We have put together a 30-minutes presentation to give you an insight into what Fastenwandern is, how you benefit from it and how it works.

If you have any questions about it, please contact dieter@urbanhealing.net or call at +44 7754 434 926

No related posts.

The web based, anonymous  survey is endorsed by the Spa Business Association (SpaBA) and is aimed at spa employees working as therapists, receptionists, trainers, managers or corporate managers in the UK Spa and Wellness Community. The purpose of this new research initiative is to identify the key factors that influence employee attraction, engagement and retention within the UK Spa Industry. Employees and employers will benefit from understanding the people challenges within the industry and ways to overcome them.

Key findings, conclusions and recommendations will be presented at the SPA LIFE UK 2012 conference at the Barcelo Hotel, in Daventry on 13 – 14 November 2012.

Businesses operating within the UK Spa and Wellness community are invited to promote the upcoming survey amongst their  teams and partners and to encourage participation.

Businesses promoting the survey within their network receive a complimentary copy of the results which will be sent out by the end of November via e-mail. A promotional poster is available for interested organisations to be printed and placed in suitable places such as employee notice boards.

For more information and to receive the promotional poster, please contact Dieter Buchner via e-mail at:dieter@urbanhealing.net

No related posts.

Nehmen Sie sich eine Woche Zeit für sich selbst, um loszulassen, um zu entspannen, um Körper, Geist und Seele zu reinigen und mit erneuter Energie und Vitalität in den Alltag zurückzukehren.

Wir bieten unser nächstes Fastenwandern im Sauerland vom 30. September bis zum 7. Oktober in Schwartmecke bei Kirchhundem an.

Erkunden Sie in unserer Gruppe das spätsommerliche Sauerland auf unseren täglichen Wanderungen, erleben Sie wir Ihr Körper wieder auflebt, Ihre Sinne sich schärfen und Sie neue Kräfte schöpfen.

Für mehr Informationen oder um Ihre Teilnahme zu buchen, rufen Sie uns einfach an:

02351 569 44 57

oder schauen Sie auf unseren Fastenwandernseiten rein.

No related posts.

This week, we celebrated our 5th anniversary. In the midst of a study visit by deans and lecturers from the State College of Klaipeda, Lithuania, we took time out to reflect on the amazing accomplishments we have achieved in our short history.

Urban Healing was founded on 27 June 2007 in Bangkok by Alison Snelling and Dieter Buchner. Our vision has been from the beginning to inspire positive change in people to achieve higher levels of success and wellbeing for themselves and their organisations. We strongly believe in the power of creating awareness and providing people with knowledge that empowers them to take responsibility for their own growth and wellbeing.

After many successful projects in Asia, the number of requests from clients in Europe increased and we have since established Urban Healing as a limited company in the UK, while maintaining our presence in Thailand. We continue to work in our four key areas of people development, wellbeing through change, responsible business and service excellence for clients in the spa, hotel and leisure community. Currently we focus on the development of new “wellbeing through change” initiatives to support individuals and companies to maintain or increase their levels of wellbeing through periods of change.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients, partners, shareholders, suppliers and friends who have supported us during our 5 years and enabled us to do what we do best: Create amazing training programmes that inspire positive change!

No related posts.

This was Zoya’s third appearance in the UK after having played at St. Martin in the Fields in 2010 and 2011. The Recital Hall at the London Showroom of Steinway & Sons was filled to the last seat with friends and business partners of Urban Healing and the artist.
Many guests came from London and the Midlands, but some had traveled from Essex and even Glasgow to take part in this special event.

There was great excitement in the room when Zoya welcomed her audience and thanked all involved in the preparation of this event and promised to play a good recital. Zoya introduced each piece, stated in which phase of Chopin’s short life it was created and explained the mood the composer wanted to convey, as it reflected his own emotional state at the time.

Zoya’s musical sensitivity, her purity of style and integrity as she interpreted each composition, moved the entire room and allowed the audience to tune in to what Chopin intended to express. And when Zoya played the final piece of the evening, all four movements of the Sonata No. 3 Opus 58, many watched in awe the amazing physical skills, charisma and integrity of an artist who plays all pieces by memory with incredible passion and articulation.

We sincerely thank Zoya for sharing her talent and presence with us during this wonderful evening as well as our friends and business partners who joined us on this special occasion.
We also like to thank our sponsors, Steinway & Sons for providing us with their recital hall, the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel London for provding Zoya with a home during her stay in London and Orchard Print for producing the programmes.

