Monday 30 April 2018

Chrysanthemum Stone Encourages Synchronicity, Brings Luck

Chrysanthemum Stone

Chrysanthemum Stone encourages an increase in coincidences, boosts abundance and manifestation. It helps you find your purpose, brings luck, joy and child-like happiness into your life.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/chrysanthemum-stone.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

‘Blowin’ in the wind’ a song for M.E. by Robert Saunders | 30 April 2018

 


By Robert Saunders, 30th April, 2018.

This is my arrangement of Blowin’ in the Wind with alternative lyrics, performed by M.E. patients and their carers from around the world.

I support the ME Association and believe in what they are trying to achieve. If you enjoy this video, please consider a donation to their Ramsay Research Fund. We need to keep investing in biomedical research to better understand what causes M.E. and to develop effective treatments.

About the Song

Originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan for his breakthrough 1963 Freewheelin’ album, I started working on my own alternative lyrics of Blowin’ in the Wind in 2016. It wasn’t until the end of last year that I stumbled upon the idea of recording it with other people with M.E. and their carers from around the world.

Having posted messages on forums and social media, I was encouraged by the number of replies I received from people who were interested to take part.

Sadly, several volunteers had to drop out because they were not well enough to record themselves singing.

However, the final recording includes the voices of 18 people from 7 different countries – most of whom have never met or communicated with each other.

Originally, I was only going to use the extra voices for the choruses, but Kaeley’s harmony was so beautiful that I felt compelled to use it throughout the song.

I had no experience of doing anything like this before.

I have never sung in a choir or been well enough to play my guitar in public, and I’d never tried mixing more than one person’s voice, so I had no idea if it would work or not.

But I am pleased with the final result.

It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to work with so many talented and motivated people from the international M.E. community.

As well as all the singers, I am indebted to Anna and Jonas for providing me with the images for the video from their ME Perspective website, and for their help and enthusiasm throughout the project.

“I very much hope that our combined efforts will help to raise awareness of our struggle, the ignorance and injustices we face, and the desperate need for a huge increase in investment in biomedical ME research.”

Dedication

The song is dedicated to Anne Örtegren. I never knew Anne, or had any contact with her, but I had just read her beautifully written and deeply moving Farewell Letter when I recorded the song, and she has been very much in my mind throughout the process of production.


The Ramsay Research Fund

Please help us to build on our success and continue to expand our vital work. One day we will find the cause of ME/CFS and have an effective form of treatment. And with your help, that day could come much sooner.

If you would like to help the Ramsay Research Fund support even more biomedical research, please donate now:

  • Donate to us through BT MyDonatewith either a single online donation, click the button opposite,
  • by cheque (made payable to: The ME Association Ramsay Research Fund) to: The ME Association, 7 Apollo Office Court, Radclive Road, Gawcott, Bucks MK18 4DF.
  • by card donation over the phone to our head office (01280 818964).

Or, if you would like to fundraise for the Ramsay Research Fund, please start your online giving page, here.


Credits

Guitar and vocals: Robert Saunders (aka Robert McMullen; West Sussex, UK)
Harmony: Kaeley Pruit-Hamm (Seattle, WA, USA)
Chorus: Christina Kalinen (London, UK); Nikki Franklin (West Sussex, UK); Leela (USA); Maya Leutwiler (Zürich, Switzerland); Darla Nagel (Flushing, Michigan, USA); Lorna Robinson (West Sussex, UK); Olivia Rowe (North Cornwall, UK); Noa Henrietta Ruscheweyh-Sternberg (Hamburg, Germany); Barbara Saunders (West Sussex, UK); Emma Shorter (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK); Richard Shorter (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK); Simas (Lithuania); Becky Taurog (St Paul, MN, USA); Jen “Gemma” Taylor (Hagerstown, Maryland, USA); James Wallace (Hokkaido, Japan); Zoë Williams (Oxfordshire, UK)
Video images: Anna and Jonas, ME Perspective (Switzerland)
Arrangement, production and alternative lyrics: Robert Saunders
Original music & lyrics: Bob Dylan


More information


 



from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/blowin-in-the-wind-a-song-for-m-e-by-robert-saunders-30-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

#cfsme

ME Awareness Week Focus on Employment and Education – Free leaflets for you to download! | 30 April 2018

 


The ME Association is focusing on issues relating to employment and education during ME Awareness Week (7th – 14th May). We have conducted a website survey about employment and will be posting a new one about education very soon.

The survey results will be shared together with your stories about the issues you have faced, or the steps you have taken to best manage your M.E., at work or in education.

We will do this on our website and social media during ME Awareness Week.

To support our efforts to raise awareness of these particular issues, and to help with any events you might be planning, we have today made the following leaflets available as free downloads in our website shop:

Employment Issues and M.E.
Information and advice about stopping work or cutting back hours, keeping in touch with people at work while off sick, and negotiating a possible return to work. This detailed leaflet also looks at work-related benefits, other types of practical and financial help that may be available, early retirement on the grounds of ill-health, and how The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and The Equality Act 2010 relate to ME/CFS.

University and M.E.
Leaving home and heading off to university can be a daunting time for any person, particularly for those with a fluctuating condition like M.E. This leaflet explains how someone with M.E. – with a little advanced planning – can help make a successful start to their time at university. It’s written by lifestyle blogger Pippa Stacey who had to discover what worked best for herself while she was there.

M.E. Children and Young People
Jane Colby, chief executive of The Young ME Sufferers Trust (Tymes Trust), writes about the impact of this horrid illness on children and young people and on what you – their parents, guardians and families – can do to help them.

Examinations and M.E.
This letter summarises the special arrangements that may need to be planned ahead so that students with ME/CFS can make the best use of their potential when taking exams and the special considerations that may be required in the marking process.

Factsheet – What you need to know about M.E.
We hope that this new factsheet will prove a useful addition to any awareness events you might be planning, or as something you might like to share with friends, family, colleagues, employers, lecturers, etc. to inform them about M.E. and to help start conversations about any issues you face.

Please note: These are only available as free downloads. If you require them in printed form and sent to you in the post we will have to make a charge to cover the cost of postage.

