Olivia McEvoy has joined the faculty

Olivia McEvoy, one of Ireland's most experienced youth leadership consultants has joined the Alchemism Faculty as head of Youth Leadership Programmes.

Her work will involve the development of appropriate coaching programmes aimed at people aged between 18 and 22 who will be given an opportunity to develop their leadership skills through an Alchemism coaching methodology.

Olivia will spend the summer developing the programme and we hope to launch it before Christmas 2007

Watch this space and welcome to the foundation Olivia !

Paula Addison has joined the faculty

The Foundation is delighted to announce that Paula Addison has joined the faculty as head of complimentary programmes.

Paula has worked in the corporate sector for many years and is a qualified nutritional and healing therapist.

Her latest qualifications include anatomy, reflexology, juicing, healing massage and a range of body friendly alternative therapies.

Her first major project will be on the Burnout Fitness and Food programme which she is researching with fellow faculty member Jamie Myerscough who is due to open his Educo gym in Dundrum within the next few weeks.

Welcome on board Paula

Ethel Gartland has joined the faculty

The Foundation is delighted to announce that Ethel Gartland has joined the faculty.

She is a qualified coach and has worked for over 20 years in New York and California in the entertainment industry, principally theatre and television.

Ethel will be joining as the head of psychodrama and her first project will be on the "Relationship Burnout and Prevention Programme" with Magda and Paul.

The foundation plans to launch this innovative programme in the Autumn of 2007

Welcome aboard Ethel !!

Sergio Vilchez has joined the Foundation

Sergio Vilchez is a qualified coach and has studied philosophy in Ireland, Spain, France and Germany.

The foundation is delighted to welcome Sergio on board as the new head of philosophy coaching programmes.

Sergio's first programme will be called " How to be Happy" and we will be planning its content during the summer.

When Sergio heads back to his home conutry of Spain, we hope he will set up the Spanish Alchemism Foundation

Welcome on board Sergio !!

Stephen Dargan has joined the faculty

Stephen Dargan is joining the Alchemism Faculty as the head of Spiritual Coaching Programmes

He is a qualified Coach and has spent the past 10 years managing in a high level manufacturing environment.

Stephen has also worked on programmes with schools in less privileged parts of Dublin , promoting student awareness of the benefits of education.

Stephen is also a Reiki master and he has a particular interest in the power that positive thinking can bring to peoples lives, health and environs .

One of the most exciting things that Stephen will be doing is following on from the work of the Tony de Mello Foundation in New York - more news as it comes to hand

Welcome to the Foundation Stephen !

Burnout Fitness and Food

I have just completed our burnout fitness and food programme.

Over 12 days of training 15 mins per day, sticking to the diet they gave me, and taking food and nutrient supplements, here are my results:

Fat Loss 12.5lbs
Muscle Gain 2.5lbs
Waist Reduction 1.5 inches
Body Fat down from 30.4% to 24.4%

Energy Levels - at least doubled
Happiness at being able to achieve my targets - at least doubled

Well done to Jamie and he team at Educo in Baggott Street

It really does work !!

Paul

Phoenix by D.H. Lawrence

My good fried Justin gave me these wonderful words on the phoenix - the logo of the alchemism foundation : I welcome any other contributions on this wonderful bird which saved my life

PAUL

Phoenix

Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, cancelled,
made nothing?
Are you willing to be made nothing?
dipped into oblivion?

If not, you will never really change.

The phoenix renews her youth
Only when she is burnt, burnt alive, burnt down
to hot and flocculent ash.
Then the small stirring of a new small bub in the nest
with strands of down like floating ash
shows that she is renewing her youth like the eagle,
immortal bird.




D. H. Lawrence

Carmel Tuite has joined the faculty

Carmel Tuite has joined the faculty!

She trained as a registered nurse, then specialised in psychiatric nursing which she did in the UK for several years. She also trained as a counsellor, a reiki master, a massage therapist and most recently in the fields of domestic violence and suicidology.

Carmel will be involved in the LivingSix programme - designed to develop new and innovative ways to prevent, intervene in and provide post vention support services in the suicide field.

I know what being a lizard means now !

