Bloom Magazine | Issue 4 | 2017

Bloom

inspiring wellness issue 4 | oct 2017

Running on RAW vegan marathon runners set the pace Life in Syntropy Building Resilient Communities

Organic

what’s inside...

Bloom Magazine is a North Queensland publication empowering health, wellness and conscious living.

Published annually, Bloom Magazine supports the Bloom Inspiring Wellness festival that takes place October each year in Cairns & Townsville.

Find out more: www.bloominspiringwellness.com

SPECIAL THANKS Jodie Ferrero

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DAYS FOR GIRLS no more missing class.period

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YWAM MEDICALSHIPS continuing the conversation

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JANETTE & ALAN MURRAY-WAKELIN running on raw

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LEEANDRA NORMAN building resilient communities

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BREATHE PROJECT inhale. exhale. just breathe

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SJOERD SOUVERIGN life in syntropy

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BLOOM MARKETPLACE connect with community

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BLOOM DIRECTORY products/services/education

FOUNDER / PUBLISHER / EDITOR / DESIGNER Emma Lodge emma@bloominspiringwellness.com GENERAL ENQUIRIES info@bloominspiringwellness.com POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 440 Nth Cairns, QLD 4870 Australia

Information contained in this publication is intended for educational and infomational purposes only. Opinions represented in Bloom are not necessairly those of the publisher. Please consult your own doctor or healthcare provider to determine the best course of treatment for you. All content is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

@bloominspiringwellness | #bloomcairns | #bloomtownsville | www.bloominspiringwellness.com

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Welcome Conversations are powerful. They expand us, offer

us deeper awareness and provide opportunities for the exchange of ideas, sharing and connecting in a way that matters. I’ve had many fascinating conversations with incredible people over the years and as I embrace the 5th year of running the Bloom Wellness Festival, I acknowledge the many conversations that have driven me forward to explore more, study more, make changes in my own life and understand that we are more connected than we realise.

Social connection is a fundamental human need, and social media certainly masquerades as the solution, but are we really truly connected in this way? As I delve further into this wellness journey, I find increasingly more value in the powerful stories, insights and knowledge shared in conversations, so I’ve decided to bring to you a new look Bloom Magazine!

Sitting down to enjoy the richness of real conversation and listening to the accounts of people sharing their personal experiences animated with emotion, passion, excitement and energy is such a wonderful thing. The conversations within this magazine are raw, uncut and authentic.

I hope as you read these pages you will experience a sense of presence and feel like you are together with us enjoying the conversation. Grab a friend, have a cuppa and carry on the conversation. Our journeys are meant to be shared with one another and that is what truly enriches the connections in our lives..

Emma xoxo

DAYS FOR GIRLS

no more missing class. period.

Every month, millions of women and girls miss school and work because they lack something essential: feminine hygiene supplies. Days for Girls is giving back days of education and opportunity to thousands of women and girls in over 100 countries.

This year Bloom Inspiring Wellness has selected Days for Girls as their charity partner for the 2017 Cairns & Townsville event.

I caught up with volunteer Janiece from the Townsville Days for Girls Chapter to find out more about this social enterprise.

Emma: Can you give me a background on what Days for Girls is?

Emma: What’s a chapter?

Emma: Can you explain to me what’s in a kit?

Janiece: Days for Girls is a global organisation that provides sustainable feminine hygiene kits to over 640,000 women and girls in over 100 countries.

There is a global network of over 800 volunteer chapters and teams.

Janiece: A chapter is a group of local people who undertake to sew and assemble the DfG kits.

Janiece: Yes a kit comprises of washable pads, a washcloth, drawstring bag, panties, soap and zip lock bags for young women who are menstruating. Girls provided with these kits can then go to school and participate in their normal village life without being shunned or having to stay at home. We’ve

heard

stories of villages where women have to segregate themselves; they can’t participate in the normal everyday village life because they’re menstruating. Apparently some tribes even have a hut that women have to sit in for the term of their menstrual cycle.

DfG kits provide freedom. It means that girls can participate in everyday village life and go to school, that’s the big thing, maintaining their education levels which otherwise would be lost for several days every month.

Emma: I read in one instance how girls were sitting on cardboard for several days each month, often going without food unless someone would bring it to them.

Janiece: Yes that’s how Days for Girls began. Founder Celeste Mergens was working with a family foundation in Kenya, when she began assisting an orphanage in the outskirts of Nairobi which swelled from 400 children to 1400.

Learning that the girls were sitting on cardboard for several days each month prompted Celeste to find a solution.

Emma: And I read there were a lot of trials with the kits and numerous versions created?

Janiece: Yes through talking to thousands of women and girls around the globe, they’ve gone through 28 different iterations to ensure the design meets unique cultural and environmental conditions in communities. So you may notice that the kits don’t look like traditional pads and there’s a reason for that. The bright colours camouflage staining, and the absorbent liners unfold to look like a washcloth, which allows women to wash and dry them outside in the sun without causing embarrassment.

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY DAYS FOR GIRLS | LOCATION TOWNSVILLE

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JANIECE STARK

Emma: They all seem lovely and very bright!

Emma: So explain to me about your chapter...

Janiece: Oh yes they’re fabulous! And the more mixed up the colours the better! But we also have to be careful as there’s a lot of restriction on the patterning and colours; you can’t have anything tribal patterned, emblems or symbols and so forth. The Days for Girls World Organisation provides templates and instructions that must be followed, regardless of the sewing location or destination. So it’s important that all DfG Kits are efficient and effective as they can last for up to 3 years if made correctly.

Janiece: Well in 2013 the Townsville chapter was created. We get together regularly and are known as the Give Back Crew. Our first request was sewing and packing 40 DfG kits for Uganda. We put together everything we had; the whole kitchen table was covered with pads, bags, liners, soaps and undies.

To see the work we had achieved and the kits all finished and laid out was an awesome feeling! Since then our chapter has grown to a wonderful network of people. I come home now and find soaps, undies and fabric that have been dropped off. We’ve never had to buy the cotton fabric that the shields are made from because we’ve had so much donated. People

go on holidays and come back with bags full of little hotel soaps, even people on their grocery shop will now grab 2 or 3 packets of zip lock bags to drop off. It just blows me away, it’s amazing, people just give, I cannot believe how generous.

Emma: It’s the simple things that can be so fulfilling...

Janiece: Yes a little thing like bringing back a dozen hotel soaps is a big thing to the girls. And then the distribution... it’s amazing where the connections come from. I met a lady who had been to Fiji after the cyclone, and she shared all about the destruction and how she visited an island that had been worst hit.

There was not one thing left standing. No trees, no shelter, everyone was fully in the sun, fully in the rain, fully in the weather, so on her next trip we gave her 183 DfG kits. Just recently I dropped 93 DfG kits into the YWAM office. The lady I handed them to was on the medical ship that had directly distributed them to the PNG community. She

said “if you could only bottle their smile and their happiness, it’s such a wonderful thing.”

Emma: Can anyone approach you and request some DfG kits to distribute overseas?

Janiece: Absolutely. However there are protocols on how to distribute the kits.

Health education is almost as important as the kits themselves, and if the girls don’t know how to use the DfG Kits properly it can cause all sorts of health problems, as well as drastically shorten the lifespan of the kits. So Days for Girls encourage educational sessions regarding the care and use of the DfG kits. They also provide a distribution handbook as well as online training for distributors.

Emma: Is there a broader message of empowerment for the women in these communities?

Janiece: Well the Days for Girls organisation is now well formed, and the idea is that women can become sustainable through the DfG Micro- Enterprise model which creates local economic empowerment opportunities. Women are provided with the tools and education to make the DfG Kits and sell them, generating income opportunities and awareness within their communities.

Emma: So can anyone get involved and volunteer for Days for Girls?

Janiece: Yes anyone can be involved. Our Townsville chapter meets every Monday. You can also visit the DfG website to find a chapter in your local area. One of the main things about DfG is that you don’t need to know how to sew; even the smallest slightest help goes a long way. The fact that you can go grocery shopping and come back with a packet of 40 zip lock bags is wonderful, that’s 40 kits.

Emma: And don’t forget to steal the soaps from your hotel room!

Janiece: Yes [laughs] steal your soaps. It’s no effort, nothing but thoughtfulness and that’s a whole pile of soaps we don’t have to buy.