Focus on Employment and Education

We want to raise awareness and understanding of:

  • the struggle to hold down a job,
  • the fear of losing a job and facing an uncertain future reliant on benefits,
  • the effect that giving up a career and the loss of employment can have,
  • the uncertainty of life on benefits,
  • the loss of education,
  • the difficulties encountered when trying to continue in education,
  • the successes and disappointments that studying can bring.

We are looking for summary accounts of your experience, or you might like to relate one memorable aspect of your story in relation to employment or education.

Perhaps you have been able to return to work and manage your illness, perhaps work remains impossible, or you struggle to work and need to crash when home and have surrendered all attempts at a social life, or maybe you’d like to tell us how hard you tried to stay in work.

You might like to tell us about how your employer has helped improve access to work, or how they haven’t – or why you decided not to tell your employer that you have M.E.

We hope to be able to then share these stories – or extracts from them – on our website and social media and in the local and national press (where we can).

Please try and keep your submission to a maximum of 250 words.

 

You can use our contact form to email your story or to highlight a personal issue.

 

Title your email: MEAW Employment or Education

 

Any stories we use, or extracts taken, will remain anonymous unless we seek your specific consent.

 

What else can you do?

If you would like to join us in Going BLUE and want to do something that will raise awareness of M.E., please visit our website for ideas, a campaign poster, and details of how you can get involved.

You can find details of other Going BLUE events and activities on our campaign JustGiving page. To start your own fundraising page, simply click on the orange ‘start fundraising’ button.

And if you need any help then please contact our fundraising manager – Helen Hyland – who can also help you organise an event or activity.

If you are unable to organise something yourself, please show your support with any donation you can spare.

Thank you.

#GoBlue4ME  

Text: BLUU47 £5 to 70070



from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/me-awareness-week-focus-on-employment-and-education-free-leaflets-for-you-to-download-30-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

#cfsme

The Far Shore

Raft on a lake

If you were to ask people familiar with Buddhism to identify its two most important wisdom teachings, they’d probably say emptiness and the four noble truths. If you were to ask them further which of the two teachings was more fundamental, they might hesitate, but most of them would probably put emptiness first, on the grounds that the four noble truths deal with a mental problem, while emptiness describes the way things in general are.

It wasn’t always this way. The Buddha himself gave more importance to the four noble truths, and it’s important to understand why.

When he boiled his teaching down to its shortest formulation, he said that he taught just dukkha—suffering and stress—and the cessation of dukkha (Majjhima Nikaya 22; Samyutta Nikaya 22.86). The four noble truths expand on this formulation, defining what suffering is—clinging; how it’s caused—craving and ignorance; the fact that it can be brought to an end by abandoning its cause; and the path of practice that leads to that end. Because part of the path of practice contains desire—the desire, in right effort, to act skillfully so as to go beyond suffering—the four noble truths also expand on one of the Buddha’s main observations about the phenomena of experience: that with the exception of nibbana, they’re all rooted in desire (Anguttara Nikaya 10.58). People aren’t simply passive recipients of their experience. Starting from their desires, they play an active role in shaping it. The strategy implied by the four noble truths is that desire should be retrained so that, instead of causing suffering, it helps act toward suffering’s end.

As for emptiness, the Buddha mentioned it only rarely, but one of his definitions for emptiness (SN 35.85) closely relates it to another teaching that he mentioned a great deal. That’s the teaching popularly known as the three characteristics, and that the Buddha himself called not “characteristics” but “perceptions”: inconstancy, suffering or stress, and not-self (AN 6:102–104). When explaining these perceptions, he taught that if you perceive fabricated things—all things conditioned by acts of intention—as inconstant, you’ll also see that they’re stressful and thus not worth identifying as you or yours.

His purpose in teaching these perceptions was that they be applied to suffering and its cause as a way of fostering dispassion both for the objects  of clinging and craving and for the acts of clinging and craving themselves. In this way, these perceptions were aids in carrying out the duties appropriate to the four noble truths: to comprehend suffering, to abandon its cause, to realize its cessation by developing the path. In other words, the four noble truths and their duties supplied the context for the three perceptions and determined their role in the practice.

However, over the centuries, as the three perceptions were renamed the three characteristics, they morphed in two other ways as well. First, they turned into a metaphysical teaching, as the characteristics of what things are: all are devoid of any essence because they’re impermanent, and—since nothing has any essence—there is no self. Second, because the three characteristics were now metaphysical truths, they became the context within which the four noble truths were true.

This switch in roles meant that the four noble truths morphed as well. Whereas the Buddha had identified suffering with all types of clinging—even the act of clinging to the phenomenon of the deathless [amata-dhamma], the unchanging dimension touched at the first taste of awakening —the relationship between clinging and suffering was now explained by the metaphysical fact that all possible objects of clinging were impermanent. To cling to them as if they were permanent has to result in sorrow and disappointment.

As for the ignorance that underlies craving: Whereas the Buddha had defined it as ignorance of the four noble truths, it was now defined as ignorance of the three characteristics. People cling and crave because they don’t realize that nothing has any essence and that there is no self. If they were to realize the truth of these teachings through direct experience—this became the purpose of mindfulness practice—they wouldn’t cling any more and so wouldn’t suffer.

This is how this switch in context, giving priority to the three characteristics over the four noble truths, has come to dominate modern Buddhism. The common pattern is that when modern authors explain right view, which the Buddha equated with seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, the discussion quickly switches from the four noble truths to the three characteristics to explain why clinging leads to suffering. Clinging is no longer directly equated with suffering; instead, it causes suffering because it assumes permanence and essence in impermanent things.

Even teachers who deny the truth of the four noble truths—on the grounds that the principle of impermanence means that no statement can be true everywhere for everyone—still accept the principle of impermanence as a metaphysical truth accurately describing the way things everywhere are.

Popular understandings of the Buddha’s teachings provide an impoverished view of the potentials for happiness.

