fears and insecurities arise, we need to harness the higher vibrations of Saturn to handle them. We become humble, take responsibility, learn and do what we need to do, to survive.
By Anastacia Sampson
The Svādhiṣṭhāna , or sacral chakra, is associated with Sagittarius and Pisces, ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter deals with expansion and creativity. The sacral chakra is about procreation, expressing our desire and sense of joy. When we have stagnant energy in this chakra, we lack creative interests, experience misplaced guilt, are harsh and rigid. As our desires are presented, we need to harness the higher vibrations of Jupiter to manage them. We become wise and discerning, kind and generous, when we expand ourselves in healthy Jupiterian energy. When feeling excessive sexual desire, addictions for substances and gambling, we draw on Jupiter for wisdom to navigate through this and a high vibrational Jupiter enables us to not be impulsively satisfied. We are able to have an expansive view and understanding that every action and thought we have carries repercussions.
The Maṇipūra , solar plexus chakra, is associated with Aries and Scorpio, ruled by Mars. Mars deals with action, instinct and logic. The solar plexus chakra is about the digestive fire, having the will to act appropriately and to use our will with more consciousness. When we have stagnant energy with this chakra, we can have weak digestion, lack initiative or ambition and express inappropriate shame and aggressive outbursts. As life demands us to act, we must act when we need to. Draw on the higher vibrations of Mars to push you forward with courage and bravery as you approach life with its many challenges and changes. Mars will give 'you the guts' to apply for the job, to confront a bully and defend your family and yourself.
The Anāhata , heart charka, is associated with Taurus and Libra, ruled by Venus. Venus deals with gentleness, diplomacy, grace and love. The heart chakra enables us to feel true compassion and unconditional love. The heart chakra often becomes more rigid or stagnant during times of grief, losing a loved one or during the end of a relationship. Science is recognising that 'dying of a broken heart' with grief, due to a tragic experience, can indeed happen. It is not literally a broken heart, yet the heart takes on a great deal of ambush with our emotions, especially grief. Choosing to manage our emotions with compassion and care, supports the heart chakra. Finding healthy and constructive outlets for our emotions supports the heart chakra. Venus gently nudges us to remember we need care and nurture, as much as others do.
The Viśuddha , throat chakra, is associated with Gemini and Virgo, ruled by Mercury. Mercury deals with communication, managing the details and problems. The throat chakra enables us to express ourselves and communicate. The throat chakra is intricately linked to speaking 'our truth'. Acute episodes of voice loss or not being able to speak clearly and unconscious bending of the truth, often reveal an imbalanced throat chakra. Use the higher vibration of Mercury to enable you to express your emotions, feelings and thoughts clearly, honestly and concisely.
The Āj ñ ā , third eye chakra is associated with Cancer and Leo, ruled by the Moon and the Sun. The Moon deals with our nourishment and nurturing needs, our emotional nature and ego. The Sun deals with our confidence, authority, our soul's will to express itself and vitality. Being able to see the truth in a situation reveals an activated third eye. The third eye is deeply supported through meditation and contemplation, especially when we are in a garden, quiet setting, lying in a bed at night or walking in environments where trees and plants are near us.
The Sahasrāra , crown chakra is the seventh chakra and at this level, it is of such a high vibration and linked intricately to the higher self. The higher self is not confined to an astrological birth chart and generally the crown chakra is not associated with a planet or any zodiac signs. The crown chakra is about a state of being, unperturbed by emotions and transient life experiences.
Conclusion
To conclude, Reiki is a non-invasive or non-physical therapy to support and assist our chakras. Our emotions are energetic states, stored within our body and,
depending on our stored emotions, we can develop painful physical conditions. This is why the chakras are deeply entwined with medical astrology. The chakras are portals to assist in emotional and physical healing. An energetic interflow is occurring between our chakras and they do influence each other. We often are called to notice one specific chakra, ideally though we want to support all our chakras for an overall state of energetic balance. Medical astrology and chakras have been long time friends and still are to this day.
Anastacia Sampson, D.N. Med. BA (Hons), has been practising medical and psychological astrology for over 22 years. After obtaining her diplomas in health studies via the UK, she began writing health columns for newspapers and journals. Anastacia completed her honours degree in Psychology and was awarded a cum laude pass. Anastacia is a registered member of the South African Pharmacy Council and Association of Supportive Counsellors and Holistic Practitioners.
Anastacia Sampson consults from her home base in Knysna and through online platforms both locally and internationally
by Dr Arien van der Merwe
How is your 2025 = 9 year going?
I, for one, am feeling somewhat overwhelmed by various daily life challenges. But as this number 9 year suggests, it is time to end... old limiting beliefs, old behaviour patterns, fear and worries, to release and align with the Self that we all are in heart and soul. This entails forgiveness of self and others, mind-bodysoul daily health choices. Your daily calm sanctuary: Intending regular internal breaks by simply choosing for mindful minutes or even moments, to turn your attention to your deep, authentic Self, in the midst of all the 'raucous shrieks and wild imaginings', by focusing on your breath with awareness in each challenging moment as it arises and, most important, mind training to transform stressful thought patterns... a daily challenge!
A few ways to thrive with present moment, mindfulness practices:
Gratitude affirmations when waking up, moments throughout the day, just before you fall asleep. Thankful for the miracles of your breath, your heart beating, your sense comforts we take for granted, the many blessings, life force, love and laughter; nature… flower petals, the wind in the trees, patter of a drizzle and so on.
Try to taste, see and hear what you eat for deeply sensual experiences: Crackle, pop, crunch, colours, sweet, sour, astringent/ bitter, asparagus, green and black tea, spekboom
leaves, aloe vera/ferox juice, legumes, pomegranates, cranberries, turnips, artichokes, radishes, fresh sprouts, citrus peels and herbs such as turmeric, fennel, bay leaf and parsley.
Spekboom also known as the miracle plant and nature's homegrown multitool.
As medicine - traditional healers often prescribe this plant for a number of health challenges:
Hydrates: Suck a leaf to alleviate thirst and dehydration, reduce exhaustion and symptoms of heatstroke.
Relieves: Crush a leaf and apply to blisters, sun overexposure, rashes to alleviate pain and itching.
Treats: Chew leaves for sore throats and mouth infections.
Heals: Juice the leaves and use as an antiseptic on wounds.
Soothes: When the pulp gets applied to the skin, it can also calm sore pimples, sensitive rashes, nasty stings and painful sunburns.
As nutrition - nibbling on a Spekboom leaf won't only cure an irritation, but also provide important health benefits. The edible leaves of the Elephant bush are rich in manganese, cobalt, and magnesium, as well as Vitamin C, iodine and selenium. The flavour, interestingly, changes throughout the day. During the daytime, it tastes very acidic and lemon-like. As evening approaches, the hint of acidity decreases.
It is a respectable natural resource to eat during famine and also assists breastfeeding mothers in stimulating milk production. For meal ideas, add the leaves to freshen a salad or toss in a sprig to flavour a stew.
Landscaping and environmental uses:
Uniquely adapted to curtail water evaporation during dry seasons with its ability to open its stomata (pores for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange) at night and close them during the day to avoid water loss. During wet months, periods that the stomata are open, reverse from nighttime to daytime. This plant lives for up to 200 years and can survive on only 250 –350mm water a year.
Spekboom is an excellent choice for gardeners, its cuttings are easily propagated and it roots most easily during spring until autumn. Easy greening and water-wise.
Practise present moment awareness and compassionate action.
This moment right now, is all we actually have as well as the choice to use it for inner focus and awareness.
Pro-active, compassionate action in LOVE and to know we don't have to worry about the HOW, but can choose to release and trust in our superconscious mind, Higher Power, the Christ consciousness within us all.
Relationships
With everyone we come into contact with... speak to, casual meetings, with a soft and gentle smile on our lips and in our eyes, our loved ones, including our family, friends and intimate soul mate, including heartfelt kindness to ourselves. All relationships are holy encounters. Most important in all contact with others, is to respect them by truly LISTENING to what they say, not hearing simply to interrupt, defend, or think how to use as trigger for something to use to tell our own woes, wonders and worries.
My beloved child, break your heart no longer. Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart. You stop feeding on the love, which is the wellspring of your vitality. The time has come, your time
To live, to celebrate… and to see the goodness that you are… Let no one, no thing, no idea or ideal obstruct you If one comes, even in the name of 'Truth', forgive it for its unknowing
Do not fight… Let go And breathe into the goodness that you are'.
Swami Kripalu
Dr Arien van der Merwe is a medical doctor, author and holistic health counsellor. She developed and presents continued professional development training through VideoLearn and Synergetica CPD Courses on Mental Health in Challenging Uncertain Times; Heart Health; Inflammation both Friend and Foe and Neuroplasticity. These online CPD Courses explore ways to support both ourselves, our nearest and dearest, as well as our clients/patients.
Dr Arien is the author of Stress Solutions , the ‘Relax & Unwind’ relaxation CD as well as the books Health & Happiness, Managing Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome and Herbal Remedies . Dr Arien teaches group and individual meditation and relaxation classes, as well as health coaching online (WhatsApp video consultations) and in person at her rooms in Pretoria. For more information on her work, publications, product formulations, list of product distributors and ongoing public and CPD Training Courses, visit www.ArianiHealth.com.
