Every year on May Fourth, the Netherlands commemorates the victims of World War II. We all experience World War II in very different ways, depending on who you are, what you stand for, what you do, and where you live. All those different experiences are reflected in the different commemoration ceremonies throughout the years. During the national commemoration of Remembrance Day on 4 May, those various experiences come together and the dead are jointly remembered and honored. Today I want to remember and honor my grandfather, Felix Ravesloot. After a British fighter jet plane came down near Arnhem, my grandfather, 26 years old at the time, hid two British pilots in the woods and provided them with food and water. However, the Germans were tipped off, caught him and imprisoned him in the concentration camps Vught and Amersfoort. He suffered greatly and received an award from Eisenhower for his courage and dedication. Below are his witness statements from camp Vught and camp Amersfoort I translated from Dutch into English. It is his bravery, and his impeccable sense of justice, and his accounts on suffering from oppression that have given meaning to my life. His actions, and his unwavering desire to always do and say what’s right, and to stand up against oppression and injustice, despite possible repercussions, inspire me to hold myself to the highest possible moral and ethical standards, and always, ALWAYS stand up for the truth. ![]() About Concentration Camp Vught: Vught was the only official SS concentration camp in occupied Northwest Europe, established in occupied Holland. Construction began in May 1942. The first prisoners arrived at the camp before it was finished at the end of 1942. These prisoners came from the camp in Amersfoort , which the Nazis wanted to give up. The famished and abused prisoners arrived at the railway station in Vught and were marched off along the streets. The first commander of the camp was an SS captain named Karl Chmilewski. This SS Officer was well known for the barbaric atrocities he had committed at the camp of Gusen, an sub-camp of Mauthausen. (Mauthausen had a reputation as one of the most brutal Nazi camps). Conditions in Vught were initially deplorable. Hundreds of prisoners died during the first few months as a result of maltreatment, shortage of clothing, lack of food, polluted water, and various infectious diseases that were rampant in the overcrowded barracks. Many Jewish children were victims of this. After a while conditions improved simply because nearly all the Jews had been deported and so the camp had more space. The second section of Vught was designed as a security camp (Schutzhaftlager). This section received all the Dutch and Belgian political prisoners, men and women. The guards were exclusively SS. The food was nearly nonexistent : warm water with some carrots or sauerkraut floating on the surface. The SS guards tortured the prisoners with incredible cruelty beating them to death (several prisoners were brutalized with a club wrapped with barbed wire). The SS often provoked their dogs to attack prisoners and there are several testimonies of horrible wounds, including to genitals. Altogether 749 people lost their lives for various reasons. A large number of them (mostly members of the resistance) were executed in the woods near the camp at the so called “Fusilladeplaats.” (source https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Vught.html)
Witness Statement Felix Ravesloot for Camp Amersfoort In the concentration camp in Amersfoort, I have personally experienced from October 1942 to January 1943 the following: The SS Oberscharfuhrer WOLFF was nicknamed the Christmasman (het kerstmanneke). This man was continuously armed with a very heavy club and usually seemed possessed by the devil. In those days the prisoners, I among them, had to carry many branches, sod and rocks. Wolff would put himself at a slightly elevated spot next to the narrow path every prisoner had to cross. Suddenly Wolff would start to assault every prisoner who passed, hitting them as hard as he possibly could, wherever he could reach them, preferably on their heads and backs. When he got tired, he stopped for a while, only to start all over after he had rested a bit. During one of those days, I received a strike with this club against my right ear and I am suffering the consequences of it to this day. Also during the head counts he could hit with incredible force and intensity. During the searching of the headcount square he would hit and kick everyone wherever he could strike them. He was one of the most vile I have experienced. Under commander BERG we often had to stand for punishment. Sometimes it was because we didn’t put our hats on and off quick enough, sometimes it was because we didn’t work hard enough that day, etc., there was always some sort of reason to find