When I first went to buy a family crest, I was expecting a chivalrous, heroic design with arms, and shields and swords, but I was disappointed to discover that it was a lizard in a tree !!

But I found a book on Celtic animal spirits and here is what is says about lizards

"All lizards have a residential third eye....associated with psychic abilities. Greeks watched lizards as a form of divination. Native American Indians that the lizard guards the gate of dreams. The lizard is a sought after shemanic ally"

"For the Celts, the lizard was the animal of the sun, and in Celtic lore, this symbolises the soul's search for enlightenment. Lizards are also emblems of resurrection. Lizards shed their skin and grow a new one"

Lizards can see into the Otherworld and are masters of the arts of divination, teaching us how to shift consciousness just enough to see as the seer does. When a lizard is threatened, he can lose his tail to save himself, and so a sacrifice must be made"

"The path to knowledge demands sacrifices, wisdom is not won without a price"

When I compare this to what the phoenix has meant to me, the similarities are amazing and so I re-embrace my crest and know that I just did not understand it in the first place.

GDP - Greatly Damaged People

I was watching TV and Prof Michael Fitzgerald was on a current affairs programme. He stated in very simple terms, that the fixation with GDP has not been good for the welfare of the people of Ireland.

It struck me that all the clients that we see, who have been chasing GDP as defined by the neighbour's holidays, the brother in law's new car, that it has caused much burnout in this Celtic Tiger economy.

Sometimes, I think that GDP could equally stand for Greatly Damaged People.

Luckily, we are preparing now with programmes that will help and fill the gap that state services will find difficult to deliver on - in the workplace

That is where the alchemism foundation will truly change the way that workplaces are viewed - from places of stress to places of healing.

It has never been done before and it wont be easy, but that does not mean we are not going to try

Wish us luck - get involved !

Paul

Magda has joined the faculty

Magda Matwiecjuk, an education psychologist has joined the faculty. She is a polish national and came to Ireland to live with her husband and three year old son.

Magda will be working on relationship burnout and prevention and also on the translation of all of our programmes into Polish.

It is hoped that when she returns to Poland, she will establish the Alchemism Foundation in central Europe.

Welcome Aboard Magda!

Paul

sponsorships

I had a disappointing day yesteday, the grant funding that I was counting on has been moved to the end of the year.

In one way, it is good as the size of the grant is much bigger, but that will slow down the build process for some of the programmes.

I launched a sponsorship programme and within a few hours, I was offered advertising space and lots of ideas from good people.

It is very innovative having three components:

1. The donor sponsors a programme (we have 17 to choose from)
2. They then get €20,000 worth of training vouchers for any of the programmes
3. They can claim tax relief on the donation

many thanks to Liam Holland from the Irish Times who has graciously agreed to run us some ads to help us

If there is someone out there in the universe who is destined to help us, I am sure they will be reading the Irish Times when our ads are in.

Keep your fingers crossed

Website now live!

The alchemism foundation website has just been launched.

While not every single link is live, it does show about 80% of what we are up to.

I am excited about the online booking facility that should be ready in a few weeks and we will soon be able to launch powerful marketing campaigns from the online server.

The online survey tool from key surveys is an excellent product and I would heartily recommend it

What the site for new developments and thanks to Bernie in paintbox (www.paintbox.ie) who has been doing a great job

Paul

Burnout Fitness and Food

I started a 12 day fitness and food programme with my good friend Jamie Myerscough who has just opened his Educo Gym.

It is 12 days of 20 minutes of weights per day and an "atkins" like diet. The results have been amazing !!

I have three days to go and when I started I was 17st 3lbs - and yesterday I was 16st 6lbs - an amazing loss of 11lbs.

On top of that my energy levels have gone up, my fitness is improving and it certainly seems like my own burnout could have been massively prevented if I had only been able to access such a service during my dark days.

Paul

Social Entrepreneur at last!

I have just been awarded a Level 1 award from the social entrepreneurs of Ireland fund. It is a fund that is trying to bring entrepreneurial skills into the social sector.

It is a real privelege and I am really looking forward to the networking opportunities and working with other social entrepreneurs

Never work with children animals or politicians!

I have often heard that you should never work with children or animals. I am now adding in politicians to that list.