“Health
and happiness is our birthright and it lies within our souls'
From Dr Arien's book HEALTH & Happiness”
Get this incredible book by Dr Arien van der Merwe available on www.arianihealth.com tel: Dr Arien on 083 731 2049 email: doctor@arianihealth.com
Dr. Arien van der Merwe is an authorised stocklist of Odyssey Magazine in Overberg Western Cape BAAI FRANSHCHE HEALTH, SHOP 7, CHRISTO CENTRE, 37 MAIN RD, GANSBAAI, WESTERN CAPE.
Is “Gluten-Conscious” the same as “Gluten-Free?”
by Beth Rush
We live in an age of food-sensitivity fads and trending terms. It can be challenging to keep up with ever-evolving catchphrases. Introducing the new buzzword on the block — glutenconscious. But what does it mean? Is “gluten-conscious” the same as “gluten-free”? The simple answer is no. Consciousness implies awareness of gluten, while glutenfree avoids it altogether.
Knowing the difference between these words is vital if you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivities. Let's unravel the mystery of these terms.
What does gluten-conscious mean? Gluten-conscious means being aware of gluten without following strict gluten-free principles. People and food establishments can be gluten-conscious. Eating gluten-consciously may mean opting for a mostly gluten-free diet. It's about mindfulness over complete elimination.
A “gluten-conscious” menu item means the dish may be gluten-free, but the establishment isn't. For example, a restaurant may state that a polenta dish is gluten-free. This label is accurate because polenta is gluten-free, but the kitchen may stock gluten-containing items. Kitchen staff may use the same utensils (or hands) to prepare gluten and non-gluten food.
What is the difference between gluten-free and gluten-friendly?
What is the main difference between gluten-free and gluten-friendly? One option is free of gluten, and the other isn't. For those with severe gluten intolerance, gluten is anything but friendly! Consider the differences between these two terms:
Gluten is a protein found in grains like wheat, rye and barley. Being gluten-free means avoiding foods with these proteins. For people with celiac disease, gluten can trigger harmful immune responses. Those with gluten sensitivity or wheat allergies also benefit from a glutenfree diet. Steering clear of gluten eases symptoms like digestive issues and fatigue.
Gluten-free food contains less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten. Foods labelled gluten-free must meet strict Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory standards. Gluten-safe foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, meat, poultry, seafood and legumes.
Gluten-friendly
Gluten-friendly is a way for restaurants to cover themselves. A gluten-friendly dish may not contain gluten, but their establishment does. Celiac sufferers, beware of this term! A 100 per cent gluten-free restaurant will use the words “gluten-free” with confidence. A gluten-friendly restaurant may include a warning that the menu is not celiac-safe. Gluten-friendly foods may contain trace amounts of gluten from shared cooking surfaces.
Does gluten-aware mean gluten-free?
You can interchange gluten-aware with gluten-conscious or gluten-friendly. It's the same loaf of bread sliced in different ways. A gluten-aware restaurant may offer dishes without gluten. You can bet your bottom dollar that there's gluten floating around the kitchen. Literally. Many establishments have flour particles wafting in the air. Airborne gluten could spell disaster for those with sensitivities.
Top tips for gluten-free restaurant eating
Going out to eat can be tricky for gluten-free eaters. Fear not, dear food adventurer! You can savour delicious meals without gluten worries with the right tips and tricks. These top tips will empower you to dine out with gluten-free confidence:
1. Go on the hunt for gluten-free restaurants
Finding a 100 per cent gluten-free restaurant can feel like a treasure hunt. Luckily, new ones pop up every day! You can even try a gluten-free restaurant app for a nearby venue.
Here's what makes a restaurant gluten-free:
• Separate kitchen areas: Gluten-free restaurants often have dedicated gluten-free meal preparation areas. Separating surfaces avoids cross-contamination with gluten-containing ingredients.
• Gluten-free menu: A restaurant should offer many gluten-free menu options. Marking gluten-free dishes helps diners choose the best option without asking for advice.
• Staff training: Restaurant staff should receive training on gluten-free practices. Education includes understanding the importance of avoiding crosscontamination and proper gluten-free order handling.
• Ingredient sourcing: The kitchen should stock certified gluten-free ingredients, including sauces.
• Ingredient storage: Restaurants must separate gluten-containing and non-gluten ingredients. Packaging also matters. Tightly closed lids and clear labels reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
• Customer communication: Effective communication between the customer and restaurant staff avoids misunderstandings.
Keep a list of gluten-free restaurants as you travel. Avoid fast food establishments, as cross-contamination is a certainty. Servers are less likely to accommodate special requests because of the rushed dining.
2. Call ahead
A quick call to a restaurant ahead of time can save your stomach (and sanity). Don't be afraid to pre-game your meal! If possible, speak to the chef to discuss your needs. It gives the staff time to prepare. Plus, you avoid the heartbreak of discovering limited gluten-free choices once there!
Here's a cheat sheet of questions to ask:
• Do you have a dedicated gluten-free menu?
• How do you prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen?
• Are your staff trained in handling gluten-free orders?
• Can you accommodate specific dietary requests or modifications?
•Do you use certified gluten-free ingredients in your dishes?
3. Eat early or late to conquer the rush
Be the early bird or arrive fashionably late. Avoiding peak times can help you have a smoother gluten-free experience. Fewer people means less chaos, more staff attention and a delicious gluten-free meal!
4. Speak your dietary truth
Clear communication about your diet restrictions avoids any mishaps. Make your server your ally. They know the menu or can act as a go-between with the chef. Still trying to figure out how to approach it? Try the following:
• Spell it out: State your gluten-free diet and explain your dietary restrictions.
• Ask away: Question menu items, ingredients and preparation methods.
Keep it simple: Avoid complicated medical terms. Explain your needs in a way that's easy to understand.
• Mention cross-contact: Stress the importance of avoiding gluten cross-contamination.
• Don't be shy to modify: Ask for substitutions or adjustments to make a dish gluten-free.
• Provide feedback: Share your experience with the restaurant to improve their gluten-free offerings.
5. Request a no-gluten preparation zone
How the restaurant prepares the food can make or break gluten-free dining experiences. Some might have separate kitchen areas for gluten-free food prep. As a customer with special dietary needs, you have rights. Ask them to use clean utensils and disinfected surfaces to prepare your food.
Try a polite, "Hi there! I have a gluten sensitivity. Please prepare my meal separately to avoid crosscontamination. I would appreciate it if the kitchen could use clean utensils and a dedicated area for my order.”
6. Check it's right before taking a bite
Before tucking into your meal, double-check with your server that it's right. Mistakes can happen, especially in busy kitchens. It's better to be safe than sorry! A quick
check can save you from potential discomfort or serious health issues. After all, extra caution can go a long way in protecting your gut!
An accommodating server can make all the difference in a gluten-free dining experience. If yours did everything they could to fulfil your requests, remember to say thanks (and leave a generous tip). Gratitude for even the smallest things can make you happier.
Stay food conscious about gluten-free
Understanding labels is essential as you navigate your gluten-free food journey. "Gluten-free" means no gluten, while "gluten-conscious" allows for more flexibility. It encourages mindful eating without strict avoidance. This term often shows gluten awareness, but you're not guaranteed a complete absence. For those with gluten sensitivities, being gluten-conscious can be a practical choice. You can indulge now and again while remaining aware of gluten's presence. Knowing the difference helps you stay informed when dining out or grocery shopping. Whether you choose gluten-free or gluten-conscious, listen to your body. Your health and comfort should guide your food choices. Embrace the delicious options available and enjoy the journey of conscious eating. With this knowledge, you can navigate menus and make choices that fit your lifestyle.
Beth Rush is the beauty editor at Body+Mind and has much experience writing about how readers can create personal care routines that impact their sense of self in positive ways. https://bodymind.com/ https://www.facebook.com/bodymindmag/
by Rita Hogan, C.H
A Dog's Prayer
I pray you who own me, let me continue to live close to Nature.
Know that: I love to run beneath the sun, the moon, and the stars; I need to feel the storm winds around me and the touch of rain, hail, sleet, and snow; I need to splash in streams and brooks and to swim in ponds, lakes, and rivers; I need to be allowed to retain my kinship with Nature.
“When I was growing up in rural Michigan in the early 1970s, I spent most of my time outside with my best friend, Cathy, on my horse or hanging out with my dog Susie. We would play in the water of the roadside stream, hang from the trees in the apple orchard, and explore the pine woods. When I was around seven or eight, I saw my first lady's slipper ( Cypripedium arietinum ). It was magical. I sat there gazing at it like it was a faerie. Though I wanted to pick it for my mother, she had taught me that lady slippers were rare and had a bigger purpose than her love for beautiful flowers.
My maternal grandmother was an 'unknowing' herbalist. She never considered herself a healer; herbalism was simply a way of life for low-income families. She raised 16 children during the Great Depression with only a midwife to help with childbirth. I love my mother's stories of my
grandmother going into the woods with her basket and returning hours later with a bounty of food and medicine.
In the time of my childhood, 'country folk' knew the plants around them - which ones to avoid, which ones to eat, and which ones to use for medicine. My father introduced me to plants by gardening and by caring for our cows, chickens, horses, and pigs. Describing them by color and shape, he would tell me to go out into the field, pick a particular plant, and bring it back to him. My dad loved his garden and grew beautiful vegetables without pesticides or herbicides, using the principles of companion planting. I would kneel beside him, asking if every plant was a weed and if I could pick it.
