"What matters isn't if people are good or bad, what matters is if they are trying to be better today than they were yesterday" - Michael from The Good Place (TV Show)
How to Make the Most out of
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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LE
Amanda Sears | Co-Creator
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Let's see what 2020 and a whole new decade brings! How exciting!
ES
10 years ago the social aspects of the internet were really starting to take hold; new platforms and technological innovations were thought up and birthed and a 'new' way of being was emerging - mindfulness, yoga, the slow movement, blogging and vlogging, the world at your fingertips and fast! - While all of this was of course already around, it has taken a giant leap in the last decade and has shifted the way we live! So much so ironically, that there are now people teaching us about how to 'disconnect' from it all!!
LIF
Just think back to the expansion and evolution of yourself and the world in the last month, let alone the last year or 10 years! It has been incredible! So much change (LOTS of joy, but also suffering and sorrow) + such huge growth in technology, accessibility and communication!
&B
Not only has another month past, but another year AND decade! Bringing us great opportunities, innovation and ideas!
ND
Hello and welcome to Issue #7 of The Inspired Guide magazine!
MI
y o j n E & e m o c l e W
Designed to inform and inspire all who seek to live more conscious lives. The Inspired Guide encourages a holistic approach to soulful living which stems from our innate ability to create our own reality for a more conscious, joyful and balanced life.
CREATIVITY
SOUL & SPIRITUAL
For a balanced life it is important to incorporate mindfulness and personal development in all areas of our Mind, Body and Soul. The Benefits of an eMagazine Links are all active - so go ahead and click them to go through to that page online for more information Zoom in if you want to see things closer or larger Share easily with friends, family, colleagues and networks to spread the word and grow the awareness! Read ANYWHERE! ♥ Read with an open mind ♥ ♥ There is no ‘one size fits all’ ♥ ♥ Hold no judgement ♥ ♥ Read what calls to you ♥
CONTENTS - #7 Get Involved ...... 6
Conscious Living 2020 #2 ...... 59
The Good Guide ...... 7
Divine Guidance ...... 61
WIN & Book of the Month ...... 7
Spiritual Guidance ...... 62-63
Meet Our Contributors ...... 8-11
Living a Spiritual Life ...... 65
Inspiration on Instagram ...... 12
Walking Your Path ...... 66-67
Conscious Commentary ...... 13
Cosmic Guide ...... 68-71
Divine Beings Behaving Badly ...... 13
My Journey So Far ...... 73 A Nurtured Life ...... 74-75
Monthly Art Exhibition ...... 14-25
Embodied Awareness ...... 76-77 An Empowered Life ...... 78-79
SPECIAL FEATURE ...... 26-53
Healing Modalities ...... 80
'The Divine Feminine'
Sound Matters ...... 82-83
The Divine Feminine an Introduction
Well Being ...... 84
Connecting with the Earth...
Mindset Matters ...... 85
Periods Around the World
Soulful Business ...... 86-87
Periods 101
A Balanced Life ...... 88
Productivity & Our Periods
Mindful Colouring ...... 89
Seasons of Our Cycles
Sweet Treats ...... 90-91
Conscious Business #1
Sweet Treats - Extra ...... 92-93
Conscious Business #2
Feel Great Food ...... 94-95
Conscious Community
Feel Great Food - Extra ...... 97
Consciously Creative
Helpful Herbs ...... 99
Period Management
Soulful Living ...... 101
WIN #1 - Waste Free Period Pack
Healthful Environment ...... 103
WIN #2 - Lara Briden Book
Living Naturally ...... 105
Conscious Events ...... 54-55
Conscious Business Directory ...... 107-109
Conscious Living 2020 #1 ...... 56-57 Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Get Involved! Want to reach the right people who need what you have to offer, show or share? We offer a range of opportunities for conscious businesses, artists and individuals to get involved with The Inspired Guide magazine...
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Marilyn And ‘3173 Nelson rews Acrylic Harb our’ (201 www on Canvas 8) .marilyn andrews art.co.nz
Greta McC ‘Kokako omb Acrylic Gateway ’ www on Canvas (2019) .artynels on.co.nz 52 Issue
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Greta McC ‘Nurture omb and Mon Nature Series: arch www Piwa .artynels ’ (2019) Acry kaw on.co.nz lic on aka Canvas
Marilyn Andrew ‘3186 s St Acrylic Pauli Vine www on Canvas yard Mou .marilyn tere’ (2019) andrews art.co.nz
Lynette ‘Irises Graham & Oil on Freesias ’ (201 4) www Canvas .lynetteg raham.co .nz
Lynette Grah ‘Kow hais & am Oil on Pods’ (2008) www Canvas .lynetteg raham.co .nz #3
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The Good Guide Not every day is a walk in the park or a breath of fresh air - but it can be... When you need a pick me up or something inspirational to shift that doom and gloom. Be uplifted & inspired with our carefully curated selection online... WATCH Look for the light in the world and you will see how bright it shines! Get a breath of fresh air with Good News! READ A book can teach you or take you away on a journey - often both... enjoy our selection of inspiring and uplifting books. ART Art is subjective... it can inspire, soothe or insight action among the viewer. Our collection hopes to do all of these things... BE INSPIRED Hear the words from great minds around the world! Watch inspiring videos and learn more about these people. LISTEN Soothe your soul, find that happy place and get your groove on with some of our uplifting musicians and singers.
VIEW ALL COLLECTIONS HERE www.theinspiredguide.nz
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Becoming Supernatural
By Dr Joe Dispenza How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon, marries some of the most profound scientific information with ancient wisdom to show how people like you and I can experience a more mystical life. Learn that through various meditations, we can experience a greater expression of our creative abilities, change our brain chemistry and have a more balanced, healthy body, unlimited mind, and greater access to realms of spiritual truth. “From a gifted scientist and passionate teacher, this unique and practical guide shows us— step by step—how to move beyond the limits of the known and into an extraordinary new life.” — Tony Robbins
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Cover Art Handdrawn and digitally coloured illustration by Amanda Sears
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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ALISON ELSBERRY
Embodied Brilliance www.alisonelsberry.com The creator of Embodied BrillianceTM , an innovative embodiment curriculum that nurtures the authentic, Soulful expression of children, Alison has 20 years experience as a pediatric occupational therapist, intuitive energy healer and body worker supporting children to embody and express their Soul. She is passionate about helping educators and youth professionals recognize a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique quirks, emotions, sensitivities and intuitive abilities as clues to who they are and what they need. So they can support children to feel comfortable in their skin and at home in their body being exactly who they are.
AMANDA SEARS
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS
The Wellness Guide www.thewellnessguide.nz Amanda has many roles in life that can be summed up in 4 words: create, connect, learn and experience. She lives a full life of possibilities and has had an adventurous life so far, full of many ups and downs. In her own personal journey she has battled through the darkness of many physical, emotional and spiritual health lessons and has come out the other side a more developed, aware and knowledgeable person. She shares helpful tips based on her own experience and observations of life in the hope to inspire those struggling on their own personal journey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; while continuing to grow, evolve and learn herself.
ANGELA MICCIO-HARRIS
Life Coach www.angelacheruseo.nz Angela is a leading edge wealth empowerment coach, life coach, workshop facilitator, inspirational keynote speaker, and author. What she loves and what motivates her is seeing the improvements in the individuals she works with - moving forward, eager to be the best version of themselves. Angela is passionate to see you achieve sustainable transformation in all areas of your wellbeing, job/career or relationships. As a life coach she can facilitate a better space for you to untangle whatever may need untangling and get you back on track to be operating as your unique and true, perfect you.
CARLA FRIEND
Twinkle & Bean www.twinkleandbean.co.nz Mother of five, Carla is the woman behind the natural cleaning brand Twinkle & Bean. After her own health struggles and her children developing eczema, she formulated these hypoallergenic cleaning products which she sells locally and online. With a passion for making a house a home, she combines a Diploma in Interior Design and Certificate in Building Biology and Ecology to create healthy homes for her clients through holistic design and offers services to help make the journey to a toxin free life and home more manageable.
HANNAH SHAW
A Nourishing Notion www.facebook.com/ANourishingNotion Hannah is a mother, wife, registered nurse and a whole food plant based-lifestyle (WFPB) proponent. Originating from Timaru, she moved to Nelson in 2007 to do her nursing degree. She works part-time at the Wakefield Health Centre and recently completed a certificate in plant-based nutrition. She proudly belongs to a group of Nelson health professionals who promote WFPB; aiming to achieve positive health outcomes, and sustainability in the community. Passionate about cooking and creating recipes, she enjoys inspiring and supporting others through her new business 'A Nourishing Notion' and via her social media. 8
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
JOHN DU FOUR John Du Four really enjoys being creative. He has made art in everything from acrylics to encaustic to batik. He’s fired ceramics and sculpted in papier mache. He’s composed music and written jingles. He’s performed in the Edinburgh and Adelaide Fringes. He’s written and directed short films, one of which was an international finalist in New York. He has choreographed dance and written many short stories. A former chef, sound therapist, and creative director in advertising, John is on the board of Arts Council Nelson and is Arts writer for Wild Tomato magazine. He lives in Richmond with Sue.
KERRY KINGSTON
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Kerry Kingston Design www.kerrykingstondesign.com Kerry combines stylish interior design with a holistic and intuitive approach to create harmonious and healthy spaces from a soulful living perspective. As a holistic interior designer she looks at a space in its entirety; from the overall design, environment and visual appearance to the feel, flow and energy. Her holistic approach includes timeless décor and practical design while taking into consideration eco living and the energy in the space; utilising a range of holistic methods to enhance these attributes, such as: decluttering, plants, Feng Shui, complementary crystals and essential oils.
LEE HOLMES
Supercharged Food www.superchargedfood.com Lee is a holistic nutritionist, yoga and meditation teacher, wholefoods chef and author of the bestselling Supercharged Food series. After changing her diet to improve symptoms of a non-specific autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia she started the Supercharged Food website from a need to share easy, wholesome and simple recipes. Experience has taught her to listen to the cues and signals from your body and that making positive nutritious food choices while having the desire within you to change your life for the better is the first step to optimum health.
MANDY HAYWOOD
Naturopath & Medical Herbalist www.mandyhaywood.co.nz Mandy is a mother, Naturopath and Medical Herbalist. She aims to empower clients to initiate and take responsibility for their own health by making fundamental changes in their diet and lifestyle with herbal medicine/supplements/ therapies prescribed to help support the body to achieve wellness and balance. Mandy offers personalized, compassionate health care for people of all ages with conditions ranging from minor acute illness to serious chronic disease. Healing one step at a time and ultimately achieving balance on all levels physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually.
MARIETTE ZOEPPRITZ
Seeds of Peace NZ www.facebook.com/SeedsOfPeaceNZ Mariette is an early childhood teacher and Reiki practitioner with a passion for exploring different aspects of holistic wellbeing and supporting others on their journey to living a fulfilled, authentic life - true to their higher calling. She has created a strong spiritual practice that supports her in staying connected and aligned to her higher Self which includes time in nature, Reiki, creativity, mediation, oracle cards and more. Her own healing journey recently led her to experience the power and magic of Inner Child Healing and she looks forward to incorporating what she has learned into her work with children and adults alike. Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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MICHELLE COTTON
Pure Vibration www.facebook.com/PureVibrationNZ At age 22, Michelle experienced the most life- changing year of her life and discovered who she truly was and her spiritual and healing abilities. Embracing this aspect of herself and realising she was a blank canvas, Michelle trusted herself and the Universal Source of Creation and started learning about all things spiritual and energetic. She loves the life she has chosen, which is filled with love, learning and pure vibrational energy... and best of all, she gets to use it to help others as a Clairvoyant Medium, Trance Channel, Healer, Teacher and Empowerment Coach.
RACHEL GRACE
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Rachel Grace Showroom & Academy www.rachel-grace.com Rachel is an International Medium, Spiritual Advisor, Psychic, Author and Educator. Along with her love for private readings Rachel's true passion lies in Spiritual Teaching. She is the CEO and Founder of the Rachel Grace International Academy of Metaphysics and has developed numerous Courses & Workshops ranging from Spiritual development, Metaphysical training, Tarot & Numerology, Advanced Psychic & Mediumship Certification Courses, private mentoring & is the facilitator of the monthly Sacred Space Online Classroom. Rachel also has her own teaching materials as well as a metaphysical store with her own product lines.
RENAE BAILEY
Healing with Renae www.healingwithrenae.co.nz Although qualified as a Reiki practitioner in 1999, it wasn’t until Renae became a Reiki Master/Teacher in 2011 that she began her journey as a Reiki professional. Now based at Balance in Buxton Square, Renae brings her experience in BlueStar Quantum Healing, Reiki, Inner Child Healing, Essential Oils and Crystals to Nelson. She truly enjoys facilitating transformation in her clients utilising the many tools in her toolbox.
ROSE AITKEN
Life Coach www.roseaitken.com Rose is an Inner Wisdom & Potentiality Coach offering private Life Coaching Sessions & Programs in Nelson, New Zealand and online. Rose is an expert at helping you undo your blocks, release your pain and connect with your potential. She has a genius for nurturing your talent, providing support and seeing where you are limiting yourself, how to challenge you, and where your undiscovered capacities lie. Rose gets results and her clients have nick named her “The Excavator”, because they are so free of their problems after working with her. “You can’t build a new house on old Foundations” Rose Aitken.
SABRINA WEBER
Empowerment Coach www.heysabrinaweber.com Sabrina is a women’s empowerment coach, modern mystic and self-proclaimed palm tree enthusiast living in Raglan, New Zealand. In true Aries fashion, she designed her own career path; blending spirituality with purpose-driven business mentoring that attracts and elevates like-minded women globally - empowering them to live life by design, stepping into their true goddess power and purpose work, and saying 'yes' to who they really are for a happier and freedom filled life. Her clients adore the effortless blend of spiritual tools and down to earth business talk from this beach-loving boss babe, mother and plant foodie. 10
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
SARAH JENSEN
Life & Business Coach www.sarahjensen.com.au Sarah Jensen is an award winning, internationally certified Life and Business Coach and host of the award nominated Rock Your Goals podcast. Sarah helps heart led coaches and creative entrepreneurs grow a sustainable, successful and super fun business (without going broke or burning out in the process). She believes in owning your awesome, writing your own rules, and chocolate!
SARAH NOBLE
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Mindfully You with Sarah www.facebook.com/mindfullyyouwithsarah Sarah Noble is a Mindset and Mindfulness Speaker, Writer and Mentor, and Accredited Mindfulness Teacher. She specialises in helping first-time Mums optimise their Mental Health, so they can navigate Motherhood with confidence and clarity. She Mentors 1-1, Hosts Mums and Bubs Workshops, Teaches Beginners Mindfulness Courses, writes blogposts and articles, and Speaks at, and hosts events. She lives in Dunedin with her partner and son, Dylan, who is 11 months old. She loves vegetables, rock music, nature, travel and swearing.
SARAH SEARS
What Sarah Bakes www.whatsarahbakes.com Sarah has loved to bake for as long as she can remember and as a self taught baker has had her fair share of baking disasters! Passionate about making your baking experience the best it can be, Sarah creates recipes that taste great and are easy to follow. Over the years, she has developed a baking style that focuses on the ease of baking without compromising on flavour or texture, with influences from her travels in Europe and America, and of course her home country New Zealand. Sarah shares tasty recipes that have proven to be a hit with family and friends.
