Memories of the Skydive

To view the full skydive video click here!

Two photos prior to the Skydive and I am smiling in both. Amazing how happy you can feel when you have no knowledge of what is about to happen. Well I suppose I had an inkling... however it is nothing like the real thing. You know... the reality of  falling from a plane at a great height!  

The following is a picture story of the event as it unfolded. A record of my thoughts and feelings wonderfully etched on my face for all to see.

Each participant gets "bussed" out to the runway and the sun is shining and all is well with the world. Once out on the runway, we wait for the plane to arrive and I am anticipating all that the scrambling into the small plane will entail. I have had a practise run so I know that my knees are up to the various positions and although I am aware of my heart beat, it isn't pounding excessively.  Strange to say I am eager to be up and oft. Or is that glad to be getting it over with... how does one know how to explain one's feelings in words. 

Excited just doesn't do justice to the moment! The plane arrives and in we go... hand in hand! 

I am full of confidence in my instructor. I am smiling and grateful that so far my knees are up to the scrambling and cramped seated position on the tiny plane. Steve, my instructor is reassuring and keeps the banter going and my mind fully focussed on the delights of the views and the joy of the flight. He has done this jump literally thousands of times and with many people from the whole age spectrum.

I can't stop smiling! why? to be honest I don't know why. I think nerves have a lot to do with it although there is a lot of banter going on. Chik, the photographer and Steve are past masters at putting you at ease and this is after all a once in a lifetime experience for me. I remind myself  over and over again that I am doing this to raise funds for the Canine Partners charity as otherwise I would not be risking life and limb just for the thrill.

There were other charity skydivers in our group. I had met Alicia the previous week and she was raising money for Help for Heroes. Kayleigh was raising money for a local Cancer charity. Another for the Roy Castle Lung Foundation and someone else was skydiving for  Diabetes UK. I was in good company both on and off the ground... and here is the ground we are flying over.


The view is stupendous. I can see the whole of the estuary and the river flowing through the fields. There are a few clouds in the sky but not many.  The wind is perfect ... everything is as it should be.
We have got the best of the day. Amazingly, I am still smiling, even the sun is smiling!

Ready?!

However as I get ready to go, as seen below, I am definitely not smiling now eh! You can tell what I am feeling by the look on my face. However I am sure you cannot read my thoughts as I realise that the door is opening, the sign that the die is cast ... Steve is still smiling though, you can tell that he loves his job. I am having to move from fear into feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Now I really don't think that Skydiving was what Susan Jeffers had in mind when she wrote the famous book! I remember reading it and as I recall it worked wonders for my public speaking events! At this moment I am having difficulty speaking at all...

Steady?

Go!

And keep going!

So here we are in flight and I find myself enjoying it! Who knew that the fear would go so quickly and that exhilaration would arrive with the acceleration!

The view was amazing, the feeling of flight phenomenal, however being under the canopy was the best part for me. There was general elation going on that I had made an excellent exit from the plane. Steve's words not mine. To be honest I can't really remember the exit too clearly.

Viewed from above...

Viewed from below...

Here I am safely landed and very, very grateful. My hands are acknowledging Namaste... the sanskrit word for "I salute the divine" and you can be sure at that moment in time I was most definitely living in gratitude for all that is holy!

I made a perfect landing as in standing upright! Brilliant is how I described the experience at the time. Now I would use the words borrowed from our friends from over the pond and say "Outstanding - Awesome". These adjectives describe both my experience and the people who made the Skydive possible...

Thank you soooo much Steve and Chik! How can I ever thank you enough for the safe journey through the sky... those memories etched forever in my mind and recorded on film to be revisited whenever I want to take flight!


Our strap line of "Life's a journey - Enjoy!" has never been more apt...

Leap of Faith

I don't think I shall forget Sunday the 11th August in a hurry. It was a 5am rise to get to the airbase early to put my name on the board to be first in the queue! Well they had put me at the coo's tail the previous week as I didn't even know that there was a board then. 7.30 am we arrived and found that the Three Muskateers from McDuff had arrived at 6.30 am and that another chappie, Colin, had arrived and 6.45 and the weather wasn't looking promising! So 5th in the queue then!