As these explanations have percolated through modern culture, both among people who identify themselves as Buddhist and among those who don’t, they’ve given rise to three widespread understandings of the Buddha’s teachings on clinging and how it is best avoided in order to stop suffering:

1. Because there is no self, there is no agent. People are essentially on the receiving end of experience, and they suffer because they cling to the idea that they can resist or control change.

2. To cling means to hold on to something with the misunderstanding that it’s permanent. For this reason, as long as you understand that things are impermanent, you can embrace them briefly as they arise in the present moment, and it doesn’t count as clinging. If you embrace experiences in full realization that you’ll have to let them go in order to embrace whatever comes next, you won’t suffer. As long as you’re fully in the moment with no expectations about the future, you’re fine.

These first two understandings are often illustrated with the image of a perfectly fluid dancer, happily responsive to changes in the music decided by the musicians, switching partners with ease.

A 2015 bestseller, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, devoted a few pages to the place of Buddhism in world history, in the course of which it illustrated these two understandings of the Buddhist approach to suffering with another image: You’re sitting on the ocean shore, watching the waves come in. If you’re stupid enough to want to cling to “good” waves to make them permanent and to push “bad” waves away, you’ll suffer. But if you accept the fact that waves are just waves, fleeting and incessant, and that there’s no way you can either stop or keep them, you can be at peace as you simply watch, with full acceptance, as they do their thing.

The third widespread understanding about the Buddhist stance on clinging is closely related to the other two:

3. Clinging means holding on to fixed views. If you have set ideas about what’s right or wrong, or about how things should be—even about how the Buddha’s teachings should be interpreted—you’ ll suffer. But if you can let go of your fixed views and simply accept the way things are as the way they have to be, you’ ll be fine.

I recently saw a video clip of the French Buddhologist Dominique Trotignon explaining this principle: when asked by a female interviewer to illustrate the practical applications of the teaching on impermanence in daily life, he looked her in the eye and said, “It means lovers have to accept that their love today will have to express itself differently from their love yesterday.”

It’s been argued that these three understandings of the Buddha’s teachings on clinging don’t promote an attitude of unhealthy passivity, on the grounds that if you’re fully attuned to the present moment without clinging, you can be more freely active and creative in how you respond to change. Still, there’s something inherently defeatist in the picture they offer of life and of the possibilities of happiness that we as human beings can find. They allow for no dimension where we can be free from the unpredictability of waves or the self-righteous infidelity of lovers. It’s only within this narrow range of possibilities that our non-clinging creativity can eke out a little peace.

And when we compare these understandings with the Buddha’s actual teachings on clinging and the end of clinging—returning the three characteristics to their original role as three perceptions, and putting the four noble truths back in their rightful place as the context for the three perceptions—we’ll see not only how much the popular understandings of his teachings deviate from what he actually taught, but also what an impoverished view of the potentials for happiness those popular understandings provide.

To begin with, a lot can be learned from looking at the Pali word for “clinging”: upadana.  In addition to “clinging,” it also means “sustenance” and “the act of taking sustenance”: in other words, food and the act of feeding. The connection between feeding and suffering was one of the Buddha’s most radical and valuable insights, because it is so counterintuitive and at the same time so useful. Ordinarily, we find so much pleasure in the act of feeding, emotionally as well as physically, that we define our sense of identity by the way we feed off the world and the people around us. It took a person of the Buddha’s genius to see the suffering inherent in feeding, and that all suffering is a type of feeding: the fact that we feed off things that change simply adds an extra layer of stress on top of the stress intrinsic in the felt need always to feed.

And just as we feed off physical food without assuming that it’s going to be permanent, clinging to things doesn’t necessarily mean that we assume them to be permanent. We cling whenever we sense that the effort of clinging is repaid by some sort of satisfaction, permanent or not. We cling because there’s some pleasure in the things to which we cling (SN 22.60). When we can’t find what we’d like to cling to, our hunger forces us to take what we can get. For this reason, the act of embracing things in the present moment still counts as clinging. Even if we’re adept at moving from one changing thing to another, it simply means that we’re serial clingers, taking little bites out of every passing thing. We still suffer in the incessant drive to find the next bite to eat.

This is why being constantly mindful of the truth of impermanence isn’t enough to solve the problem of suffering. To really solve it, we need to change our feeding habits—radically—so that we can strengthen the mind to the point where it no longer needs to feed. This requires a two-pronged strategy: (a) seeing the drawbacks of our ordinary ways of feeding; and (b) providing the mind with better food in the meantime until it has outgrown the need to feed on anything at all. 

The first prong of the strategy is where the three perceptions come in. First you apply them to things to which you might cling or crave, to see that the benefits of holding on to those things are far outweighed by the drawbacks. You focus on the extent to which the happiness they provide is inconstant, and that because it’s inconstant, the effort to keep it going involves stress. When you see that the happiness isn’t worth the effort of the clinging, you realize that it’s not worthy to be claimed as you or yours. It’s not-self: in other words, not worth claiming as self. In this way, the perception of not-self isn’t a metaphysical assertion. It’s a value judgment: that the effort to define yourself around the act of feeding on those things simply isn’t worth it.

This analysis works, however, only if you have something better to feed on in the interim. Otherwise, you’ll simply go back to your old feeding habits. Nobody ever stopped eating simply through the realization that foods and stomachs are impermanent.

In the practice to gain freedom from suffering, the four noble truths must always come first.

This is where the second prong of the Buddha’s strategy comes in. You develop the path as your interim nourishment, focusing in particular on the pleasure and rapture of right concentration as your alternative source of food (AN 7.63). When the path is fully developed, it opens to another dimension entirely: the deathless, a happiness beyond the reach of space, time, and the six senses.

But because the mind is such a habitual feeder, on its first encounter with the deathless it tries to feed on it—which turns the experience into a phenomenon, and stands in the way of full awakening. This is where the perception of not-self gets employed once more, to counteract this last form of clinging: to the deathless. Even though the deathless in itself is neither stressful nor inconstant, any act of clinging to it has to involve stress. So the perception of not-self has to be applied here as well, to peel away this last obstacle to full awakening beyond all phenomena. When this perception has done its work, “not-self” gets put aside—just as everything else is let go—and the mind, free from hunger, gains full release.