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INSPIRATION on INSTAGRAM POSITIVELY PRESENT By Dani DiPirro
JOURNEY TO WELLNESS By Rebekah Ballagh
THE CELESTIAL WITCH By Ellie Mae
BECCA REITZ By Becca Reitz
Dani is an author, blogger, and designer living in Washington, DC. In 2009, she launched the website PositivelyPresent.com sharing experiences and insights on positivity and self-love! Now a global, destination for inspiration and resources. Follow her on Instagram: @PositivelyPresent
Ellie is an artist, designer and practitioner of metaphysics, based in Sydney, AU. She uses her unique gifts to help, support and guide those on a Soulpreneur journey. Her work is spiritual, inspirational, enlightening, informative and fun! Follow her on Instagram: @the_celestial_witch 12
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
Becks is a counsellor, mindfulness coach and illustrator based in Nelson, NZ. She began illustrating mental health tools with a goal of making counselling and therapeutic techniques more accessible to everyone. Now they are a global resource! Follow her on Instagram: @journey_to_wellness_
Becca Reitz is an illustrator and graphic designer that resides in Denver, CO. Her work aims to capture the beauty and essence of the human experience â&#x20AC;&#x201C; each piece is a visual representation of our truth, our journeys, our past, our future. Follow her on Instagram: @becca_reitz
CONSCIOUS COMMENTARY By Alan Roberts
DIVINE BEINGS BEHAVING BADLY
By Amanda Sears (Concept) & Alan Roberts (Illustration)
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION Introducing this exciting, modern & innovative approach to exhibiting art work of all kinds. Each artwork links to the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website or social media where you can enquire about the work, order a commission or find out more about each artist and see their other works. Some work is for sale, while others are examples of the artistic style of that particular artist. Jill Alexander Karyn Hitchman Lori Davis Betty Salter Melita Johnston Soraya Bradley *Some images may be cropped to fit. If you would like to know more about this new way of exhibiting your work, whether it is photography, painting, sculpture, pottery, etc. Please go to our website HERE to request an information guide. 14
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Jill Alexander Pink Peonies and Roses in Jug (2019) Oil on Canvas www.madcatdesign.co.nz
Jill Alexander Peonies in my Sitting Room (2019) Oil on Canvas www.madcatdesign.co.nz
Jill Alexander Lisianthus in Glass Vase (2019) Oil on Canvas www.madcatdesign.co.nz
Jill Alexander 3 (2019) Oil on Canvas www.madcatdesign.co.nz Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Karyn Hitchman Butterfly Surprise (2018) Oil on Canvas www.karynhitchmanartist.nz
Karyn Hitchman Mademoiselle Rose (2017) Oil on Canvas www.karynhitchmanartist.nz
Karyn Hitchman Mademoiselle Fluerie (2018) Oil on Canvas www.karynhitchmanartist.nz
Karyn Hitchman Mademoiselle Charmante (2018) Oil on Canvas www.karynhitchmanartist.nz
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Karyn Hitchman | Mademoiselle Lumiere (2019) | Oil on Canvas | www.karynhitchmanartist.nz Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Lori Davis | Vineyard Patterns (2016) | Gouache on cotton paper | www.loridavis.co.nz 18
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Lori Davis Evan's Bay (2018) Gouache on cotton paper www.loridavis.co.nz
Lori Davis House Stack (2019) Gouache on cotton paper www.loridavis.co.nz
Lori Davis Red Fields and Flowers Gouache on cotton paper www.loridavis.co.nz
Lori Davis Te Aro (2018) Gouache on cotton paper www.loridavis.co.nz Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Betty Salter | Rabbit Island View (2012) | Oils | www.bettysalterartist.co.nz
Betty Salter | Kaiteriteri (2015) | Oils | www.bettysalterartist.co.nz 20
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Betty Salter Walkway Queens Gardens (2008) Pastel www.bettysalterartist.co.nz
Betty Salter View From Kaka Point (2006) Pastel www.bettysalterartist.co.nz
Betty Salter Powerful Spirit (2009) Pastel www.bettysalterartist.co.nz
Betty Salter Pohutakawa Coast (2016) Oils www.bettysalterartist.co.nz Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Melita Johnston | Twinkle (2019) | Acrylic on Canvas | www.facebook.com/melitajohnstonart
Melita Johnston | Gold (2019) | Acrylic on Canvas | www.facebook.com/melitajohnstonart 22
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Melita Johnston | Anchor (2019) | Acrylic on Canvas | www.facebook.com/melitajohnstonart
Melita Johnston | Sparkle (2019) | Acrylic on Canvas | www.facebook.com/melitajohnstonart Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Soraya Bradley | Sacred Flora (2017) | Oil on Canvas | www.soraya.co.nz
Soraya Bradley Song of the Butterfly (2014) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz 24
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Soraya Bradley The Fragility of Being (2019) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz
DIGITAL GALLERY EXHIBITION
Soraya Bradley Pre-Raphaelite Dream (2015) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz
Soraya Bradley Detail of Feather by Feather (2017) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz
Soraya Bradley Beyond the Sea (2018) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz
Soraya Bradley Unexpected Warrior(2015) Oil on Canvas www.soraya.co.nz Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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The Divine Feminine SPECIAL FEATURE
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
Welcome to The Divine Feminine feature - shining a light on the complexities, intricacies and beauty of the natural female body and divine feminine energy. This feature is for all humans. and is a way to embrace the divineness within. The Divine Feminine an Introduction Marta Willis - Connecting with the Earth... WaterAid - Periods Around the World Lara Briden - Periods 101 Vix Anderton - Productivity & Our Periods Lorella Doherty - Seasons of Our Cycles My Cup NZ - Conscious Business The Menstrual Movement - Conscious Business The Good Fund - Conscious Community EzyBabe - Consciously Creative Period Management WIN #1 - Waste Free Period Pack WIN #2 - Lara Briden Book
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
The Divine Feminine By Amanda Sears AN INTRODUCTION As with all concepts with spiritual foundations, definitions can vary... but basically the Divine Feminine is an energy that has been around from the beginning of time and is now rising to come back into balance with the Divine Masculine. According to Sophie Bashford it is a "state of awareness connected to the heart, to natural and divine laws, and to a loving, harmonious and peaceful life." Each human carries both the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine energies. As you look at our current life and history you can see we have been greatly out of balance; living more in the masculine energy and suppressing the inherent feminine aspects... but this is changing.
10 WAYS TO RE-BALANCE THE ENERGY AND CONNECT TO YOUR DIVINE FEMININE 1. Co-operate and collaborate over competing 2. Embrace your intuition and innate senses 3. Create rather than deconstruct 4. Compliment rather than criticise 5. Create stillness in breath and meditation 6. Listen more than speaking 7. Get into your body with gentle movement 8. Get into nature more like the forest or beach 9. Practice receiving, allowing and patience
"We each carry a complex emotional and psychological makeup of past experiences, learned behavior and external conditioning that contributes to one’s internal well-being and external reality. This can cause one or both energies to be out of balance, stagnant, suppressed, confused, or disrespected in some manner." - Jennifer Aurelia
10. Feel into your feelings and trust your self
Each aspect of this divine energy has certain qualities, not necessarily bad or good:
This applies for all human beings in the world, both men and women and those who identify with other or non-specific genders - this balance is accessible and available to us all.
Divine Feminine: • Being • Intuitive • Nurturing • Healing • Gentle • Expressive • Wise • Patient • Emotional • Flexible • Collaborative • Collective • Receptive • Values • Heart • Listening
Divine Masculine: • Doing • Analytical • Reason • Action • Firm • Survival • Loyal • Adventurous • Rational • Strength • Competitive • Individual • Assertive • Logical • Head • Speaking
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As with all things in life - it is about balance. Let go of old belief systems and perceived hurt and struggles caused by this imbalance of energies and grow into yourself and integrate the Divine Feminine with your Divine Masculine and create a beautiful balance in our duality of existence.
Create space, breathe and sit down with your self and delve deep into your awareness to see which areas of your divinity are out of balance and take practical steps to bring these into alignment - of which you and the world will greatly benefit. "It is well past time that we imbue the modern world with the timeless qualities associated with our sentient mother planet – love, understanding, compassion, nurturing, and empathy. By connecting humanity to our common inheritance and cultivating self-love as the gateway to universal love, the divine feminine offers a radical recalibration of values and relationships that can reshape our world." - Temple of the Way of Light Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Empowering Women With Guest Marta Willis CONNECTION WITH THE EARTH THROUGH THE WOMB
they feel different during the different stages of their cycle can give them the power to treat their body and arising emotions accordingly.
Being a woman this time around is truly special but how we live and experience it is individual and unique. How often are we actually connected to our own sacred feminine energy and aware of how special our centre of creation, our womb is... I invite you beautiful wombyn to place your right hand on your womb, and left on your heart, and breath deep into this special space connecting your heart and womb. Even if you do not have a womb physically any more, this area holds the energy of creation. You are the magical creator of new beginnings, sprouting new life, ideas. Your womb space is a forever changing, layer shedding, cyclically renewing sacred space.
I believe honest communication and informative sharing right from the start can wipe away any shame, worry and discomfort that might be sitting in their mind before they are getting their first cycle. I believe we are living in times where women more and more are reaching back to nature and old traditions to find their sense of belonging and to feel balanced.
What is your connection to your moon cycle? To your womb? Do you remember the day you stepped into your womanhood? Are you consciously aware of what is actually happening within your body on a physical and hormonal level? What were your first emotions when thought about period? Do you think it is gross, or actually think that it is magical that now you are capable of creating a new life? Do you feel pain or discomfort when you are having your period? Did you celebrate when you first got it? Did you ever dive deep within your soul to connect with your womb space? Starting your cycle is stepping into a new stage of your life. I remember I was feeling pure joy, and thinking I can possibly grow a new life within, which might be because I was a late starter and by then I knew a lot about my body and about periods in general. Period talks always flew easily, without tabooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in our household with mum answering my questions without much fuss and honestly from a really young age. I feel it is crucial to teach our young girls about their cycles, about their body and to have a deeper understanding about how their system works; not only on the physical, but also on the emotional and spiritual levels as well. Knowing what is happening within their body, and why 30
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Just think about how much negative connections and association we have towards our menses. What if we plant a seed about its sacred essence early on and with that, change the experience for younger generations so they would see and treat their bleeding as a blessing. What if we would do a special ceremony to celebrate right from the start of womanhood. As a women at the beginning of their journey, we can add meaning and a special level of understanding of their cycle, the body's changes and allow her the chance also to tap into her sacred women knowing and intuitive feminine power as well. It is time to reclaim this special wisdom handed down through the ages, and this way of celebration will create the next generation of evolved, loving women, who will find it with ease and grace to step into their own power. Our menstrual cycle is a source of insight and renewal. Learning and knowing about the different phases can be really empowering. If we listen to our body, we can give it what it needs. What is a period: Our body's hormones fluctuate so we can release an egg each month; we build up tissue in our uterus to be the perfect ground for a fertilised egg. If fertilisation does not happen the body releases this thickened layer of the uterus in the form of menstruation. During menstruation, your body craves rest; it is not only 'loosing blood', but also loosing energy. It is a time to listen to this call and slow down, or completely stop; asking the 'self' what it needs.
THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
Between our menses and ovulation we might experience a higher state of energy; more creativity in general... It is a good time to create on every areas of life, like projects , business, putting creative ideas and dreams into reality. During the Luteal Phase; the time between ovulation and menses - we have a sense of knowing, with strengthened intuition, feeling more reserved. This is a great time to tap into oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s magic. Tune in to feelings, and truly observe them as they arise. It is so important to nourish your body and soul and to listen to its needs. Take a rest when needed, have nourishing, warming food, especially before your period. Food that is cooked and easy to digest. Decrease sugar and caffeine intake, increase green smoothie intake. If we teach young girls and women about their cycle, and the hormones involved, they will get the tools to work with and understand their cycle along with why they feel what they feel. It will give them the sense of truly honouring their body, and perceiving what it really needs. With that knowledge they can transform their life and can let go of everything that does not serve them any more with each and every one of their cycles. Marta Willis Luna Bloom www.lunabloom.com
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Around the World With Guest Wateraid How Women Around the World Manage their Menstrual Period Millions of women and girls menstruate every month, yet governments across the world continue to ignore the issue and its associated links to women’s health, economic and social wellbeing. Battling the stigma that continues to surround periods, women around the world look for their own solutions around disposal, pricing, health and comfort. No woman or girl should have to manage their period without access to the sanitary product of their choice. Governments should play an active role in providing the infrastructure and knowledge needed to support this right. At a minimum, women everywhere need clean water for washing themselves and any reusable sanitary materials, decent private toilets that give them the space, privacy, as well as access to adequate and acceptable sanitary products and disposal methods. Yet, 1 in 9 people don’t have clean water close to home, while 1 in 3 don't have a decent toilet of their own. Without these services, menstruation can affect women’s health and involvement in social and economic life, and thus their opportunities. Within the communities that WaterAid works, we talked to women about their periods. The result is a revealing snapshot of traditions passed on from mother to daughter, as well as women’s own, often innovative, solutions. In many countries, cloth is the go-to material for women, which helps to tackle disposal issues in places where facilities are lacking. The environmental impact of disposable sanitary pads is huge. For example, in India, there are about 121 million women of reproductive age; if all of them use just eight sanitary pads a month, this amounts to 12 billion pads annually. Chelsea Huggett, WaterAid Australia's Technical Lead in Equality and Rights, said: 32
Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
“Menstrual health is fundamental to achieving gender equality and to improving the lives of women and girls all over the world. Despite this normal bodily function, which is generally a sign of good health, women and girls feel ashamed and have difficulties managing their bleeding each month. We are expected to keep it a secret, and in many countries women may not even have proper water to bathe, nowhere to throw away used pads and no options for pain management. For an adolescent girl, she may be afraid to go to school because she doesn’t have a pad or anywhere to change it. It’s time we normalised talking about menstrual health and hygiene. Breaking the taboo on menstruation with girls and boys can normalise other taboo conversations about relationships, our bodies and sex.” View some of the interesting ways women manage their periods over the next few pages... WaterAid is a charity working in some of the hardest to reach places in the world. Dedicated to improving access to clean water, decent toilets and hygiene education in the world’s poorest communities as well as providing appropriate sanitation facilities and menstrual hygiene skills and education to those women and girls who need it. Find out more about WaterAid here: www.wateraid.org (Adapted from original article by WaterAid Australia posted on 15th April 2019: www.wateraid. org/au/articles/how-women-around-the-worldmanage-their-menstrual-period)
FREE DOWNLOAD A Free PDF Resource for Improving Menstrual Hygiene Around the World!
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Must be online to view link or visit WaterAid website.
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Lepera Joyce, 23, showing her goatskin skirt which she uses when she is on her period, 'I use this goatskin skirt because it’s always available; it’s our traditional sanitary pad.' Nakapiripirt District, Karamoja Region, Uganda, September 2018.