At least I had got the picnic right. New cool bag from Tescos... complete with champagne bottle and plastic champagne flutes... and a lot of scrumptious food!

It's all in the preparation and as you can see above, here I am ready and prepared for the flight. I loved the matching hat! It was around mid afternoon before this photo was taken as the clouds and rain rolled in and rolled out and sometimes even stayed. Each time they stayed, the flights were cancelled for 30 mins. Then when the wind picked up, they rolled the clouds away but the wind needed to be light so that we were safe when in midflight. It's a tricky business getting things just right. Call it the Goldilocks paradigm!
The Three Muskateers from McDuff, were called Kayleigh, Mark and Stephen and this was their third visit, as conditions weren't favourable for flight previously. I was delighted that they got to skydive as they had left McDuff at 4.30am each time. Now that's what I call commitment. Well done... it was great to share the day with you.

It had been Colin's (the 6.45 guy) fourth attempt due to the weather so I was very lucky at Sunday's go being just my second. There I am on the right in midflight. I know it could have been anyone however it wasn't... it was me! I loved being under the canopy. Didn't enjoy the stepping into the unknown quite so much and free fall at 120 miles an hour for a control freak like me was the most challenging.

So am I glad I did it? I am over the moon, well perhaps not that high, as 10,000 feet was high enough for me thanks. My thanks go to the team at the Paragon Centre at Errol who made the day happen. Especially to Steve who dealt with me and my fear professionally and kindly. Steve was my tandem partner... and a big thanks to Chic, the photographer who filmed my leap of faith and who promised to get my best side, although I am sure the grimaces of fear will be there on both sides...
Steve complimented me on my exit from the plane and as for the landing... 'twas only perfect, even to landing standing up! Who knew at 5am on the 11th of August that a happy landing was going to be the outcome of the day! Isn't that what a Leap of Faith is all about... trust the professionals' advice and do what you have to do.

A very big thank you to all the people who donated to the Canine Partners because I had decided to embrace a mega fear. I did it for you...
and I did it for you, Zoe and Remus. You do what you have to do every day!
Love and hugs to all............
p.s. the video will be coming to a computer screen near you... very, very soon!

Setback or everything for a reason - You choose!

Sometimes life just doesn't go according to plan. Well maybe it does but just not to my plan. For instance the charity skydive for Canine Partners didn't happen as high winds interfered with my intention to fall out of a plane while firmly attached to a parachute and an expert parachutist! The cancellation although understandable caused mixed feelings of disappointment and frustration... funnily enough there was no feeling of relief as I had been psyched up for the event!

What did the delay tell me? I think first and foremost it was a lesson in patience and persistence, you know the maxim "if at first you don't succeed..."
Also it was a huge lesson in dealing with disappointment. On Saturday, I accepted that the skydive couldn't take place as the winds were fierce. However on the Sunday when the weather was braw and the wind had died down, my mood, my emotional state was flat, as I had obviously chosen the wrong date to fly... or had I?

This week has been about turning around disappointment to totally accepting that everything for a reason has to be the best approach to any set back. After all feeling disappointed about not falling out of a plane... is just plain daft! as I am sure you will agree.

I will be delighted to recount the experiences of better weather conditions on the next visit to Errol airbase... soon, very, very soon!

A Road Less Travelled

 Do you recognise the famous road in the photo below? It is used in the background of many postcards and paintings and I am delighted to say I drove down that road and I am also delighted to report that recently I took the road less travelled ... by choice!

