SHOW NOTES Death is the thing we can none of us get away from, although modern PC encourages us not to think about it. We're also encouraged to treat death as the most awful thing, incredibly sad, that we should show lots of deep emotion. And - and the medical profession has strict instructyions on this - to keep people alive at pretty well all costs. I don't subscribe to any of this. In the Old Ways we know death is the other half of life, that you cannot have one without the other, that its part of the natural cycle I had an interesting happening with a colleague yesterday - and we talked about it ...

Enjoy - and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Catch me @elensentier.com Sign up to https://elensentier.substack.com/ and Follow me on Facebook 🐈‍⬛

I'm in a business relationship that needs to change. It can be just as hard to do as a personal one! Have you been there? Are you there right now too? it's so darn easy to throw the baby out with the bath water! make a "clean break" - and that can be so wrong. It's hard and delicate work, changin, growing and evolving a realtionship. That's right where I am! And we're too often advised to make a clean break, it can feel so much easier to do that. And it is often much less work. But we really can lose out if we do. I'm talking about how I see all that in this podcast.

Enjoy - and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Yes - really!

Most whiskeys are blended, from several different malts, Johnny Walker is supreme at this, but for me the very best whiskeys are the single malts.

A single malt is a whiskey that is not blended. It comes from a single malt, the mash of a single growth of barley, brewed with the particular spring water of that distillery, and using its own yeast. I like the ones from the Isle of Islay best, especially Bruichladdich and Lafrohaig.

So how am I a single malt? I come from my own family and heritage, I was brewed in that family tradition, I'm authentically me.

That can be a bit challenging for some people, sometimes, but it's what and who I am. And we can all be like that. we can all be our own single malt, not a blend of what other people think we should be. And yes, that will challenge some people. Is that such a bad thing?

I like particular sorts of music, books, food, furnishings, clothes, wine, places to live, all that stuff. I don't follow trends , though sometimes I find I'm actually fashionable LOL.

How do you feel about all that?

Are you - or would you like to be - a single malt too?

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Over the Standstill – solstice – just past, I talked about stuff that really matters to me. That’s what the three standstill days of Midwinter Solstice are about for me. I give, spend and make time for getting to really know myself.

Yes, I hear you! I got to know myself years ago, you say, I don’t need to do it all over again.

Sorry, friend, yes you do. You’re not the same person you were then. Heck, you’re not even the same person you were yesterday let alone back then. We all need to get to know ourselves regularly and the standstill at each Solstice is a great time to do that.

On this third day I headed into core values. We all have them, they’re part of us, they’re actually what make us tick.

So what are mine? What makes me tick. What makes me get up in the morning?

Well I'm a long wooden spoon and I keep stirring cauldrons.

I'm an agitator and a challenger.

So, quite often people don't like what I say … but I've still got to say it anyway.

And yes, even after all this time, even after all the three quarters of a century I've been alive, doing that can still be difficult.

Which of us doesn't like to be loved? Which of us doesn't like to be approved of?

I’d really love to know your thoughts.

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Why Sun Return?

Why Standstill?

Is this woo woo?

No it’s astronomy – not astrology but how the actual Sun – our home star – really works.

Our ancestors knew this. Of course they did, they were hunter-gatherers, they lived by the Sun and the stars. We forgot that as we got “civilized”. It’s way time-and-a-half we started remembering. It makes a huge difference to our whole lives, our instincts, our physical bodies, our feelings and our mindsets. It even affects how and whether we can access our intuition.

Our ancestors could do all that. We’ve forgotten. Let’s remember …

I’d really love to know your thoughts. What gets you up in the morning?

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We can tend to think sacrifice is a bad thing, a waste, but it isn't always, perhaps not even often. This is a story about how a cat helped over half a million people's pledge money to fight his cas, and may even have saved 18,068 acres of forest in Aberdeenshire.

The Scottish government and Swedish firm, Vattenfall, want to build wind farms there, demolishing the forest and the wildlife habitat in the process.

Wildcat Haven has worked to save the critically endangered Scottish wildcat for the last ten years, establishing a threat free haven covering hundreds of square miles in the remote Scottish Highlands.

At least 13 wildcats live in this forest; that's the largest single population known to exist in the world! It may well represent as much as a third of the surviving population of Scottish Wildcats.

Clashindarroch is publicly owned. Wildcat Haven have been campaigning for its protection since learning that swathes of it are being clear-felled for timber, and planning applications for a vast wind farm site covering a quarter of the forest were first sought. Wildcat Haven is very much pro renewable energy, but of course it must be the right development at the right site. In this case it is not.

This is the story of Finlay. One little Scottish Wildcat kitten who may have saved his sisters and brothers home. It would be wonderful if you can support him too, and the fight to keep his home unmolested.

And his story also shows how one being's sacrifice can change attitudes. And how it can help each of us to stand up for our own core values.

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It's Midwinter Solstice and the first day of the Standstill.

I always use the 3 days of Standstill as a reflective time and Boy have I got a lot to reflect on this year!

I've spent the past year exploring business in a way I've not done before - like a "normal" business person 🤯. And yes, it has given me a lot of headaches. It's also given me a lot of insights and learning and even some new ways of doing things that I find valuable. That last really helps me as, come November, I was very depressed.

It's all about Being Me.

And helping you Be You is what my business is all about.

Modern life wants so much conformity from all of us - and that is just so bad for our souls! and anything that's bad for your soul is bad for you life, family, relationships and your business.

No, that's very rarely said in the business world. They actually think that's bad for the Great God Profit. And they don't even see that's a fallacy too.

Never mind - Over the Midwinter Season I'll be talking about all this and offering ideas and insights for you to try out to - to help you be more and more You.

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See you all on the other side 🐈‍⬛

Elen

They're Experts? But who is "they," really? Experts are everywhere, spouting "shoulds" and "musts". I listened ...

I took a deep dive into their trenches. Sifted through oceans of so-called wisdom. And guess what? It turned me turgid!

Like that old song, "Killing Me Softly", you know?

I listened - but I knew in my bones: This isn't me. This isn't right. They were subtly stealing my soul. I fought back. Clawed back my essence, did some serious soul-retrieval. And the gurus? They pushed back, hard. "It'll never work," they said. But here's the kicker - I'm here, more "me" than ever.

I'm unapologetically out of step with their chorus.

So I say, stay true to the core, fiery values of your spirit.

Question everything. Every friend. Every boss. Every social more. Every organisation. Every 'expert' whisper. When your gut screams, "No way!" - listen to it. It’s telling you Truth.

Stay wild. Stay awake. Never, ever let them kill you with their song.

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See you on the other side 🐈‍⬛