Breast Cancer Haven at Leeds

I have been a hostage to fear recently. I don't know exactly why - a few reasons I expect, but there it is. I'm sure it's normal and just part of life. It just requires some management. To that end I had a brainwave. I've been to The Haven at Leeds before for an introductory day and a days retreat, and to see one of the counsellor's. It struck me that maybe I could do with another of the day retreats. It was the best thing I could have done. I had a fantastic day. The emphasis was on positive energy and thoughts. We did relaxations, visualisations, breathing, and we connected. I came away refreshed and remotivated.

It's easy to question if it's worth all the effort when the rest of the world just goes on as per normal. (I've been watching television with my family recently and there's loads of adverts which seem to be mostly about food. What is that about !?! Cereal, cheese, butter, chocolate, pasta, burgers, etc. It's very irritating when you're relaxing and then get bombarded with forbidden foods in the privacy and assumed safety of your own living room.) It is time consuming keeping body and soul together. Juicing takes the best part of an hour. Then there's tending to my sprouting seeds, exercise, deep breathing and meditation, shopping for healthy food, connecting with friends, gardening and getting some sunshine and fresh air while the sun's out. I don't do enema's and only have colonics every few months because they are too time consuming, but there's foot detoxes when I remember. It's nice to sit for half an hour with my feet in a bucket, and I definitely can't do anything else at the same time, but it still takes time. It's consequently only natural, I think,, to question whether it's worth all the effort. Yesterday I felt I got the confirmation and motivation I needed. Anne, who leads the retreat, did a great job of reminding me of the mind body connection and of its impact on health. And she reminded me to be kind and forgiving and accepting of myself. I think the words she repeated as we were all tapping our chests using E.F.T. techniques were "I love and accept myself ". I wish she had a CD to listen to because my memory is so bad and I couldn't scribble notes and make the most of the moment both at the same time. She did a fantastic healing visualisation where I saw a tree, then I think I turned into the tree, and finally I think I was a waterlily. I'll admit I think I drifted out of consciousness once or twice ( please God, I hope I didn't snore !!) so I can't remember everything clearly, but it was a wonderful relaxing day. Oh, and we did a fantastic pink light meditation. If only I could remember it clearly. Anne reminded me that there is a strong connection between the mind and the body and told me of two books that I might be interested in. One is by Masuro Imoto and is about water crystals and how they may be affected by kind thoughts, words, and music. We did a little experiment and I'm sure I could tell a slight difference in mouth feel of one that had been meditated over and one that hadn't. Anne did the meditating, and is a healer herself. The second book is about the link between emotions and genes and is called 'The Genie in our Genes' by Dawson Church. I looked on Amazon and in a review it was claimed to be a good book to read after The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton. I read this book and it was very interesting reading and resonated with me, so Church's book is now on my wish list at Amazon. ( It's all about persuading myself that my body CAN heal itself after being told that medicine can only do so much. ) Anne also told our group about her own meditative practice which is the Ishayas Ascension. I've looked on the internet at http://www.thebrightpath.com/ and it seems quite interesting. I'll give them a call and see about learning to ascend. If it comes to anything I'll post about it and let you know. We had a nice lunch of bean salad with rice and there was walnut shortbread for dessert. I don't normally eat biscuits and sweet things anymore, but I'm tired of depriving myself so I had the shortbread and It was really nice. Not too sweet., so I suppose the damage was minimal, and it was nice to be normal for a little while. At least I won't be getting cravings for shortbread now as I've satisfied it already.

All in all it was a day I feel I've really benefited from. But unfortunately The Haven is suffering in the current economic recession and is having difficulty with funding and the retreats have been stopped from next week. It's a real pity as I think everyone on it will have gained from the experience. We were all very mellow at the end of the day. I only booked on it on Tuesday as there was just one place left. I'd originally had hopes of booking in for a May day, but I think divine providence was on my side with that one place available before the retreats finished. I'm truly grateful for a days peace and I'm still very mellow and optimistic today. Long may its benefits last.

Incidentally, if you want to have a look at the website of The Breast Cancer Haven it's here :-
http://www.breastcancerhaven.org.uk/