How many times do we take the road less travelled? *

Usually in my case, it is when I have taken a wrong turning. Both in the literal sense and the metaphorical. So when young Ken, the older son, and myself went exploring Italy... we experienced "a road less travelled" in every sense of the words! It started at the airport when I took, what was to me, a familiar turning. However as we were visiting a completely different area of Tuscany we were, you guessed it, on the wrong road! Now it took us a full hour to find this out as our directions still worked! How does this happen? No idea, but I think we make it so. We fit our lives around our beliefs. So when people believed the world was flat they never went further than a stone's throw and made sure that safety was their priority! I am sure there were a few adventurous types... you know the ones that discovered other worlds beyond the horizon and were disbelieved by those souls who stayed at home. Their stories were described as "Tall Tales"...

The following may well sound like a tall tale. It is a wonderful story of "happenstance". You know when something happens... because you happen upon... so here is an account of our happenings...

Kenneth and I went a cross-country route to find our hotel just outside Siena. As already mentioned, a very cross-country route. Not that we were cross, as we were discovering lots of different roads that I had previously been unaware of. When you stay on the main thoroughfare you miss so much of the countryside. It's the downside of getting where you want to go as quickly as you can!

So Kenneth and I tootled across Tuscany as seen on the left and we eventually found our hotel which just happens to be a modern build. We responded by being a little disappointed as we were by this time very tired, and emotions change when you accept tiredness as the standard emotional approach to life. However we all know that happiness is not due to outside circumstances and I was by that time, just looking for a comfortable bed and a shower. We checked in and we got upgraded! Oh and by the way did I tell you we got an upgrade at the car hire? A Coupe would you believe! Now the emotion/connection to the hotel is changing... Kenneth and I have a lovely room each and I have a balcony overlooking the most gorgeous Tuscan scenery and a fabulous view of Siena. Kenneth meanwhile finds that we also have a pool, and a pool bar. Talk about counting your blessings...

We shower, swim, and get dressed for dinner. Now we are accepting the explorer's frame of mind,  being open to whatever comes along, and we find a wonderful restaurant, La Guida in Taverne d'Arbia, the next village to ours. It is probably true to say that nearly every restaurant in Tuscany is wonderful, but this is such a gift that we return on the second evening and even get a discount! But I am getting ahead of the story and I know that the tale is getting taller by the minute...

We were supposed to visit three venues in the Radda area of Tuscany, but due to Mr Ryanair changing flight times we had to forego seeing them. (Although I had been offered the chance of viewing them from their gates!) So while dining on our first evening, I decide that The Universe is telling me to go a different road. Yes again you guessed it, the road less travelled. Now it isn't just me The Universe talks to, The Universe talks to everyone. It is just that we are sometimes too busy or even too pigheaded to listen. I can assure you that there are many conversations going on. You can even eavesdrop on some of them. You know the ones... when you hear someone else telling you their dreams and you are inspired by their courage when you see where their dreams take them.

My own personal chat was that going south was a better option than going north, and as I had an internet acquaintance to meet, one of those inspiring dreamers I mentioned earlier, in a truly amazing town called Pienza and Kenneth had a vague contact in Castelmuzio, another town close to Pienza... the decision was made. We were going south to uncharted territory. We did have a map; however it was out of date by 10 years and roads can change in that time! Here is a photo of me resting in Castelmuzio, studying the map and checking exactly where I had been driving!

What a glorious adventure we had visiting Pienza and surrounding area. We visited John, my internet acquaintance, at La Bandita and La Bandita Townhouse  A wonderful venue and John's story is as wonderful as his house on the hill. It took us half a day to find our way there and 40 mins to get back to the hotel. We even managed to find another wonderful restaurant for lunch, and later on, we found a cafe that was showing the Andy Murray Wimbledon final. Blessed doesn't do justice to how we felt...

When we visited La Guido on the second evening we were treated royally and remember we even got a "sconti" (discount). Food and wine were superb and I picked up a flyer advertising a Villa Vacanze/holiday villa in a nearby village. Another decision to be made: "Should we chance a visit? Turn up unexpected?" We decided to visit it on our way to Siena in the morn. We know by now that it will be the road less travelled to Siena, however nothing ventured nothing gained.