WaterAid/ Billy Barraclough
WaterAid/ James Kiyimba
Hilary, 27, uses reusable sanitary pads to manage her period. 'The environment is a big factor for why I use reusable sanitary pads. It’s about reducing waste.' London, UK, April 2019` Limpo, 22, cuts cow patties to size for use during menstruation. 'I do not put the cow patties directly on my skin, I wrap it in a cloth and place it nicely to capture the flow without staining other clothes. I like this method because cow patties soak up a lot of blood before they are completely soaked. I go about doing WaterAid/ Chileshe Chanda all sorts of things without any trouble.' Mongu District, Zambia, August 2018
WaterAid/ James Kiyimba
Munyes, 44, 'During my period I find it easy and very normal to make a hole in the ground and sit on top of it for blood to drain in it.' Karamoja Region, Uganda, September 2018.
WaterAid/ Mani Karmacharya WaterAid/ Chileshe Chanda
Limpo, 22, 'I do not put the cow patties directly on my skin, I wrap it in a cloth and place it nicely to capture the flow without staining other clothes. I like this method because cow patties soak up a lot of blood before they are completely soaked. I go about doing all sorts of things without any trouble.' Mongu District, Zambia, August 2018.
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Sangita, 32, holds up a finished reusable sanitary pad. 'Ready made pads are costly and if you do not dispose of them properly it will pollute the environment.' Banepa Municipality, Kavre District, Nepal, August 2018.
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WaterAid/ Chileshe Chanda
WaterAid/ Dennis Lupenga
Nowana, 45, uses powdered cow patties in a pouch used during menstruation, 'I would prefer pads to cow patties if I had a choice. They are easy and already made, they are disposable and don’t require a lengthy process like the one I go through when using cow patties.' Mongu District, Zambia, August 2018.
Elizerbeth, 54, teaching her grand-daughter, Mary how to make a sanitary cloth locally known as nyanda, in Kapyanga, Kasungu, Malawi, August 2018.
Nowana, 45, fills a pouch with powdered cow patties that she uses during her period. ' Nowana, 45, uses powdered cow patties in a pouch used during menstruation, 'I would prefer pads to cow patties if I had a choice. They are easy and already made, they are disposable and don’t require a lengthy process WaterAid/ Chileshe Chanda like the one I go through when using cow patties.' Mongu District, Zambia, August 2018.
WaterAid/ Dennis Lupenga
Nyanda, a small piece of cloth used as a sanitary pad in Kapyanga, Kasungu, Malawi, August 2018.
WaterAid/ Basile Ouedraogo WaterAid/ Chileshe Chanda
Doris, 19, holds lint cotton she uses during menstruation. 'When am on my period, I stop playing soccer or any other sporting activities. I can’t run or play games with my friends.' Kazungula Dsitict, Zambia, August 2018. 34
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A sample of sanitary pads ,known as cottons, sold in the shops and used by some women or girls, who are wealthier, mainly in urban areas. 'With cotton, I feel more comfortable. Cotton is good but the only issue is that it can run out and that you can’t afford to buy more.' Alice, 29, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, August 2018
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Saba, 18, cutting a cloth to use during her period. Saba, 18, 'I use cotton cloth to manage my periods. I get the cloth from home, from the clothes that we used to wear earlier and are now old and rough.' Islamabad, Pakistan, August 2018.
WaterAid/ Sibtain Haider
WaterAid/ David Freeman
Steph, 27, uses an IUD as well as tampons and pads to manage her period. 'I have an IUD to help manage my endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, which in turn helps manage my menstrual cycle as well.' Melbourne, Australia, September 2018 Lydia, 26, uses cotton sanitary pads when she is on her period, 'Even if it gives you pain the fact that you have periods means that you are healthy and you are able to conceive in the future. It is something to be proud of and something that makes me feel feminine.' Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, April 2019
WaterAid/ Sibtain Haider
A piece of cloth to be used as sanitary pad. Saba, 18, 'My mom told me to use cloth during my periods. I cannot afford to use sanitary pads.' Islamabad, Pakistan, August 2018.
WaterAid/ Priya Sippy
WaterAid/ Basile Ouedraogo WaterAid/ David Severn
Claire, 40, uses a menstrual cup during her period to reduce waste. 'The one thing with the Mooncup is that it is more hassle. It needs boiling to clean it properly. We have a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mooncup panâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in which I boil it and sometimes I have to rush into the kitchen to stop someone from boiling an egg in it.' Manchester, UK, April 2019
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Pieces of old or worn loincloth, used by the majority of girls and women to manage their periods, especially those in rural areas or of modest means. 'During my periods, I use pieces of traditional loincloths to protect myself and prevent infections. I tried the cottons [sanitary pads] but they cause slight wounds on your body. So I prefer to use the pieces of loincloths.' Brigitte, 23, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, August 2018 Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Empowering Women With Guest Lara Briden PERIODS 101 What can go 'wrong' with your periods? Plenty, unfortunately. Naturopath Lara Briden shows you how to solve common problems. What is happening with your period? Does it come every month? Does it come at all? Is it heavy or painful? Whatever your period is like, it’s time to make it better. What should your period be like? Your period should arrive every 21 to 35 days, or up to 45 days if you’re a teenager. It should arrive without premenstrual symptoms, and without pain and last anywhere from two to seven days of bleeding. Over those days, you should lose a total of 50 mL (or about three tablespoons) of menstrual fluid; more than 80 mL is excessive. Of course, you’ve probably never measured the actual volume of your menstrual flow. You can estimate it by counting the number of menstrual products: one regular pad or tampon holds 5 mL or about 1 teaspoon, so 80 mL equates to about 16 filled tampons over all the days of your bleed. Learn to know your cycle To determine the length of your cycle, start counting from your first day of heavy bleeding your heaviest flow. Call this “Day 1”. Do not count the days of light spotting that come before your heavy day. Your spotting days are not part of this cycle, but rather the final days of your previous cycle. Irregular periods Your period is irregular if it comes more often than every 21 days or less often than every 35 days — or if it does not come at all. An irregular period can be due to several different things including a medical condition, so please check with your doctor for a diagnosis. Based on their assessment, they may diagnose you with one of the two most common reasons for irregular periods: polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or hypothalamic amenorrhea. 36
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PCOS is the state of having irregular periods because of elevated androgens (male hormones) and possibly insulin resistance. It also often presents with the symptoms of acne and facial hair. Hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) is the loss of periods due to undereating, either undereating generally or undereating carbs. In some ways, the PCOS and hypothalamic amenorrhea are quite different — almost opposite. PCOS can be driven by too much sugar, and hypothalamic amenorrhea is caused by too little food or carbohydrates. In other ways, the two conditions are similar enough that your doctor might mistakenly say you have PCOS when you really have hypothalamic amenorrhea. For example, take care that your PCOS diagnosis was not based on an ultrasound. Polycystic ovaries can occur with PCOS, yes, but they also occur with hypothalamic amenorrhea. One study concluded that relying on ultrasound for diagnosis can result in hypothalamic amenorrhea being misdiagnosed as PCOS. The treatment for PCOS is to reverse the underlying problem with insulin by reducing sugar in your diet and taking magnesium. The treatment for hypothalamic amenorrhea is to eat more. Heavy periods Your period is heavy if you lose more than 80 mL of menstrual fluid (16 fully soaked tampons), or if your period lasts for longer than seven days. A heavy period can be caused by medical problems such as fibroids (benign growths of the uterine muscle), endometriosis (a painful condition in which tissue similar to uterine lining grows in the pelvis), or adenomyosis (a condition similar to endometriosis in which tissue similar to uterine lining grows in the uterine muscle), so please check with your doctor. Once she has ruled out other causes, your doctor may conclude that your heavy periods are “hormonal,” which means they’re caused by “unopposed oestrogen” or cycles in which you did not ovulate
THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
and make progesterone — the period-lightening hormone. The treatment is to identify why you’re not ovulating and correct that, if possible. Common causes include insulin resistance and PCOS, as well as stress and perimenopause. Avoiding cow’s dairy can substantially lighten periods. Painful periods A little pain is normal if it occurs during the first day or two of your bleed and is mild enough that it can be relieved by ibuprofen. More severe pain can indicate fibroids, infection, or endometriosis, so please see your doctor. Normal period pain can be improved by avoiding junk food and cow’s dairy or by supplementing magnesium and zinc, which work by reducing prostaglandins. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) Premenstrual symptoms include irritability, headaches, and sugar cravings before your period. PMS is common so it's easy to think it just goes with the territory of having periods – but it doesn’t. With the right natural treatment, PMS can become a thing of the past. No irritability. No headache. No cravings. It is possible! The best way to improve PMS is with the supplements magnesium and vitamin B6, which work by boosting levels of GABA, a calming neurotransmitter in the brain. You can also support your calming hormone progesterone with the herbal medicine Vitex, which has been shown in some studies to be effective for the premenstrual symptoms of irritability, fluid retention, and breast pain. The pill is not a solution The pill can mask period problems. For example, it forces a withdrawal bleed, which reassures you that you've had a period when you really haven't because pill-bleeds are not periods. A real period is the bleed at the end of a natural ovulatory cycle (a menstrual cycle that includes ovulation as the main event). A pill-bleed is the bleed induced by stopping contraceptive drugs which are similar, but not identical, to your own hormones. There is no medical reason to bleed monthly on the pill. Lara Briden www.larabriden.com Lara Briden is a Christchurch naturopath and the author of the bestselling book Period Repair Manual: Every woman’s guide to better periods.
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CREATIVITY Days 1-7 ♥ Connect with vision and goals ♥ Get clear on action steps
COMMUNICATION
REFLECTION
Days 8-10
Days 25-31
♥ Plan time with friends and family ♥ Collaborate with others
♥ Take time to rest ♥ Reflect and evaluate the past month
POWER Days 11-24 ♥ Get things done ♥ Use that 'eye for detail' in execution
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THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
Empowering Women With Guest Vix Anderton PRODUCTIVITY AND PERIODS HOW TO USE YOUR MONTHLY CYCLE TO GET MORE DONE
women on long-term contraceptives. If you don’t have a natural cycle, you can map these phases to the calendar month instead.
Did you know your menstrual cycle holds the key to unlock your energy and productivity superpowers? This might sound kind of out there for some of you, but hear me out.
Our cycle, like each one of us, is unique so I’m going to share some core principles. Getting to know your own is one of the best favours you can do yourself. Take these principles and see how they show up in your life - adapt and experiment until you find a system that works best for you.
The hormones of your cycle affect more than just your period. They influence everything from your energy levels to your cognitive state, your nutritional needs, your sex drive, even your weight and the look of your skin.
There are lots of apps out there to help you track your cycle. So experiment and find the one that works best for you.
Unfortunately, many of us are never taught how to unlock the potential in our cycles. One of the things I struggled with most when I started out as a freelancer and entrepreneur was the lack of definition in my time. There was no shape, no rhythm, to my weeks and months. The only real marker I had for time passing was the seasons. There was no impetus to take time off, no point to aim for. The weeks just laid out in front of me, seemingly forever. My days had a clear pattern as did the days of the week. But beyond that…. everything just looked the same. Then, in a completely unrelated move, I decided to come off the contraceptive pill for the first time in about 17 years. I had been diagnosed with endometriosis as a teenager and had used the pill as a way of managing my symptoms. I had never had a natural cycle as an adult. I became obsessed by periods. I was fascinated by how the hormone cycle worked and the impact it had on my mood, energy and body. As I learnt more about the phases of my cycle and how I felt, I started to adapt my schedule around these phases. And suddenly my life had natural undulations and markers again. This model doesn’t just work for women experiencing a natural cycle. The principles are valid for everyone - men, post-menopausal women,
THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
The female reproductive hormones move through an average 28-day cycle of peaks, troughs, dips, and flows, which affect how you feel. No two days are the same, which means how you are in the middle of your cycle will be completely different from how you are at the end. As women, we sometimes expect ourselves to be at our peak every single day. We want to be endlessly productive, energised, and consistent. But our bodies just don't run on an every-day-is-thesame kind of model. And ignoring that is costing us. Big time. When you don't understand your female body, you don't know how to live in tune with her. And so you end up getting frustrated, burning out, or feeling completely overwhelmed. (Hello self-judgment). Plus, you miss out on windows of time when you're especially articulate, persuasive, and insightful. But it doesn't have to be this way. The secret is to live in alignment with the four unique phases of your cycle. I personally use this framework as a monthly sprint for myself as well as my clients. The principles of the sprint are valid for everyone and help to create rhythm and structure in our lives. Each cycle or sprint starts with a planning event to identify goals and ends with a review and retrospective to identify lessons and improvements for the next sprint. Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Phase 1 – Menstruation [Reflection - Inner Winter]
cal fluid takes on a wetter consistency. It typically looks creamy.
WHAT'S HAPPENING Estrogen and testosterone start out at rock bottom on the first day of your period, then steadily rise. This phase lasts approximately 3-7 days. Day 1 of your cycle is the first day of bleeding.
Your estrogen and testosterone levels remain low in the beginning of the Follicular Phase but gradually increase as ovulation gets closer. Both estrogen and testosterone start to boost your energy, mood and brain skills. You start to feel more confident, powerful and are willing to take more risks.