Emma: Like you said its community and when you feel like you’re making a contribution and you’re amongst like-minded people doing the same thing, it’s uplifting and you get a lot from giving.

Janiece: Yes and it doesn’t take much.

daysforgirls.org 10 |

continuing the conversation...

We continue the conversation with Anna Scott from YWAM Townsville to find out what impact the Days for Girls kits have had on young women in the remote Papua New Guinea communities.

Emma: Tell me about YWAM...

Anna: YWAM (Youth With A Mission) has been running for over 50 years all over the world, we’re in 180 countries now and in over 1000 locations. We’ve been running in Townsville for 25 years and recently celebrated our anniversary which is really exciting. Our region extends from North Queensland, into the Pacific Islands and out toward Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Papua New Guinea where our Medical Ship operates. We send teams to do community projects and youth initiatives throughout North Queensland, and more recently we have been working in partnership with the PNG National Government to help address the significant health challenges in remote PNG communities. Everyone within the organisation are full time volunteers, so it means that all the work we carry out goes straight back into the communities.

Emma: Fantastic, and what kind of work has YWAM Townsville been carrying out in PNG?

Emma: Oh yes I’ve often seen the medical ship in port but didn’t know what it was.

Anna: So through our medical ship we focus on really remote communities that lack access to health care and training. Many villages miss out on the real basic services because of their isolation. They say that 84% of PNG population actually live in rural areas not in the cities and urban places; so this limits access to basic healthcare services for a vast majority of the population.

Anna: So our ship holds over 100 people onboard, we have a dentistry clinic and also a theatre where we can do eye surgery. Cataracts are a big thing in Papua New Guinea, many people struggle with blindness from cataracts that can easily be removed with really simple eye surgery.

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY YWAM | LOCATION TOWNSVILLE

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ANNA SCOTT

We’ve had incredible stories of people who have come in blind one day, then returned the next to have their patch taken off and they can see again.

So imagine not only having your sight restored, but the impact this has on the community for a person to be able to provide for the family again and not be a burden. It’s a miracle in a lot of ways seeing someone go from being blind to having their sight restored. We also have teams that work on land, so our primary health care team focuses on maternal and child health, as well as providing education on diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy. These diseases are quite significant in rural areas so we run health promotions and focus a lot on prevention. We’ve also got our optometry team that checks eyesight and hands out glasses, and we’ve got our community engagement team which covers health education in schools.

Emma: So the health education would include distributing the Days for Girls kits?

Anna: Yes we focus particularly on health education for women as we find that women are often left on the outskirts, so we really want to work on drawing them out and including them in a lot of our programs. Women’s health and sex are just not talked about, so we open up the conversation to girls in a really intimate setting with their teachers and go through a lot of education which is where the DfG kits come in. I think the most special thing is there’s a longing for girls to talk about this stuff, not only about women’s health but their value as women. Addressing things like you don’t have to have sex if you don’t want to, really affirming their identity and the choices they can make, and empowering them as young women. So

it’s much more than just giving them a kit that’s going to help with their period, it’s also instilling value and self worth in women. These intimate conversations also allow us the opportunity to share our own stories, regardless of culture or where you’re from I think there’s something within women that want to know they have value and that they’re seen and have something to contribute. That’s really something we try to impart through these gorgeous DfG kits, they allow us to present something really beautiful and give an opportunity to open up conversation.

Emma: What were the girls using before they received the kits?

Emma: What impact has the kits had on the girls?

Anna: We’ve been distributing kits for the last 12 months which has really added a lot of value to our program and again has promoted gender equality and empowering women. So when the girls see the DfG kits their eyes light up because of the bright, beautiful patterns and it’s a pack just for them. We find the girls are often a bit shy to begin with, a lot of them giggle you know as it can be embarrassing to talk about, but there’s something you can see them drawing in and hanging onto every word you say because it’s such a unique conversation and its meeting a need within the heart which is really special and important.

Emma: How many kits has YWAM distributed so far?

Anna: We’ve distributed 2,356 DfG kits to date, but we’ve been really limited with the amount of kits available so we’ve had to really ration them which has been a real shame.

Emma: So you need more?

Anna: Oh yes we always need more and are constantly putting out the word for people to make them. We currently target the fifteen/sixteen year olds but obviously we would love to expand that for the younger girls coming into that time in their lives, but because of the amount we’ve had and not wanting any village to miss out we’ve had to focus on that particular age group so we have enough. We would love to give more; I mean every woman in the village should have one.

Emma: How many villages have you targeted so far?

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Anna: We find a lot of times the girls are just using rags or whatever they can find when they’re on their period, often they’ll not go to school for the week and they’ll isolate themselves from the community. It’s not something that gets talked about, and it can honestly be a bit of a shameful thing.

Anna: We visit about twenty five villages every two weeks with the ship, and try to work it in with the schools as much as possible because we want the teachers to be hearing the same teaching and continue to model the program.

YWAM

Often the teachers get a lot out of it too because it’s not something they’ve grown up learning. We recently had a textile teacher who was really enthusiastic about the DfG kits but was heartbroken when she found we only had a limited amount, so she asked for the patterns, found some fabric and got the students to make them as a class project. That was really special because she captured the heart of it, we were able to give her the patterns and she was then able to get students and the women in the village to make them. Ultimately we would love the community to own it and be a part of it. Hundreds of villages have had the opportunity to hear the message, so it’s been quite an achievement.

Emma: What are you facing when you head into the villages, obviously there’s a lot of poverty...

Anna: Every village and area is different. There’s over 800 languages in PNG and a thousand tribes, so it’s really really diverse. You could go to one village where they speak a language and have certain customs and then you go up the river a little to find a different language and different customs. Tuberculosis is quite huge there at the moment, they’ve called it a national crisis. Malaria is as common as getting a cold in a lot of places. There’s more and more cases of Leprosy coming up and I think just the isolation of these communities is the real battle, when you’ve got no roads or airstrips how do you actually get to these places? So with the medical ship we’ve been able to access a lot further with that and trekking into villages. It’s

not impossible, there are ways to be creative and use innovation to get you where you need to go to break the isolation, which is what we aim to model. So I think it’s a special mission. Going to these places means that they’re not forgotten, there is a way. It’s also helping to instil hope into a lot of communities which is one of the most special things that we’ve done. ywamtownsville.org

TOWNSVILLE’S LEISURE & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE GET YOUR COPY IN THE WEEKEND BULLETIN EVERYTHING YOU LOVE EVERY SATURDAY

running on raw.

In 2001 at 52 years old, Janette Murray-Wakelin was diagnosed with highly aggressive carcinoma breast cancer and told she had six months to live. Twelve years later not only having cured herself of cancer, Janette along with her husband Alan set out to run around Australia completing 366 marathons in 366 days, setting a new World Record. Now travelling the world promtoing RAW the Documentary, Janette is living proof that anything can be achieved when living a conscious lifestyle.

Emma: I read your book ‘Raw Can Cure Cancer’ and was so moved by it.

Your diagnosis and the emotions associated, I felt like I was riding that wave of fear and empowerment with you. What prompted you to share your story?

Janette: Well it was such an experience to be told that you’ve got cancer for one, and that you’re going to die for another. The first reaction I had was that’s not going to happen which is something classically known as ‘being in denial’, and yes perhaps I was denying, but I was denying that I was going to allow that to happen, rather than that was the case. So I went through the process of making lifestyle changes. You become so passionate when things go right that you want to share with other people because that’s what we’re here for, to share these experiences and knowledge. So I felt that I needed to share my experience and let people know that there are other options.

Emma: Having completed marathons prior to your cancer diagnosis, do you think that helped you face your cancer challenge in terms of mental preparation? Do you think having a mindset of drive and determination is what got you through?

Janette: Not entirely, but yes certainly I do get people saying to me you’re really strong so it must have been easier for you, but then I think that comes down to placing a higher value on yourself and realising that you’re worth it. A lot of people give up; especially when they’re told they’re going to die so they believe it and they do, rather than questioning the situation. I really think that’s something people need to be aware of is questioning everything, and asking does this make sense to me? Nothing I was told made sense to me, so I had to do something about it. I think training for marathons is more about discipline

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN | LOCATION RAVENSHOE

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JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN

and commitment and making it a goal to work towards and achieving it.

