tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35023364242300624182012-03-04T21:07:04.587ZWriter & HypnotherapistHelena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.comBlogger131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-3082700103691179142012-02-11T20:22:00.000Z2012-02-11T20:22:32.317Z

‘A hundred billion galaxies!’ The philosopher and world religion expert Tim Freke was hopping up and down excitably, hands gesticulating like an Italian, at the sheer wonder and mystery of this thing called life. Curled around him in easy chairs in the drawing room of the Abbey House, Glastonbury, a gathering of forty or so extraordinarily ordinary people were mostly grinning along with him. We

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-15507557675924248392011-11-29T22:42:00.000Z2011-11-29T22:42:22.142Z

Yesterday, I was stunned. I am still stunned – and I’ll tell you why. Someone whom I consider to be intelligent, educated, wealthy, cultured, conscious, creative, compassionate, talented, beautiful and all-round successful, disclosed to a small group of friends – me included – that, compared to her siblings, she feels like a terrible failure. ‘Why,’ she bemoaned, ‘am I living in this house?’ (

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-24784526629734394242011-09-27T11:57:00.001+01:002011-09-27T11:59:36.662+01:00

‘Nooooo! You can’t back out on me now,’ Karen wailed to me on the phone. ‘I’ve been sooo looking forward to this…’ I really didn’t feel up for this mums night out idea to a rollerdisco. ‘I even bought this 70s silver bomber jacket off Ebay for it,’ she blurted, welling up with tears. ‘Oh look, I’m sorry. I’m totally pre-menstrual. Let’s just leave it and go another time.’ ‘Hey, I know how

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-61898047299780930132011-08-23T21:34:00.000+01:002011-08-23T21:34:06.261+01:00

There are lots of reasons why I could be angry with the rioters who live in my neighbourhood. I live in Camberwell, close to Coldharbour Lane, the Brixton end of which was one of the recent London looting locations. Over in Peckham, where I take my young son to soft-play and swimming, a bus was set on fire with people in it, the post office burned down and numerous shops wilfully damaged. Then

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-41240437862645124232011-07-15T20:50:00.000+01:002011-07-15T20:50:25.201+01:00

When Africa’s most famous shaman happens to be staying with a friend but a short bus ride away (which in London, is practically next door), it would seem churlish not to go and have a ‘personal divination’ session with him now, wouldn’t it? And so it was that I found myself nervously double-checking bus timetables early one May morning, in desperation not to be late for my 9am appointment with

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-60417479458459158402011-05-03T13:55:00.001+01:002011-05-03T16:26:41.474+01:00

One in four of us. That is the amount of people who will, according to mental health charities, suffer some kind of mental illness in the course of any given year. Considering the stigma which still surrounds such conditions, that is one heck of a lot of suffering, much of which, it has to be said, happens silently, in lives of, what Henry David Thoreau once described as, ‘quiet desperation’. Day

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-37696264713662837092011-03-21T20:54:00.002Z2011-03-21T20:58:44.278Z

In the ‘spiritual supermarket’ there is no end of people marketing their formula for lifelong happiness. Pure, unadulterated, permanent happiness can be yours. Oh yes. As long as you are willing to shell out for it. You can buy happiness from books and ‘transformational’ weekend workshops with eyebrow-raising price tags – sorry, I meant to say investments. Because, folks, you really are worth it.

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-60060352825340797632011-02-13T18:35:00.000Z2011-02-13T18:35:15.060Z

Valentine’s Day is a bit like Christmas, isn’t it? Great if you are with someone you love – but a bummer if you are lonely or in the midst of a relationship drama. There is the ideal of what this special day ‘should’ be like, and our many different realities of how it actually is. (Being alone doesn't necessarily mean lonely by the way; many people are lonely within their relationships.) I am

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-79970015365971093392011-01-20T11:07:00.000Z2011-01-27T09:31:32.214Z

Here’s a recent email from a subscriber: Dear Abi, I have loved reading your articles and personal story and feel a lot of overlap between our experiences of life and spirituality. This ‘timeless’ space that you talk about feels like an absolutely core element of my spiritual journey, which I have touched upon at times. However, I would like to open the door wider and access this space

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-75522845585431660572010-10-07T11:21:00.000+01:002010-10-07T11:26:45.262+01:00

I’ve discovered something recently about my body – my female body – that I really, really wish my mother had told me about; around the time when I got the ‘birds and the bees’ talk would have been good. Except the subject has been so taboo for so many years, she didn’t know. When I did discover it, the first thing I said to myself was: ‘This is fantastic. Why the hell did no-one tell me about it

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-34995376773512367692010-07-06T10:57:00.000+01:002010-07-06T11:00:06.357+01:00

This week, I lucked out. I was treated to an ‘ayurvedic’ foot spa and facial in Yogoloji, a bijou little complementary health centre in Belgravia (www.yogoloji.co.uk). It was the acupressure facial massage, complete with a divinely scented massage oil of rose geranium, basil and jasmine essential oils that really hit the spot. Being left with fragrantly soft, glowing skin was merely an added

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-65178061357819886732010-06-16T14:41:00.000+01:002010-06-16T14:49:16.997+01:00

I currently have the good fortune to be editing a rather fabulous book by JC Mac, a leadership development coach at the top of his game, who works with blue chip company executives. But that isn’t what his book is about. It’s about how he underwent a spiritual meltdown back in 2005 that left him in a state of profound bliss – for about nine months – to the point where he could barely walk, eat or

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3502336424230062418.post-32075734723557773432010-05-05T13:51:00.000+01:002010-05-05T14:07:11.582+01:00

Putting this blog site together, I have noticed that the word ‘spiritual’ has been bandied about a little too often for my liking. It’s the implications of it that bother me. It can be seen as something lofty, pious or being ‘holier than thou’. It can sound like it is a little too special, or worse; wafty, flaky nonsense.It took me a long time to get my blog site together. After a while, I

Helena Fosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02177110546323031300noreply@blogger.com0