What on earth is the value of Stephen Kinnock for Port Talbot ?

Port Talbot is dying. Tinsel Town is on the edge. And we have as its MP a high priest of neo-liberalism. I watched Stephen Kinnock at a hustings meeting last April make the claim that he and only he had the experience and knowledge to attract the large multinational companies to the area. He had the contacts, the experience, the finesse to do so. And now the multinationals beloved of young Kinnock have turned their back on Port Talbot. Port Talbot has for its MP a representative so remote, so distant that I sense the electorate falling into the pied piper steps of Nigel Farage. There is smell of Weimar in Aberavon and Sandfields.

Stephen Kinnock is of the political elite, he worships at the shrine of globalisation, yet he can do nothing to help the ordinary people of the Sandfields and the surrounding area of Port Talbot and Neath. Yet it is Stephen Kinnock and his ilk who have promoted the values of free trade and of globalisation. This is why the death of Port Talbot and its Steel works becomes inevitable and there is nothing that such a representative can do, his world view, his outlook and his belief prevents it. Stephen Kinnock and his globalist followers have created a world where 62 people have the same wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion where the top 1% own more wealth than the other 99%.

For many years the old Port Talbot Borough Council did nothing to hold the Steel Industry accountable for the pollution of the area. Of Steel towns around the world Port Talbot was one of the most polluted and the dominant family that controlled the council had neither the ability or the understanding or courage to challenge and raise the issues required and the actions necessary. I remember seeing on the window sills and in the classrooms of the schools, the rows of inhalers.......We need politicians that are anti globalist, that promote local businesses and supplier`s, that understand that that if each small and medium business took on more workers we would have stable more sustainable communities. Politicians who understand that we must stand up to the large multi nationals that imprison, control and hypnotise us. Politicians that do not use the migrant crisis to hide their real intentions. Politicians who build united communities that are inclusive, tolerant and freethinking.

Then we have the coming of Stephen Kinnock and his accolites, the voting figures drop, the communities wilter, we have the rise of austerity and then we have the Siren of UKIP calling for us to leave the European Union. Leaving Europe will speed up the decline of the Steel Industry. However bad Europe is, the North Atlantic Free Trade association is worse.

Local Neath Port Talbot Green Party reacts to todays decision on the future of the Port Talbot Steel industry and the earlier news that more than 1000 jobs are to be lost in South Wales steel making is devastating for the local economy, the supply chain and the affected communities.
Alice Hooker Stroud, leader of the Wales Green Party said;
"The loss of 1050 jobs will be devastating to families and local communities in Port Talbot but is also extremely short sighted. The renewable energy infrastructure we need to provide us with clean, green electricity - as demanded by the Wales Green Party - will require steel. Instead of importing that steel from other countries, increasing carbon emissions globally, we should be using steel manufactured in Wales. We need to look at ways of making the steel industry more energy efficient to reduce its environmental impact."
The Welsh government has had 11 years notice of these job losses, and now it pleads impotence. Carwyn Jones must take action now to prevent future losses. The market will not solve the problem, changing state aid rules will.
Cheap Chinese Steel has been flooding the UK market for some years now. This steel is being sold at a loss, and the EU needs to step in urgently if we are not to lose steel-making capability in Wales.
One thing which is not being discussed is the effect of steel making industries on pollution. If we buy steel from China we not only create the associated, and higher, pollution Chinese people have to suffer, we increase CO2 through the transportation of the product halfway round the world.
his is why steel making needs to stay in Wales. It is less polluting, our standards our higher, and it is delivered locally. We must ask Welsh businesses to support Welsh steelmaking, and ask Welsh consumers to buy Welsh products. It will be cheaper in the long run as we ensure that 1000’s of jobs are saved and our communities remain intact.
China produces as much steel as the rest of the world combined. As China’s growth slows, the excess steel that Chinese industry doesn’t need is being marketed overseas, filling Chinese coffers with desirable foreign currency.

The Welsh government needs to be looking urgently at how to develop renewable energy schemes, predicted to be worth billions of pounds to the Welsh economy and would create thousands of high quality, sustainable jobs that would help communities like Port Talbot, but only last week did David Cameron turn his nose up at the tidal lagoon project.
Once again, the 'greenest government ever' has failed to see the opportunity in renewables, and fails to support local, sustainable jobs in our communities. The Westminster Government doesn't seem to have a long-term view. We need to invest for now and for the future. While Westminster dithers, Wales suffers.

