Winter is a time of coughs, colds, sore throats and snuffly noses.  The temptation is, of course, to snuggle up at home by the fire, as soon as the outdoors becomes a hostile environment.  But we tell ourselves that staying indoors is not an option. And if there are snuffles and sore throats, there’s always Lemsip and Lemsip Max Flu, to keep the symptoms at bay.

For most of us, staying in by the fire wouldn’t be feasible, even if that’s what our bodies want us to do, because most of us have to earn a living.  If we didn’t go to work, there wouldn’t be any money to pay for  the hospital, for one thing, if we ever really did get sick.  And inevitably, later on in life, we will be both old and sick and we will need all the money we can possible save up now.  So we run around like headless chickens, working as hard as we can and making as much money as we can, in order to pay the medical bills later on.  Disease, for most of us is something that simply happens, without warning and seemingly at random.  Just like our cars can crash or break down at any moment, we feel our bodies may do the same.  And the best way we know how to deal with this problem is by having adequate health insurance, when it does happen.

Dr Don Brennan is a man on a mission to change all this.  He believes that most diseases can be prevented, if we learn a totally different approach to our health.  Instead of waiting until we break down, he says, the science of Ayurveda, which he has trained in, has the recipes for spotting health potential problems before they occur, and for remedying them.

A Kildare born doctor, Don Brennan was one of the first GPs to train in India, in the ancient Ayurvedic approach to health.  Ayurveda means ‘science of life’ and it is the fastest growing complimentary therapy in the West.  It is the science, Dr Brennan explains, ‘of what makes us happy and unhappy, as well as healthy and unhealthy.  And it is the knowledge of how to empower ourselves to heal.’

In the Ayurvedic tradition, emphasis is placed on learning to recognise the ways that the body signals that it is out of balance, long before any kind of disease or illness actually manifests.

‘Pain is a very good thing,’ Doctor Brennan tells me.  ‘It is an innate mechanism for informing you that things are going wrong, in order that you might put them right.  But unfortunately, people haven’t got the wisdom or insight to interpret the pain, and instead they try to suppress it.’

In the Ayurvedic system, there are six stages in the development of any disease.  In the very first stage, we simply begin to notice that we are not as happy or as healthy as we once were.  In order to get back to health, at this stage, we simply need to understand the three fundamental principles -called Vata, Pitta and Kapha-which govern all the activities of our minds and bodies.  By familiarising ourselves with these principles, we can learn to judge for ourselves what things about our lifestyle and diet need to be changed, in order to prevent us from going on to the second stage of disease, where the imbalance becomes aggravated, and then on to the other stages, which are progressively more difficult to treat.

In Ayurveda, at this time of year, we would listen to our bodies calling upon us to snuggle up, keep warm and go to bed early, adopting a gentler routine than we had in the summer, which was the time of Pitta, the fire element.  In the autumn, we would naturally begin to eat warmer foods, and we would avoid cold ones.  By balancing our lifestyle in order to reflect what is happening in nature, we would be attuning ourselves to health.  But in reality, instead of doing these things, most of us are now pushing ourselves to work harder, in the run up to Christmas, as well as taking on new challenges, in the form of evening classes and keep fit regimes.

‘Nature goes into a rest phase, at this time and so should we,’ Dr Brennan says.  ‘But instead we become more manic, and most people’s bodies go out of balance, resulting eventually in illness.’

There is tremendous hope, Dr Brennan believes, for the prevention of all kinds of diseases, including cancers, strokes, heart attacks and a whole range of others, if only we develop the awareness necessary to fine tune our lifestyles and to recognise early indications of imbalances.

