Winter is slipping away, time to shed our old skin

Being now past the shortest and darkest day of the year (June 21), the days are changing from longer and warmer to wet and cold.

The seasonal transition tells our body it is time to waken, stretch & re-enliven. Having begun the second part of the year, consider using your financial organisings to revisit your New Year goals and check your progress - are you on track?

To help you stay the path, we have a few new offerings (more details further in the enewsletter):

• Monday night Meditation. Evening Breath with Ani Neradilkova. Every Monday 7-8pm
• Money Matrix: Unravel the emotion, the beliefs, & the roadblocks to your financial freedom. A 6-week course to understanding your relationship with money.

As always we look forward to welcoming you for a bodymind tune-up with a relaxing treatment, postural enhancement, life check-in with kinesiology or counselling, or get toned and ready for Spring with one of our Pilates or Cardio exercise programs - join a class or book a One2One or session For 2.

We wish you all joy and the causes of joy now and always!

The Source of Wellness Team

Money Matrix: Unravel the emotions, the beliefs, & the roadblocks to your financial freedom

Money Matrix is not a course in financial investment, it is a 6-week course which leads you on a journey of self-discovery into the underlying emotional, familial, & cultural beliefs you hold about money - your right to having it, your right to spend it, your right to feel safe about it . Which of these describes best how you feel towards money?

• Have money but don't feel comfortable with it or worry about losing it
• Always struggle to make ends meet
• Your money controls you rather you being in control of it
• Tired of feeling in debt, or working to pay bills
• Tired of always spending on others, the house, the kids, the car
• Living on credit
• Want a seachange but feel locked in financially to your current income stream

At course end, you will understand the issues you have accumulated about money and be confident in making new choices which will enhance your life not only financially but personally as well.

Seminar Leader: Andrew Callinan has more than 20 years corporate experience assisting people with financial decision-making. Included in his breadth of experience is financial planning & implementation, investment management, drafting of wills & estate administration. He has also owned and operated a retail outlet.

In 1996, he opened his own consultancy working with business owners & individuals providing financial counselling & business coaching.

At the same time, he undertook his own personal development journey, which led Andrew to train and become a Somatic Psychotherapist. His aim is to help you discover the patterns that limit you in achieving the richness you want from life. He now works full-time with individuals & couples as a Therapist, Financial Counsellor & Life Business Coach at The Source of Wellness and elsewhere.

Water: Our Body's Life Source

Following on from last enewsletter's information about caffeine (coffee & tea) and its dehydrating effects on your body, here is a snapshot on the importance of water for healthy body functioning.

Water is the most important inorganic compound in the living system, totalling between 45% (overweight adults) to 75% (infants) of total body mass. On average, lean healthy adult bodies are about 60% water.

We need about 2.3 litres per day, drinking 1.6 litres of water (and not drinking caffeine which acts as a diuretic) and absorbing about 700ml through moist foods each day for proper bodymind functioning. Menstruating women and sportspeople need to be particularly conscious of increasing their water intake at those times. Without sufficient water our body cannot:

• Perform the million of chemical processes necessary for life. Water is the medium in which the chemical processes occur
• Absorb the energy contained in food
• Extract nutrients from food
• Easily transmit messages between nerves, between nerves & organs, between nerves & muscles (a feeling of being 'on edge' or unable to rest results from lack of water)
• Absorb heat energy created by the body's processes so you stay cool - temperature & temperament wise
• Lubricate mucus linings in our chest & abdomen where organs touch and slide over each other
• Lubricate joints where bones, ligaments, and tendons meet
• Lubricate our intestinal tract to allow smooth passage of digestible & excreted products
• Enable proper functioning of our kidneys which filter our blood for toxins
• Flush toxins from our muscles, preventing adhesions and muscle soreness, aches & pains
• Water is a major element in the composition of our blood, our lymphatic fluid, our cells, & the fluid which cushions & supports our brain

We need to ingest pure water every day aside from other liquids, such as softdrinks, alcohol, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cordials. Don't make your body constantly have to perform more chemical processes to extract the water you most desperately need for LIFE - YOURS.

Anti-depressants During Pregnancy: New Findings (Research)

Anti-depressants have passed into fairly common use in Australia. As a Natural Health Centre (our practitioners may hold differing views) we see anti-depressants help in certain circumstances, when appropriately supervised, & with proper planning for going on and coming off the medication.

We offer a range of effective treatments and therapies which enable you to not need in the first instance or to no longer need anti-depressants with ease and with reduced chance of relapse.

Research is yet to determine the full clinical picture of their risks. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning regarding the continuation and stopping of anti-depressants, specifically Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs, during pregnancy, based on findings of two recent studies.

The first study revealed women who stopped anti-depressants after falling pregnant were 5 times more likely to have a relapse during pregnancy compared with those who continued treatment.

Results of the second study suggest continued use of anti-depressants past the 20th week (4th month) of pregnancy was linked to an increase in the risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) in the newborn.

PPHN often causes severe respiratory failure in newborns. Typically this occurs in 1 or 2 per 1000 births, but with anti-depressant use the risk increases six-fold.

Other adverse effects on newborns post maternal anti-depressant use, include infant irritability, difficulty feeding, and rare cases of difficulty breathing. Use of paroxetine HCl (Paxil) during the first trimester has been epidemiologically linked to an increased risk for cardiac birth defects.

The FDA advises women who are, or thinking about becoming, pregnant to consult their healthcare professional before discontinuing or continuing anti-depressants. The decision should be made only after careful consideration of the risks and benefits particular to each patient. Patients who elect to stop medication should be closely monitored for depression relapse.

(Information from an article written by Yael Waknine and reviewed by Dr Gary D Vogin as reported on Medscape 20 July 2006)

Following on from our 'Living Meditation' tips last enewsletter we are pleased to offer a weekly group meditation class.

Evening Breath Meditation with Ani Neradilkova is every Monday night from 7-8pm at the Centre starting Monday 14 August.

Ani teaches you how to use your breath to deepen your state of relaxation, connect with self, & as you advance tune into your inner wisdom. All illnesses and diseases stem from a state of unhealthy stress - meditation is the best daily practice to bring you back in tune with yourself and your path.

By joining with others in a weekly group meditation, it increases your focus and enhances your ability to stay closer to this state of bliss in your daily practice of a peaceful life.

Classes are $15 paying for 4 classes upfront (expiry 6 weeks) or $20 for casual. BYO cushion & blanket. Please register your attendance by email or phone 9817 8766.

Ani is also running her Inspiration workshop on Sunday 13 August, which is a full-day workshop about using the breath to create change in your life. See our Workshop page for details.

Payal Kinariwala, our Homeopath has left to start a family - we wish her and her husband very well. And Hongxiu Gao, our TCM Practitioner, has also had some life-changing news, with her moving interstate to support her husband's new job opportunity.

We have beautifully presented Gift Certificates for your special someone, click here to see an image. Posted at no extra cost in a Special Burnished Gold Gift Envelope.