You may feel a sense of release and relief when menstruation starts. During this week, your energy is the lowest it will be during your cycle and you may feel fatigued, introverted and introspective. This leads to a desire to rest and take a break from daily duties or even take a day off. A day off may not be possible for most women but taking time to introduce some quietness can be tremendously helpful. PUTTING IT INTO ACTION Practice really good self-care this week. This could mean eating really nourishing healthy comfort foods, taking a yoga class, getting to bed early one night, sleeping in later one morning, reading a favourite book, getting a massage, and anything else that makes you feel nourished and balanced. When you honour your body’s innate need for rest and relaxation during this phase, you will enhance your ability to get more out of the active phases of your cycle. Keep any exercise to gentle movement and stretching. Journal to reflect on the past month. How was your performance? How are you getting along with your colleagues? Are you working on the projects you care about? Is your job going in the direction you want it to? How are you thinking and feeling about your business as a whole? What changes do you need to make to stay happy and successful? Phase 2 – The Follicular Phase [Creativity - Inner Spring] WHAT'S HAPPENING The follicular phase begins after menstruation and lasts for 7-10 days. It’s known as the Follicular phase because your pituitary gland releases a hormone called Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). FSH stimulates the follicles in one of your ovaries to mature. FYI-these follicles contain your eggs. The pituitary gland then starts to release Luteinizing Hormone (LH), which is responsible for ovulation. Only one of these follicles will “ripen” and become mature. During this time, you will notice that your cervi40
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Testosterone starts to stimulate your libido while at the same time making you more impulsive. Estrogen makes your skin look and feel better. It also makes you feel more extroverted and pushes you to be more social and to connect with other people. PUTTING IT INTO ACTION • Plan the month ahead. • Brainstorm ideas with people. • Dream big. Connect to your vision and goals. • Get clear on your action steps for the month. Phase 3 – The Ovulatory Phase [Communication - Inner Summer] WHAT'S HAPPENING The ovulatory phase is the shortest phase and lasts for 2-3 days. It is the culmination of all the hard work your body has been doing over the previous weeks. Right before ovulation there is a surge of LH and this causes the dominant follicle to burst open and release its egg into the fallopian tube. Estrogen and Testosterone continue their rise to peak levels, boosting all the effects you enjoyed during the follicular phase. You look more attractive during this time and you’ll feel more confident about your appearance. PUTTING IT INTO ACTION Prioritise play and connection during this week. Plan in time with friends and family and other activities you enjoy. This is also a great time for important conversations and to work with other people. This is the peak of your energy in the month so take advantage of it! Phase 4 – The Luteal Phase [Power - Inner Autumn] WHAT'S HAPPENING This phase has two halves and typically lasts from 12-16 days. Ideally the luteal phase should
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be closest to 14 days for it to be considered an optimal fertile cycle. This of course isn’t the case for everyone, but evidence suggests that a 14day luteal phase is the ideal for most women. After ovulation, FSH and LH levels sharply decline and remain low for the rest of the cycle. Estrogen and testosterone gradually decline and the follicle that released the egg will start to produce progesterone, causing this hormone to rise gradually. During the second week of the luteal phase estrogen will slightly rise again in preparation for pregnancy. If there is no pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone will drop and cause the uterine lining to shed. PUTTING IT INTO ACTION This is a time to start to cut back on your busy schedule and slow down. Use this time to get things done. Take pleasure in completing projects and wrapping things up. This is all about execution. You may start to experience PMS in the second half of this phase so clearing your calendar of big social events will help conserve energy. You probably feel isolated in everything that you experience during this stage of your cycle but know that you are not alone. And these symptoms are not all in your head! There is a remarkable cascade of hormonal events taking place. Focusing on nourishing self-care practices will help you through this period of lower energy as you move back into the menstrual phase. So, get out your calendar and start marking in the days of each phase. Then, as you’re doing your weekly planning each week, check which phase you are coming into and use the principles of that phase to help focus your priorities. These are not hard and fast rules – life is just not that neat and tidy! Think about these principles as intentions for the different phases. Vix Anderton The Practical Balance www.thepracticalbalance.com (Original blog posted on April 8, 2019)
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The Divine Feminine With Guest Lorella Doherty THE SEASONS OF OUR CYCLES
I was 13 when my first period arrived. I felt to embarrassed to tell my mum that I didn’t. For two years I used the sample packs of tampons I had been given at puberty lessons at school. When my younger sister got hers I asked if she could tell mum we both had it; that was my introduction to one of the most sacred and imperative initiatory moments of a womens life; her menarche. It was never meant to be this way; Women, living so disconnected to each other, the earth, to our cycles and our feminine power... There was a time when we all lived in a way where cycles of life were revered and respected, where our cycles connected us to all of life. I now have two daughters of my own; one close to menarche and I am in awe of the sacredness of this upcoming time for them and the journey to their own feminine power that they will begin to embark on... for within our menstrual cycle, holds the key to a meaningful, creative and fulfilled life that not only serves ourselves, but the world. This knowledge has both spiritual and scientific aspects as it relates to both our hormone systems and physical bodies, but at large to our mental, emotional and spiritual aspects. The idea of celebrating our menstrual cycle and using it as a tool for personal and planetary healing and transformation can be hard to comprehend when mensuration is such an un-talked about, even taboo subject; and more closer to a burden than a gift, that causes many women monthly pain, stress and even shame. There is no doubt that as women our bodies are innately cyclic; and like nature, we too have our own inner seasons, where we shed the old and birth the new - I remember feeling a deep sense of relief when this knowledge was shared with me, and finally felt at home in my body for the first time... like my innate divine essence had been awoken... Since working with my cycle, I have become ab42
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solutely fascinated by the intricacies of how our bodies and psyche tick in this way. The simplest way to introduce you to such a profound ancient wisdom is to introduce you to the ‘inner seasons’ of our monthly menstrual cycle. Let’s start at the beginning... Inner Winter: Day 1 - (the day you start bleeding) until roughly day 5 This is our time of rest and recuperation. It is the time in our cycle to slow down, surrender, forgive and heal. This is the time we detach from the outside world and form a deep connection with ourselves. During our Inner Winter are at our most intuitive. It’s like being a walking channel. I don’t go far without my pen and pad to take it all down. I know well enough now that if I don’t respect my body by resting and listening to my needs, I pay for it the whole month. I would feel sluggish and undirected for my whole cycle with a crabby and crampy following Inner Autumn, as I operate from a half filled (or empty) cup. I think of Inner Winter as my golden compass. The absolute gift. Without it I would have no course to follow. Our Inner Winter resets us back on course if we were off. It shines the light if we were lost and instructs us with our next steps. I used to find stopping hard. Not because I felt lazy or because of others expectations, not because there was too much to do, but because I did not understand the sacredness and the gifts it would give me if I did. Now I blank out as much as I can for those few days and I do me. I celebrate myself, I am gentle with myself, I rest, I breathe, I pick up a book, I journal, I sit, I receive. While in our Inner Winter and at our most intuitive, and if we do take a step back from life, and pause, rest and reset like our body, mind and soul begs. We can receive incredible wisdom about our life and the world, what changes need to be made and how, and receive the ideas and vision to be birthed throughout the rest of our cycle.
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Inner Spring: Days 6-11 (roughly) - Pre-ovulation It carries the energy of renewal and new life bursting forth. We emerge from our Inner Winter cleansed, and with a surge of new energy (if we did rest), imagination, focus, motivation, enthusiasm, positivity and a mind full of wisdom, plans and ideas (dreamed up in our Inner Winter) and playfulness. These dreams, ideas and plans bounce around in our minds like a baby kitten in our Inner Spring. Playful, curious and eager to pounce free and out into the world. The most important thing to remember with Inner Spring which I personally struggle with is ‘containment’ of these dreams, ideas and plans. Holding them in and working on them some more rather than birthing them to the outside world prematurely, while they are still needing to grow and evolve in our inner world a bit longer. Inner Summer: Days 12-19 Around the time we ovulate My favourite season of all! This is the time in our cycle where we feel sexy (like a goddess on a runway), energetic, motivated, confident, generous and filled with gratitude for all of life. Everything is done with ease and joy and grace. It’s a bit like being a walking magnet for good stuff. You feel all the love, you are unstoppable. Speaking, meetings, sharing, planning, organising, multitasking, completing, its all tick tick tick what’s next. This is the time to birth all those dreams and plans and put them into practice. You are in the flow. Why does this season have to ever end? But just like mother earth’s seasons, summer does have to come to an end and we must allow the Inner Autumn to flow through use... Inner Autumn - Days 20-26 (or longer depending on the length of your cycle) Our energy slows right down.
Summer becomes on ourselves and our own needs. This means we notice all the things we don’t like and the things that are not working in our lives, especially unhealthy behaviours. It shines the light on what’s really important and where we have fallen short. Our inner critic is on form! It’s hard to hide from the truth and it's hard for us to hide the truth. We face ourselves, we face our shadows, we face truths, we pipe up and speak truth to others. We feel the burn now if we have over committed during Inner Summer and said yes yes yes. Now we need to say no no no. We need discernment to conserve our energy (which is why cycle tracking and planning is essential). We can be unenthusiastic, empty, flat, low, lazy, stretched, and sick and tired of pretty much everything. This is the time where I feel like I am 9 months pregnant and all I want to do it nest. I can’t start anything to save myself, my brain is scattered and in la la land. But I tie up every loose end, including organising every nook and cranny becomes a frenzy for me. The more we don’t listen to and don't face ourselves and our needs, and the more we don’t adjust our outward energy to slow down and go inward, the more ‘PMS’ symptoms we show. This sacred and living body of knowledge of our menstrual cycle is vital for us and our times. It holds the blueprint for who we are at the deepest level and has the ability to unlock our highest potential. It has the power for planetary healing and transformation and holds the capacity to unlock our divine feminine power. For further reading I highly recommend the book Wild Power by Alexandra Pope and Shane Hugo Wurlitzer. You won’t regret embarking on this sacred journey. Lorella Doherty www.lorelladohertywriter.wordpress.com
Our focus which was outward during our Inner
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Conscious Business With Guest My Cup NZ Questions answered by: Kimberli Schuitman, Founder and Director My Cup NZ is a Christchurch based manufacturer of menstrual cups and retailer of sustainable period solutions.
can’t. So, we offer choices of products and brands with education support– and affordable options too. Knowledge is power.
I started My Cup after I discovered menstrual cups and had a bit of an epiphany around periods; how I felt about them and the taboos that society places on menstruating people (Yes, I said “people” not “women” – not all menstruators are women) along with the sustainability issues that go with the level of waste our 'traditional' period management products of the last century have caused.
Describe your unique business attributes: We were the first in NZ to start the 'buy one donate one' menstrual cup for period poverty initiative. Initially I did this with a menstrual cup that I imported specifically for this purpose, then switched to using our own brand. I spent a lot of time fostering relationships with community partners who gave cups with support and education. To date we have gifted over 8000 cups to NZ organisations and crafted a range of free instructional videos to tackle menstrual education for ages 10+.
I started selling menstrual cups to tackle the issues of sustainability and long-term affordability of menstrual options but felt that the overseas options didn't meet all the issues I wanted to tackle so I started down the R&D path and, well, 3 years after launching the very first NZ Made menstrual cup, ours is still the only one made in NZ from medical grade silicone.
But, I realised that despite huge numbers of people now doing similar buy-one/give-one schemes, no-one actually gave the option of choice to the recipient. After discussion with one of my community partners we formed The Good Fund to offer these choices to women and menstruating people. To offer anonymity of asking for help online.
How do you do business more consciously? I try to be an ethical employer. I employ parents with young children and we’ve worked hard to ensure that our business operates during school hours with close-down over Christmas holidays so my team can be with their families when it counts the most to them. I also consciously try to work with contractors and businesses that are small and local. Sustainability isn’t just environmental waste management, it’s local solutions and workforce – small things all add up.
The only criteria to applicants is that they menstruate. There is no financial criteria. Applicants just have to ask. This means that no part of society is omitted.
We work with people to find their best solution – that might mean that my own brand is not right for them. I’ve got to work this way because to do otherwise is, in my opinion, not ethical. We’ve got to factor in that every single person is unique and they have their own circumstances that mean their solution is right for them. I wish a menstrual cup could work for everyone, they completely changed my life, but there are so many reasons (age, religion, non-binary/gender diverse, sexual abuse for example) that they 44
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How have you found doing business this way? The community I’ve surrounded myself with are incredible. The businesses and the people I get to work with regularly are very supportive and I know they’ve got my back. The period (products/education) industry itself can feel very ego-centric and quite political at times, almost as if it’s less about coming up with a solution and more about being the person to come up with the solution. It’s not that simple though, there is no 'one-size fits all' box or we would have nailed that long ago. I have felt ostracised at times because I continue to stand-up for what I believe in and that’s not always popular. But times are changing and we’ve had some really great wins lately which are heartening.
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Period poverty is quite a divisive topic but it is real and despite what many think, it has a wider implication and cost than a $2.00 pack of disposable pads or tampons. How can people help towards period poverty and sustainable period practices? Educate themselves. Whether you menstruate or not, there is a cost to everyone in disposable products. Long-term we’re talking 39.5kgs per person that menstruates, going into landfill. That’s however many tonnes and someone has to absorb that cost – landfill levies are set to increase because we’re so wasteful as a nation. Switching to sustainable solutions (period underwear, cloth pads, menstrual cups) is a no-brainer if you’ve got the ability to do so. It’s harder for those without access to sanitary conditions to use a menstrual cup, but cloth pads and period underwear can bridge that gap in many cases. Find out more on their facebook: www.mycup.co.nz
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Conscious Business
With Guest The Menstrual Movement Questions answered by: Keela McBride, Owner and Director The Menstrual Movement is an informative and accessible online platform to help empower, educate and support people about menstruation. Here you can purchase sustainable menstrual products, learn how to care for them, to make your own pads and support us in our charitable efforts to decrease period poverty with our 'Menstrual Movement Initiative.' After personally not being able to use tampons and reacting negatively to many disposable pads, my options were very limited and I looked around for affordable cloth pads but couldn't find any; my only option at that time was organic disposable pads. However from this search emerged the initial product range for The Menstrual Movement which has evolved over the years and now even has DIY pattern options to make your own affordable cloth pads! I have always done business in an ethical, eco-conscious and heart centered way and for many years I was that 'crazy hippy lady' selling sustainable menstrual products; in 2006 there weren't many others doing this but now the market has become saturated which has created other challenges - however my focus continues to be on empowering, educating and supporting people in their search for the perfect sustainable menstrual product and removing the stigma around periods and I have grown and adapted - I now have an online store selling many menstrual product options: period underwear, menstrual cups and reusable pads; as well as presenting a wide range of information; and I travel around NZ introducing the products in person at shows. When I started out, I donated menstrual pads here and there to customers or people in need; this has grown over the years and I now work with a Kiwi doctor living in Zambia to provide period kits for women there (and in NZ) as part of our Menstrual Movement Initiative of which a portion of my sales helps with the purchase of supplies to enable me to make and supply the kits to those in need around NZ and in Zambia. 46
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In 2020 I hope to travel more and provide education, support and kits to remote communities. Education is very important so by having schools on board and getting behind this community project we can help more people together. The Menstrual Movement Initiative This was created to enable us to help people in need by supplying re-usable menstrual pad kits. We donate our menstrual pad kits to contacts and organizations in Africa and New Zealand ensuring they reach those that need them the most. These kits are essential for those that do not have access to sanitary products not only in third world countries like Africa but right here in New Zealand too with a Kids Can survey finding that 1 in 5 Kiwi women either missed school or work due to not having sanitary products. This is a 100% volunteer run initiative which is funded by a percentage of our website sales and through kind donations. However I have been funding these kits myself for many years and the demand now far exceeds my ability to financially and physically supply these. To fully fund a kit it costs us approximately: $25 Basic Pad Kit (includes pads and bag) $40 Complete Pad Kit (includes pads, soap, underwear, wash cloth, bag) These kits provide one 'menstruator' enough washable sanitary pads for full time use and will last approx 3 years. We use donated money for: fabric, underwear, laundry soap and personal soaps, washcloths, waterproof bags, more cutting, running costs, sewing machines and sewing supplies. Our mission is to empower, educate and support menstruating humans around the globe. Working together to remove the stigma around periods and create a period positive movement. To do this we need your support so we can continue supplying pads kits and to continue to support those in the community also doing amazing work in the fight against period poverty around New Zealand and the globe.
