Being Alone and being Adaptable - Day Two

So I woke up at 5am this morning and thought YEEEEHAAAAA, I don't have to get up because I don't have a stupid job in stupid Edinburgh to go to AND I am on HOLIDAY!  WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP.  so I rolled over and went back to sleep for another 4 amazing hours.  What luxury compared to what I put myself and my body through these last 5 months.

The best way to get a feeling for a city at the beginning of a stay is to do the bus tour - you generally get to see the highlights from the bus or you can jump off at any of the stops that are of interest so I went off and did the bus tour where I met an older gentleman from Vancouver who was on a Cruise that had stopped off in Valpariso.  He had been in the city for a few days so gave me a few top tips - mainly the free walking tour that leaves at 10am every day from the main square so I am going to do that on Tuesday and also that there is a free bus from the bottom of the national park to take you up to the Virgin Mary statue so I got off at the park stop and got the free bus and saw the virgin mary.  I would share the photos with you but I am a fuckwit and I picked up the wrong adapter for my camera when I left so I need to go to the apple store tomorrow to get the correct one, so photos will follow.

One of the areas we passed through on the bus was Bellavista - it looked like a fab place to be and it had lots of shops selling Lapis Lazuli, which is a fantastic healing stone - here is what google says about it

A stone of protection that may be worn to guard against psychic attacks, Lapis Lazuli quickly releases stress, bringing deep peace.  It brings harmony and deep inner self-knowledge.  Encourages self-awareness, allows self-expression and reveals inner truth, providing qualities of honesty, compassion and morality to the personality.  Stimulates objectivity, clarity and encourages creativity.  Lapis Lazuli assists to confront and speak one’s truth and inspires confidence.  It bonds relationships, aiding in expression of feelings and emotions.

Lapis Lazuli boosts the immune system, purifies blood, lowers blood pressure, cooling and soothing areas of inflammation.  It alleviates insomnia and vertigo, and overcomes depression.  Lapis Lazuli benefits the respiratory and nervous systems and the throat, vocal chords, and thyroid, cleanses organs, bone marrow and thymus.

Hmmm - Not sure I need to be encouraged to self express or to be any more honest than I am but I can certainly do with it for the old respiratory system so even though I have a Lapis Lazuli crystal already which I didn't bring it with me I will be heading off to Bellavista on Tuesday to pick myself up one for this trip as it is a good healing stone to have and what better picking it from the country it originates in.  Chile and Afganistan are the only two countries in the world where this Crystal can be found and I am not planning on going to Afganistan anytime soon!

So after my bus tour I went off to meet the Cowboys for some horseback riding - how disappointing when I meet up with 3 guys from Toronto who are also on the tour and our guide is a really pretty girl called Sarah from Finland!!!  Anyway we all had fun, Sarah was a great guide who did instruct all of us that when we are going up a steep hill to lean into the horse's neck and when going steep downhill to lean backwards and hold onto the back of the saddle with one hand - this made me laugh to myself as it reminded me of the trip my sister and I did last year.  Whilst trekking from Western Nepal into Tibet we had to ride the horses at various points but my sister had never been on a horse in her life so without this valuable instruction of leaning forward and back she ended up underneath the poor horse's neck when going downhill and when going up hill she slid right off the back.  It really was very funny.  

We headed out of Santiago about 45 mins and into the hills where we arrived at the Ranch where we got our hats and chaps and our trusty mounts and off we went.  I had a beautiful gelding to take me through the hills and although he tried all of the horse riding school tricks to see if I knew what I was doing we got on like a house on fire.  It's so funny that world wide all the horses have the same tricks - pull their head forward quickly to see if you are paying attention and may be you might fall off over the front of the horse if you are not or the stopping sharply to see if they can get you off the back or taking off at a trot with no warning.  Anyway been there and done that so many times with these wee cuties so I was fine, not sure the boys I was with were quite as fine!! there was an awful lot of cries to WOAH and exclamations of WHY ARE YOU GOING THAT WAY to the horse etc etc.  We were out for about 3 hours in total which is the longest ride I have had in 10 years so I am so going to feel that tomorrow but fortunately it is the wine tour tomorrow so I can drink my pain away!!

