October 15 – November 13

This is the 10th consecutive year of the One Month Body Harmony® Retreat. The dates have changed slightly, we are running from mid October to mid November this year. Recent developments in the practice of Body Harmony® from our international event in New Orleans produced some wonderful outcomes. ‘Ease, Efficiency & Enjoyment’ – these qualities applied to our bodywork practices lead to easier ways of achieving better results. This is a unique opportunity – 150 years of bodywork experience shared between Don, Linda, Duncan & Gina – a wealth of support to assist your learning and realization.

The 2011 program is an opportunity that we think appeals equally in merit to the practitioner (or would be practitioner) and to the individual seeking growth and personal realization. As in past years, our program is available in smaller segments and these options can be viewed in the e-brochure. If you would to benefit from participation in some or all of this event, email Duncan duncan@healthinperspective.org to express your interest. To download the pdf brochure for this event, – follow this link to our downloads page.

Some helpful suggestions – from Gina Carruthers

Getting to know your physical self is subtle but really very simple and one of the greatest things to focus on to bring ease, health and joy. Here are a few suggestions and their benefits:

1) Quiet yourself Down – Get on the ground, in constructive rest, and just be quiet. The benefits include: calming the nervous system, aligning with gravity, synchronizing internal harmony, and releasing your core to something greater than itself – the earth beneath you. Emptying yourself allows for new thoughts and behaviors to take hold.

>2) Centering your Pelvis – Sit, Stand and Sleep with a centered pelvis. The benefits include: calming the nervous system, aligning with gravity, eliminating muscular compensations, and being more aware of what takes you away from ease in your life.

3) Hydrate your Spine – Keep your spine hydrated through micro movements in every direction including curling, arching, and lateral fish movements. The benefits include: efficient nervous system, supportive bones, eliminating tension, and a juicy experience of yourself and life.

4) Support your body with adequate water and minerals. The benefits include having muscles that CAN relax, and reducing the amount of time your body has to revert to a ‘survival response’ leading to physical compensations that reduce your overall efficiency.

Your Basal What?

Have you heard about your ‘basal ganglia’? Most likely not. It happens to be the name for the place in your brain where embedded behaviors are organised, – these are behaviors you don’t have to think about to engage in. Examples include writing perhaps, or walking, or typing, or driving – and also things like how you approach a problem, a relationship, a new possibility.

Imagine, all those things learned and embodied, – your behavioral repertoire ready to engage given the right stimulus. Sometimes that automated response is perfectly matched to the circumstances, and sometimes it is not. At times a behavioral tendency can itself become a burden, a form of self-sabotage, – an unwelcome input. Here is one area where Body Harmony® can be very useful to you.

This is our area of expertise. Body Harmony® is a set of transformational tools to help you make the corrections when a behavior no longer matches your intentions. Body Harmony® is a form of body processing that helps to make a possibility more probable by making the process of becoming aware much easier. The hands-on element of the work brings fluidity to the rigidity of over-used behaviors, that take the form of your physical grievances. Body Harmony helps you to make a self directed change, – the change of your choosing. A life supportive change. Sometimes you have to change your Body to change your Mind.

Finding Realization In The Body…

A newly released book we came across, ‘Touching Enlightenment, Finding Realization in The Body‘ by Reginald Ray, suggests that ‘to abandon discursive thinking – disembodiment – as our primary way of orienting ourselves…. and more than that, that a wave of alternatives to engage where we are living out of the full, unique embodiment that is possible for us all are now becoming more compelling to counter our dissociation.’ We tend to agree. In his 1967 book, ‘Betrayal of the Body‘ Alexander Lowan MD writes that, “To know who one is, an individual must be aware of what he feels. He should know the expression on his face, how he holds himself, and the way he moves. Without this awareness of bodily feeling and attitude, a person becomes split into a disembodied spirit and a disenchanted body.” Becoming acquainted with your first order experience provides you with direct and very useful information. All of the principles expressed through our work aim at realigning your mind and consciousness within bodily sensation and immediate experience. This can be very useful indeed.

And finally a few updates

We would like to thank Sydney based photographer Andre Martin for his assistance in photographing our retreat/B&B.

Check out ‘Your Brain at Work’ by David Rock. Available as an audio download from Audible.com.