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How You Can Help Product Purchases: from our website www.themenstrualmovement.co.nz or our other website www.enhancedhealthnz.co.nz as we donate up to 20% of the profits (depending on the product) towards purchasing pads, fabric supplies, postage and running costs. Financial Donations: directly to us or via our Givealittle page: www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/ the-menstrual-movement Fabric Donations: We need donations of 100% cotton fabrics. You can purchase nice fabrics from fabric stores or perhaps you have a cupboard of quilting or sewing fabrics that you won't get around to sewing. We also need 100% brushed cotton flannel fabrics in plains or prints. You may have old flannel sheets, we can also use these for the pad inner. *While we can use most fabric prints we do need to be culturally sensitive and age appropriate. If you are looking at purchasing fabrics to send to us please contact use first and we can provide links to which fabrics/colors we are needing. Underwear: Brand new underwear is a huge help as pads can not be used without underwear. We will accept donations of unused new underwear in all sizes and preferably 100% cotton. Synthetic underwear doesn't work well with the pads. Sizes 10-14 girls and 8-18 women's are needed. Boyleg and bikini styles are best. Additional Items: Other items we need donated for our pad kits are the following items in new and unused condition: Sunlight soap, Personal
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soap, Soap cases (needed for our kits for Africa, Fiji and Nepal), Flannel wash cloths, Deodorant, Lip Balm. * We are a sustainable eco conscious business and are trying to encourage plastic free options and where possible and would like to try and make our kits with eco conscious products. However we have a huge demand and will still accept any donations of the above products. Volunteer: No matter where you are in NZ you can sew pads and send to us to distribute. To find out more about our volunteer program check out our details here. Make sure you fill out our sign up form on the volunteer page so we can get in touch. Puchase a Pad Pack or Donate: Are you time poor but would still like to help? You can make a donation via our donate now tab for any amount you might like or you can choose to buy a pad kit which will provide one person enough menstrual products to last them at least 3 years. You will be able to choose from the current projects we are supporting and select where you would like the period kit to be donated too. Share The Love: Share, share and share!! if you know of a school, organization or community group that are in need of pads please let them know. Get your friends and family on board and join our volunteer program. Spread awareness that period poverty exists not only in third world countries but in NZ too. Together we can make a difference! Find out more on their website: www.themenstrualmovement.co.nz
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Conscious Community With The Good Fund Tell us a little bit about who you are: The Good Fund is a not for profit social enterprise, set up to help menstruating people affected by period poverty. That's the official description. But who we are, is two Kiwi women, mums, bleeders, who through different paths became aware of the very real issue of period Poverty in Aotearoa and wanted to do something about it. Period poverty? What is that? Period poverty is the phrase we use to describe the situation where the ongoing costs of tampons and pads are unattainable for a person. There is this idea out there that a period is a nice tidy 5 day event that 2 x $2 box of tampons will manage - but we know that's not the case. Many people who contact us are bleeding for well over 7 days. They are bleeding heavily. They soak through pads and tampons in a matter of hours, and they;re spending a heck of a lot of money every month. For many, some months it's just not possible to find the funds, so they use newspaper, toilet paper, their babies nappies, socks, rags, towels - anything they have at hand to manage their bleeding. We hear from students missing out on school, from women having to take time of work and from stay at home mums who literally do not leave the house. The stories we get from those needing help are raw and heartfelt. Often we are the first people they have opened up to about the struggles they face. How do you help? In simple terms, we fund the cost of reusable period products. The idea came about from our co-founder Kimberli, who in 2017 launched the first ever NZ made menstrual cup, and alongside it, launched the first ever NZ based 'buy one gift one' menstrual cup initiative. She knew this problem existed before it became so widely seen in media. Then, in 2018, Emily joined as a MyCup community partner, to help distribute cups, alongside one on one education, to those in need in the Waikato. To date - the buy one gift one initiative that 48
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Kimberli runs, has give more than 8,000 menstrual cups to communities NZ wide. However, we know that menstrual cups are not for all bodies, and we deserve choice in how we manage our period. That choice has been missing. Often, those struggling to afford menstrual products have limited options for help. They can get help with tampons and pads from various organisations, but that help is short term, and having to ask over and over month after month, that's crushing. We wanted to give choice, and empower people to manager their period sustainable for longer than just one month. We also wanted to help the planet. People don't realise the environmental impact of menstrual priducts, During a lifetime a person will throw away close to 12,000 menstrual items into landfill. By replacing this with a reusable option, we're helping Mother Earth, as well as the people who live on her. How does The Good Fund help? People apply online, and we respond with three options for help. Anyone can apply. It is not our place to judge anyone's situation or need. If people apply for our help, we offer it. We have three levels of help: #1 - We offer a 50% rebate on any one of 14 period packs. The packs range in price from $40 - $70 and offer menstrual cups cloth pads and period underwear for adults and children. #2 - We also offer WINZ quotes. #3 - We offer fully funded packs for those who need full support. The packs are sent each month, and we generally send anywhere from 60 - 100 packs a month. Tell us a bit about the products you offer: It was important to us, that we offered quality products AND the support and education to go alongside it. There is a misconception that 'all
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menstrual cups are the same' and that any cup will fit any body, and this is simply not true. You cannot be sure that a 50c cup from an online store has been made with quality materials, in an ethical way. We help guide people towards the right product for their body (menstrual cups come in different shapes and size for teens, adults, high or low cervix, prolapse, etc.) and we ensure the product given is of quality. The menstrual cups we gift are made right there in New Zealand, the period underwear come from two incredible Australian brands that support this work, and the cloth pads - well, they actually come form a range of suppliers so we can cater for different flows. Where does the product come from? MyCup NZ donate menstrual cups to The Good Fund, but everything else we buy in at wholesale. We spend anywhere form $3000 - $4000 a month on helping people access these products and all the money we use to do this, is either donated, or we have raised through our annual Fill-a-Bag fundraisers.
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How can you help? The biggest step, is to talk about periods! Let's make them a normal part of conversation. It is only by breaking down the barriers around these topics, that people will feel comfortable to then reach out and seek help. Periods are a natural function for around half the population and we need to have open and educational conversations around them. Make the change yourself to a resuable period product! And of course you can donate to us via our website - every cent donated helps. Find out more on their website: www.thegoodfund.co.nz
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Consciously Creative With Guest Helen Kelly My name is Helen Kelly, I'm 31, married and a mother of three boys. I'm the creator/sewist behind EzyBabe; my small business I run from home. We've been in Nelson for 5 and a bit years now.. I was born and raised in West Auckland and as I have grown have moved steadily southwards. We love Nelson - everyone is so kind and friendly and it's a great place to raise our three boys. I've always been creative in some way. Writing, drawing and my mum taught me from a young age the skills of sewing, embroidery, crochet and we attempted knitting but that didn't work out too well! As I got older and had children time for creativity sort of fell by the wayside a bit. I truly got back into sewing after I had our third child Ezra. He had an emergency birth and it was pretty traumatic with a stay in Wellington NICU and Nelson SCBU. Sewing became a way for me to de-stress and relax a bit. I started off sewing baby things like bibs and blankets and it grew from there into what it is today. My biggest passion is in reuseable products, particularly reuseable menstrual cloth, breast feeding pads and also cloth nappies - EzyBabe was born from this. I've since discovered an addiction for fabric... I see a piece and I just know it needs to be made into pads or nappies or whatever! The fabric calls me! What is your earliest creative memory? It's hard to recall my earliest memory of creating... but I have lots of precious memories from growing up with my very creative mum. I remember watching her make things. She used to do all sorts - painting shirts, making toy boxes and cushions, knitting and embroidery. When I was old enough she started to teach me.
stitch pieces during my recovery time and I still have some of them! What inspires you and your creativity? Ezra and also my mum, who was diagnosed with dementia 5 years ago, are the inspiration behind why I do what I do - My inspiration in life are my family. My kids. Particularly Ezra and these days also my Mum. Though she no longer creates due to her dementia I feel like me creating is for her. She still likes to see what I'm making so it's nice to be able to share a bit of that with her. I continue to strive to make EzyBabe a working business so I can be home for my children whilst also contributing to the household (and keeping my sanity!). My focus on reuseable products comes from wanting my children to have a better future than what they are facing if we don't make changes to the way we live now. I want to raise awareness of these issues whilst also providing solutions and making the items affordable and fun. My creativity also comes from wanting to constantly challenge myself. I like teaching myself new techniques; seeing what I can achieve with my own hands and also knowing that what I make gives other people happiness is a wonderful thing. Tips for others finding their creative path: My advice for anybody is to follow your dreams. Even if it seems impossible. Do what you love. Don't give up, it will happen. Would you like to add anything else? I have not much else to say except I truly love what I do and am so very grateful for the support I receive from my customers Find out more on her Facebook: www.facebook.com/EzyBabeBabiesGoods
I can vividly remember being 10 and I had just had double foot surgery so was off school and incredibly bored. I must have sewn 3 or 4 cross
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Empowering Women
By Amanda Sears & Keela Mcbride PERIOD MANAGEMENT For those who menstruate, whatever 'sex/gender' you identify with, it doesn't matter - you bleed monthly or every so often and you are amazing and you deserve the right menstruation management for your individual needs. Let's look at what options are available... Period Products Whether you use disposable or reusable options to manage your menstruation there are plenty of products available to suit your requirements. Disposable These are great if you need something quick and on the go or if you don't have access to hygienic and clean water facilities for reusables. There are a huge range of pads and tampons out there and choosing the right one for you comes down to preference, needs and personal comfort: wings, no wings, applicator, flow, liner, ultrathin, organic, sleep, maternity, etc. Try to dispose of these in the most sustainable way and follow the instructions for use. Reusable There are a number of great reusable period products on the market now such as: menstrual cups, cloth pads and period underwear. It is important to take into consideration your budget, lifestyle and your preference of either internal or external period products. With your reusable menstrual products you have the upfront and higher cost outlay, however this cost pays for itself within 2-6 months. Period underwear are a higher cost and you will need approx. 6 pairs depending on your flow and length of your cycle. 6 pairs will cost from $102 to approximately $240 and have a life span of approx. 2-2.5 years depending on the brand. Menstrual cloth pads again depending on your flow and length of your cycle you will need anywhere from 8 pads upwards. We usually recom52
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mend a set of 1 x night time, 2 x heavy, 4 x moderate and 4 x light pads. Depending on the brand you are looking at approximately $100 upwards for a starter set of pads for full time use which will last from 3 years upwards (I have customers which have had theirs for 9 years now). Menstrual cups have come down in price over the years. A good quality cup will start at around $20 to $65. I do caution you to be weary as there is a lot of food grade silicon cups on the market; it is important to make sure you buy from a reputable source and buy a cup that is medical grade silicon or TPE. The cheaper cups are often soft and are harder to open out, often causing leaks and a not good experience for the user. When used correctly reusable period products offer a hygienic option to disposables. Always thoroughly wash your hands before inserting and removing menstrual cups and ensure thorough washing in between use and sterilizing regularly. For more information about products, use, cleaning, etc visit The Menstrual Movement website: www.themenstrualmovement.co.nz Make Your Own Reusable Pad You can easily find information and pad patterns online and get inspired to make your own reusable options. These could even become almost a fashion statement with the choices of material available! (Even though you are likely to be the only person who sees them!) The Menstrual Movement is planning on having some downloadable patterns available on their website (here) later in 2020, but in the mean time have a look online and start getting creative! The options are endless! Help to Reduce Period Poverty - Talk about periods openly and freely - Get educated and help educate others - Fund or donate to charitable groups who help this cause in your country or around the world - Get empowered with your own cycle - Hold no judgement for how other people manage their flow as individual needs vary
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Waste Free Period Pack
from My Cup NZ Win a Waste Free Period pack valued at over $70.00 thanks to My Cup NZ! Pack Includes: 1 MyCup Menstrual Cup 1 MyCup Menstrual Cup Wash 2 x Charlie Banana Menstrual Pads 1 x Cotton Bag
ENTER HERE (If Online)
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Period Repair Manual
WIN!
ENTER HERE (If Online)
www.theinspiredguide.nz/competitions
by Lara Briden ND
Written by a naturopathic doctor this is your guide to better periods using natural treatments such as diet, nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, and bioidentical hormones. It contains advice and tips for women of every age and situation. If you have a period (or want a period), then this book is for you. Topics include: How to come off hormonal birth control, What your period should be like, What can go wrong, How to talk to your doctor, and Treatment protocols for all common period problems. THE DIVINE FEMININE FEATURE
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Conscious Events Q&A With Guest Lea Boodee INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY What is a conscious event & is it a good idea? A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event is an event that has a positive change in the community and the world by balancing fiscal, social, environmental and employer responsibilities. The positive impact of CSR is not just on the local community, it is inspiring to see people working together and building a camaraderie by giving their time and resources to a meaningful cause. In short - it feels good to do good! Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose and with millennials predicted by Statista to account for 35 per cent of the global workforce by 2020 and Generation Z rapidly gaining buying power. The 2017 Millennial Impact Report reveals millennials are only growing more invested in corporate philanthropy and social improvement. The workforce and consumer market are quickly being populated by history's most socially responsible demographics and it's vital businesses adapt to their demands. How can events be more conscious? There are many ways you can embed CSR initiatives into your next event; from simple activities such as choosing to make a donation on behalf of your attendees, use suppliers from an ethical supply chain, offer a group volunteer roles etc. Using a couple of examples from previous events you have managed please share some sustainability/conscious problems and their solutions: MarchFest & The NZ Cider Festival - To reduce waste we use bio-degradable tokens instead of plastic ones and ensure all food carts use sustainable packaging. - To support local community projects, we offer volunteer groups the opportunity to fundraise at our events. This is also a great team building experience. 54
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Nelson Parent Child Expo – To further support local charities we donated all door ticket proceeds to Helping Families Nelson. Conferences & Corporate Events - To help cut greenhouse gases we encourage conference clients to provide at least one plant based conference meal. “The results show that offering low-impact menus for 500 attendees can save five acres of habitat from animal agriculture, avoid greenhouse emissions equivalent to those created by driving a car 22,000 miles, prevent 17 tons of manure pollution, and conserve nearly 100,000 gallons of water from irrigation and food processing”. – To recycle the supply of excess delegate satchels we participate in the “Satchels for School Project” where satchels are gifted to schools in low income countries for use as school bags. - In an attempt to make conferences as sustainable as possible, we offer attendees the opportunity to offset their travel-related carbon emissions by planting a tree at a local coastal reserve. - For the 2019 NZ Marine Sciences Society Conference we partnered with the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust (YEPT), a conservation charity based in Dunedin, whose principal aim is to protect our endemic yellow-eyed penguins | hoiho and their habitat. YEPT has its own nursery, established in 1988, which propagates native trees and shrubs sourced from local seed. These are planted in suitable habitat to provide shelter and nesting sites required by penguins. A donation of $10 allowed for the propagation of a tree in the nursery, planting in a YEPT reserve, and maintenance to ensure that the plantings thrive. The donations soaked up carbon dioxide and helped to restore the healthy coastal habitat that endangered yellow-eyed penguins rely on. - There is often a lot of food waste at Conferences; to solve this issue we work with venues and food rescue charities, such as Kiwiharvest. org.nz who will collect surplus food and deliver it to those who need it most.
8 Steps to launching a sustainable CSR Programme: 1. Define corporate social responsibility 2. Build your strategy around your company’s core competencies 3. Recognise issues that matter to your customers 4. Understand the benefits to your organisation 5. Develop CSR initiatives that make your employees proud 6. Establish your baseline and your long-term vision 7. Explore unique opportunities relevant to your mission and event 8. Create metrics to measure your programmes impact and return on investment of your CSR efforts There are many other CSR strategies which can be weaved into events and corporates... Once you’ve built sustainability into your company or event vision and set the metrics and benchmarks, it’s all about keeping it going. Just as your company/event changes, so too do all the external factors, so it’s crucial you keep evaluating and finding new ways to become more sustainable. "There is nothing more important than the future impacts of the decisions we make today." - Peter Drucker Lea Boodee Director of On-Cue Conferences and Co-Director of Nelson Venues & Events www.on-cue.co.nz
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Conscious Living 2020 With Guest Cassandra Hogan STRONG FOUNDATIONS FOR HEADING INTO 2020
Your Time is a Priority Everyone has the same number of hours in the day, the success lies in how we use them.
The beginning of a new year (and new decade!) is a perfect time for self-reflection, assessing your goals and where you want to be, then making a solid plan of action to make it your best year yet!
Time management provides the foundation for everything you do. For some people it is the difference between living an enjoyable, amazing life to simply existing in a disorganized, hectic environment.
