Jane Alexander's Blog, page 7

James James Morrison Morrison - on children parenting feckless adults

It’s official.  My son is now the responsible adult in our relationship.  JIt’s been coming for a while, quite a long while really. In fact, way back when he was a child, that A.A.Milne poem always had a resonance...You know the one...
"James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three..."
‘You’re just not aware, Mother,’ he said, with a furrow of the brow, when we somewhere or other.  I laughed. I love it when he calls...

Starfishing through Space and Time

Anyhow.  I don’t always get what I want but I often get exactly what I need.  So yesterday I found myself driving towards the sea to Braunton.  You know how much I love Hands On – it’s a small yet impeccable natural health clinic with a truly lovely float room.  Oh, and you know how much I love floating.  J
My good friend (also a wonderful therapist) Nicki Hughes had sent me a gift voucher for a float, and then Phil said he’d throw in a massage for good measure (my fri...

Kichadi and ghee recipes for autumn ayurveda detoxing

Okay, so here are the recipes for the autumn ayurvedic detox.
GheeGhee is basically clarified butter and very simple to make (or you can be really lazy and buy it ready made). You will need unsalted organic butter.
Put the butter in a small pan and cook over a gentle heat.Let it reach boiling point when it will become transparent and a white foam will appear on top.  Allow to boil quietly for about 15 minutes–you will know when it’s ready because it will turn a lovely soft golden colour an...

An ayurvedic detox for autumn

So, a few people have been in touch asking if I could post up an autumn detox.  When I’ve overdone it (last last week, for example) I usually just shrug it off and get back to my normal eating.  I know the things that don’t suit my body – sugar, wheat, alcohol, heavy rich fried foods – and so I just cut them out again and start to feel a whole bunch better. 
But a lot of people like to follow a plan.  So, here’s one of my favourite autumn cleanses, based on ayurveda. ...

Wake me up - when September ends...

Long time, no blog.  I’ve been off with the fairies, dreaming, dozing, delegating my life.  Now it’s time to wake up.  Why do I never follow my own advice?  I took a look in my book The Natural Year and there it is…
‘Autumn shouts ‘wake-up’ to the psyche – it’s time to dust yourself off after the languor of summer and take life head on again.’ 

I’m late, I thought, as I blinked my way into the day (hideously early as always on a school day); September has nearly ended...

It's time...

So, it’s finally time.    
After all the shilly-shallying, will we-won't we, we are finally going to put this crazy, gorgeous, mad house on the market.  How do I feel?  Conflicted.  I thought this would be my forever home, I really did.  If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know how I fell head over heels in love with the place, with everything about it.  I could see past the layers of vinyl wallpaper, past the nutty layout (inherited from wh...

Magic don't work if you don't believe in it

A dear old friend said something yesterday that gave me pause.  ‘Magic don’t work if you don’t believe in it.’  And I thought about it, and felt about it, and I think and feel she’s right.If you shut your eyes and close your ears and lock away your hopes and dreams behind a mile-high wall, then, sure as eggs is eggs, ain’t nothing magical going to happen, is it?   Just as you won’t win the Lottery if you don’t buy a ticket, you’ve got to meet magic halfway.  You’ve go...

Dancing in the Shitstorm of Life

So.  Yes.  We went to the beach.  To Bude.  It’s about half an hour from lovely Waterloo Farm, the Cornish base for The Pause (check it out if you fancy a farm holiday – they have several renting cottages).  It wasn’t the best day, weather-wise but never mind.  We spread out the blankets and looked at the sea and decided that, no, it really wasn’t warm enough after all for a dip, however bracing.  Danielle suggested we might want to go and look for a stone t...

Dead Crow

Anyhow.  You have to laugh.  I’d given up on synchronicity – just called it coincidence.  I’d given up on magic – just called it mind games.  And then, while I was in Cornwall at The Pause, I was woken up by the loudest bird I’ve ever heard.  It wasn’t just cawing, it was cawing right outside my bedroom window at stadium rock gig level.  It was the Ian Gillan of crows, the Ozzy Osbourne of avians. 
So I went down to breakfast and took my bowl of Bircher mues...

Ho-oponopono - love and forgiveness to heal the world?

Anyhow, where was I before I became sidetracked by core wounding?  And, before that, before I became sidetracked wondering about Andrew Wallas’s first wife?   Oh yes, Ho’oponopono.  This was the thing I was thinking about at The Pause. 
This was the thing I read about in A&A’s book that struck me.  It was pretty much an aside, an anecdote told in passing, but it made me wonder.  I’d not heard of it before.  So I looked it up and, okay, so it’s a Hawa...