The evening ended with a cocktail reception giving everybody the opportunity to meet Zoya personally and to catch up with friends and acquaintances.

This was the first time we have organised a musical event, and encouraged by the overwhelming positive response during and after the recital, we are confident that it was not the last time.

Click the image below to listen to Zoya’s last piece, Sonata No. 3 Opus 56 and her encore, Waltz No. 7 Opus 64, 3 Cis-Moll

No related posts.

There is a limited amount of seats available and we strongly recommend reserving a seat. Please click here to R.S.V.P.

Ms. Shuhatovich studied music with the highly regarded pianist and teacher Ilia Fridman, a pupil of the legendary piano teacher, Heinrich Neuhaus and  received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the Gorky State Conservatory in Russia.  After several years of teaching piano as member of faculty of the same institution, Zoya immigrated to the United States in 1993. She started working at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston until 2001.

She has a very active concert life, appears with orchestras and solo recitals throughout the US, France, UK, Germany, Russia, Poland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. She made her New York debut in 1998, where she was invited to open the Chopin Festival with a solo recital. Since then she has performed in New York regularly. In April 2002 she performed for President Bill Clinton. In July 2005, Ms. Shuhatovich performed a private recital for the members of the Spanish Royal Family. Her recitals are frequently transmitted on National Public Radio, Sirius™ Satellite Radio and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Zoya Shuhatovich has participated in many international music festivals including: Warsaw Autumn, Texas Music Festival, Shostakovich Festival, Bravo! Festival, Ramapo College Summer Festival, Neuhaus Piano Festival, Germany.
Another important feature in her work is chamber music. She collaborates with artists such as Yair Kless, Laszlo Varga, Boris Garlitsky, Emmanuel Borok, St. Petersburg String Quartet and many others.

Artists and critics have expressed a consensus related to Zoya Shuhatovich’s outstanding pianistic qualities and all have acclaimed her musical intelligence, beauty of tone, as well as her technical skills which define her as a uniquely sensitive virtuoso performer.

In December 2010 she made her UK debut in London at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and played there again to standing ovations in December 2011.

Join us for this exclusive UK performance of Zoya Shuhatovich on Wednesday, 2 May 2012 at 18:30 pm at the Steinway & Sons recital room at 44 Marylebone Lane, in London W1U 2DB.

During this all Chopin recital, Zoya will play the following pieces:

• Polonaise-Fantasie op.61

• Five mazurkas:

1. op.6 # 2,  C# minor
2. op.24 # 4 F minor
3. op.30 # 2 B minor
4. op 33 # 4 B minor
5. op 50 # 3 C# minor

• Sonata # 3 op.58:

1. Allegro Maestoso
2. Scherzo Molto Vivace
3. Largo
4. Finale  Presto ma non troppo.

After the concert Steinway & Sons will serve refreshments during which you have the opportunity to meet with the Artist.

For directions to the Steinway hall, please click here. To preview the Steinway & sons facilities, including the recital hall, click here.

There is a limited amount of seats available and we strongly recommend reserving a seat. Please click here to R.S.V.P.

If you want to download and print a pdf version of the piano recital poster, please click on the link below.
Piano recital poster 120307 1200

No related posts.

Vitamin B3 (niacin) is the most effective substance, even better than statins, for both lowering LDL cholesterol, but importantly raising HDL. Niacin is usually given in doses of 1,000mg to 2,000mg, in a non-blushing or slow-release form since, in high doses, it causes vasodilation.

There are many good reasons to supplement high dose niacin, which is both available on prescription and in health food stores. According to a major review of what works in the New England Journal of Medicine, “the most effective way” to lower cholesterol is with the B vitamin niacin (also called B3), not statin drugs.[1]

A number of studies show that it is effective not only in raising the good HDL by as much as 35%, but also in reducing LDL by up to 25%. By way of comparison, statins only raise HDL by between 2% and 15%. Niacin also reduces levels of two other markers for heart disease – lipoprotein(a) and fibrinogen, the latter of which is also involved in binding lipoproteins to the artery. Niacin is more effective than any drug for lowering lipoprotein(a), another marker for heart disease risk, lowering high levels by about a third when high doses of niacin, 1 gram or more, are given for several months. One study from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, reported a 35 per cent decrease in lipoprotein(a) after 26 weeks on niacin [2]. Other studies have shown the same thing and a recent review concludes that no drugs really do this effectively and that ‘the strongest effects are seen with niacin at high doses.’ [3]

