Costa Women Blogs

With summer coming to an end many people are driving long distances as they go from summer locations to home, school and work. And long distance driving often results in back pain. Are you sitting comfortably? The seats themselves don’t always help – lowered, tipped back seats make the legs too straight, placing strain on the hamstrings, pelvis and lower back. The neck then tilts forward to look “straight ahead”. A recent survey found that male drivers tend to sit with legs fully extended placing strain on the back muscles while women tend to sit too close to the wheel, tightening shoulder muscles. 10 top tips for staying comfortable while driving: Are you straight? With your hands in prayer position they should be in the centre of the steering wheel.  Now place both hands on the steering wheel at “10” and “2” – you should see equal amounts of both legs.  Enough head room? You should be able to comfortably place a fist on top of your head Check your right leg After driving for a short while put your hands on the steering wheel and look down again.  Is your right leg level with your left? Check your wallet If you carry your wallet or phone in a back pocket this changes the position of your hips, twisting the spine – put them somewhere else while driving! Check your left leg Do you float your left leg above the pedal?  This can cause muscle fatigue in the leg as well as strain in your ankles. How’s your seat? Get a small cushion or rolled up towel and apply gentle pressure at waist height to support the curve of your lower back. Your elbows should be gently bent with hands on the steering wheel and your back and thighs entirely against the seat. Relax Getting stressed increases muscle tension. Every time you stop for a traffic light inhale for a count of 3 and lift your shoulders high, then exhale for a count of 3 and drop them down.  Cool down Apply an ice pack for 10 minutes after a long journey or a cooling gel before to the lower back to help relieve pain and inflammation. Length matters! None of the above will have much impact on short trips – but staying in 1 position for longer than about 40 minutes will get uncomfortable! By improving the position you sit in you simply lengthen the time before you have to move. Take breaks every 60 minutes and ignore the rest! On long journeys try and stop every 1 or 2 hours and walk for 5-10 minutes. Jump around, bend, twist and move every way you can think of! And my final thought, if you are in pain – don’t panic! Your back is complaining because you asked it do a hard thing, give it a chance to relax (perched on a bar stool is usually best, beer optional!). If it doesn’t ease in 48 hours, get some professional help.   For more information on relieving back pain and sciatica check out our website www.TheBodyworksClinic.com, our Facebook page “Bodyworks Health Clinic” or call us on 952 883 151

On leaving Harrow College of Art, Julie McSorley worked as a freelance illustrator for several Fleet Street publications. She has lectured on numerous university art programs, and her research in art education includes a Ph.D.  A children’s book Julie illustrated for Angus & Robertson was shortlisted in the Book Of The Year Awards by the Book Council Of Australia. Julie has also authored a successful true crime story, Out Of The Box. The book has received widespread publicity, and has been tipped for the big screen by the Sydney Morning Herald.  Ali talks to Julie about her second novel – She – which was co-written with her son, Marcus.   Hello Julie, how did you end up living in Spain? We relocated from the UK to Australia in 1988. After twenty-two glorious years of living and working in Queensland we were missing Europe. On vacationing in Southern Spain we fell in love with the Mijas Costa, and by the end of the year we had sold our Aussie home and made the move.   How did you choose La Cala de Mijas to be your Spanish home, and why should we live there? While exploring possible places to settle we became smitten with La Cala de Mijas. We have lived here now for ten happy years, with no regrets. The town has everything we could want: A gorgeous beach and coastal boardwalk, fabulous restaurants and an authentic Spanish feel.   Before Spain you were… Life before Spain for me was rich and varied. I was born in Adelaide, South Australia. My early years were spent on a rural outback sheep station where my mother was a governess. From a huge corrugated shed she would broadcast lessons for the station kids (including me) on all the outlying properties. When she planned to remarry we took a six-week journey to England on a Dutch ship called the Patagonia. The year was 1956, and the Suez Canal Crisis made for a dramatic disembarkation in Aiden for this five-year old girl.   My new Father was a squadron commander in the Far East, and my early teens were spent in Singapore where I attended Changi Grammar School.  Following boarding school in The Lake District I enrolled at my first art college. This was the late sixties, such a great era to be young. By now I was in the thick of the new counter-culture; we thought we could change the world, and in many ways we did. I trained as an illustrator at Harrow College of Art, and over the next few years my drawings were regularly commissioned by several Fleet Street publications. Besides making art I had a yearning to teach it, and did my post grad year at the University of London.   