We had many dogs growing up, but the one I remember best is Susie. She was a shepherd-collie mix. My dad loved her and ensured she was well cared for. Susie was intact (unspayed) and only minimally vaccinated, and she ate a varied diet of raw milk, butter, eggs, and table and meat scraps, including organ meat.
She would nibble on grass, berries, apple peels, and self-selected plants. I know this sounds fancy now, a rawfood proponent's dream, but back then it was just how you fed your dog when you lived in the country.
Susie loved the outdoors like I did; she stayed outside except when it was raining or cold. My dad let her choose at night, leaving the garage door ajar so she could sleep inside if she wanted. Susie died when she was 24. That is a long time to live, for a dog, and in my memory it wasn't all that uncommon back then. My adult self wishes I had paid more attention to the details of her upbringing, but I was a busy kid and didn't know that I would be knee-deep in the allnatural dog world when I grew up.
Eventually I left home and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I embraced my 20s and expanded my consciousness. In college, I studied Eastern religions, anthropology, feminism, and an Eastern herbal medicine practice called ayurveda. My favorite book on the subject was A Life of Balance by Maya Tiwari. I loved how ayurveda looked at the body as an individual, and instead of seeking outside yourself for answers, you were taught to look within. This started me on the path of introspection, learning about the importance of diet and working on my emotional and spiritual self. Eventually, I fell in love, got my first pug, and reluctantly moved south.
My partner and I bought a 32-acre hilly parcel in the unincorporated town of Elmwood, Tennessee, about an hour east of Nashville, at the end of a dead-end road. What I loved about our 'farm' was that it was mostly a deciduous forest where the dogs and I could walk around, sit in silence, and commune with the flora and fauna, which included beech, elm, and many of the plant friends I learned about when I was young.
In my late 20s, I realized that I didn't want to pursue Eastern medicine even though I loved it; I missed the plants I had grown up with. Our new farm helped me reconnect to the land and my love for animals. We decided to board dogs for a living and opened Almost Home Pet Farm, a kennelfree boarding facility on five acres surrounding our home. I started noticing straight away the declining health of the dogs we boarded and making the connection to their poor diet of cheap kibble and pills. Luckily, I befriended a brilliant woman who owned an all-natural dog food store in the city. She helped educate me on alternative diets for dogs, the kibble hierarchy, raw food, home-cooked food, and healthy treats.
After finding out about the excellent dog food options available in the Nashville area (where most of our clients came from), I implemented a dietary requirement for dogs that wanted to board with me. This included a pre-boarding interview where I would ask potential clients what types of food they were feeding their dog, gently educate them on the power of a better diet, and then give them a list of acceptable foods. Then I would send them to my friend's store to get food from my list. This might sound drastic, but it resulted in calmer, healthier dogs. It wasn't long before clients were calling me to tell me how improved their dogs were after just a few months of their new diet.
During the early years of Almost Home Pet Farm, a friend and I started a holistic pug rescue organization called Music City Pug Rescue. We were one of the first holistic dog rescues in the country, and we found homes for hundreds of pugs over six years. Doing this type of work taught me so much about dog behavior, the roots of disease, the importance of the nervous system, and the pitfalls of allopathic veterinary care.
Blending rescue and kennel-free boarding was a blessing that allowed me to study herbalism and work with sick dogs and clients desperate for answers. I started putting
health puzzles together and seeing the difference diet and herbs could make. Behind the scenes, I started making my own herbal medicines and founded a company called Farm Dog Naturals to sell them.
Around 2005, The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat by Juliette de Bairacli Levy found me. Juliette was an English herbalist, skilled animal herbalist, and pioneer of holistic medicine. Reading her book was one of the many transformational moments that guided me toward my practice as a canine herbalist. I learned that I wasn't alone in my thinking. Juliette's bravery in speaking her truth for the world to hear filled me with joy, giving me hope and courage for my own experience.
I began looking for other dog-related health books. I immediately noticed that the idea of individualized care was missing from the field, and plant language was obsolete. I pivoted and focused on herbalism and the plants I knew and loved. Up until this point, the herbalism books I read were general. They taught me to make tinctures, salves, oils, poultices, and infusions. I appreciated the guidance, but something was missing.
One morning, I visited Rhino Used Books in Nashville and found herbalist Matthew Wood's first book, Seven Herbs: Plants as Teachers . I had doubted my use of drop dosing with dogs because I kept seeing that books and herbal product labels recommended using large amounts of tinctures. I believed in letting the body speak for itself if higher dosages were warranted. Matthew talked about using “spirit dosages,” or very low dosages of a tincture, to stimulate the body to heal itself and, in essence, using plant intelligence. For the first time, I felt validated on my plant path.
Shortly after, a second book, veterinarian Cheryl Swartz's book Four Paws, Five Directions , found me. She introduced me to the diagnostic principles of traditional Chinese medicine for dogs and the concept of the body as a connected ecosystem. I knew I didn't want to study Chinese herbs, but I used what I learned and applied those principles to Western herbology.”
Herbal Dog by Rita Hogan, C.H. published by Inner Traditions International and Bear & Company, © 2025. All rights reserved. http://www.Innertraditions.com Reprinted with permission of publisher.
In this comprehensive guide to holistic care for dogs, clinical canine herbalist Rita Hogan explains that, by looking at dogs as individual ecosystems with their unique personalities, physiology and needs, we can select effective and personalised herbal remedies to support their constitutions and provide relief from many different ailments.
Ms Hogan, who has spent more than two decades working with canines, uses energetic principles (cool, warm, dry, damp) to reveal how herbs are not 'one size fits all' and to explain how to choose herbs and herbal combinations for dogs as individuals. She moves you, step-by-step, through the tenets of holistic canine herbalism, including exploring how to find the root cause of chronic imbalances. She discusses in depth how a dog's main organ systems work, how they are connected to each other and why we need to understand them when choosing specific herbs and foods. Presenting safe, clinically proven and effective protocols for common canine conditions, from acid reflux to allergies,
to itching, scratching and yeast, Ms Hogan explores a wide variety of holistic and herbal remedies, from herbal tinctures, glycerites and phytoembryonics to flower essences, essential oils, medicinal mushrooms and homeopathy. She provides readers detailed options and guidance according to their dog's energetics.
Sharing a comprehensive materia medica of caninespecific herbs used in her practice, she explains what herbs are good for which conditions and why, what types of energetics are involved, safe dosage recommendations for each herbal remedy and when to discontinue a herb.
Allowing each of us to take a hands-on approach to our canine companions' health and longevity, this herbal guide outlines how to heal them and support them as the individuals they are and help them live their best lives by our sides.
Rita Hogan, C.H., is a clinical canine herbalist with more than 20 years of experience specialising in holistic canine herbalism. https://www.canineherbalist.com/
Odyssey Magazine is giving away 3 copies of this book. To enter, visit the following website link: https://odysseymagazine.co.za/community/ #competitions - giveaways or scan the QR code Click on the title of the book.
Closing Date 30 May 2025
by Nicholas Neaves
As a therapist, coach and author, my work has always revolved around understanding the complex and beautiful world of relationships. But long before I ever sat across from a client, long before I put pen to paper for Letters to Her , I was shaped by the women in my life - my daughters, my clients and, most profoundly, my late wife, Alicia.
Alicia was my anchor, my mirror and my greatest teacher in love. She taught me about the depth of a woman's heart, the strength hidden within softness and the way love isn't just about passion - it's about presence. When cancer took her, I wasn't just grieving my wife; I was grieving the future we had envisioned, the moments stolen from us and the guidance she would have given our daughters as they grew into young women.
Losing Alicia left a wound, one that time doesn't necessarily heal but instead reshapes. In raising our daughters - Luca, Kyla, and Sadie - I found myself standing at a crossroads. How could I raise them to understand love, trust men and feel safe in a world where the one woman I trusted most was gone? That question led me deeper into my work, not just as a therapist, but as a man seeking to bridge the divide between masculine
and feminine, between understanding and misunderstanding.
Slowly, after two years or so acceptance and gratitude for this new life and the past allowed my heart to be anchored once again in a place of purpose and love.
Through years of working with women, I saw a pattern. Many felt unseen by men. Many longed for love but felt disconnected from it. And many men, despite their best efforts, didn't know how to truly love a woman in the way she needed.
That's why I wrote Letters to Her - not as a guidebook, but as a bridge. A collection of letters from men to the women they love, reveals the truths we rarely say out loud. This book is about healing, understanding and creating the kind of love that both men and women crave. Through my intensive sessions of about 30 men, their needs, pleas and desires are expressed in each one of the letters. The book took two years to write and each letter required a shift in my normal day-to-day state. This is because I wanted to capture the romance, the longing and the passion of love for the reader. The concept of letters was used because I wanted to convey the old style of communication of pen to paper and an outflow of feelings and thoughts.
An excerpt:
Letter 1
Coming before you.
“Beloved,
With deep reverence for the dance of our souls, I come before you, baring my heart in the rawness of truth. This could be the hardest thing for me to do – but I know I must. I have you in my mind as often as there is air to breathe.”
Understanding the divide: Why men and women struggle to connect.
If there's one thing I've learned from my years as a therapist, it's this: Most relationship struggles aren't about love; they're about misunderstanding.
Men and women often speak different emotional languages. Women express their needs, but men hear criticism. Men withdraw, but women interpret it as rejection. The cycle repeats until two people who once loved each other deeply feel like strangers.
