All Over Bar the Voting

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Just thought I’d save this till those who are going to have made up their mind but it did strike me as odd that we who for generations willingly gave our lives for our freedom and independence now seem unwilling to pay for it. Just saying, in fact reporting a conversation I heard between two chaps who couldn’t decide.

For me, the past weeks have shown the true, false and shifting colours of the low-lifes we elected to lead us.  I have even heard admiration expressed at the politicians’ mastery of evasion.

Ah well, they say a nation gets the government it deserves. Rock on!  Where will we be tomorrow?  Who will we be tomorrow?

‘Seek not the Truth, nor cherish Opinion.’ The First Zen Patriarch.

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Squeezing Oranges

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Yesterday. Nine o’clock, morning.  In the kitchen.  Back from my early morning walk, twenty brisk minutes up and down the hill, a cup of English Breakfast tea halfway in Rosie Lee with a scan of the morning paper to catch up on current trends in history.  Before that, the daily discipline, challenge, joy and delight of another 500 word-steps of the book.  And even before that, first thing on waking up, watching the light creep in the window and rolling over to kiss the bundle under the blankets beside me, my sleeping Beloved, before tip-toeing downstairs.

Outside, nine o’clock, squeezed into tubes – no, Tubes – a mass of humanity compressed into different shapes, sharing their breath, fragrances of Starbucks and Caffe Nero, newly washed faces and freshly cleaned teeth, all the scents from all the bottles in Boots, bodies crushed by backpacks, boots by brief-cases, the screaming sounds of machinery impelling the steel sausage along the track, disemboweled at every stop by many-headed multitudes hurtling up and down steps and stairs to work to work to work to work ah-choo-choo.

And here I stand, squeezing oranges, by hand, feeling the unique texture in my palm, squishing the fruit on to the squeezy thing, thinking of where this orange grew, how it found its way to Sainsburys, and was chosen, by me, to come home and be squeezed.

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Thought for the Day

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Kris Deva North

What shall I think about today, I thought, awoken by the sound of wind banging the wind chime on the window pane, a shadow of the waxwing slain.  I could think about what I thought about yesterday, as most days I seem to.  Work stuff.  No, I thought, stuff work.  I love it, and will be doing it all day, the last in a row of eight teaching, and of course will dedicate many thoughts to that but for now, in the quiet of early morning I take a break, step outside to feel the dew beneath my feet.

Boohoo, no dew…but a beautiful view of the gifts in my garden: the hollyhock, the honeysuckle, and the geranium, all given by friends.  Perhaps we shall grow a garden of gifts.  Now that’s a nice thought.  I shall think that thought and as I do their faces come to mind, friends I know and love, the face of the giver when I see or use a gift.  I look in the mirror as I shave with the brush from my son, a present from the past. And even if it were not there all the time, as it is, appears the face of my Beloved as I get dressed in the clothes she gave me.

Gazing around at the richness of life, past memories and future thoughts, I’m filled with gratitude for the present, for this moment that so often slips by unnoticed in the thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow but now, today, this morning, this moment, I am here, surrounded by gifts, alive and present, and feeling creative, excited by insights inciting these thoughts that feed my soul.

Off to work now, a spring in my step, summer in my heart, new thoughts ahead!

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Hello Again Dublin

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Kris Deva North

I first met you in the mid-70s, hanging out with bloodstock breeders of Kilcock who entertained me at a Japanese restaurant where apple pie was on the menu. ‘We like to leave with full bellies,’ they said.  It rained, mostly.

My next visit was some thirty years later and in between times I’d learned Taoist stuff and been invited there to teach.  The No Smoking ban had just come in so the grounds of the Lord Lucan filled up between classes.  I loved the carvery.

My appearance on a TV reality show (Extreme Celebrity Detox) had gone down a storm.  One of the Dublin papers, I think it was the Irish Times but not sure, described me as having the features of an Anglican Bishop – strangely incongruent with genital weightlifting.  And I was recognized by a taxi-driver for my fifteen minutes of fame.

Another ten years go by and I’m back, this time with my beloved Anamarta who has meantime established a following among the women of Dublin, and am now introduced as Anamarta’s partner.  We’ve taught together there a few times, returning each year in springtime to share our Taoist practice.  Oddly enough, it rarely rains during our visit.

Although you have changed in so many way, the things I love remain the same: the hospitality and kindness, from welcome to departure; the craic; the sincere interest in what we are doing, and the willingness to learn.  We love you, Dublin!  See you next time!

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Headsong Heartsong

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Barely awake I hear the sound of music ringing in my ears.  Today it’s Julie skipping through mountain meadows.  Yesterday John in his white suit sashayed down the road to Saturday night.  (Funny how I remember the name of the star not the character.)  The day before it was a song from my teen age sixty years ago and that’s a sobering thought.  I want you I need you I love you was my first buy at fifteen and every day since I’ve woken to a song in my head uplifting my heart.  Am I lucky or have you too?

Now I’m starting a new project and I want to bring you along with me to keep me going, to encourage with a bit of company or a byte of feedback. It’s nearly a quarter century I’m in the business of making life better for others and for myself, starting with shiatsu, Taoist meditation and NLP now and my new project is to make a difference for you and me by presenting Richard Bandler’s and Paul McKenna’s work and ideas in an accessible series of evenings.  I had the the thought a few weeks ago but then stalled realising the amount of energy and time it would take to prepare.  So I asked myself what would motivate me to start, and then keep going, and it was the inspiration to share the whole process with you.

So, like it or not, here you are, in the front of my mind, Julie in the back dancing through the edelweiss, laptop on lap as I sit up in bed.  And I must not check emails till I’ve done, otherwise I’m lost in admin and the song in heart and head flies out the window into the grey rainspotty sky.  It might not be every day but it is today.

