Author: Raj

Rajesh sees Poulstone as a refuge in a fast-moving world and is inspired by guests leaving Poulstone renewed and re-centred. He regards the energy of Poulstone to be perfect for retreats and manages Poulstone to maintain and sustain this energy. Rajesh has been attending retreats for a very long time and occasionally runs meditation retreats. He was introduced into the many different faiths of India including Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Sufism and Buddhism from a very early age. These faiths have formed a large part of his upbringing. He is a barrister by profession specialising in human rights from Chambers in London. He is also a humanitarian and environmentalist and has worked with and founded organisations around the world whose objectives include the rejuvenation of land, communities and promoting human rights. He also founded the first Indian vegetarian restaurant in Worcestershire with his family. His joys include cooking, gardening, playing the sitar, reading Eastern philosophy and loves being with his family and friends.

Harvest time

The apple-fest continues in amongst our other jobs.  Gemma is becoming a dab hand with the rotary apple peeler.  We are also picking plums, mulberries and damsons.  The two plum trees donated by Spectrum Psychotherapy’s Women in the World group have yielded the first fruit we can pick from the new trees.  They have a very nice flavour and we have frozen this first harvest so the group can enjoy them in a crumble or almond sponge pudding when they come in November.  Our squash harvest is a little disappointing – only six (admittedly pretty large) squash from 10 plants!  Ah well, they are very beautiful and there’s something quite magical about them even if there aren’t very many.  Recent groups have also been able to enjoy home-grown rocket, beetroot, spinach and chard, kale, dwarf beans and potatoes.

We are probably saying goodbye to our sweet peas now as autumn arrives – we’ll be picking our last nostalgic few bunches before the first frosts arrive.  The dahlias are now coming into their own and will take their place in posies on the dining tables during the autumn.

The Reiki Gathering enjoyed their stay last weekend and we hope we shall see them here again.  On Monday we were joined by Ruhani Satsang (http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org) and are greatly enjoying the silence and feeling of peace that their meditation practice is bringing to the house.  Many of them have been students of their Master Sant Kirpal Singh (deceased) since the 1970s and meet annually to meditate and listen to discourses, travelling from Europe, Canada and America.  It’s very inspiring to see such devotion to their practice.  They will be departing tomorrow and we will be joined the following day by another silent retreat with Burgs (http://theartofmeditation.org/).  So pretty busy for us today and tomorrow!

More soon!

Warm wishes

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Newton has nothing on us!

Apples are dropping off the trees as we speak!  Gemma, Gail and Mel collected and prepared the first batch for the freezer a couple of days ago.  Whilst most of the apples aren’t quite ready yet for picking, it feels great not to waste the windfalls.  The pears that have fallen however are too tiny really to be worth using so they will go to the compost and delight the wasps. Large drunken parties of wasps can already be seen in their pear dens!

We said goodbye to James Reeves and his Bliss Divine Yoga group (http://www.blissdivineyoga.co.uk/) on Sunday afternoon.  It was their first visit to Poulstone and we greatly enjoyed having them here.  They will be revisiting us next summer and James’ groups are open to the general public so do have a look at his site or our courses page if you’re interested.  It was nice to have some guests from the Hereford and Welsh borders area with us, even though James is based in Oxford.

We’ve now had a few days to do some gardening and gear ourselves up for the rest of the month (we are now back-to-back till 3rd October!).  Gail has been getting up to date with a few jobs in the veg patch – digging up spuds and having a general tidy.  After all the lovely warm, dry weather we’ve been having, Mel diligently watered all the flower beds in the parched garden last night – before a night of rain!  Should have checked the forecast!

The Reiki Community Gathering are with us from this afternoon.  Also a new group to us, we are looking forward to welcoming them.

That’s about it for now.  More soon!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Work Retreat 2013!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wonderful work retreat again this year and despite some showers, the weather was very kind to us.  The volunteers have completely weeded the garden, re-laid the wood chip path in the veg plot, re-gravelled the fairy circle and the seating area outside the group room windows, turned the compost, cleared cherry stones and leaves from the stone garden, weeded and tidied the kitchen yard and courtyard, replanted the hanging baskets, picked, de-stoned and frozen the plums, picked the blackcurrants for freezing, dug out various large invasive plants, removed the ivy that was choking the holly hedge, duvet covers mended, drawer liners made and much much more!

It was lovely working, eating and living together for the week – lots of fun and laughter and time to relax around Poulstone.  We had story telling one evening and singing, and Ian Jarvis gave us a talk on the invaluable work going on in Bhopal, India where he has been working (http://www.spineworks.eu/en/3-months-in-bhopal.html for anyone interested in learning more).

Thank you everyone for such a great week and all your hard work.  Here are some of you in action!