A woman might say, “I need you to be present,” but a man might think, “I'm here, aren't I?” What she truly means is: I need you to see me, to feel me, to understand me beyond my words.
Likewise, a man might say, “I feel like I can't make you happy,” and a woman might hear that as “I'm giving up on us.” But what he means is: I feel as if, no matter what I do, it's not enough and that makes me afraid of failing you.
When we start to translate each other's unspoken words, everything shifts. When we understand that we speak in words but create feelings and emotions by what picture those words create in our minds, we can start to see the same picture.
What women wish men knew about love
There are three things every woman needs in love:
1 Emotional safety – She needs to know that when she opens her heart, it won't be met with indifference. She doesn't want you to solve her problems; she wants you to witness her, to be a steady presence in the storm.
2 Depth over surface – Love isn't about grand gestures; it's about consistency. She doesn't just want flowers on her birthday; she wants you to notice when she's had a hard day and hold her without asking what's wrong.
3 A man who leads with his heart – Strength isn't about control; it's about presence. The strongest men aren't the loudest, the richest, or the most dominantthey're the ones who are willing to be vulnerable, who stand in their truth without fear and who create space for their woman to be fully herself.
What men wish women knew about love
On the other side, men are often misunderstood too. What do they long for in a relationship?
1 To be trusted – A man thrives when he feels his woman believes in him. Not just in his ability to provide, but in his vision, his strength and his ability to lead.
2 To be respected, not controlled – A man needs to feel he is valued for who he is, not who a woman wants him to become. He will rise for a woman who inspires him, but he will shut down if he feels micromanaged.
3 To feel desired – Women aren't the only ones who want romance. A man also wants to feel his presence is exciting, his woman still looks at him with admiration, even after years together.
Love isn't about finding the perfect partner; it's about becoming the partner your perfect person would be drawn to. It's about doing the inner work to heal the wounds that keep love at a distance. For women, this might mean learning to soften, to trust again and to allow space for a man to step up. For men, it means learning to be present, to listen deeply and to lead from the heart rather than the ego. We all carry wounds from our past - some from childhood, some from past relationships. But the most beautiful relationships aren't those without wounds; they're the ones where both partners are willing to heal together.
Whether you're a woman longing for a deeper connection with a man or a man searching for a way to love more fully, my message is this: Love is not a mystery to be solved; it is a presence to be felt. Commit to understanding your partner beyond their words if you're in a relationship. If you're single, commit to becoming the kind of person who attracts love naturally - not by chasing it, but by embodying it.
Letters to Her is not just a book; it's an invitation. An invitation to heal, understand and create love that lasts. And if there's one thing I know for sure, it's this: Love, in its truest form, is always worth the effort.
Dr. Nicholas Neaves - Author, therapist and coach. will be gifting three lucky Odyssey Readers readers with a coaching session voucher valued at R 1200 each. https://www.facebook.com/unboundcoaching/ email: hello@drneaves.com
At Ke Karabo, we believe that the answers to life's challenges lie within us. The name 'Ke Karabo' means 'it is the answer' in Setswana and we are dedicated to helping individuals uncover these answers. Our holistic approach to healing addresses the physical, mental and emotional states, allowing us to tap into our innate wisdom. This journey leads to profound insights, breakthroughs and healing that can transform your life.
Imagine a life where you are free from suffering, where joy, unity and connection are at the forefront of your existence. This is the vision we hold at Ke Karabo. By healing ourselves holistically, we not only impact our own lives but also the lives of our families, communities and the world. Our mission is to guide you on this transformative journey, helping you connect to your sacred purpose and create a beautiful life filled with unconditional love for yourself and others.
Lorato Scherpenhuyzen, the founder of Ke Karabo, is a mother, community leader, spiritual trainer and traditional healer. Inspired by her African roots and spirituality, Lorato has extensive experience in community development and effective spiritual practices. Her son and co-founder, Robin Scherpenhuyzen, is a One Consciousness trainer trained at Ekam in India. Robin combines practical experience with intuitive leadership, inspiring change through wisdom and meditation. Together, they form the backbone of Ke Karabo, offering a unique blend of African healing methods and eastern spirituality.
Our programmes and offerings
Ke Karabo offers a variety of programmes designed to nurture individuals from all walks of life. Our retreats, workshops, coaching sessions, holistic healing and long-term wellness programmes are tailored to guide you on a deep and effective inner journey. Whether you join us online or in person, our programmes are designed to help you remember who you are, connect to your roots and heal your entire being. Located on a farm in the Crocodile River Reserve, Lanseria, South Africa, Ke Karabo is blessed with sacred spring water and breathtaking views, providing the perfect setting for your healing journey.
Why choose Ke Karabo?
At Ke Karabo, we understand that healing is necessary for a beautiful life, where we can build successful relationships with people and our environment. Our programmes are designed to lead to positive breakthroughs and create supportive families and communities.
Every opportunity and challenge in life has an answer. The answer is you – your insights and your innate wisdom. Ke Karabo is here to guide you on your journey to healing and self-discovery. By attending one of our programmes, you will gain the tools and insights needed to face your inner world confidently and start the healing work required for a beautiful life. Our dedicated team is here to support you every step of the way, helping you elevate your consciousness and find the answers within.
Don't wait any longer to start your transformative journey. Contact Ke Karabo today and take the first step towards a fulfilling and joyful life. We look forward to welcoming you and guiding you on this incredible journey of self-discovery and healing. For enquiries call 0825543213 or email info@kekarabo.com
When I first heard about sexual healing, Marvin Gaye's song started to play in my brain and I got stuck on the idea that this sort of healing is linked to actual sex.
It took me on a tango through tantra. A tantalising dance forward, with a hurried retreat where my nervous system and relationship were battered by the storm of unsafe passage, high seas and chaos with unsafe teachers who didn't have my best interests at heart…
The sad part was that the beginning of my rebalancing sexual energy, ended up bringing even more fear, guilt and shame.
It took years to find a better path with this energy that could bring healing and release within the natural pathways of my body.
It took a total reset of what pleasure was in my relationship and how those chemicals worked to bring balance and healing.
I was so used to quick results with modern medicine and so I struggled to work with this energy at first, expecting the same sort of results you get from a pill or surgery. I wanted that quick heavy-handed change that was instantly experienced.
Natural healing is so much slower, it takes integration time. When this sort of healing happens, it's a gentle return to balance. It's almost a 'forgetting' or cleansing of pain, as pleasure and connection have the chance to return in the body.
Sexual healing is what we do with our relationships and our patterns within pleasure, understanding grief, hurt, lack of connection and so much more.
Now, travel with me on a tangent that seems strange, but reveals patterns.
My mum was moved into hospice in a two-week whirlwind last December; there was very little warning and the grief was overwhelming, as well as the anger and the lack of closure.
This all took huge bites out of my ability to be intimate with my husband.
Grief and emotional pain tore my life apart and the first thing I reached for was a quick fix. I ate more, took sleeping meds, went to the doctor for pills for anxiety.
I believe in medicine and the balance of using what works for the individual and, for the initial shock phase, the meds were lifesavers for me.
The meds worked, until they didn't.
Don't get me wrong, they really helped in the beginning and I was truly grateful not to spiral into body shutdown through lack of sleep and the waves of exhaustion and anxiety crashing over me.
As they eventually stopped working, I knew I'd moved into the next phase of grief, where I'd have to face the feelings and travel through them. All I felt like doing though, was to numb them, to shut them up, to hermit and hide.
This numbing, this disassociating with my physical being, meant I couldn't open myself to receiving touch of any sort, closing down endorphins, oxytocin, community and love.
I became angrily resistant to touch, my nervous system wanted me to hide away, to lick my 'mother wound' in private. That emotional wound that had infiltrated all of my relationships, my 'worthiness', my chasing of those who were emotionally distant, to somehow 'fix' this relating to my mum.
I knew I had to start by releasing my emotions by fully experiencing them in a space that regulated my nervous system, had a way to be supported by others, to flow them through my body without getting stuck.
I knew the technique, but have to admit, didn't do it until I had to teach it to others.
Even though I'm a coach, Even though I knew it would work, Even though it's worked for me before.
I was deeply resistant as my adrenaline had hijacked any desire for anything other than a quick fix. I had to teach it and fully walk my talk, so it could gift me what it always does, peace and a release of anxiety in my body.
The survival state in my body changed, I could finally move into conscious touch and move my life force energy (sexual energy) through my body with pleasure techniques returning me to balance.
I began to be able to cope with 'normal life' better. My mum was still dying, we still had all of the admin and emotions connected to that, but they were more manageable with the connection chemicals and emotional regulation that had occurred.
Sexual healing had occurred.
I don't believe that starting with sexual healing without the nervous system regulation works very well at all and it's more useful when we start with emotional release and nervous system integration FIRST.
I believe that's why therapy, EFT, EMDR, counselling, sacred circles, Yoga, emotional release techniques, retreats, conscious touch, massage and energy work towards nervous system regulation, can start the journey to awaken sexual healing.
The connection to all that is, is often somatically experienced through intense states of pleasure or pain.
Spiritual awakenings often arrive through pleasure or pain.
Sexual healing happens through the rebalancing of the root energy of humanity, our sexual energy.
After teaching the work with my clients on emotional release, even though I was just demonstrating the work, the relief from the anger and grief was a melting in my body, a desire to reconnect with my husband, to be close.
