It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to…

It’s been a while since I have blogged, 4-mths to the date. As I sit here in my studio, I feel today is the perfect day for change. I want to step into the 2013 action plan I thought about over the Christmas period, but haven’t quite put into play yet! I have this theory that actually, it is better to en.act ones New Year resolution a month in to the New Year, as most would not have kept it on January 1^st, and the momentum increases as the days roll on.

We are also exactly one month into the new Solar Year! What, I hear some of you say, is that? Well, in astronomical circles, 21/12/12 was chosen as the as the end of the Mayan cycle due to the Maya’s knowledge of the equinoxes and their revolution around the sun. You will have seen mainstream media commenting on this date as the ‘end of the world’ – well, we are still here! So I guess this wasn’t really the message.

The calendar depicts an ending that is new beginning. An understanding of the position of our solar system in relation to the Milky Way reveals to us a development state of humanity as a whole! OK – so this is getting a bit deep. And I don’t to preach. Promise! But how prey, do we fit into all this Milky Way stuff?

‘As transformation, triggered by the completion of the Great Cycle has already taken place, signaled by a shift in the resonating frequency, this shift announces the end of a Great Cycle and gives premonition of the brilliance of our galactic, solar and planetary reality in the following era which begins with 2012 AD’.

WOW! This is all sounding awesome to me! So what’s next?

‘Our planet thus enters into its next evolutionary phase, securing itself a place as a new member of the galactic community.’

So, with this great news, I have been waiting for some sense of spirit to envelop me and guide me towards my next move, as we all come together to work collectively! As you can see, I am still waiting…

But with the month passed since 21/12/12, I have given great thought to what this message means in practical terms, and what it holds for me. 2013 is a year where we may all find what we desire, whatever we need, we can make it happen. But, it will take work on our part. 

I have been reminded of things that I had experienced in the past and had challenged me, but what I now understand is I was challenged for a purpose. These times brought change in me, and I have changed for the better. And I strive for excellence. I have come to create goods things around me, for good things to then blossom.

So with the blessings that come with time, growth and change, let’s seek deep roots, think long term, support generations, provide strong foundations, to build something that will last …. forever?

Happy New Solar Year!

Much love,

Sunita

x

Be Present, Be Visible and Connect!

Over the years, I've had so many contacts with people whos work is energy based, teaching yoga, Ayurveda, meditation, self development and entrepreneurship in particular that when I reached out to a presenter of a Spa and Wellbeing organisation recently, I felt that I should talk about what I call the business of connecting humans to various expressions of meaning.

I'm always surprised to notice and observe how Spas connect with their clients. Spas create an environment to enhance a feeling of bliss; they construct a building and develop surroundings to offer visitors a unique immersive setting to unwind, chill out and forget about the world. But the relationship we cultivate with ourselves is quite possibly the most important one we will experience in our lifetime. Over the course of human history, cultures and traditions have established systems to support and assist our discovery of who we are and ways in which we can establish and connect to our inner balance: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually

My interest has always been to establish connections with the inside and the outside! From the outside, we can draw conclusions that the Spas preoccupation for art and the creative expression in the marketing material is at best remote unless linked intelligently to inner wellbeing. When, as a client, you are encouraged to explore the two together, maybe you'll recognise an area of imbalance in yourself that you can then work on addressing.

If I was asked to lead a creative Wellness project of any size, my focus would be to bring fresh and vibrant artistic and creative expression to the design. To me, whether you are the leading Spa venue in Timbuktu or the best secret retreat in la la land, you must show curiosity and passion for creative therapeutic surprises or move on to another job. The point of any presenting Wellbeing house is not strategy or survival, but the creation of a sacred, daring space where the creative and therapeutic cultures and expressions of the world are presented to an audience so that a new conversation can start or continue.

This can lead to fostering creative conversations leading to social, aesthetic, playful insights on us and our worlds, as well as supporting the business of Wellbeing! We are in the business of connecting humans to themselves and therefore to meaning. So if connecting with humans is a problem in the first place because you are too busy maintaining the bricks in place and you establish your presenting Wellbeing house as an institution to the very Wellbeing professionals who are the source of your life force, why not take the time and trouble to be present, shift your focus to a vibrant, thought provoking, inspiring therapeutic hub.

So here is the message... be present, be visible and connect!

Much love,

Sunitax

Entries are now in to our competition question: What do you do at home with your family to promote conscious living?

We had some amazing wise words emailed and twittered to us. Thank you all for sending in your conscious realities. We had to choose one winner, and two runners up, so here goes. x

Our favorite:

My name is Imogen and I live in North Devon. I wanted to tell you how I promote conscious living in my life and my families lives. 

I am currently moving into my new home where I will be living in a yurt with my boyfriend. We will be growing all of our own produce and plan to only buy groceries and other things we need from local shops that support the local community. We plan to have a composting toilet so that we deal with all of our own waste personally. We have a river on the land that we are moving into at the moment and I will be using this water to wash all of our clothes with natural products and we will also be using it to wash ourselves in too! We plan to leave very little trace of our being there too; we will be living with and alongside nature and changing with the seasons. I am very excited about taking my life into my own hands and starting my journey of learning to live self sufficiently and consciously. 

