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Well half term is over, feels like the week has been far too short and not sure Im ready to be going back to work. Potentially a difficult week this week, will be trying to keep on top of it.

Today has been nice, shopping followed by an evenings entertainment from Peterson Toscano. Laughter is great therapy!!! Saw him at greenbelt last year in a large venue, very different tonight, a small hall and only about 40 people in the audience. He is still as funny and as thought provoking as he was last time I saw him.

Will definately be seeing him at Greenbelt this year if I get the chance.

Sandee

its finally half term. have my class's reports to write and other bits and pieces to do but am so glad to be having a break.
been struggling a lot with different things the last little while.
not sure how long. not sure about time.
so am looking forward to a break, some time to relax i hope.
the last half term of the year is always hectic! sports days and open evenings and a show to perform. nonstop.
feeling pretty numb and switched off, guess maybe its from being so tired. emotionally and physically exhausted.
need some time out

I was shocked to realise that I haven't blogged yet this year! Partly because there has been lots of other activity like the forum, which is a great reason to be too busy! But suggests I need to have a quiet moment to be still and at peace.

Decided I needed to remind myself of the qualities of 'Shalom' - what I hope for everyone here- shalom doesn't just mean 'peace' in the sense of silence or absence of conflict; it also means peace in the sense of wholeness, well-being and community.

My enduring aspiration is that S:Vox in all we do and in all we are, will be a place and people of shalom. To all those who are coming here new, as well as all us old timers, may your life be increasingly shalomful.

Of course I am as usual writing about what I most need to hear myself. Do you do that too?
For once I will listen so I'm now off to be at shalom with my family and bed!

Do post your thoughts about shalom and ideas about how we can all work towards shalomfulness

shalom to all,
Jane

Did anyone else hear the programme on Radio 4 tonight about some of the latest research in neuroscience? It was looking particularly at what our new technologies that help us to 'see' the brain - e.g. MRI and PET scans - tell us about mental health, e.g. schizophrenia and depression.

I can't pretend I retained or even understood it all, but some revelations stood out.

For example, when you look at the brains of people who hear voices, you can see activity in the area that is normally active when we are speaking; AND in the area that is normally active when we are listening (to external sounds). So here is physical evidence that the brain really has got speech going on inside it, which is being 'heard' as though outside. A real validation for someone who might be dismissed as 'making it up'

They also talked about the discovery that there are similarities in the brain activity of people experiencing depression; but there are also noticeable differences. So not all treatments will suit all depression - and it should become easier to find appropriate individual treatment (instead of just bunging everyone on prozac!)

At a training event on Trauma which also featured brain scans, we learnt there is evidence that it is trauma itself that can cause some of these brain 'abnormalities' - if I understood right, it's about sort of short-circuiting some of the pathways within the brain, and this is why we experience triggers and flashbacks.

The best bit was there is also evidence (before & after scans) that 'talking therapies' and other healing treatments can re-wire the brain and create new, healthy pathways.

So it seems the brain isn't just dying from the age of 21 or thereabouts (as my son keeps gleefully reminding me)but is am amazing, beautiful, complex, self-healing, transforming organism that is evolving.

If I have made any errors or missed out other stuff which you know about, please do enlighten me further. This is just so fascinating and also so hopeful. With the right support, my damaged parts can change/ heal.

Inspired by recent forum postings, I thought I'd start a new page about healing...

I guess that the fact that we've all found our way here somehow and are reaching out to each other, means that we are in or just entering the season of healing.

As we enter Autumn, this seems an appropriate idea to explore. I love Autumn! The warm, rusty palette of leaves, snuggling up in woolly coat and red scarf, sweet smell of blackberry jam cooking, stoking up the stove, birds gathering to set off for winter holidays, harvest supper in the village hall with Pam's apple pie...(okay I'm lucky to live in the country!)

So if this is the season of healing, what are the signs and characteristics of the healing season?

A question to ponder...do post your ideas here..

Channel 4 are currently running a 4 part series where parents of newborns undergo an experiment, testing the various 'parenting styles' - from strict routine based approaches to constant body contact 'attachment parenting' stlyes.

The first episode this Tuesday left me reeling. A so called 'baby guru' who charges £1000 (yes that is a thousand) per day, subjected new parents and one day old babies to her formula for training babies to sleep through the night. This included no cuddling in between strictly timed feeds, no eye contact during feeds, leaving the baby in a pram in the garden for 3 hour stretches during the day between each feed and parking the baby in its cot for 12 hours between 7pm and 7am and not opening the door, regardless of how much the baby is crying.