for punishment. Several times we did not get lunch, and after we entered the gate in the afternoon, it was time for head count, and then punishment time. When we still had daylight, we had to exercise; doing knee and arm exercises, and practicing with the hats. After sunset, we had to stand still. The autumn of 1942 was extremely wet and temperatures dropped well below freezing at night. Our clothes were always damp, since we were outside all day and the barracks at night were not heated in any way. During the punishment standing, if it was still light, you had to stand perfectly still. But when it got dark, it was harder to see for the guards and we huddled together for support and warmth. Our soaked clothes got stiff and heavy and our emaciated bodies (I weighed 40 pounds, normally 130 pounds) turned as cold as stone, due to the moisture, cold and lack of food. Nobody was allowed to leave and the guards went around us like dogs, while search lights and machine guns were pointed at us, to shoot us for the very least, tiniest offense. Many prisoners couldn’t do this and collapsed in the mud at the head count square, where they had to remain until the punishment was over, and many died during this time. The punishment standing lasted anywhere from 8pm to 11 pm, it was always changing. After we were dismissed, most prisoners barely made it to the barracks; there they would go to bed, to try to get a few hours of sleep in the cold. For ‘attempts of escape’ we once stood a whole Sunday, while we had not had anything to eat since Friday. It was very cold, far below freezing temperatures. The lack of food happened often in those days. On Sundays and holidays things were incredibly deplorable; the Germans were of the opinion that he who didn’t work, did not need food. Often the guards decided at random that the prisoners had committed an offense, and after the head count had to undergo punishment. The punishment was in the form of running and jumping around the head count court. If anyone gave up, they were beaten with sticks, whips and clubs to go on. Another favorite punishment was the hitting with a stick. For example, if a prisoner had found some underwear and was caught wearing it, he would have to undress in front of the other prisoners and Berg and his companions would give him a great number of lashings with the stick on his back and buttocks, and the prisoner usually collapsed. Usually the torture did not stop until the prisoner was dead or near death. These lashings also took place in the block hut. I personally received 25 lashings by an unknown SS’r because he said that I had used the toilet too long. I witnessed how the guards, just for fun, drove a Jewish man to the danger line, the area near the edge of the camp. The Jew did not want to go, but they hit and beat him until he had no other choice than to crawl over the danger line. Then, a guard from the other side shot him three times. After the Jew was hit three times, he still had not died and the guards walked up close and finished him with a fourth shot. Afterward the guards ordered the other prisoners to put him on a wheelbarrow and take him back to the camp. The son of this Jewish man saw the whole thing happening to his father in front of his own eyes, and a few days earlier his brother had also been murdered in a similar way. Especially the terror for the Jews was excruciating. They had to do the worst jobs, for example the body picking; every morning they had to search the barracks for dead prisoners and bury them naked in chalk pits. Also I have personally seen a prisoner, while walking near the dangerline, lose his balanced and fall over. What followed was that the nearest guard shot and killed him, which provide the guard with a gratification and a few days of paid time off. Witness Statement Felix Ravesloot for Camp Vught Witness Statement Felix Adrianus Eliza Ravesloot born 10-01-1915, Vught Concentration Camp. On a Sunday morning, the end of January, beginning February 1943, all prisoners from the concentration camp in Vught were driven from their barracks. After the headcount that followed all marched to the future location of the headcount square. After the trees were cleared to make space for the concentration camp, they had been stacked in this area. Now this location had to be cleared for future head counts, since up to this point, headcounts were just held next to or in between the barracks. This Sunday the goal of the camp leaders was that all the trees had to be removed from this area by the prisoners. This happened along the road that went through the camp, and then excited the camp toward the town of Yzeren, and when you turned right you entered the highway, I believe it lead to Tilburg. A little ways down this highway was an area where all the wood was supposed to be transported to. The whole route was surrounded by SS