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'IN EQUILIBRIUM 10'        
                           
For free information and details of products on health, lifestyle and improving performance, as well as specialist advice for organisations and individuals  and a chance to view back copies of In-Equilibrium go to www.in-equilibrium.co.uk. 

CONTENTS           
    
THE REGULARS                  FEATURES      
Stress Tip

Introducing Toxicity

Quote Supplement of the Month- A Natural Antibiotic?
Book Review    Al's Column:The Wonderful World of Smells
 

Meditations
 
THE REGULARS
 
STRESS TIP
 
Pen Your Way to Inner Peace!
 
Don’t bottle up your feelings. Often stress occurs out of frustration and lack of communication. Learn positive ways to express your feelings and desires to people who may be causing you stress.
 
If it isn't possible to express your feelings, or it doesn't seem appropriate, then there is an alternative.  Put your feelings on paper in a diary. Often the simple act of 'getting it off your chest' in an appropriate manner will reduce your stress level.
 
This tip is supported by research.  For example, a study at the University of New York found that after 70 people with either asthma or rheumatoid arthritis wrote about their most stressful experience for 20 minutes a day for 3 consecutive days, nearly half found that their physical discomforts had eased significantly (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1999).
 
 
QUOTE
 
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969, American Minister)
 
BOOK REVIEW              
 

This is the original, classic book on ‘Emotional Intelligence’.  As someone who has never considered himself as being over endowed with conventional intelligence, I found this book answered many questions for me.  Goleman explains how Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can, at the end of the day, be more powerful than conventional IQ. 

The author constantly backs up his theories with references to relevant scientific research and studies.  I was particularly interested in a study of CEOs in the United States aimed at identifying the key attributes of successful businessmen.  Conventional expectations are that the cleverest and the toughest individuals generally power their way to the top.  However the study Goleman refers to reveals that the commonest single quality of CEOs is the ability to stay on good terms with past colleagues who they can call on to help them to solve problems. 

Quite simply the more help you can get when you have a problem the quicker you will solve it.  Also, if you’ve taken the trouble to keep in touch with someone then they are likely to respond promptly to your request for help.  If however this is the first time you’ve spoken to them for years, they are less likely to go out of their way to help you.  For me, this example demonstrates the real power of EQ.

The book also discusses the practical repercussions of low EQ, by focussing on examples of bad management and situations where disasters have occurred because staff are simply too frightened to give their boss bad news.  The most extreme example of this is where an airline pilot’s crew neglect to inform him about a fault in the plane's landing gear for fear of receiving his legendary wrath when things go wrong.  Any manager who generates fear in their staff is without doubt lacking in EQ.  The cost of management by fear is lack of information or receiving too little too late.

Goleman also discusses motivation, teamwork, and how groups respond to good and bad EQ from a leader.  He explains how managers with low EQ frequently voice criticisms as personal attacks rather than as complaints that can be acted upon.  Such managers are described as displaying an ignorance of the feelings they can trigger in their staff through the use of destructive personal criticism.

This is an interesting and easy book to read, I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Review by Alastair Taylor

We will be running seminars and courses in Emotional Intelligence later in the year.  Watch this space.

FEATURES
The first article in the ‘Toxicity’ series by Dr David Mason Brown.... 
 
INTRODUCING TOXICITY

We take in toxins in our food and drink, from the air we breath and through our skin.  Ninety percent of food in our supermarkets is sprayed by the farmers to keep off bugs, sprayed again whilst stored, and by the supermarkets to keep things looking good on the supermarket shelves longer. It is estimated that even ten percent of organic food is also sprayed.

Approximately 60,000 tons of particulate pollution descends into the lungs of New Yorkers every month.  This is thought to include an estimated three thousand potentially cancerous substances.

The first effect of all of this toxicity is to reduce our energy levels.  About a quarter of people seeing their GP complain of feeling tired.  The body tries to get rid of the toxins in a number of ways:

  • It puts them into mucus, so you get more catarrh or colds and asthma.
  • It puts them into the skin, producing dryness, flaking, acne, into nails so they crack.
  • It puts them into the hair, so that it lacks life and even falls out. 
  • It stores them in the body fat, producing cellulite. 
  • Other tissues can become damaged producing many different types of serious illness. 

Another way in which the body tries to deal with toxins is that it retains fluid, because when the body becomes aware of something you are sensitive to it retains water to try to dilute the strength of that substance which is toxic for your body.  This is why some people suddenly put on pounds in weight. 

The next article in this series will be about detoxification, and how this can give you extra energy, and health.
 
 
Olive leaf Extract - A Natural Antibiotic?
 
We all have heard that olive oil is good for us, but now it is being increasingly realised that the leaf of the olive tree can be extremely helpful against various kinds of infection.  It is taken in the form of Olive Leaf Extract.