‘Ayurveda empowers patients to stop doing what is causing the problem and start doing the opposite,’ says Dr Brennan.  ‘And the beauty is that you get seduced by Ayurveda.  Once you’ve made changes and started to feel better, you are motivated to keep on doing things that will make you feel healthy and happy, because ultimately, happiness is what we are all striving for!’

www.ayurveda.ie for more info or call 01 284 5742

Even though this is technically an interview, Deepak Chopra also counts as one of the most amazing discoveries I have made in my time on this planet.  I discovered him almst twenty years ago, when Shane (my partner) gave me a present of a trip to a retreat called ‘Stop The World’ which was in a big country house somewhere in Devon.  The house had huge, squishy sofas and lovely log fires and it was quite heavenly.  But the most heavenly thing about the retreat was when I happened to find a tape in the library of Deepak Chopra talking about perfect health and how to achieve it.  Just the outrageously soothing sound of his voice and the serenity with which he spoke was enough to put me in a state of bliss.  And the excitement that came from hearing the wisdom that he shared has stayed with me ever since that moment.  I have met and interviewed Deepak several times since then, and have been to his retreat at La Jolla, and every time I meet him or listen to him speak or read his work, I pick up another sparkling gem.

This interview first appeared in the Irish ‘Sunday Independent’.

Why do some people get cancer and some people don’t?  Why do some people recover when some people don’t? Why do some people live longer and feel better than others?  Just some of the questions that bothered Dr Deepak Chopra, a young endocrinologist, in Boston.  Was there a cure for terminal illness?  Was there a cure for death itself?  All doctors are warriors, doing battle with death, he realised, but was it a war he and his colleagues could win?  In the mid eighties, in search of an answer to this eternal question, Deepak made a trip to his native India and had a meeting with  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a  sage of the ancient tradition of Ayurveda, which is the Indian ‘Science of Life’.  This meeting left him exhilarated.

‘I felt as if I had been carried up to the sky,’ he says.  ‘I had been shown how to pierce the mask of matter.’

Practicing medicine, which had once seemed mechanical and hopeless took on a whole new dimension, when he returned to America to begin to test the Maharishi’s ancient techniques for healing on his Western patients.  He began to see astounding results, in a short space of time.  And he set up a series of institutes for what he terms ‘Mind Body Medicine’, with tremendous success.  Twenty years on, Deepak Chopra is an internationally famous multi-million selling author, lecturer and guru, but the message that he conveys has never changed.  ‘The truth is simple,’ Maharishi had told him.  ‘Make it clear.  Let it stand on it’s own and don’t get lost in complications.’

The science for living of which the Maharishi spoke and which Deepak began to apply had recipes for every aspect of daily life.  And Deepak began systematically to disseminate the information in such a way as to target every possible area of concern.  He wrote a series of books, ‘Perfect Health’, ‘Perfect Weight’, ‘The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,’ ‘The Path to Love’, and many, many more of them, each one addressing specific needs and desires, but each one saying the same thing.  That the answers to all of our questions, the potential to heal all of our illnesses and the power to create any outcome that we desire, that all of these come from the same place.  From the source of all life, from the unified field of pure potential, from God.

It was not, he says, his intention to end up as an internationally acclaimed guru.  He wanted to be a novelist.  Back in Poona, he attended an Irish Christian Brothers school and although he was beaten by the brothers for bad behaviour, he was also introduced to great literature, for which he is grateful. And it nurtured his ambition to become a novelist.

‘A novelist?’ I say, incredulous.  ‘What on earth for?’

‘It was my passion!’ he laughs.  ‘I love books and I read constantly.  And I love to tell stories.’

But Dr Chopra senior, who was a Western trained cardiologist had a clever solution to this problem.  Realising that he wouldn’t convince his son to be a doctor by bullying him, instead he gave the boy a series of novels to read, each of which featured a doctor as protagonist.  And it worked.  Having decided to become a doctor, Deepak moved to Boston and worked in a hospital, but discovered that doctors were over-worked and stressed and not always effective in treating their patients.

‘It’s a well known fact that patients never get to finish a sentence!’ he laughs.  ‘Doctors don’t listen.  But one of the things that patients really need to know is that you care.’