soldiers, armed with rifles and machine guns, clubs and long whips. Also there were several SS soldiers with dogs on long leashes. On the headcount square the prisoners were forced to carry the trees on their shoulders. Depending on the weight of the trees, three or four man would pick up a tree and begin carrying it. Then when we were on our way to carry the tree from the square to the place all the way down the road where we were supposed to dump it, the soldiers or other camp staff, would strike and beat one or two prisoners away from the group that carried the tree, so that the remaining two would have to carry the tree all the way down the road, which was virtually impossible. After we had delivered the tree, on the way back, we had to run. If we slowed down at all, the soldiers hit us as hard as they could, wherever they could with their with their clubs, back of the rifles, whips, or they set the dogs loose on us. The whole thing lasted without a break from 7 am to 4 pm. A large number of prisoners died through the exhaustion or torture and an even larger number was in very bad shape after this day. The bodies of the victims had to be carried back to the camp by the other prisoners on wheelbarrows or just by lifting them up amongst them. The total number of deaths of this Sunday was about 250 prisoners. Personally I was OK, besides receiving numerous kicks and punches, and hits with clubs and the back of rifles and so forth. Because the crematorium was not working yet, the bodies of the victims could not be processed quickly and that’s why the bodies were stacked everywhere there was room, also in the sick ward. When one day I had received permission from a camp commander to visit a friend in the sick ward, and entered the building, I accidentally opened the wrong door, and found myself in a room where I saw a large number of naked human bodies stacked on top of each other. During the first two winter months in 1943 the situation in Vught was deplorable. Nothing functioned normally. There was a lack of sufficient barracks, beds, hay bags, blankets, medication, bandages, cooking utensils, and no drinking water. The food could not be cooked, due to a lack of pans and because there weren’t enough…. the food could not arrive on time in the barrack. Afterwards these things were supplied from Amersfoort. Repeatedly there was not food for us at all. We slept with three or four men on two single beds, pushed together, naked with very few, thin blankets. In the beginning we were clothed in the old uniforms for the Dutch Army, which we received in Amersfoort. From this several still had a coat. However on a cold night mid February 1943 we had to take off all our clothes and hand them over. Then we received nothing but one pair of pants, one shirt and a hat, of striped fabric, also called a Sing-Sing outfit. Everything was of course far too big on us over our naked bodies. Many who tied a rope around their middle to get the fabric closer to their bodies, received hard and repeated beatings. In the morning at 6 am, while the temperatures were far below freezing, that is how you stood on the head count square. Some prisoners ( I among them) were ‘rich’ if they had found an empty cement bag and after creating the necessary holes could wear it as an undergarment. If you wore this garment and the camp police found out, you received at least 25 beatings with the club. The change of clothing was supposedly happening to delouse us, however we never saw our original garments back. From top to bottom we were covered by lice. Soap and towels were not available so there was nothing we could do to delouse us ourselves, except for delousing each other. Many prisoners, including myself, suffered from open wounds on our bodies, especially on arms and legs. The vermin around the camp especially liked these places on our bodies. In those days you were lucky if you could get a fresh bandage once week at the sick ward. This bandage was nothing more than toilet paper. When you were ‘bandaged’ with this material, you could throw it away an hour later, it did nothing to protect the wound and consequently many prisoners suffered from severe wound infections. Many were suffering from dysentery and because there were no medications there was nothing to stop it. There was also a lack of drinking water. Around the taps and sinks in the camp the commanders had written with red markers that it was forbidden to drink the water from the tap. However, since we still needed fluids, we still drank it, and also tried to do whatever we could to get fluids, for example from the ditch that was dug by the prisoners on the edge of the camp. Personally I witnessed how a prisoner asked the nearest soldier if he could drink from the ditch and after the soldier gave permission, the prisoner went to the ditch. When he was on his knees in front of the