For those of you who don’t know our son Kim is continuing to expand his education in all aspects of natural health and healing (check out Kimmana.com for info). As of September 2012 we intend to add cleansing and detox programs to what we offer at Alaya Verde. Also, Alaya Verde is on Facebook. We would be pleased if you ‘Like’ our page…

The next Body Harmony International Conference is anticipated to be held in June of 2012. Granada, Spain is shaping up as the destination and we are currently deciding on venues to host the event. Many thanks to Andrea and Esperanza for helping with the research.

Congratulations to Robyn Barraclough for producing an excellent website for the Canberra Body Harmony School. Click the link to see the site.

Also, Body Harmony® is on Facebook. Click this link and get the updates by choosing to ‘Like’ the Body Harmony® page.

Private Sessions – an exploration into the healing potential of your body.

Every bodywork treatment is designed around you. The art is to find your way towards a more easy and efficient way of functioning. Nothing is imposed upon you. The aim is to work with you rather than on you.

Each treatment offers a different input for your body, so areas under strain – or areas under-used – will get the benefit of ‘fitting in’ to a bigger picture once again. There is a good chance that you will become more aware of what you are doing, how you are doing it, and what you could do differently.

Not all treatments are a revelation, but quite a few of them are. Why is this so? Because people adapt and forget. This is a way of remembering what it is like to feel good. Alignment = feeling good. Fundamentally, there is good science at work!

Treatments are taken clothed, and take about 60 – 90 minutes.

Take A Series -  The 11 Sessions

We offer an 11 session treatment model. Each distinct session allows for a detailed exploration of the different areas of your body. Remarkable changes can take place over such a series of sessions. The people who have chosen this speak of a cumulative beneficial effect, and of feeling physical experiences of well-being previously unknown to them. While results vary, every client has considered the experience one they would refer to others.

Accommodation Options for Travelers

The Noosa area and it’s picturesque hinterland is a world-class holiday destination. We are fortunate to be able to offer clients the chance of on-site accommodation at our hinterland B&B, Alaya Verde, as well as our in-town holiday home, Nested In Noosa. Significantly discounted rates are available to clients who may want to combine a family or personal holiday with a series of treatments.

Your Choice of Practitioners

Sessions can be taken with Duncan or Gina individually or if you would like – double sessions can be arranged. A double session is working with two practitioners. This can be particularly beneficial. Call 0411 399 873 or 07 5485 3099 to book a session with Duncan or email Duncan – or call 0427 399871 or 07 5485 3099 to book a session with Gina or email Gina

Because of the individual nature of people’s experience, we are encouraging clients to post comments of their experience in order to widen your understanding of what we offer.We are working from ‘Alaya Verde’ 15 minutes north-west of Noosaville & Noosa Heads.

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Book your free introductory 30 minute session by calling the numbers above.

An exploratory seminar for those aligned on inspiration and evolution.  April 9 – 15, 2010.

With Don & Linda McFarland, Duncan & Gina Carruthers-Hogg.

While we were in Venice we came across an Aussie guy in a kebab takeaway, traveling around Italy. The conversation quickly went to ‘so what would you recommend to see of Italy?’ This that and the other but the place you have got to go is Matera! A day or so later we drove into Matera, by this time it was dark. We followed our noses to ‘i Sassi’. It took only moments to realise the resounding truth of the traveler in the kebab store. This was, indeed, a lesson in history like no other.

Matera is like a large outdoor museum, made from a perfect integration of human activity and the cycle of nature. Considered one of the oldest towns in the world, Matera exemplifies the different phases of human evolution through continuous habitation. Simply moving from the old part to the new part of the town, you can go through the different epochs which have characterised this evocative location. Nowadays Matera is a remarkable town in southern Italy. The world is becoming increasingly conscious of it’s cultural, historical and naturalistic potential.  The heritage of the town includes: human settlements of the Neolithic age, rock-hewn churches and villages, with their Byzantine and Benedictine frescoes, and the Sassi, Matera’s old district made of Tufa, which have captured the interest of many writers and is today World Heritage listed since 1993. An unending tangle of houses’ grottoes, stairs and narrow ally ways make up the most original of all urban settlements throughout the world.

A remarkable experience.

7 Reasons To Participate :

The inspiration.

The phenomenal history.

The bodywork factor.

The company.

The culture.

The transformation potential.

For the sake of discovery!

