How can we jettison this baggage of years?

One strategy is to become aware of your own internal chatter. When something happens and you screw up, it is an independent event: you made a mistake as humans do. Try to separate that one event from anything that has happened in past. One error can be quickly dealt with and resolved. Watch as your mind starts to link that event with every other mistake you have ever made, attempting to form a lifelong pattern of questionable judgments and poor decisions.

Analyze what you are telling yourself and watch for give-away absolutes: "I always . . . I never . . ." Absolutes are irrational and illogical; they reflect our thinking not reality. Being aware of them bubbling in your mind gives you opportunity to negate them: if you have ever, just once, been successful at something, no matter how small, then you cannot be, by definition, a "total" failure. Just one contrary event completely wipes out an "always" or a "never."

Increase your consciousness of your mental processes by writing down your actions and your thoughts. Cognitive therapy uses similar (more structured) techniques to explore your mental processing so that you can understand what your own mind is doing in shaping your vision of world and yourself.

The realization that it is your mind, right now, which is defining your mood and your emotional distress, creates a wonderful opportunity. If your psychological discomfort arises out of your thinking, not out of some long-standing immutable neurosis nor warped brain cells, then you know you have power to change!

This new perspective on world is freeing and empowering. The old recurrent critical tapes can be pushed into dead file where they belong. Your present, your future, your sense of self is yours to control because your thoughts can be consciously directed.

It took years to get you to where you are now. Vow to spend rest of your life nurturing those sprouting positive thoughts until they blossom and fill your entire brain. The old tapes will have no place left to lurk.

1. Wash nettles and put in salted boiling water for about seven minutes.

2. While they are cooking, put olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper into a frying pan over medium heat for three to four minutes.

3. Remove cooked nettles from boiling water and put into frying pan with garlic and pepper. Stir and cook for a few minutes, until excess water has evaporated and nettles are coated with oil.

4. Use water nettles were boiled in to cook pasta. When pasta is al dente (chewy), drain and toss with cooked nettles. Serve with fresh grated parmesan. Serves four.

Potato Nettle Soup

200 Nettle Leaves (young shoots) 1 Sml Onion 6 Small Potatoes 250ml Water 1 Tsp Salt 1 Tsp Parsley 3 Cloves Garlic

Method Puree onion, garlic, and nettles with 1 cup of water. Cut potatoes into small pieces. Simmer pureed mixture with potatoes and remaining water for 45 minutes or until tender. Use a potato masher to mash potatoes making soup thick and creamy.

Olde English Nettle Pudding

An old English recipe, which is not a dessert but a hearty main dish. Use English teacup measurement again. Volume of one of these is approximately 250ml Water to top.

Method In a bowl add ingredients below:-

2 Cups Cooked & Chopped Nettle Greens 1 Cup Chopped Onion 1 Cup Chopped Broccoli or Green Cabbage 200g Raw Rice, 1 Cup Minced Beef (omit this if veggie) ½ Cup Suet (beef or vegetarian).

Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a little freshly ground black pepper, mix well, then tie mixture up in a muslin cloth that has been wrung out in cold water. Drop into boiling water and boil for 1 hour, or hang over boiling water and steam for 3 hours. When you remove pudding cloth, you will have a round cannonball of a pudding that is delicious when served with a good gravy or melted butter.

The Nettle Beer made by cottagers is often given to their old folk as a remedy for gouty and rheumatic pains, but apart from this purpose it forms a pleasant drink. It may be made as follows: Take 2 gallons of cold water and a good pailful of washed young Nettle tops, add 3 or 4 large handsful of Dandelion, same of Clivers (Goosegrass) and 2 OZ. of bruised, whole ginger. Boil gently for 40 minutes, then strain and stir in 2 teacupsful of brown sugar. When lukewarm place on top a slice of toasted bread, spread with 1 OZ. of compressed yeast, stirred till liquid with a teaspoonful of sugar. Keep it fairly warm for 6 or 7 hours, then remove scum and stir in a tablespoonful of cream of tartar. Bottle and tie corks securely. The result is a specially wholesome sort of ginger beer. The juice of 2 lemons may be substituted for Dandelion and Clivers. Other herbs are often added to Nettles in making of Herb Beer, such as Burdock, Meadowsweet, Avens Horehound, combination making a refreshing summer drink. Mrs. Grieves, A Modern Herbal As our soils and bodies are very depleted of minerals one of ways for body to absorb minerals quickly is by using wild herbs. Our ancestors used nettles for all kinds of uses, so we have a history in our body of using minerals in these wild herbs.