What Deepak did differently was that he applied himself to managing his own stress by learning transcendental meditation.  What was ironic, he says, is that even though he was brought up in India, he learned it from an American, in Boston.  And he began to not only teach it to his patients, he also meditated with them.  And studied the results on their healing abilities.

‘What Ayurveda does is to activate the bodies own internal wisdom,’ he says.  ‘The underlying concept is that the body knows how to maintain balance, unless thrown off by disease.     Therefore, if one wants to restore the body’s own healing ability, everything must be done to bring it back into balance.’

Stress, anxiety, fear, anger, frustration, all of these have a negative and quantifiable effect on the body’s immune system, he had already discovered in his research.  By creating a level of total relaxation, the reverse occurred.  Immediate changes resulted, including increased growth hormones, improved immune function and greater recovery.  In many cases, which he has documented, spontaneous remission from terminal cancer was the result.  But often the patients were fearful that the cancer would return.  So he decided to further research and document exactly what causes healing.  This is, he says, an obsession which drives him continually to delve into the nature of consciousness, the nature of reality.

I first encountered Deepak at his centre in San Diego.  I had picked up a leaflet about it in a bookshop, decided that I would love to go there, but dismissed the idea because the programme was very expensive.  A week later, I found myself being enrolled in his programme, courtesy of an unexpected benefactor.  I had just finished reading one of his books on creating what you desire simply by imagining that you can, and I was curious as to whether I had indeed manifested that desire.  Every desire has, inherent within it the seeds for it’s manifestation, he says, if we only follow our inner guidance long enough to find it.

The programme consisted of what he calls ‘Primordial Sound Meditation’, which was combined with yoga, Ayurvedic massage and a diet which was tailored to the individual ‘dosha’ or type.  At the time that I entered the programme, I was highly anxious and prone to extreme mood swings, I was also suffering from digestive disorders and low energy.  After two or three days, I was in a state of total and utter bliss, I felt more energetic than at any time that I could remember, and my digestion was  perfect.  My friend, who had accompanied me on the programme approached Deepak in the hall, one afternoon and told him that I wanted to give him a blow ….  Which wasn’t strictly true, but I was more than impressed with the work that he was doing.  Luckily, he had a sense of humour and was happily married.

There have been many authors of self-help books and it can be difficult to discern which ones are worth buying.  Personally, I read all of them, but Deepak Chopra is one of the very few whose life and career truly mirror what he writes about.  He actually appears to have achieved everything that his books promise.  Neither he nor his wife, Rita have been sick and neither have their children.  He has had Ayurveda adopted by millions and they have far more money than they need.  There hasn’t been a divorce, they love each other, and their children and grandchildren.  He seems truly happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

Having met him, I discovered that this inner radiance is what sells his books and the tapes, because it speaks a language that transcends words.  If I am anxious about something and I play one of his tapes, I find myself feeling serene, without paying attention to what’s being said.  Serenity, he insists, is the key to healing.  When you let go of fear, you don’t even fear death and that is the greatest comfort of all.

www.chopra.com for more info

Over the many years that I have been experimenting with healthy pursuits, I have sampled an enormous range of different detox retreats, all over the world.  Some of them were luxurious, like Deepak Chopra’s one in La Jolla.  Some of them were beyond grim, like the juice fasting and colon cleansing one I went to in somebody’s house in Putney, in the middle of winter, which had no heating and where we drank gallons of salty water and pooed in buckets in the back garden……

It is only by trial and error that one finds out which of these detox places actually delivers what you want it to deliver.  Assuming you know what that is.  For me, what I want from a detox retreat is the following

1.  It must be easy to get to.  It is all very well travelling long distances when you feel fabulous, but if you have decided you need to detox, you probably dont feel fabulous.

2.  It must be affordable.

3.  It must be fun.  If it isn’t fun, if it is truly hideous, the chances are that after it is over you have to go straight into retox, just to cheer yourself up after the misery.