A traditional image for this release, which comes from employing the three perceptions in the context of the four noble truths, is of a person standing on firm ground after taking the raft of the noble eightfold path over a river in flood. Safe from the waves and currents of the river, the person is totally free—even freer than the image can convey. There’s nothing intrinsically hunger-free about standing on a riverbank—it’s more a symbol of relief—but everyone who has experienced what the image is pointing to guarantees that, to the extent that you can call it a place, it’s a place of no hunger and so no need for desire.

If we compare this image with that of the person on the shore of the ocean watching the waves, we can get a sense of how limited the happiness is that’s offered by understanding the four noble truths in the context of the three characteristics, as opposed to the happiness offered by understanding the three perceptions in the context of the four noble truths.

To begin with, the Buddha’s image of crossing the river doesn’t put quotation marks around concepts of good and bad waves in the water. The flood is genuinely bad, and the ultimate goodness in life is when you can truly get beyond it.

Second, unlike the image of sitting on the shore, watching an ocean beyond your control, the Buddha’s image conveys the point that there’s something you can do to get to safety: you have within you the power to follow the duties of the four noble truths and develop the path that will take you to the other side.

Third, to sit watching the ocean waves come ashore is peaceful and desirable only as long as you’re wealthy enough to be at a resort, with someone to bring you food, drink, and shelter on a regular basis. Otherwise, you have to keep searching for these things on your own. And even at the resort, you’re not safe from being swept away by tsunamis and storms.

The image of crossing the river to safety on the farther shore also offers an enlightening perspective on the view that all fixed views should be abandoned. In the classic interpretation of the image, the river stands for the fourfold flood of sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance, while the raft of the noble eightfold path includes right view. Although it’s true that the raft is abandoned on reaching the further shore, you still have to hold on to it while you’re crossing the river. Otherwise, you’ll be swept downstream.

What’s rarely noticed is the paradox contained in the image. Right view, seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, is part of the raft needed to cross over the flood of views (SN 35.187). As the Buddha saw, it’s the only view that can perform this function, taking you safely all the way across the river and delivering you to the farther shore.

It can take you all the way across because it’s always true and relevant. Cultural changes may affect what we choose to feed on, but the fact of feeding is a constant, as is the connection between suffering and the need to feed. In that sense, right view counts as fixed. It can never be replaced by a more effective understanding of suffering. At the same time, it’s always relevant in that the framework of the four noble truths can be brought to bear on every choice you make at every stage of the practice. Here it differs from the three perceptions, for while the Buddha noted that they’re always true (AN 3.137), they’re not always relevant (MN 136). If, for instance, you perceive the results of all actions, skillful or not, as impermanent, stressful, and not-self, this can dissuade you from making the effort to be skillful in what you do, say, or think.

In addition to being always true and relevant, right view is responsible. It gives reliable guidance on what should and shouldn’t be taken as food for the mind. As the Buddha said, any teaching that can’t give trustworthy guidelines for determining what’s skillful and unskillful to do abdicates a teacher’s primary responsibility to his or her students (AN 3.62). The Buddhologist’s answer to the interviewer exemplifies how irresponsible the teaching to abandon fixed views can be. And the look she gave him showed that she wanted nothing of it.

After taking you responsibly all the way across the river, right view can deliver you to the farther shore because it contains the seeds for its own transcendence, which, as you develop them, deliver you to a transcendent dimension (AN 10.93). Right view does this by focusing on the processes by which the mind creates stress for itself, at the same time encouraging you to abandon those processes when you sense that they’re causing stress. In the beginning, this involves clinging to right view as a tool to pry loose your attachments to gross causes of stress. Over time, as your taste for mental food becomes more refined through its exposure to right concentration, you become sensitive to causes of stress that are more and more subtle. These you abandon as you come to detect them, until eventually there’s nothing else to abandon aside from the path. That’s when right view encourages you to turn the analysis on the act of holding on to and feeding on right view itself. When you can abandon that, there’s nothing left for the mind to cling to, and so it’s freed.

The view that all fixed views should be abandoned, however,  doesn’t contain this dynamic. It provides no grounds for deciding what should and shouldn’t be done. It can itself act as an object of craving and clinging, becoming as fixed as any other view. If you decide to drop this view, for whatever reason, it delivers you nowhere. It offers no guidance on how to choose anything better, and as a result you end up clinging to whatever passing view seems attractive. You’re still stuck in the river, grasping at pieces of flotsam and jetsam as the flood carries you away.

This is why it’s always important to remember that, in the practice to gain freedom from suffering, the four noble truths must always come first. They give guidance for the rest of the path, determining the role and function of all of the Buddha’s other teachings—including emptiness and the three perceptions—so that, instead of lulling you into being satisfied with an exposed spot on the beach, they can take you all the way to the safety of full release, beyond the reach of any possible wave.

The post The Far Shore appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.



from Teachings – Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-far-shore/

from https://tricycle.org

#buddhist #buddhism

Boundaries Make Good Bodhisattvas

Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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from http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/

#spiritual

Sunday 29 April 2018

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from Spiritual Seeker 77
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#spiritual

spiritualseeker77: No you’re not crazy - the world needs fresh... | Spiritual



spiritualseeker77:

No you’re not crazy - the world needs fresh perspectives!!! :)



from Spiritual Seeker 77
http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/post/173430042196

from http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/

#spiritual

Using Crystal Skulls And The Benefits To You

Magenta Fluorite Skull

Why are crystal skulls often made from quartz crystal? Skulls are also carved from various other stones to represent the human skull. Wonder how you use them? Learn about how to use them and their benefits.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/crystal-skulls.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Rose Quartz Crystal Is The Love Stone For This Age

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz Crystal is rose pink colored quartz that aids all types of relationships. Has metaphysical properties to bring loving energy of heart chakra and thymus chakra to heal relationships.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/rose-quartz-crystal.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

spiritualseeker77: Stay strong fellow spiritual seekers - you... | Spiritual



spiritualseeker77:

Stay strong fellow spiritual seekers - you are all awesome!!!