As more and more bacteria and other infections become resistant to antibiotics, the investigation and use of other agents becomes increasingly important.  One of these alternatives is Olive Leaf Extract and next month I will tell you about the other main one I use, Colloidal Silver.

I was first told about Olive Leaf Extract by Australian colleagues and have since started to recommend it for individuals who have been having recurrent infections of different kinds, and seem to have, sometimes due to pressure of work, varying degrees of decreased vitality of their immune system.  I also use it with patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME.

The olive leaf contains oleuropein.  The active ingredient in oleuropein is elenolic acid, which has been shown to help against bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses.  Research in Hungary has shown such positive results that the Hungarian Government has adopted Olive Leaf Extract for its health system as an official anti-infectious disease remedy.

If you have been under excess pressure with those euphemistically called 'Significant Life Events'; keep feeling tired or run down; have recurrent colds or viruses, throat, sinus, ear, bronchitis, cystitis, or skin infections; candida; tiredness due to stress; or even herpes; and conventional medicines have not cleared things, then Olive Leaf Extract could be well worth trying.

In our use of Olive Leaf Extract my colleagues and I have seen a reduction in infections. People often also report, over a period of use, a considerable increase in energy, which helps the stamina at work and for socialising! 

Click here for further information or to order Olive Leaf Extract. 
 
Remember: You should always consult your doctor before taking any supplements.   This information is not a substitute for seeing your own doctor, especially when you do not know what is wrong.  
 
As with most supplements, you should avoid taking Olive Leaf Extract if you are pregnant.
 
 
AL'S COLUMN
 
The Wonderful World of Smells

Isn’t the sense of smell a wonderful thing?  I love smells.  In fact, my earliest memory is a smell.  From the age of two to three and a half, I lived in a village in North West Wales called Porthmadoc. We lived in two houses during that time.  The first was haunted but that’s another story.  The second was at the edge of the village.  To the back of our house was a steeply wooded hillside, and therein lies the root of my first memory, the smell of bluebells.   

To this day I have acute sensitivity to the smell – I can smell bluebells some way off – and it transports me back to my very early childhood.  It’s quite a mystical thing for me, spiritual even.  I feel at one with the world, joyous, glad to be alive in the presence of that smell.  Growing up I’ve maintained my affinity with woods, and now in my forties, I live again in a village on the edge of a wooded hillside, one that is carpeted with blue in late April and May.  

When I think about it, smells have come to my rescue at other times too.  Not long after I met my wife, we had to spend about a year apart.  It was horrible.  I hated it.  But she knitted me a small teddy and sprayed it with her favourite perfume.  When I needed to (which was often as I missed her so much) I could breathe her in, literally.  Through that smell she was with me.

I think we could all make better use of smells.  The first thing I suppose is to decide to stop.  If we’re always rushing about, there’s no time to stop and smell things.  We really do need to stop sometimes to smell, feel and think.  Those three things seem so inter-connected.  Then, we can give some time to how different smells affect us emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.  Once we do that we can deliberately get certain smells into our lives.  Or we could work on our imagination and practise ‘thinking’ those smells.  It’s amazing how good we can get at using our imagination.  It’s certainly worth a bit of investment in getting the wonderful world of smells into your life.

So if you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise.  It’ll be Alan smelling the bluebells!

By Alan Bradshaw

MEDITATIONS
 
Some thoughts on forgiving.
 
For most of us, the act of forgiveness is something we were taught at a very young age.  As a result we sometimes think of it in quite a child-like way.  It became a skill before many of our thought processes were fully developed. 
 
You might recognise thoughts like: I forgive you (as long as you never do it again!)  or, I forgive you (you idiot, you are not worth it!) or, I forgive you ( you poor soul, you don't have the capacity to do any better!).
 
But what does it really mean to forgive?
  • An ability to accept that none of us are perfect.
  • Letting go of the negative emotions we create as ways of responding to the behaviour of others.
  • A desire to genuinely resolve differences and move forward.
Remember, the ability to forgive is important for your own mental health.  Being unable to forgive means that you are holding on to negative emotions which drain your energy.
 
Think about your feelings towards someone you believe has wronged you. See if you can loosen up some of the opinions that you have developed in response to this percieved wrong.
 
Remind yourself of the points above in relation to this person.  Notice your reactions: your hesitations, your rationalizations, your emotions. When you observe a reaction that prevents you from continuing, sit with it awhile. Examine it closely. Then let go of it. Let the obstruction melt away like an icecube in the sun. You could even visualise it melting away.  How does it feel? Perhaps it is easier to let go than to keep holding on, it certainly releases some energy!

Go to the Open Courses page on our web site  for information on the content of our open courses.  The dates for the next series of Open Courses are on the web-site now.
 
 
 
 
You can telephone us on 0131 476 7183. 

Edited by Jan MacGregor.