Just about 15 minutes after we set off I could feel my lungs tightening up - fuck, I left my inhaler in my rucksack in the jeep that picked us up which was back at the ranch!   what do I do?  do i make us all go back or do I just get on with it?  but its a 3 hour trek so I started to worry that I was going to be having a serious asthma attack by then which of course made my chest tighten even more so I started to go through all of my exercises of what I do when I am having an attack and can't get help - short breaths in, deep long breaths out (people don't realise that Asthmatics have a problem breathing out not breathing in so our lungs fill with air which is why we appear breathless but if we take long breaths out and short breaths in it really helps)  so I was doing this but I was starting to wheeze which is a bad sign - then I remembered!!!  the reason I am back on a horse is because of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)  an amazing healing system which clears the meridians and helps with anything that we are feeling.  So I started to tap my head and chest and within 5 minutes I could feel my chest easing and I could breath in more deeply.  I had never used EFT for my Asthma before but it was amazing how quickly I felt so much better and that was me for the rest of the trip, absolutely fine and no need for my inhaler.  If you want to learn more about EFT then go to www.eftuniverse.com 

Riding through the hills was very beautiful and peaceful and it reminded me of how lucky I am to be able to do all of the things I enjoy doing.  I may have had a break from riding for 10 years but I am now firmly back in the saddle and loving every minute of it.  The dogs were running along side us all the way and that is my dream now - to have my own horse and dogs to run alongside while I discover the Ayrshire countryside.  But I still have too much travelling around the world to do so its on my list for when I am nearer 50 and have ticked off the majority of my bucket list.

The riding trip was organised by www.chileofftrack.com - these are the same people I am doing the Glacier trek with on Saturday.  They are fab, and Sarah our guide this afternoon and evening was really great.

So I was out on my own doing my own thing in the morning, not having to think about someone else or do something I didn't really want to do just because someone else wanted to do it.  It was really fab.  I do really enjoy my own company and I really have been enjoying thinking my own thoughts and emptying my brain of all the Case Histories shite that I have been carrying around and even in the afternoon although I was with a guide and 3 guys from toronto, I really was able to just be inside my head and enjoy the peace of the hills and the beautiful scenery.  I can feel that I am starting to relax after 5 months of my shoulders being up around my ears somewhere!

I do find it easy adapting to these situations where I am on my own with no security blanket of a boyfriend, sister, friend or work colleague to speak to which means I just have to get on with anyone in any situation and I thought this afternoon and evening was a good example of that.  Out horseback riding with 3 guys from Toronto who I had never met before but we got on really well.  After we had got back to the ranch we had some dinner and shared a bottle of wine and had a general chat about Toronto and Scotland etc etc.  I always find it amazing how we can be in these situations and just chat away to strangers, always finding something to say and then finding we all have something in common.   I am not sure why I find these situation ok to deal with where others just wouldn't have gone on the trip at the though of having to talk to strangers.  May be its the job I do where on a daily basis I am begging favours from strangers!!  Anyway here's to being Adaptable - its a great skill to have and I am grateful the Universe has shared it with me.

It was a brilliant day, photos to follow of the day soon.

Off drinking wine tomorrow so should get some sleep as I am up in 7 hours.

suzxxx

Change is GOOD! Day One

Its been a long 30 hours!  So all was going according to plan until I flew into T5 at Heathrow to discover my flight to Madrid was delayed - it meant that I would have 35 mins to change planes in Madrid onto my Santiago flight and even if I made it my bag might not.  The woman at the BA Customer Services desk was like the David Walliams character out of Little Britain and was just willing the computer to say no at every opportunity.  Anyway she assured me that 35 minutes to make a connection was fine and it was their minimum allowance between flights.

Slightly pissed off that this stress was the start to my holiday but being in holiday mode I went off to have a glass of wine and some rescue remedy.  An hour later I check the board just as its changing to say the flight is going to be delayed by a further 20 minutes so there is no way that I am going to make the Santiago connection in Madrid so I headed back to Mrs No at the desk.  Stupid woman was trying to tell me that I would be fine with 15 minutes so I pointed out that she had said 35mins was the minimum then she started waffling that they would hold the plane for me - bullshit I said!  I told her I needed her to find me another connection that would work so I could get to Santiago on time.