This is the villa. Villa Brignole by name, just on the outskirts of a village called Monteaperti and perfect for our 2014 yoga weeks. We were enthralled. We turned up out of the blue, were welcomed with open arms, and after some initial misunderstanding due to my imperfect Italian, Sabrina understands that we want to return with yoga students, their husbands, their families... in fact everyone we know. Can you sense my enthusiasm?


 It was ticking all the boxes that my four years of taking yoga weeks in Italy had flagged up. En suite bathrooms; swimming pool (as in photo); garden space; easy distance from Siena; walking distance to local village (tavern); associated spa (which was the one we love at Rapolano Terme). Now how to make it happen...

All this is before our morning coffee which I have promised Kenneth. A very special experience of sipping an espresso in one of the cafes situated in Il Campo, the famous Siena square, as seen below.
 

Our blessings are mounting and as Siena is my favourite Italian city, I am happy to share its delights with Kenneth who hasn't visited this ancient città before. After our caffè in Il Campo, we sightsee and then meander along the winding streets until we come to rest for lunch at a little cafe. The name of the cafe is Monteaperti (!) the very name of the village we visited that morning where Villa Brignole is situated. Is it a sign? You bet. Now I don't need any persuasion that this road less travelled is the one for us Living It yogis and yoginis. However it is a wonderful "coincidence" and one that I will treasure.

We were only away four days. Four days visiting a completely different world. I don't just mean Italy, I mean visiting a world where everything that happened was an "upgraded" experience. A delight to savour... a road less travelled.

*M. Scott Peck has written a philosophical book called "The Road Less Traveled". I recommend this book to anyone who wants to explore a different approach to spiritual growth. That title is drawn from Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" which is essential reading for anyone, whether they want to explore spiritual growth or not!
Life's a journey- enjoy!

p.s.... if you want information on next year's Living It Yoga weeks... contact me at eileen@well-connected.biz  I have already got bookings for both the spring and the autumn week!

Boldly going - responding to challenges!

Well there have been some mega changes in my circumstances since I last wrote in this blog... and please feel free to add your tuppence worth in response. I would love to read about your responses... and no I am not part of the group on the left, boldly going... or to put it another way... playing golf. Although I was supposed to be...
So what happened? At the end of May I attended a friend's son's wedding and danced the night away. So far so good. At sometime during my jigging on the dance floor I exacerbated an underying condition in my left knee, resulting in hobbling around the next day in elbow crutches ... two days later progressing to using a walking stick and nearly a week later throwing the stick away. No biggy, you may say as we can all hurt ourselves and the body has amazing powers of recovery. I totally agree! However the week I was hobbling with a stick... was a family golfing holiday on Arran and the following week was a holiday with friends on Madeira.


Those were the challenges, so now to the boldly going part. "Luckily" my husband had booked us into a spa resort on Arran, Auchrannie, and I "resorted" to chillin' while everyone else was very sporty - golf, tennis, walking in the hills and even... bowls! I on the other hand enjoyed the leisure and pleasure of massages and Turkish baths as well as applying hydrotherapy exercises.

   ... and while on Madeira I moved out of my comfort zone into discomfort as this island only has a few flat roads... everything else is built on the mountainside. I experienced two sides of the recovery coin... you know the rest side and the push yourself to your limits side. On the rest side I repeated the healing massages, Turkish bath treatment and hydrotherapy...

As my understanding of myself grew last month... my knee reflected my needs. I got a better understanding of when to stop and rest... and when to keep going. That was both physically and metaphorically speaking. So thank you Universe for giving me what I needed last month.

Now I am going to pick up the challenge of finding a place for our yoga weeks in Italy next year... yep that's right, Living It Yoga is going to keep going... after all it's Living It Yoga that keeps me going... I wonder what the Universe will have in store for me next week in Italy. A glass of chianti at least - medicinal use only!

To carry on the theme from last month's blog... congratulations go to Zoe Maclean who was presented to the Queen this month. Even the Queen is recognising Zoe's leadership qualities!

Living It Leadership

What does Leadership mean to you?