I'd reconnected to the warning systems in my own body, my emotions.
They are there as data, as early warning lights.
When we listen to them, feel them and flow them through fully, we can use them for the purpose in which they are intended to be present and move into rebalancing, which is where healing lives.
I'm still grieving. And I know there's more to come as my mum slowly slips away and travels her physical death journey.
Yet I'm no longer resisting the pleasures of being alive, as sexual healing is a journey to better life balance, not a quick fix.
Real sexual healing has a chance to reintegrate divinity.
Real sexual healing has very little to do with how we see sex and is inextricably linked to allowing ourselves to feel love through conscious touch.
Real sexual healing is a rebalancing of our deepest selves into the somatic, connected fully to the emotional.
Sexual healing now reminds me of these lyrics from Coldplay:
“The universe connected And I'm buzzing night after night; This joy is electric and you're circuiting through Cause you've got a higher power.”
Anne-Marie has appeared on 702, Radio Today, Power FM and Kaya FM talking about Conscious Sexuality and Neo Tantra. She has been a guest columnist for the Saturday Star, been featured in Woman & Home Magazine and has appeared on ETV's 'Great Expectations' speaking on regaining libido after childbirth. Anne-Marie can be contacted via her website. https://www.intimacycoachinternational.com/
Does your job leave you feeling drained, uninspired and longing for something more? If so, you're not alone. Many women find themselves stuck in careers that don't align with their passions or values, silently hoping for change but unsure how to make it happen. As someone who has walked this path and now thrives in a fulfilling career, I'm here to tell you: You can break free from the job that drains you and build a life filled with meaning and joy. Below, I'll guide you through seven powerful steps to take control of your career and find your true calling.
Step 1: Acknowledge that you're feeling stuck
The first step to change is recognising when your career isn't serving you. Take a moment to reflect on your current job situation:
Do you dread going to work every day?
Are you counting down the hours until the day ends? Does your job feel meaningless or uninspiring?
If any of these resonate, it's time to consider a change. Ignoring these feelings risks not only your professional satisfaction but also your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Recognising these patterns is the first step toward reclaiming your happiness and career satisfaction.
A draining job doesn't just affect your work life - it spills over into your personal life too. Exhaustion, irritability and feelings of inadequacy can impact your relationships, health and sense of purpose.
Acknowledging the toll your current career takes on your wellbeing is key to moving forward.
Many women struggle to identify their passions and strengths when considering a career change. This is completely normal, but it's also where the real transformation begins.
Start by asking yourself:
What activities bring me joy and make time fly by? What strengths or talents do others often compliment me on?
What topics or causes deeply resonate with me?
In my coaching programme, I often hear women say they have 'no idea' what they're passionate about or good at. But through guided exercises and deep reflection, we
By Kristy Weterings
uncover hidden strengths and desires that light the way to a more fulfilling career.
Remember, your passions and talents are unique to you. They are your compass to finding a career that not only pays the bills but also fulfils your soul.
Fear and doubt often hold us back from pursuing our dreams. Whether it's fear of failure, fear of leaving a secure pay cheque, or fear of the unknown, these emotions can feel paralysing.
But here's the truth: Fear is normal. The key is learning to move forward despite it.
Identify your fears: Are you afraid of failing in a new role? Worried about what others might think?
Acknowledge these fears so you can face them head-on. Challenge limiting beliefs: Replace thoughts like, “I'm not qualified” with empowering affirmations such as, “I can learn and grow.”
Reframe failure: See setbacks as opportunities to learn, not reasons to give up.
Once you've gained clarity on your passions, it's time to set clear and actionable goals.
Ask yourself:
What do I want to achieve in the next six months?
Where do I see myself in five years? What are my non-negotiables in a career?
Goals give you direction and a sense of purpose, turning your dreams into achievable milestones.
Step 5: Build resilience
Career changes aren't without challenges. Rejections, setbacks and moments of doubt are all part of the process. But resilience is what keeps you moving forward.
Here's how to cultivate resilience:
Reframe setbacks: Every 'no' is a step closer to a 'yes'. Practise self-care: Regularly engage in activities that recharge you, like exercise, meditation, or spending time in nature.
Celebrate progress: Even small wins deserve recognition.
Resilience isn't about avoiding challenges - it's about learning to rise stronger after facing them.
Step 6: Celebrate your growth and achievements
Acknowledging milestones - big or small - is crucial for maintaining momentum. Whether it's landing an interview, completing a course, or even gaining clarity on your goals, take time to celebrate these victories. Celebrating your progress builds confidence and reminds you of how far you've come. Many of my clients initially struggle to recognise their achievements, but with practice, they learn to embrace and honour their growth.
Step 7: Seek support and guidance
You don't have to navigate this journey alone. Working with a career coach provides structure, clarity and accountability, ensuring you stay on track toward your goals.
Coaching offers:
A safe space to explore your dreams. Expert guidance to overcome obstacles. A personalised roadmap tailored to your needs.
Don't wait until you're at a breaking point - invest in yourself now!
Success stories
My coaching programme has helped countless women transition into meaningful careers. Here are just a few examples:
• Megan: Overcame self-doubt and landed a creative role that lights her up every day.
• Sarah: Reframed her fears and transitioned from a draining corporate job to a career aligned with her values.
• Estelle: Gained clarity on her goals and secured a role that matches her passions.
These transformations are proof that, with the right guidance and mindset, you can achieve your dream career too.
Conclusion: Take the first step
Transitioning to a fulfilling career is challenging but deeply rewarding. With the right tools, mindset and support, you can escape the job that drains you and step into a life of purpose, joy, and fulfilment.
If you're ready to make the leap, I'd love to support you. My 90-day coaching programme is designed to help you discover your passions, set actionable goals and create a career you love.
Kristy Weterings is a career coach on a mission to help women escape draining jobs and find meaningful, fulfilling careers. Having navigated her own journey to career fulfilment, Kristy uses her experience to guide others toward discovering their passions, overcoming fears and creating lives that align with their values. Through her three-month coaching programme, she empowers her clients to set actionable goals, build resilience and thrive in roles that excite and energise them.
Connect with Kristy on Instagram, LinkedIn, or through her podcast, The Career Booster , for inspiration and actionable tips to transform your career and life.
Website: www.kristyweterings.com
Instagram: @kristy_weterings
LinkedIn: Kristy Weterings
The Career Booster Podcast: Spotify
To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light… “
Carl Gustav Jung
“When we let go of rigid boundaries and rules, we can start to enjoy life more, relax more and rediscover fun with our kids” says Dr. Shefali. Conscious parenting encourages parents to understand deeply their own emotions, triggers and beliefs and how these influence their children. Too often children serve as mirrors of their parents' forgotten self. This indaba features: Megan de Beyer, Lynne MacIntyre. Gérraine Rozenkrantz, Colleen Wilson and Pam MacDonald.
We bring these thought leaders to you: Those who take you through all the archetypes on womanhood, the maiden, the mother and the crone. Those who highlight the role of fathers in nurturing their children's emotional development, building their self-esteem and providing solid guidance for life. Those who take us on journey to recognise the gift that each child brings into their own lives enabling us to recognise their path and focus on their innate strengths. We collaborate with those who share the importance of conscious nutrition for young children, impacting everything from physical
growth and cognitive function to immune system strength; laying the foundation for a healthy lifestyle throughout their lives.
Conscious Parenting Indaba 25 July 2025
KwazuluSpirit Festival 2025
Our five speakers, are respected individuals and leading voices with significant influence in Conscious Parenting arena. Our programme moves through foundational stages of growth and development that include: Birth, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.
Programme
25 July 12:00 – 18:00 Salt Rock Hotel
12:30 Lynne MacIntyre
Birth as a Rite of Passage
13:30 Gérraine Rozenkrantz
Raising Children by First Raising Ourselves
14:30 Colleen Wilson
Parenting Highly Sensitive, High Needs Kids
16:00 Pam Mac Donald
Breaking Generational Cycles
17:00 Megan de Beyer
Difficult teens? Perfect!
Refreshments: 12:00 and 15:00
Tea, Coffee, Water, Juices, Snacks
Tickets: https://kwazuluspirit.howler.co.za/
“When a parent's consciousness is raised, the awareness and evolution of the parent is magnified.”
Just over two decades ago, the land where Simbithi Eco-Estate now flourishes was rolling farmland on KwaZulu-Natal's North Coast. Today, it stands as a benchmark for sustainable estate living, where nature, luxury and community thrive in harmony. As Simbithi marks its 21st anniversary, its story is one of visionary development, environmental conservation and a strong commitment to a holistic lifestyle.
From farmland to flourishing eco-estate
Before Simbithi became the vibrant estate it is today, the land was owned by the Ladlau family, whose deep-rooted respect for the environment laid the groundwork for its future. When the eLan Property Group, later joined by WBHO, recognised the potential for a community built around sustainability, they transformed this acreage into an eco-conscious haven.
In May 2003, Simbithi Eco-Estate was officially launched. A clever marketing campaign, led by radio personality Darren Scott, piqued public interest by teasing a 'groundbreaking development' on the North Coast - without revealing its name. This intrigue quickly elevated Simbithi to one of the region's most coveted addresses.