Having a plan for yourself, and what you wish to achieve provides direction, purpose and a sense of accomplishment, all contributing to a rewarding and amazing life. Here are a few tips to help you on your journey to become the best version of yourself for the new year: Goal Setting Setting your goals helps to prioritize what is important in your life. It positively impacts your wellbeing, knowing that you are on the right track for where you want to be heading. When goal setting, the three most important steps are to figure out your what, when and why. What: Be clear on exactly what you want to achieve. Being specific helps to keep you motivated. When: Set your goals over different time periods. Have a plan for your goals that you wish to achieve in six weeks, six months to one year, and five to ten years. Why: Why is this goal important to you? Is it for personal or material reasons? Looking at your ‘why’ will be your motivation, your passion and it will make you excited to smash your goals!
The key is to become aware of how you spend your time. How much time do you really spend scrolling your social media, watching TV or procrastinating? Once you are conscious of your time, identify how you would like to spend it, make a plan at the beginning of the week and try to stick to it as best as you can so that you can keep working towards achieving your goals! A Balanced Life Most people strive for a life where everything is balanced. Where everything feels in perfect equilibrium and you are filled with calmness, satisfaction and joy. Who wouldn’t want that right?! To achieve your balanced life, the most important tip is to put yourself first. When goal setting, make sure you have your personal goals well covered (not just work, family…). For time management, block out time for yourself, for your personal goals and for relaxation. It’s important to do this so that we can recharge from the ever-demanding world we live in. By looking after ourselves first, we fill our cup. We have more energy, more calmness and more patience to deal with the other areas in our life.
Express your goals in present tense, as if they are happening already. This is amazing for your mindset and act as positive affirmations.
We have more to give to the people around us and you’ll find your world will become more enjoyable on a day to day basis.
Over the year, keep your goals in sight and review them often. Life is always changing and therefore your goals may change, or you may need to tweak them, so they stay relevant.
Make yourself a priority!
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You’ve got this!
Using these simple tips will give you a great start heading into 2020 and to make this your best year yet! Goal setting, time management and aiming to live a balanced life as best as you can, will provide you with your purpose, motivation and empowerment to love your life. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to an amazing year of balance, prioritization and smashing your goals! Cassandra Hogan Fontein Coaching www.fonteincoaching.co.nz
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Conscious Living 2020 With Guest Masha Ellman START 2020 WITH POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS
carrying around with us, most likely since childhood, and begin to affirm something new and awesome for ourselves.
How good would it feel if we knew that we could have calm, joy, confidence, greater health, prosperity, abundance…whatever we can imagine for ourselves, in every area of our life. How would that change the way we live every day?
We are limitless beings, with endless possibilities in front of us.
Yup I know – life would be amazing! Well you know what? We can, and positive affirmations are the magical key that opens the door to the path of change. Affirmations are love notes we give to ourselves. We’re already doing it all the time but we’re not conscious of it. We fill ourselves with negative self-talk that puts us down and disempowers us - I can’t do that. I’m not creative. I’ll never meet anyone. I’m not lucky. I'd rather have health than money. I’m so stupid - These are all affirmations, declarations of who we are and what we want. With every word we’re telling the Universe this is who I am and this is what I want, and the Universe who loves us, supports everything we declare for ourselves and gives us exactly that. So, if we want to create change in our life, we need to become conscious of the thoughts we nourish ourselves with, filling ourselves with positive loving self-talk that will heal us, elevate and empower us to live our best and highest life - I am healthy. Money flows to me easily and magically. I open my heart to love. I am worthy… The secret to affirmations is that the more we feel and believe in what we’re saying the greater and the more powerful our words become. We cannot say “My heart is open to love” but underneath feel that “I’m just not lucky in that department”, and then expect love. We cannot say “I love money” but really feel afraid of money because we’re holding on to the belief that “money is evil”, and then expect money to come to us. We need to peel away the old beliefs we’ve been
Positive - good for you - affirmations can up-level our mindset, fill us with love, elevate our consciousness, change the frequency of our vibration… Positive - good for you – affirmations are the magic to living a joy filled, sweeter life. This is not to say that we can sit on our bed, say an affirmation and voila, a million dollars falls down on us, we still need to do our part in all of this. Our life is up to us, it unfolds into exactly what we believe it to be; it may not happen overnight, but with dedication and commitment to our self, focusing daily on thoughts that make us feel good, life has no choice but to meet us at that level. An online search will bring up loads of affirmations, but here are a few to start with: ♥ I am worthy of all that I desire. I lack nothing; all my needs are fulfilled. ♥ I am learning and improving more every day. I am blessed, my life is blessed. ♥ I am open to new possibilities. I am happy. ♥ I am open to receive miracles. My body is functioning in perfect order for me. ♥ I now have the perfect job. I love my life. The energy of 2020 is magnetic; not only is it a New Year but a new decade and I can’t think of anything better than to start with positive affirmations and making this the year of – YOU!!! Happy New Year! Masha Ellman www.mashaellman.com Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Divine Guidance With Michelle Cotton BOUNDARIES
Boundaries are more than just your fenced section; they exist energetically as well. It is one of the most overlooked topics; they effect everything around you and are your first introduction to others, either inviting people in or pushing people away. They create your space on an unconscious level. Those that have been doing spiritual work often surround themselves in a bubble of white light for protection energetically.
and we exist without truly living. Take time to reflect on your life lessons and hardships, see where you have grown and gained strength, be kind to yourself and those in similar situations; offer support and friendship to help others in these situations when you recognize them. Help them find their own path again, don’t jump into their life and take over, just support their needs to help them regain ther footing - be the light in the dark tunnel.
Your life is created through the energy field surrounding you so when you have no boundaries towards others you generally have no boundaries for yourself, and are opening yourself up to all wanted energies along with the energy you don’t want. The thoughts you think, speak and feel are what you are projecting out to the world; it’s determining your experiences, it surrounds you in an energetic field called an aura.
So many people get lost at some point during their life, and learning about our energetic boundaries and the effect they have on others and ourselves is important. Being able to have the awareness of other people’s boundaries and to have respect to not invade their space, but to be conscious of the energy they are presenting so you can assist when required or leave them alone when that is the energy presented.
If you have respect for others and self-respect you have an energy field surrounding you with a beautiful glow, it attracts towards you the matching vibration. The flip side of this is if you have no self-respect, no self-love, you often find you are the victim of others, its almost like having a target on your back. Learn to be respectful to others, be respectful to the earth and yourself, then your energetic boundaries will emanate the positive glow attracting back to you the match of your energy.
Start to take notice of the energetic sense around people. When you feel emotional, it's good to be in a safe space to allow yourself to process what is going on for you and not have to concern yourself about others' energies and being vulnerable. When we are around others with strong energy fields and we don’t have our own energy space in balance, we pick up other peoples energy; sometime this can be headaches, anger, sadness and many other energies that you absorb when your energy bubble is not in place.
Your life on earth is to enjoy and learn from the experiences you have. Make your energy a positive vibration by choosing to live in love and find the joy and beauty in every day, even when you have a tough time finding the truth behind the experience as this is the times we have the most growth and get through the hard times without getting stuck in the drama of it.
Think of your energetic boundary as a bubble made of silver, gold or which ever colour you prefer; see it surrounding you, protecting you. If you visualize this every day you will have your energetic field in a good strong place to help you from losing your energy or picking up others' energy.
You always have guardians surrounding you to assist you on the energetic level, ask them to help you. When you struggle ask them to assist you to be strong and have faith in yourself to know that you will get through these life challenges. Many times while in the middle of life’s challenges we get stuck, our boundaries drop
Find knowledge and joy in experimenting with your energetic boundaries; they expand and contract depending on your mindset. The bubble is a boundary surrounding your aura. Divine Guidance through Michelle Cotton Pure Vibration Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Spiritual Guidance With Renae Bailey ARE YOU CONSCIOUSLY CREATING YOUR LIFE? At this time of the year we are generally reflecting on the previous year with a view to moving forward. Did we achieve all that we set out to achieve? If we did, we can feel proud! If we didn’t, how can we set things up differently to ensure success for the following year? One answer is fairly simple Conscious choices and conscious creation. Every moment of everyday, we are faced with choices. The secret is to make the choices conscious and choose the options that make our heart sing. Even the choice to spend a day in bed can bring joy if we are choosing to honour our need for rest. Staying in bed to avoid making decisions, however, allows us to spend the day coming up with a long list of things we “should” be doing instead, bringing guilt and shame from our choices, not the rest and recuperation we thought we would get. Taking control of our life by taking control of our choices - making conscious choices - is one of the most empowering things we can do for ourselves. Discern in your heart, and really feel into what is the best choice in the moment for you. Once we have chosen which goal or dream to focus on, the next choices become clear. Simply by bringing our awareness to whether the option we are considering, is moving us closer or further away from our dreams. Bringing clarity to what we want to create in our lives can be achieved through the process of Conscious Creation. There are 5 steps to this: 1. Vision - First we need to get clear on what we want to create in our life. What do we truly desire? Travel? A new job? Something else entirely? It is best to sit quietly, tuning in to our hearts, and asking “What do I want in my life?” Going as deep as we can, bypassing the more superficial wants such as being successful or rich, and really defining our vision, going into the details of what 62
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we are wanting to create. What would being successful mean for us in our life, how would we define that - more time with family or more travel opportunities, as examples. Using our discernment and really feeling into whether this is the most beneficial life we can create, adjusting the vision as necessary. Exploring how it feels. Really cementing the feeling of this vision within ourselves. 2. Witnessed - Our vision then needs to be witnessed, so we need to share it with those closest to us. When a vision is shared, energy is added. There may be some who do not support the vision, they may tell us it will never work, it’s no good etc. The best thing here, is to just walk away from these people. We will find the ones who are truly aligned with us, truly supporting our vision. 3. Action - We need to show the Universe we are serious about creating what we want by taking action towards the achievement of our goals. This provides energy to our creation. We may need to gather information, or do some research, even complete a course or a workshop. Whatever it takes to make a start, we need to do it. 4. Determination - This is a very important step. We need to stay the course, and not give up. We need to remain in our hearts, continually discerning the best course of action to take in order to move toward our vision. If things begin to feel blocked, or the pathway is not opening as smoothly as we would like, we need to pause and again tune into our hearts. We need to ask ourselves what it is we need to do, what it is we need to learn in this moment. We need to stay open to new insights and ideas as we move forward. 5. Patience - We need to have a little faith and trust the process! Just as we order dinner in a restaurant and trust we will receive what we ordered, we need to create our vision and trust it will arrive (we don’t go and harass the chef do we?). We may desire to be at the end goal “right now”, but we need to remember that experts do not become experts overnight. Some things take
longer to come to fruition, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ok. Creating our ideal life takes time also. As long as we are holding our vision, and trusting the process, all will work out as it is meant to. I wish you a time of joyful creation! I wish to acknowledge my good friend James Thomas of The Awakening Network for the inspiration for this article. Renae Bailey Healing with Renae
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Living a Spiritual Life With Rachel Grace ENERGY PART 2 - PRACTICAL PRACTICES FOR ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Continuing from the last article on the 'Introduction into Spiritual Energy' I thought I would share with you some practical practices for energy management that you are able to do to clear, stabilise and protect your own energetic field and spaces. We spend most of our time, in this lifetime, at work and most of us are in very toxic workplaces or surrounded by a working team that are all about personal and financial gain. There is always that one person at work that doesn’t feel right to you and it can be expressed through the way they move, speak and act; but don’t fear as there are ways to combat this so you too can reach the achieved balanced state. It is important to cleanse yourself after work. If you don’t shower at night then start. You can do something as simple as standing in the shower and imagining the stresses from the day being washed down the drain. Imagine, in a physical sense this darkness leaving your physical self and allowing mother earth to take it away and be grateful for Gaia for this that she does so willingly. Spend some time outside under the sunlight with bare feet on the earth and send the energy down. Another tip that is very important is to always carry some black tourmaline with you. This is a useful crystal that will protect you from negativity, low vibrational energies and theft. Many people place a crystal in their pockets, bras or buy jewellery to wear. With the use of crystals just make sure you cleanse them regularly.. A useful exercise is to imagine with every word that you speak a white colour is projected out of you for positive and a black colour for negative. With every word you are filling the room with white or black. What colour would your room be? Enjoy the rooms filled with white positive energy. Allow it to fill you up and continue on with your day but also be mindful that this happiness has been gifted to you from another; know that its
energy wasn’t yours to begin with and isn’t yours to hold, it belongs to the owner. Take a minute to close your eyes, thank them for sharing their positive experience and the beautiful effects it had on you but return it to them so they are filled back up with their own energy. The negative energy is the one that needs the most work. Again, you can practice the meditative exercise of sending the energy back to who sent it to you. In my personal practice, every night before I sleep, I package it up in my thoughts and put an express label on it with Return to Sender. I always send the energy back to them in the exact form that they projected it onto me. You will find by doing this every night that you will rest more peacefully. The most effective way to clear energy in your spaces is with California White Sage. This potent herb has been used for centuries by Native Americans in rituals of cleansing and healing. It is anti-microbial, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. It’s time to get Smudging! Grab a sage stick from your local metaphysical store and light the end of it, blow the flame out and begin to smoke out each room. There are different ways in which you can perform a clearing. One way is to smoke out each room with all windows closed, walk outside and wait ten minutes then enter and open all the windows and doors to allow the smoke to be released along with the negative energy. Don’t forget to also smudge yourself and pay close attention to your hands, underneath your feet and your back. Smudging your home and sacred spaces will bring the field back to neutral which is the goal. Book yourself in for a healing with an energy healer. They will be able to assist in the removal of the negative energy and re-enforcement of your auric field and make you feel neutral again. There are many other methods to clear energy to get back to the neutral point but to begin with try these trusted methods first and begin to become energy aware. Rachel Grace Rachel Grace Showroom & Academy Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Walking Your Path With Guest James Thomas MOVING FORWARD INTO 2020 & A NEW DECADE
Recently I’ve been reminded that each decade is unique and there are aspects of the decade that are synonymous with that decade. 100 years ago, the 1920’s was known as the “Roaring 20s” and although a really great decade, it ended badly with the stock market crash that created the Great Depression. I have a feeling that the 2020’s will probably end somewhat better... Today though, for myself, this is an opportunity for those known as Starseeds to take things to levels that they haven’t done before. There has been a massive awakening occurring for many years now and there are many different truths to choose from. What do you choose in order to truly move forward on your path? This is a question of vital importance, for you see, each of our goals is the same; we want to make sure that we do what we have come here to do. As Starseeds, we have chosen to come here, or as the old saying goes, 'volunteered' to come; but with Starseeds from so many different places (even though here for the same reason) they each have their own 'truths'; their own ways of doing things and what works best for them. So, how do we ensure that we are doing the right things for us? For the reasons why we are incarnated here and to ensure that we have the experiences that we need for us? The key components in this comes down to a few things. There are 5 keys to living the spiritual life that you need to: Key 1 - Trust and faith in yourself, for yourself Key 2 - Trust and faith in Spirit Key 3 - Follow your heart and guidance Key 4 - Trust your intuition or 'gut instinct' Key 5 - Discernment Discernment is Key 5 because it is the lynchpin for our incarnation. 66
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Does something resonate within? I see so many Starseeds and people walking spiritual paths that blindly accept what someone says because they have published a book, they are famous, they say the right words and phrases or they call themselves and convince people that they are 'experts'... Before I learned how to channel, when I went to my very first public channeling session, in March 1989, I learned a very valuable lesson. The being that was channeled went by the name of Rajni. Although I couldn’t tell you anything about the message he brought through, I have always remembered what he first said; and I’m paraphrasing: “I am here to speak my truth to each of you. That is my job; to speak my truth from the depths of my heart. Your job is to discern the information that I provide to you. If it resonates within your heart, explore it, experience it and see where it leads you. If it doesn’t resonate, then put it on a shelf or throw it away. Do not judge or criticise it - if you require it later on, it will come back around.” This was the information that has influenced my entire journey on this spiritual path of over 30 years. So, as we are coming to the end of not only a year, but a decade... a completion of sorts. Moving into 2020, we not only move into a new year, but a new decade filled with unknown wonders and amazing things; but it will also be filled with challenges, loss and contemplation. If you truly want to walk the path that is in front of you, then stop blindly accepting what anyone says as truth. Stop blindly giving your power away. There are those out there demanding that you do things according to their truth and according to their views. When this happens, walk away. Remember that if you are a Starseed on this planet, you are already an Ascended Master.
