Qi Gong

I might have mentioned before that for me the hardest part of healthy living is excersise. I never used to be good in sports and I just don’t enjoy most exercise. And if you don’t enjoy something it is much harder to keep it up. Something you enjoy hardly seems an effort and time flies. But do something you dislike and that clock just seems to crawl.

But now I think I have found a solution. Thanks to the suggestion of a good friend I tried a trial session of Qi Gong. Officially Chi Neng Qi Gong. It is really a combination of gentle movement and meditation. While you move you are quiet and listen to relaxing music but your attention is directed inwardly.  The trial session was a big success and I have made the decision to do a ten part course. So far we have had two lessons and I have enjoyed going there. I even enjoy doing the exercises at home every day! For me that is a big thing. It is not strenuous but I am doing something for my body every day.

Chi Neng Qi Gong has a healing effect as well. It was invented by a doctor in China who ran a hospital that did not use medication. Yet 95% of all patients who came to him recovered with Chin Neng. Some patients were very ill and could not do the exercises. The power of Chi Neng is that even if you cannot move much, if you visualise yourself doing the exercises it has the same effect. So on a bad day you can chose to do that. That makes it very accessible for people with chronic pain complaints.

What I am trying to say is that there is something out there for everyone. You don’t have to do Qi Gong, but do have a look around and try to find something that you would enjoy doing. It is important that when you start working out, that you don’t expect too much of yourself at the start. Don’t set your goals too high and even if your goals are reasonable, do not get angry with yourself if you are not able to make them. Doing something is better than doing nothing, and positive energy makes you happier.

So what do you do to keep your body in shape and why does it work for you? I look forward to hearing from you.

Online Training for Counsellors birthday party

I have talked about my tutoring job before. It is something that I enjoy very much. To contribute to teaching other counsellors how to work ethically and effectively online.

Two weeks ago we had a face to face meeting with all the present tutors to celebrate the fact that OLT has been around for 10 years. That alone is amazing, 10 years ago not that many counsellors were working online, many people still had very bad internet connections [dial up for instance] and we worried a lot less about encryption. It took some visionary minds to bring counselling online and from the start care about doing it well. To take into account that it was not the same as having a client in the same room with you and that you had to learn to do this well.

So over the years the courses have evolved. The tutor team are always on the lookout for new inventions online and incorporate that into the teaching. One of the things that have become clear over the years is that online counselling is very well suited for both counsellors and clients with disability. Because you can work at your own pace, those with disabilities can decide not to work when they do not feel well.

We are still growing. Next year will be a very exciting year when we plan to ad many more workshops to our curriculum. And a whole new course is going to start, online superivision. We have just heard that this new course has been accredited by CPCAB. So if you are a counsellor who wants to branch out into this exciting field, please contact me for more details. 

login2life living in a virtual world

I first became aware of this documentary during the 3rd virtual conference on counseling organised by Counselor Education in Second Life. Immediatly I was enthusiastic and noted down the air date of the documentary. It aired on ZDF [german tv] on monday the 17th of october. The reason that I am blogging a day early this week is that you can still watch it online for free until sunday evening. This is the link. If this subject interests you at all, I would urge you to do so. It's nearly 90 minutes long and don't be put off by the fact that it is German. Most of the documentary is in English, so you will be able to follow most of what is going on.
 
Now what is it all about? Filmmaker Daniel Moshel followed some people from all over the world who spend parts of their lives in virtual worlds and made a documentary about them. Last year I watched a documentary that highlighted the negative aspects of such a lifestyle and it was refreshing to see that login2life stresses the postives.

The focus is on two virtual worlds. One a gaming environment, World of Warcraft [WoW] and  Second Life [SL]. For those who don't know. SL allows you to make an avatar and then explore the many many worlds with that avatar. So it really comes close to a 'second life' especially with how fast technology is growing.

The documentary follows a few people active on WoW and doing more than just gaming. There is someone who makes movies involving Wow characters. Another swedish gamer talks about being in one of the best guilds in the game and what that means in his life. 2 stories moved me the most. A young chinese man who was up in the middle of the night collecting gold which he sold to other people and who actually made a living in the real world this way. He was just scraping by and his whole bio rythm was disturbed because he was online most nights. The other was a young man from the US who had been paralyzed in a car accident and could only work the computer with his mouth. It made me smile that he would tell those he defeated that they were defeated by a criple and the joy it gave him to be able to do this with his avatar. He was able to live out dreams that he would never be able again in the 'real' world.

The other part focussed on SL. Here the mother of the paralyzed young man would read parts of the story she had written about her life as a caregiver. There was a German musician giving great concerts to an audience all over the world. A man selling sex aides on SL, it was very funny to see how they had to make the movements so it could be translated digitally. :) The most moving part of the whole documentary for me was the story of Alice, gentle heron in SL. She is a woman from the US with MS. This makes life in the 'real' world harder and harder and movement gets harder with this disease. But she lives another life online, making friends and doing much more than that! She has actually set up a community in SL where people with disability can meet and learn how to enjoy themselves in SL. If you are interested to learn more follow this link.

This shows that even if you cannot move much or are bedridden, there is a world out there on the computer where you can make new friends and even live out some of your dreams if you are open to it!



So if you have time before monday, please go and have a look at this extraordinary documentary.

Speech recognition

One of the challenges of a physical disabilies is finding a way around them, so you can continue to enjoy life to the fullest. It is one of my 'jobs' as a counsellor for people to terms with chronic pain. It is a road I have travelled myself, so I understand the frustrations and the anger and yes, also the despair. We all have days were you think it is never going to get better. Those are the days it helps to talk to a friend or a counsellor and that different perspective can give you ideas to go on and to see the fun again.

What changed my life and made studying and later work possible again is a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking. My problem was that suddenly writing and typing were much more difficult. And writing had always been the way I expressed myself. I certainly was not about to give that up, so thanks to the internet I started to look for ways around my problem. Soon I found a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking, and it became my lifeline. Through the years I have gone through a couple of versions, every version more accurate were I can just talk to my computer in both Dutch and English and the program translates my words to text with little or no mistakes. These days I can type again on most days, but it is such a comfort to know that my program is there on the computer for the hard days.


That is what is all about, finding the little things that make life easier, knowing the support is there, knowing your limits and within those limits: ENJOY!