While teaching, I landed the opportunity to illustrate a children’s book for the Australian publisher, Angus & Robertson, so timely as we were planning to relocate to Australia. The book was shortlisted by The Children’s Book Council of Australia. We arrived in Queensland at the end of 1988, and I was soon teaching and lecturing in art education. After completing a Masters degree at Queensland University of Technology I was awarded a full scholarship for my doctorate. By 2005 I had finished teaching, and we left beautiful Queensland at the end of 2009 to start our Spanish adventure!   And you have just published your second book – what can we expect to find between the pages of ‘She.’ ‘She’ is a crime-thriller, centering on the psyche of a woman with a mysterious past. A tragic accident triggers a chain of events affecting several people, particularly the young unsuspecting ex of the female protagonist, ‘She.’   The back-cover blurb gives a good synopsis:   A husband seeks atonement…   Will Havers knew nothing about his estranged wife before they married, or that she was having him tailed that fateful Saturday. He’s racked with guilt and his life is unravelling – a secretive ex wife who blames him for the death of their little son and his failing newspaper business. Now his mother is missing, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.   A wife seeks revenge…   Eve always suspected Will was having an affair with a girl from his office. Now she’s seen the investigator’s photos of them together minutes before the accident she’s hell-bent on revenge. It’s payback time – theft, poisoning, murder even – there’s no limits, when you have nothing to lose.   A private investigator seeks the truth…   Ageing sleuth, Jack Sykes, is convinced that Eve is behind the poisoning at Will’s office party, the disappearance of Will’s mother, and the suicide of a young local man. He visits a remote Devonshire village in search of the true identity of Eve Havers. But will he be in time to save Will?   What has been the most difficult part of the writing process? Any tips for Women who are thinking of writing a book? Every writer has a different way of working. Some prefer to start with an idea and let the story develop organically on the page. Others need to have a sense of the story arc, main scenes and the ending, before they commit one word. I am definitely the latter type. My main tip for any would-be author is to consider the ‘voice’ they will use to tell their story: first or third person, involved narrator or objective witness? In addition, it’s important to have a sense of the genre of the book and your intended audience before you start. Lastly, read, read, read. Good authors read widely.   You have written this book with your son – how did that work? We are often asked about the technical strategies of co-authoring. If you are working with someone you know well it’s a lot easier than one might think. Writing can be a lonely enterprise, and it’s good to share the journey. To begin with we brainstorm possible characters and their facets, and main scenes. Marcus lives in London, so Skype has been a godsend for our collaboration. When we’ve agreed upon the structure of the book we each do first drafts of alternate chapters, second drafts of each other’s chapters, then take it in turns to do a final edit. Once the book is with the publisher it is edited yet again; with such a big manuscript one always feels there’s more to do, but at some stage you have to be prepared to let it go.   Illustration – you have designed the cover of your book.  It has a distinct 1960’s Biba feel – is that something that reflects you?     I’m heartened that you connected with the sixties genre of the cover Ali, and of course that reflects my roots in illustration from that era. Book covers are very important; research has shown they play a big part in piquing the interest of potential readers. Modern covers are frequently photographic, and we reasoned that a hand-illustrated image would give our book a point of difference. As a young art student I loved the detailed artwork on the vinyl album covers of the sixties and seventies. Without giving away too many spoilers; the illustration for ‘She’ embodies the two sides of the female protagonist, and fans of the cover have reported they’ve enjoyed searching for symbols from the story intertwined in her hair.   Where did you get your inspiration for your protagonist (and why do they seek revenge?) Inspiration for a character rarely comes from one source. Rather, a fictional character tends to be a compilation of several real people. Of course we only know how these people react in situations we have observed, so the writer has to take a leap of faith to describe how they might deal with a variety of events that befall them. Revenge and payback are main themes of our story. How far might one woman go, and what could be the consequences?   It’s not your first book either that is creating a lot of interest – Out of the Box was your first ‘story’ but it has a more personal link. Tell us more! The ‘Out of the Box’ story was told over and again at the McSorley table for years before we came to write it.  