The most obvious side-effect of taking fairly high doses is a blushing effect which is diminished by taking with food, but non-blush or extended-release niacin is now easily available. Other reported side-effects include dyspepsia (indigestion), raised plasma glucose and uric acid levels, although these last two have not been confirmed in recent studies. Overall, it has nothing like the side-effects associated with statins. Niacin was actually discovered to lower cholesterol back in the 1960′s, as a ‘side-effect’ of giving high doses to those with schizophrenia as a highly effective therapy pioneered by the late Dr Abram Hoffer. So, it has only taken 50 years for this discovery to come to market, largely because drug companies have explored ways of combining it with substances, or processes that effectively ‘slow release’ it, which can be patented. You can buy straight niacin for very little, and while taking 500mg twice a day will produce major flushing for the first couple of days, the blushing soon diminishes as long as you keep going. A recent big review of niacin trials found that because it had a “markedly beneficial” effect on a particularly dangerous combo of risk factors – a low level of the good cholesterol HDL and high levels of triglyceride fats in the blood – it might be particularly useful in treating people heading towards diabetes [4]. Studies have shown that it inhibits atherosclerosis, reduces risk of heart attack and, if taken over 15 years lowers risk of death [v]. The strongest evidence, however, has come from trials combining statins with niacin [5]. I suspect that, as the patents for statin drugs run out the option of getting a patent of a combination of niacin plus drug, is seen as one way to extend the process of making money from statins.

However, all was going well until a study called AIM-high, combining niacin with statins last year was stopped because the niacin wasn’t adding benefit to the drug regime [6]. The study gave two groups aggressive statin therapy plus either 2,000mg of slow-release niacin or a ‘placebo’ of 50mg of niacin – enough to induce a vasodilatory blush hence to ‘disguise’ whether a person was in the ‘active’ treatment group or not. There was no difference in risk between the two groups of a cardiovascular event. I suspect the most likely reason is that the statins interfered with the ability of nutrients to make a difference. Another possibility is that the so-called placebo actually had a beneficial, hence contributing to no perceivable difference between the two groups. (Click here if you’d like to hear a debate on this trial from one of the authors.) [Link to see speaker below] What we really need is a niacin vs statin trial, but that’s not in the interest of the pharmaceutical industry who make lots of money from statins and fund most of these trials.

My recommendation, especially if you have low HDL, would be to take the niacin instead of the statin. After all, it lowers LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and Lp(a), raises HDL, has clinical evidence of reducing risk of cardiovascular disease and death, and is a naturally occurring nutrient, with no side-effects beyond the blushing effect.

You need 1,000mg a day for a therapeutic effect. Some people take 500mg of pure niacin twice a day with a meal and report the blushing stops after a few days. (best to try 100mg first, twice a day will meals until the blushing effect subsides – it lasts for about 20 minutes). You can also get a slow-release form of niacin, called Niaspan, on prescription. There’s also a non-blushing form called inositol hexanicotinate. How well this lowers cholesterol isn’t known since it hasn’t been tested in clinical trials.

Don’t forget, members of my 100% Health Club have full access to 100s of Special Reports and Newsletters online. You too can become a member from only £9.99 a quarter and experience all the health benefits that being in the 100% Health Club gives you – visit here for more information.

Wishing you the best of health,

Patrick

[1] M.D. Ashen and R.S. Blumentahl, ‘Clinical Practice. Low HDL cholesterol levels’, New England Journal of Medicine, 2005; 353(12):1252-60
[2] D. Holmes, ‘An answer to angina’, Holistic Health, 1995; 46:20-23
[3] I. Gouni-Berthold, HK Berthold, ‘Lipoprotein(a): Current Perspectives’, Current vascular pharmacology, 2 May 2011. [Epub ahead of print]
[4] M. J. Chapman, et al., ‘Niacin and fibrates in atherogenic dyslipidemia: Pharmacotherapy to reduce cardiovascular risk’, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2010; 126(3):314–45
[5] P.L. Canner, K.G. Berge, et al., ‘Fifteen year mortality in Coronary Drug Project patients: long-term benefit with niacin’, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 1986; 8, 1245−1255.
[6] M. John Chapman, P. Giral, et al., ‘Niacin and fibrates in atherogenic dyslipidemia: Pharmacotherapy to reduce cardiovascular risk’, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2010; 126:314–345
[7] AIM-High Investigators, ‘Niacin in patients with low HDL cholesterol levels receiving intensive statin therapy’ New England Journal of Medicine, 2011 November 15

Click here to see Patrik’s article on his website

No related posts.