Emma: I ran a marathon a couple of years ago. I trained, I ate really well, but I think my mindset had everything to do with completing it. I was determined and knew without a doubt that I was going to succeed, and people who doubted me fuelled me even more to achieve!

Janette: Certainly running a marathon is more in the head than in the legs; once you’ve trained it’s all in the head really.

Emma: It really gave me the understanding of how strong the mind is and how you can achieve anything when you really set your mind to it. Obviously there is discipline with it, such as changing your diet.

Janette: Yes certainly changing your diet and choosing nutrient dense food helps. A lot of people say oh I can’t do that or you know I can’t give up my whatever... but if they just got their mind out of the way and did it, they’ll find that in being more nutrient laden from food, the body actually responds in a way that makes it easier, and then your mind becomes clearer, so you’re able to think more clearly. Without a high level of nutrition from living food I don’t think you can achieve as well, certainly not physically. A lot of people who are athletes, even those who are quite elite, are always pursuing something that they can use to maintain or outperform their level of fitness whether it be some sort of super food or energy bars etc, but you actually don’t need them when you’ve got a high level of nutrients in your diet.

Emma: So in 2001 you were diagnosed with breast cancer and within 6 months you were given the all clear. I know there is quite an extensive list of changes you made in your life, but what were the most profound changes that you made?

Janette: The treatment itself was more therapy than treatment because I refused the traditional treatment. I guess the biggest changes were actually spending time researching what would be the best route for me to take.

Inherently we knew that eating fruits and vegetables and avoiding junk food was of benefit, but we had never really spent time researching it. So the more I found out the more I was like oh yes of course that makes sense and knowing you have the ability to choose your direction and make it happen, so long as you know to love yourself enough. For me it was quite a big change, and I

think for most people, especially women, we find ourselves predominantly caring for others, and our own wellbeing takes second place or less, so putting myself first and realising that it’s not selfish, it’s self loving, that was a big change.

Emma: Successfully you got through your cancer journey. Alan obviously you were on the journey as well, did you notice any health benefits for yourself from these changes?

Alan: Yes I sure did, it was just amazing because changing all these lifestyle habits all of a sudden we became very fit and very well. We thought we were already fit before we started the journey because we could run marathons and races, but we came to a whole new level of wellness and that was the biggest thing I noticed. There were also new options presented to us that I had never really heard of before like fasting. When we found out that you could go without food for 2 days, 4 days even 10 days, we dabbled in that a bit too and that was also a big help.

Emma: Did you receive guidance on going raw and how to manage your diet during therapy?

Janette: I had a naturopathic physician who was not only very professional in what he does, but was also a very good friend. He helped my body heal itself by figuring out a therapy of nutrient laden elements and substances that would help it do so, rather than saying this is the direction everybody needs to go and here’s the supplements to go with it, follow it. He actually worked with every person individually, and I was very blessed to have someone like him to work with.

Alan: We were like a big sponge, we did a lot of research specifically for healing and health and started following amazing people like Dr Douglas Graham and Gabriel Cousins and went to all the health seminars and fruit festivals and started meeting people and hearing their stories and experiences.

Janette: And I think there’s so much information on the internet today, so we basically took what made sense for us from various sources and that way we built our own way of being. We don’t follow anyone in particular, but we certainly take ideas from people who follow a raw conscious lifestyle to understand how it works for them. Our friend Dr Robert Lockhart is absolutely brilliant. He practices a simplistic lifestyle that really works, and he’s one of

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RUNNING ON RAW

the healthiest people we know. I think a lot of people tend to think and analyse too much. Really

we need to get back to a simple, natural way of living and the answers are all there. It’s pretty easy really; if you eat living food or dead food then clearly you’re going to get one of those two responses.

Alan: And I also think a big part of having the support and guidance from the naturopathic physician, was that he could take blood samples and send them to various labs, so Janette had some markers and that was a huge thing because right at the very beginning he took a whole series of blood samples from Janette, and a month later he did the same thing again. So right from the start and then after two months of monitoring you could see it was good with less cancer cells in the body.

Janette: Yes and he was adjusting the therapy accordingly. For the first six months and certainly for the first 3 months it was intensive therapy, mostly intravenous that aimed to get as many nutrients into the body, much more nutrients than I could have possibly eaten or juiced, even though I was doing that at the same time. So with my actual diet I was mainly juicing, however there wasn’t a great deal of fruit as we were in Canada and it was winter, so I was more into juicing carrots and beetroot and things to build up the blood and help rejuvenate my immune system.

Emma: I noticed a big area you touched on in your book was the support you received, how important was that for you?

Janette: Yes I think the best thing apart from his professionalism and monitoring the treatment and adjusting it accordingly, was the support I received along the way. I’d go there sometimes for a 3 hour intravenous session and all that time I’d be thinking to myself is this really working, and am I actually going to get through this? All these things would go through my mind and sometimes it would be quite overwhelming, especially if that particular day my body wasn’t taking the therapy as fast as I would have liked. The therapy was always monitored on what rate your body would take it in, so sometimes you’d have to sit there for 3 hours thinking is this really worth it?

You know, and end up placing a higher value on something that’s not relevant like I need to get to the shops [Laughs].

Afterwards he would say come out to the garden and he would sit with me, sometimes I was crying (which was a lot of the time) and he would put his arm around me, and this was so important. I mean, I was getting this at home from Alan too as a support person plus family, but just to have empathy from a professional was so, so important, and that is what I wanted to highlight in my book. What’s

really important for a person who has a diagnosis or not yet, is that they find those people who have empathy, that’s the true importance, finding someone who can give that support.

Emma: Yes and that comes back to the power of the mind and getting that mental boost.

Emma: Especially when you’re getting those blood markers read, that must have been a great boost for your mental state which then uplifts your emotions that affect your cells, so you can flood your body with positivity.

Janette: Absolutely

Alan & Janette: Yes, absolutely.

Janette: And my markers weren’t always going well, but that was to do with the body having chemical changes and also a certain amount of detoxing was going on for sure. So it was an up and down rollercoaster ride, but he was there at every step for reassurance, and clearly that wasn’t just for me but for everyone.

Once I went to his clinic and it was so overflowing with people that they were out in the waiting room hooked up as well. I shared this in a chapter of the book about the feeling and ambience of being there amongst other people, a lot of them in much worse health situations than I was, but everyone was so up and positive, such a difference to being in a hospital ward or in a doctors waiting room, as really how many times in a doctors waiting room do you actually converse with another person sitting next to you? Whereas, we were all telling each other our hope stories, it was such a difference and so important, almost

| 17

more important than the therapy itself to be honest. You know, I certainly had a lot of people who were not happy about my choices and they made that very obvious, whereas others said that’s the choice you’re making we’ll support you.

One of the things my naturopathic physician said when I was feeling isolated and my extended family thought I was crazy, was to ask them to support the choices I had made, and if they couldn’t give it to me then it didn’t matter because I’ll get it from those who can. A

lot of people don’t ask for the support they need, they just soldier on in their own way, but you get the ability to ask for support when you go within and understand that you’re really worth it.

Emma: What did the doctors say when you were given the all clear?

Emma: As Tyler Tolman would say another case off to the miracle filing cabinet!

Emma: So what is your typical diet now?

Janette: The all clear was from the allopathic doctors and their reactions were well that’s unusual, gee... your markers are looking quite good. I only had one doctor who was actually quite interested and she would ask what I was doing as she knew I wasn’t following the recommended treatment plan. Her reaction was that’s great because anything that you can do that’s a positive to help the body is brilliant. So I had a doctor who was happy for me to be going in that direction, whereas the majority refused to believe that anything other than what they offered could possibly be of any benefit. When I got the all clear my oncologist said to me oh we must have misdiagnosed, so there was a professional who would rather say she misdiagnosed than admit that there was another way.

Janette: Well there’s people who have even cured themselves through prayer, that may not necessarily be a religious thing, but it’s

the power of belief in yourself, and the innate ability of your body to heal itself given the right tools.

Janette: A smoothie in the morning or just some fruit and then around 4:00pm we’ll make a juice if we’ve got things to juice or a salad or fruit, that’s pretty much it.

It’s really simplified now compared to when we used to make all sorts of raw high cuisine.