In the early 60’s my husband, John McSorley, was the British Javelin Champion, and he met his Australian counterpart at the Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962. They kept in touch, and in 1964 the Aussie athlete, Reg Spiers, turned up on John’s doorstep in Twickenham. Reg had wanted to compete in the Olympics, but was throwing below par due to an arm injury. Now he was desperate to get home, but had no money for the air ticket. The young friends formed an audacious plan: John would build a man-sized box, deliver it to the airport with Reg inside, and post him back to Oz as airfreight. After sixty-three hours in transit, and the cargo-hold of a plane, Reg succeeded in his quest to fly home for free. His antics didn’t stop there, and neither did his life on the run with his girlfriend across three continents. To find out how it all ended one has to read the book.   Out of the Box has now been tipped for the Big Screen – how did that come about? When ‘Out of the Box’ was first published by a small press in the US it became obvious that we were going to have to find publicity for ourselves.  After a couple of months we were lucky enough to be offered an interview for John and Reg on the BBC Radio Outlook program. The interview was a great success, and paired with an online article. Now publicity for the book snowballed and we didn’t need to approach anyone, we were being contacted daily through our publisher and website by a variety of media organizations.  This included articles in major UK and international newspapers and magazines, a variety of radio interviews, and major TV reporting in Australia and New Zealand. The Sydney Morning Herald picked up the story and reviewed the book, concluding that ‘It is only a matter of time before the story finds its way onto the big screen.’ (Fiona Capp: 26.3.2015). Following this spate of media attention publishing rights were also sold to Hachette Australia.   They are making a film of your life, who would play you? I’d be honoured if Diane Keaton took the role!   Your table of 8 – who would you invite to dinner and what would you eat (fictional characters, people from history, media, friends and family etc.) My fantasy dinner table would be all female high achievers – I believe in the power of women to entertain and inspire. Of course I would have to invite Diane Keaton. Others actors I’d nominate for a seat at my table are Kate Winslett and Helen Mirren. Although I didn’t always agree with her politics, I admired the steely determination of Maggie Thatcher, and an evening with her would be fascinating. I would seat her beside the late, great Australian artist, Margaret Olley. The sportswoman of my choice is Paula Radcliffe; marathon running takes serious dedication and guts, and Paula is one of the finest. Lastly, I would invite the French fashion designer Coco Chanel, who changed the face of women’s clothing and inspired so many designers that followed. I think we’d be in for a good night!   Something you WILL achieve this year? I’d like to make real inroads into my third book. This will be another true story: a historical memoir about my Great, Great Grandmother. I have a number of her letters detailing her extraordinary life in the 1800’s as the daughter of one of South Australia’s first pastoral pioneers: Charles Thomas Hewett.   What book is beside your bed and why are you reading / enjoying it? I’m currently rereading one of my all time favourites. Great books can be read over and again, and this one is no exception. If you like poignant true stories I recommend ‘Into The Wild,’ by Jon Krakauer.   Where can we find out more about ‘Out of the Box’ and ‘She’ (website, amazon, social media etc). Twitter – @autoteller Instagram – @thissixtieslife Outoftheboxstory.com juliemcsorley.com marcusmcsorley.com amazon.com/author/juliemcsorley   Thank you Julie!     

Flying can be a considerable worry for people with respiratory problems. Whilst mobility issues can be dealt with fairly easily through the pre-ordering of a cart/wheelchair at the airport, the question of oxygen requirements during a flight can be trickier to address.  Normally we breathe 21% oxygen from the air, however this decreases at higher altitudes. In an aeroplane the air is pressurised to ensure we have enough oxygen, however above 8000 feet the amount of oxygen falls to around 15%. Whilst for most people this is perfectly adequate to enable us to breathe comfortably those with an underlying respiratory disease such as emphysema or Lung Fibrosis, may find they require additional oxygen.  The most accurate way to determine oxygen requirements during a flight is a hypoxic altitude test where the individual breathes 15% oxygen for 20 minutes and oxygen levels are monitored. However, these tests are not readily available in the community or GP setting. Another reliable and much simpler method is to ask the individual to perform a timed walking test (usually 6 minutes) whilst monitoring oxygen levels with a non-invasive clip called a pulse oximeter. The level of desaturation (or fall in oxygen blood levels) will tell the physiotherapist whether oxygen should be worn.  The person wanting to fly will then be issued with a Fitness to Fly certificate and instructions on how to obtain oxygen for the flight – if indeed it turns out they need it – as many people do not.  We provide this service at Atlantic Clinic Nueva Andalucia, so if in doubt about fitness to fly please call me to arrange a test for you. Don´t let your lung disease put you off having a good time! 