from Spiritual Seeker 77
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from http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/

#spiritual

Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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from http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/

#spiritual

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from Spiritual Seeker 77
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#spiritual

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from Spiritual Seeker 77
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from http://spiritualseeker77.tumblr.com/

#spiritual

Saturday 28 April 2018

Clear Quartz Crystals Embody Clear White Spiritual Light

Clear Quartz Crystal Cluster

Clear Quartz Crystals are common stones that embody the white ray and have a high vibration. Easy to program, they assist the higher chakras to emanate white light to create a spiritual connection.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/clear-quartz-crystals.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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#spiritual

Cleansing Crystals Will Create Positive Energy Within Them

Cleansing crystals with rice

Cleansing crystals is easy to do! Learn the various methods to use including using a crystal singing bowl to create positive energy within the stones.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/cleansing-crystals.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Apr 28, Home Exercising Tips for Health and Fitness

The following exercising tips will help you incorporate fitness into your work and home life with ease.

from Holistic Healing Blog
http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/exercising-tips.html

from http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/holistic-healing-blog.html

#holistic #healing

Apr 28, Understanding Meditation and Stress

The 20th Century buzz-word was certainly stress. The beauty of the 21st century is we’ve perfected stress with technology. Because many of us lead such

from Holistic Healing Blog
http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/understanding-meditation-and-stress.html

from http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/holistic-healing-blog.html

#holistic #healing

Friday 27 April 2018

Spessartine Garnet Is A Stone Of Harmony And Good Health

Spessartine Garnet

Spessartine Garnet improves thinking & heightens imagination. It is a beneficial healing stone that helps to heal a large number of health issues. It stimulates the three lower chakras to boost abundance & prosperity, enhance creativity & improve sexuality. Aka Spessartite.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/spessartine-garnet.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

A Broken Broom, a Tattered Scripture

One is the Bodhisattva of the Great Path, The other the Patriarch of the Great Buddha. What evidence is there?

from Buddhism now
https://buddhismnow.com/2018/04/27/a-broken-broom-a-tattered-scripture/

from https://buddhismnow.com

#buddhism #buddhist #Buddha

Yellow Apatite Enhances Weight Loss And Self Confidence

Yellow Apatite

Yellow Apatite helps you to lose weight, aids manifestation and stimulates creativity. Aka Gold or Golden Apatite brings strength of will and mental clarity, has yellow ray metaphysical properties.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/yellow-apatite.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

spiritualseeker77: To all my followers: I believe in you!!!... | Spiritual



spiritualseeker77:

To all my followers: I believe in you!!! There is nothing you cannot do :)

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spiritualseeker77: Your fortune for today :-) | Spiritual



spiritualseeker77:

Your fortune for today :-)



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5 effective Ayurvedic teas to relax and calm your anxious mind

Don’t we all look forward to that cup of tea early in the morning? It is because a cup of tea makes us feel fresh and rejuvenated to begin our...

from Ayurveda India – Ayurvedic Remedies | Holistic Health
http://www.ayurvedictalk.com/5-effective-ayurvedic-teas-to-relax-and-calm-your-anxious-mind/2941/

from http://www.ayurvedictalk.com

#ayurveda #ayurvedic

ReMEmber Annual Conference with Dr Charles Shepherd and Dr Amolak Bansal is open to the general public | 27 April 2018

 


ReMEmber Press Release.

reMEmber will once again hold its Annual ME/CFS Awareness Week Conference in Burgess Hill this year. We are very grateful to Burgess Hill Town Council who are sponsoring this event with a grant of £1300.

We are calling on doctors, rehabilitation teams, healthcare professionals and, of course, patients and carers to come along and tell us what they want from a good service

The Conference will take place in the Sheldrake Suite at Martlets Hall, Burgess Hill RH15 9NN on Saturday 12th May starting at 2.00pm.

There will be two key speakers; Dr Amolak Bansal, consultant immunologist and Medical Adviser to reMEmber, and Dr Charles Shepherd, Medical Adviser to the National ME Association.

Dr Bansal (pictured) will be talking about some of the recent ground-breaking research into ME/CFS.

Dr Shepherd, who has ME himself, has spoken at several of our previous conferences. He will talk on several subjects including welfare benefits, the review of the NICE guidance, dealing with your doctor, and the need for more research.

Both doctors will take questions from the audience, and we want professionals, patients and carers to bring your ideas for a better deal for ME/CFS patients which we can pass on to NICE when we meet them on 25th May.

Because the event will be so popular reMEmber advises people to get tickets early. Tickets are £5 each including light refreshments.

You can buy them online through Eventbrite by going to our website www.remembercfs.org.uk or send a cheque and a stamped addressed envelope to reMEmber, PO Box 1647, Hassocks, West Sussex, BN6 9GQ.

Local Media:
Mix Sussex Times; 26 April, 2018. Public invited to conference in Burgess Hill


For further information contact Janice on 01273 831733, e-mail info@remembercfs.org.uk, or visit www.remembercfs.org.uk


 



from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/remember-annual-conference-with-dr-charles-shepherd-and-dr-amolak-bansal-is-open-to-the-general-public-27-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

#cfsme

Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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Thursday 26 April 2018

Use Specific Crystals For Sleep For A Better Nights Rest

Crystals For Sleep

Using specific crystals for sleep may help you have a more restful night. Got insomnia? See list of best sleep crystals and find out methods to help you to sleep better.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/crystals-for-sleep.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Shaman Stones Balance Male-Female Elements, Release Fear of Death

Shaman Stone

Shaman Stones from Utah have strong metaphysical properties for spiritual growth, shamanic journeying & psychic protection. Release deep seated fear of death. Also called Moqui Marbles or Mochi Balls.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/shaman-stones.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Wednesday 25 April 2018

10 Tips for Teaching Your Kids Mindful Breathing

Just like adults, children will experience the same emotions of stress, anxiety, worry, sadness, anger, fear, etc. as they go about learning and growing.

However, the main difference is that the young developing mind doesn’t always know how to process, release, or properly categorize these emotions. So we need to help them learn, using the right tools and methods.