Alan: And this seems to be a trend with raw diets. You start off making raw pizzas or raw lasagne and all these raw gourmet dishes, but in almost every case after 10 years raw foodists start to simplify meals and usually around 15+ years of being raw they just eat simple food. We have friends that have been on a raw food diet for 30 years and they’ve all ended up the same way, it gets more and more simple and they eat less and less yet they look really well.

Janette: It really is the true meaning of less is more; you don’t need to eat as much as you think you do.

Alan: Just as example, in the world today even including the poorer countries there’s more people who are sick by having too much protein than by having not enough. How many people do you know who don’t have enough protein? Everyone who is overweight or looks unwell there’s every chance they’re having too much protein. That’s just one example and you can change that word from protein to B12 or calcium.

Emma: And that’s a question I see you get asked a lot as people are concerned as to where you get your protein from, and many people believe that calcium is just from dairy and iron from meat.

Janette: Clearly what we eat is where we get it from, apart from what the body makes.

Alan: We have a fellow in our documentary Robert Cheek the big body building guy, I think he summed it up pretty well. He said if you’re eating enough nutrients from fresh, organic ripe fruit you’ll get everything you need. Every single thing. He also said

you’ve gotta ask yourself, say you’re overweight or not feeling well or you’ve got eczema or other diseases, are you really eating food? Are you REALLY eating food? Because there’s so much stuff out there that’s actually not food. You go into a supermarket and there’s aisles and aisles of stuff in there I don’t know what they are, we don’t eat them and people can think they’re eating a good diet but actually they’re not eating real food. | 19

JANETTE MURRAY-WAKELIN

Emma: And it’s eating enough of the good food and reaching out for the right snacks.

Janette: That’s right, so if you get a banana and you’re still hungry then have another one because eventually the body will say that’s enough. But don’t think about it; let your body tell you. So that way you actually work with the body’s wisdom and what you need. And you don’t need to think about it, you don’t need to analyse it, you don’t have to count calories, you just have to be sure you’re getting nutrients, lots of them.

Emma: Is it expensive being vegan?

When there’s so much cheap convenience food around do you think the cost of fresh versus packaged foods has had an impact on our choices?

Janette: Definitely it has an impact on the choices we make but it’s because we’re not realising the benefits of the right choice. Yes you can get really cheap processed food but what are you actually getting? No matter how much you spend you won’t be getting value as you’ll find yourself constantly craving for more food and snacks, and the body is wanting more of it as its searching for nutrients.

Alan: Sometimes I buy a nice big ripe pineapple for $3 and purchasing 3 or 4 of them seems a lot but...

Janette: But the difference in the nutrient value is enormous Alan: So if we compare a nice big ripe pineapple to a caramel slice...

Janette: It’s not comparable because there’s nothing in a caramel slice Alan: And meat, for example, some of the expensive meats are $15 or $16kg, whereas for fruit and veg we very rarely pay more than $2 or $3kg.

Janette: Yes exactly. So being vegan is not expensive because the more you eat of it the less you need because you’re nutrient laden, so you’re building up this level of nutrition. Living up here is way cheaper too. Yesterday we went to the market and picked up pineapples and pawpaws and nice ripe local pears at 99c kg.

Alan: Most people find it costs more when they’re making a transition from cooked to raw as they’re still buying goji berries and maca powder and all those quite expensive superfoods, then after a while you find out that actually you don’t need them at all. To sum it up we spend less than most people on food.

Janette: It’s also about knowing your community, becoming friends with the neighbours, fruit dropping off the trees, swapping fruit. It’s always good to have non-vegan neighbours with lots of fruit in their garden [laughs] cause they’ll give you all their fruit. And growing your own obviously is a huge benefit. And eating seasonally, that’s a big thing too, so if you eat in season not only are you better off nutritionally but the price is better, and buy locally.

Emma: Was it difficult transitioning to vegan? I tried going vegan once and lasted about half a day and then went to bake something which required butter and eggs and didn’t know what to do! And you’re raw vegan is that harder?

Alan: I think the longer you do it the easier it gets that’s for sure. I can remember in the first couple of months even the first 6 months if I went to a pot luck dinner and somebody had smoked salmon I’d be right into it, I just couldn’t help myself and because we lived for years in France I really had a taste for fine cheeses. I’d go there and look at them and could visualise the taste, but then after a year that was all gone. It’s a habit, just like smoking cigarettes when you first give up its hard because you’ve got this habit, but then after a while if I see someone smoking a cigarette I really think well they’re quite foolish but for 40 years that’s what I did and no one could tell me that was a silly thing to do cause I knew better [laughs].

Janette: For me it wasn’t hard because I had this huge reason. I think humans tend to make really good decisions in a state of crisis, but they wait until they’re in a state of crisis before they start making good decisions. If you have a diagnosis or any kind of symptoms whatsoever that don’t make you happy, then now is the time to do something about it, otherwise it can be a long way to climb back up that ladder. People

have got to think about the cause of a health issue rather than how they can treat the issue, because you’ve got to get to the cause, eliminate the cause and then you will have the cure ALWAYS. 20 |

RUNNING ON RAW

The body works around the clock 24 hours a day for your whole life and it never stops trying to get you into a state of health, as that’s what it’s designed to do.

So give it a hand. So for me it was not difficult, I had to do this and then like Alan said before, the further you go into it, the more nutrients you’re giving to the body the more it rejuvenates, the better you feel, the more energy you’ve got, the easier it becomes.

Emma: So in 2013 you decided to run a marathon everyday for 366 days. What was the aim and what attention or message did you want to share?

Emma: Oh wow I didn’t realise that!

Janette: We came up with the idea because it was the biggest thing we could think of that would attract attention from everyone, rather than just our family and friends. It would be something big enough to attract mainstream media and for people to question how is this possible? So from a physical point of view we knew this would draw attention first. Then people would realise there’s got to be a lot more to it than just being able to put one leg in front of the other. That was our purpose, for people to start asking questions and see by example what’s possible, then to start asking the right questions like how is it possible? What are you doing that is making this possible? And how can I do that to make it possible for me too? So that was the point of it and running around Australia just happens to take a year.

Janette: Yes that’s how it works out, so basically that’s the distance running around the perimeter of Australia. First

of all we figured out how many kilometres and then divided that by a marathon and sure enough it comes up to 365 days.

Emma: Oh I was going to ask then how come the extra day?

Janette: So after we’d been out there for a few months’ people were starting to ask has anyone ever done this before? So we looked into it and found that someone had a world record of running 365 marathons but it wasn’t consecutively, so we thought well we’d better do an extra one just to make sure so there’s never any doubt.

Alan: The last marathon was the best of all. We started in Melbourne and finished in Melbourne so from there we then ran out to our home which was actually 48km, but it was just a fantastic day to run out along the river and close to the places where we had been training. And people joined us.

Janette: Yes it was like the Forrest Gump of Australia and it was fantastic!

There was no doubt that we could have kept going but we had things to do and people to see and places to go [laughs].

Emma: I know your running shoes have been a big talking point and there’s so many benefits of earthing and grounding and when we’re walking on the earth’s surface we’re receiving energy from the earth and we’re giving back to the earth, and so your shoes are a really an interesting design and I’m just wondering with running was that your way of recharging yourself along the way! [laughs]

Emma: And heat!

Janette & Alan: [Laughs] Yes! Janette: I definitely think so. I would have preferred to run barefoot but when we found out what the terrain was like, Australia has probably the most thorns and sharp things, rocks and stones of any country in the world.

Janette: Yes which we also had to contend with, so we decided to go with the Vibram shoes. We figured out if we could assimilate barefoot running our bodies would run the way they are naturally designed to do and that’s exactly what happens in those shoes. In the past we always had what was considered to be normal running injuries; however we just couldn’t afford to do that with running a marathon every single day, so we had to make sure we were running in a way that would be most natural and we never got any blisters.

Alan: We had 16 pairs each for a year, seems like a lot but that’s 1000 kilometres per pair which is really good. The thing that you were talking about earthing and grounding is really really important. We go barefoot around here as much as we can.

We have grounding pads at the computer which grounds into the house grounding system. And we feel the difference. And with flying, when we travel we make sure we take our shoes and socks off and have our feet on the metal foot rest.

| 21

Janette: So there are simple things that can make a difference.

Emma: So now 1 in 2 people are being diagnosed with cancer, does this make you even more determined to share your message?