  As mass Human consciousness find themselves now naturally awakening, IAM inspired to re-publish the true Awakening stories of my Divine friends and I, written and published a few years back.   When you realise what the hell is going on… you can relax, observe and allow this natural transmutation of yourself and your life… and save yourself from entering the depths of Human despair and hopelessness. Each weekend IAM re-publishing each Awakening story with links at the bottom of the page to download our 3 part series of True Awakening Experiences, free e-books to enjoy some great Divine reading!   Introduction to Awakening Based on my own long Awakening Experience and the Awakening of my sacred friends, the teachings of Adamus from The Crimson Circle and the research of Heather Carlini in particular, I have written the following words in the hope that it helps you to understand what is happening now; allowing your fears and pains to come home to you peacefully and with acceptance and the conscious breath, realise your heart and soul’s desire.   One heart at a time, people are naturally Awakening after a long and hard Human experience. You are remembering that you are so much more than your physical Human body, mind and the five senses you use. You know that this Awakening is part of a natural cycle that at times you think you are going nowhere, even backwards but you trust the Divine part of you has everything perfectly worked out.   You are part of a grand natural Awakening of Humankind, part of an expanded cosmic happening. The integration of your Humanness and your Divineness, allowing the full blossoming and Enlightenment of you…  the DivineHumanBeing to come together and consciously live on Earth as a Sovereign and Magnificent Being; a Living Ascended Master and Creator.   Shutting down the contact with your soul to fully experience your Humanness You may remember a time in your childhood crying, feeling misunderstood and being alone in your bedroom and maybe at the same time seeing, hearing or feeling a presence, a light, an angelic song or a deep knowing that everything was just fine. At some stage during your childhood, like so many others, you chose to shut down the communication with your soul and spiritual essence to allow yourself freedom to fully experience your Humanness and the world of duality.    It was too early to come out and tell your parents and the world of your true and magical magnificence; they wouldn’t of understood back then… but you somehow found the courage to get on with your life, grow up and move away from the family home and begin your own life. Seeking your FREEDOM. Living and experiencing life, focusing on your work, children, relationship, hobby… Learning about LOVE and PAIN…   First Stage of Awakening… Your call to attention At the most perfect time, your soul creates the most perfect situation to get your human attention. Your children leave the family nest, your relationship becomes tiring, you feel agitated, empty and feel you are missing out on something. Other people’s drama and negative behaviour becomes too overwhelming for you, you feel trapped, you feel curious as to what else is out there, you have questions about life.    A book, a movie, a person suddenly catches your attention and uplifts you. You lose your career or someone close. You have a serious accident or a dis-ease of the body, mind & spirit.   Second Stage of Awakening… Dismantling your life Bit by bit your old life falls away, you lose your job, relationships, friends, family. Your old ways of thinking, believing and doing all come up to be questioned. Your fears come into question. You re-evaluate your whole life and what you all about. This stage can be quite traumatic if you don’t understand what is happening and only fight life instead of trusting yourself. Think of it as a test from your soul, to find out if you are ready to integrate your Humanness and Divineness now, here on EARTH. Bringing together you Body, Mind & Spirit. Allow yourself to resonate with this natural stage of your Awakening, consciously breathe, accept and flow with life. Trust it is all going to be OK, no matter what situation you gave yourself to experience.   Third Stage of Awakening… Glimpses of Clarity and releasing Human desperation You become interested in different things, nature, creative pursuits, beauty, yourself. You attract different friends, jobs and find a new way talking with your family. You start FEELING a deep love for yourself and life, you take time out for yourself, come up for yourself. You realise that what you have been searching for… LOVE, FREEDOM, JOY… is right there within YOU.  You connect with your sixth FEELING sense. An innate intuitive communication between your Divineness and Humanness. You see the fog lifting and allow yourself to connect with non-physical beings. Only then to become distracted from this new clarity about yourself, about life. Life throws at you worries about a project, fears of change, a body that doesn’t want to work, pain, having no money, having no friends, being alone.  It is essential that you understand that these are all your old doubts and aspects of your past, coming up and back home to you. All they want is to be accepted, loved and released. It is all part of the integration of ALL OF YOU.   Fourth Stage of Awakening… Quiet Time and Potentialising Consciously breathing in acceptance, of being in a place of fun, creativeness, laughter and joy in the present moment. Accepting your mind games and allowing yourself to go beyond the limited mind and physical dual world. Allowing the distractions and doubts that continue to come home to you, to integrate… becoming ONE WITH YOU. You know that you always have a choice… You trust your mind to give you all the answers you need. Trust your body to take care of itself. Trust your soul and spiritual essence to bring you fully into the integration of your DivineHuman Enlightenment or Ascension. You allow yourself to flow with New Energy Consciousness, living in a new and harmonious way… Your Way. Allowing yourself to bring your heart’s desire, dream and potential into the physical reality.   