My friend and student, Sonal and I had a video call. She'd arrived in India to visit her parents a few days earlier, and somewhere along her journey, she'd caught a really bad head and chest cold. Symptoms: eyes swollen and streaming, nose running and sinuses congested, throat a little hoarse, but not sore, and a completely dry cough that was painful. She looked and sounded awful! So, I dowsed her for some essential oils. I made it very clear that I wanted Sylvie (my dowser) to pick out essential oils that Sonal had with her in India, I had no idea what she might or might not have. Out came Patchouli, Spanish Marjoram and Rose Geranium. Sylie sorted the dosage, application, frequency and length of time she needed to use the blend, what I call D.A.F.T. Sonal had all the oils and followed Sylvie's "instructions". I also added that she should use some Rose Hydrosol for her eyes. I popped her a message on Thursday morning to see how she was doing, we ended up on another video call. Sonal was blown away! In less than 48 hours ALL her symptoms had pretty much cleared up! Eyes and voice were back to normal, sinuses clear, and dry cough gone! She just felt a little tired. Even though Sonal has learnt to dowse with me, in this case it was better that a "3rd party", myself in this case, dowsed her. Rather like a GP not diagnosing and treating their own family. What had really blown her away was, not just that the blend had sorted her out so quickly, but distance dowsing worked! She's never tried that for her clients who might be further afield and not face to face. *PLEASE NOTE: this blend was specific for Sonal, it will not work for anyone else who has same or similar symptoms. Also, two of the essential oils have contraindications, but they didn't apply to Sonal. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.

Local to me is a fairly new business and charity funded business called Into the Woods Ledbury. They help adults and children with anxiety, grief, and other mental and emotional issues. In the first instance, people are referred by their GP and under the CIC terms each individual gets 6 sessions for free. Yesterday, I went along and gave them a presentation on various tree oils. The woods are majority conifers. The group of ladies asked a lot of interesting questions including wanting to understand how our sense of smell works on our emotions and mind sets. I was prepped and ready to dowse each participant for their own personal sniffy stick, but sadly we ran out of time so I was only able to dowse one lady as a demonstration of what it entailed and made up her sniffy for her. I went in completely blind knowing nothing about her. What Syllvie picked for her blew her away when I interpreted the oil for her. Needless to say, they want me back as do the organisers.

Congratulations! These 4 lovely ladies attended my Treating the Sciatic and 12 Cranial Nerves with Reflexology today. Sam attended in person and is based in Gloucester. Her business is Therapies for the Soul. Jacqui attended via zoom from Portrush in N Ireland, but is based in Newcastle. Her business is Reiki Rooms. Emma, again via zoom is from Nottingham. Her business is Emma Disney & Holistic Treatments. Last but not least, Darshna zoomed in from Potters Bar! Her business is Reflexology4Healing. Well done ladies! I shall be looking forward to hearing how everything you learnt today is helping your clients. ❤️

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.

To @Tracey Duncan @Sonal Sachdeva and Sakeeb Saleheen on completing their Treating the Sciatic & 12Cranial Nerves with Reflexology yesterday. I met Tracey 9 years ago when she volunteered for CSTUK which was set up by myself to help the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. We have remained firm friends ever since. Tracey has a clinic in Bournemouth called Mother Muthi which is a nod to her South African heritage. Sonal and I are also long standing friends. Sonal contacted me again, 9 years ago, when she asked me if we could do a series of 7 short videos about the blends of EO’s she had put together for each day of the week you were born on. You can watch them here: thenatural approach.biz/astrological-aromatherapy/ Sonal is a Ayurvedic Astrologer. As to Sakeeb, we met almost 4 years ago on Spiros’ Orthopedic Reflexology course in Athens. He is a very busy reflexologist based in Enfield. He not only has private clients but also spends time at dedicated clinics for cancer patients as one example. We had an absolutely lovely day not just learning but also reminiscing. For me it was lovely watching these three wonderful people forge new friendships. Well done guys, you made an old lady very happy yesterday ❤️ The photos below are of Tracey before and after treatment.