“Monotheism is but imperialism in religion.”

― James Henry Breasted

Monotheism makes me grouchy. I don't trust any religion that makes God look like one of the ruling class. I guess I'm a pagan or an animist. Gloria Steinem


There is a danger in monotheism, and it's called idolatry. And we know the prophets of Israel were very, very concerned about idolatry, the worship of a human expression of the divine. Karen Armstrong

Local Greens comment on the Steel Industry in South Wales

Local Neath Port Talbot Green Party reacts to todays decision on the future of the Port Talbot Steel industry and the earlier news that more than 1000 jobs are to be lost in South Wales steel making is devastating for the local economy, the supply chain and the affected communities.

Alice Hooker Stroud, leader of the Wales Green Party said;
"The loss of 1050 jobs will be devastating to families and local communities in Port Talbot but is also extremely short sighted. The renewable energy infrastructure we need to provide us with clean, green electricity - as demanded by the Wales Green Party - will require steel. Instead of importing that steel from other countries, increasing carbon emissions globally, we should be using steel manufactured in Wales. We need to look at ways of making the steel industry more energy efficient to reduce its environmental impact."

Lisa Rapado, candidate for Neath said , “The Welsh government has had 11 years notice of these job losses, and now it pleads impotence. I call on Carwyn Jones to take action now to prevent future losses. The market will not solve the problem, changing state aid rules will.

Cheap Chinese Steel has been flooding the UK market for some years now. This steel is being sold at a loss, and the EU needs to step in urgently if we are not to lose steel-making capability in Wales.”

One thing which is not being discussed is the effect of steel making industries on pollution. If we buy steel from China we not only create the associated, and higher, pollution Chinese people have to suffer, we increase CO2 through the transportation of the product halfway round the world.

Lisa Rapado, Wales Green Party Candidate for South Wales West and Neath Constituency Candidate. added, “This is why steel making needs to stay in Wales. It is less polluting, our standards our higher, and it is delivered locally. We must ask Welsh businesses to support Welsh steelmaking, and ask Welsh consumers to buy Welsh products. It will be cheaper in the long run as we ensure that 1000’s of jobs are saved and our communities remain intact."

China produces as much steel as the rest of the world combined. As China’s growth slows, the excess steel that Chinese industry doesn’t need is being marketed overseas, filling Chinese coffers with desirable foreign currency.

Alice Hooker Stroud commented further;
"The Welsh government needs to be looking urgently at how to develop renewable energy schemes, predicted to be worth billions of pounds to the Welsh economy and would create thousands of high quality, sustainable jobs that would help communities like Port Talbot, but only last week did David Cameron turn his nose up at the tidal lagoon project.

"Once again, the 'greenest government ever' has failed to see the opportunity in renewables, and fails to support local, sustainable jobs in our communities. The Westminster Government doesn't seem to have a long-term view. We need to invest for now and for the future. While Westminster dithers, Wales suffers."

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Some Carl Jung Quotations... Easter Monday

The symptomatology of an illness is at the same time a natural attempt at healing. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 312

Sexuality dished out as sexuality is brutish; but sexuality as an expression of love is hallowed. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 234

An unconscious Eros always expresses itself as will to power. ~Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 167

Love, in the sense of concupiscentia, is the dynamism that most infallibly brings the unconscious to light. ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Para 199

Therefore, never ask what a man does, but how he does it. If he does it from love or in the spirit of love, then he serves a god; and whatever he may do is not ours to judge, for it is ennobled. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 234

The love problem is part of mankind’s heavy toll of suffering, and nobody should be ashamed of having to pay his tribute. ~Carl Jung, CW 17, Para 219

Love is a force of destiny whose power reaches from heaven to hell. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Para 198.

Your medical man is a stupid shitbag who ought to become a psychiatrist so that he can be better acquainted with X., whose sister I saved from the madhouse. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

Hypertrophy of intellectual intuition" is a diagnosis I would apply also to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and many others. I myself am one-sided in this respect. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

But we must see where we stand, otherwise we are immoral illusionists. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

And what if this has no roots in the earth? If it is not a house of stone where the fire of God can dwell, but a wretched straw hut that flares up and vanishes? ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

One must be able to suffer God. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

One must be able to suffer God. That is the supreme task for the carrier of ideas. He must be the advocate of the earth. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

We live not only inwardly, but also outwardly. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

The forest philosophers didn’t go out into the forests in the beginning to try to find the self. They first live a full human life in the world and then comes the wood life. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 797.