A lot of these methods are actually pretty easy to learn ourselves, as well as to teach to our young kids. One of these is Tapping, which I love to use with children because it’s a physical activity that keeps them engaged, while encouraging them to really tune in to their feelings at the same time.

Another technique that is really simple and powerful is learning how to breathe mindfully. Now, we all know how to breathe, and our bodies do it naturally without us having to think about it.

But “mindful” breathing is a little bit different because it pairs our breathing with our conscious thoughts and imagination. Just through the proper use of our breath, we can change both the emotional and biological states of our bodies. It’s super-easy to learn, but simply just isn’t taught very much in Western culture.

Teaching kids how to breathe mindfully to let go of stress and their bad feelings is the inspiration behind my newest children’s book called “My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing”. So be sure to pick up a copy!

But in addition, I wanted to add some other helpful tips to go along with the book itself that will help your child learn the technique of midful breathing. Here’s a short list to get you started!

1. Set aside some time every day

Children are very accustomed to doing things every day on a routine schedule, starting from their days as an infant. Feeding time, nap time, play time, school time, reading time, quite time, etc.

So by designating a specific time every day to practice “breathing time”, your kids will get into a habit of practicing it.

2. Have a special “breathing space”

Similar to above, children associate their environment with specific activities. The crib is for sleeping, the changing table is for changing diapers, the high chair is for eating, the potty is for using the bathroom, the rocking chair is for feeding, and so on.

For making a space for your kids to practice breathing, it should be quiet, comfortable, and relaxing. A big fluffy pillow, a furry soft blanket, a colorful corner of their room, or a cozy sitting chair works great.

3. Make it fun

We all know how quickly developing new habits fizzle out when they seem like hard work. And for children especially, you want to make sure that learning how to breathe mindfully is fun! The goal is to make it relaxing and enjoyable, not just another chore. 🙂

4. Practice it yourself

Children learn by mimicking those around them, so why not set a good example? As a parent, teacher, or anyone who works closely with kids, using mindful breathing techniques yourself to release stress and other built up emotions won’t just provide a good example to follow,  it will also do wonders for your own relaxation too. 🙂

5. Ask your kids better questions

A part of mindful breathing is actually focusing on those negative emotions you want to release, while bringing in those positive emotions you’d like to feel. So for children, a big part of that is asking them the right questions.

For example, instead of asking, “How was your day today?” try asking more questions like, “What was the most exciting part of your day? Is there one thing that made you feel sad or angry today? When that bad thing happened, how did it make you feel? If you could change one thing today that would make you feel better, what would it be?”

Questions like these will not only encourage them to identify the parts of their day to practice mindful breathing with, it will also help to develop your child’s emotional intelligence, communication skills, self-esteem, and adaptability.

6. Include some props

To add to the fun of teaching children how to breathe mindfully, include things like pinwheels, bubbles, wind chimes, or a stuffed animal “breathing buddy” they can practice with. Adding in sensory stimuli (sounds, colors, movement, touch, etc.) helps to associate the practice of mindful breathing with making things change.

Just like blowing on a pinwheel or blowing bubbles will make them move or float away, the same thing will happen with their bad emotions on the inside.

7. Offer some positive incentives

There will probably be days when it will be difficult to help your child to practice mindful breathing, so sometimes offering a positive reward like their favorite piece of fruit or extra playtime before bed will do the trick!

Avoid doing this too often, however, because you don’t want to create the habit of substituting the outer reward for inner reward of having them feel better. That’s the true prize.

8. Have your kids measure their feelings before and after breathing

Just like we do with Tapping, you can have your kids measure their feelings before and after the breathing exercise. If they are feeling sad, ask them on a scale of 1-10 how sad they feel.

Or if they don’t know numbers yet, have them measure with their hands. Holding their arms out wide will be really sad, while bringing them close together means less sad. And, of course, make sure to have them measure their happy feelings too! 🙂

9. Give lots of encouragement

Everyone thrives on encouragement, especially children! Let them know they’re doing great, even if it takes some time to get into the habit of mindful breathing. Every step is a positive one, and every stumble is learning experience. This mindset alone is the basis for many self-help books and a highly recognized success principle.

10. Pick up a copy of my book, My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing

Books are a wonderful way to teach children how to do lots of things, and I just love writing children’s books. My newest one, called “My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing” was created just for this purpose.

With co-author Alison Taylor and beautifully illustrated by Michelle Polizzi, this picture book will help your child find a sense of calm through the magic of mindful breathing.

I hope this list is helpful to you! Pick up a copy of my book here and practice the tips above to begin teaching the wonderful skill of mindful breathing with you children!

Until next time…

Keep Tapping!

Nick Ortner

The post 10 Tips for Teaching Your Kids Mindful Breathing appeared first on The Tapping Solution.



from The Tapping Solution
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/10-tips-teaching-kids-mindful-breathing/

from https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog

#EFT #holistic #healing

Abraham Hicks Books, Detailed Guides For Living Life On Purpose

Esther Hicks

Have you read the Abraham Hicks Books? These in-depth books talk about the Law of Attraction, and will help you to discover how to improve your life using the powerful concepts presented.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/abraham-hicks.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Yttrium Fluorite Aids Growth of Mediumship And Psychic Gifts

Yttrium Fluorite

Yttrium Fluorite is a rare Lavender Fluorite with a high vibration, that aids mystical & spiritual growth. It stimulates you intellectually and makes an amazing connection directly to the Divine Mind.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/yttrium-fluorite.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Quartz Crystal Healing How Does It Work And Why Use It?

Golden Healer Quartz

Quartz crystal healing has become a popular method of healing. But which crystals to use? Learn more about it.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/quartz-crystal-healing.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Smithsonite Aids Stress, Boosts Psychic Gifts

Smithsonite

Smithsonite enhances psychic gifts such as telepathy, clairvoyance, clairsentience and intuition. It has strong compassionate energy that heals the immune system and helps stress and emotional problems.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/smithsonite.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

How to Be Mindful of Young Minds

When we get a bruise or a scratch on our bodies, we are typically very certain that it will heal with time, because that’s what the body is designed to do. And because we can actually see it happen, we become very familiar with the healing process.