This 6 day seminar takes in 4 days exploring the wonders of Matera, followed by 2 days on the Amalfi Coast. Priority Living Events incorporate the applied wisdom of Body Harmony®, helping to fine-tune and align participants within themselves, allowing for a more vivid and resonant personal experience. If you did not make it to Samoa, or you are waiting for an advantageous moment to reconnect, join this event. This event is organised, crafted and guided by Don & Linda McFarland and Duncan & Gina Carruthers-Hogg. Indoor and outdoor experiential activities abound with time taken for sessions, luxuriating and absorbing all that this environment has to offer.

The Venue : Hotel Sant’ Angleo – the result of painstaking preservation and renovation of over 1400 sq metres including cave dwellings, pathways, stairways and court yards and a yet-to-be announced hotel overlooking the ocean in Positano.

Investment : EUR 1495,00 includes twin share accommodation, transportation, admission fees and seminar activities. Deposit EUR 250.00 via this website or direct transfer by contacting Duncan.

These events are open to you and your friends, family, spouse or clients. You can read more about Body Harmony® on this website.

To make it easier to have a first up experience, you can also book your first 30 minute treatment at no cost to you. It’s a great way to find out more and understand better what we actually offer you. See our contact details below.

The Free 1 Day Seminars are an opportunity to have more of an experience of Body Harmony® through breathing and awareness exercises and hands-on practice as both a practitioner and a client. No previous experience is necessary. Booking is essential. This is a 5 hour class that includes a lunch break. Please bring lunch.

• When:  Sunday April 26, Sunday May 31st, Sunday June 14
  
• 10 am – 3 pm (light refreshments available)
• Where: ‘Alaya Verde’ 355 Ringtail Creek Rd, Ringtail Creek (just 15 minutes north-west of Noosaville, 12 minutes from Cooroy)

To book, please call Gina or Duncan on 5485 3099 or email duncan@healthinperspective.org

Please wear loose, comfortable clothing. ALL treatments are taken clothed. All hands-on exercises in conscious touch occur without any oils etc and are easy on your body.

This time we are beach-side in the South Pacific at the Aggie Grey’s Lagoon, Beach Resort & Spa on the island of Upolu, Samoa. So come on in, – we think you will enjoy what is on offer! Download the FULL BROCHURE

Every 18 months or so members of the wider Body Harmony® community gather together to hold an exceptional International Conference. This event moves around our planet from Australasia to the continent of America and then on to Europe by rotation every eighteen months.

These conferences have occurred in Bali (twice), mainland Mexico and Baja (three times), in Tenerife – Spain, Lake Bled – Slovenia and Palm Cove – Australia.

Don McFarland is the founder of Body Harmony® and Linda McFarland, Duncan Hogg and Gina Carruthers have extensive experience as teachers and practitioners. They have shared a close association for over 20 years, and collaborate on various projects, including this conference, and a one month bodywork and professional development class in Noosa, Australia. They are also the creative founders together of the Intention & Manifestation 11 Step Bodywork Sequence, as well as other creative works such as the Educational Research & Development arm of the Body Harmony Guild.

Body Harmony Teachers please CLICK HERE for your dates and price structures.

The International Body Harmony Event runs over a period of 12 consecutive days, commencing on a Sunday evening, and completing on a Friday afternoon. Each day there is approximately 7 hours of seminar experience with significant breaks to allow time to explore, dine and relax during each day.

Course content at the international event caters to all levels of experience from the complete novice to advanced teachers. Up to date ‘hands-on’ interactive seminars and classes are presented covering bodywork; movement and breathing; communication, gesture and body language; self development and personal effectiveness – plus much more – all chosen to give people the chance to gain greater health, wellbeing and self awareness.

We welcome you to take advantage of the extensive benefits this event offers for anyone who wishes to expand the quality of their life.

Samoa is located at approximately 15º South and 20’ East of the International Date Line. There is little annual variation in the climate, with temperatures remaining between 28ºC and 32ºC all year round.

The resort is on beautiful Upolu Island, a five-minute (2 kilometres) drive east of Faleolo International Airport and 35 kilometres from the centre of Apia, Samoa’s capital. The airport is served by a good range of flights – Air New Zealand from Auckland and Los Angeles; Air Pacific/Polynesian Airlines from Nadi (Fiji); and Polynesian Airlines from American Samoa, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney (via Tonga) and Honolulu.

The resort operates a daily shuttle bus to and from Apia for a minimal cost.