She really didn't want to help and was telling me all the flights were full and then out of nowhere this lovely asian man appeared to take over from this woman to let her have a break - within 10 minutes this lovely soft spoken man had my bag pulled off the madrid flight and heading to the Sao Paulo flight with my boarding passes all printed and because he couldn't get me a window or an aisle seat because the flight was nearly full he put me in one of the bulk head seats that you normally have to pay more for.  Now he couldn't guarantee my bag would make the change around because of customs rules of what happens to bags when they are pulled off flights but he was hopeful.

He really was so lovely and obviously understood his role in Customer Services.  If he hadn't turned up when he had I would have had to get on the flight to Madrid and miss the connection and I would still be in Madrid now waiting for the next Santiago flight.

and my bag made it which is pretty miraculous since its still labelled up with the original flight numbers.

I do believe that these things happen for a reason and it wasn't until everything was sorted and I had my new boarding passes and I was on the phone to Mark when I heard this South African voice just behind me say "Suz?" - my wonderful friend Marilyn had sat down right behind me on a bench without realising I was there until I answered my phone.  Now that is fate - T5 is such a huge place its impossible to meet someone your trying to meet there never mind bump into a friend out of the blue!  So we had a quick gossip and off she went to get her flight to Jo'burg.  Was I delayed so that we could see each other before she left?  Its hard to know but its pretty amazing anyway.

So I say CHANGE is GOOD - if I hadn't had all that hassle which changing my flights I wouldn't have seen Marilyn and my new flight was nice as it was BA rather than shitty Iberia!  An old boss (a big fat arsehole of a boss) once said to me that I didn't like change and that I couldn't cope with it - now this was about 10 years ago and I was really surprised that he said that to me as I always thought I was so adaptable, it was probably just one of his bullying tactics but I took it to heart and from that day on I have always made sure that I welcome change no matter how annoying.  It is a good thing in all aspects of life to never get stuck in a rut and always be willing to go with the flow or sometimes against it if thats whats needed to make change for the better happen.

Once I got on the Sao Paulo flight a woman with a 9 month old baby sat next too me - of course at this point I would horrified - the thought of a 13 hour flight with a screaming brat right next to me really wasn't my idea of fun but sometimes you have to balance the good with the bad and I had just had it confirmed before she sat down that my bag was actually on the flight - given the choice I would have chosen screaming brat over lost bag!

As it turns out this little brazilian baby was the cutest thing ever and there was hardly a grumble out of him and his mother was lovely so that was all good.

Landed in Sao Paulo which is the most stupidly signed airport for a huge hub airport.  I ended up through security twice because I kept being sent on a wild goose chase  by apathetic airport staff whilst trying to find Terminal 2 which isn't sign posted!!!  My lack of portuguese certainly didn't help but you could tell they were just not interested so I went into Production Manager mode, kicked some ass and had one of the staff walk me to terminal 2.  I will be back in Sao Paulo another twice during my 6 week trip so slightly dreading it now although at least I know my way around it better now.

The Santiago flight was a beautiful one as it was clear skies so you could see all the way down to the desert landscape and then we flew over the Andes which was very special.  I don't know why I find flying cover mountain ranges so breathtaking but it makes me feel very special to have been able to see this view - it makes you just want to reach out and touch them.

So here I am in Santiago in my cute wee apartment 2 minutes walk to the centre - thank you to my guardian angels for helping me sort out all the shite on the way - without them I would still be in Madrid or here but bag less.  Its been a long 30 hours but I am now drinking Chilean Sauv Blanc whilst typing this blog with the windows open and listening to some live jazz that is happening just down the road.  I am really going to love this trip!

Tomorrow I am doing the open top bus tour of santiago city in the morning with stop offs at a few sights then I get picked up at 4pm to go horse riding just south of Santiago up in the hills so we can watch the sun set over the city then a Chilean BBQ back at the ranch - apparently there will be bread, cheese and wine for me as Chilean bbq'd cow is just not for me!!

suzxxx

My South America Trip

So its all booked, my big trip to South America - on my own for 24 days before Mark joins me in Rio.