I was recently asked to get involved with a person who was running for election and whose campaign was in a pretty bad shape.

Within a few weeks, I had coached them into a positive frame of mind, consolidated the team, got additional resources for them and got the campaign on the straight and narrow.

I also used my design skills and experience to design a powerful word of mouth campaign and in the process, saved over €10,000 on the election expenses.

In all, I put about €40,000 worth of time into the project as I felt it needed a hand and it was a good cause.

However, when push came to shove and the politics crept in, I was shocked to discover bullying, lying and stealing going on.

When I confronted the person, to see how fast I was dropped was like a bullet from a gun I had loaded myself.

This person would not return my calls and when I asked around - the vitriole from this person's camp was outrageous.

It hurt at first, but once I realised that it was their problem and not mine, I was able to let it go and realise that my integrity was intact, more than I can say for this politician.

It just goes to show you, you cant tell a book by its cover and so I repeat for myself - that I will be very careful in the future about working with children, animals and politicians.

Paul

Larry C Farrell

Over forty years ago, my mothers brother (Larry Farrell) came over from his home in Coventry and took me to Powerscourt Waterfall. I have an old black and white photograph of Larry, my auntie Maeve and myself. I often look at it.

Until recently, I did not realise my attraction to Powerscourt waterfall - it has always held a magical attraction to me.

It was here that I spent many happy hours with Marie and when I am really down, I go there and feel the power of nature and the timelessness of its powerful running water.

So when I heard that the entrepeneurship author Larry C Farrell was coming to the Ryan Academy to give a seminar on entrepreneurship - I simply had to go!

What I experienced was a wonderful re-interpretation of the simplicity of business and of the basics which we learn and then speedily forget.

We all try to make business so complicated and shove so much MBA type nonsense down our own throats, that we forget that all we need is a product and a market.

His insight into this simple yet powerful philosophy proved to be an enlightening experience.

I asked him about his ancestors and would you believe it, we felt that we had some geneology in common - what a small world indeed !!

I got on really well with him and I hope that we will get a chance to work together soon

Your Business is NOT worth dying for

Many of you know that I am writing a book called "Your business is NOT worth dying for" - the subtitle is called "avoiding commercial suicide".

It will cover my own story in 12 chapters and will detail the journey that I went through which I have seen in so many eyes of my fellow entrepreneurs and business owners.

I hope to launch it at the world congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention in Killarney in August 2007.

Writing it is reflective and cathartic and I hope that when it is finished, that it will show reflection, understanding, compassion and above all, help people who are going through what I went through to stop and feel what their bodies are telling them - that they have to re-evaluate before they burnout.

I am six chapters in and it has helped me understand the choices that I made and the people who are in my life.

It has made me grateful for every single day and it has made me appreciate the people in my life who lift me up.

It has also made me realise that there are people close to me who tear me down and it is time for me to leave them out of my future plans.

Brendan Behan once said "we are here for a good time, not a long time" and it has taken me a long time to realise that.

So let the good times roll !!

Paul

Articles

I have been asked by a few people to publish some articles on issues which the foundation is passionate about. I though that was a good idea and so I invite some collaboration on the following article themes:

1. What price are you prepared to pay to be an entrepreneur?

2. Why and how do high achievers burnout?

3. What will YOU do when your wake up call comes?

4. Burnout and Emotional Intelligence

5. Burnout and Relationships

6. The Business Cost of Suicide

7. The Darkness of Leadership

8. Addicted to work

9. The Genius of Depression

10. Entrepreneurs - Mystics or Psychotics?

I welcome any contribution or position on any or all of the above topics

Paul

Social Entrepreneur

As a former president of the Irish chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (www.eonetwork.org), it was a nice surprise to hear I had been short listed in the Social Entrepreneurs Awards.

This group is a philanthropy organsiation which is trying to bring entrepreneurial flair to the social sector - knowing that new ideas and the people who can implement them are crucial to social change.

So it was with great pride that I even got shortlisted and I look forward to meeting the panel at the end of May 2007.

It is a testament to the work of the faculty and the patrons of the alchemism foundation that so soon after the start of our work, that we have been recognised as a potential force for social change.

Paul