4.  Lastly, it must be effective.  You want to see and feel the results.  You want people to look at you and say ‘Wow!  What have you been doing?’ And think you had incredibly expensive things done to you.

And so it is that I am recommending the ‘Whole Person Healing Retreat’.  It ticks all the boxes and actually introduces new ones that I hadn’t thought of.  For instance, it helps if the retreat is in a beautiful place, preferably with delightful scenery, but also with nice interiors.  The ‘Whole Person’ is held regularly at a very attractive Palladian mansion called Townley Hall (see photo) which is surrounded by sumptuous woodlands, and has a lovely river close by.  It is only an hour’s drive from Dublin, on a very simple and uncomplicated road, so you cant get lost.  The house is huge and has lots of big rooms with high ceilings and lots of real fires, so you feel spacious and cosy at the same time.  One of the main priorities that I have, especially if I am detoxing is I dont want to be freezing my arse off, so it impressed me enormously that they had the heating turned up full blast, even in the bedrooms.

The other thing that impressed me most about the ‘Whole Person’ was the exceptional friendliness of the people who run it and of the staff.  As I approached the house, Stephanie, who is one of the three facilitators came out to meet me and welcome me.  Stephanie is totally gorgeous and so sweet natured and sympathetic that you almost feel you dont need any other treatments apart from just basking in her sweetness.  Her partner Nigel (also a facilitator) is extremely hot, and has gorgeous blue eyes and he shows off some seriously nice biceps, as he personally lugs your luggage up the three flights of stairs to your room.  I think it is a really nice touch that the facilitators are not in the least bit stand offish, and are willing to carry your bags or make tea for you.  Darren, the other facilitator goes out of his way to make tea for people at all hours of the day and night, so much so that you could find yourself getting ridiculously spoilt.

You don’t expect detoxing to be fun, you certainly don’t expect to lose weight and get fit without having to do horrible things and eat horrible things and feel awful.  And it is certainly true of most retreats I have tried that you do feel awful.  But weirdly, at this one I felt great almost all the time.  And I didn’t feel deprived.  For breakfast you get a large bowl of very tasty raw porridge with different types of nut milk, for lunch you get truly delicious salads and for dinner you get raw soup.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is also supplemented by green juice drinks and you can ask for more nut milk if you want it. Also, if you are more hardcore, you can choose to just have juices.

Aside from the food, there is lots of lovely exercise and massage and meditation and dancing to keep you occupied.  There are yoga classes in the morning and eveing and they have rebounding on the lawn, which is exhausting, but also fun.

The only really tricky thing about the ‘Whole Person’ retreat is that they do a thing called ‘Emotional Release Work’, which involves delving into your childhood traumas and feeling and expressing them in a group.  At first this can seem horrendous.  But if you forget completely about how embarrassing it is and just jump into it, you will soon find yourself bawling your eyes out and beating hay bales with a big stick.  The feeling you get after you have emotionally released is liberating, you feel lighter physically, mentally and emotionally.  And more importantly, you become aware of the ways in which the traumas of your childhood have been re-created in your adult life in different ways, and once you are aware of this, it becomes easier to let go of the negative patterns that you may not even have been aware of.

I came away from my first ‘Whole Person’ retreat feeling ridiculously good.  So good that I hadn’t thought it was possible to feel that way.  Really energised and positive.  And apart from that, I went from a size twelve to a size eight in only a week, which meant I could go and buy loads of great clothes when I got home.  My skin looked amazing, and people asked me what had happened to make me look so good.  Of course I was thrilled, because quite apart from wanting to be healthy and fit, I am incredibly vain.  And I am glad to say that I have incorporated a lot of the things that I learned at the retreat, such as making wheat grass juice every day, and kombucha tea.  And I finally managed to quit caffeine.  Which is a miracle.  I may well go back.

Retreat Facilitators