Costa Women Blogs

This is not a post about world peace. It’s just about peace between you and whomever you do not have peace with. A friend, a spouse, a child, a parent, a neighbour, a colleague. You may be right or the other person may be right in whatever it is that is causing strife between you two, but as long as there is no focus on the real issue which is peace, nothing will change between the two of you and a lack of peace will continue to reign. In my article Giving Up the Need to Be Right, I wrote:  “Imagine you are the parent of a teenager who is pushing your buttons. Clearly, you have toshow your child how wrong he/she is and how right you are; clearly you have toshow your child – if necessary by anger – that he/she must change because they are wrong and you are right … or do you? What would happen if you let go of the need to be right, and you kept your eyeinstead on the love between the two of you? Keeping your eyes on the loveinstead of on the need to be right will promote the health of the relationshipmuch more than proving you are right would, but much more than that, by keepingyour eye on the love (even if it’s the partially buried love, or the forgottenlove, or hidden love), you will be showing your child so many things.” Keeping your eyes on the love (in the case of a person who is close to you, or keeping your eyes on peace in the case of someone who is less close to you, is fundamentally important if you want peace to begin. Your ego (and the other party’s ego) is not what is important, but rather, you could choose to focus on love and/or peace. And today I ran across an old quote from Mother Teresa that seems so appropriate: Peace begins with a smile.   Are you smiling today?   For much more about the ego, peace, as well as becoming aware of your inner self, and of transforming the way you look at and live your life, have a look at my book Rewiring the Soul: Finding the Possible Self (paperback or Kindle). To download the first chapter, click here Reviews From the Back Cover: A revelation of insight into the foundations of human suffering & transcendence. It not only lays out essential steps for inner freedom & joy but illuminates the way to true human potential. Dr. Kortsch is a spiritual master for our time. Paul Rademacher, Executive Director, The Monroe Institute; author: A Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe “The masterwork of a profoundly gifted healer of the soul. Dazzling, challenging, wondrously useful.” Peggy Rubin, Director, Center for Sacred Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; author: To Be and How To Be, Transforming Your Life Through Sacred Theatre “The instruction manual on rewiring the soul. An in-depth guide on life, love, spiritual evolution & our integration within the universe.” Michael Habernig & April Hannah; Producers: The Path- The Afterlife & The Path 11 Documentaries “Rewiring the Soul is one the best introductions to the spiritual life I’ve ever read. Not esoteric but real-world & practical. The implications are profound.” Peter Shepherd; Founder Trans4mind.com; author: Daring To Be Yourself “The human being’s directory to the soul. A breakthrough for those seeking practical assistance, those of a more mystical bent & every soul awaiting discovery.” Toni Petrinovich, Ph.D.; author: The Call: Awakening the Angelic Human

I’ve been a Costa Women member for nearly a year now without having written a thing. That’s pretty disgraceful for someone who writes for a living. But maybe understandable? In my defence, anything digital gives me ‘cybertrauma’ (I just went to Preview this post and it vanished. Luckily I copied it first – I know what I’m like!) So with no tech savvy and no kids either, it seems a little foolish to have just ‘given birth’ to a website. Sorry, all you Mums, if it’s nothing like childbirth at all (but how would I know?) and the analogy seems to fit. My website needs feeding (with posts) and gets me up at 5am (with ideas) and I’m beginning to feel like a nursing mother with post-natal depression. Every time I pass the PC I know it’s there, this new entity in my life, waiting for me to give it some love. Maybe if I turn the computer off it will stop demanding more posts and simply fade into cyberspace …So I’m in a very strange place at the moment. Which brings me to the reason for this post.  Last year, I moved from funky Fuengirola (which I still occasionally visit) to a very strange place indeed: Los Barrios, near Gibraltar (handy for Marmite). Yep, I knew you’d never heard of it. Two of its claims to fame are a roundabout (pictured) shaped like a birthday cake (with candles) and the ugliest beach in the world (with chimneys). But that’s what makes it special.  So I wondered, are there any of you Costa Women out there who have ever visited Los Barrios (doubtful) and would like to send me a  sentence or two on your first impressions? With a plug for your business or blog, of course! You can be as insulting/funny as you like! I thought it would make a ‘fun’ post. The baby needs feeding again and, by the way, it’s definitely a girl! To get you started, you can read some of my own first impressions of Los Barrios here.