God needs man in order to become conscious, just as he needs limitation in time and space. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 64-66

And that was the case in Buddha’s own existence; he was a prince, a man of the world, and he had a wife, he had concubines, he had a child —then he went over to the saintly life. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 797.

So the self is not only an unconscious fact, but also a conscious fact: the ego is the visibility of the self. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 977.

The term self is often mixed up with the idea of God. I would not do that. I would say that the term self should be reserved for that sphere which is within the reach of human experience, and we should be very careful not to use the word God too often. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 977-978.

It [Self] is a restricted universality or a universal restrictedness, a paradox; so it is a relatively universal being and therefore doesn’t deserve to be called “God.” ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 977-978

Man’s capacity for consciousness alone makes him man. ~Carl Jung; On the Nature of the Psyche; CW 8; Page 412.

One man alone cannot reach the self. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 787

The unconscious is that which we do not know, therefore we call it the unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 1348

Ship of Fools: Save Me from Tomorrow or UKIP Welsh Assembly members......

Will Ukip dump Gareth Bennett today? And these people want to represent us......dont be fooled again?

The turmoil within Ukip over its regional list candidate selections has reached a new level with controversial South Wales Central lead candidate Gareth Bennett calling for the deselection of his running mate Alex Phillips, the party’s press officer.

Mr Bennett gained UK-wide publicity after criticising Cardiff’s multiracial character in an interview with the WalesOnline .

He accused Eastern European migrants of being responsible for rubbish problems and described the capital’s City Road area as “a melting pot of different races all getting on each other’s nerves”.

Mr Bennett also described Phil Bale, the Labour leader of Cardiff council, as “brain dead” and said he didn’t agree with candidates knocking on people’s doors in pursuit of their votes.

Leaked letter

As the leading Ukip candidate in his region polls suggest Mr Bennett is virtually certain to be elected as an AM. But following his comments there have been calls within Ukip for him to be deselected.

Now a letter sent by Mr Bennett to Ukip Wales leader Nathan Gill has been leaked to us in which Ms Phillips, currently the party’s number two candidate in South Wales Central, is accused of conspiring to get him deselected by advising him to agree to the interview with WalesOnline.

Farage on Guns...what a hypocrite.......

Nigel Farage: EU has allowed the 'free movement of Kalashnikov rifles and Jihadists' What a hypocrite.......

Farage criticised current UK gun laws

"What happened at Dunblane was absolutely appalling, and as a result of that we have brought in the most repressive gun laws anywhere in the world," he mused.

Then, in a marked departure from his often 'honest politician' manner, Farage side-stepped revealing his opinion on what Britain should do to relax gun control laws.

"It's very difficult to have this debate, David," he said. "Because if I was to say to you that I thought that hand guns were fine if they were held by gun clubs, on those premises, on very very strict circumstances and that it would be more sensible for the British Olympic team to be able to practise in those circumstances, rather than have to go to Calais, I'd be condemned after this programme as being pro-handguns.

"So I'll leave leave that suggestion with you, that it may an argument one could make. I'm not going to make it myself, I just can't afford the aggro.

He has previously let slip in another LBC appearance that the ban of handguns in Britain is "ludicrous".

Emails leaked from the Ukip leader's office in 2013 also linked an increase in gun ownership with a decrease in firearms-related crime, slammed by MPs and campaigners as "inaccurate, unsubstantiated and upsetting drivel".

The Asclepius Mindfulness Course

The course consists of ten, one hour sessions Through guided meditations, group dialogue, individually tailored instructions and home assignments, you will learn the essential principles of mindfulness and techniques to build your personal home practice and access the wide-ranging benefits well beyond the course.

The key learning points include:

• A variety of formal and informal mindfulness meditation practices, which involve using the breath and body as a focus for being aware of our experience in the present moment;
• Understanding the physiology of stress and how to self-regulate our moods, so that we are better able to pause in challenging situations and manage our responses more effectively.
• Recognising the patterns of worrying and self-criticism that often generate more stress; and learning to relate to ourselves with a more accepting and kind stance.
• Learning to have more mindful, and thus meaningful, communication, connections and relationships.
• Developing practical self-care tools to help us thrive, perform at our best, and build resilience.

