Nutrition

Eat for You

There is a direct correlation between our nutritional intake and our health. You are quite literally what you eat; food is more than just calories or energy to fuel our bodies, it communicates, directs and regulates every function in our body and a nutrient-rich diet will curate the environment for our magical inner universe to thrive, promoting an optimal level of health. Food is medicine, what we eat speaks to our genes and our intention is to express healthful, vibrant, thriving genes so just as sub-optimal nutritional intake can drive imbalances in our system, it can also be a creator of good health through our bodies having an inherent ability to balance and heal themselves when given the right ingredients.
My preferred is a non-restrictive 80:20 (ish) approach to eating whereby we establish strong foundations to include health enhancing, chakra balancing, protective foods whilst limiting ultra-processed foods that deplete our life force. Equally I advocate giving ourselves permission to not be perfect, to savour the joy in our indulgences and the connection from social eating, without shaming. We don’t need fad diets and end date eating plans and it is not necessary to define and label our diet, we just need to eat in a way that makes us feel good – energised rather than fatigued, nourished rather than depleted, and honouring our body – our vessel- as it deserves.
We are all unique in our tastes, our biology and our beliefs and this is what can guide us to explore and develop our own set of principles that connect us with our ‘diaeta’ – a personalised way of eating based on our individual requirements and feeling of compatibility with a healthful and vibrant life.

Movement & Exercise

 Move for You

Exercise and movement are another keystone to health and longevity playing a vital role in our overall health, positively impacting many of our body systems. Many proverbs spoken centuries ago by ancient philosophers recognise the importance of embodying movement for its benefits on mind, body and spirit and this feels more important than ever in an obesogenic, sedentary, high stress society.

Quotes: “If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk” ~ Hippocrates.

Regular movement is a natural anti-inflammatory so I believe that first and foremost, if we can find a way to move daily in a way that you enjoy and energises you, it will become a great lever for optimising longevity and if this can be done outdoors in nature, we can further elevate the profound physical and psychological benefits. Beyond this, by way of our longer term health and quality of life, it is important to mitigate the natural muscle loss and compromised bone density we experience as we age through maintaining, or growing, our muscle mass with resistance training and a diet to support this. Loss of muscle mass as we age is associated with all-cause mortality and linked to the incidence of many chronic disease so by combining cardio and strength training, we can create a powerful duo to optimise our overall health from improved heart, brain and gut health, to better insulin sensitivity (and the profound positive knock-on effect of this), to improved mood and sleep hygiene, and improved durability, resilience and balance supporting a quality ageing.

Through regular and consistent exercise, we can quite literally change our body, not just from the outside, but from the inside too.

Rest and Relaxation

 Rest & Digest

Rest and relaxation are such an important pillar to health but one which is so often overlooked. In today’s modern world with the external stresses of life and poor lifestyle choices, we can spend too much time in a state of fight or flight and although it has a purpose from an evolutionary perspective, it is not conducive to good health for our nervous system to be in overdrive. We are elemental beings and just like in the cycles and rhythms in the natural world, we need to take time to deeply relax every day to get our nervous system into a state of rest and digest for our body to function properly. We need to connect and listen the messages and physical cues in our body when it is communicating the need for rest; deep breathing, meditation, grounding in nature, energy healing, and activities like yoga are shown to reduce physical and psychological stress.

There is no truer message than in the well-known Zen Proverb: if you don’t have time to meditate for 15mins then you should meditate for an hour.

A restful quality night’s sleep is also medicine. It impacts every part of our health as it is a time for our body to rest and recuperate, heal and restore. Good sleep hygiene is key for the body, mind and spirit for regulating brain and cognitive function, helping to stabilise your mood, boosting immunity, lowering stress, balancing hormones and it is a time when your body heals and recharges. When we are sleep deprived, everything else takes a hit; it’s harder to eat well, to exercise, to make the best choices and to generally be in a good mood or have a positive outlook on life so it is not supportive of our overall positive health goals. It is important to recognise that there are times in life when quality sleep may be more challenging, and we need to show ourselves compassion here rather than cause further angst, but this is where we can try to focus on ‘controlling the controllables’ where possible and find an opportunity each day to allow our systems to drop into a parasympathetic state through relaxation practices, even just for a moment to stop, breathe, and just be, in the knowing that this can be beautifully upgrading for our health and wellbeing.

Natural Wellness

 Follow Nature’s Way

Toxin exposure through ingested products or environmental toxins affects our body systems and this is why I advocate a naturopathic approach to health, and I include this as one of my pillars to supporting optimal health and wellness.

Reducing our toxic burden by living in line with a more natural approach positively impacts our health. This can take on many guises and to be honest, in this day and age with all the hidden toxins in our produce, mis-leading marketing, and fearmongering by the media and pharmaceutical companies, it can be a real challenge! For me this is an area that is work in progress and I show myself compassion as I celebrate what I am doing to reduce and limit my toxic exposure rather than shame myself for what I am not. It can be very easy to go into overwhelm however as is my mantra in many areas, “something is always better than nothing”.