I have been using all natural products in my home and for my body for around 2 years now. 

I hope you are having a good day, 

With love, 

Imogen Rose

Our second favorites:

I promote conscious living with my children in many ways.  I involve them in the menu planning for the week and show them how to get the full nutritious balance.  We go out for long walks in the countryside and take a carrier bag and collect any rubbish we find strewn around and stress the importance to them of we are all responsible for looking after our planet. I also encourage them to see beauty in everything around them and to be positive in daily life.

Caroline James

I promote conscious living through my teaching. With regards to Ayurveda and children, I am a passionate advocate on children's health and wellbeing albeit that my own daughter is now a young woman. I believe that Ayurveda and yoga should be passed onto children of today in order for them to make the right choices in life.

I promote yoga to my class students and encourage them to attend classes with their children, this does not happen very often but when it does I see both parent and child change their attitude towards each other and at the end of class see all the ‘stresses’ melt away.

Thank you Sunita for a really interesting blog.

Namaste

Jackie Dorrian

Come on Government – let’s get ancient ideas of Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy into schools to promote confidence and wellbeing

I’ve been a learning a lot this week from some very clever techy people – they told me about web analytics, customer intelligence, hypothesis generation and software integration! Ah yes, I’m sure your eyes are rolling just as mine have been! The idea is that ‘we’ [Tri-Dosha] can integrate some of these ideas into our day to day functions to make developing, producing and passing on our lovely products and services to you much easier to do. With no technical brain space, we shall see if I am able to accommodate this new information! For now, I think I will stick to the touch feely stuff – massage, gorgeous smelling products, yummy yoga and sustainability! This, I certainly do know about and it has given me a grounding for conscious living.

I learnt some other cool stuff as well, from my younger sister who also happens to be a primary school teacher. She told me about the Government initiative to help parents educate children on how the media alters images and to inspire them to be confident in their bodies. It made me ask the question, how on earth have we got to a point where we actually need to implement this kind of strategy? Are we that far away from being connected to ourselves, our true image, and being ok with it? It made me think of the information we receive from the ancient texts and the teachings I have had a long the way from my mentors in alternative and complementary therapies, which always highlighted the notion that health and happiness comes from experiencing the ‘truth of life’ where every moment of that day can be filled with love, peace and authenticity.

Children and Ayurveda

I then did some research on Ayurveda for Children and came across a quote from Elbert Hubbard (writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher) who said, “The object of teaching is to enable a child to get along without his teacher.” While many of us read this quote and agree with it, we may not quite grasp its full meaning or its connection to Ayurveda. Ayurveda supports the notion that we are more than just physical, treating each person individually. And to ‘heal’ any imbalance promotes greater awareness and get's us connected to who we truly are.

So let’s promote yoga, breathing techniques, self awareness modules, good nutrition, and conscious living to our children. The more balanced we feel, the more we can experience the love and beauty of each moment of each day.

And… a little Tri-Dosha treasure – fans of our Miracle Balm are telling me it’s great on children’s skin! To help you give it a try , we are giving one away to a lucky reader that tells us what they do at home with their family to promote conscious living! 

Please post comments to: info@tri-dosha.co.uk. 

The result will be made by Monday 10th September, 6pm. 

Much love,

Sunita x

Embracing Transformation - YUMMY!

I’ve been a bit quiet on here for the last week or so. With our home and office being re-decorated, there has been a huge amount of re-organization going on at lots of levels. The house has had a major reshuffle to accommodate the machinery we require for our manufacture and this has prompted a general process of sorting and consolidation. It’s a great opportunity to get rid of things that no longer serve us, to throw them out or pass them along. My environment is very important to me, being ‘Pitta’ in nature, I like things to be simple, minimalist and calm around me.  But when my ‘Vata’ gets out of balance, the level of disorder is at times difficult to live with!

For example, over the last couple of days it’s been very exciting as the relaxation area has started to take shape and I have a real sense of satisfaction as I start to visualize the finished work! I really can’t wait! I share my space with my wonderful Pitta / Kapha sister, who also happens to be a Scorpio. We have put off re-decoration for some time, sub-consciously probably thinking we would have settled down with the man of our dreams at this point in our lives (closer to forty years and than to thirty years) but… as it is with the way of the world, things unfold as they meant to. And, for now, we are un-coupled, enjoying the dynamics of London, and still… LIVING TOGETHER!

At least our home should be rewarded because of it !!!

Now, pretty much my whole life I have been considered a mature person. Being the eldest daughter of four females gives a heightened sense of responsibility. But, as I approach forty, I feel like I become more child like, and it feels great! A new found sense of ‘liberation’ is constantly awakening in me, with a greater sense of peace as time moves on. It is a kind of self-contained liberation from challenging emotions, and at times, lack of energy, that can hold me back from living at the level that I know I can, and building the life I dream of.

But then, it’s not just about ‘me’. But it’s easy to think it is - to think that our lives are disconnected and therefore have little effect on others. But as a teacher, a health / wellness consultant, a founder of a brand, a sister of three, a daughter of two, a friend of many, ones success in life depends on one shifting the focus. So the focus is on the way forward, rather than the mental road blocks.