Building a legacy Development kicked off in November 2003 with the first phase emerging in the southeast corner, demarcated by the South Gate. Back then, this entry point was affectionately dubbed the 'Contractors' Gate', as heavy-duty trucks forged the estate's early foundations. Temporary container offices served as the initial nerve centre, evolving into a sophisticated administration building for the HOA.
The first sectional title developments - Tamboti, Sabuti, Ilanga and Ilala - set the tone for Simbithi's architectural integration with its natural surroundings. Roads were meticulously carved through the landscape, ensuring minimal disturbance to flora and fauna. A major milestone was reached with the completion of the Ballito Gate in late 2004, establishing a grand entrance that signified the estate's commitment to luxury eco-living.
A lifestyle of leisure and community
Simbithi was conceived not just as a place to live but as a sanctuary where residents could enjoy a vibrant, interconnected lifestyle. The estate was designed with green belts, walking trails and conservation areas preserving its natural beauty for future generations.
A cornerstone of this lifestyle is the Simbithi Country Club - more than just a recreational facility and the beating heart of community life. It offers residents a luxurious retreat with world-class sporting facilities, fine dining and social venues. Whether it's a round of golf, a tennis match, or an evening with neighbours, the Country Club embodies the estate's commitment to community and quality of life.
Celebrating 21 years of sustainable living, Simbithi stands as a testament to thoughtful development and an enduring commitment to environmental stewardship. From its humble beginnings as farmland to a thriving, modern eco-friendly estate, Simbithi's journey has been extraordinary.
Simbithi was envisioned as a pioneering model of sustainable living on the North Coast. Guided by a vision of harmony between people and nature, Simbithi conceptualised and implemented a strategy in 2021, revised in 2024. Simbithi's mission is to be recognised as Southern Africa's pre-eminent residential eco-estate. Every element, from preserved wetlands to planned residential spaces, reflects this commitment.
Today, residents dually enjoy the natural beauty of their surroundings alongside the luxury of the Simbithi Country Club. As the community evolves, its next chapter promises further enhancements, a deepening of its conservation ethos and continued opportunities for residents to live in harmony with nature and one another.
n a world that glorifies productivity whilst normalising disconnection from our bodies where we're unable to hear it screaming for us to slow down, breathe and do one thing at a time until our dis-ease manifests into bodily disease or burnout forcing us to stop; solo of mom of two boys, Lauren Manuel, desired to step off the survival train and cultivate a life of slow living.
Moving to Kenya, the eastern African land of Pole Pole , (meaning 'slowly slowly' in KiSwahili) she is undoing habits deemed productive by society and teaching herself and her children a new healing way of life that nurtures the nervous system and also leaves space for connection with each other, herself and nature. Here are some of her tips to return to basics and relearning to live As Slowly As Possible.
What do I need?
As mothers we are encouraged to fill out cups first, but how can we water ourselves first if we've never been asked or asked ourselves what we truly need in this moment, this day, this week and this life. If I asked you, what nurtures you? What energises you and what drains you? Would you be able to answer and how readily could you add or subtract these elements from your life: Places, people and situations?
Placing society's 'one-size fits all' model on 'pampering' and 'me-time' may prove useless or even frustrating when a once-off pedicure doesn't cut it or replenish you. Because we've placed ourselves last on our own do-to-list, we don't even know what we truly desire any more, nor do we give ourselves permission to be still, to feel pleasure or joy or even know what that means for us any more. After neglecting ourselves and our own joy for so long, how do we return to ourselves? It may be
By Lauren Manuel
time to revisit some of your first loves you may have discovered in childhood. Perhaps try a dance class again, go horse riding, sing some of your favourite songs out loud and, if you once did art, try a paint and sip class. And take note of the activities where you forget time, you find yourself smiling without reason, you exhale and feel renewed after.
In an age where multitasking has become a way of life, glorified even and affirmed as strength; it is often the reason we feel overwhelmed, are unable to focus and be present in the moment and less productive. When was the last time you stood still, merely gazing at something in stillness while waiting for the kettle to boil? Similar to switching between the multiple tabs open on your computer screen; according to The American Psychological Association, jumping between tasks or doing more than one task at a time before they are completed is said to reduce productivity by 40 per cent. Motherhood often demands the ability to do multiple things at once, leaving us unable to listen fully to a conversation of our child, while cooking, checking messages on our phone and packing lunches for the next day at school. A few things to assist you to stay focused on one task at a time, includes turning off notifications on your computer and phone, time-block with built-in breaks. Set a timer to remind you to take a break after you have solidly focused on one task. The Pomodoro Technique is a well-known one that encourages sessions of 25 minutes followed by a five-minute break, with a 15minute break at least once every two hours. And when you're somewhere ie. in conversation with your child. Just be here.
In busy times, the one thing we need most is the thing we often give up first; movement. We deem ourselves too busy to go to the gym, walk during our lunch breaks and shift into a sedentary state for more hours per day. When really, it's movement which can save us and give us reprieve. According to Healthline.com, “Somatics uses the mind-body connection to help you survey your internal self and listen to signals from your body on pain, discomfort, or imbalance.
Somatic exercises involve performing movement for the sake of movement. Exercises such as dance, pilates and yoga can be considered somatic. Somatic psychotherapy is a mental health treatment approach that addresses the physical effects of trauma, anxiety and other issues, including: muscle tension, digestive problems, trouble sleeping, chronic pain and respiratory problems.”
Sign up for a yoga class, meditation session or workshop of your choice at Kanga Studio, Peponi Road, Nairobi and slow down while moving your body. www.kangastudio.co/nairobi/
There's never been a day I've been able to stay angry, sad or anxious while walking in the forest or merely sitting beside a river listening to the sounds of frogs, birds and insects, taking it the scent of the trees, squashed leaves and
pine cones and, even better, with my shoes off, feet planted firmly on the earth. And so for the better part of three years, I wrote myself a 'forest therapy' script which I filled each day after the morning school run. According to a health.clevelandclinic.org article on forest bathing that's no surprise.
“Walking through forests isn't a new practice, but the concept of shinrin-yoku is. It's only been around since 1982. It's based on three different traditional concepts: yūgen, komorebi and wabi sabi . “The intent of forest bathing is to put people in touch with present-moment experience in a very deep way,” explains clinical psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD. “The sights, sounds and smells of the forest take us right into that moment, so our brains stop anticipating, recalling, ruminating and worrying. Forest therapy engages multiple senses, she notes. “That sensory immersion directs attention away from negative thoughts and promotes a more positive mental state.”
Get back to basics and together with the children, rewild and unwind beneath the giant trees and magical gardens of Zereniti House Boutique Hotel in Red Hill, Limuru . Enjoy breakfast beside a brook while the kids make forts out of bamboo, pick vegetables from the garden to hand over to the chef to add to dinner and start the day mindfully on your yoga mat in the sensory garden. Walk, play or relax on a picnic blanket in the midst of their magnificent trees www.zerenitihouse.com/
If anyone understands what it means to function with a constantly fluctuating nervous system, it's a mother. Try convincing your nervous system that you're not fleeing from a lion in the wild, but attempting to raise a fearless first-born son and a curious toddler. Often what feels familiar to your nervous system isn't necessarily what's healthy, it's just the known. So when trying to cultivate new normals and habits, it may feel uncomfortable even unsafe as your nervous system only knows urgency as a trauma response or rushing.
According to Tracy Freeman Valentine, LPC-MHSP, a clinical supervisor at Charlie Health: “Stimulating the vagus nerve (the longest cranial nerve you have, which plays a big role in regulating your parasympathetic nervous system) helps to reset after a stress response and restore the body to a steady state.” A few things you can do at any time to calm your parasympathetic nervous system and help move you out of flight, flight, or freeze into rest and digest includes deep and slow breathing which according to Ms Freeman Valentine, activates the vagus nerves and leads to a reduction in anxiety and stress responses. “Making sounds of vibrations such as humming, singing, or gargling have been shown to stimulate the vagus nerve and activate muscles resulting in an increase in heart rate variability and vagal tone.
Throughout the ages, many cultures have revered water as a sacred element to have healing properties. Being near or in water has the ability to reduce feelings of stress, regulate our body temperature and shift our mental wellbeing. As an avid ocean lover; my body and my mind rejoice in time in the ocean whether that is surfing, snorkeling, or swimming. According to WHO Green and Blues Spaces and Mental Health- New Evidence and Perspectives for Action : “Mental health is a state of well-being in which a person realises their abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and is able to contribute to their community (WHO, 2004). The multiple benefits to health and wel-being, including to mental health, of the natural environment in cities through contact with green and blue spaces are increasingly recognised.
At Silver Palm Spa and Resort, Kilifi, you are never separated from the sight and sound of the ocean. Immerse yourself in the salty ocean or spend hot days in their winding pool. Kids will love running straight into the walkin pool leading outward from the lounge. Balmy evening, buffet dinners and a midday massage at the spa. www.silverpalmkilifi.co.ke/
Icy plunges (ocean, shower or even face in a bowl of ice water) and massaging the head and neck area can stimulate vagal sensory neurons and activate the parasympathetic nervous system's rest and digest mode.
Slow down on Kenya's coast with salty skin and sandy feet at Mnarani Beach Club Hotel in Kilifi. On one of catamaran joy rides or a sailing taster lesson for all ages, there's nowhere you can be but present. After a sunset ocean dip and a grilled fish dinner, hop on a dhow cruise to catch the moonrise. If they ever leave the pool, children can enjoy archery, table tennis, while parents exhale. www.mnaranibeachclub.com/
Lauren Manuel is a mindbody coach, storytelling specialist and movement facilitator. Together with her sons, she now lives in Kenya, and guides women and teams to use their voices and tell their stories more effectively. She teaches pre- and postnatal yoga and supports new ways for mothers to nurture their own mental health.