Conference Package rates: for this next upcoming International event are as follows:

Basic package includes 13 nights twin share accommodation, which includes the full Seminar program, excursions and buffet breakfast.

Currently conference package, until January 31st 2009 is US $ 2,875

After January 31st, 2009: US $3,175

With a non refundable deposit of US$ 275.00

At The Door Package is US 3,275.00 as late enrollment incurs extra booking fees.

• What you may want to know Dates: Sunday 8th to 21st November 2009
• Location: Samoa Island – Upolu
• Venue: Aggie Grey’s Beach Resort & Spa
• Destination Airport: Faleolo International Airport – Apia
• Deposit amount: US dollars $275 – financial incentives apply for deposits paid in 2008

Banking details: please contact us for direct banking or utilise pay pal for your deposit.

Cancellation Policy: All registration fees are non-refundable and non-transferable. Workshop payments, less the deposit will be refunded if cancellation is received in writing via fax, email or post prior to 30 days before the start date of any workshop. Cancellations within 30 days of the start day of any workshop will not be refunded.

Natural beauty at it’s best - Rekindle aligned relationships - Ignite new possibilities

An update from Don McFarland, 29/02/2009

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I share this message with great personal pleasure and pride. The purpose of this letter is to bring you up to speed on the Samoa International Comprehensive in November.  The Theme of the Event is Success. Which is about moving past the struggles and scarcities of the day into a world of personal abundance. Past the primarily conceptual, into an immediate and useful practicality.

We have reformatted the event to make absolutely sure that the principles of success become embodied in your day to day actions. Without stress, without struggle, without constant reminder. Which means they become a basic platform to function out of, rather than a chore that takes awareness and effort. We have reformatted to ensure that each participant develops and keeps a Complete and Personal Template of Success

You get the complete package, This is nothing less that a complete rearranging to suit your tastes.

Ideas are a necessary underpinning, but this is also the time for action. It is not enough to have idea. You don’t really know what you have, until you put it to use.
Samoa is one of those moments where everything comes together. A landmark, a point of measurement, a sharp divide between before and after. A journey of openness and opportunity, This is an investment that pays Immediate dividends.

Don McFarland

The most accurate answer is:

“We don’t work on the conditions, We work on individuals. No matter what condition they bring to the table.”

What Body Harmony does:

Is Help You Function Better: By…..

• 1. Activating those areas that are not activated
• 2. Uniting those areas that work at cross purposes
• 3. Synchronizing body and mind into one Bodymind.

A session is usually an hour. How many sessions you take, and how often you take them, depends on your desires and aspirations.

Areas of application:

• 1. Individuals
• 2. Families
• 3. Corporations

I welcome your responses and questions and suggestions.
Health and happiness to you
Don McFarland

To download a pdf of this information, Body Harmony & Conditions. Click

This track is like what happens in the brain when a behavior or pattern is reinforced. It creates a strong pathway in the brain, which becomes the main mode of experience if the pathway is triggered. Doidge advocates retraining your brain by brain exercises, to reignite new pathways or possibilities.

In my terms, The Healing Loop is where someone continues to go over the same pattern and in effect reinforces the very issue they wish to correct. Through Body Harmony we aim to help our clients discover new, or less traveled pathways, that are more functional for them, now. We teach you how to get off the healing loop, by focusing on the possibility rather than the restriction.  This doesn’t mean that the problem is ignored, far from it; the focus is in creating an environment for you (your body) to discover the solution, to become more aware of your behaviour and to restructure. The results may be seen in differences in your posture, sensed and felt in your body, and experienced as enhanced quality of your life and relationships, getting you OFF the Healing Loop.

Module 5 – Getting off the Healing Loop and into Life
Saturday and Sunday 5th – 6th December  at Alaya Verde, Noosa Hinterland.
With International Body Harmony Teachers Gina Carruthers & Duncan Hogg
Module 5 helps you to retrain your body and your brain -  your bodymind. You learn techniques that help you to discover, and experience new options get you off the healing loop and into life. You can start using these skills you learn immediately yourself, with your friends, or clients. No previous experience required. Bring along any healing loops you want to get off of.  Experienced practitioners of all kinds will find the experience valuable to improving their practice.
Cost $395,  Payment by Cash, cheque to or internet banking to Body Harmony Seminars– call or email for details.
Previous participants of this module can review this Module for $230. Register now so we have time to ensure enough massage tables.