This week I did face huge infrastructure challenge. I won’t bore you with details, but I think without wisdom and honoring the message I relay in this blog, I’m not sure if I would have got through it! It again reminded me that with imagination, creativity and love, we can make an amazing contribution to this world and all the people, animals, beings - etc - we serve whilst we are here.

Much love, Sunita x

Feeling LOVE

Feeling LOVE

Ask anyone about love and they'll give you an opinion: It's written in the stars. It's beautiful. It's delightful. It’s friendship. It’s fire! … In any event, it's one hell of a feeling, right?

According to Wikipedia, we might want to rethink this. It describs Love as “an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment. Love is also a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection - the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another".

Well, however you want to describe, I felt LOVE this week. Watching the live Olympic ceremony come to a close, leaving the nation spell bound, I was amazed by the mood created, ‘happy and glorious’ as described by Jacques Rogge, IOC (International Olympic Committee) President. Though – 'of course' – this is an occasion where competitors are top of their game, producing some of the most memorable moments in history, everyone just seemed to GET ON! So many different nationalities all under one roof, hugs between competitors at the end of their events, self less support by the volunteers, ELECTRIC energy … As the party drew to a close, it was time to take down the bunting and hand over to Rio De Janeiro. What a feeling of Olympic magic!

What I know about love I have mostly learned through teaching. In seven years of training practitioners, I've seen what love can do in the most ordinary moments (a therapist wanting to help and heal a client) and the most extraordinary (an email from a therapist offering their services to strangers in the aftermath of hurricane Katia which hit the North of England in Sept, 11). Whenever you've been touched by love, a heart-print lingers, so that you're always reminded of the feeling of being cared for, knowing that, to someone, you mattered.

Love has unlimited ways for you to receive, and as we come to a close of two of the most magnificent weeks in British life, since I have been alive, and no doubt, the thumping hangover GB will be now be feeling, lets hope that LOVE acts as the magic hangover cure, and the momentum created will send long lasting ripples throughout the world.

The attractive force of love! Yummy! ... And we are going to send our own Tri-Dosha love to the first three people that respond to my blog, and answer the following questions: How many gold medals did Great Britain win in the 2012 Olympics? Winners will receive our NEW Ayurvedic Pain Balm, 30ml. Please send answers and address details to: info@tri-dosha.co.uk. . Good luck!

Much love,

Sunita x

It's all in the game

It’s all in the game

This month is a special month for us as it marks our 7^th birthday. Since 2005, we have enjoyed seven Tri-Dosha years of educating therapists in Ayurvedic treatments and coaching techniques, and we have partnered with many farming communities and organic suppliers in sourcing herbal ingredients to develop skincare formulas above and beyond expectation! From our classic collection of three oils vata (relax), pitta (soothe) and kapha (energise) to our bathing collection launched in 2009 with the award-winning Scarlet Spa! As a boutique brand, we have not sought to win competitions or chased PR to advance our credentials in your eyes, but have instead focused on a fresh, honest approach in our services to help you look and feel good.

For our birthday celebrations, we took ourselves off to see the world’s top female trampolinists bouncing, twisting and spinning about in the North Greenwich Arena in the O2 centre. The gold was won by Canadian Rosannagh MacLennan, after the defending champion, He Wenna of China, stumbled in her final routine. It was Canada’s first gold of the games! BUT… did you know trampolining did not exist before the 1930’s and MIGHT NOT have existed at all if George P Nissen had not decided to fit out his garage with a fancy new device on which to practice his tumbling. Nissen, a member of a travelling acrobatics troupe called the Three Leonardos, had noticed on his travels that acrobats worked on their spins by springing on their safety nets and resolved to rustle up something bouncy out of canvas.

This took me back to my journey with Tri-Dosha, which also may not exist today had I not been stubborn enough to believe that could evolve alternative training concepts and also come up with skincare formulas blending classical medicinal herbs with oozy and aromatic oils – something which had not been before. This week has reminded me what great sacrifices people make for things that they believe in. When an artist gets their ‘first’ break, it is probably after many years of tuna sandwiches, and emotionally charged days and nights; when I first started to ‘feel’ Tri-Dosha was a living and breathing enterprise, it was after years of traipsing the country, with massage beds in the boot of my hire car, addressing audiences in dilapidated venues around the country; when MacLennan won the gold on Saturday, I’m sure it would be hard for us to count the cost this has had on her personal life! The dedication required to reach such heights requires a steely stomach!

So… what an interesting study this week has been. On the one hand we celebrate seven years of Tri-Dosha love! On the other, with the Olympics as the back drop to London, it is impossible to not under-estimate the journey one takes with a goal in mind.

At Tri-Dosha we are driven by the desire to bring out your brilliant best and we stand by what we believe …we are honest and transparent with a commitment to treating the environment with care. We will do our best to use sustainable products, recycle and be good friends to the Earth.

Thank you for your support over the last seven years. We look forward to the next seven years of plenty!

Much love,

Sunita x