May 2025 | October 2025
by Gérraine Rozenkrantz
As I sit here, heavy rains are pouring down over us in Wilderness. We are drenched in goodness and water for a couple of days. I cannot see far, as my usual view is veiled by this downpour. Farmlands and the Outeniqua Mountains are there, yes, but just not in plain sight now. And that is what I am experiencing in my deepest parts currently. I am looking back at my 'Bali time' and, although I cannot be there now or turn back time, I know all of it is still there. The memories, the growth, the experiences that changed my life. And I do not say that lightly...
My story and how I came to cross paths with the Smiling Soul team is a long one, one that is not for sharing today, but I will give you a glimpse into it as that is truly at the heart of my Smiling Soul Level 2 Retreat. A couple of years ago, I had this deep inner knowing that I needed to visit Bali - even if it was impossible for me to see how it could happen. I left it and just kept on living my life fully, day by day. Until the call came again a year later and I knew deeply that if I didn't follow it, I would miss out on something huge in my life. Without hesitation and some intervention, I found myself on a flight a few weeks later, heading to the Island of the Gods for my first Smiling Soul retreat! And golly gosh, I have never looked back!
My second retreat with Brett Shuttleworth and his team was of the same calibre as my Level 1 retreat.
Although completely different in structure, it still had all the elements of exceptional planning, profound wisdom, teachings and a deep sense of… I am safe here. Stepping off that plane and knowing I was in good hands for my time there was unparalleled. Only after that sense of safety settles in, can a person fully absorb the experience of it all.
What always stands out about Smiling Souls is their professionalism. From enquiring to booking, from asking to going, from getting there to going again - everything is meticulously planned and executed accordingly. They have a golden standard in that regard and it shines through.
The Level 2 Masters of the Free retreat was held in Bali this time around and it was a great adventure for all. The retreat was built around activities and exploration just as much as it was focused on inner growth. This was definitely not a 'sit and meditate' retreat. It was an active invitation to live life fully, to dive into the unseen while embracing new experiences. That is what I love about journeys with Smiling Souls - they take every aspect into account regarding how we, as human beings, function, learn, grow and integrate. And nothing is ever forced onto a participant. You have the freedom to honour yourself, to follow what you feel called to do, but the opportunities to explore are always there, alongside a gold mine of wisdom and teachings.
We sailed between the islands in style! Visiting Labuan Bajo, Pink Beach, Komodo Dragon Park, Manjarite Island, Kawana Island and Uluwatu. The activities were jampacked and full of life! We had stunning walks, meditations, snorkelling sessions (amazing!), tube rides, lavish dinner parties, fire dancing and, of course, we swam in the open ocean! The teachings were planned according to our day's activities and they were, as always, perfectly aligned.
There is an extraordinary paradox in Brett Shuttleworth - depth and playfulness, wisdom and lightness. This, I have found, is only possible for those who have mastered both ends of life's spectrum - the darkness and the light, the weight and the weightlessness of it all. He walks the path he teaches and that is what makes his guidance so powerful. He peels back the layers and veils that stand in the way of an enlightened life, showing that life can be lived fully, spiritually and happily - with a smile. He knows the work he speaks of, not just as concepts but as lived experience. On this trip, we explored six 'Masters of the Free'Krishna, Ganesha, Jesus, Shiva, Hanuman and Buddha. Brett delved deeply into each one, unpacking their teachings in a way that wasn't just intellectual but visceral, felt, embodied. He has a gift for guiding each individual deeper into themselves, challenging beliefs
where needed with grace, compassion and, when called for, hard truths. He meets every person exactly where they are, from a heart centre of love and care. And if your foundations need shaking, he will shake them. But always, always, you walk away more whole and integrated, simply by opening the ears of your heart.
What sets Brett apart, for me, is that he understands South Africa. I could have chosen any international retreat, but this one stood out because he knows, deeply and fully, what we as South Africans carry within us. The culture, the beliefs, the ways of life in this gorgeous, complex country of ours. That foundation of understanding was so important to me. Participants come from all over the world, but for this Afrikaans girl, there is something about homegrown wisdom that lands differently. It resonates. Brett's story is one of immense transformation - from South African soil to the far reaches of the world in pursuit of spiritual depth. He spent years with different teachers, immersing himself in the work and yet his heart will always be aligned with South Africa, no matter where he travels. His sharp wit, his ability to see through illusion and his depth of character have been forged by trials and tribulations. And yet, despite everything, his optimism and belief in the goodness of life shine through.
He is a teacher, a guide, a soul who walks this path not to be followed, but to illuminate the way for others. To remind us that freedom isn't something to be sought but something we already are. And that, perhaps, the greatest path to enlightenment is to live with an open heart, an open mind, and a smile that reaches the soul.
One cannot talk about a Smiling Soul retreat without speaking about the incredible support team. At the heart of this is Rupali, the retreat angel, whose presence is a soothing balm to every soul she encounters. With grace, care and deep understanding, she nurtures, holding space with the warmth of a mother's heart. She is both a gentle guide and a steady anchor, ensuring that everyone feels seen, supported and safe. Together, this is a team of dedicated individuals who bring clarity, wisdom and unwavering encouragement, making sure that every detail is tended to so participants can fully immerse themselves in their experience. Any leader is only as powerful as those who walk beside them and Brett's team is a testament to that truth. Together, they are like a beautifully crafted disheach element adding depth, richness and loveserved with the sole purpose of nourishing the souls who embark on this retreat journey.
Every retreat has something unique to offer, but the depth of transformation depends on one's willingness to surrender. If you feel called, listen. And if you commit - especially to a Level 2 journey - do not arrive burdened with expectations. Expectation creates limitation.
Instead, come with an open heart, an open mind and open hands, ready to receive whatever unfolds. Trust the process, immerse yourself in the unknown and breathe in the fresh air of new experiences. Let the retreat strip away what no longer serves you, clearing the way for the light within you to shine even brighter. Release the past, embrace the present and simply be. The rest will follow, as it always does, when we allow ourselves to truly step into the moment!
Love and light, always…
Gérraine
e: requests@umngazi.co.za
@umngazi www.umngazi.co.za
“And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our soul, there walks a lady we all know, who shines white light and wants to show how everything still turns to gold.
My journey to oneness and connectedness led me to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, over a period of 16 years and five independent journeys, with the sixth out there in the ether to manifest in divine right time. This all fuelled by the ancient belief that the sacred geometry of these gargantuan pyramids was used to ascend realms, then being further motivated by the significance of the number 11 in the design of the pyramids and the frequency of oneness being 11.11, supported by the belief that the Great Pyramids have low Earth resonance.
Between these ancient walls, I found timeless peace… “As I entered the Great Pyramid of Cheops, without expectation, hunched over in almost a dwarf-like or foetal position climbing up the steep gradient of a small stone passageway for what seemed like kilometres; it reeked of oldness, the long passage of time... humid, hot and stuffy. Feeling nauseous and claustrophobic, I plodded on scrunched over, bumping my head frequently - how significant that turned out to be. When I walked into the
king's chamber, a sliver of light touched the floor and I moved onto the light shadow and closed my eyes... unexpectedly I found myself in the presence of the Lords of Karma, their stern, no nonsense energy quite alarming, whilst surrounded by tons of stone above and beneath my feet. Stammering I asked for release from a particular karmic debt, which I have been burdened with over many lifetimes, playing the same lesson over and over. I didn't expect their sanction, I expected rebuke on karmic debt... I sensed a hammer fall and, almost immediately, a lightness of being overtook my form and tears rolled down my face in the dark chamber and I knew it was done! The sense of freedom was so profound that the rocks above me may just as well have been polystyrene. And in that moment other travellers on the journey began to tone, with the Om chant, in the chamber... a sound so immaculate, so divine it will remain with me through eternity. In floods of tears, released and, relieved,,I made my way down the narrow chamber, to get to the Sphinx in time for a meditation at 11:11” Ed.
The Great Pyramid of Giza: Everything you need to know about the ancient wonder.
The ancient Egyptian structure is the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still intact and it still has a lot to teach us.
It's no wonder that our fascination with the pyramids of Giza has endured for millennia. The Great Pyramid was built for the Pharaoh Khufu and finished around 2560 BCE and the rest of the pyramid complex is nothing short of brilliant too. Perched on the outskirts of Cairo, the Giza site is a necropolis of royal tombs. It contains three towering pyramids (the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure); three
smaller pyramids (for queens and sisters) and an enormous statue of a sphinx, for good measure.
The Great Pyramid of Giza dates to Egypt's Old Kingdom, more than 4 000 years ago. “The Great Pyramid was built by King Khufu, son of King Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres I and the Fourth Dynasty's second pharaoh. He ruled Egypt between 2585 and 2560 BCE and, during that time, he led the construction of the Great Pyramid.” It's estimated that it took around 20 years to build.
The Great Pyramid was originally 146.6 metres high and for nearly 4 000 years, it was the tallest building in the world and weighty too.
The pyramid was built with an estimated 2.3 million stone blocks, which weigh 2.5 to 15 tons each.