After staying at the Premier Inn Thetford recently, I (Alison) left my special travel bear ‘Frugal” behind.  Mortified at this I called the hotel to find the bear was safe and sound and waiting to be rescued.

A few days later the bear arrived home in a Royal Mail special delivery bag with a wonderful letter from Peter the Receptionist at the Premier Inn Thetford which said:

‘Mrs Snelling, I feel a bit guilty that this poor bear has travelled to you in a plastic bag! I hope it is not too traumatised from the travel, and that it has reached you in a good condition. Because this bear is really important to you, I have sent it Special Delivery. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you, I hope that this has restored your faith in Premier lnn and the team that work here in Thetford’.

Frugal, looking somewhat dissheveled after his journey in a plastic bag

I was really happy to read the letter and it made me reflect on what a fantastic impact can be created through emotionally engaging with the guest.  Because the Receptionist, Peter, took the time to recognise the bear was important to me and engaged with me through his letter, not only was I surprised  and delighted – I have been enthusiastically telling as many people as possible about this experience.

Engaging with guests is one of the behaviours Dieter and I feel passionate about and we build this learning into our work with clients. Emotional behaviour is learned by imitation and experience and to be authentic it has to be felt personally by the guest.  When we work with clients we work towards embedding engaging behaviours which are authentic and genuine and truly make a difference for guests.

Well done to Peter at Premier Inn Thetford for demonstrating these behaviours so successfully.

Thank you also for making my day!

No related posts.

Last month, Alison and I attended a “Happiness at work” conference in the Cotswold Conference Center.
We had heard about the concept of Happiness as government policy for a couple of years. Much has happened since the King of Bhutan launched this concept based on the principle that every human being aspires for happiness, so governments should be measured on how well they contribute to happiness.

In July this year, the UN General Assembly called on United Nations Member States to undertake steps that give more importance to happiness and well-being in determining how to achieve and measure social and economic development.

In November 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron declares to make happiness the new GDP and acts on his pledge to find out what makes the nation content.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the way. One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Sarkozy launched an inquiry into happiness, commissioning Nobel prize-winning academics Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to look at how the relentless search for a rise in GDP sometimes trampled over a government’s other goals, such as sustainability and work-life balance.

These examples suggest that we can expect a tremendous increase in the focus on happiness by governments, corporations and multinational organisations.

Personally, I believe that happiness is the future, as it is a dimension that embraces wellbeing in many aspects. Social, economical, physical, spiritual dimensions are all covered with the term happiness. I have reason to believe that happiness will replace profit as the only corporate goal during my life time. GDP as the only measurement of success will soon be a thing of the past.

That’s why we at Urban Healing create tools for companies and individuals to help make behavioural changes that lead to sustainable happiness.

No related posts.

In Dying To Have Known, filmmaker Steve Kroschel went on a 52-day journey to find evidence to the effectiveness of the Gerson Therapy — a long-suppressed natural cancer cure.

I first heard about the Gerson Therapy during a fasting retreat at Dharma Healing International on the tropical island of Koh Samui in Thailand. I heard it was a very effective treatment to beat cancer but that is was very controversial. Then I read about Prince Charles being rebuked during a medical conference in 2004 for daring to suggest to look further into the research done by Dr. Max Gerson. Most doctors outright reject even the thought of considering Gerson Therapy in the treatment of degenerative diseases. However, few if any actually spent time in reviewing the results achieved or invested in further research as suggested by Prince Charles. This film gives a good insight into the denial to investigate by the medical establishment while encouraging the viewer to make up their own mind about the potential to give this treatment more attention.

The filmaker’s travels take him across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, from upstate New York to San Diego to Alaska, from Japan and Holland to Spain and Mexico. In the end, he presents the testimonies of patients, scientists, surgeons and nutritionists who testify to the therapy’s efficacy in curing cancer and other degenerative diseases, and presents the hard scientific proof to back up their claims.

You will hear from a Japanese medical school professor who cured himself of liver cancer over 15 years ago, a lymphoma patient who was diagnosed as terminal over 50 years ago as well as noted critics of this world-renowned healing method who dismiss it out of hand as “pure quackery.”

So the question that remains is, “Why is this powerful curative therapy still suppressed, more than 75 years after it was clearly proven to cure degenerative disease?” The viewers are left to decide for themselves.

No related posts.