ditch to drink, another soldier shot and killed him for an attempt escape the camp. This resulted in a bonus for the soldier who shot him, who received a financial reward and four days vacation. In the morning, during head count, a number of a prisoner would be called, and the person with this number would be released from the camp. After repeatedly calling out the number, nobody stepped forward and nobody asked about it. After about three weeks a prisoner died in the sick ward who had the number that had been called out three weeks prior for release at the head count square. If the camp commanders had taken the effort to explore where this prisoner was, this prisoner would most likely still have been alive today. I believe his name was Jan Lind from Doesburg, about 20 to 22 years old. The head counts lasted a terribly long time. What was horrible too is that the bodies of the prisoners who had passed away also had to be at the head count. In the mornings the head counts had to be the same as the previous evening counts. So if 25 men had died during the night, all those 25 bodies had to be stacked onto the headcount square. The transport occurred by wheelbarrows or carried by the prisoners. Afterward the bodies were brought to the sick ward, and there, after being undressed were transported with 5 or 10 bodies stacked on top of each other, to the crematorium. Several times I noticed how during this transport one or two bodies fell off the hand cart which was awful to watch. The chimney would smoke and the camp guard Jupo and his helpers would get very drunk afterward, because for this work they would get extra brandywine and food. All these facts happened under command of Schmilewoki and hauptscharfuher Franz Ettlinger. This last one was even meaner than the commander himself. He did everything he could to make the life of the prisoners as miserable as possible; he crawled through the buildings and behind trees, to startle us, beat us and note numbers of prisoners who he thought were not working hard enough. Then, at night, during head count, these numbers would be called for punishment. This would be a large number of lashings with a stick on their naked bodies, in front of the other prisoners. Also the dogs were a favorite play toy of Ettlinger, and he used them often to torture the prisoners. I was in Vught the beginning of 1943 in block 16, with capo’s Ernst Schneider, capo nr 4057 and Oswald Unverdorben, capo nr 4028. Especially the last one was a devil, who one moment could be calm, and then the next completely insane. Repeatedly he assaulted the prisoners while they were sleeping. Completely naked we had to come to him through the below freezing temperatures, without shoes, for inspection, even though nobody had soap or a towel. Then we would be beaten toward the washroom, and together with about 200 men, we had about 30 taps, so washing was impossible. In the mean time the guards beat us left and right on our naked bodies as hard as they could, wherever they could strike us. If they got tired, they drove us back to the barracks, only to drive us out of the barracks half an hour later to play the game again. People who were dying, or sick, or suffered from dysentery, were not allowed to enter the sleeping barracks, and had to spend the night in the washroom, because they might defile the mattresses. In the washroom, they were laying on the stone cold floor without a blanket or mattress. Many died this way. For every 200 prisoners there were five toilets, with one toilet being reserved for the guard, so there was always a long line to find a place to relieve yourself, and toilets were shared by three prisoners at the same time. That didn’t happen because we liked it, but out of sheer necessity, yet Oswald Unverdorben loved to beat the group apart with his club when this happened. Repeatedly I have seen him give prisoners 25 or more hits with the club on their naked backs or buttocks, or on their heads, until the blood ran out of their nose and ears. In March 1943, when prisoners could receive a package from family, he stole everything from those packages that was even remotely interesting, so he could create a nice dinner for himself every day, while his prisoners perished. He was a sadist! Above statements are a reflection of the truth. Signed Arnhem, December 5th, 1947, FAE RAVESLOOT. Above statement on request of the Directorial Generaal voor Byzondere Rechtspleging, Sub Commissie Opsporing Oorlogs Misdryven te s’Hertogenbosch. (War Crime Court) What Happened Next: My grandmother Hendrika Ravesloot-Wijlhuizen repeatedly tried to get her husband released from the camps. From what I have heard is that she finally found an official with connections who was willing to pull strings to get him out. This worked, and my grandfather returned home, only to find that his home (Mesdaglaan 39, Arnhem) was