Hello Everyone

This weekend, I went to a talk on the Buteyko method, led by Chris Drake.

The Buteyko Method is an extraordinary and effective approach to reversing a diverse range of chronic diseases and health problems. It is based on the idea that a dysfunctional breathing pattern, disturbs the human organism and is the genesis of many health problems. And improving our breathing has a profound effect on reversing these conditions.

So basically, aggressive conditions such as asthma and psoraisis are caused by an imbalance of CO2 i the body. When you increase the Co2 levels, using the holding of breath and shallow breathing, these conditions abate. The practice requires a level of commitment to developing your skills in the technique. But the patient has total control. You can take responsibility for developing a technique that will heal you, instead of being dependent on any number of drugs and remedies for symptomatic relief, that result in side-effects you cannot control.

Why doesn't everyone know about this?

For more information on clinical trials, demonstrating the effectiveness of the method, please use this link:

http://www.buteyko.com/

For those of you interested in taking the training, with Chris Drake, who brought the practice to the UK in 1996, please contact martharoe@googlemail.com.

wishing you a healthy future - Erica

Hello Everyone,

I made a little resolution to stop ranting about poorly delivered business, but I have felt compelled to put fingers to typepad to express exasperation with Royal Mail.

Do you remember, back in the day, that if you wanted a letter to arrive the next day you would put a first class stamp on it? now, to ensure overnight delivery, you will need to pay £4.70 for a regular envelope's worth of reliability.

The other day, I was at my local market and got talking to a postie. We were discussing the strike last year. He said that the real reasons the strike had taken place were twofold:

firstly, staff objected to the fact that business junk mail is prioritised by Royal Mail because they get more money for it. So, on Mother's Day, a huge pile of cards are left waiting, whilst junk mail gets sent out. So whether you're waiting for a cheque in the post, a confirmation of a new job or a card form your beloved, you can be safe in the knowledge that after the flyers, brochures, leaflets and life insurance quote you don't want or need have arrived, your crucial mail will follow.

Second, he told me that the CEO of Royal Mail had received a £300,000 bonus in 2007. How muc do you think each postie received? A cheque... for 97p!!! 97p! How can you even have the guts to write someone a cheque for not even a pound as their annual bonus!!!

But it's getting worse. Royal Mail have closed three post offices down here in Brighton and the queues and the stress of getting a letter posted now is something else. It's like queueing for Wimbledon without the strawberries. As far as we could tell, all of those small post office concessions were doing decent business and providing a useful community service, so why stop? Staff at the remaining post offices tell me they get constant grief about the queues but that management refuse to employ more staff.

Why doesn't Mr CEO hand back his bonus and use it to improve service delivery?

And lastly, not content with causing stamp-rage, making Mother's feel unloved and giving bonuses that won't even buy you a lottery ticket, now Royal Mail are affecting our democratic process! Last month, the Liberal Democrats elected themselves a new leader. It was a close call with just 50 votes between the two candidates. And then... five days later, 500 postal votes arrived!! These could have changed the result, but the Lib Dems are far too nice to battle it out in an undignified fashion so they upheld their decision.

What next for Royal Mail? Maybe they're planning to merge with McDonalds and sell us crap burgers while we wait in line? Maybe they wish to enter the Guinness Book of Records for longest and angriest queue in the UK? Or is there a secret plan afoot, to get the nation walking over to nan's house, on the Isle of Skye because that way, at least her 90th birthday card will actually get there!

answers on a postcard. Haha.

Hello Everyone

Now, please will you get in touch if you'd like a free worksheet? Our new website will be up in June and so many fab things will be on it, but, in the meantime, if you'd like a worksheet/resource for your clients/students/self, please get in touch.

If you let me know a bit about you and your client group, I can send you something that will be just right.

Go, on, a genuine freebie... erica@thelifeproject.co.uk

Rage rage stomp stomp ... how does one express that in bloggy type?

I am absolutely fed up with the amount of time I waste on the phone to call centres for barclaycard. Today I spent 2HOURS trying to arrange to get a card delivered that was agreed a month ago! I was, i am ashamed to say, crying with rage and frustration. Everytime I got through the infernal music and the powerlessness of being on hold, I was greeted by an Indian call centre that seemed to delight in my misery and where the staff kept making out that they could not spell, listen or help.

I got cut off 4 times! How can it be ok to put the phone down on someone you are supposed to be customer servicing??!!!

Then I went up to the local branch of Barclays and asked them to sort it. AND THEY HUNG UP ON THEM TOO!

I went back to the office and searched the web for an actual UK contact number for Head Office so I could make a complaint and have them sort it out. But no, they told me I couldn't speak to anyone and that I would have to write a letter if I wanted to complain and refused to help me solve my problem.

How is it that this company has got that arrogant that they feel they:

1. Do not need to do their job (well or at all)
2. Are quite happy to let Mr Five pounds twenty five an hour take the rap from me instead of having the courage to face the music - isn't that what the big cheese is paid for? To take responsibility?
3. Allow their reps to hang up on people!

Compare and contrast Namesco, where you can send a direct email called Tell The Boss and then the Boss writes back to address your concern. Compare the Co-Op, where everyone who answers the phone sounds genuinely happy to be speaking with you and will resolve your problem whilst you are on the phone without putting you on hold.

I expect that us entrepreneurs ARE probably more demanding customers because we are thinking a lot about customer service, the needs of our clients etc. When did striving for excellence become so unfashionable? I want to offer an excellent service, a quality product, at a fair price. I believe it the win/win. How can it be satisfying to be so crap?

Mr Barclaycard Cheese, come and have a post, if you think you're hard enough. Sheesh.

So those of you who know me well will know that I am a big swot and that I love love love workshops! To me, workshops are the ultimate way to learn - every person in the room is both expert teacher and willing pupil, there's no "guru" in charge, just a guide for us to each explore our own path, support others in finding theirs and realise the interdependence between us all.

I was in Berlin last week (no CCTV! A total liberation, one forgets how much we censor ourselves these days) and was invited to participate in a drumming workshop. I didn't know anyone and my experience of drumming is limited to playing the tambourine badly in my band days. But it was too amazing!

Here's why.

1. Everyone was equally welcome whether they had been drumming for a while or were totally new to it.
2. You could pick up any instrument you wanted and play with it, explore it and then pick up another.
3. Then you could learn from how others made use of it and explored it.
4. Every so often, you would look up from your activity and observe the smiling faces, the closed eyes, the different rhythms contributed by each person.
5. You felt the movement between a real flow and fusion between people and the experience of discord, uncertainty, change.

It's amazing how connected you can feel to a group of people you have shared an experience with, whose names and background you don't know and who you may never see again. I want every single workshop I run to be as rich. And as safe. Come, come!