"Mindfulness"—The Eye of the Witness-The next ten weeks

With the ongoing practice of meditation, you gain the ability to bring the liberating effects of mindful awareness to moment-to-moment living. Ultimately, this means developing a mind of openness and flexibility, profound physical calmness, and a deepening freedom to choose how you respond to life.

Throughout the ten weeks of this course, you practice the principles of mindfulness through focused meditations and guided exercises, including these:

• Weeks 1-2 Sitting meditation: The core practice of the mindfulness tradition. You learn the specific methods of meditation with mindful awareness.
• Weeks 3-4 Body scan meditation: A second fundamental practice, bringing deep focus to the body and bodily sensations, promoting both concentration and physical relaxation.
• Weeks 5-6 Mindful engagement with thoughts: You learn four specific practices for releasing detrimental patterns of thought.
• Weeks 7-8 Metta meditation: Central to the mindfulness tradition, you learn this form of directed contemplation, focusing on the well-being of others and powerfully effective for cultivating compassion.
• Weeks 9-10 Meditations for physical pain: You practice two forms of meditation for alleviating pain and physical discomfort of all kinds.

Hayley Elkins 07990912421 Martyn Shrewsbury 07592330467

Wake up

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.

Deckard: [narrating] I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life - anybody's life; my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die.

Batty: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.

Fugue for a Darkening Island ..in 2016

I originally read this in the early 1970`s. I was a precocious 14 year old, I wondered about a Europe that Christopher Priest wrote about. I am now 57 and the memories of the book float back. I found this review today. The book was written 45 year before the rise of UKIP and there seems to be so much similarity between John Tregarth and Nigel Farage . The feel of the novel is now, particularly after Belgium and after the unthinking racism and scapegoating beloved of the unpleasant  and vicious right wing ascendency. While not agreeing with the conclusion of the reviewer I am disturbed by the feelings, emotions and outlook I see around me all the time.Here is the review.......

Originally published in 1971, Fugue for a Darkening Island was Christopher Priest’s second novel. The scenario is similar to that explored by Jean Raspail in The Camp of the Saints, and the outcome nearly identical, but the arguments and point of view are markedly different.

Africa has been ravaged by all manner of natural and man-made disasters. With the emergence of a number of nuclear states, and the inevitable nuclear exchange, the Dark Continent has become uninhabitable. There are survivors, however, and great multitudes of starving, poor, desperate Africans set sail for the north. Over a period, dilapidated boats loaded with thousands run aground on British shores, some going as far as the River Thames, in London. The government at first seems baffled, unable to stop them, or take decisive action to prevent the boats from coming ashore. The Africans land and quickly disappear into the cities. This, incidentally, is exactly what has been happening lately in Spain’s southern border, where African migrants have changed tactics and, instead of attempting to slip into Europe in small numbers, now organise nocturnal raiding parties, climbing fences several thousand at a time, thus making it impossible for the border authorities to stop them. In the Priest’s novel, the landings carry on until eventually the island ends up with two million invaders, which in the novel are referred to as ‘refugees’. A ‘Right-wing’ government—by which we must understand not fascism, but something along the lines of Enoch Powell’s brand of conservatism—takes strong measures to protect British subjects, aiming to contain and eventually expel the invaders. The invaders, however, organise into ‘Afrim’ militias, which soon begin raiding English towns and forcing people out of their homes. The country descends into a civil war: on the one hand, there are the Nationalists, who are with the government; on the other are the Secessionists, who want to restore order and give full citizenship and rights to the ‘refugees’.