 

 

 

 

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Visit: http://flickr.com/gp/53580005@N08/8ESEGa/ for more pictures!

Much love, Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Oodles of produce!

 The veg garden is really flourishing with the rain coming after so much warmth.  The blackcurrants need picking so we’re hoping for some dry days to get on with that again. The squash are beginning to get big enough to net on the garden wall, the courgettes are epidemic and Gail has just harvested our first lot of white onions this year.  Our cyclists last week enjoyed oodles of spinach, kale, mixed leaves, rocket, beetroot, courgettes, chard and blackcurrants from the garden.  They went out every day even when it was rainy and were rewarded with a couple of beautiful dry days towards the end of the week.

We now have our Holotropic Breathwork group arriving tonight, led by Marianne Murray and Michael Harris.  For information about their work, see http://www.grof-holotropic-breathwork.net/profile/MarianneMurray.  Marianne has been coming to Poulstone annually for many years and we always enjoy having the group here.  The forecast is fair for the week so we hope they have a chance to enjoy the gardens between breathwork sessions.  The grass is beginning to recover from its prairie-like state of a few weeks ago!!

Well, time for a bit of tea before the welcome talk!

More soon x  Stay dry!

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Bees, Tai ji and a whole lot of lycra!

We’ve had three bee swarms in the last couple of months and on the last occasion, Steve managed to get close enough for a photograph.  It’s wonderful to see wild honey bees thriving like this and we can easily give them a wide berth until they fly off to make their new nest.  The noise is tremendous and it’s quite an interesting sight to see them clustered together like this:  

It’s been really hot and sunny here now for weeks and Alec Jones’s Dragon Spring Tai Ji school (http://www.dragonspringtaiji.co.uk/index.htm) was with us last weekend, enjoying being able to play their forms and do their exercises outside.  Their practices included cane and fan forms which were lovely to watch.  After dark one evening we kept hearing a cracking sound on the tennis lawn and eventually realised it was the crack of the fans being opened and shut!  Two of the students were kind enough to let Steve photograph them whilst they practised their fan form.

 Meanwhile, the final touches to the stone garden have been happening.  Some sempervivum plants have been nestled in amongst the rocks and look rather good against the stone.  

As the weather has cooled off a bit and some rain has finally come, we now have a lot of lycra around the place with the very wonderful Bicycle Beano vegetarian cycling holiday.  These guys laugh in the face of British weather and bring a lovely homely and communal atmosphere to the place.  Jane Barnes and Rob Green have been running these holidays for years and attract a really great crowd of people.  They always enjoy themselves whatever the weather.  If you’re ever tempted, their website is http://www.bicycle-beano.co.uk/.

That’s all from us!  More soon!
Mel & Steve
Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

Thoughts and reflections……it’s all about power….

This post Jonathan Horwitz writes for us about power as seen through the eyes of a shaman.

He writes:

“Power is such a loaded word, and for many of us, when we hear the word “power”, it evokes a fear response. We think of the misuses of power, perhaps times when we have felt overwhelmed by how others have used power over us, or we feel engulfed by images in the media showing the destructive effects of power.

This view of power can often lead to fear. Power seems strong, controlling, forceful. It can leave us feeling as if there is too much power around us and we need to protect ourselves so we don’t get hurt. The sad thing about this is that we end up protecting ourselves so much that we shut life out. The only thing that protection does is build a thin shell around us, giving us an illusion of security by separating us from our surroundings and even ourselves.

But we are a part of the whole. There is no separation except for the barriers we put up around ourselves, and even those barriers are an illusion.

To cultivate another attitude to power, it can  be more helpful to think of it as “life force” – the power we need to stay alive, to be full of vitality, to help us meet daily challenges. This is not something we want to shut out! Instead of protection, we can ask for help to fill ourselves with the power we need. Then when you meet challenging or frightening situations, you do not retreat into a shell, but are more able to stand on your own two feet and face what is coming towards you. To do this, the shaman calls on the Spirit Power of the Universe. Essentially, the shamanic work I do is teaching people how to connect to this power so we have the energy we need to live life fully.

Power, like any energy, is not meant to be static or stored – it is meant to move and flow. If we feel we need more energy in our lives, the best thing to do is open ourselves to the Power of the Universe and let it flow through us. There is so much help around us all the time, if only we remember how to open and connect. A truly remarkable aspect of Power – not as controlling force but as vital energy – is that the more we share it, the stronger it gets. The more you allow it to move through you, rather than trying to hold on to it, the more the power can energise and support both you and others.

Power is in all that exists, and if  we fill ourselves with it there is no need for protection because we have all we need. We are made of the Power of the Universe. We forget this, but when we know it, we can step into life with an open heart, steady feet and power in our hands”.

