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I am looking for a room to hire where I can conduct one-on-one coaching sessions. Ideally, I would like the room to have 2 comfortable chairs where my client and I can sit for up to 2 hours, and is more like a counselling room but with a lovely feel to it.
D. Karina Stewart, Lic. Ac, DOM, as a founding partner and Wellness Director for Kamalaya, is committed to creating a place where healing and spirituality can flourish. Karina has twenty-two years of experience in the study and practice of diverse Asian healing and spiritual traditions.
Regular Hong Kong Breathing instructor Jac Vidgen tells the extraordinary tale of his life from countryside Australia to Buteyko breathing via organising Sydney's first Grace Jones party, to learning EST in California and the teachings of Ramesh Balsekar.
I was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1949, the youngest of 3 boys, and spent my first 16 years in the city of Toowoomba (a garden city - 120kms. west of Brisbane up on the edge of the Great Dividing Range). It was generally a very happy childhood. One of my passions as a child was marionettes – which I developed from age 8-14 – doing puppet shows all around the city – mostly for fun or charity. I even performed on a TV show in Brisbane. My religious upbringing was in the Church of England – in which I was baptised, confirmed and even played alter boy for a while. I had plans to be a doctor when I grew up.
Then at 16, I sang in a rock band while still studying at Toowoomba Grammar School. My dad become ill around that time (he had been a prisoner of the Japanese in Thailand for most of the 2nd World War), and we moved to Brisbane. I started another band there which was one of the highlights of my life at that time for about 3 years. And I joined yet another rock band in1970-71 for a year. At Brisbane State High School, I also met Judy and we married in 1971. By this time, I had mostly lost interest in my Christian upbringing and was starting to become fascinated by the idea that there might be ‘something else’ going on…. Our marriage was really so that living together was easier! I completed high school and had one year at Queensland University, realizing that I really had no idea of what direction I wanted to take. But it was an exciting year – of music, fun and political protest. I was rather interested in teaching but unwilling to deal with the system required to pursue this. Incidentally, my middle brother became a doctor!
In 1972, Judy and I embarked on the first adventure of our lifetime – we rode on a truck from Brisbane to Darwin (about 4,000 kms.!) then flew to Timor (which was still under Portuguese rule), then on to Bali, and through Java to Jakarta and Singapore. From there on a charter flight to London. We worked in a restaurant near Oxford for 9 months and then hitchhiked around Europe for a few months. Then with another girlfriend, we set out on the ‘overland’ route home – through north Africa, southern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Indonesia again.
It was really on this extraordinary journey that some sense of spirituality started to open up for me. I realized how limited my school education had been as I was exposed at close hand to the myriad of cultures, religions, lifestyles and habits of those many countries. Buddhism became a fascination. Then of course spending some time in Varanasi…. One gets almost overwhelmed with the spirituality of that place!
Back in Australia, the next part of my life’s adventure unfolded. In 1975, we officially ended our marriage, but, with some work, maintained a friendship – which has now developed into one which is deep and profound – after meeting more than 40 years ago!
I did a Vipassana meditation course, studied singing, sang in a professional musical, worked as a waiter, moved to Sydney, explored work in theatre, and generally revelled in the excitement of life in Sydney in the late 70s.
In 1978, it was time for me to set out to travel alone. This was tougher than travelling with a partner – but also much more exciting. I travelled to Adelaide, Melbourne, and then up to Townsville, Cairns and Cooktown (where my father was born), then across to Mt. Isa, Darwin, Bali, Java, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines and then on to New York. There I worked as a waiter for 6 months and enjoyed the incredible energy of that great city – Studio 54, concerts, museums, new friends etc. My dear dad finally passed away (in a nursing home near Brisbane) at this time - after a long illness. From New York, I travelled to Washington DC and then across the country to Denver and eventually L.A. There I met my mother and we had a wonderful few weeks travelling together to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, up the coast to San Francisco and across to visit my eldest brother who lives on the big island of Hawaii.
Then I continued my travels back through south-east Asia and back to Sydney again late in 1979. In 1983, with a small team of friends, I started to produce parties – initially for a few hundred people we knew, and then by 1988, for 15,000 people on New Years’s Eve – with Grace Jones. These started as a sub-culture including lots of art and theatre as well as live music and djs, and developed into quite a phenomenon in the late 80s – leading many other entrepreneurs to create similar styled events. Read more about this part of my life and see pics on the net at Wikipedia – search “RAT parties”.
In 1982, I did the ‘est’ training in San Francisco – my first step into ontological education. This led me to do The Forum in 1984 in Sydney, followed by years of further training with Landmark Education – during which I was trained to lead introductions to The Forum and then to lead seminars. Much of this training was part of a volunteer assistants program. Little did I know that it was preparing me for my future vocation! It is also a technology which I use in daily life – as I do with Buteyko’s method and the Alexander Technique.
By the early 90's, the party scene was way over-exploited and it lost it’s allure for me – and we lost more money than we earned…. ever committed to bigger and better events, rather than running an effective business! So I was ready for a new direction. At this point, a dear friend had been working with a Russian practitioner of Buteyko’s method of breathing reconditioning, and he invited me to join them. I regarded myself as quite healthy and a ‘good breather’ – having done some yoga over the years and also having learned to sing – so I was initially not really interested. However, I did some part-time work for them and found the whole thing quite fascinating – as well as discovering that my lifetime of allergic rhinitis was actually related to my dysfunctional breathing pattern! I saw the results of the method make a profound difference to the health of many people.