When you stop giving your power away, thinking that is the way to be accepted, sooner or later, you will discover those individuals that do resonate within you and will walk with you. Make 2020 the best it can be for you. Walk your path from your heart, trust yourself and above all discern. If you do that, 2020 will be the start of complete knowingness that you are walking the path that you are here to walk. Make 2020 the start of the most amazing decade of your incarnation. James Thomas The Awakening Network and BlueStar Spiritual www.bluestarspiritual.org
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Cosmic Guide
With Guest Awakened & Empowered Expo CELLULAR REORGANIZATION AND DEPROGRAMMING - PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION AND NON-PHYSICAL INFORMATION Under a human microscope, our bodies show a million cells, pulsating and vibrating at the speed of light. These cells are intelligent; they hold matter and are conscious. We are the keeper of these magnificent beings that, while separate of each other, are also united in a similar intention – to keep our bodies functioning at the highest potential and best accommodate our soul’s journey. But what if along the way, our disconnection from these loving beings resulted in a misunderstanding of how they were meant to function? Have we lost communication with our bodies, or have they simply been programmed away from our soul’s eternal quest for balance and vitality? There are so many humans on the planet right now struggling with disease, exhaustion, symptoms of environmental and personal stress. What do we need to know about these issues, and what is the best way to get our bodies back onto the timeline that our soul most desires? The human cellular structure is fragmented into collective energies. Not unlike the multi-dimensional collectives that exist in the universe, similar intentions draw entities together like a magnet to serve and guide aspects of human existence. Your cellular energy is made up of light. It is designed to channel information in the form of light to support the function of organs, tissues and muscle groups. Light is One Source. To some, it may seem that light is the eternal God, that it looks the same, contains the same information and channels the same energies. Yet light is malleable. This is its greatest strength. Light is designed to be organized, expanded, programmed, colored and directed by a consciousness greater than itself. But what consciousness could be greater than light? 68
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As humans in the 3rd Dimension, your consciousness was always present, yet directed often times through the mind. The God that many associate with in this dimension is a physical one that exists outside of the self. Even nature and universe were often looked at in a singular perception, as opposing forces of a human experience. This concept of an outer God or universe became the basis for programming your cellular light. At the constant quest for a resolution to your pain, disease, heart ache and suffering, the light within your cells began to perceive they were less than intelligent and unable to receive guidance from within. This resulted in a loss of cohesive messaging and cooperative activity in your cellular energy. The unified light is the only consciousness greater than that of a singular cell. This unified light is made up of your soul’s consciousness and all cells forming a one collective for the purpose of expanding itself. Your cells were often programmed to search beyond your internal structure for a physical means to reorganize and shift into balance; when in fact, this was never needed to bring your body into a state of cohesion. Light is the basis of all technological advancement in ancient civilizations. It was understood that light existed in form, but if that light was not honored and cared for, constantly vibrational tuned and communicated with properly, it could operate in ill intention of the whole. This, in fact, has happened through time. Even in ancient Atlantis, beneficial light-based technologies were directed into self-serving intentions and skewed from their original collective purpose. You can look at this as an example of what has happened to the human cellular organism. The energy centers and meridians in your body are a vital part of your cellular light and make up a human technology that is ready to reinstall new programming for the 5th Dimension. Every time your physical body comes in contact with intense solar frequencies, new information in the form of light is adjusting your cellular structure to higher vibrational energy field. This is a part of the ascension timeline and these solar energies
are coming at the exact caliber to continue to reorganize and deprogram your cellular light from past patterns formed by a human existence in a less awakened state. The light within each cell holds valuable, as well as dormant information that must be recycled for a human body to continue its quest for health and longevity. This means that your cells must continue to recycle energy and information at the speed of your consciousness. What we have observed is that a spike in human consciousness has been accomplished that far outweighs the ability of a fragmented cellular energy to keep up. The reason for this is that your cells have been focused in human material. Material energy can shift dimensions. There is no reason that your physical bodies cannot come on the journey with you into the 5th Dimension in a highly supportive and active way. The lag time that you experience, however, is a process that is currently unfolding to yield a more collectively focused cellular energy. Even at the microcosmic cellular level, mass reorganization is taking place. Some cells that were assigned to specific energy collectives based on false premise must now be reassigned based on their original intent. In the same way, many of you are reorganizing your physical lives to focus on a purpose driven intent. Your cells became falsely assigned through your perception of human material, the body and how it must operate and heal. This is what your bodies are working out right now. Even the teachings many of you received in school predisposed you to cellular organization based on gender, race and DNA potentials. You believe that humans are categorized by physical characteristics and this belief carries huge weight in the ability of cellular light to optimize your energetic fields. Light brought into the body is held in the cellular water. This water is programmed by the conscious and subconscious mind. When a collective belief about the body is so prevalent through multiple timelines, adaptations are found in new born humans that mimic these patterns, even before the child is able to form its own separate thoughts.
about your body becomes an intention that is heard and must be responded to by your cellular structure. However, these messages become constantly skewed at the request of your ego and taken away from the most ingenuous intentions. The reason for this is that you focus on the outer appearance of your body, also comparing its energetic function to those humans around you. Your cells only know how to operate within your unique energetic imprint and soul vibration. So if you are attempting to mold your body into something that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t align with this, the cells lose focus and valuable information cannot be exchanged to support what is truly needed for your best personal health. A variety of mixed messages, health protocols, thoughts, beliefs and incoming light has the cellular energy of humans at a stand-still. Where it is meant to continue to vibrate and integrate more light, it has become confused and slowed in its process of activating your energy. To compound this issue, the solar and lunar cycles you are currently immersed in are directed at deprogramming the cells, tissues, muscles and mitochondria from old wounds and patterns that are no longer able to come with you into a higher dimension. How this plays out is through emotional purging. Old wounds and patterns will show up in physical such that they become addressed and directed differently by your consciousness. This is not about healing them so much as perceiving them in a new way and communicating with your body and other humans as a 5th Dimensional being would do.
But further, your intimate relationship with and perceptions of your human body make up a frequency field that must resonate through all cells. Regardless of their assignments, the way you perceive the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s make up, function and overall health are messages imprinted within the water of each cell. Now, these messages are not all bad. Often, what you wish to change Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Old paradigms and programs that exist within your cellular light are being purged and new, crystalline information comes to replace it. But, what you are unwilling to change in your human reality blocks the path to release these old patterns. Cellular reorganization relies upon human interaction, present moment awareness and physical transition as a crystalline bridge to re-patterning. This means that your inability to change direction in areas most prominently uncomfortable on your soul’s journey is keeping your cellular energy in a restrictive pattern, unable to expand with new information and do its best to keep your energy high and available in the physical field. Light is a higher vibrational source of information than human language. It carries a great deal of information on very small energetic waves that must be interpreted and integrated within your cells. Imagine now for a moment, your human planet receiving downloads of light codes at a high rate of speed. This positive information asserting itself within you compounds an already taxed cellular process that is undergone at the request of your highest self. This is why many of you are feeling the lack of energy needed, especially to keep up with physically focused tasks. We have several simple suggestions to help you integrate more light and reprogram years of information no longer relevant to your souls journey. First, it is imperative to understand that it takes far more energetic currency right now to uphold false beliefs and ideals on your planet. This means that every timeline you are no longer in resonance with but attempting to uphold is robbing you of valuable life force energy. This is often because they are dense in nature or no longer match the vibration you have attained. Obvious soul transitions that you are in resistance of are taking up excess currency. Where physical action seems overwhelmingly fearful, simple acceptance of what is frees up energy to manifest a spectrum of solutions. Often, the fear felt in transitioning physical timelines is due to perceiving very narrow outcomes or consequences. If the transition at hand is coming to raise your dimension or timeline potential, any difficulties experienced in the physical actions are only a part of your cellular reorganization. Pain, emotional trauma, discomfort and fear come often as an internal messenger of significant upgrades already underway. And your outer world is only changing to accommodate a future manifestation. If this is true, your 70
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human self has no way of accurately predicting outcomes. Relax in this surrender of control, simply allowing the confirmation and knowing that your outer conditions and ideas reflect a change in vibration. This is all you must do such that physical action may follow in alignment with what your higher self is orchestrating in non-physical. Your physical body is processing a great deal of information. Each of you being unique expressions of consciousness will interpret information differently. Humans have been driven to physical action or spiritual practice when the body is out of alignment to control outcomes and restore balance. There is no one physical or spiritual tool for a collective of unique humans that addresses every single cellular reorganization and deprogramming process. However, the one simple act that can assist you right now is to allow space to integrate the information that the body is processing. Everything is interpreted at the cellular level as information – light, food, communication, human interaction, and even breath. If you are feeling exhaustion in the body, it may simply need more space between these activities to allow information to integrate. Fasting from food, herbs, supplements, other humans, communication, exercise, electronics and even spiritual practice for a short time can give your body the ample space it needs to redirect you to the best processes for its recovery and activation. These fasts need not be long, but offer the support and space the body needs to catch up to everything it is processing. Remember, your cells are a united intelligence that can support any personal or planetary transition if left to its own devices. If you are to relinquish the control you exert over an already taxed cellular structure, you will notice its ability to strengthen energetically, leading you to the sources best served by your unique make-up and vibrational needs. Push back on physical time. Linear time was created by humans in the 3rd Dimension as a reference point for organizing timeline experiences; but it has become one of the most stifling aspects of your body’s ability to shift timelines into a higher dimension. The reason you feel you have less time to accomplish physical tasks isn’t because time is speeding up. It is because the amount of energy it takes to maintain a physical focus feels slower due to your speed of vibration or consciousness. The new grid system on your planet has much to do with this.
Upholding 3rd dimensional timelines in a 5th dimensional consciousness is not unlike a tug of war between actively pushing every manifestation through physical action and relaxing into universal support. Try setting simple intentions each day and letting go of the need to accomplish a great deal in physical. Keep your judgements and ego in line when it comes to evaluating your success in the material or spiritual worlds. When you are in a void or transition between realities, you are always supported by a new influx of new currency. Sometimes this comes in the form of new humans, other times material resource, but the new grid is deliberately moving you into less physical action for results and more physical time for creativity. Take an inventory of your personal schedule and purge activities that are not in alignment with the new human you are becoming. Trust more in the non-physical template that is preparing to ground without as much effort as you are used to in physical. And finally, allow yourselves to be here. You are in the midst of one of the most incredible times on your planet. Think about your life in this way! You decided to be alive on a planet that is moving through the universe into a new location and anchoring a new dimension. Your life is preparing to receive everything you have been working so hard to manifest collectively. Be kind with your physical bodies as they prepare as well, accepting and merging with crystalline light and readying themselves to support you in a new way. As your earth is supporting this transition, look to her for guidance in the form of high vibrational elements and nutrients, but go gently on the quantity and timeframe by which you integrate new information. Ground deeply into her crystalline core for support and ask for guidance on how you can open and surrender more to what is right now. It is an amazing time for humans to be alive as you are deprogramming and reorganizing you cellular structures to become a higher version of yourselves. The Dolphin and Whale Matrix Channeled Through Micheila Sheldan Awakened and Empowered Expo (Original post www.awakeandempoweredexpo.com/magazine/cellular-reorganization-and-deprogramming)
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My Journey So Far With Guest Masha Ellman Hello I’m Masha, I was born in Munich, Germany a little over a year after my parents were liberated from a concentration camp. Their dream was always to come to America but it would take many years to obtain a visa. When I was two years old we moved to Israe; at ten, we moved to Colombia, South America, and after my father passed, we came to the US; I was fourteen. Every country was a new learning experience; I didn’t know the language, or the culture. I believe that these experiences shaped my personality and gave me the gift of seeing the world from a different perspective. Describe the experiences that have shaped your journey My parents were Holocaust survivors and the principal people who shaped my life.
Life was hard and you either were born lucky or not, rich or not, and God judged and punished, if there really is a God. The Holocaust, the loss of my entire family and my parents suffering was the foundational core of my life. I didn’t have any self-confidence, selfworth, I had no idea who I was. I didn’t believe in myself, I lived from a place of victim mindset, where life just happens and you make the best of what it is. When I was fifty, I had an “awakening” and in that moment the Universe revealed itself to me and I knew everything and I knew nothing all in that instant. Since, I’ve been on a journey of self/universe realization. I’ve become guarded to what I allow into my life. I’ve done inner work to remove blocks, set boundaries, removed toxic relationships. I don’t watch the news, and I journal write almost every day.
From the moment I was born I heard about the horrors of the Holocaust. To say that my childhood was anything but normal, is an understatement. My father never spoke of it, but warned me every day about the dangers of life. Don’t tell anyone anything about yourself or your family, people will want to hurt you, if anyone asks just say “you don’t know”.
I now nourish myself with positive, uplifting thoughts that empower me to live with intention, gratitude and deep love. I’ve completely changed, I live empowered with love and gratitude and my life is constantly unfolding into higher levels of consciousness.
“I don’t know” became my mantra in life. My father passed when I was thirteen, but his words are still in me.
Tips or advice for others on their journey Love your life, love yourself, open your heart and your mind to greater possibilities.
My mother spoke of her life in concentration camps every day. I grew up hearing about the horrors. As a child I didn’t understand the meaning of the words but I felt my mother’s pain, I felt her agony in every word. Pain and fear was at the core of who I was.
Read books, take classes, journal, look for the magick in every day.
Share with us the ways in which you have changed your life for the better I lived with the beliefs I learned from my parents.