I need a title, a sizzle, and few lines of enticement to read more.  How can you help me?  Watch this space, or fill this space?  Andiamo!

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That’s Life

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Many years ago I was given a gift so rare and irreplaceable I knew I could never find another.  After many mistakes I realized that to make the most of it I must look after it and treat it well.  After all, whoever gets out alive?

They (Emerson, Lennon – depends where you look) say it’s what happens when you’ve made other plans.  I have to agree after my deliverance from misdelivery when finally my parcel was redelivered to where it should have gone in the first place…and that place then caught fire!  The fortunate parcel and associated humans avoided early cremation but now it rests under a blanket of ash, awaiting its opening. I have made no other plans to open it.  I will let life deal with that.

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About Yesterday

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder and I am thus beholden to the Universe who assisted me to embrace the day as it unravelled, starting with the news that a consignment of books on its way to me had been misdelivered, and what did I want the sender to do about it.  Well, I said, either send me another consignment before Friday, or send whoever says they delivered the parcel to wherever they said they delivered it, to whoever they said signed for it, and to redeliver to where they should have delivered in the first place.

I later got a call that the mis-deliverer had retrieved the delivery and redelivered.  The sender told me they had done a good job.  ‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘a good job of crisis management, avoidable of course by delivering to the right address in the first place.  Perhaps,’ I added, ‘they are good at crisis management because they get lots of practice.’

That was mean, wasn’t it, and I got my comeuppance a moment later with a message that my instruction to deliver a book to a customer abroad turned out to be for a book different from what the customer had ordered.  The subsequent deluge of emails, phone calls, texts and whatsapps gave me my own opportunity for crisis management!

Of course one can soar above these things…

eagle

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Today Is A Beautiful Day

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Kris Deva North

Butterfly_transformation

Today is a beautiful day.  I wake up with a smile on my face and reach out, but to empty space for my Beloved is away in the joy of visiting her little ones.  I lie a moment watching the light brighten my window, happy that I completed my 8-day teaching marathon, that I spent the whole of yesterday lazing on the sofa watching Father Ted, that today I start a new project, that in two days I will be reunited with my Beloved, that in three days I will be teaching a weekend of healing magic to a course almost full.

Now I shall run the five paces into my garden to say Aloha to the Rising Sun, and count the Eight Pieces of Brocade that ease me into place between Heaven and Earth. Ah! And bring in the storm-washed clothing that I forgot on the line last night!

 

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Healing By Persuasion

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Kris Deva North

howmanyways‘You can’t pay someone to be ill for you,’ said Steve Jobs, ‘no matter how much money you have.’

Outside the world of the shaman, not everyone understands how our thoughts influence our health.  Any doctor will tell you that you can worry yourself sick.  Would they believe you can laugh yourself better? Would you believe?  Statistically, most people who live beyond 100 have a cheery nature.
But it’s not always easy to persuade people that good health is a natural way of being especially when much of society including the monetarists are programming and programmed into an ‘assumption of unwellness.’

I make an appointment to see the doctor for a routine check-up. ‘Don’t forget to bring your medications’ says the medical receptionist.  I tell her I don’t have any.  There’s a kind of surprised feeling at the other end of the telephone.
‘Well at least bring your inhaler.’ I gave up long ago trying to get them to change their records that I had once had bronchitis.  It stopped in May 1972, let me see now, 44 years ago.  That, and a few other minor ailments, faded away after my first meditation experience when I realized that yes, how I feel did affect my health.

That one weekend persuaded me I could make my life better.  And for the past quarter-century or so I’ve devoted that life to helping others feel the same, whether through Shiatsu, Healing Tao, or Healing NLP.  So many resources we can access!
I’m sharing the Healing NLP next week – take a look here if you haven’t already, and Chi Nei Tsang on 2nd and 3rd April.

Come on by, be well and stay well!
Kris
Society of NLP Licensed Trainer & Chi Nei Tsang Senior Teacher, Mantak Chia Taoist Training London.

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This Changes Everything…

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Kris Deva North

…the words of Ivana Saldana, former professional ballet dancer and now Healing NLP Master-Practitoner leading NLP-based workshops at the #EnglishBallet and #RoyalSchoolofBallet, ‘Once you realise the effects of our thoughts in all aspects of our lives then you see the world in a different way.  You realise you are responsible, you have a say, you have a choice, and this is wonderful because then you realise we are free!’

‘It gives me the edge,’ says Alex Reece, a professional actor picked out of 2000  wannabes to play the bleach blond haired assassin chasing 007 #DanielCraig in the #Skyfall #Heineken featurette commercial, ‘Crack the Case’ in 2012, a £10million production by Eon and MJZ.

Anamarta, #Taoist teacher and creator of the #JadeCircle Tao of Feminine Empowerment affirms, ‘In public speaking, even in front of hundreds of people, you keep your tone, you keep your confidence, you know what is the right thing to say, the right thing to do.’

Master Practitioner Elena Alvarez used it to master the pain of childbirth, Practitioner David Hajducki to help people with brain injuries, Engineer Antonis says it helps with with flirting, to see better all aspects of others, and to take short cuts in a huge international corporate environment.

In just a few days time you can be part of this elite team using Healing NLP to make life better for yourself and others – and at a very favorable discount if you are a healer, a therapist or a teacher.
Find about the training, watch the short videos, learn more here.

Get a recognised qualification and put it to use right away!
March 21st thru 28th, 10.30am to 6pm, Kentish Town Studio 141-145 Kentish Town Road, Camden, London NW1 8PB.
With Kris Deva North, Society of NLP Licensed Trainer.

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