taken by German soldiers. Together with their daughter Lous my grandfather and grandmother lived on my grandmothers family’s farm for the last two years of the war. You can visit this farm, it is a guesthouse now. During this time my grandmother got pregnant with my father, also called Felix, who was born just before the end of the second world war. After the war my grandfather received certificates of appreciation from both Eisenhower and the British armed forces for his help given to the British pilots which enabled them to escape. While my grandfather never fully returned to complete physical health after his experiences in the prison camps, he remained mentally very strong, and was an amiable man who was always full of laughter and jokes. Due to his physical toll of the concentration camp experiences, he passed away on Christmas eve 1974, when he was just 59 years old. May we never forget, and continue to work together across cultural, religious, national, political divides to create societies in which we all thrive and prosper for centuries to come. Orginal Witness Statements in Dutch + Letter from Major of Rotterdam about German Bombing in-honor-of-the-dutch-remembrance-day-my-grand-fathers-wwii-dutch-concentration-camp-witness-statements.html
0 Comments
Launching your own horse coaching practice is not for the faint of heart. The early days of your endeavor are full of excitement. Your journey gains traction through press releases and friend's referrals. You feel like this is going somewhere, it feels doable, yay!
Yet, after a while, something strange happens. The initial excitement fades as you enter the brutal doldrums of the 'inbetween'. In the doldrums you are neither a fledgling practice, nor quite successful yet either. Ugh. This is a peculiar place to be. The slow place can make you doubt yourself and your product. You wonder if you were wrong to believe your great ideas were worth building a business around. Are people truly needing your service or was it all an illusion. Will it ever get better? Starting your own business, no matter what field you are in, is one of the hardest things you'll ever do. In 2019, the failure rate of startups was around 90%. 21.5% of startups fail in the first year, 30% in the second year, 50% in the fifth year, and 70% in their 10th year. More than 95 percent of startups fall short of their initial projections. Jaiks, getting heart palpitations and clammy palms yet? Relax. Remember, you DO have what it takes, but what matters is where you fix your gaze. 17 Signs of brutal growing pains. The following experiences are completely normal when failing forward in the doldrum phase of launching a business. They are NOT signs you are failing. They are growing pains as you transition from ugly duckling practice to powerful swan practitioner. They are also signs that you need some healthy space between you and your practice, so that you can sustain yourself through this awkward adolescence phase of business building.
All these thoughts and feelings and sensations are a normal part of early practice launching. Building a practice is rarely smooth sailing all the way through. There are very few businesses that became an instant overnight success. Most have been percolating for years, with business owners amassing skill, knowledge and experience well before the idea to launch a business was ever born. Remember that as you stumble, trip and fall your way forward through the doldrums. *****WARNING Sometimes motivated entrepreneurs take their skills too far. The more driven you are, the more likely you have what it takes to build a practice from scratch. However, the more driven you are, the more like you also suffer from anxiety around failure, so the more you have to lose mentally. Give yourself time. If you came to the conclusion that having your own practice is a good idea, then you have a spirit with a proclivity for obsessively hard work. Make sure you understand how to stay physically and mentally balanced and healthy while you embark on this path. Here are 5 tips to protect your sanity while launching your own practice. 1. Do not wrap up your identity in your practice. You do not want to teach your mind that if your practice fails, this means you personally are a complete wreck of failure. Keep a healthy separation. Repeat after me: Your practice is what you DO; it does not define who you ARE. 2. YOU and your family have priority; not your practice. If you experience obsession over success or failure of your practice that prevents you from enjoying time with your loved ones, it is time to reevaluate priorities in your life and make healthier choices. 3. Have an exit plan. Know what you will do to take care of your needs (and those of your family) should the practice go under. Don't gamble, don't stick your head in the sand. Make educated decisions, be prepared, and be realistic. 