Reasons to Give Up Animal Products in 2021

 

Animal rights is one of the main reasons why we may choose to eliminate meat and other animal by-products from our diets. Most vegetarians and vegans choose this lifestyle because they care about the welfare of all creatures; animals as well as humans.

Michael Kern, Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust co-founder, is passionate about animal rights and has been a vegetarian for over 45 years. While animal rights are an important issue, there are multiple reasons to give up meat, many of which are beneficial to both humans and animals.

Physical and Mental Health

Studies have shown that people who limit their meat intake or cut out meat altogether have a lowered risk of contracting many serious diseases and conditions such as heart disease, several forms of cancer, diabetes, and hypertension.

When coupled with regular exercise, a balanced vegetarian diet can increase lifespan and help maintain a healthy body. A vegetarian diet can also benefit mental and emotional health.

Saving the Environment

The meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to harm when it comes to the environment. Pollution, deforestation, chemical run-off into the water table and carbon dioxide production are just some of the effects of the global meat industry. Cutting out meat prevents contributing to these harmful effects and, if enough people choose to go vegetarian, the environment will benefit as the meat industry begins to shrink.

Solving Human Hunger

Producing meat takes significantly more resources than producing grains and vegetables. If we stopped breeding livestock for slaughter and instead used that land and those resources to generate crops to feed humans, we would be better able to eradicate starvation in the world as more food would be produced for human consumption without increasing cost or land use.

Protecting Animals

A huge percentage of meat sold in supermarkets around the world is produced in intensive factory farms, where the animals being raised are badly treated.  These creatures live and die in cramped conditions, often with disease and pain, suffering throughout their unnaturally short lives. By refusing to eat meat, we refuse to be a part of the system that generates animal suffering.

 

 

 

Introducing the Live to Learn Organisation

 

Live to Learn is the educational arm of the Live to Love organisation. Live to Love was established as a secular movement by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, focusing on providing humanitarian services to resolve the challenges of the modern world.

Live to Learn operates three schools in the Himalayas, bringing comprehensive educational programmes to children and adults with a view to combining the best of modern culture and ancient traditions.

Michael Kern, Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust co-founder, is a long-time supporter of the Druk Padma Karpo school operated under the umbrella of Live to Learn.

Druk Padma Karpo

Druk Padma Karpo is a sustainably designed school in Ladakh, which has won numerous awards and accolades for its green architecture. Druk Padma Karpo’s design structure incorporates local building techniques handed down through the generations, along with some of the most modern environmentally friendly architectural technologies, delivering a school that is self-sustainable as much as possible. The design of the school further acts as an educational resource for the students, who are encouraged to learn about sustainability and the need to preserve the limited natural resources of the area.

Chakchen Ling

Chakchen Ling School serves a region of Nangchen that has been living with the aftermath of a huge earthquake for the past decade. The school has been designed ecologically as a green educational institution serving the needs of 300 students at present, with plans underway to serve more than 10,000 over the coming decade. Many thousands in the region have been left without adequate access to education due to the earthquake – Live to learn is working to ensure that education can be provided as soon as possible.

Hemis

Hemis School in Ladakh is an educational facility for adults currently under construction, located close to Hemis monastery in Ladakh. This is one of the most visited sites in the region, despite being relatively remote. This new educational facility will focus on providing local adults with a practical education, embedding skills through learning that many did not have access to as children.

His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa oversees numerous projects under the Live to Love banner, which include access to medical facilities, clean water, emergency aid and animal rescue, as well as cultural preservation.

 

Craniosacral Therapy Advanced Courses: Formative Embodiment

 

A range of training courses are offered at the Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust, which operates as a school of excellence to provide comprehensive trainings for existing therapists and those looking for a career change. Each course combines theoretical learning with hands-on experience, emphasising development of practical skills.

Michael Kern, Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust co-founder, established the school in 1989 in partnership with Franklyn Sills. Formative Embodiment is a new postgraduate course being offered for the first time in the UK in 2021 at the Craniosacral Therapy Educational Trust.

Postgraduate Study

Formative Embodiment is the next step for many craniosacral, somatic, body-orientated, psychotherapy and counselling practitioners, and others. This integrative approach was initially developed by Dr Jim Feil, inspired by a number of influences including Craniosacral Biodynamics, Stanley Keleman’s Formative Psychology, Pre- and Perinatal Therapies, Focusing, and Polarity Therapy.

The revolutionary training programme designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of practitioners will be taught by Dr Jim Feil. Dr Feil has been working in somatic and energetic therapeutic practices for more than 45 years.

Three Main Pillars

Formative Embodiment is based on three main pillars. The first of these is the formative process, which begins at conception and continues actively throughout life. The formative impulse, which is the priority of the body to adapt and survive, is at the heart of Formative Embodiment. The second pillar is Somatic Orientation, which involves listening closely to the body and supporting healing through tapping into bodily resources. The third pillar is Energetic Foundation, focusing on the energy circuitry that powers all human beings. This circuitry is today mapped in quantum science yet has also been mapped in several ancient traditions.

CTET Practitioner Courses

Note that CTET also offers practitioner training courses for those beginning on their Craniosacral Therapy journey. These courses take place part-time over two years, with 48 days of classroom-based study.

The curriculum is well-structured to cover a broad range of skills and adaptable to include new scientific research and perspectives. Each course is based on biodynamic principles, which involves learning to support the natural forces that organise our form and function and working with natural rhythms that get expressed within our bodies in order to promote healing and wellbeing.