Janette: Absolutely yes. When I was diagnosed it was 1 in 9 but clearly whatever we’re doing is not working, so the sickness industry is benefitting hugely. We

need to wake up and realise we can do something about this which means taking responsibility for our own wellness. That’s the first step.

Taking responsibility for our children and our elderly or those who can’t or aren’t able to otherwise do it themselves, and taking responsibility for all living beings as well as the planet itself. Everything is connected and there’s absolutely no question that we’ll never stop trying to encourage people to learn and make a difference. There are a lot of lifestyle choices that will make a difference, not only to our own health but to the health of others and the health of the planet.

Because seriously this is it, this is our home and no matter how many spaceships they send up there, we’ve got to take care of our planet.

Growing animals for human consumption is one of the biggest environmental problems for the planet. We’ve got to make changes, so just going vegan alone would pretty much take care of everything. Our state of mind would be improved and by going raw it’s taking one more step towards consciousness and there’s no question that’s going to make a difference, so yes we will continue to share this message for as long as we can. I think we care because of the type of lifestyle we lead.

Alan: We also care because of our grandchildren and ideally we’d like to be here in another 40 or 50 years to see what’s happening, interesting times in the next 20-30 years, and we’ll be here because we choose to be.

Emma: Yes it’s all a choice. rawveganpath.com

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017

M2 BLOO

building resilient communities.

Leeandra is the owner and founder of Love-Lee Cooking – a local business on the Atherton Tablelands specialising in catering, food manufacturing and a cafe. Sparked by her son’s autism diagnosis, Leeandra discovered through research and experimentation, a link between diet and behaviour. “As a Home Economics teacher for 20 years I realised I didn’t know very much about nutrition and had no idea that many widely consumed foods in society are actually not good for us.”

Through a journey of exchanging packaged food to whole food, fast food to slow food, frozen greens to organic leafy greens, Leeandra soon found that her son’s daily traumatic meltdowns reduced dramatically to once every three months or even less. “I realised the importance of food as medicine, and using real whole foods to nourish the body, rather than poison it” It was then that her passion for sourcing local produce and building resilient communities began.

Moving to the Tablelands she found an abundance of organic local food, which prompted her to support the network of local community farmers, growers and producers.

As Leeandra began experimenting baking nutritious gluten free, dairy free, egg free snacks and yummy treats, the neighbours caught a whiff and started asking for some too. Empowered by the interest and demand, Leeandra soon realised there was a need in the market for wholefood snacks for people with specific dietary requirements. Taking orders for customers, Love-Lee Cooking soon started trading at the local markets, before branching into catering and cooking workshops. Eventually the demand grew so much that a commercial premises was sought, which is now the home of Love Lee Wholefoods Cafe, Leeandra’s latest venture.

Emma: Congratulations on your new cafe!

Emma: So tell me what you offer.

24 |

Leeandra: Thank you! This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

There’s such a need for real food, especially when you have special dietary requirements like we do.

Leeandra: Well our focus is on nourishing food cooked the traditional way. We don’t open a jar but create everything from scratch utilising seasonal, local and organic ingredients. We cater for vegan first, and then offer meat as an

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY LOVE-LEE COOKING | LOCATION ATHERTON

BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

additional option to salads and hot food. Our coffee is organic and local, and we use Mungalli milk as well as making our own in house nut milks and Kombucha.

Emma: Has creating from scratch always been the philosophy of your business?

Leeandra: Yes always, using real food and whole foods. So what we wanted to do was create a business model that can be emulated. Our aim is to be socially and environmentally responsible, as well as sustainable. We employ long term unemployed people giving them the opportunities to learn and grow. The girls I took on have really blossomed, and their world has opened up as to why it’s important to buy local, and why we do the things we do. We are part of the responsible cafes program so we use paper cups and takeaway containers that are sugar cane pulp based so they’re not recyclable but compostable which is a huge difference. All of our food is sourced from local farmers, producers and suppliers. We also utilise local services, so it’s all about building relationships and supporting the local community.

Emma: Yes building relationships are certainly important.

Leeandra: As an example I have a lady who grows parsley and every week she comes in and receives a free coffee in exchange for her parsley. This is an example of building a resilient community. I’m getting my needs met with a product that is grown locally, its biodynamic and I use of lot of it. She’s getting her needs met with a good coffee.

Emma: I love the energy exchange concept.

Leeandra: And that’s what it’s about. I advertise in our local community magazine and we exchange advertising for coffee and a place that staff from the magazine can hold meetings. We sponsored the local show which was of tremendous benefit. I even convinced the committee to add fermented foods to the competition section, which was our sneaky way of getting people to know about ferments [laughs].

Emma: [Laughs] that’s a clever way of planting the seed!

Emma: There’s a tidal wave! [Laughs] So you’re a passionate advocate for supporting local, has that always been the way?

Leeandra: Yes well we’re all part of a revolution, and being a part of a revolution isn’t banging on peoples doors, it’s about making gradual changes in our community. It’s the ripple effect where you dip your toe in the water which creates a ripple and then that ripple gets bigger and bigger until...

Leeandra: The passion ignited when I saw the small country town I grew up in die. We were five hours from Townsville, and we didn’t support our local businesses. People

would save their money and go to Townsville to do their big shop instead of using the local supermarket, even petrol, people would wait until they got to Townsville and fill up there. This caused the infrastructure in our community to die. The banks shut down, there were no cafes, there was one fish and chip shop but it was never open, and why would it be when there was no one purchasing. I saw the council and the railway reducing the workforce and laying people off. There was no government money in town anymore, so all it had to survive on was its own infrastructure because there wasn’t that flow on effect. Being a teacher if you had to fundraise for footy jerseys, who could you go to? The local businesses didn’t have any money to give because no one was spending. It’s actually shooting yourself in the foot. No one was talking about it and yet everyone wanted money from those small businesses, so it really caused our community to die. I saw this from a different light when I became a small business owner.

Emma: Wow now I really understand the importance of supporting local and why we need to spend money within our community.

Leeandra: Yes and getting involved with LETS our Local Energy Trading

The more I learnt about building resilient communities it just made sense. It’s not just about spending money it’s about spending energy, so whether you volunteer at the System.

local scout club or whether you’re in the SES, it’s about investing in your community. Everyone has something to offer and it’s just finding what that value is, whether its growing parsley, babysitting, cleaning or bookkeeping, you don’t have to be a lawyer to have value. I know some pretty dam fine nonnas who make absolutely great lasagne, and that would have currency in other people’s lives. So currency doesn’t necessarily have to have a dollar value. | 25

LEEANDRA NORMAN

Emma: I love that, it’s so liberating!

Leeandra: I don’t think we’re at the stage that we can be fully submerged in a system where we can support alternative currency because we still need to pay rates, fuel and electricity etc with the sovereign dollar, so until that changes there has to be a monetary value in our economy. But places like Greece where it fell apart, they made it work. My daughter always says when the zombie apocalypse comes I’m coming up to your place because...

Emma: You’ll be still operating as usual! [Laughs]

Leeandra: Well yes because we don’t just use money, we grow our chooks, we grow our ducks, we grow our own food, and what we don’t have we know people who do. I’m not a survivalist or anything like that, but I do think we need to be prepared, because whatever happens in the future, relationships are what will hold you in steed. It’s about investing in your community. We’re very lucky to have such great neighbours, and we’ve created that and worked hard towards it because they are our community. We live in very insular worlds these days and a lot of people don’t know who their neighbours are...

Emma: Oh completely and what I notice is that even though we’re so connected socially, through news and media, we’re also so disconnected in the real world from each other and our connection to the planet. Depression is on the increase and really the most basic human need is social interaction. Could this be where we’re going wrong and what we need to start acknowledging?

Emma: So something as simple as visiting your local markets and having that real social connection could really change your whole day.

Leeandra: Absolutely. We’re defined by our relationships with others.

You’re right depression is a really big factor in our communities and isolation.

Leeandra: Visiting the markets is so multi faceted. You meet the sellers you meet the locals. You’re getting vitamin D which is something ironically Australians don’t have enough of, that in itself is a big cause of depression and anxiety. You

might have a conversation with the person next to you who’s buying a sweet potato. In talking about purchasing this sweet potato from a local farmer, you’re actually reinforcing the notion of building a resilient community, not just with yourself but with people who are listening to you. So it’s like fellowship, you need to walk the talk. That’s what this cafe does, we talk about it constantly. People might question why we use timber cutlery or why we don’t use straws, this starts conversation and gets people questioning and thinking.

