Musings of a Grieving Mam

It’s humbling to realise that everything I’ve taken for granted over the last 13 years, touching Lils, holding her, being beside her, I now have to ask permission to do it.

That now, other mothers’ hands have the unspoken right to touch my daughter.

I have to ask permission to perform the most basic of ‘mum duties’ for my own child.

My. Own. Child.

16 days in the head of a mum during her teenage daughter’s battle with HLH.

Mosquitoes in Skyros

A spiritual retreat – or so this man thought – was something you go on to embrace your connection with life and (hopefully) learn a bit more about yourself. If things go well, you might end up looking to the future with added confidence. However, when the realisation dawns that you have been semi-consciously searching for “the one” for the last eleven years, and that the very essence and substance of true love risks materialising during the retreat… I mean, what is a man to do?

A light-hearted search for greater well-being on a Greek island combines with “a nice holiday” to engender somewhat more sharing than anticipated. The parallel narratives of the retreat workshops and a budding relationship begin to over-flow – one nourishing the other, to the point that a rare and very real love seems almost fated.

Written with great honesty and sensitivity and (yet!) through a male perspective, poignant memories from childhood are pieced together with reflections on relationships in general to bring such focus on the natural laws affecting us all, that a sense of underlying good purpose in every relationship starts to emerge.

With evocative descriptions of Greek cuisine and culture as the backcloth, threads of spiritual mystique interweave with a most-passionate romance. The words of wisdom that emerge organically as the story unfolds may be left to wash over, or be investigated using the cross-references to appendices that support self-development alongside the story; but in any event, there is always the sun and the feta!

Mojovive

This book challenges you to question yourself: are you the Chief Negativity Officer of your own life, and your own mojo assassin?

It also challenges you to take responsibility for yourself, to break yourself out of stale routines, and to finally be in charge of your own destiny. Mostly importantly, it demands that you never quit on yourself until you blossom into all your crowning splendour and glory.

Mindfulness for Cat Lovers

Mindfulness for Cat Lovers invites you to find out more about mindfulness in a way that is fun and naturally fits with what you love: your cats. It contains simple exercises that can help you find peace in your day and build gratitude and happiness in your life.

Cats have a soothing influence and are all about the present moment, as such they make the perfect pet to demonstrate the principles and benefits of mindfulness.

This book is designed to be light, helpful and entertaining. It might even be the start for some on the path of a wonderful ‘mindful’ journey…

Mental Health Workbook

Mental health is a critical component of everyone’s lives. If you have a brain and have ever felt feelings, then this is the workbook for you!
It is part coloring book, part entertainment, part journal, and part suggestions for when encountering difficult times and complex emotions. Its main goal is to be a fun, helpful and useful workbook that encourages the user.

Men Over 60: Don't Quit Now!

Dr. Dorsen, a fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine and retired internist, is a cum laude graduate from Dartmouth College with his medical degree from the Rutgers New Jersey University School of Medicine, and residencies in medicine at Johns Hopkins and Hennepin County Hospital Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has served at the United States Paralympic and Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and as a team physician for the U.S. Olympic Cross Country Ski Team. He is the author of The Vikings Change the Play Against Alcohol and Other Dangerous Drugs; Dr. D’s Handbook for Men Over 40: A Guide to Health, Fitness, Living, and Loving in the Prime of Life; Up from the Ashes: One Doc’s Struggle with Drugs and Mental Illness; and over 300 human interest and juried articles. He has spoken on sports medicine and related medical issues at US and world cross country events where he himself races. He lives in Eagan, Minnesota with his partner, Nada.

“Dr. Dorsen offers an antidote to time and a commitment to daily respect for your body and mind. With insight and clarity, he encourages us to make health a daily habit.”
- David Feldshuh, M.D., Ph.D., Pulitzer nominee for Miss Ever Boys’ based on the Tuskegee Study, professor of theater at Cornell University, and practicing emergency room physician.

“If we are going to help make a healthy world it is essential that men become kind and soft and step down from the altar of power. These things were not spoken in medical school maybe because most all the teachers were male, and psychiatry did not address the unhealthy features of the male personality. Thank you, Peter, for showing the possibility for a healthier world, making healthier men.”
- Patch Adams, M.D., a physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and founder of the Gesundheit! Institute, “Patch” is the author of the film,” Patch Adams” (1998), “Bringing Good Health to You” (1998), and “House Calls”(1998).

“Men Over 60: Don’t Quit Now! supplies helpful information for men in their senior years who want to stay active and healthy. To share this type of information with senior men is an admired goal of Dr. Dorsen and myself. I recommend Dr. Dorsen’s sequel to Dr. D’s Handbook as a helpful guide to anyone interested in this age group.”
- Barry Mink, M.D. was catcher for the Cincinnati Reds out of high school with 40 years as a practicing internal and sports medicine at the Aspen Clinic. Dr. Mink has been the team physician for the US Biathlon Team and Nordic team physician at both the 1980 and 1994 Winter Olympics.