Here is my itinerary

4th Dec - leave for Santiago, Chile
5th Dec - arrive Santiago
6th Dec - tour of Santiago
7th Dec - Wine Tour (oh yeah!)
8th Dec - Tour to Valparaiso or Hot springs tour TBC
9th Dec - Horse riding through the Andes
10th Dec - Horse riding through the Andes
11th Dec - a free day in Santiago to wander about
12th Dec - fly to Lima
13th Dec - head into the amazon for my jungle retreat
14th Dec - Ayahuasca Ceremony where I will drink the vine of the Ayahuasca plant and after I will have a spiritual rebirth or just some amazing hallucinations!!
15th Dec - a day of recovery from the ceremony the night before and a walk in the Jungle
16th Dec - Head out of the Jungle and fly to Cusco
17th Dec - Cusco tour 
18th Dec - tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas
19th Dec - Maras and Moray Tour
20th Dec - Train to Machu Picchu
21st Dec - Shamanic Ceremony at Machu Picchu as the sun rises
22nd Dec - Machu Picchu tour, the lost city of the Incas
23rd Dec - Watch the sunrise at Machu Picchu and then spend the day there meditating
24th Dec - Bus to Puno and overnight
25th Dec - Uros and Taquile Island tour on Lake Titicaca
26th Dec - Its my Birthday!Catamaran to the Sun Island-the birth place of the Inca Empire
27th Dec -Catamaran to La Paz
28th Dec - La Paz and Moon Valley Tour
29th Dec - Leave La Paz for Rio 
30th Dec - Rio City Tour
31st Dec - Party on Copacabana Beach
1st Jan - Sore head and a good walk on Copacabana Beach!!
2nd Jan - Wander about the city
3rd Jan - Fly from Rio for Foz Iguaco on the Argentine border
4th Jan - Have the day at the Falls on the Brazil Side. Overnight bus to Buenes Aires
5th Jan - Arrive Buenes Aires
6th Jan - Explore BA
7th Jan - Tango lessons or Polo lessons!
8th Jan - Horse riding hopefully
9th Jan - Leave BA for Argentine side of Iguaco Falls
10th Jan - Iguaco Falls
11th Jan - Fly to Sao Paulo then straight onto Paraty for the last few days.
12th Jan - Paraty
13th Jan - Paraty
14th Jan - paraty
15th Jan - Bus up to Rio to fly out at midnight
16th Jan - Back home to catch up with all my animals.

Its going to be AMAZING!!  I really can't wait to just be inside my own head and think my own thoughts, meditate and get the right side of my brain working again.

suzxxx

Teaching Search and Rescue for Dogs......

So I worked with 11 dogs and their owners on Sunday to have a fun couple of hours starting training for Search and Rescue!  Is it healing?  Should I include it in this blog?  I think so, bringing a group of people with their dogs together to have some fun playing with the dogs toys and hiding people so they can find them.  What fun we had and all of the dogs were brilliant, some of the humans could use a bit of practice but thats normal when we are doing dog training!

So where does the dog training come in with all of my healing stuff?  Not sure, is it about healing people while working with animals?  or healing animals while working with people? or may be its both?  I think that I need to do days like yesterday to give me the confidence that I can teach.  I didn't really have the confidence to follow through with my Animal Healing workshop or my Animal Communication workshop because I doubted my abilities - I don't doubt my ability as a dog trainer because I have been doing it for 18 years!  so this proved to me that I can create an informative, fun structure where people and animals can learn so why can't I do this will healing and communication - I am equally good at all of these skills but haven't been healing or communicating for as long so perhaps thats my issue, I need to believe in myself more.  Not something I ever really thought I had a problem with as I do believe in myself but yesterday taught me i can teach and I am good at it and people want to come back for more!!!!

So my animal healing and communications weekend will get booked back in for next year and I am really looking forward to it.

I also helped a dog owner who wanted to see what his dogs reaction would be when he was near sheep so I helped both of them figure out that sheep are not so bad.  Thank you Missy for being such a gorgeous friendly sheep!

suzxxx

Writing the book.....

In January I had a light bulb moment where I realised that I had to write a book about my spiritual journey and all of the therapies I have been learning and experiencing.  The book would be called The Trainee Healer.  To get me started I decided to write this blog to get me into writing mode and start logging my experiences so I could refer back when i start the book.