For young children, we even go out of our way to ensure that everything will be alright after a tumble or a scrape. We offer added attention, we pour on the encouragement, we kiss the boo boo, and we bandage up the injury with care.

But what about the emotional stings and wounds that we can’t see? Don’t they deserve as much attention as physical ones?

What I’ve experienced time and again when Tapping with clients (and what any academically trained and board-certified psychologist or therapist can confirm) is that a great majority of our adult problems are rooted in unresolved emotional events from our childhoods.

That’s because the child’s mind is very much influenced by their immediate environment and can’t always correctly process the events that take place. Something simple like an embarrassing moment at school can be misinterpreted as “dangerous”.

Feeling of anger, stress, sadness, fear, or loneliness can remain with the child for long periods of time if not properly released.

Whether they are big or small, we all have emotional wounds. But what if we were able to teach our kids how to properly take care of them and heal them when they happened, so that they wouldn’t be carried into their adult lives?

The good news is that there ARE tools we can teach our children, and they need nothing more than what our bodies are already equipped with.

One of these tools is Tapping, of course. And we are building quite a library of resources to help kids learn how to tap. You can find a few of those at the bottom of this post.

Another tool that every single living human on the planet has is our breath. Yes, that’s right, simply breathing in a certain way can help to reduce and even eliminate many of the negative emotions kids can experience.

Mindful breathing has been practiced for thousands of years, and is a core component of most meditation practices.

It’s also the focus of my newest children’s book, “My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing”.

With co-author Alison Taylor and beautifully illustrated by Michelle Polizzi, this picture book will help children to find a sense of calm through the magic of breathing.

Whether read and practiced during story time, or even as a bed-time story to help your kids relax for a more peaceful sleep, this book is a wonderful tool to have on hand.

In a fun and interactive way, “My Magic Breath” will teach youngsters how to use their breathing to make themselves feel better. And the more we can help kids release their negative emotions and stress, the better off they’ll be as they grow into adults!

Until next time,

Keep Tapping!

Nick Ortner


Here are some other children’s resources that you can also explore:

Bring Tapping to Your School
Tapping for Kids Video – YouTube
The Tapping Solution for Parents, Children & Teenagers
Gorilla Thumps and Bear Hugs: A Tapping Solution Children’s Story
The Big Book of Hugs: A Barkley the Bear Story

The post How to Be Mindful of Young Minds appeared first on The Tapping Solution.



from The Tapping Solution
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/mindful-young-minds/

from https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog

#EFT #holistic #healing

Monday 23 April 2018

The Power Of Positive Affirmations To Manifest Your Dreams

Blue Lace Agate

Utilize the power of positive affirmations combined with both the power of intention and an attitude of gratitude. This is highly effective to aid you to manifest the life of your dreams.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/the-power-of-positive-affirmations.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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Photo | Spiritual





from Spiritual Seeker 77
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Cryolite For Lightbody Awakening, Ascension & Enlightenment

Cryolite

Cryolite is an amazing high vibration crystal that energizes the brain and produces a strong mind-heart link, creating a deep connection to the higher realms and to Spirit.



from Healing Crystals For You
https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/cryolite.html

from https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/healing-crystals-blog.html

#crystals #crystal #healing

ME Awareness Week: ‘People with M.E are the strongest, bravest, most dedicated, empathetic, generous and hard-working people in the world!’ | 23 April 2018

 


Introducing Lee Stammers

It is Lee’s beautiful self-portrait that we are using as our campaign image for ME Awareness Week 2018.

Why Lee? Because he knows what it is like trying to study and to work with M.E. And because that is what the ME Association will be focusing on in ME Awareness Week.

Lee has had M.E. for 20 years and strongly believes it is very important that people understand what the condition is all about.

Lee said, “I was a 19-year-old sports science student when I realised something was wrong with my body.

“Suddenly I couldn’t play sport any more.

“Overnight my muscles stopped working, I was cramping and unable to run or kick a football.

“I was then inundated with exhaustion, headaches, a heavy fog and a feeling of loss.

“It took three years for my diagnosis – and that was largely thanks to the determination and hard work of my wonderful mum. She never gave up and refused to let the medical world tell us that something wasn’t wrong.

“I was told that I would not work for 3 years. But through my own inner strength and naivety I took myself back to work. Only part-time and only for a few hours a day. It gave me a sense of purpose and allowed me to meet people.

“Continuing to ignore my symptoms, I tested my body further trying a full-time job. That lasted 7 months before my crashes became too severe. But, I still did not listen to my body.”

“I pushed it even further and went back to university, this time to study Physiotherapy. If I thought I was bad before, I soon realised that that the pressure, cognitive demands and unpredictability of university life were far too much for my system. I had to accept my frailties and my weaknesses (as I thought).

“Somehow my inner strength enabled me to achieve a first class degree but the damage was already done; I was reliant on pain relief and was having so many crashes that my life was effectively at a standstill.

“Did I then stop and listen to my body? Only after once again testing myself in full-time employment for a year, which resulted in both physical and mental collapse.

“Finally, enough was enough. I resigned from my job and started to prioritise myself, to accept my health as an actual disability, a severe condition that required respect.”

 

Listen to what your body is telling you

Lee Stammers, who went BLUE back in February.

“I believe that those of us with M.E. have a strong inner drive to be active, to strive, to make plans and conquer ambitions. M.E. destroys this and leaves us often isolated and frustrated.

“If I could give any advice to those newly diagnosed with M.E. or those still testing themselves against it, it would be to listen to your body.

“It is telling you what it wants, it is not judging you or competing with you; it simply wants you to listen, to accept, and to start living a new life.”

In February this year, Lee dyed his hair BLUE to raise awareness of ME and fundraise for The ME Association.

He chose blue as it’s the internationally accepted colour of M.E. awareness.

The ME Association

Lee added, “This is such an important cause. The ME Association helps increase awareness of M.E., provides support and invests in desperately needed biomedical research.