“I came to this book for the information, but I stayed for the inspiration. There is lots of new information, even for an experienced physician. But more importantly, this book offers the inspiration to implement a healthy lifestyle as we pass from our 60s and beyond.”
- Edward Feinberg, M.D., MPH, chairman emeritus department of ophthalmology; faculty retina-vitreous service.

Master Healthy Eating Habits

Do you want to eat healthier foods, lose belly fat and improve your health?

Previously have you lost weight, then old eating habits sneak back in, regaining the weight you lost?

Clear six-week guide to change your eating and activity habits.

If you read this book you will understand how, when and what to eat to …

Control appetite

Lose belly fat, gain muscle

Have more energy to be more active

Feel in control of what you eat

Feel in charge of your body

Put the odds in your favour for a longer life

Dieting does not work long-term because it only changes your body.

Changing eating habits works because it transforms your body and your brain.

Marriage Wars

You may believe that you know the person with whom you are walking down the aisle, but do you know the person that he/she will become after the vows are spoken? What changes take place with the placement of rings? What are the critical issues that you might be facing that you had never addressed, or thought you had addressed?

For example: how will you handle money, friendships and family, children, hidden addictions, sex, and cheating? While not insurmountable, they can become overwhelming, and potential battlegrounds for the war that has so often become marriage.

Learning to navigate the battles, and choosing the right weaponry, can help you to win the war without destroying the relationship—or yourself.

Love-'LIFE' Meditations

This book is for anyone who believes in turning the base metal of self into gold. Who chooses a life full of self-fulfilled promises!

This book will become your companion and guide, as it steers you on a magnificent homecoming journey through these pages, just as many mentees have done before you on this Rainbow Path Meditation Series journey. Carol Watson has been guiding groups since 2005 and has over one hundred and eighty scripts and growing. Thirty-five will be shared on these pages.

You’ll love these spiritual stories that are deeply meditative, as you connect with your inner child, your own gorgeous inner male and female, higher self and Great Spirit. Kirsty, a regular member of one of our circles, assures ‘What’s not to love!’

You will be guided, as you read, to help stitch the fabric of a new life pattern for yourself—one full of self-acceptance, reflection, deep peace, the forgiveness of self and others and how you can repair and heal all the parts of you, once neglected. You’ll make friends with your true self and the beautiful wise ones you will meet along this real homecoming journey; beings such as the Protector, Archangel Michael, St Margaret of Scotland. You’ll befriend your Animal Guides and find wisdom from the tree magic you experience, as well as the elemental beings and medicinal herbs.

Colour and healing reconnect you to the golden threads of you that begin to emerge as you go. Base metal is turned into gold as you travel. This book incorporates life coaching and NLP tools, along with spiritual techniques and affirmations to bring you to a new place, a new you. A brighter, lighter, bigger, better YOU. You’ll stretch in ways you never knew possible, find solace in a quieter mind you will learn how to control, and enjoy a happier heart and soul.

Abundance and joy await you. Shall we?

Living With(in) Your Ends

Did you ever wonder why you see the world around you the way that you do? Ever wondered why you might see everything in your world as a means to an end? Why should you bother following the dictum to ‘live within your means’ when you haven’t even considered ‘living with or within your ends’? You might ask yourself: what is implied here by ends and by means, and why does the latter always seem to come before the former? After all, how do we end anything without a means for doing so? Living With(in) Your Ends provides a crutch for you to lean on while you ponder the means and ends within your life and the world around you. It guides you on how to maintain your true identity without getting ‘sucked into world of means’ where superficiality prospers.Investigating human existence through a lens that values the present moment and which provides for practical consequences, Kevin M. Stevenson, PhD, provides an exploration into the deeper realms of perception and their relationships with time and identity. Living With(in) Your Ends not only provides a conceptual map to follow for leading an authentic life, it also considers some of the historical and philosophical notions that have blessed and plagued human existence. Living With(in) Your Ends will provide you with a framework for healthy reflection and increased awareness of the intersections between yourself and the world.

Lighting the Blue Flame

"Welcome to my last day. I am Joshua McKenzie, 16 years old. "I fluctuate between an internal rage at the ones I blame for me feeling like this, and sadness for myself for not being able to do anything about it. "I'm not really scared, just sort of numb, sadness overwhelms me, no one has been there for me and no one is going to be there for me now. I loop the noose; I kick the chair. Fade to black…" Joshua has been bullied to the point of suicide and in his final act wants those he feels are responsible to make things right. Share the journey of those left behind to deal with Joshua's suicide and come up with solutions to prevent this from happening to others.

Lifestyle Manners to Drive Success

How confident are you that you are practising and teaching the manners needed to succeed in life? 

Good manners are the tools for life that provide a charisma and presence wherever you are.

Learned and used well, such manners will ease you through the maze of social etiquette, making a successful future for you and your children ever more attainable.

Lifestyle Manners to Drive Success is an easy-to-read guide that will teach you the subtle art of social acceptance in any situation and will equip you with the confidence that removes the anxiety from new experiences.