4. Be conservative with your expenses. Investing in your company is fine. Using savings to carry your practice through temporary setbacks is also fine and sometimes needed. However, invest based on your practice's needs, and not on your wants. I used to work for a start up company that was under water financially, yet the CEO bought a brand new wide screen TV to help the team stay on top of the workload. Nobody ever looked at that TV, and a few years later the company was kaput. Keep it simple. Luxuries are often just a trick to make you feel more successful than you are or to attempt to impress other people with your financial success. 5. Be realistic and don't bullshit yourself. Are you able to pull this off, or is working for someone else's practice a better fit for you? Is this practice ultimately worth the brutal sacrifice you are making? Is it in alignment with your purpose and life view? Why are you doing it? Are you trying to make your parents proud, impress your boyfriend, prove your husband wrong? Make sure your motivation is pure, authentic and worth wile, or toss the entire practice in the trash in favor for an endeavor that truly fits you well. KEEP GOING. YOU ARE DOING GREAT. But if you love what you are doing, and your intuition says you are on the right track, keep your eye on that Northern Star, and do not give up just yet. Be realistic, but if it feels right, keep on going, keep on trucking, keep on failing forward. When encountering set backs, take a deep breath and try again in the morning. Soon you may move from the doldrums into the space where fair winds blow your practice toward clients who need you and your amazing practice. For some of you the payoff is completely worth the brutal winds of erratic change. For some of you it isn't. Know yourself and if it feels truly right; KEEP GOING. YOU ARE DOING GREAT. EquineFailures Here are some of EquineFlow's failures, ahum, evolutions in the 12 years from 2009 to 2021. Can you see the multiple identity crises EquineFlow went through? Click on each image to read the description of what the heck I was trying to accomplish. I still have a headache from that, ugh. However, for the past 3 years or so, EquineFlow has entered a space of fair winds, in which the scope has narrowed further as the fog lifted for where the core of EquineFlow must lie. Will it stop evolving? I highly doubt it. Change is the nature of the game and I enjoy how EquineFlow grows where humanity flows. So moral of the story; breathe, smile and enjoy the wild ride. Know your limits; don't give up too soon and certainly not too late. And if you need help, shoot me a line at [email protected]. Bon voyage! Equine assisted modalities are a critical part of any mental growth and wellness initiative. Learn how they are different and when to use them. In 2004 I was part of a snooty Dutch consultancy team sent to a horse farm for equine assisted learning. The goal was to grow team building and leadership skills. At the farm we discovered unproductive habits and got in touch with feelings. We removed roadblocks standing in the way of performance, and healed old wounds. Some people even cried, which is unheard of in corporate training. The outcomes were like psychotherapy. Yet the training was equine assisted learning, not psychotherapy. After all, consultants would be hesitant to go to work mandated group psychotherapy. So what gives?
What is Equine Assisted Psychotherapy(EAP)? Have you ever been near a horse feeling as though all the worries of the world fell away? When entering the space around a horse, many humans encounter a rare sensation of wonder and calm. When humans are hurting, they find that they can think clearer when near a horse. EAP draws upon horses to calm minds. The practice allows people to interact with the horses through experiential play. The outcome reduces symptoms of PTSD, eating disorders, anxiety, depression and more. You meet your therapist and their horses once a week for private sessions or in group form. What is Equine Assisted Coaching (EAC)? When life gets tough, you deserve support. A car needs maintenance so that the axle doesn't break. A human nervoussystem needs attention so that the mind doesn't break. Equine Assisted Coaching is maintenance for your mind. You deserve a thriving, enjoyable life, and interacting with horses helps you get that. You meet your coach and their horses once a week for individual sessions. What is Equine Assisted Learning? (EAL) Near horses, it is easy to think and grow. EAL is a collection of horse assisted skill building practices ranging from teambuilding, leadership development, mindfulness, to tutoring and yoga. You meet your trainer and their horses once a week in a group format, or come to their farm for a week long retreat. So what is the difference? EAP, EAC and EAL seek to increase human