Emma: So if someone wants to contribute in their neighbourhood and build a resilient community what’s the first step?

Leeandra: Know your neighbour. Having a relationship and open communication with your neighbour is so important. You may not be best mates straight up, you’ve got to earn that and understand their needs too.

Food is a great common denominator, so baking a cake usually works [laughs].

Then build relationships with your local servo, local newsagency, buy your milk from the local shop and start conversations with people. If

we forge relationships that are long standing and beneficial, if we treat people with respect and treat people with value then what goes around comes around. We can all do our part, no matter how small it is, and most importantly teach your children Emma: Thanks Leeandra. I’ll order a takeaway local organic coffee on Mungalli milk in one of your fantastic compostable cups please!

loveleecooking.com.au 26 |

In Pursuit of Wellness & The Organic Experience presents

A LOCALLY GROWN CHRISTMAS

Celebrating the launch of Pursuit Magazine, join us on a journey to the grassroots...

The Organic Experience is a bus journey with a purpose.

Departing from Cairns and travelling to the Atherton Tablelands, this special tour will take you to the grassroots of local farming and food production. Meet the growers, tour the farms, sample some local delicacies and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of how food connects our community, wellbeing and environment.

Every visit is a special and unique welcome into the home and production site of some passionate growers who are keen to share their knowledge and inspire others toward a healthy, sustainable future.

Support local this Christmas and join us for an inspirational day out!

Saturday 2nd December Departs Cairns 7:30am (returns 6:30pm)

Includes: 3-course locally grown Christmas Lunch Cooking demonstration On site farm tours Purchase direct from the growers Compelling conversations shaping the way to a sustainbable future

Full Tour $145 per person Self Drive $55pp (Lunch Only)

In

Pursuit of wellness

BOOKINGS: facebook.com/theorganicexperience

Breathe to pause. to take space. to connect to self. to collect your thoughts. to remember. to face the next moment. to choose.

inhale. exhale. just beathe.

What if just 3 minutes of breathing properly could immediately transform your body and state of mind?

What if we all started practicing a daily ritual of 3 minute deep breathing, could we alleviate much of the stress and anxiety in society today? What if just 3 minutes of daily deep breathing could foster a calmer, more connected community? What if we could teach deep breathing to our children and youth and have that embedded into all Australian primary and secondary schools for just 3 minutes each day?

Well that’s the mission of this young Sunshine Coast couple, Kat & Bodhi who are bringing one simple breathing technique into schools across Australia.

An idea sparked from high school wounds, Bodhi realised how simple breath work had transformed his life, as well as so many others through his Art of Breath training workshops. “Discovering my own lungs, my own breath and getting to sleep at night feeling at peace, I knew I just had to get this into schools”.

Bodhi met his perfect match Kat, who holds a Bachelor of Science (Health Promotion), as well as being a qualified yoga teacher. Kat has extensive experience working with youth in character building and career advising.

It was then whilst Bodhi was taking part in a 10 day vipassana (solitary meditation) and Kat was hiking in the Himalayas that a grand vision was placed on their heart.

Together Breathe Project was ignited.

And this is their mission..

Emma: Tell me about Breathe Project. How and when did you get started?

Kat: Breathe Project is an independent health promotion initiative. We launched in December 2015 with a 10 week Crowd Funding campaign that raised enough funds to get us into schools for the first two terms. We had parents and teachers registering, and ended with 50 schools signing before we even got started! That was our realisation that people actually wanted this, and that’s what got us off the ground. We’ve now worked with over 100 schools.

Emma: When did you recognise there was a need for a program like this in Australian schools?

Bodhi: Looking back at my high school wounds and my experience of school, I really wish something like this was available to me. When I started practicing yoga and discovered the importance of simply breathing well, I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t being taught in schools alongside the standard curriculum. When I started teaching breathing workshops to adults I would always say this at the very end of every class “one day I’m going to bring this into schools” as I knew that’s where it needed to be.

Kat: I had a background in health science and majored in health promotion and I always knew that I wanted to work with the next generation, with a focus on holistic health. Health is so intertwined with all these different elements like mental, social, emotional, spiritual and physical, so I knew one day I would create my own health promotion in a really aligned way.

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY RAW LENS MEDIA | LOCATION CAIRNS

| 29

KAT & BODHI

Emma: So what impact does just 3 minutes deep breathing have on the body?

Kat: Scientifically it switches us immediately out of that “fight or flight” response back into the parasympathetic nervous system or “rest and digest” which is ideally the space we should be functioning from. This allows us to focus effectively on our work, it helps with decision making and how we respond and react to situations, it also allows us to get a good night’s sleep, rest well and communicate clearly. That’s the state we need to be in for so many of our daily tasks, but what we lack is getting there. Many

people are stuck in that fight or flight response and don’t know how to get out of it. Teachers and parents are the primary role models for kids, and yet when you look around so many are time poor and in a state of stress.

Emma: As a parent myself I know I’m guilty of that. So do you offer support for teachers and parents as well?

Emma: So each term you travel a different leg of Australia and currently you’re on the Rescue Mission?

Bodhi: Yes Breathe Project is not just for the kids, this is a whole school approach including teacher training. So when we go into schools it’s compulsory for us to work with every single teacher in that school. We don’t work with the kids unless we get to work with the teachers on their own, so they have a level of understanding that will support the daily practice. We want to ensure long term change in the school system. We’ve also created Breathe ABC Pocketbooks ideal for families to engage in together. We believe everybody can benefit from learning to breathe correctly.

Kat: Yes this one was named because we

had phone call after phone call in early 2016 from schools in crisis due to youth suicide, so that kicked us into gear to get to those schools and help young people feel more at ease within themselves.

Emma: I actually started researching into youth suicide and was quite shocked to find that according to Headspace ‘youth suicide has reached a ten year high with approximately eight children and young people suiciding every week in Australia’.

Bodhi: Yes it’s quite shocking and something we didn’t even realise was going on to that extent.

Kat: It wasn’t until we kept getting phonecalls from schools saying “you’ve got to come and work with our kids, there’s been 11 suicides just this year”, that’s when we realised there was a big problem.

Emma: What age?

Kat: Well teenage, this is high school and so...

Bodhi: That was big news to us.

Kat: So term three we got on the road and ended up meeting a year 12 student who had eleven of her best friends all in her circle suicide last year. We met her mum who was totally freaking out, essentially concerned that her daughter would be next.

Bodhi: What we didn’t realise was that the teens were making pacts - if you do I will, sort of thing. It’s pretty crazy; we’re in the health and wellness industry and didn’t know what’s actually going on beneath the surface and to that extent.

Emma: I also read there seems to be a lack of coping skills in young people, so I can see where the importance of your program fits in.

Kat: Our entire workshop is about empowering people. It’s

about learning real life coping skills, because we wish we learned something like this at school. So it’s about learning how to control the mind, how to deal with stress, anxiety and everyday challenges, and learning how to calm ourselves down, and to realise there is a choice. We have a choice whether to let those people who agitate us get to us; we have a choice whether our mind runs around like crazy all day every day.

Bodhi: But it’s also about breaking old patterns and bringing something in that’s not only going to help their breathing and being, but a space to tune into and check in where they’re at.

Kat: In schools right now so much of the curriculum is jammed into kids heads ready for exams, but they’re missing the life skills needed to assist such as

30 |

BREATHE PROJECT

Emma: There seems to be a lot of pressure and high expectations now placed on kids, and so many activities to keep up with. There’s school, homework, exams, extracurricular activities, plus social time, 24/7 social media, and technology - there’s no space left to just be.

Emma: Yes, and there‘s a quote on your website that sums it up: “We are all over educated on how to achieve and under educated on how to relax and be” I think that’s so true!

Emma: Do you think diet could also have something to do with mental health, as we’re now recognising the importance of gut health and the gut-brain connection?

Bodhi: To be able to process and digest what’s exactly going on.

Kat: And I think the breathing technique itself is not where the power lies, it’s having the time to pause and find that moment of space every day.

Kat: I think they’re all contributing factors. However when I first started studying nutrition, I believed that food was everything. I thought we had to educate everyone on how to eat healthy. Then I realised as health and science came into play, that it’s not just about nutrition, you can’t just focus on one single element of health, it doesn’t work like that. All elements of health are intertwined.