It all starts with an intention and then the awareness of which areas in our life leave us open to toxin exposure that we can then take steps to limit or eliminate completely. Whether it be finding more natural alternatives to the chemical laden products in our home that are disruptors to our hormones and respiratory systems; paying attention to what our skin is ‘digesting’ on a daily basis through what we use in our personal hygiene and skin care routines; educating ourselves to make better choices and practices to limit toxin consumption from our food and drink intake; being open to natural immune supportive practices and recognising the power of plant medicine with a remembering of ancient wisdoms, trusting nature’s cure and embracing of energy healing practices as naturopathic ways to support and bring our bodies back into a state of homeostasis rather than out-sourcing power over our health to pharmaceuticals all too quickly and often unnecessarily.

It is also important to be mindful not only of what you expose your physical body to, but also any form of exposure that is disruptive and negatively impactful to your emotional and spiritual well-being: what you watch, what you listen to, what you read, the people you connect to, the places you spend time in, even the way you speak to yourself, your inner voice and limiting beliefs …anything that leaves you in a low vibration is an unhealthy burden to be addressed.

Although any one of these aspects may be seemingly insignificant in and of itself, it is the accumulation over time that creates a toxic load on our system that compromises living a life of balanced optimal health.

Spiritual Wellness

 Live for You

Our spiritual wellness is a measure of our connection to ourselves, to everyone and to all things; it is a soul-led way of living that I believe to be an important keystone in our lives, fostering and encouraging a deepening interconnectedness in all of life.

Spiritual wellbeing is not borne of religion, spirit is another word for energy and our bodies, just like all physical structures, are 99.9% empty space vibrating at an incredibly high speed frequency and surrounded by our own energetic field (our aura). This rapidly vibrating space is like an energetic ‘matrix’ with its own energy centres (our chakras) that underpin our physical bodies, and which are in a state of flux resonating with our psychological and emotional experiences as we interact with life.

It is important that we balance, nurture, nourish and protect this system of subtle energies sacred to us but although we are familiar with the mind-body-spirit concept, it is the spirit (energetic) element that is widely misunderstood and therefore neglected, and largely due to its historical suppression and dismissal of being deemed ‘woo woo’ and without substance. We need to understand that the mind, body, spirit elements for holistic wellness are not separate from one another, one influences the other, and so we must optimise each and recognise the interconnectedness if we are to live our most healthy and vibrant life.

Thankfully with science increasingly recognising and evidencing these subtle “life force” energy flows and how imbalances and blockages impact our health, the concepts and holistic energy healing practices deeply rooted in Eastern philosophies are rising in the western world. Working with a practitioner in an energy healing modality is a great way to honour this aspect to holistic wellbeing however there are spiritual wellness practices that we can weave into our lives that will nourish our spirit through addressing our internal dialogue, releasing anything vibrating at a low frequency that no longer serves, protecting our energies and practising tuning in to the higher frequencies of joy, love and gratitude in the higher knowing that all is as it is meant to be. A bit like deciding which radio station you would like to tune in to, we can dial in and quite literally upgrade the radio station of our lives with spiritual wellness practises.

Creativity

 Set Your Mind Free

Creative expression is an essential aspect of our emotional and psychological wellbeing and therefore has an important impact on our health. Whatever our belief system, as human beings we are an expression of co-creation and on an energetic level, it particularly resonates with the sacral chakra which is our emotional, sexual, connection and creativity centre.

Creativity expresses itself in the opposite way to depression; whereas depression translates as being in a state of ‘deep rest’ and is an expression of stuck, stagnant energy, creativity is all about movement and flow which works best when we bring joy and pleasure into our lives. We can experience imbalance and blockages when we store emotions and feelings of past hurt and unworthiness, also when our lives become all about duty and responsibility, often underpinned with anxiety and an inability to relax. We need to nurture and nourish our body with not just what it needs to survive on a physical level, but with what we need for it to thrive on an emotional level too by allowing and enjoying the fanciful whims and pleasures in life! Our creativity centre is also strongly linked to our throat chakra – our communication, expression and truth centre – so speaking our truth, being heard and getting our needs met is essential to allow the flow of creativity and enhance our well-being and child-like essence within us.

Creative expression can take many forms: dancing, painting, baking, gardening, writing, photography, or flying a kite! It can be any kind of project or idea you want to bring to life (including a child). We are all creative, we just need to set out minds free. Modern ways of living and engaging in an institutionalised society is very linear and left-brained dominant which doesn’t embrace the full capability of how our brain works. A creative pursuit will tap into the right-brain, enabling the brain to work from both hemispheres, promoting balance and unlocking true power.

Community

 Connect with Your Soul Family

Connecting with people who share the same moral compass and who raise each other up has the power to contribute to a higher level of wellbeing. A feeling of isolation and a lack of connection and belonging is linked to poor mental health and associated illness, so I believe that an important pillar to health and wellness is feeling part of a supportive, like minded community, who “see” one another and champion each other as they journey through life. Energy is contagious and a great way to support personal growth is to surround yourself with people who reflect who you want to be and how you want to feel, people who inspire you. Those people who will lift you higher and help to propel you forward on your life path.