Against this background we follow the story of one Alan Whitman, a university lecturer. Whitman’s marriage is a shambles: his wife, Isobel, seems sexually frigid (though it later transpires that she feels neglected), and his response is to philander serially and indiscriminately, driven purely by his sexual urge. The Whitmans have a daughter, Sally, who is the ostensible reason the marriage still holds—ostensible, because both adult parties are a state of avoidance and denial. In due course, the Whitmans lose their home and are forced into the countryside, where Alan has his wife and their daughter living like animals, without a decisive plan of action, and without the wherewithal to do what is necessary to get them to a safe destination. This unchains a series of events. First, Isobel leaves him, and, though they are later on reunited, he then loses her again when Afrim militiamen take her and their daughter away from him at gunpoint, to be shuttled away who knows where. By this time Alan has ended up with a group of British refugees, led by one Rafiq, of indeterminate origin. Initially, the group avoids committing to any faction. When the gang finds a cargo of firearms amid the ruins of a Nationalist convoy, however, Rafiq decides to organise the group into a militia, but Alan, a pacifist, walks away, averse to committing himself politically or to violence. Whitman is, indeed, thoroughly unheroic: weak, spineless, indecisive, and liberal. Predictably, he is detached when the crisis first develops—a gape-mouthed witness, predominantly preoccupied with his numerous love affairs, when a boatful of invaders wedges itself against the London Bridge, right under his nose; he then sides with the invaders, presumably speaking up for their human rights (though about the specifics we are not told); he subsequently loses his job when the university is closed down, forcing into manual labour; and even then he is in denial, acting only as and when circumstances leave him without options. His actions, on such occasions, are invariably prissy and limp-wristed. He steadfastly refuses to support the Nationalist cause, thinking it racist. It is a miracle he survives as long as he does.

From the narrative, the author’s sympathies seem to lean in one direction: the Nationalists are spoken of or portrayed as extremists, their measures as repressive and counter-productive, and their supporters as creepy Neanderthals in suits; the Secessionists, by contrast, tend to give Whitman fairer treatment, and he, of course, deems their vision for a resolution the superior one. Nevertheless, Priest does not make any effort to humanise the Africans: they are like shadows in the landscape, emotionless, and utterly ruthless throughout; from the most part they are a distant menace. Priest also seems to view avoiders and deniers with amazement and contempt, for avoidance and denial afflicts not only Whitman; they are, indeed, a theme throughout the novel.

In the end, and as always, events force Whitman to commit himself against his liberal judgment. Afrim militiamen had used the white women abducted by them to set up brothels and thereby establish a method for procuring supplies. Rumour has it that his wife and daughter were likely taken to one of the brothels along the Southern coast. He finds the brothel and the family is reunited, except that his wife and daughter are now two out of a score of female bodies rotting on the beach. That same evening, we are told, Whitman murders a young African, steals his gun, and goes back into the countryside. That’s where the story ends.

The 2011 edition of this novel offers a revised version of the original. In his preface, Priest explains that, at the time, he had simply set out to write a disaster story, against the background of events in post-colonial Britain such as Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, but that the language of race relations had changed in the intervening time, causing a novel that was initially praised for anti-racism to be condemned for racism. He deemed this too much of a distraction, so he updated the text to substitute nowadays troublesome words like ‘Negro’ and ‘coloured’ with politically correct terms, in an effort to leave the text ‘politically neutral’. I don’t think it is, and this impression is accentuated by the veering into speechification towards the end of the novel, when Whitman realises his own uselessness and his wasted life on the periphery. And yet, though I suppose the intention is for the reader to view Whitman’s conversion to militiadom as a tragedy, an unintended and yet equally possible reading is that the effete Whitman finally discovers his manhood and goes out to earn his right to be called a citizen, reality’s repeated bites having finally instigated the growth of a spine.

The Making of Friedrich Nietzsche: The Quest for Identity, 1844-1869

How did Nietzsche the philosopher come into being? The Nietzsche known today did not develop 'naturally', through the gradual maturation of some inborn character. Instead, from an early age he engaged in a self-conscious campaign to follow his own guidance, thereby cultivating the critical capacities and personal vision which figure in his books. As a result, his published works are steeped in values that he discovered long before he mobilized their results. Indeed, one could argue that the first work which he authored was not a book at all, but his own persona. Based on scholarship previously available only in German, this book examines Nietzsche's unstable childhood, his determination to advance through self-formation, and the ways in which his environment, notably the Prussian education system, alternately influenc

Ten week Mindfulness course at Asclepius

Mindfulness has been gathering much attention over recent years as a tried-and-tested method of reducing stress and anxiety. By helping us to focus our attention on the present moment and not get swept up in worrying or negative thoughts about the past or future, a regular practice can help us to:

• learn to cope better with the pressures we're under;
• recognise the thoughts and judgements we make, often subconsciously, that generate more stress;
• find balance and a sense of calm.

