Just the right gift!
I love the challenge of buying gifts for people and trying to find just the right thing! I thought I might share a few of my ideas with you, which are obviously biased towards what I might like, but nonetheless, it might help you find just the right thing for a friend or colleague or family member!
· Any of Athene Sholl’s beautiful earrings. As many of you know, I am a fan of earrings and a fan of crystals and a fan of Athene’s designs, so for me there is nothing more special than receiving a pair of these!
· Beautiful essential oil scented candles both Armour Natural and Natural Candle sold by Hansa here in Guernsey. I love to burn these candles when I’m on my mat or in the bath, or even when I’m doing admin and these make fantastic gifts for others.
· Honour your flow natural pads from www.honouryourflow.co.uk. Oh my goodness, these are just amazing and are a fab gift for any menstruating woman. I’m a firm believer that where possible menstruating women should honour the apana vayu energy of menstruation, which is downward and outward flowing, and wear natural pads where they can, and these are amazing. Not only are they really soft, but they don’t leak! I appreciate that there are times when women need to use a tampon (please use a natural cotton if you can), but as a rule I try to use these as much as I can. I’ve got a couple of starter packs and the night-time pads and they arrived the day after ordering them with a lovely note from the owner of the business, and a few other goodies too (I shan’t ruin the surprise!).
· A copy of my book Namaste. OK, I’m biased, but there’s something rather lovely about giving someone a book to read, and mine is a rather lovely book as I put a huge amount of love and energy into it and am really keen that others may learn a little more about Nepal from reading it. Nepal is one of my most favourite places on this Earth!
· One of my cousin, Yolande’s, gemstone bracelets, as they have been made with love and infused with Reiki, and unlike other bracelets that break easily, these keep going for years and years!
· Special bath oils and essences - I’m partial to Dr. Hauschka’s stuff Moor Lavender Calming Bath Essence and Weleda’s lavender bath oil. I’m also quite excited about the new Westlab Relaxing Dead Sea Salt Bath Fizzer as it turns the bath water purple! All are available from Hansa.
· A Moleskine lined notebook. I’ve written a daily journal in pencil for almost 13 years now, and I love nothing more than journaling in a Moleskine. They’re amazing notebooks and would make a truly wonderful gift for absolutely anyone.
· Socks. You can’t beat a good pair of socks. I’m rather partial to warm and cosy socks, Herm Island sell a good selection, and Fat Face too, and of course you can always buy some cool bamboo socks from Hansa.
· Grace Galliott makes some rather lovely roller-ball essential oil blends, which is about all I’ll wear. She also sells some crystals and I do LOVE a crystal. All available from the Natural Health Clinic in St Martin’s, www.naturalhealthclinicguernsey.com
· Talking of St Martin’s if you haven’t happened upon Goodies, then you absolutely must. This is where you will find all things angels and I LOVE angels too. Angels make wonderful gifts and there is a wide selection here. You’ll also find a plethora of candles, Oracle Cards (of my goodness, I LOVE these too), Tibetan Singing Bowls and Buddhas galore. I’m going to have to go and take another visit.
See this is the problem with buying gifts for others, is that I always want to buy a gift for myself too!
· Thinking about it, Dhanu Le Noury makes some pretty cool essential oil blends too, which you can buy from www.sacredenergymethod.com
· Moving away from scent, how about a Fat Face scarf! I’m rather partial to Fat Face full stop (their clothes are so comfortable, especially their leggings) but I do especially love their scarves. Got to love a scarf!
· Dark chocolate. You can never have enough dark chocolate. You know the quality stuff. Hansa have a whole tempting heap of it in right now!
· Anything that’s made locally, and here my list could go on, because we are spoilt in Guernsey with locally made products. Cadeaux opposite the Town Church has a good selection of local stuff, so too does Iris and Dora. I’m especially fond of Dawn Cashin’s Creations.
· I don’t think you can go wrong with trying to make something yourself, even if it’s as simple (or not so simple) as trying to put together a bunch of flowers tied with a ribbon. You might even find a cool stone at the beach, or a beautiful feather, or something special for a friend’s altar, or to show you care. Gifts don’t have to be expensive after all.
· Some yoga tokens. It doesn’t even have to be yoga tokens for my classes. Tokens for any yoga class would make a wonderful gift. Yoga is a gift and to gift that to someone else is very special.
· Treatments. A voucher for a treatment also makes a wonderful gift. My friend Christine Shepherd gives the most amazing hot stone reflexology sessions, and then there’s Grace Galliott (Reflexology, EFT, Health coaching) and any of the ladies who facilitate on my Herm retreat including Kelly Harvey (massage and Reiki), Jo Pedersen (reflexology, Bowen and Reiki), Emily Trebert (Reiki) and Jo Henton (SHEN). We’re spoilt over here because there are wonderful beauty therapists too (I’m especially fond of Stacie at the Willow Tree). Let me know if you need the contact details for any of these ladies.
· A plant! I’ve got some wonderful plants that were gifts and they always remind me of my friends. We love to give plants, more so than flowers, as they can l keep going for years. I’m especially partial to an orchid because there is a skill to growing these, they need just the right amount of attention, and just the right amount of light…I like to rescue plants where I can, you know the ones that are on sale and no one has given them much love…the same with trees…see tons of ideas…
· How about some seeds. These make fabulous gifts, grow your own!
· Oh and if all else fails, a bottle of bubbles can bring a smile to someone’s face (provided they like bubbles of course!).