Trusting… Your physical Human body to take its own time to transform from Carbon Based to Crystalline Based You realise, after years of allowing and integrating the depth and magnitude of All of Yourself,  it takes your unique physical body/mind as long as it needs to physically transmute from the carbon based Human to the crystalline DivineHuman.   You learn the art of being present… patience, enjoying each moment experiencing the blossoming of your 6 senses and the release of all your old fears and yesterdays as they detox & transform. You realise the more you fall back ,into doubt and judgement your body/mind system plays up and lets you know!   You realise how your light codes naturally upgrade and if fear is present it will be confronted… feeling it in your physical body and causing uncomfortable moments.   AND then you remember to breathe in the fear, the uncomfortableness and trust this most natural process… knowing all is well and everything will pass… AND you find yourself living life as a celebration as Your Magnificent Self.   Affects and Changes of the Awakening Earth and the Human Being The Earth and Humankind are all part of a Natural Shift of Consciousness that is occurring now. Our solar system finds itself surrounded by a higher vibrational energy; a new energy that we have called forth in our declaration for no more fear, greed and power-mongering. It is an energy that resonates with LOVE. Love that Humans have learned to FEEL here on Earth. A love that creates DivineHumanBeings, allowing them to live in a peaceful and harmonious surrounding on Earth. This new energy, of intense light actually affects the magnetic make-up of our whole solar system. Creating intense magnetic storms on our sun, where strong solar flares reach the Earths orbit and interfere with the magnetics within the Earth and the Human Being.   The Human body contains millions of tiny magnetic particles that interconnect through Human antennas to the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling the Human to receive and transmit consciousness which influence the physical body and all its internal systems.   The interference of the magnetic field is causing a cleansing effect on Earth, physical shifting and shaking the earth and her inhabitants, creating unusual weather patterns and within the Human Being; cleansing people from all their fears and yesterdays. It is actually the most beautiful gift that we can receive.  Intense light to naturally awaken our consciousness, changing our DNA and crystalising our molecules. Our inner light, our being is being ignited anew, clearing our body of past debris, burning away everything that no longer serves us, leaving nothing but pure love and passion within each Human Being and the Earth.   During this shift in consciousness… our Awakening is affecting our mental, emotional and physical bodies, pulling us all ways and putting us through some uncomfortable and painful times. Not only are we integrating and releasing all our own past life patterns and karma that no longer serves us, but that of all our ancestors that have lived before us. Our Body Consciousness; Body, Mind and Spirit is finding a new balance.   It is most important neither to fight nor to give in, but to trust that everything is all so perfect. This is our journey that we have chosen to live now so lets enjoy the ride and allow our Embodied Ascension to happen quite naturally.   As I like to say, bring it on! IAM ready!   Awakening Symptoms Physical… Aches and pains in the joints, especially neck, shoulders and back, heat sensations beyond the menopause, feeling hot and cold, feeling dizzy and shaky, vertigo, ringing in the ears, nauseous, itchy skin, red patchy skin especially the face, exhaustion and feeling tired, waking up a lot, headaches and migraine, stomach aches and indigestion, no appetite, extremes of diarrhea and constipation, eating a lot, heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat Emotional… Crying, deep sadness, confused, nervousness, passionless Mental… Anxious, intense dreaming, loneliness, not thinking straight, losing words, depressed   My suggestions for more comfort Consciously breathing in the new energy, especially in painful areas, 10 mins. a day, healthy daily eating of protein, good fats, lots of fruit and veg,drink plenty of fresh water, moderate use of caffeine, coffee, tea and alcohol, positive and loving self talk, soaking the body in Epsom salts and lavender oil, walking in nature or some form of gentle exercise you enjoy 20 mins a day, sleep a lot… napping through the day if possible, trust yourself… even when doubt tries to creep into your mind   My Awakening Story… By Barbara Franken Divine and Human selves discovering one another!   It wasn’t a conscious decision that I made, to close down when I was about 7 years old, but my soul thought it an appropriate time to dive fully into my Human experience. I didn’t go quietly though, I cried every night for months, worrying everyone, as they didn’t understand what was happening and couldn’t comfort me, to tell me that everything was going to be OK… that I would awaken at an appropriate time if I chose too. My eyesight had began to deteriorate, I wasn’t able to see the black board at school so well anymore and had to wear horrible glasses. I experienced many sore throats, eventually having to leave my home and go into hospital to have my tonsils out. I remember these traumatic experiences so well.  