About the course:

Mindfulness is proven to help people cope better with stress, depression and anxiety. This ten-week life-skills course combines experiential mindfulness practices with the latest tools and techniques of neuroscience, psychology and the study of well-being. It will include mindfulness meditation practices, , group dialogue and discussion, individually tailored instructions and home assignments. The course consists of ten one hour sessions. 

If you have any questions about the 10-week mindfulness course, please ring Hayley on 07990912421 or Martyn on 07592330467

Awareness of Breath

This guided meditation on the breath will help you learn to simply be and to look within yourself with mindfulness and equanimity.  Allow yourself to switch from the usual mode of doing to a mode of non-doing.  Of simply being.  Sitting in an erect posture, either on a straight back chair or on a cushion.  As you allow your body to become still, bring your attention to the fact that you are breathing.  And become aware of the movement of your breath as it comes into your body and as it leaves your body.  Not manipulating the breath in any way or trying to change it.  Simply being aware of it and of the feelings associated with breathing.  And observing the breath deep down in your belly.  Feeling the abdomen as it expands gently on the inbreath, and as it falls back towards your spine on the outbreath.  Being totally here in each moment with each breath.  Not trying to do anything, not trying to get any place, simply being with your breath.  Giving full care and attention to each inbreath and to each outbreath.  As they follow one after the other in a never ending cycle and flow.

You will find that from time to time your mind will wander off into thoughts.  When you notice that your attention is no longer here and no longer with your breathing, and without judging yourself, bring your attention back to your breathing and ride the waves of your breathing, fully conscious of the duration of each breath from moment to moment.  Every time you find your mind wandering off the breath, gently bringing it back to the present, back to the moment-to-moment observing of the flow of your breathing.  Using your breath as an anchor to focus your attention, to bring you back to the present whenever you notice that your mind is becoming absorbed or reactive.  Using your breath to help you tune into a state of relaxed awareness and stillness.

Now as you observe your breathing, you may find from time to time that you are becoming aware of sensations in your body.  As you maintain awareness of your breathing, see if it is possible to expand the field of your awareness so that it includes a sense of your body as a whole as you sit here.  Feeling your body, from head to toe, and becoming aware of all the sensations in your body.  So that now you are observing not only the flow of breathing, but the sense of your body as a whole.

Being here with whatever feelings and sensations come up in any moment without judging them, without reacting to them, just being fully here, fully aware.  Totally present with whatever your feelings are and with your breath and a sense of your body as a whole.  And again whenever you notice that your mind wandering off, just bringing it back to your breathing and your body as you sit here not going anywhere, not doing anything just simply being, simply sitting.  Moment to moment, being fully present, fully with yourself.

Reestablishing your awareness on the body as a whole and on the breath as it moves in and out of your body. Coming back to a sense of fullness of each inbreath, and the fullness of each outbreath.  If you find yourself at any point drawn into a stream of thinking and you notice that you are no longer observing the breath, just using your breathing and the sense of your body to anchor you and stabilize you in the present.

Just being with your breathing from moment to moment, just sitting in stillness, looking for nothing and being present to all.  Just as it is, just as it unfolds.  Just being right here, right now.  Complete. Human.  Whole.

As the practice comes to an end, you might give yourself credit for having spent this time nourishing yourself in a deep way by dwelling in this state of non-doing, in this state of being.  For having intentionally made time for yourself to simply be who you are.  And as you move back into the world, allow the benefits of this practice to expand into every aspect of your life.

Guided Body Scan

This guided body scan meditation is intended to help you enter a very deep state of relaxation. It is best if you can manage to stay awake throughout the entire exercise. It’s important to remember to not try to relax. This will just create tension. What you’ll be doing instead is becoming aware of each passing moment and just accepting what is happening within you, seeing it as it is. Let go of the tendency of wanting things to be different from how they are now and allow things to be exactly as you find them. Just watch the activity of your mind, letting go of judgmental and critical thoughts when they arise, and just doing what the exercise guides you to do as best you can.

Lie down in a warm and private place, dressed in loose and comfortable clothing at a time when you will not be interrupted. Closing your eyes, and letting your arms lie alongside your body, your feet falling away from each other and slowly bringing your attention to the fact that you are breathing. Not trying to control your breath in any way but simply experiencing it as the air moves in and out of your body and noticing your abdomen and feeling the sensations there as your breath comes into your body and your abdomen gently expands. Then noticing your belly deflate as the breath comes out of your body. And following the rhythmic movement of each breath…the rising of your belly on the inbreath and on each outbreath just letting go, letting your body become heavy as it sinks a little bit deeper into relaxation. Just bringing full attention to each breath in each moment.