· Oh and obviously donating to charity can be a “raise the vibration of the world” gift. This year Beinspired had donated to 3 Angels, a wonderful charity set up to try to stop the trafficking of children in Nepal. I love Nepal and I absolutely loathe human trafficking and am always keen to do what I can to support Nepal and eradicate human trafficking. Look here for more details www.3angelsnepal.com. We also support the charity of the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals UK (with whom I’m studying), which sponsors children and families in Sri Lanka (www.ayurvedainstitute.co.uk)
I hope that’s helped. That’s certainly inspired me to get on with the rest of my shopping, and to go and enjoy a candlelit lavender bath!
Jill's Veggie Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients:
1tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 large carrots, diced
4 large mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp thyme, chopped
100ml red wine
400g tin chopped tomatoes
420g tin green lentils
3 large potatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
Method:
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion
Add the diced carrot, mushrooms and thyme
Pour in the wine, 100ml water and tomatoes, then sprinkle in the stock cubes and simmer for 10 mins
Tip in the tin of lentils, including the juice, and simmer for another 10 mins
Meanwhile, make the mash
Transfer vegetable mixture to an oven proof dish, top with the mash and cook in the oven for 30 mins
Herm yoga retreats have come to an end
All good things must come to an end and sadly, after 9 years, the very popular bi-annual yoga & wellbeing retreat on Herm Island must also come an end. Unfortunately the directors of Herm Island Limited have increased the tariff for 2019 to the extent that the retreat is no longer an affordable and viable option and there is no goodwill in place for those who have supported the Island previously. Thank you to all of you who have supported and attended the retreat over the years, i am sure you will be as sad as us, but time to let go and move on!
On a positive note, there are 3 spaces available on the Glastonbury September 2019 retreat and a handful of spaces still available for Goa in October 2019.
Jill's Chickpea Curry
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large tin chickpeas
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 clove garlic, crushed
Thumb of ginger, crushed
1 or 2 green chillies, finely chopped
Handful of chopped fresh coriander to top
Juice of half a lemon
Serve with rice (optional)
Method:
Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion until just starting to go brown
Add dry spices and cook for a few minutes before adding the chillies, garlic and ginger
Add tomatoes and chickpeas. Cook for 15 minutes on a medium heat, stirring regularly
Add lemon juice and coriander before serving with rice, naan bread etc.
Letting Go into the Darkness of Winter
I haven’t written a blog post for ages as life has been a bit full, catching up on office work and Ayurvedic study from when we were in the Outer Hebrides (and trying to land back to life here in Guernsey) and then finally publishing my book, Namaste! (You can buy it from Amazon here or Waterstones here).
It’s funny as the book publishing was a bit of an anti-climax having started it 11 years ago and giving up on it a number of times over the years, but always having it in the back of my mind that I really wanted to publish it, because it has been a dream and I like dreams to come true! I’d lived the thought of publishing my book many times in my mind, in my sankalpa repeated during yoga nidra, on healing mandalas, in my journal and in my prayers, so it was almost a relief to let it go, come what may.
The planetary dancing the last few months has made it feel very full-on for people and I almost sighed of relief when I felt a shift a little while ago. While I don’t know much about it from an astronomical perspective, I can feel it; there’s been a slowing down. It’s more than that though, at least for me. It’s a gentle release into the darkness, into the unknown. A shifting from one way of being to another, and yet not really knowing what that is, but also not needing to know, because there’s a need to trust the process (as the caterpillar trusts in the process to become a butterfly perhaps).
It’s happening in nature right now anyhow and I have noticed that the more I attempt to acknowledge the turning of the wheel and the changing seasons, let alone the moon cycle, then one can more easily see how our lives are a reflection of that (the micro and the macro). We’re moving further into the darkness as the winter solstice approaches in less than a month, and the trees continue to shed their leaves as all of nature lets go.
Thus all around us is a closing in, a hibernation, and as a reflection I feel this within me too - a need to be even gentler in my yoga practice, with candlelight and eyes mainly closed, dropping forever inwards, deepening the breath and lying silently on my mat, resting. I’ve also been enjoying nurturing yoga nidra, thanks to Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and the free yoga nidras on the Yoga Nidra Network (thank you Uma!). There are also some yoga nidra audios on our website that we’ve recorded too - you can find them here.
It’s certainly a time of endings and letting things settle before the new beginnings, as Imbolc will approach on 1 February, bringing with it that spark that gives life to the first buds of spring. It can be uncomfortable, the not knowing how the new may enter in, but trust it we must, because forcing it will do us no favours in the long run (trust me, I’ve tried that many times previously).
Of course new year will bring with it the pressure to will it in, to force the new, what with new year’s resolutions (sigh) as many try to force themselves to be someone that they’re not and never will be. And so they’ll berate themselves for a while for not losing weight or stopping drinking or truly making the change that they’ve decided they must make. But actually all they need to do is stop the trying, and just step more fully into who they are to begin with, even if that means still drinking the wine and eating the milk chocolate.
Perhaps it’s in the authenticity that we find the balance so the bad habits drop away naturally, without the need to force and be unkind to ourselves in the process. Much better if you ask me to begin the new year being even kinder and more loving to ourselves than we may have done previously. Maybe that’s where the true shift really needs to begin – in the positive, rather than the negative. I’ll be teaching a yoga class on new year’s day (click here for details) for this very reason. I’m reminded time and time again that there’s nothing wrong with us really, only in how we perceive ourselves in the first place.
Less is more I’m also reminded, so all I really wanted to say was that I hope you’re all well and navigating this autumnal fall with a smile on your face. It won’t be long until Christmas, and that will distract us enough to get us to the new year and then who knows what that will bring but I’m pretty excited about it, and the retreating between now and then. So enjoy the ambiguity and the letting go and the darkness and the insights this provides. And enjoy my book too, if you can find the time!