“Despite all the negatives about this condition I would like other people to realise something:

 

“People with M.E are the strongest, bravest, most dedicated, empathetic, generous and hard-working people in the world!

 

“Please don’t judge them for what you may not understand.”

 

Fundraising Manager, Helen Hyland, writes:

“Thank you, Lee, for leading the way in going BLUE for ME, and for putting into both words and images just how ME feels.

“And thank you too for spearheading our campaign to increase awareness of M.E. in employment and education.

“We’re doing all we can to support you and thousands of others like you – in the hope that we can make the world a better place for everyone who suffers from this truly devastating condition.”


If you would like to learn more about the ME Association and its vital work supporting people with M.E., and learn more about ME Awareness Week (7th – 14th May), please visit our website.

And if you would like to show your support for our work, please make a donation to our JustGiving campaign Go BLUE for ME 2018.

Lee adds, “If you could please help in even a small way, I would be truly grateful.”

#GoBLUE4ME


 



from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/me-awareness-week-people-with-m-e-are-the-strongest-bravest-most-dedicated-empathetic-generous-and-hard-working-people-in-the-world-23-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

#cfsme

Public consultation on PIP results in DWP pledge to record all assessments | 23 April 2018

 


ITV News, 23 April, 2018

Ministers urged to go further in disability benefits reform after major review

Frank Field, chairman of the Work and Pensions select committee (PA) Photo: PA Archive/PA Images

MPs and campaigners have urged the Government to go further in reforming benefits for disabled people after ministers published their response to a major review.

The Department for Work and Pensions has pledged to make recording assessments for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) a standard part of the process.

This is one of the recommendations the Government has accepted after an inquiry by the Work and Pensions select committee into PIP and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

However, ministers rejected other recommendations in areas such as collecting evidence and ensuring claimants are sent a copy of their assessment report.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the committee’s inquiry showed that assessments worked well for the vast majority of people, and it was committed to putting transparency at the heart of the process.

“We are concerned that the Government lacks the levers to get value for money out of its private contractors.” Frank Field.

Labour MP Frank Field, chairman of the select committee, said recording PIP assessments as standard was “a tremendous step forward”.

“The process relies on trust, and our inquiry found it sorely lacking. This move should go a long way to restoring trust and driving up the quality of assessments,” added the former welfare minister.

“But the response falls short in several areas. For example, we think claimants should always receive their assessment reports without having to ask, and we are concerned that the Government lacks the levers to get value for money out of its private contractors.

“This response marks the start of another stage in our work on PIP and ESA – we will use House of Commons debates to push the Government to go further in support of disabled people.”

Nearly 3,500 people provided evidence to the committee about their experience of PIP and ESA, in what Mr Field said was an unprecedented response.

Sarah Newton, Minister of State, DWP Credit: Sarah Newton

MPs found that for at least 290,000 claimants of PIP and ESA, 6% of all those assessed, the right decision on entitlement was not made first time around.

There was concern over the cost of the appeals process, with Press Association research showing £108.1 million was spent on direct staffing costs for ESA and PIP appeals since October 2015, with the Ministry of Justice spending a further £103.1 million on social security and child support tribunals in 2016/17.

The private firms carrying out PIP assessments have been paid £824 million since the benefit was introduced in 2013, according to figures obtained by the Independent.

The committee’s final report in February expressed concerns over assessment reports “riddled with errors and omissions” and that public contract failures had “led to a loss of trust that risks undermining the operation of major disability benefits”.

It also suggested the assessments for PIP and ESA may be better delivered in-house.

Ministerial response

In its response, the DWP said the quality of both PIP assessments and the work capability assessment for ESA claimants was improving year on year and its “use of contractual levers over the last contracts has led to consistent improvements across both PIP and ESA”.

In response to the select committee report, the DWP is to commission independent research to improve the application forms, which Mr Field has dubbed “gruelling”.

However, ministers rejected a recommendation to send claimants copies of their assessment reports as standard, saying only that they would improve communications to ensure people know they can request a copy.

The Government also rejected calls for a “checklist” system for assessors to monitor what evidence they were using in their decisions, saying all supporting evidence is already recorded and attached to claims.

Charities Disability Rights UK and the MS Society welcomed the move to record assessments, but urged the Government go further.

“We have to remember that PIP and ESA are not well designed benefits, and fail to meet the needs of many disabled people.” Philip Connolly, policy manager, Disability Rights UK.

“Overall, the current assessment providers offer poor value for money for the taxpayer and we urge the Government to consider very seriously the option of returning the assessment process in house, given the contracts are up for review,” said Philip Connolly, policy manager at Disability Rights UK.

“But we have to remember that PIP and ESA are not well designed benefits, and fail to meet the needs of many disabled people.

“Changes to the assessment process for the better are welcome, but there are wider issues which need to be addressed.”

Genevieve Edwards, director of external affairs at the MS Society, added that “a lot more needs to be done before we see a welfare system that makes sense”.

She said: “We’re particularly concerned the Government won’t make improvements around how healthcare professionals can consistently provide evidence.

“Without this, assessors don’t have enough knowledge about MS and this is causing many people to be denied what they are rightly entitled to.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: “As the committee highlights, assessments work well for the vast majority of people.

“But one person’s poor experience is one too many, and we’re committed to continuously improving the process for people so that they get the support they need.

“We’ll continue to take forward our actions to improve assessments, with an emphasis on promoting transparency and ensuring people get the right decision, first time round.” DWP spokeswoman.

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said: “The Government is failing sick and disabled people. This response falls far short of the urgent action needed to end the unnecessary stress and anxiety being inflicted through both the ESA and PIP assessment processes.

“Under private contractors these processes are getting worse, not better, often damaging the health and well-being of the very people who need support.

“The Government should scrap the current assessment regime, put an end to the privatisation and work to deliver a social security system in which people can have confidence.

“Labour will replace this failing system with personalised, holistic support, responsive to individual needs.”


You can read the original report from ITV news on their website.


 

 



from ME Association
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/public-consultation-on-pip-results-in-dwp-pledge-to-record-all-assessments-23-april-2018/

from http://www.meassociation.org.uk

#cfsme