Bodhi: Yeah you can eat all the superfoods in the world but if you’re living in a state of stress how healthy are you? Really? If you’re stressed you’re not absorbing the nutrients anyway. Especially if you’re scoffing it down on the run in 30 seconds, doesn’t matter if it’s a green smoothie you’re still charging and on the go.

Kat: Or you could be meditating everyday and doing yoga on the mat five days a week, but living a stressed and crazy life the rest of the time. So how healthy are you?

Bodhi: We’ve also found that breathing deep allows you to connect to how you feel. You actually connect to who you truly are in that present moment and how you’re feeling in your body.

Kat: You’ll also find the people who eat junk food do so because they’re disconnected to who they are and what they truly feel. They don’t realise that what they’re eating doesn’t feel good. When

we take that moment to connect with ourselves we become in tune with our body. You just can’t eat that shit anymore because you feel the consequences of it immediately.

Bodhi: So it’s not so much about the science, its more about what we’re feeling and being in tune with our body.

Emma: Yes I see how that concept can be applied not just to food but our choices in life. I’m so much of a yes person when I really mean no and I get myself into all sorts of situations where I really don’t want to be there but endure it anyway! [Laughs] So just having that space to ask how does this make me feel?

Emma: Yes giving that space to tune in. It’s like an internal compass and you’ve really got to feel into it.

Kat: I think we inspire that in people also.

With putting yourself first you inspire others to do the same.

Bodhi: And it can be challenging to navigate it and trust that’s your journey. A friend said to me “you never learn how to say yes until you know how to say no.

When you know how to say no then you truly know how to say yes to the bigger better and greater things”. So there needs to be space, otherwise if there’s no space how will you ever be able to say yes to the real gold?

Kat: Students who suffered panic attacks are thanking us as they’re no longer getting them. Classes are finally ready to engage; we recently visited a school that had a very challenging class, these kids wouldn’t come back after lunch and would instead be running around the playground with the student support team having to chase them around!

Bodhi: Crazy school [laughs]

| 31

Kat: And now those kids are going into the classroom and are engaged with their learning and asking is it breathing time now?

Emma: I was going to ask if it’s improved their level of learning and engagement?

Kat: Oh yes totally. 100%. Teachers are finally getting to sleep at night because they are using this in their own personal lives.

Bodhi: Teachers have even made promises never to start a class again without breathing because they know it optimises everything else they do!

Kat: We had a funny little message from a kid one day on Instagram saying “thanks for your workshop today, I finally had the courage to ask a girl out” it really makes a difference even to small things like that.

Bodhi: And the immediate results that happen also, from totally shut off and disengaged students to then opening and expressing themselves in front of 250 kids or teenagers about what’s going on at home.

Kat: So the class clown who may pipe up ‘what’s this bullshit, not doing none of that shit’ and then by

the end of the workshop he’s up on the stage crying in front of sometimes 500 peers, in uncontrollable tears, couldn’t even tell a joke because it was way too real.

Bodhi: These are the results we’re seeing immediately. There’s a certain level of realness and vulnerability that comes in collectively. The kids become more understanding and accepting of each other, encouraging each other to be themselves and express themselves and share openly. When everyone connects to themselves, they also connect to each other, so this collective connection really helps shift consciousness.

Emma: That’s so powerful as a lot of people tend to suppress emotions, and that’s where health issues start to arise because of these suppressed emotions.

Bodhi: Yes 100%. A friend of mine said recently “there are two things - suppression and expression” and that’s so true. Suppression

causes stress, tension and frustration in the body, whereas expression creates freedom, joy, passion and lightness all things.

Emma: Wow that feels great!

So where do we start? How can schools get onboard?

Bodhi: Parents, teachers or any people connected with schools are welcome to register. We don’t approach any schools as we realise that the real power comes from passionate parents, teachers and the community to back this project. It empowers schools to ‘value’ their students and teachers well being by registering. Ideally the ultimate goal is to have kids registering their school.

That’s our mission from the start and its slowly happening.

Emma: Fabulous and on that note I’m off to breathe, digest and process. Thanks guys!

Kat: Also we often get parents saying “my kids need this” or “our school really needs this” or “I really need this breathing thing myself”, so we’ve also created starter packs available on our website to purchase, so everyone can tap into the simplicity of diaphragmatic breathing daily. Everyone can be a mindful life changer

breatheproject.com.au | 33

Life in Syntropy Creative Director of the social enterprise RealFood Network and co-founder of the Sustainability Alliance FNQ, Sjoerd Souvereign has been instrumental in networking farmers with community members who want clean, trustworthy food. Grounded in Permaculture ethics - People care, Earth care and Fair Share, Sjoerd actively assists farmers in adopting sustainable agricultural solutions.

With innovative ‘alternative agriculture systems’ now shaking up the food paradigm, Syntropic Farming has become a current field of interest for Sjoerd. What’s most intriguing about this field of work is that it relates directly to life and how life functions all around us. It even shows us how by adopting syntropic thinking we ourselves can become more free, enabled, empowered and effective in the work we do and the world we live in. Once a year Sjoerd organises a Thrive Hive co-living experience where he brings his knowledge of the human sphere together for the growth of others who want to get really real with themselves.

Emma: Sjoerd, explain to me the difference between syntropy and entropy... I gather it’s about systems either working in order with each other, or fragmented in disorder?

Sjoerd: Well, syntropy also referred to neg-entropy (negative entropy) is the life bearing, life enhancing and self-organising “formula” that nature operates from to sustain itself and all living organisms within. All living systems have mechanisms working towards syntropy ingrained at their cellular level. The opposite, entropy, is more of a man made idea. Talking about entropy is basically talking about what life isn’t. So when we apply this to our way of thinking it can either be syntropic i.e. life affirming - as in abundance, peace, collaboration based on trust or entropic - meaning scarcity, lack, competition based on fear. So

syntropy and entropy are two opposing principals which have a profound impact on how we relate to life, how life relates to us and how we navigate life with the resources we have.

Emma: Wow! So you recently took part in the first Syntropic Farming course in Australia, how was that?

Sjoerd: Yeah, it took place in Byron Bay and was the first time these courses had been translated from Portuguese into English. It was a great experience which has really allowed me to get an accelerated introduction into where the future of food is heading.

Emma: How did this system of farming develop?

Sjoerd: Syntropic Agroforestry was formulated through many decades of direct observation, direct experience in the forest, on the land and through indigenous wisdom directly derived from the people that still live with that knowledge today in Central America. There’s so much wisdom there, and they’ve kept that up because they know it is truth, and we see it now resurfacing because industrial agriculture is simply not sustainable.

AS SPOKEN TO EMMA LODGE | PHOTOGRAPHY SJOERD | LOCATION KURANDA

| 35

SJOERD SOUVEREIGN

it’s beautiful to see how a country with the highest deforestation happening gives rise to the wisest way of reforesting the Earth.

The birthplace of this work is in Brazil and yeah

Emma: Isn’t that how cultures used to live? They would watch the land and follow the rhythms of nature?

Seems like our deep connection to the Earth has been lost since industrial agriculture paved the way...

Sjoerd: Our current farming situation is based on an entropic system that is outdated and unsustainable. The entropic industrialized food paradigm that our supermarkets rely on comes from a dependency based system that disempowers farmers in their ability to attain natural knowledge of how to grow nutrient dense food in abundance. It causes the people involved to operate out of fear because of money and lack thereof, and the need to create profit to retain their mortgage. All of that is an emotional mental approach to life, yet natural knowledge can never be dismissed or eliminated from our own connection to Nature. Natural processes can be altered, people can be distracted but life is life, and yeah, you can try and mess with it but life processes are going to remain the same.

When I look at innovative food systems such as regenerative agriculture, biodynamics and food forestry, these are the systems that will provide real empowerment for farmers of the future.

If we start feeding life to the soil with bio-fert, with microbe rich composts, with microbial cultures that are teeming with life, while including forest dynamics in these systems well, we’re going to have soil that is rich in life which is the foundation to all life including ourselves.

Emma: So true, soil health is so inextricably linked to our gut and overall health...