What do you fear more than anything? What do those dreams that jolt you back into consciousness consist of? Is it losing a child? Is it being alone? Is it not having enough money? Is it not being ‘anybody’? Is it being ill and not having anyone to care for you? Is it growing old? Is it not knowing which decision to take at a crucial time of your life? Whatever it is, consider this: your thoughts are what churn the fear into activity. Hence your thoughts in some fashion create the fear. Think for a moment of one of your fears. Now think another thought about that same fear where you project yourself into a future where that fear has become a reality. Now imagine how it would be for you in that hypothetical future. You can see that each thought adds weight and pressure and stress to the thought that came before and the one before that. But now imagine you have the same first thought you did above about one of your fears. And you decide – from a very aware and conscious position – to refuse to give more attention to that particular thought. You might tell it something like: I know I haven’t solved you yet. I know that somewhere inside of me you continue to live, because you ‘pop’ into my head often. But just for now, just for today, instead of thinking more about you, I’m going to focus on something different. And then you could focus on beauty or gratitude (you might focus on beauty and gratitude (see the many articles about these subjects on my blog) or do a mindfulness walk or use any other healthy technique to help you shift to another energetic state. It was Dale Carnegie who said: You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind. Image: Grotta del Bue Marino, Filicudi Island, Italy For much more about shifting from fear and how to consciously choose your thoughts and feelings, hence taking charge of them, and about becoming aware of the choices you have at all times in order to transform your life, have a look at my book Rewiring the Soul: Finding the Possible Self (paperback or Kindle). To download the first chapter, click here From the Description on Amazon: Ask anyone, whatever their circumstances, if their life is vibrant, fulfilling, harmonious and happy. An honest reply is likely to be ‘no’, because to answer a truthful ‘yes’ is no mean feat. Only to grow psychologically and emotionally is not enough. And only to grow spiritually is not enough either. All three dimensions need to be developed in order to realize your full potential. If you are willing to assume total responsibility for the self and to start what is an on-going journey, you will quickly begin to glimpse the first fruits of the ultimate goal: inner well-being, freedom, peace, harmony and joy. This book sets out the pathway to self-mastery and self-discovery and walking that pathway will be the most exciting adventure of your life.

My name is Ali Meehan and I’m an expat-aholic. Over the last 15 years I have lived in Australia, Spain, Dubai, Thailand and back to Spain, which is now where I call “home”. My expat story really started with photos, memories and friends sharing my parents’ life in Libya during the 1950s. Exotic lands and my cousins’ move to Australia gave me a bug for travel that has been hard to quash. My own expat journey started by taking 4 months out in my 30s, gathering my backpack and travelling to Adelaide to visit my family. Work permit gained, I was offered a job in a Sydney Law firm, but sadly, due to family illness, this wasn’t yet to be “my time”. However, when I returned to the UK and worked for an international glass wholesaler my travelling continued! During early 2002, I met my now husband who was living and working in Spain. This wasn’t somewhere I had ever imagined living, but as I was working “virtually” from home, it wasn’t too hard to up sticks and move to Spain. Since moving here in 2002, we have used Spain as a base and lived for nearly 5 years in Dubai and spent 8 months in Thailand. Dubai was a very different experience and although I had been travelling there since 2000, it is very much a metropolis with a work hard culture. We had very little time to socialise and make new friends, but this was the beginning of my introduction to expat communities. Thailand, the land of smiles, where we learnt there are 13 types of smiles with completely different meanings, provided another expat adventure! Travelling extensively has made me realize that Spain is one of the best places to live in the world. The transport connections are excellent, the customs and culture, family orientated nature of the country, affordable and relax lifestyle all make it a fabulous place to live. With the advent of the Internet we can stay more connected with our families and friends in our home countries and feel less ‘alienated’. Expats find it easier to move or travel thanks to the plethora of Internet tools available. The Internet and social media are the new ‘glue’ of the expat community. For my own small part in that I formed Costa Women in 2010 based on similar models I had seen in Dubai and Thailand. In September, 1020+ Women will celebrate the 2nd anniversary. This social and business networking group connects the expat community of Women living in Spain, or wanting to move here by happy accident or as part of their life plans. Costa Women connects the expat world of Spain through an online platform of connections, stories, shared experiences and new ideas, friendships and advice, as well as planning and encouraging local meet-ups. Currently we have organised meet-ups in Malaga, Calahonda, Marbella and Granada, as well as Women making friends online through nearly 60+ interest groups, discussions, classifieds, online chat, blogs and business listings. Membership of Costa Women is free so how about joining us? To find out more, you can register on the Costa Women website, interact onFacebook, and connect through Twitter. You can also share your thoughts on LinkedIn, pin with us on Pinterest, and find us on Google Plus. Published by The Expat Hub: http://www.theexpathub.com/spain-is-one-of-the-best-places-to-live-in-the-world/33/

Nausea, hot flashes, night sweats reduced One in every eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in her life – more than 48,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2009. It has become the most common cancer in the UK, and is the leading cause of death for women aged 34 to 54. As unpleasant as it is to think of it, it is crucial to take the steps to allow early detection and adopt lifestyle habits that can prevent it from developing.For those of us who will unfortunately develop the disease and have medical treatment, there there are therapies that may help alleviate some of the side effects and boost your immune system.  Among those is acupuncture, for which the American Cancer Society considers there is enough scientific evidence to include acupuncture as a complementary method for relieving symptoms related to cancer.Several randomized clinical trials have shown that acupuncture had positive affects on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and clinical studies have shown significant reductions in hot flashes through acupuncture.Additional studies suggested that acupuncture may help relieve mouth dryness (xerostomia) in patients whose salivary glands were damaged as a side effect of radiation therapy.The degree of results from acupuncture is dependent on symptoms, clinical staging, timing of the encounter in the course of the illness, and areas of involvement. However, to answer the overall question, “Can acupuncture help with the side effects of breast cancer treatment?”. “In all probability, yes” says Dr. Emran Imami, FACS, medical director for TEPAS Breast Center. Acupuncture can help ease the side effects in the care of cancer patients.

New post at the BWN blog .What Makes Spain Tick: Diversity