Physically, Mentally and Emotionally I was a mess and not understanding the significance, took them all into my Human experience. I felt lost, abandoned and unimportant. I cried a lot to get attention from others. I became a rebellious teenager and acted without care and attention for myself, having now forgotten who I truly was and where I had come from.   Around the age of seventeen, I began to feel this drive to leave my home country, to leave all that I knew and go out and explore unknown territories, meet new people, experience different truths and to find out who I truly was. I arranged to work in a hotel in Switzerland from the age of 18. I packed all my possessions, said goodbye to my family and never looked back.   For a few years I moved around Europe, working and having fun with a variety of different people, eventually making my home in Amsterdam, Holland with my first husband, pets and working a nine to five job. I experienced a secure married life for about 4 years, but it wasn’t for me. I craved freedom to explore more of life. I eventually found the courage to leave (it was 1987/8, the Harmonic Convergence, a time that the Earth and her inhabitants were beginning to naturally awaken, remembering where they had come from). I wanted my ex-husband to be able to find someone who would give him a family he wanted and for me to continue my search for a freedom that I so longed for.   Looking back this was my soul’s way of calling me to attention, it was time to start opening my eyes to who I truly was. I had a good job at an International Company in Holland and enjoyed my working experience and living on my own. One of my neighbours was an older lady who took me under her wing and introduced me to the writings of Kristnamurti, very deep books that inspired me to ponder.   At my work a handsome gentleman had caught my eye, he had recently joined the company, working in the finance department. It didn’t take me too long to pluck up the courage to ask him if he wanted to take Ballroom and Latin dancing lessons with me. Tom said YES and we have never looked back on our relationship… this year, 2019 we celebrating 30 years together.   Funnily enough Tom had collected many books of Kristnamurti too, which we enjoyed reading together, having many in-depth discussions that went on into the early mornings, bonding us together deeply in ways I find hard to explain. During one of our first family birthday party’s I was given an English book, Out On A Limb by Shirley Maclaine. It literally blew my mind and world wide open and inspired me to explore deeper into myself and life and, as the saying goes, when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Peter, my spiritual teacher appeared and for the next 5 years I chose to let him help me explore the depths of myself… after all Kristnamurti had said You are the World.   I learned how to feel with my heart, feeling into each moment what I liked and what was good for me; instead of relying on what other people thought was good for me and expected of me. My self-awareness expanded, I got to know myself, you could say I fell in love with myself, I trusted myself and I became important, extraordinary and magnificent.   A new world was opening up for me and slowly but surely my old life… feelings, beliefs, relationships with family and friends fell away and I began to see things in a whole different light. I was not only feeling and sensing… what was important for me to experience, but I understood that I was part of something much bigger. I understood that there was truly no separation from what was out there and within me. My outer world mirrored my inner world and this helped me make sense of myself. I became deeply excited about exploring a newfound multi-dimensional world that I was a part of. I discovered I was so much more than my physical Human body and mind… I had a soul and spiritual essence that was part of me and connected to ALL… Source… Love. IAM everything, IAM my unique magnificent self… IAM YOU and YOU ARE ME. We are all just separate in different bodies for a while enjoying unique and individual Human experiences.   I began to enjoy walking in nature, feeling and seeing the beauty around me. I connected with it all. I began to paint and write. I changed my work and found different friends with whom I could discuss my new found awareness. I could no longer just talk about the weather, the mundane reality and drama that continued to happen in peoples life’s.  I became less materialistic and more focused on expanding into a world beyond our known physical reality… to SOURCE itself. I no longer had a need to search for more… as it was ALL right here in the now moment, within me. I was consciously breathing, living and allowing life to unfold naturally, even the unpleasant things in life. I was understanding everything is all part and parcel of my experience, showing me, teaching me to accept ALL, and allowing all my traumatised, unloved and frightened parts of me to come back home to me and integrate as one.   We arranged for Tom to retire early and we made our move to live in Southern Spain. We wanted to leave the dreary weather and hectic life in Holland and settle into a quieter and warmer climate to experience peace, fun and find out what we were truly passionate about and enjoyed.  The quietness enabled me to go deeper into myself and allowed me to connect with 9 New Elemental Beings. All aspects of myself that shared wise insights over 7 years, to help me integrate, expand my Body Consciousness (Mind, Body and Spirit) and bring in New Potential to be able to live a life of celebration as my Magnificent Self.   