Does it make you think of Gandhi or Mother Teresa. Or are you of a more military persuasion and your thoughts turn to history with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or perhaps more recently the celluloid hero, Rambo! Abraham Lincoln is very much in vogue just now due to the power of the cinema and TV. However I am thinking that we could find leaders much closer to home if only we looked at leadership qualities instead of leadership positions. Qualities such as: commitment to a higher cause; choosing to endeavour to save lives; a graciousness that dissipates anger; a passion for living; a courage to speak their truth... and so much more...

Recently  I had the privilege to present with a friend, Waiyin Hatton, a Leadership Personal Development Day called Raising your Game! Not only did we all enjoy ourselves but we have set the bar for our future endeavours... Living It Leadership is now the name of our game and the people tree is what we believe leadership is in essence - people growing people!

I am aware that I am surrounded by inspirational leaders from all walks of life. My history teacher Mr Murray, inspired me. He continued to teach even though his health deteriorated due to suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. He taught when he could only walk with a zimmer and continued to teach even when he had to use a wheel chair.  My friends inspire me when faced with crisis of unbelievable hardship, they still manage to laugh and make the most of the situation they have found themselves in. Some are even able to turn their situation into a funny story to lift other people's spirits...

 Courage in the face of danger we understand but having courage to face a debilitating condition day after day is something that is beyond our understanding that's why I am committing to the SkyDive on behalf of the charity Canine Partners. I became aware of this charity through Zoe Maclean. Zoe has the most amazing leadership qualities... despite her physical disabilities she managed to attend University and get an honours degree in Languages. She presents talks regularly to clubs on the power of Canine Partnership with her partner Remus and is building a business within the network marketing company Forever! No sitting back and letting life pass her by... no way! She is not only a wonderful example of leadership in action but also of leadership in action on a day to day basis... 

I will be flying high on Saturday 3rd August... Zoe flies high in my estimation... every day.

To donate to this worthwhile cause... click here!

Italy, yoga, friendship

It doesn't seem like a month since I wrote up the blog to accompany the Well Connected Life newsletter... however it is... so I have to totally agree with the statement about time flying when you are enjoying yourself!

I have enjoyed three journeys to Italy since the beginning of this year. The first one in February was sharing my love of Italy with my son Gordon as we went on a fact-finding tour of Tuscany. We went with the intention of finding a villa to host our spring Living It Yoga week and we found one in Punta Ala. This area is an idyllic region of southern Tuscany, as seen in adjacent photo, that is a favourite beauty spot for Italians wishing to escape the city... not so well known to foreign tourists... however a perfect place for a Living It yoga week. The Living It Yoga weeks are primarily to expand the attendees' understanding of themselves and their interconnection with the world and its treasures... starting with Tuscany.

My second visit was to attend school in Florence ... and, guess what, it expanded my understanding of myself and my interconnection with the world and all its treasures. Starting with Tuscany!!!

So to last week, my third visit, when Living It Yoga went to Tuscany... yes, you guessed it, we all expanded our understanding of ourselves and our interconnection with the world and all its treasures - starting with Tuscany.
There were so many enjoyable journeys both in the physical sense of visiting places such as Punta Ala, Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, Siena and an amazing spa in the vicinity of Saturnia as seen on the right. Serene, inside pool and an amazing array of outside pools using the healing properties of the cascading natural thermal spring waters for swimming, showering or just leisurely soaking in. check out http://www.termedisaturnia.it/en/thermal-spring/hot-springs

... as well as the more inward looking journeys experienced during meditation or just soaking in the view... as seen below

Every journey has its place, and I would like to thank all the delightful companions on my various journeys in life, beginning with those who recently came to Punta Ala to experience our Living It Yoga "La Dolce Vita" week. It was indeed a week of sweet living... and a week I will be delighted to visit again and again. Why? Well, because expanding my understanding of myself and my interconnection with the world and all its treasures, starting with Tuscany, is a work in progress!

Grazie mille ai mei tesori - a thousand thanks to my treasures -  my husband, Andy of course, Alison, Grainne, Liz, Lisa and Barbara. What a wonderful combination - Italy, yoga and friendship!