Chesed, the beautiful but untranslatable Hebrew word

I was reading a beautiful essay by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, in which he defines the Hebrew word "chesed" as combination of love, kindness, faithfulness and compassion. What we are in the end, what our life ultimately amounts to, he reminds us, is the love and kindness we give. We exist to inspire and encourage each other to practice such chesed in our homes and out in the wider community. Theologies may influence our values, but what comes first is the truth that where there is no chesed the presence of God has been forgotten or neglected.

Even for those who don't believe in God, the concept of chesed and its practice gives pause for thought. Where is chesed amidst so much suffering that we see in the world? How absent it often seems, far from the scenes of unjust misery and suffering. If we understand that the nature of existence is a oneness within all consciousness and all being, this must never be turned into a pious excuse for avoiding the reality of suffering. Our awareness of the oneness, and the importance of what Rabbi W defines as chesed, can help us to find a healing perspective that is of use in the world.

Sometimes in life, things that are really quite sad don't appear to be so at first glance. This morning I was reading the Guardian and came across this article about the mayor of Belfast vaulting over a giant human tomato and I'm still laughing! The poor woman sustained a slipped disc when he slipped on wet grass and kneed her in the back of the head. This marvelous photo was taken the instant before it happened.

Isn't laughter wonderful? Embarrassing too in this instance, as a back injury is no laughing matter. The worse I felt about laughing at someone else's misfortune, the more I laughed. I couldn't stop for long enough to explain to my husband what I was laughing about and just had to hand over the paper to him so that he could read it for himself.

It is said that laughter is the best medicine. If that is the case, Nick and I shall be very healthy for a long time to come.

Talking of laughter, I shall be running a workshop called "Heal Your Soul With Happiness" on 7th November at The Soul Therapy Centre. I promise that we won't be laughing at the misfortunes of others on that occasion, but we will be laughing a lot. Do come and join us and have fun whilst we discover the keys to huge amounts of joy! I learnt how to teach the art of happiness from Robert Holden of the Happiness Project and Patch Adams of the Gesundheit! Institute.

The Keys to Love and Happiness

Traditional psychotherapy really can be harmful. People learn to reflect on the history of their lives but psychoanalytic psychotherapy usually screws them right back into the negative aspects of their past. Recently I treated a lovely, talented client who had been in traditional therapy for a long time, with a procession of different therapists. She thought she was not able to connect with an open heart with her partner and children because she had learned as a child to protect her vulnerable heart. I simply created a safe space for her and lead her into a soul journey type of visualisation in which I simply asked her to imagine her heart opening slowly and to its full extent, and to tell me how it felt. She said it felt amazing. I was then able to challenge her erroneous idea that she couldn't open her heart, and offered her the idea that this was in her control, she was not a victim of some supposed psychopathology, as she had just decided to do it. She held the keys to happiness and love in her own hand.

Later, her partner phoned to thank me for "a miracle", as my client was transformed, happy, relaxed and loving. It was no miracle, just righting a therapeutic wrong as far as I was concerned.

Montevetro, Geese and Educational Assessments.

This evening Nick and I visited a friend who has just moved in to Montevetro, the apartment building on the Thames at Battersea designed by Richard Rogers. What a beautiful place, spacious and airy with a great view of the River. She has two cats and they are still finding their paws in the new place, but they are as pleased as our friend is with the gorgeously light spaces. Only problem is they are tormented by the Canada geese who waddle past and jeer at them in the mornings. She gave me a present of a beautiful jacket, black silk with gold embroidery, which had belonged to her mother. I am absolutely delighted with such a lovely and unexpected gift.

I am gradually getting through my backlog of reports that I have to write: Two educational assessments and one feedback on one of my students written assignments. The difference is striking and reminds me of how radically my work has changed now from when I worked for the Inner London Education Authority as a Consultant Educational Psychologist. It is good to do assessments with adults as well as children these days, it reminds me of the old times when life was certain and only based in the physical world. Now, running the Soul Therapy Centre, my work takes in the magical world of spiritual healing and subtle energy techniques that are so fundamental to health and wellbeing.

Bruce Lipton and Epigenetics.

I have spent today at an inspiring seminar given by Prof. Bruce Lipton on "The Biology of Belief." He, along with my friend Marilyn Monk of the Scientific and Medical Network, is one of the pioneers of Epigenetics, an important branch of the New Biology which proves that we are not governed by our Genes nor by our DNA. He demonstrates that it is our deeply programmed beliefs, the patterns of thought energy absorbed by us from conception, through birth, to around six years old, that inform and shape our lives. Our subconscious mind, which accounts for 95% of all our thought activity, determines how we create our physical realities. DNA and genes serve simply as blueprints to create the protein strings that are essential for health. Thought energy provides the biochemical signals that key into the receptors present within all cell membranes, which in turn interact with other areas on the cell membranes called effectors. These then open to allow further signals into the body of the cells to effect creation and behaviour of the protein strings, and also to affect the state of the nucleus. Our conscious mind occupies only up to 5% of all thought activity.

It is the environmental energy in which the cell exists that determines the health of the cell. Perception governs biology.

Last weekend Nick and I drove over to Burwell, a little village just outside of Cambridge, to attend a workshop given by Debbie Rye, a gifted dowser and holistic therapist. She taught us how to use dowsing charts to detect and assess Geopsychic and Geopathic Stress. Fascinating. These subtle energies significantly influence the health and wellbeing of the occupants of a house and, by clearing any negative patterns, the dwellers are enabled if at all possible to return to or to maintain good health. I thoroughly recommend everyone interested in this subject to attend the next time she runs this.

This last Thursday, I was visiting some clients, an investment bank in town, and was pleasantly surprised at how much faster I could clear negative areas in their suite of offices with the help of my pendulum.

Awareness of epigenetics and how to clear negative environmental energy leads me to realise that this is surely the medicine of the future. Although there is an important case to be made for the existence of some medical drugs, it is interesting to learn that the placebo effect (ie: the thought that something will do you good) or the nocebo effect (the thought that something will do you harm) can be potent and affect changes without the need for pharmaceutical medication. It is interesting that Prozac manufacturers have found that a sugar pill placebo has 78% level of success as the real drug. It is also interesting that an adopted child of a family will be likely to develop the same diseases usually regarded as hereditary, thus demonstrating the nocebo effect - ie: that learnt negative thought patterns produce the same negative or disease conditions. Even worse, according to Prof Lipton: apparently pharmaceutical companies screen out those subjects most susceptible to the placebo effects so that they don't interfere with their new drugs research results!