It wasn’t all quietness though, in fact we both experienced a lot of distraction and confrontation with people and situations around us; giving us another opportunity to face our fears and traumas that had been waiting patiently for release. It was time for everything that no longer served me to come up, be noticed, accepted and released. I was again moving into a new space that I liked and resonated with and had friends and family around me that I could relax and enjoy fun and laughter with.   My Body Consciousness was coming into a new balance as I allowed myself to live my passion and create my dream; exploring new horizons in the New Energy Consciousness. I felt lighter and wiser, loving and trusting myself completely. Of course I still experienced distraction and doubts came up, but were no longer so loud or big. I took myself out into nature and breathed, consciously breathing, looking at my doubts; knowing they were all parts of myself, coming home to be welcomed, loved and to be one with ALL of me.   I live gracefully and at ease with my magnificent self and as my doubts calm, I know that my trust in ALL THAT IAM encourages the natural process of manifesting and creating my life. My passion and heart’s desire welcomes in new potential that allows the appropriate energy to come in and give birth to my grandest dream for myself and mankind.   Yes I have a grand dream… One heart at a time, humanity is naturally awakening to the truth of their own magnificence, remembering they come from and are a source of love. I stand among you all, here and now, firmly balanced, radiating my love and joy into the world knowing that everything is perfectly well.   Barbara Franken… Creative Visionary & Master CreatorInspiring New Energy Consciousness & Multi-Dimensional Living   You can download our FREE 3 part series of True Awakening Experiences here…   True Awakening Experiences Part I ©2014   True Awakening Experiences… Part II ©2016   True Awakening Experiences… Part III ©2018   A paperback and Digital Book is available from all Major online stores… Amazon and Apple.  I share my own magical journey, exploring Who I AM with the help of nine Elemental Beings and expand from a world of fear, struggle and limitation into a New Energy Consciousness of love, grace and freedom. It is in this loving space that I discover my Divine and ALL LOVING self and allow myself to integrate together as one Body Consciousness… a DivineHumanBeing… and Magnificent Master Creator who expresses and creates heart and soul passion on the physical plane and beyond..  Join my MasterCreator Class and emerge yourself in the celebration of life through dance, song, art, relaxed inner journeys and beyond everything known… preparing yourself for your NEW role on New Earth.   There is no time like the present moment to Sign Up and give YOURSELF this magnificent gift… More Info: MasterCreator Class   All the money raised from my books and classes go to my non-profit association The Magnificent Consciousness that holds free local projects in Benalmadena, Spain.

Earlier this month I had a gentleman come in complaining of long term (5+ years!!) pain in his knee. He’d had 2 rounds of surgery on the knee with no improvement. During my assessment I found that he had an even longer history of lower back pain and hip pain. So rather than focus on his knee, we focused on his back, I taught him a couple of little tricks and . . . he walked out with no knee pain. Me, his wife, their friend, we were all in tears at the transformation. All that time, pain and surgery and no one had ever taken the time to listen to him or look at the connections. No one had ever done a thorough, clinical assessment. Pain comes limping in Knees and backs make a fantastic team – and they often pick up the slack for each other so they always have to be assessed together. When you have a painful knee you unconsciously change how you walk. You stop extending it fully and using all the muscles and flexibility in that leg. But you still have to move forward. So your lower back “picks up” the leg to help. Which means your back works harder than usual. Eventually, if your knee doesn’t return to “normal” function your back continues working too hard. And starts to complain. And complaining muscles feel sore. Put more “miles on the clock” it can start to complain. Which makes living the active life you came to Spain for, more uncomfortable. 5 steps to success If you’ve been having treatment with no improvement here are my 5 top reasons why: It’s not your knee – when you spoke to someone about your knee pain they never bothered to check all the joints attached to it – feet, ankles, hips, lower back. Problems in these areas can get referred to the knee. The best treatment in the world isn’t going to help if it’s in the wrong place! No one told you it needs to be STRAIGHT – We tend to focus on bending the knee, but if it doesn’t straighten properly it can change how we move our hips and lower back, affect nerve function and muscle strength. You got an injection – corticosteroids are a fabulous short term / emergency pain relief. They are NOT a treatment. They just hide the pain rather than treat the cause. Long term they can start to damage the tissues inside the joint. You got an MRI not an assessment – more and more research shows that MRIs don’t actually tell us what is causing pain. All they show is what your joint looks like on in the inside. They don’t tell us how you move, what the other joints are like, when it happens . . .. You skipped rehab after surgery – so now the other knee hurts because you never got full function back in the first knee. Or your back hurts. Or the same knee still hurts because the other issues weren’t addressed. For more information and research on how to beat knee pain check out our website www.TheBodyworksClinic.com, our Facebook page Bodyworks Health Clinic or call us on 952 83 151.