So I worked with these people – firstly in an administrative and promotional capacity, then assisting in workshops, and was personally trained in the method. While still assisting my Russian teacher, I started to teach it myself in late 1993 – firstly one-on-one, and then in workshops. During some years of teaching the method in Sydney and around country NSW, I also travelled to Bali, Thailand and Philippines and started to introduce the method in these places. As yet another adventure, I decided to re-locate to Asia late in the 90s and as I had some friends in Bangkok, I chose that as my base. I now work mostly in Hong Kong and Philippines, and sometimes in Bali and Thailand.
My development as a Buteyko practitioner has been an interesting one in that my initial fascination with this work was about it’s power in reversing health concerns, but, over the years, it has become obvious to me that the effect on one’s mind of more optimal breathing is every bit as potent as it’s effects on the body. I guess this should have been obvious - with my somewhat limited knowledge of yoga and meditation (and Buddhism). In my first few years of working on my own breathing with Buteyko’s method, the most dramatic effect was the reduction and then elimination of my lifetime of allergic rhinitis. I also noticed that my sleep quality improved and my need for sleep had decreased. Then there was the ‘calming’ of my appetite…. These days I eat much less, yet maintain the same weight. Most of my clients in the first few years were asthmatic or suffering from allergies etc. However, nowadays, my clientele spans a much wider range of interests – including anxiety and sleep disorders, immune and hormonal imbalance and often those looking for tools to better manage the stresses of modern living – or to improve their sports performance.
The sense of detachment and inner peace made available through reducing the breathing to a more optimal level is quite profound – and something that has become increasingly available to me over years of practice. And finally I can actually be still…. something which I really had never realized was missing from my life until recently!
The friend who first enticed me into working with Buteyko’s method, Christopher Drake, is now also a great mentor to me as well as a great mate. In recent years, he introduced me to the writings of a guru called Ramesh S. Balsekar (and his guru Nisargadatta) and I have found these approaches extremely liberating – the notion that we don’t really have ‘free will’ and that our actions are given by our genetics, history and circumstances. My concept of God is as yet undefined…. obviously the Universe has a way, and our lives are but microscopic dots in that way…. What a relief!
Another joy of my past decade has been the relationship with Ed Cruz. my soul mate and partner of 9 years in Philippines – surely a reflection of where I am at…. And Ed actually fathered a child when he was just 17 – just prior to when I met him. Unfortunately, he only gained access to this child late last year. So now we have the extraordinary opportunity to play a small role in the mentorship of this child. We recently had the pleasure (and challenge) of taking the boy away for 5 days. This was yet another profound and wonderful experience in my later life. I have babysat for many kids – and taught Buteyko’s method to many kids – but parenting 24/7 is truly another story – as anyone who’s done this will know!
So after wanting to be a doctor as a child, then a teacher as a teenager, I now find myself immersed teaching in a medical field - for the past 14 years…. on a path that seems to have found me….. filled me and fulfilled me….. Ah the joy of life!
Jac will be giving free introductory lectures on Buteyko's method followed by workshops in HK during September - full details in Upcoming Events - or email him:
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14 November
by Jac Vidgen
I was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1949, the youngest of 3 boys, and spent my first 16 years in the city of Toowoomba (a garden city - 120kms. west of Brisbane up on the edge of the Great Dividing Range). It was generally a very happy childhood. One of my passions as a child was marionettes – which I developed from age 8-14 – doing puppet shows all around the city – mostly for fun or charity. I even performed on a TV show in Brisbane. My religious upbringing was in the Church of England – in which I was baptised, confirmed and even played alter boy for a while. I had plans to be a doctor when I grew up.
High School, I also met Judy and we married in 1971. By this time, I had mostly lost interest in my Christian upbringing and was starting to become fascinated by the idea that there might be ‘something else’ going on…. Our marriage was really so that living together was easier! I completed high school and had one year at Queensland University, realizing that I really had no idea of what direction I wanted to take. But it was an exciting year – of music, fun and political protest. I was rather interested in teaching but unwilling to deal with the system required to pursue this. Incidentally, my middle brother became a doctor!
Then I continued my travels back through south-east Asia and back to Sydney again late in 1979. In 1983, with a small team of friends, I started to produce parties – initially for a few hundred people we knew, and then by 1988, for 15,000 people on New Years’s Eve – with Grace Jones. These started as a sub-culture including lots of art and theatre as well as live music and djs, and developed into quite a phenomenon in the late 80s – leading many other entrepreneurs to create similar styled events. Read more about this part of my life and see pics on the net at Wikipedia – search “RAT parties”.
By the early 90's, the party scene was way over-exploited and it lost it’s allure for me – and we lost more money than we earned…. ever committed to bigger and better events, rather than running an effective business! So I was ready for a new direction. At this point, a dear friend had been working with a Russian practitioner of Buteyko’s method of breathing reconditioning, and he invited me to join them. I regarded myself as quite healthy and a ‘good breather’ – having done some yoga over the years and also having learned to sing – so I was initially not really interested. However, I did some part-time work for them and found the whole thing quite fascinating – as well as discovering that my lifetime of allergic rhinitis was actually related to my dysfunctional breathing pattern! I saw the results of the method make a profound difference to the health of many people.
The sense of detachment and inner peace made available through reducing the breathing to a more optimal level is quite profound – and something that has become increasingly available to me over years of practice. And finally I can actually be still…. something which I really had never realized was missing from my life until recently! 
Another joy of my past decade has been the relationship with Ed Cruz. my soul mate and partner of 9 years in Philippines – surely a reflection of where I am at…. And Ed actually fathered a child when he was just 17 – just prior to when I met him. Unfortunately, he only gained access to this child late last year. So now we have the extraordinary opportunity to play a small role in the mentorship of this child. We recently had the pleasure (and challenge) of taking the boy away for 5 days. This was yet another profound and wonderful experience in my later life. I have babysat for many kids – and taught Buteyko’s method to many kids – but parenting 24/7 is truly another story – as anyone who’s done this will know! 
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