Of course finding time to write a book is never going to be easy but I now know why my best friend is not coming to South America and why I will be doing this trip myself.  This is when I will write the book - it makes total sense - a year from when I first had the idea I hope to come back with the main structure of the book written.  I am so excited now I know this as I have been beating myself up for not having even started the book yet!  I plan to have the chapter headings written up before I go so I can stay focussed on what needs to be written.  

On a different note, it was amazing to have Simon Goodfellow at my house teaching the Mechanics of Mediumship - the course went well with 9 people signed up for the 2nd part of it in October which is great news.  It was also exactly a year since my lovely friends Bronia and Dennis had visited me and we had gone to the body and soul fair and met Simon which lead us to sign up for this Mechanics of Mediumship and at that course in November I persuaded Simon to do his courses in my Conservatory which wasn't even built then.   So it really has been an amazing year and just shows what we can do if we really want to! Next year is Green Lady Glens year where I will push on and make sure the courses scheduled in are successful including me teaching Animal Communication and Animal Healing.  Roll on 2013 and the start of the Golden Age!

suzxxx

Mechanics of Mediumship.....

So the first ever course at Green Lady Glen starts tomorrow!  O M G!!!  The first course of my retreat centre is actually happening!  I do often fast forward in my mind to 10 years time to when we have our purpose built teaching barn with therapy rooms and our little eco pods in the woods.  But I have to remind myself that the life i have been given is precious and not to wish it away.  Yes its going to be really hard work and there will be a few knock backs on the way but I am really happy that the course is going ahead tomorrow - we have 13 attendees - the maximum for this course is 12 so we can say its a sell out so its at amazing start.  I am really delighted.

My sister has come over to look after everyone and make sure that there is plenty of tea and coffee on the go and my niece is attending the course so its a bit of a family affair for the first course.  Its a shame I will miss it because I am working on a TV drama in Edinburgh but its the job that has paid for the huge conservatory and the beautiful decking area that when finished will be able to host some amazing parties..... I mean courses....!!!

Simon Goodfellow is the teacher of the course for the next two days and he is teaching the Mechanics of Mediumship - showing everyone that they have the ability to be a medium - we just have to listen and trust.  I attended this course last year and it really blow my mind and opened my world.  Simon is the most amazing Medium I have ever met, he is so grounded but so intuitive, really an amazing man so if you want to find out more about him, do one of his courses or have a reading go to his website www.simongoodfellow.com

will let you know how the course goes but I am pretty confident its going to go amazingly well!

suzxxx

Bach Written Exam results......

I PASSED!!!! woop wooop!  I got 86% - I am so delighted having never got anywhere 86% ever before in my life for anything!!

I got my results by email just as I arrived to start my Bach Animal course at the Natural Animal Centre in Wales so it seemed very fitting.

The course in Wales was amazing and such an eye opener into animal behaviour.  Ross and Lindsy our teachers for the 5 days were informative, knowledgeable and very nice.  There was a very non judgemental feeling about the course which was great, if you got answers wrong it didn't matter but they would ask why you thought that remedy would be right in the circumstances.  it was a great way to learn and all the animals - i was in heaven!  Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, tortoises, ducks, chickens etc etc it was like home from home for me, a really beautiful place to go to learn.

We watched Ross give a demonstration on clicker training with horses and his beautiful horse bjorn took part - he had never put all 4 feet up on the box before so the pic below is a first!  it was amazing to watch - no force, not even a head collar - Bjorn wanted to do it because it was reward training - the way all training should be.  After watching this demonstration I am now very interested in doing the Equine Behaviour Qualification which is taught at the Natural Animal Centre so will see if I can sort the money and time out for it next year.

so that is level 1 and 2 completed for my Animal Bach qualification and I head back there in November to do level 3 and my exam.

For my human bach qualification I now have part 2 of level 3 which is some written work before I get to my 3 case studies so plan to get that paper work done today, we get 6 weeks to complete the work but as always i am champing at the bit to get on and really want to get my human case studies started although I have no idea who I am going to work with but really want to work with some strangers rather than people I know to really test me so might but an advert up on the local village website.

So I am still all about Bach - I love Dr Bach's system and how it works in such a gentle way but it really does work on humans and animals.

suzxxx