Jonathan has been teaching shamanism in the UK and Europe for over 25 years, including many courses held at Poulstone. He lives with his partner, Zara, in southern Sweden and we feel very fortunate to have him visit us each year to teach.  He will be holding an advanced shamanic retreat called “Peace & Power” here from 9-13 October 2013. For more information, you can visit http://www.shamanism.dk/ or visit the courses page of our website: http://www.poulstone.com/courses.php?pageNum_rsCalendar=1&totalRows_rsCalendar=17

At least for a while…summer is here!

Mmmm, we’re enjoying some glorious days at the moment.  Bright, hot and hazy.  The sweet peas are finally in enough quantity to start using them inside the house, despite our rather delayed planting out.  Many other shrubs and plants are flowering and there are some lovely things to look at and enjoy around the garden.  We’re having to water quite heavily in the evenings to prevent our crops going to seed and to prolong the flowering of the borders.  Such a nice job though, the watering.  Time to just be, whilst pointing the hose at something!  Time to watch the swallows and martins wheeling about catching insects for their young, and to enjoy the cattle ambling up and down the meadow and to enjoy the scents and the feeling of the garden.  As dusk finally falls, the bats also join us for their raggedy flight paths across the darkening sky.  Our last group (Bristol College of Massage & Bodywork) included Jojo, a bat enthusiast complete with bat meter (!) so we now know we have Soprano and Common Pipistrelles.

File:Pipistrellus flight2.jpg

They are apparently identifiable by the frequency of the sounds they make.  There was also an exciting unidentifiable frequency which may mean we have a less common species in our midst too…!

We now have the British School of Shiastsu-Do (http://britishschoolofshiatsu.co.uk/) with us who arrived yesterday evening.  BSS-Do have been coming to Poulstone for many years and we always enjoy their friendly and focussed energy in the house.  This morning saw a number of people up early doing their meditation and movement practices outside before their pre-breakfast session – impressive!  The morning was lovely and still and perfect for practising outside.  They’re hoping to maybe be able to do some of their shiatsu sessions outside during the week.

Well, time for us to get out there now!

Much love

Mel & Steve

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre

 

 

 

 

Thoughts and reflections…

This post our thoughts and reflections about these challenging times are from Terry Cooper and Jenner Roth, founders of Spectrum Psychotherapy. Spectrum, established in 1976, is a London-based centre for psychotherapy providing space for personal enquiry in which people learn to manage all aspects of their lives, develop self-knowledge, resilience and the capacity and skills to solve problems.  (http://www.spectrumtherapy.co.uk/).  Spectrum have been coming to Poulstone for many years and we always enjoy their warmth and friendly professionalism.  In addition to the residential week of their foundation course, Jenner also brings an annual Women in the World group which is a peer group for women therapists.

They write:

In running the Spectrum psychotherapy practice we are only too aware of the pressure and stresses individuals, couples and families are dealing with as a result of world change. Massive changes in lifestyle and personal circumstances have happened since the September 11th disaster and the subsequent collapse of the financial industry and many of its institutions.  Living has become more expensive and jobs less secure.  Most of us are dealing with stresses we never imagined we would see.

But one of the great things about humans is that we have an incredible ability to adapt and adjust to changing circumstances and it is this in-built imperative to reorganize and form a better future that is our friend during times of great uncertainty.

As psychotherapists we utilise the natural formative forces that are innate in people to help them develop a variety of skills to manage themselves in the change process. Recognising whether we isolate or open up to others when we are stressed and feeling low on resources is very important. We are weaker when we don’t respond to our desire to be close to others, when we are overwhelmed and frightened of life’s challenges.

Communication often breaks down under stress and we go back to old, learned survival patterns, which usually involve withdrawing from others and this adds to the stress picture. Being close to others when you feel like withdrawing, and talking when you feel there is no point are essential in reducing stress levels and maintaining balanced relationships with one’s self and others. Often more stress is generated by our negative reactions to a stressful situation than the actual circumstances we are having to face and deal with.

Personal development workshops can provide a rich learning environment to get support and develop personal management skills.  We have run residential workshops at Poulstone Court for a number of years and having the peace and reflection of this venue for a residential workshop adds a special energy and support to learning new ways of moving through daily life.  We invite you to visit our website and talk to us.  http://www.spectrumtherapy.co.uk

Rocks and roots and lots of grit…..

The new stone garden is coming along very nicely and proving a wonderful shady spot for sitting now that summer appears to have finally hit (we write that with some trepidation, but our group of masseurs and masseuses this weekend have enjoyed glorious hot weather).  The gravel has been raked around the exposed roots of the cherry tree which look rather lovely in the dappled shade.  We hope you enjoy trying out this new area of the garden next time you visit.

More very soon

Mel & Steve xx

Poulstone Court Retreat Centre