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Halloween is now upon us and the same myths about witchcraft immerge. It is said that men targeted women as witches but if you look back to history about 25% of those that were thought to be witches were men.
It is also a myth that the most common women who were targeted were those who were midwives, but again if you look to the facts, midwives were very rarely accused of being witches.

I’m sure that most of us have heard the story about the water test which involved dropping suspected witches in water. The myth goes that if they sank they were innocent and that if they floated they were guilty. This act happened very rarely and there was often ropes tied to the suspects in order to pull them out.

These myths are always good story telling, but that’s exactly what they are, Myths.

I know it’s only October but after Halloween and Bonfire night Christmas always seems to come around so quickly. I even went o a department store last week and they already had teh Christmas tree up. It’s always an exciting time, but it seems so sad that many people don’t know the true meaning behind it.

I also find it disappointing when I hear that many councils try to avoid the Christian connection to the season by referring to it as a winter festival, and also the fact that many schools no longer perform the nativity play in case it offends anyone.

This year lets all get into the true spirit and celebrate Christmas for its true meaning.

The past couple of years have been a stressful time for workers, with the recession and the fear of redundancy. But a recent study has showed that those who kept their jobs have been affected just as much as those who let go.

Stress in the workplace has been rising steadily year on year since the 1990’s but the recession has seen stress levels rising significantly from 1% to 4%. This ties in with an increase in working hours and the pressure of having to take over the work of those colleagues made redundant.

The economy is now slowly improving so let’s hope that stress levels do the same.

The dark nights are drawing in and it can be hard to get motivated to do exercise, especially after a long day at work and then a commute back home in the dark. All this means that we are more prone to catching colds and flu.

So if you do catch a chill, what is the best way to get better? If you want to stay away from medication, then the best way is to eat healthily, concentrating on liquid foods such as soup and yoghurts. It is also better to eat little and often rather than having big meals. This way you will use less energy trying to digest your food.

Next week will see the start of dyslexia awareness week. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which affects a surprising number of people with statistics showing that one in ten people suffer from it.

There are different severities of dyslexia but this year the focus is on “hidden dyslexia”. Hidden, is used to refer to those who suffer in silence by hiding their symptoms. This means that many people can go undiagnosed, never getting the help they need.

This week it is hoped that more people with the symptoms of Dyslexia can find the confidence to seek the help they need. Some of the celebrities with the disability include Tom Cruise, Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom.

These days, Christmas is generally known to be a commercial holiday rather than a spiritual or religious time of year. Except to a devout minority, the festive period is all about Christmas cards and presents, parties, decorations, food and drink.

However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t embrace traditional values of giving, sharing and helping the less fortunate this December. There are lots of things you can do to make a difference this Christmas, such as:

• Buying charity Christmas cards and wrapping paper (not forgetting to recycle everything when Christmas is over) where the proceeds of the purchase go to a worthy cause

• Giving up some of your time to volunteer at homeless projects or hospitals

• Donating unwanted toys and other items to charities who will ensure that less fortunate children and families will receive them

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about how much you have at Christmas, and how little others have. Above all, it is important to remember that Christmas isn’t about how much you spend, how many presents you get, or how tipsy you get on Christmas Eve; it’s all about spending quality time with your family and realising just how lucky you are.

It is well documented that many state-funded “faith schools” use their legal privileges to have highly selective admissions criteria, discriminating against parents and children, which segregates communities along religious, socioeconomic and often ethnic grounds. Many also bar thousands of suitable teachers from their schools because they do not follow the school’s religion (or don’t behave in their personal lives according to the school’s wishes). Becoming religious academies will not take away these kinds of privileges. Concerns lie in the fact that a faith school becomes a academy it no longer needs to follow the national curriculum and concerns are raised over how the curriculum is taught in line with the sponsors wishes.

There have been many schools which have taken various traditions and religions into their curriculum. However Buddhist religion is becoming a key part in school more so after Goldie Hawn a practicing Buddhist set up a meditation in schools programmed which has already taken off in several private schools such as Wellington College & Tonbridge School. There is a saying that Buddhism will establish itself in the western society as a psychology rather than a religion. One way of incorporating this faith into the lifestyle and daily work is via Meditation which is seen to bring calm, reduce aggression and increase pro social behavior in both adults and children

In the London School of Fashion, girls are tasked with changing the way we normally wear clothes – for example, ties are used as belts. The girls are taking part in an initiative called Faith & Fashion that is using the widespread topic of how Muslims can incorporate fashion and how modesty can still be protected. The burqa is seen as the only way a Muslim women can dress if she is to follow her religion fully. Opening up the Koran and understanding what verses have been interpreted to support the burqa girls are able to make up there own minds.

Modesty is a key part of many religions where ladies are taught to cover parts of the body which draw attention from the opposite sect, this becomes a way of life. For example in the hindu religion ladies are taught not to show any of there thighs, navel or breast. This is common sense to most as these specific areas draw attention and for the protection of the ladies themselves they need to be covered. In musilms the ladies and girls have to cover their heads as it’s believed that hair is known as a attribute which draws attention from males.