The phrase, “A voice crying in the wilderness” made us think of a message that needs to be heard. One of the most remote wildernesses on earth is the Arctic Circle home to the polar bear.

Man’s consumption of ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels mean that we are now making the polar bear share his home with us as we move in to mine oil and coal.

Polar bears now have a smaller area in which to hunt which means food is harder to find and oil spills and manmade pollution cause danger to polar bears by poisoning their food source and coating their fur so that they can’t keep warm.

We think that if polar bears could talk to us they would ask us to stop spoiling their home and hurting them with our selfish ways.

We believe that we listen to the voice of nature, minimise our impact on the earth and conserve its precious resources and habitats by being green wherever we can. To help convey that message we have made our polar bear from entirely recycled materials that would otherwise have been thrown away.

As much as Christmas time may be joyful and a time of celebration it is also a stressful time for many. The pressure we put on ourselves to find the right gift, to say nothing of the shopping experience itself, is bad enough. This is also the time of year when we gather, or are expected to gather, with our families and friends; this can highlight the difficulty we have in our relationships and make loneliness more keenly felt. With these challenges in mind I would like to offer some advice on relaxation for the challenges of the season.

The stress response, or fight or flight response, causes many physiological changes and over time immune function is impaired as well as the bodies ability to heal. The relaxation response is the opposite. This first exercise may be done anywhere where you can stop and close your eyes for a moment: Take time to breathe…

• Rest one, or both, hands upon your belly and try feel yourself breathing into it. Inhaling, the belly expands and exhaling the belly pulls in.
• When that becomes comfortable, begin to count during the breath. On the inhale count up to a number which feels comfortable, and then exhale whilst counting down from the same number.
• Continue this for as long as you like, slowing the breath down as you become more comfortable with it. Try to work up to an inhale and exhale of six to eight seconds each.
• When you have begun to relax, and are ready to carry on, open your eyes and go about your day.

Want, of all kinds, is often more keenly felt at this time of year. It may be a material desire or the want of companionship and love. Sometimes, the antidote for want is to reflect on gratitude. Something to be thankful for…

• Begin with the breathing exercise mentioned above, visualizations and meditations always work better after a period of relaxation.
• When you are ready, allow yourself to reflect on something, or someone, for which you feel grateful. For example: if you are sad because you feel a lack of love or friendship, picture a friend or loved one who is in your life.
• Allow the feeling of gratitude that comes from focusing on that person, or thing, to grow and fill you. Stay with it for as long as you like, or as long as you can.

At first glance, this exercise may seem facile; but the emotions that we focus on define our mental state. Naturally, for some people finding anything to feel grateful for may be impossible.

Finally, in caring for ourselves we must not forget the impact of stress on our bodies. Long hours walking or standing causes blood to pool in the legs and lower back tension. Everyone likes to put their feet up when they get home; the problem is they do not put them up high enough. Put your feet up…

• Find a place against the wall where you can lie down on the floor with your legs extended up the wall.
• Lay on your side with your bottom about a foot from the wall, further back if your legs are tighter.
• As you roll on to your back extend your legs up the wall, your lower back should be flat against the ground.
• Rest here for 5-10 minutes whilst you do the belly breathing mentioned in the first exercise. These practices are intended as simple ways of reducing stress, however; stress is often anything but simple.

If you have need of further support or have any questions about counselling at So Organic please call me for a free consultation.
David Lefebvre Sell - Counsellor Saturdays 2pm-6pm 07840 529829

“You’ll never guess who I had breakfast with yesterday” is the first thing I’ve said to everyone I’ve met this morning. Not a single one has guessed that on Thursday morning I went to 10 Downing Street to have breakfast with David Cameron.

I feel so honoured to have been invited along with 14 owners and directors of other small and medium sized businesses from all around the UK to talk directly to the guys in charge of running the country about the issues affecting our businesses.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt Hon George Osborne and Mark Prisk MP Minister for Small Business & Enterprise were all there, all listening much more than they were talking too!

We talked at length about things that Government does and does not do for us and the ways in which they can help or hinder us in the running of our businesses. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of our businesses and our industries on the issues affecting us, and thrilling to be part of such a lively discussion in which they were clearly listening intently and taking on board what we said.

As an entrepreneur I really hope that this Government can really help to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship in the UK that helps lift us all out of these dark and gloomy economic times.  From where I’m sitting the future looks very bright indeed, we are surrounded by great UK based businesses doing amazing things with a Government that truly seems to mean it when it says it wants to help.  That’s certainly putting a spring in my step this sunny Friday afternoon.

PS. Forget what we talked about, I know you really want to know what they’re all like, that’s the first question anyone has asked! Well from what I could tell they all seemed like thoroughly great people who it was an absolute pleasure to meet.

As a typical man, I try to get away with doing as little cleaning as possible! However, being married to Sam means I don’t get away with it and have to do my fair share.

Even before starting So Organic we were looking for natural and organic alternatives to the products we used around the house. With cleaning products we chose to switch to Ecover and I remember thinking at the time that a green cleaning product must be inferior to a mainstream product like Mr. Muscle or Persil. So imagine how surprised and impressed I was and continue to be with the cleannig power of Ecover products.

Now we have Lily we do far more washing than we ever did before, and the non bio laundry liquid is hugely economical especially as we’re able to refill it at home using the 15 litre laundry liquid box. I know it saves us money, but as a guy I have to say I like the novelty of the easy pour tap which is somewhat like pouring oneself a glass of wine from a wine box (which takes me back a few years!) In a way, there is a peculiar fun about refilling the laundry liquid bottle, although I have to say, doing the washing as an end result is not quite as enjoyable as drinking a glass of wine.

Seriously though, one thing that has surprised me over time is how clean our clothes do get by using Ecover products and the subtle natural fragrance is fab compared to the synthetic fragrance you get in Daz or Bold. In fact I now find the smell of synthetic fragrance far too strong and unnecessary.

There are plenty of other Ecover products we use like the washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets and multi surface spray, but waxing lyrical about them may give Samantha the idea that I actually like cleaning! And one final reason why I like Ecover is the jazzy adverts they do. If you want to see one of them just take a look here: Happy cleaning!

Stu and I were lucky enough to be invited to a wonderful event last night. It was the launch party for the new green bond from Ecotricity and their wonderful new wind powered car; the Nemesis.

Lucy Siegle who writes on green issues for the Observer was there filming the car and the amazing reaction to it so hopefully you should be able to watch the film via the Ecotricity website soon.

The Ecotricity eco bond is a way for you to invest your money to get a better return that you would at the bank (7%) and because you’re investing directly with Ecotricity you enable them to invest even more in building capacity to product more green energy quicker. It’s a definite win: win situation.

If you’re looking for simple ways to go green and really make a difference without it affecting your life (other than giving you a nice warm fuzzy feeling that you’re doing your bit), then switching your electricity to Ecotricity is a great step. They invest far more than any other energy company in new sources of green energy, which is what we need to do if we want to reduce our reliance upon fossil fuels and make a sustainable change for the future.

Ecotricity don’t charge any more for their energy either, and price match with the 6 main electricity providers so when there’s no premium for using green electricity, what other excuse can you think of for not using it? We can’t change the world overnight, but we can make a difference by working together to take steps in the right direction. Switching to Ecotricity is a very easy first step. We’ve changed over, and I hope you will too. Switch now….