Sjoerd: So if life is about nurturing and biodiversifying life, then life will build the layers where more can be grown and yielded. For example if we take a tomato, cut it in half and take all the seeds we could dry those and you could have a 150 tomato plants. Now you might not want 150 tomato plants but that’s life’s principle, it’s not an accident, it’s not like it’s producing out of fear or out of security to ensure in the future there will be tomatoes on Earth. No, this is just how life works. It creates surplus and abundance all the time. Now when we understand how those principles work and when we feed more life in the ground, then it’s naturally going to keep coming back to us.

A lot of climate change movements or environmentalists live from fear about running out of resources, I’m not saying that we’re not, but living in a fear and control based paradigm is not being part of the solution. You’re only responsible for you. So, is fear driving your choices? Is fear driving your motivations?

Are fear, lack, despair and scarcity driving your way of relating to life? If so then you’re operating from someone else’s belief system.

Life is actually very lush, very loving, very supportive, very nurturing, and I see that the future of food is really, really prosperous.

Emma: Ahh I see... so syntropic farming is actually much more than a farming system, you can actually expand this into a way of thinking and your approach to life!

Sjoerd: Yes studying nature, life and syntropy can give us beautiful insights as to how we can grow and feel enriched in our own lives. By observing how nature operates from grasslands to complex rainforests, nature can show us where we need to change. But that’s also where the hard parts come up - as we humans have been gifted with emotions and memories based on impressive experiences.

What I realised through adopting syntropic thinking was that I was seeing and processing life through a pre-programmed set of entropic beliefs.

For instance believing that weeds are bad is a very entropic fear-based, control based and lack based idea that life or nature would do something against itself or that it would do something to harm life, it just doesn’t work that way. The

36 |

LIFE IN SYNTROPY

label weeds is already a judgement, it’s a human created noun that doesn’t exist because it’s actually a plant and the plant has a plant species name, and the plant species has a function in that system. For example, one of comfreys functions is that it has a really deep taproot to bring up minerals that are much further down into sub stratus of the soil that other plants can’t get to and it brings it up and when you chop and drop it makes that bio available. What I’ve learned from this course in syntropy; is that every element in life has a function, and when we discover what the function is in relation to the larger organism, we’ll know how to work with it. When that clicked for me, it was like Wow! So, the bottom line of this is that life only collaborates. It only works to create more life, more abundance, more support species, more water, more oxygen, more carbon to the soil, more carbon storage, more nitrogen fixing, more mineral releasing, more everything more…

Emma: I read a quote by Pedro Diniz, CEO Fazenda da Toca, who points out “If we changed our perception and recognised nature as a great ally, a great inspiration, we would really change the way we behave towards the planet.”

Sjoerd: Yeah nice, that’s something I’m witnessing through my new way of relating to nature is that humanity has been substantially hijacked to believe that operating from fear and living in the sense of needing to be in control is the way to feel safe. The origins of these global issues are man-made and maninduced entropic way of thinking and therefore only a major paradigm shift in human mindset and behaviour could solve these global issues we face today...

Have you seen the latest Lego Batman movie?

Emma: I think so...

Emma: [Laughs] Love it!

Emma: Because... what are we modelling to them?

Emma: and resolve it...

Sjoerd: It’s full of inspiration and what

struck me was when Batman said a quote out of Michael Jacksons song Man in the Mirror... “if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change oooh!”

Sjoerd: So are you willing to have a real look? that can be really confronting for a lot of people but if we don’t get real with ourselves, then we’re not going to be free, we’re not going to thrive and we’re certainly not going to offer the next generation something better than what we’ve received.

Sjoerd: Exactly. We are part of life and if a tree doesn’t get certain nutrients in the beginning stages of its development, we call it nutrient deficient. As humans we have multiple needs beyond nutrition, we have emotional needs, we have spiritual needs, aand I see that if we don’t get certain natural frequencies as a child, we’re still going to be looking for it as adults. This is where it really hits home; it’s about resolving something within. If the root is in deficiency, then the deficiency is going to remain until you actively go there.

Sjoerd: yeah… so everything around us... every human, every business, everything that we as an individual can experience, can potentially perform a function for us. A function for growth, because that’s what life wants.

In my experience the people that have triggered me most (and I would have blamed them in the past for triggering me), have been my biggest growth factor.

So now I’ve been able to see that hey, these people that I’m blaming for myself not being happy are actually an opportunity for me to look inside, wow! They’re performing a really beautiful function. Every emotional reaction about what’s happening around us is an indicator of what’s unresolved inside.

Emma: Just like weeds! They’re an indicator of missing nutrients in the soil.

Sjoerd: [Laughs] Yes! So when I judge, it’s actually really helpful because I want to grow, I want to be free, so every time I react, it presents something that isn’t free in me yet, it’s coming up. It’s saying “hey, this is an opportunity for me to become free!”, then it’s my choice if I go into that part and work out how to free it, and in my experience all of it has been connected to emotions. This can get really raw for a lot of people and that’s why it’s easier to judge, but if we keep judging then we carry on living in a fear and control based state which is not being part of the solution for the future. Remember what Lego Batman says “if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make the change!”

| 37

Emma: [Laughs] So it’s about confronting and embracing all our emotions in a positive way, because life wants us to grow...

Sjoerd: Our natural ability is to love, to care and to nurture others. These innate natural abilities can’t come from the current emotional state where humanity is operating from which is fear lack, control, scarcity, rush, rush, hurry, hurry. We’ve surrendered so much of our ability to think for ourselves, out-sourced it because we’re too busy or too rushed, but in order to free our minds it’s about tapping into how you really are feeling. That requires a lot more than just to applying some practices and principles. It requires some form of comprehending our life experiences, and with that weaning ourselves off from fear, lack and control. This requires human cultural change.

Emma: So how can we shift out of fear based thinking into a syntropic way of thinking?

Sjoerd: The

only formula that I’ve discovered in order to erase this emotional imprinting and for that to be freed is this: deal with your shit. Get real with your story. Be vulnerable. Be really real.

Allow your feelings to be acknowledged and expressed, perhaps even having a cry.

Emma: So our internal beliefs reflect our external world – what we see is based on what we believe. So if we want to see a positive, loving world then we need to do the work within to set ourselves free?

Sjoerd: Yes. The world doesn’t need change because life can actually be really good without us. What we really need to do is change ourselves internally, and then the rest is not just going to be sustainable; it’s going to be regenerative, it’s going to be next level, it’s actually going to be restorative. And

when we’re in that state of I am enough, the world is enough, then naturally by the law of attraction, we’re going to attract these things. We’re part of an intelligent system and if we can see ourselves within that, and part of it then we don’t have to dominate and control and deflect and reject and protect, no we can just allow. Nature is more than just the visible elements; it’s a network of relationships, dynamics, processes and constant changes and exchanges which are also central to Syntropic Farming.

Emma: Just like holistic health.

It’s not just nutrition or fitness or emotions, or mindset... it’s everything; it’s the whole system working together as one.

Sjoerd: Yes, and where I see we can really accelerate our personal evolution is using ‘willingness’ because that’s our authentic truth. There’s no denying the core of our truth when it’s tied to the will. It’s about tapping within and asking how does your will really feel? This is what I really enjoy when working with people because it’s real and authentic. The ‘will’ does not get strengthened by being a hero or some sort of goal orientated success driver, that’s all total…put that on the compost heap, that would make really good compost. No, the ‘will’ gets really strong, resilient, clear, loving, compassionate and perfect by being vulnerable. That is the true strength of a human.

Emma: So nature is always regenerating and wants to grow, I guess we can apply that to ourselves by chopping down old growth (old programming and beliefs) and allowing for new shoots to pop though (new perspectives and beliefs).

Emma: And internal growth is about loving the weeds, identifying what’s lacking, digging deep and getting to the root cause?

Emma: That’s beautiful…

Sjoerd: We also need to take full responsibility of what we’re passing onto the next generation, apply our will and commit ourselves to internal growth.

Sjoerd: Well if you choose to pull out a dandelion, the only way to really get it out is by digging deep all the way to the tip of the root, because if you break a piece off it’s going to grow again, and you can keep mowing and mowing but it will just keep coming back. To properly remove a dandelion it needs to be delicately scooped out and taken to a place where it can be a contribution.

Sjoerd: Change always takes effort. One can either resist it or embrace it.

Life is Syntropy

FNQ Sustainability Alliance 38 |

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