The image of this vulnerable new human (who 24 hours previously had been enjoying constant warmth and contact inside its mother) alone and crying in its cot for 12 hours, haunted me the next day. I have no doubt that I was witnessing a form of child abuse on my screen, thanks to Channel 4. The ethics of this programme, let alone these draconian and outdated methods of parenting are so highly questionable that several people on Mumsnet (www.mumsnet.co.uk) have already said they have reported the programme to the NSPCC and Ofcom. An online petition has also been created at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/parentingshows

The impact of such parenting techniques is now well known - without touch, responsiveness and an adult to help regulate their internal states, babies brains do not develop normally. The result (many years on) is often severe depression, anxiety disorders, problems forming close relationships and other serious mental ill health in adulthood. For an excellent and accessible book on this read "Why Love Matters" by Sue Gerhardt.

Becoming a parent is an amazing and vulnerable time in ones life - parents need support and love to help them nurture little humans into the fulness of their being. They do not need books, people and programmes that advocate an ultimately selfish and brutal approach that seeks to limit the 'inconvenience' of baby's presence at great cost to their emerging sense of self. Many people who suffered a range of abuse in childhood will often say that the emotional element of the abuse was the hardest. The emotional neglect and abandonment of a baby - leaving it to 'cry itself out' for long stretches of time - is a deep abuse carried out on the most vulnerable, pre-verbal members of our society. Clearly it is an abuse that is still so acceptable that Channel 4 feel able to film it and broadcast it on our screens with impunity.

Just wanted to say a big thank you and well done to all of you who went to Greenbelt this year and participated in the S:VOX programme. Whether you facilitated a group, ran the workshop or went to either (and even said nothing!)the feedback recieved has been very positive.

At the Greenbelt workshop this year we are collecting ideas to complete the phrase Heaven is...

See what we have already collected and please add your comments here

Preparing for the S:VOX programme at Greenbelt, I am feeling a bit frantic and whirlish as there always seems to be lots of things to organise at the last minute!

Thankfully I have some good conversations with other team members and these help me to start to ponder on our theme for the festival: 'Heaven in the ordinary.'

Heaven for me is like a lighthouse calling into the dark, painful, sad and lost places in my life. Reaching heaven means taking small steps that support others and my healing and well-being.

Small steps like stopping for breath, sitting down and having a cup of tea! Walking by the beach and remembering to look up and enjoy the stretching horizon. Phoning a friend for no particular purpose but to connect. Getting a cuddle from a child. Planting seeds in the garden and picking beans and sorrel. Curling up with a good book. Playing music and singing. Kicking leaves in the Autumn. Sending a card that says, I am thinking about you. Making someone a present.

What are your small steps? Do post on the forum.

In our Greenbelt workshop we are going to give out stickers - these used to be a craze as bumper stickers when I was a teenager - Heaven is...

I've made a new Heaven is... page - do post your ideas there and we will also collect suggestions at Greenbelt and add them too.

Whatever your idea of heaven, or a place of well-being, I hope you find it in the ordinariness of life each day.

Yesterday we had our planning meeting for the East Anglian S:VOX group and I got very excited (perhaps a little over excited!) by all the possibilities and the sheer joy and amazement that all this really is happening. We had two new people come to their first meeting and a lovely core group who are creating sepcial plans for our big Spring Event in February (see events pages.)

We talked and shared and laughed and debated and rushed and ate and pondered and planned lovely things like dressing up and drama and creative wrtiting and relaxation workshops. Now all we need is lots of people to come so please spread the word!

Last week I participated in a profoundly deep training weekend on trauma, abuse and dissociation run by Wellspring for TAG - Trauma and Abuse Group. It was so affirming to be with lots of people - counsellors, carers and some survivors -who are dedicating big chunks of their lives to healing for people who have experienced traus or abuse. I gained lots of ideas, more of these in future posts. Most exciting was sharing the dream for a special healing centre with someone who has already seriously explored venues, funding etc. and realising it all becomes possible if you make links with the right partners.

Setting up S:VOX has often seemed like chasing dreams and now I feel I am catching some of mine - what a joy and privilege! What are your dreams for your life, S:VOX, the world?