mental wellness through similar techniques. They all work outdoors with unbridled horses. They all use experiential play and ask participants to reflect on the experience. The difference between EAP, EAC and EAL lies primarily in the scope of the facilitator. - An Equine Assisted Psychotherapist is a licensed mental health provider. They must carry licensing to diagnose and treat severe mental health challenges. - An Equine Assisted Coach is not a licensed mental health provider. Their scope excludes people with severe mental health challenges, unless a coach seeks more licensing, or their client is also under treatment by a licensed mental health provider. Assisted Coaching is not yet a licensed field. - Equine Assisted Learning differs from EAC and EAL because it focuses primarily on life skill building. It is neither psychotherapy nor coaching. It also differs from traditional riding instruction because it seeks to develop skills that do not necessarily relate to riding and horsemanship. How to know which style you should choose? If you are currently dealing with severe mental challenges that prevent you from working, studying or going through every day life, you are best served by Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. Are you currently doing ok, but feel like there should be more to life? Do you want to understand your own emotional genius better? Do you want to find better relationships and more fulfillment in life? Then you will feel right at home with an Equine Assisted Coach. Does your organization need to optimize teamwork and leadership? Does your group need to improve communication skills? Does your people deserve a fun day away from the office to play with unbridled horses? Give your people the gift of Equine Assisted Learning. If you are running low on mental energy or agency, it is smart to focus on mental well being. This can help you build resilience that may save you when life brings set backs in the future. Searching and finding the right practitioner or facility isn't difficult. For Equine Assisted Psychotherapist, visit www.eagala.com. For Equine Assisted Coaches and Equine Assisted Learning, visit www.equineflow.com. By doing this, you can find skilled partners to enjoy the benefits of horses, and grow a strong, resilient and confident mind. Want to become an Equine Assisted Coach? Visit https://www.equineflow.com/horsecoach.html ![]() Whether you are an entrepreneur, executive, or a mom, your leadership is essential to ignite positive change in your tribe. For some women, leading is a second nature. For others it can be challenging, frustrating and, when things don't flow, downright irritating. Sounds familiar? Read on to learn how interacting with horses helps you grow your leadership skills. ![]() *** This article was published in the December 2018 edition of Natural Awakenings** The book of 2018 is closing, reminding people to pause, reflect and let go. The new year is bringing a blank book, and the pen is in our hands. It is our chance to write a beautiful story for ourselves, but what if the holiday season brings about too much stress to sit down and write? Here are three tactics for managing emotional wellbeing during even the most stressful midwinter days. *** This article was published in the August 2018 edition of Natural Awakenings**
We live in a culture driven by hunger for success. When talking about success, we typically talk about making billions of dollars, authoring multiple bestsellers, or rising to fame. But if we ask people who actually do those things, about the definition of ‘success’, their interpretation of the word has little to do with the very achievements that made them famous. Instead their sentiments surprisingly mimic those of one of man’s oldest allies; the horse. *** This article was published in the April 2018 edition of Natural Awakenings**
We’ve all craved nature at some point. Maybe shopping at Woodruff Road made us long for a hike at Caesars Head. Perhaps trying to find parking downtown left us dreaming of serene waterfalls. Hundreds of studies found proof of what our intuition already knows: spending time in nature reduces stress. Sometimes a quick walk suffices to unwind us, but if not, we could just turn to horses. ![]() Resistance, disinclination, hesitancy, reluctance. Four words describing a tingling sensation associated with feeling you are not ready to move forward with something, even if you think you should. It doesn’t feel like a downright ‘NO!’, but more like a hunch, a disinclination to do something, a lack of enthusiasm. And the frustating thing? Is not always clear why you feel that way. Sounds familiar? Read on. Getting Unstuck. It sounds so easy. But it's a lot harder than it seems. Harder than it should be. Here are seven easy, thought provoking questions to jump-start your quest for a more fulfilling life.
|