Now bringing your attention to your feet, becoming aware of whatever sensations are there. If you are registering a blank as you tune in, then just experiencing nothing. And as you breathe in, imagine your breath moving all the way down to your feet and then when you reach your feet, begin your outbreath and let it move all the way up your body and out your nose. So that you’re breathing in from your nose and breathing out from your feet. And when you are ready, letting your feet dissolve in your mind’s eye. Become aware of the shins and calf muscles and the sensations in the lower legs, not just on the surface but right down into the bones, experiencing and accepting what you feel here and breathing into it, then breathing out from it. Then letting go of your lower legs as you relax into the bed or mat. And moving now into the thighs and if there’s any tension just noticing that. Breathing into and out from the thighs. Then letting your thighs dissolve and relax.

Shift your attention to your pelvis now. From one hip to the other. Noticing your buttocks in contact with the bed or the mat. And the sensations of contact and of weight. Becoming aware of the region of the genitals. And whatever sensations or lack of sensations you are experiencing. And directing your breath down into your pelvis, breathing with the entirety of your pelvis. And as you breath out, moving the breath back up through your body and out your nose, letting your pelvis soften and release all tension as you sink even deeper into a state of relaxed awareness and stillness. Totally present in each moment. Content to just be, and to just be right here as you are right now. Direct your attention now to your lower back. And just experiencing your back as it is. Letting your breath penetrate and move into every part of your lower back on the in-breath. And on the out-breath, just letting any tension, any tightness, any holding on just flow out as much as it will. And then letting go of your lower back. And moving up into your upper back now. Just feeling the sensations in your upper back. You may even feel your ribcage, in back as well as in front, expand on the in-breath. And any tightness, fatigue or discomfort in this part of your body, just letting them dissolve and move out with the outbreath as you let go and sink even deeper into stillness and relaxation.

And now shifting your attention to your belly again and experiencing the rising and falling of your belly as you breathe. Feeling the movements of your diaphragm, that umbrella-like muscle that separates your belly from your chest. And experiencing the chest as it expands on the in-breath and deflates on the out-breath. And if you can, tune into the rhythmic beating of your heart within your chest. Feeling it if you can. As well as the lungs expanding on either side of your heart. Just experiencing your chest, your belly, as you lie here…the muscles on the chest wall, the breasts, the entirety of the front of your body. And now just letting this region dissolve into relaxation as well.

Moving your attention now to your fingertips and to both hands together, just becoming aware of the sensations now in the tips of your fingers and thumbs where you may feel some pulsations from the blood flow, a dampness or a warmth or whatever you feel. Just feeling your fingers. And expand your awareness to include the palms of your hands and the backs of your hands and your wrists. And here again perhaps picking up the pulsations of the arteries in your wrists as the blood flows to and from your hands. And becoming aware as well of the forearms. And the elbows. Any and all sensations regardless of what they are. Allowing the field of your awareness to include now the upper arms. Right up to your shoulders. Just experiencing your shoulders and if there are any tensions, breathing into your shoulders and arms. And letting that tension dissolve as you breathe out. Letting go of the tension and letting go of your arms. All the way from your fingertips, right through to your shoulders. As you sink even deeper into a state of relaxed awareness. Just being present in each moment. Letting go of whatever thoughts come up or whatever impulses to move and just experiencing yourself in this moment.

And now focus your attention on your neck and throat and feel this part of your body, experiencing what it feels like perhaps when you swallow and when you breathe. And then letting it go. Letting it relax and dissolve in your mind’s eye. Becoming aware of your face now.  Focusing on the jaw and the chin, just experiencing them as they are.

Becoming aware of your lips and your mouth. And becoming aware of your cheeks now…and your nose, feeling the breath as it moves in and out at the nostrils. And be aware of your eyes. And the entire region around your eyes and eyelids. And if there’s any tension, letting it leave as the breath leaves. And now the forehead, letting it soften to let go of stored emotions. And the temples. And if you sense any emotion associated with the tension or feelings in your face, just being aware of that. Breathing in and letting the face dissolve into relaxation and stillness. And now become aware of your ears, and back and top of your head. Now letting your whole face and head relax. For now, just letting it be as it is. Letting it be still and neutral. Relaxed and at peace.