Egyptian pyramids are tombs and the Great Pyramid is no exception. Khufu, also known by his Greek name, Cheops, commissioned this funerary structure as his final resting place. While Khufu is considered the builder of the Great Pyramid, there were thousands of others who physically built the structure. It has been established that pyramids were by skilled purpose-hired workers.
Archeologists discovered a village near the Giza complex where the workers resided. Inscriptions and food remaining in their homes confirmed that they were very well fed (paid) for their labour. Workers had timebased shifts with lunch breaks and hierarchical structure. This however, was not a 'boss worker' relationship; working for the Pharaoh was considered a great honour in ancient Egypt.
You'd have to ask why, after a few thousand years on Earth, all of the pyramids' mysteries had not been revealed, but it seems that they still have plenty of secrets to share. In 2023, a hidden corridor was discovered in the Great Pyramid and, in 2024, a mysterious structure was found adjacent to it. While we're still learning more about this ancient monument, here's what is known about the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Today, the Giza pyramids wear the tawny tones of their surrounding desert, but at the time of construction they sparkled. They were encased in white limestone. “The limestone casing would have been smooth and polished and, overall, a lot more dazzling - especially in the light,” says Elissa Day, a PhD candidate in Egyptology at Harvard University. Ms Day further confirms “At Giza, you can see some remains of an outer casing on top of the pyramid of Khafre and at the bottom of the Great Pyramid.”
the Sphinx from the sand, heralding the first restoration of this structure, symbolising the union of physical and spiritual power in the Pharaoh.
“With special permission from the Egyptian Director of Antiquities, our group was both blessed and privileged to do the oneness meditation between the paws of this guardian and observer, at the dream gate. In a dream state under the hot Egyptian sun, below the lion's head of this ancient sculpture formed out of a single block of stone, I went within. I cannot recall much of that meditation, other than being overwhelmed by an intense connection with all galactic energies and Earth energies. What transpired energetically shall remain a mystery, for within that dream state I have no recall. What followed was mind-blowing... As I emerged from between the paws of the Sphinx bright gold beams of energy spiralled from the head and body of the Sphinx, all of the mineral energy and vibration pulsating against the turquoise sky.”
And then there is the Sphinx
Shrouded in mystery, the guardian of the sacred knowledge; the Great Hall of Knowledge, believed to be under the right paw; between the paws, a red granite stela - a dream gate or stellar gate - that recounts the dream of Pharaoh Thutmose lV, in which he dreamed that he would accede to the throne of Egypt if he freed
No article discussing the pyramids is complete without acknowledging that some believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, a position popularised by Erich Von Däniken in his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods. Regardless of the intense debate refuting Von Däniken's theories, there are those in favour of the alien intervention based on the position below.
How could the Egyptians possibly have built their pyramid facing the exact magnetic north pole without even having a compass since the compass was not invented for a few thousand years after the ancient Egyptians were no more. It is suggested that the aliens, with their higher knowledge and advanced technology, came along and, using their compasses, they landed on Earth and, before building the pyramids, set about finding the actual magnetic north and south poles.
It is refuted by current thinking that the Egyptians did not actually align their pyramids with the magnetic north pole, but rather with true north, which they could achieve by observing the stars, particularly circumpolar stars that rotate around the north celestial pole, allowing them to determine the north-south axis without a compass; this is considered a much more likely explanation than using magnetic north, which can shift over time. No one really knows for sure!
There are around 2 000 Kushite pyramids in upper Sudan, compared with 200 Egyptian pyramids, showing the relationship between the African civilisations.
The Kushite pyramids in upper Sudan are primarily located at the ancient city of Meroë, where the rulers of the Kushite kingdom built hundreds of pyramids, considered 'Nubian pyramids', signifying their burial practices and serving as a testament to their power and culture in the region of present-day northern Sudan; these pyramids are often referred to as the 'forgotten pyramids' due to their lesser-known status compared to those in Egypt.
longtime source of confusion to archaeologists until George Reisner discovered that the entryways were filled in and concealed following the ruler's funeral. In this way, the pyramids served as elaborate tombstones and tributes to the Egyptian way.
The physical proportions of Nubian pyramids differ markedly from the Egyptian pyramids: They are built of stepped courses of horizontally positioned stone blocks and range approximately from six to 30 metres in height, but rise from fairly small foundation footprints, resulting in tall, narrow structures inclined at approximately 70 degrees. Most also have offering temple structures abutting their base with unique Kushite characteristics. Egyptian pyramids of similar height generally had foundation footprints at least five times larger and were inclined at angles between 40 and 50 degrees.
The most striking difference, however, is that while Egyptian pyramids house tombs of rulers within, Nubian pyramids are built on top of the burial chambers. This was a
The tombs inside the pyramids of Nubia were plundered in ancient times. Wall reliefs preserved in the tomb chapels reveal that their royal occupants were mummified, covered with jewellery and laid to rest in wooden mummy cases. At the time of their exploration by archaeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries, some pyramids were found to contain the remains of bows, quivers of arrows, archers' thumb rings, horse harnesses, wooden boxes, furniture, pottery, coloured glass, metal vessels and many other artifacts, attesting to extensive Meroitic trade with Egypt and the Hellenistic world.
A pyramid excavated at Meroë included hundreds of heavy items such as large blocks decorated with rock art and 390 stones that comprised the pyramid. A cow buried complete with eye ointment was also unearthed in the area to be flooded by the Meroë Dam, as were ringing rocks that were tapped to create a melodic sound.
Ringing rocks, also known as sonorous or lithophonic rocks, are a fascinating geological phenomenon where specific rocks resonate with a bell-like sound
The ruins and structures are dated to be older than 'Old' Kemet, Egypt and Nubia by tens of thousands of years, on the same site as Adam's calendar.
Adam's Calendar, a series of stones believed to be the oldest man-made structure on Earth, dates back 75 000 years and is also known as 'Blaauwboschkraal Stone Ruins'. It's among a myriad South Africa stone circles and, interestingly, it's only one of Mpumalanga circles among many, yet it has received far more attention than any other. Why?
According to the discoverers, Adam's Calendar is the flagship of the ruins and is still accurate as a calendar, following the shadow of the setting sun cast by the central monolith onto a flat calendar stone next to it. Aerial pictures seem to support this hypothesis.
The ancient circular monolithic stones are located on a plateau just above the town of Kaapsche Hoop, overlooking the Barberton Valley and are part of the Blue Swallow National Heritage Site. They are just one of an estimated one million ancient stone ruins scattered throughout the mountains of southern Africa. The stones were discovered in 2003 by Johan Heine and Michael Tellinger, who have co-authored several books on the subject. Visitors need a guide to explore the stones and learn about the history and mystery surrounding them.
In the area known as Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, one can find a pyramid of another kind. The Donkin Reserve, Pyramid and Lighthouse, built 1861, includes a stone pyramid monument with a touching inscription, erected by Sir Rufane Donkin in memory of his late wife, Elizabeth, after whom the city was named. The pyramid is approximately 10 metres high and the sides at the base measure about eight metres each.
Pyramid Power
(Source: Pyramid Power, Time, magazine Monday, October 8, 1973).
The article positioned that meditating within a pyramid would heighten the meditative experience. And that one could also use a pyramid to preserve and freshen vegetables, ripen hard fruit and mature wine.
One of the consistent claims regarding pyramids has been that you can prevent razor blades from becoming blunt by placing them within a pyramid, from primordial beginnings razors have transformed remarkably over the years, now sophisticated grooming devices.
Notwithstanding all of the diverse information with regard to the power of the pyramids they unequivocally have a great and mystical power, much of which we have yet to discover.
Debra Stevens-Robins, editor of Odyssey Magazine, is a naturopathic practitioner and natural energy healer by design with a passion for and study of Egyptian Tetrahedic Healing and Seichim Reiki. She also participated in 'All Love Sekhem programmes', with founder Patrick Zeigler. In 2009 Debra brought Seichim Reiki into South Africa and it is taught by academies in the Cape, KZN and Gauteng.
Debra also takes groups on profound spiritual odysseys through mystical Egypt, to find out more email: odysseydebra@gmail.com
About the Reiki-Seichim-Sekhem system of healing
As the energies of Heaven and Earth come together to spiral, dance and become one within the heart, Sekhem/Seichim balances and merges the physical and subtle bodies, unifying all polarities including the divine masculine and divine feminine. The lotus blossom of the unified heart chakra bursts open and unfolds, bringing forth the eternal golden blue-white flame.
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Our five speakers are respected individuals and leading voices with significant influence in the Conscious Parenting arena. Our programme moves through foundational stages of growth and development that include: Birth, infancy, childhood, and adolescence taking cognisance of sensitive and high need children. Salt Rock Hotel KZN
Birth as a Rite of Passage
Lynne MacIntyre - 12:30 to 13:30
Raising Children by First Raising Ourselves
Gérraine Rozenkrantz - 13:30 to 14:30
Parenting Highly Sensitive, High Needs Kids
Colleen Wilson - 15:00 to 16:00
Breaking Generational Cycles
Pam Mac Donald - 16:00 to 17:00
Difficult Teens? Perfect!
Megan de Beyer - 17:00 to 18:00
25 July 2025 - 12:00 to 18:00
Dr Shefali Tsabary, Author of The Conscious Parent “
To be conscious is to be with an experience as it's unfolding, rather than thinking about how we would like to change it.