Spain is one of the favourite destinations for British people when choosing where to buy a second home. The price of housing compared with the United Kingdom, the weather conditions and the quality of life on offer in Spain are all characteristics that make many Britons decide to enter our real estate market and buy a home here. Like many other citizens, the vast majority of British buyers also choose to get a mortgage in Spain, and so far there has been no problem, but what will happen to mortgages once the UK exit from the EU takes hold? To answer this question, we will analyse the situation. 1. As of 31st October 2019 – the latest agreed date for Brexit – will there be any modification of the terms of mortgages of British citizens who have already been granted one by a Spanish bank and are in force? The answer to this first question is clear and will not suffer modifications: evidently not. No Spanish bank wants to nor should nor can modify certain conditions already established before a Notary retroactively. 2. Will British citizens still be able to access mortgages from Spanish banks to buy a home in Spain? Firstly, it is necessary to clarify that a foreign citizen of any nationality in Spain can request a mortgage for non-residents, so in theory, a citizen of the United Kingdom, once outside the EU, should not have any problem to request and be granted with one of these mortgages. In addition, we must consider, as we said before, that the British are the main foreign citizens who purchase housing in Spain, so it would not make sense for the Spanish not to facilitate the granting of mortgages for this purpose. But in what cases could a foreign citizen not acquire a mortgage in Spain? Only those citizens coming from a country that is on the watch list of the Bank of Spain cannot get a mortgage, that is, those in which a proper study on viability and money laundering cannot be carried out, and the United Kingdom is not found on this list, even after the referendum. Therefore, the answer to this second question is also clear and that is that British citizens may continue to access mortgages from Spanish banks for the purchase of homes in Spain. 3. Can Brexit affect the ease of concession and risk assessment by Spanish banks or will it toughen the conditions of the mortgages? Where Brexit can change things is in the assessment of risks and flexibility on the part of Spanish banks when granting a mortgage to a British citizen, because, among the different circumstances that could occur, we can highlight the following: a) The exit of the United Kingdom could mean a change in the legislation that currently allows European banks to pursue debtors in their country of origin in case of mortgage default. At this time, when dealing with EU resident citizens, in case of non-payment, Spanish banks can issue a court order from Spain to the United Kingdom and enforce their rights in the country of residence of the debtors. However, once Brexit comes into effect, as the legislation that will be applied in this regard is not yet known, this will force banks to consider the same risk assessment as for non-EU foreign citizens. b) Assessments of the economic situation of the British mortgage applicants. On the other hand, as we mentioned before, we find that it is not yet clear what the economic situation of the United Kingdom will be after leaving the EU, which is why Spanish banks will have to take this situation into account and assess it as a risk more when granting a mortgage. Although at first after the 2016 referendum, the pound sterling fell immediately and was well below the Euro, then the situation became stabilised, so a clear assessment cannot be made yet. In addition, we must bear in mind that the exit from the EU will not take place for another few weeks, with a subsequent period that the British Government has called an “implementation period” that will last until December 30, 2020, with the United Kingdom still in negotiations. On the other hand, there have already been experts who have predicted that unemployment will increase in the short term, and that it is possible that the United Kingdom can return to its previous situation of recession, or that growth stagnates. All the foregoing, together with the volatility that the value of the Pound has suffered since the results of the 2016 referendum were announced, has caused Spanish banks to increase their risk assessment procedures and may impose greater requirements when granting a mortgage loan to British citizens. Despite this situation of uncertainty, British citizens have not lost interest in investing in the Spanish real estate market, and continue to be, as we have seen, the foreigners who buy the most housing in Spain. In fact, after the referendum in 2016, the purchase of homes in Spain by the British suffered a fall. In the second half of 2016 it fell by 23.6% and continued in the first half of 2017, with another fall of 16.1%. But in the second half of 2017 the real estate interests of the British in Spain recovered. Until now where it is extremely quiet. Keep in mind that, in terms of the many attractions of buying a home in Spain, it is maintained that, despite the changes in the value of the pound, the overall liquidity of British buyers has not changed, and that, for them, the price of housing in Spain is quite low compared to that of other countries, including in the UK. All this shows that there is an important potential market and some Spanish banks have already stated that due to the potential turnover of these operations, they will not change their policies when granting mortgages to these citizens, so that despite the uncertainty caused by the lack of agreements between the British Government and the EU, no great variations are expected in the Spanish mortgage market. Contact me on this link for information Contact me now Source: idealista