SUE RITCHIE

SR: Thank you so much for inviting me. It’s so great to have this opportunity.

SR: I am a Fertility Coach. I help couples who are struggling to conceive to clear the blocks that might be preventing them from creating the family they so desperately want. We work together to identify the areas that need attention and create a plan to optimise their chances of conceiving.

So many factors of modern life, where everyone is so busy, are having an impact on our fertility - health, gut health (unfortunately none of us are as healthy as we might think we are), nutrition (the foods that we eat), mindset, lifestyle, stress, weight, our relationship with ourselves and our partner, and toxins in the environment.

I really love seeing couples stepping up and making the changes they need to make to not only increase their chances of conceiving, but so they step into their new role as parents healthy, energised, happy and positive about life. To me that is the best gift you can give to your child.

I personally found myself at 30 single thinking that I might not have children. I know what it feels like to desperately want to have a child. I was very lucky and feel truly blessed as I had my first child at 36 and my second at 39 both conceived naturally.

SR: It was indeed a difficult and challenging time and I certainly experienced challenges in terms of my mental health, from being isolated from family and friends. I found taking walks in nature to be really helpful and it is something that I love to do in normal times too. Staying in touch with family and friends through phone calls and zoom calls really helped too. Also, I made a decision not to watch the news and to avoid all negative social media posts. That helped me with staying positive.

From a business point of view, I already was seeing and helping clients online with zoom calls, so it wasn’t a switch that I needed to make. I joined online networking groups which also helped and it was great to connect with like-minded people.

SR: The health of our gut fundamentally underpins our overall health, both physically and mentally. It will determine whether we stay healthy or go to disease.

The gut and the brain are connected and when our gut health is not in a good place it causes anxiety, mood swings and depression. That’s why both our physical and mental health depend on having a healthy gut microbiome.

It’s in our gut where many hormones are produced or, are managed and balanced. Hormones are responsible for managing many systems in our bodies.

There are a number of things that create an imbalance in our gut microbiome where bad bacteria get out of hand. These are antibiotics, diet high in processed foods and refined carbs, sugar and artificial sweeteners, alcohol, medications, stress and lack of exercise, lack of fibre in diet and dehydration.

One of the early signs of an unhealthy gut are digestive issues, bloating and wind.

If our gut is out of balance, it is important that we go through a process to bring things back into balance and improve our overall health. When our gut health is poor we are likely to have a leaky gut, so the process of rebalancing our gut requires several steps.

1) Remove (Reduce and Reset)

2) Replace

3) Repair

4) Reinoculate (and Rebuild)

It is best to get support and guidance via a health practitioner to rebalance your gut microbiome as it isn’t just a case of taking some probiotics. Plus, you will receive guidance on changes in your diet and lifestyle to help ensure that you maintain good gut health going forward.

SR: To me, living a healthier life, is not just about the physical. It really is a combination of mind, body and spirit and a key element is to come to a place of self-love. We all have childhood wounds and they can get in the way, so healing those is really helpful. Becoming aware of our negative voice, inner judge and learning how to manage and turn those lies around into the positives is important too.

Taking responsibility for our own lives and knowing that we have the power of choice to create the life we want to live is hugely beneficial.

We have the choice to make our health a top priority in our lives. In doing that we choose to eat foods that are natural, healthy and nutritious that really serve our bodies well. We ensure that we take regular exercise, keep our bodies well hydrated, get good sleep and avoid harmful toxins as best as we can.

SR: I do what I do, because I really want to see more children come into the world, healthy, have self-love and know that they can achieve whatever they want in life.

If we want things to change, we always have to start at the point at which things begin. We have to address the root cause.

The health of a baby starts at the point of conception and the healthier both parents are at that time, the more likely they are to have healthy eggs and healthy sperm. This means they are more likely to have a healthy baby. It is important to continue to stay healthy through pregnancy too.

Children learn from their parents’ behaviours, much more than being told things. So if couples prepare themselves for conception and already have embedded making sure they eat a healthy, natural, balanced nutritious diet. Plus, when they know how important it is to maintain good gut health so that they remain healthy, their children will naturally be fed in the same way and gain the benefits. Giving them a great start in life. The building blocks for good health start in the womb and the early months after birth.

Too many children today do not have healthy diets and we have children as young as 9 or 10 with type 2 Diabetes and they have hardly started in life. 1 in 5 Primary school children are either overweight or obese.

I like to help couples to become aware of their negative mindset and teach them how to manage that so that they can remain in the positive zone as much as possible. That way they will be better prepared to weather life’s ups and downs, which happen to all of us and be better placed to view life’s challenges as learning opportunities rather than extreme disasters.

I am trained as a Master Coach and I use coaching in my business to help my clients resolve and clear blocks that might be getting in the way of them living their life in a way that truly serves them. This often requires looking at things that have happened in childhood. This means they can make conscious decisions not to pass on to their children any parenting behaviours that have not served them so far in their life and spare their children from that experience.

As parents we are never going to be perfect, we are human beings, but with greater awareness and consciousness we can strive to create a better experience for our children.

SR: Learn to love yourself and to put yourself first. It isn’t selfish. When you are your best self, and you value yourself, you and everybody around you benefits and you will live a happier and more fulfilled life.

Make sure you live your life in true alignment with yourself and if you are living a life where you are constantly busy, slow down. If you don’t slow down the universe will create a situation where you have to, just like it did for me. I had a big health wake up call 14 years ago for which I am eternally grateful. It made me make some big decisions to change my life and it also made me realise that being busy and working hard was how I proved my self-worth and self-value. We can all have self-value without having to prove it to anyone.

Take time out for yourself on a regular basis. Get quiet so that you can connect with your higher self and your intuition.

You have huge wisdom inside you, you just need to tap into it.

SR:

SR: I’ve really enjoyed our interview. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity and I hope your readers will get value from it.

SR: www.sue-ritchie.com

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