Now letting your breath move through your entire body in whatever way feels natural for you. Through the entire length of your body. All of your muscles in a deep state of relaxation. And your mind simply aware of this energy, of this flow of breath. Experiencing your entire body breathing. Sinking deeper and deeper into a state of stillness and deep relaxation. Allow yourself to feel whole. In touch with your essential self in a realm of silence, of stillness, of peace. And seeing that this stillness is in itself healing. And allowing the world to be as it is beyond your personal fears and concerns. Beyond the tendencies of your mind to want everything to be a certain way. Seeing yourself as complete right now as you are. As totally awake right now.

As the exercise ends, bring your awareness back to your body again, feeling the whole of it. You may want to wiggle your toes and fingers. Allow this calmness and this centeredness to remain with you when you move. Congratulate yourself on having taken the time to nourish yourself in this way. And remember that this state of relaxation and clarity is accessible to you by simply paying attention to your breath in any moment, no matter what’s happening in your day. Let your breath be a source of constant strength and energy for you.

Carl Jung: The unconscious person projects on his neighbour

The blinder love is, more more it is instinctual, and the more it is attended by destructive consequences, for it is a dynamism that needs form and direction.

Therefore a compensatory Logos has been joined to it as a light that shines in the darkness.

A man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour.

A perfect Green Storm

IT is with bitter irony that I write this. I never imagined that the real life effects of climate change would be a good thing for the Green party!

I guess I always hoped that it would never have to come to this. I am an activist within Wales Green Party but in my day job I am a Pembrokeshire based tree surgeon and gardener.

Last week while gardening I had several conversations with people about climate change. After the recent ‘winter’ we have had everyone seems to be talking about climate change all of a s

Halfway through the week I realised that people are actually initiating these conversations quite freely! Because the weird weather – such as the terrible floods, daffodils flowering at Christmas, birds nesting in January – has put people on edge.

Where in the past I might have felt like “that tree hugging Green harping on about climate change”, now climate change is already on ordinary people’s lips and people are talking about it, so it is then just a short hop to discuss Green Politics, big tax dodging businesses polluting the planet, The Tories slashing renewables incentives and investing in fracking under our homes.

I think the conversation comes more easily now. And people also realise that it is the policy makers who have let this happen.

The terrible irony is that it is the effects of climate change – which is so clearly ‘happening’ – that will actually make people see the politics behind it, see who has let this happen and see that there is only one political party who has been banging on about all this for 40 years already: us! But why did it have to come to this and is it already too late for the future of our children and our children’s children?

Leading climate scientists are saying that the carbon targets set at the recent Paris talks actually lock us in to a 2.7C rise in temperature yet a rise of 2C is considered “the most the Earth could tolerate” without risking catastrophic changes in our environment, including massive sea level rises within the next 50 years.

Not only that but they simply do not know what will happen if runaway climate change takes over, they cannot predict what the knockon effects might be if we breach that tipping point.

A tipping point we certainly will breach unless we stop burning fossil fuels right now and leave all remaining fossil fuels in the ground. Yet the current UK government, while spinning Greenwash, has continued to implement more harmful policies.

So who in their right mind wants to destroy our world?

And what is the barrier to us converting to clean, safe and everlasting renewable energy?

Well, only the biggest and most powerful companies on Earth! These companies have these fossil fuel reserves on their books as existing assets and have no incentive to leave them in the ground.

The only solution to climate change is a political one.

This brings us right back to the irony of it all. One of the people I chatted with last week runs a garden centre, he has been closely following climate change for 25 years and is acutely aware of the changes which have already taken place over that time.

He was delighted that this May his ‘Green vote’ may get us our first Green Assembly Member elected into the Senedd in the Mid and West Wales region under the fairer Welsh voting system. 

But why so little so late?What will it actually take?

How bad will it have to get before people see what needs to be done and get out and vote for it? I am glad that people are finally talking about climate change, I’m glad that my “job” and that of my fellow Greens will be made that much easier when I’m out on the doorsteps in a few weeks – but it saddens me beyond comprehension that climate change is already creating this ‘perfect storm’ for the Greens.

Jim Scott