If you are a practicing Reflexologist then you need to add this training to your repertoire! Besides learning how to identify where sciatica is originating from, very often it is NOT in the back/spine, you will also learn where and how to locate and treat the 12 cranial nerves in the feet and hands. Particularly useful to treat eye disorders, tinnitus, vertigo, balance issues, loss of smell, loss of taste, facial paralysis such as Bell's Palsy, neck and shoulder muscular tension and not least the Vagus Nerve which controls our breathing, heart rate and digestive processes. This will also improve your client’s posture! This is a full day's course on Saturday 31st October or Sunday 8th November, at my home in Ledbury and as such places will be limited. I have delivered this class succesfully via zoom for qualified Reflexologists who are further afield e.g., USA. Cost: £220 Please get in touch direct if you would like to register your place, or would like info on a payment plan. https://www.skool.com/maverick-aromatherapy-3200/treating-the-sciatic-and-12-cranial-nerves-with-reflexology

Spent some time with Jonah today processing a few culinary pumpkins, making good use of just about everything they had to offer. After roasting, we turned the pumpkin flesh into a beautiful, rich purée. Some of that is already in the dehydrator, destined to become pumpkin powder, while a good portion will be jarred and frozen for our harvest and holiday cooking. A couple of the cultivars had rinds worth preserving, too. Rather than tossing them, we sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. Once dried and powdered, those rinds become another interesting culinary ingredient, bringing their own earthy character and depth to the kitchen. We can blend the rind powder with the pumpkin flesh powder or use it separately to add another layer of flavor to cold-weather soups, stews, and savory dishes. And, of course, we saved all the seeds! Those will get seasoned and roasted for some mighty fine snacking. One of the things I love about working with good culinary pumpkins is discovering just how much they have to offer beyond the familiar pie. Different cultivars bring different flavors, textures, and possibilities to the table. Good food, a little ingenuity, and very little going to waste. And having Jonah alongside me makes the whole experience that much better.

Here come the Winter Essential Oils CPD Certificated classes, spread over 3 classes, starting on Monday 2nd November live on zoom at 7pm GMT. The other dates are: 16th November and 30th November. Over 3 classes we will be investigating 17 EO's to help us prepare for the darker winter months ahead and the inevitable bugs that go around and more. After each class I will send you comprehensive, individual handout/profile of each oil. Of course you won’t need to purchase all of them, as I will send you a sniffy stick for each oil so you can experience each individual oil in class and decide which ones you want in your kit. They are: Copaiba, Fir Needle, Flouve (Sweet Vernal Grass), Fragonia, Katafray, Kunzea, Lentisque, Manuka, Monarda, Peru Balsam, Plai, Ravensara, Rosalina, Saro, Schinus Molle (Pink Pepper), Siam Wood and Turmeric. Cost: £210, which can be spread over interest free payments (contact me direct). I will need to send you a registration form so I have your address to send out your accompanying sniffy sticks.

The other week in module #2 class of the Autumn Essential Oils series of classes, I decided we would do something a little different. We were looking at 6 EO's, namely: Magnolia flower, Opopanax, Hydecheium, Clementine, Inula and Carrot Seed. As all of the students have learnt to dowse for EO's, I asked them to focus on a situation that made them feel tetchy (I wanted to keep it simple), and then dowse the 6 EO's in the order they needed to just inhale the oils. We agreed that on a scale of 1-10, we were all starting at a 10 for our "tetchyness". We sat in quiet stillness as we all proceeded with our task by dowsing the six oils for their order, and then making notes of our experiences with each EO as we worked through the order our individual dowsers had selected for us. Once we were all done, we related our experience and journey. Everyone had a different order of EO's. It was also interesting that they all came out with key words and/or phrases that I have attributed to these oils, but hadn't told them what they were. The result was that each and every one of them said their tetchy situation had reduced down to a 2 or 3, so quite maneagable and some had even got insights as to how they could deal with their situation further. What does this little "experiment" also go to show? 1. Well, you don't need a whole raft of EO's to help you mentally or emotionally. 2. Not a single drop of EO was applied physically. 3. You can also do this process with your clients, without being an "amateur psychologist". 4. You can complete the process by re-dowsing asking for the main EO's that would help in combination, or an individual oil, to continue to support afterwards and pop them in a sniffy stick. 5. Dealing with underlying emotional and/or mental issues will also alleviate physical symptoms.

Not doing nothing much, I remember those Sundays in my childhood. Got a bit older, and Sunday afternoons would be a family foursome round of golf with high tea in the club house. A beautiful bit of prose.... have a read, so much wisdom, particularly this part... "I have noticed that even the language has changed. We no longer spend an afternoon doing nothing. We are *recharging our batteries*, *taking some personal time* or *prioritising self-care*. Everything must have a purpose, even rest." Copied and pasted from Facebook, written by Kevin McManus. "The Lost Art of Doing Nothing There was a time, not so very long ago, when doing nothing was a perfectly respectable way of passing an afternoon. People sat in chairs and looked out windows. They watched the rain falling on the fields, the occasional car passing along the road, or a neighbour making his way home from the village. They might comment on the weather, although there was rarely anything new to report. Sometimes they said nothing at all. And nobody thought there was anything particularly wrong with this. In the Ireland of my childhood, doing nothing was almost an art form. An elderly man could spend the better part of a Sunday afternoon sitting beside the fire, occasionally stirring the ashes with a poker, without feeling the slightest obligation to improve himself. He wasn't practising mindfulness or taking time out for his mental health. He was simply sitting there. There was no app involved. I remember visiting houses where the clock ticked loudly on the mantelpiece, the fire crackled in the grate, and the conversation moved at a pace that would be considered dangerously slow today. Someone might remark that there was a touch of frost coming. Another person would agree. A third might recall a particularly hard winter sometime in the 1960s. And that could keep everyone occupied for twenty minutes. Silence was never regarded as a failure of conversation. It was simply a natural part of it. People could sit together without feeling the need to fill every moment with words.