Examine your core beliefs, if they do not support what you really believe, replace them. Life is magical and so are you. Masha Ellman Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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A Nurtured Life With Mariette Zoeppritz THE VALUE OF PLAY “Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child’s soul.” - Friedrich Fröbel I started my journey as a teacher when I first moved to New Zealand eight years ago by studying to become a primary school teacher. It was during my studies that I already decided I did not want to be a primary school teacher. Making children sit quietly for most of the day and doing activities that I had decided on did not sit well with me. It reminded me of all the things I did not enjoy about school myself when I was a child. So as soon as I finished my degree, I started working in early childhood teaching instead. I felt drawn to the idea of early childhood being more child-led, following the children’s interest and thus allowing them to be more fully themselves. My first experiences of working as an early childhood teacher were rather disillusioning, though. Mat-times, group activities, and preparation for school “lessons” had to be planned. The children only had little windows of time to do what they truly wanted. Again, I was left feeling that what I was doing was not in the best interest of the children. That there must be a better, more natural way to learn. After all, looking back on my own childhood, my favourite memories are of me and my sister playing for hours in the garden being fairies or creating mud pies. These are recollections of being happily and deeply engaged in what I was doing. Was there no value in those joyful recollections of play? Through studying early childhood teaching and finding an early childhood setting that shared my believes and values I learned how right my inner knowing had been. There was way more to play than just being happy memories. I began to see how play was the answer to what I had been looking for. 74
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As Stuart Brown states “The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself.” It is through the co-creative process of play that children learn, develop, and grow their brains – naturally and with ease. Children don’t decide to play because they want to learn something. The learning is an unavoidable by-product. Allowing children to fully immerse and lose themselves in their play without interruption or agenda gives them the most valuable, age-appropriate learning. As they play they learn how to learn. They build resilience and perseverance when things don’t work out as they had expected the first time around. They develop and expand their creativity, their imagination and their abstract thinking. Playing with others, they build social skills, learn to share their ideas and point of view as well as listening to, accepting and respecting the ideas, believes and points of views of others. They learn to share and to empathise. Playing in nature, children connect to Mother Earth, soak up knowledge about the seasons, the weather, animals and plants. It is through this connection they learn to love and later care for and protect nature and the environment. So how do we as adults support this kind of play? What is our role? After all, we want to do what is best for our children. I think it is time for us to step back, to create time and space for our children to lose themselves in their play without interference or interruption. It is also time for us to recognize that by doing this, we allow our children to develop into a balanced, centered, connected human being, prepared in mind, body, heart and soul for living a successful, meaningful life. Step back and observe their magic, their personality, their soul unfold!
And if you need a reminder of what play can do, sit back and think back to your favourite childhood memories. Or even better yet, go out and play. We can all do with more play in our lives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is time: that unstructured, unhurried, lose-yourself-in-imagination kind of time.â&#x20AC;? - Ginny Yurich Mariette Zoeppritz Seeds of Peace NZ
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Embodied Awareness With Alison Elsberry 10 MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES THAT NURTURE A CHILD’S BODY & SOUL Moving the body helps children embody their true power and the rhythm of their Soul. It’s how they learn to make sense of the world around them. Children need to move their entire body to do their research about being human! Movement is an important and necessary part of everyday life. It’s a basic need that feeds our nervous system and nurtures a strong and secure sense of self. Children develop their sense of movement by having PLENTY of opportunities to move their body, take risks and explore how it feels. Moving is essential to their brain development. They need movement experiences just like they need food. It engages their balance, coordination and motor skills, deepening the connection to their body. Movement also encourages a child’s freedom of expression. It plays a very important role in supporting them to express their feelings and emotions. There’s no right or wrong way to move the body, be in it or to express the gifts that flow through it. Every child has their own unique pace with how they move through the world As a child, my pace was like a turtle – intentional, intuitive and slower than most people around me; but the world seemed to move at a different pace. So I thought I was supposed to “keep up”. I tried, but honestly, it didn’t work. It took me out of my natural flow and creative expression. Eventually, I learned that it was OK to move through life in the way that felt good to my Soul and I realized that I didn’t need to judge myself for it. So maybe you know a child that seems to have one speed and runs everywhere, is always in a hurry, can’t sit still or rushes through tasks; Or perhaps you notice a child who loves taking their time, moves slowly and deliberately, savoring their experiences, lingering in delight. 76
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Maybe you come across a child that talks really fast and is lightening quick to come up with creative ideas and solutions. Perhaps you know a child who is really athletic and coordinated and can pick up on new skills easily, like learning dance moves, playing a musical instrument or playing sports. Or maybe you know a few kids who constantly bump into things and get labeled as “clumsy” or who may feel awkward in their body. The point is, there’s no right or wrong way to move the body through life. It’s when you judge yourself or the children around you, that it becomes challenging and stressful. Some of the most important movement that we ever learn as human beings is moving out of the head, into the heart AND into the body. Instead of trying to fit in, hold back or getting swept up in a current that moves us further away from our Soul. As children learn to trust and know who they are by moving their body, and feel safe to express themselves, their gifts begin to naturally flow from their heart and out into the world, because movement is unifying to all of their other senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and body awareness). It helps children discover how to be confident moving and interacting with their everyday surroundings. It’s how they discover their physical abilities and know what’s possible by following their creative impulses. Movement is life - it supports a child’s integration process as a Soul into a body. Here are 10 simple ways children can experience movement: 1. Explore a playground or ride a bike 2. Create an obstacle course 3. Enjoy a nature walk 4. Swing in a hammock 5. Crawl through a tunnel 6. Roll down a hill 7. Have a dance party
8. Play hopscotch, skip rope or bounce on a trampoline 9. Swim or float in the water 10. Climb a tree Enjoy these activities without any expectation of what a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement should look like. Instead, have fun and watch them explore the world with greater confidence and ease. Alison Elsberry Embodied Brilliance
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An Empowered Life With Rose Aitken FIVE CONSCIOUS PERSPECTIVES YOU CAN USE TO MAKE 2020 - THE YEAR YOU KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK What’s really required to take charge of your life is no longer just setting goals and mindlessly doing the steps to accomplish them. Whilst evolution is always valuable, traditional goal setting as a means to an end is now redundant, without the valuable addition of consciousness. As Bradley Cooper sings in the movie A Star is Born, “It’s time to let the old ways die”. Most of us have figured out by now that having more and doing more is redundant with out BECOMING more. Consciousness is the new black and for good reason. My definition of consciousness is to be aware of everything and everyone around you without judgement. We develop these abilities through emotional self mastery, spiritual awareness and understanding energetic and body dynamics. Learning the tools to create a conscious life and implementing them, means we upgrade ourselves and where we operate from. This allows us to achieve more, develop and evolve in all ways. We attain self reliance and eventually wisdom. From there, almost anything is possible...
responsible for improving it can be extremely scary and uncomfortable. This is reflected in the current tumultuousness that is taking place in many corners of the globe. Existing systems are breaking down, new cutting edge technologies are emerging and science is now embarking on new frontiers with the study of human potential, as we seek out better ways of doing and of being. As the individual chooses greater and enhances their own existence, they assume a higher energetic frequency that absorbs and reflects new possibilities. Their singular transformation enables the collective to evolve, pulling along and leading the way for others. Here are some of my conscious truths that may inspire you to find your greatness in 2020!! 1. REALIZE THAT YOU ARE THE ULTIMATE CREATOR IN YOUR LIFE Whatever is going on in your experience right now, is all about you. You may have had all sorts of circumstances that haven’t worked out as you wanted them to. You may be upset by certain people or situations, but you created all of it. That is, you created the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. I don’t mean you are to blame, or that you are responsible for other’s choices. What it does mean, is that you attract everything in to your field of observation, your experience and your life, for a reason.
The process of becoming conscious, is an ongoing quest that requires us to be humble, honest and open, inquisitive and to seek change on the deepest level. As more people step up and into this change, the balance of consciousness or the 'collective consciousness' is also evolving.
That reason is your expansion. When you change your points of view, the things you tell yourself, your beliefs, thoughts, feelings and emotions, you won’t be caught up in the past, you will be free of it.
Change, embracing our true nature and being
Then, you will attract much better into your experience. So, use your power to create for you
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and not against you. You are capable of un-creating all the crap and creating amazing things beyond your wildest expectations.
What causes you the most pain, is pointing you directly towards the beliefs you most need to change.
2. PAIN IS A BEAUTIFUL GIFT
4. STOP BEING UPSET AT PAST ‘LOST OPPORTUNITIES’
Pain is life’s way of letting you know on a particular issue, that you are separated from your higher self. You are away from your natural state of love and oneness and that gap is the pain you can feel. The purpose of pain is healing and growth.
There is no such thing. What’s for you will not pass you by. You were either ready or you weren’t. It’s that simple. If it went away, if you were overlooked, you blew it, or circumstances changed out of your control, life was redirecting you.
Stored pain is like a bottle neck that stops us truly thriving and being free across all areas of life. We may think we have successfully buried something and are semi functional in other aspects of our lives. However, this never works, as something significant always leaks out and has unanticipated effects on us.
Usually life won’t recreate the same opportunities, but you can create new ones. If you are willing to develop wisdom as from your past losses, then even greater possibilities can show up.
When we bury pain, it’s like going around with a sign above us, saying “Walking wounded here”. People can see it in your behavior, feel it in your energy and they know something is wrong. The reason is obvious; it is because we have barriers up, as we don’t feel safe.
Life happens for us, not to us.
With our barriers up, we can’t allow ourselves to be loved (we aren’t a match for love, we are a match for pain). Abundance can’t flow our way either and we will struggle. Holding up barriers because we feel weak inside, is exhausting. From there, we never trust others or ourselves. “Pain is not to be feared and avoided. It is an invitation to face ourselves and step into our greatness. On the other side of processing your pain, lies immense freedom and relief. Only you can choose”. - Rose Aitken 3. GET RID OF YOUR BAGGAGE AND YOUR PAIN WILL FOLLOW Unhealed ‘stuff’ has a habit of bubbling up and creating problems when you least want it to. And it is there, just under the surface, influencing all of your thoughts, decisions, choices and body language.
5. STOP MAKING THINGS RIGHT OR WRONG. YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE.
Nothing is 'good' or 'bad' or 'right' or 'wrong', other than what your beliefs make it. Part of my job is to help you see what was beneficial about the tough things. It is also to help you extract the goodness from those experiences and see how you’ve evolved as a result. For the first time in modern human history, science is starting to understand many things. These include, the science of energy, wisdom of the human heart and gut and how our thoughts directly influence others and our environment. There is no need to suffer and be at the effect of your past any longer. The modalities, techniques and options out there today are wonderful! Rose Rose Aitken (Original version posted on the Roseaitken.com blog - date unknown)
Life has a habit of bringing you similar situations, repeatedly, until you address things properly. That is why some people appear to have such ‘shitty luck’. They don’t really, they’ve just never dealt with their pain and circumstances and learned how to redirect their future. Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Healing Modalities With Guest Sarah McGuire INTUITIVE MASSAGE
My mother was a healer; she had natural sensitivity and awareness I have not experienced from anyone else before, and as a result my journey with holistic health started at an early age. In fact, my mothers' people have always been drawn to helping others within their career choices. I moved to a permaculture village in Queensland, Australia in 2003. There was a wide range of natural therapies offered within the community and I became drawn to the idea of learning more about, and working in, natural health. A natural alignment to who I am. The first modality I trained in was shiatzu before moving into remedial (Deep Tissue) and holistic massage. The more I learned the more I became interested in people - their journey, their way of being and how their lives and heritage reflected and shaped their overall wellbeing. It was like putting together a web of understanding of each individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expression. This holistic approach to treating my clients led me to also train in Lomi Lomi (Hawaiian Massage), Reflexology, Myofascial Release and Reiki among others. I have created my own intuitive style which draws on all these modalities along with training in Abundance Coaching, Journey Therapy, Face Reading/Physiognomy, and Suggestive Hypnotherapy to suit the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs.
How has this modality changed your life?
Intuitive massage has allowed me to become much more aware of myself and my own intuition. It has brought more presence and awareness to the way I interact with people and allows me to connect with them on a deeper level. I feel a real sense of purpose when I can connect with others through massage and help them with not only their physical needs but also on an emotional level. I also learn a lot from others through these conversations and interacting with such a diverse range of people, it has expanded and enhanced the way I look at life. 80
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About this modality:
Intuitive massage is reading the body and body language, asking questions and listening to what is being said to treat instinctively. It is not a set routine massage, it is a fluid treatment, based on what the body is telling me. I draw on a selection of techniques and follow what I am reading from the body and what the person is expressing. It is about gently guiding a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts to bring awareness, in their own time, to make change. It is about helping people to find balance in their life. How do you feel about this modality in healing? It is very powerful for both physical and emotional release. Your physical ailments are linked to your emotions and your body reflects your thoughts, feelings and environment. Allowing yourself the time and space to check in, let go, to heal and be present with your own self and wellbeing is essential in bringing balance to your life and your journey forward.
Who do you think could benefit from this?
The benefits of intuitive massage for healing are that the client is making the changes themselves, feeling nurtured and supported on their journey through touch, meditation, and conversation in a safe space created for them. I have had many clients over the years who have come to me with a physical complaint or who present whole-body aches and pains, stress, headaches and general inflammation. I worked with them to treat the cause; the underlying processes and thoughts (conscious and unconscious) which are contributing to the initial problem. This is often related to work, relationships, diet and past experiences. Using open discussion and putting strategies in place to allow change, creates an opportunity for them to let go and release excess tension, allowing them time and energy to look after themselves and heal their bodies.
Sarah McGuire Wellness New Zealand
www.wellnessnewzealand.co.nz
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Sound Matters With John Du Four PART 7 I could drone on and on and on... In my last column I touched briefly on how using a drone can be a great accompaniment to your Songspinning. I should admit it up front that I’m a big fan of drones (to be precise, I’m speaking of musical drones – not those unmanned [er, unpersonned???] flying things that invade our skies. A musical drone is the harmonic or monophonic effect where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece of music. It is a simple yet mystical sound often described as a doorway through which both player and listener can enter higher planes of consciousness. I’ve wanted to write about drones since I began this series because they work on a number of fascinating levels. Found all over the world This goes some way to explaining why I‘ve collected a number of drone instruments over the years, including: from Australia the didgeridoo; from India the tamboura and shruti box; from the Andes an Indian drone flute; a concert gong from an NZ orchestra; from Tibet various singing bowls, bells and tingshas; various drums and rattles which can be played repetitively to create a powerful droning effect; a Chinese violin called an erhu; my Korg keyboard, and more... Such a wide range exemplifies how readily drone music is found, especially in traditional and folk music, the world over. And let us never forget bagpipes – some might say, rather disparagingly, who could? – but you can’t deny their strident mesmerizing power. I’ve never played them but would love to have a go. So basically, drone music is as historically old as our species itself. But what are its effects? How does it work? First of all, just a wee bit of science (believe me, it’s all I’m capable of!). In essence, the drone provides an unvaried note of music. Its pitch (ie. how high or low it is) is consistent – it emits a steady frequency. Remember, all sound is vibration, and the speed of that vibration is called frequency. 82
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Music, as opposed to random noise, is created when the frequency waveform is strongly regular. Frequency is measured in the number of wave cycles occurring in a single second – one unit of frequency per second equals one Hertz (Hz). Human ears can only hear sounds within a certain range of frequencies. The young usually detect sounds between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz – a range which sadly reduces as we age. Now for the drone-averse amongst us, the sound of an unchanged drawn out tone is like listening to paint dry – the sound of tedium itself. But for many, a drone can be a beautiful thing, offering up a transcendent, hypnotic quality than can range from the meditative to the downright (or should that be upright?) spiritual. Winsome Evans, an Australian early music specialist who’s been awarded the British Empire Medal and the Order of Australia for services to music, links medieval European music and drones to the theology experiences of the period. “Number symbolism was important in the medieval world and the drone is the One, it’s the Godhead.” She explains that a drone based on the root note of a chord was clearly understood for its power. “It’s what rules the whole piece of music, and it’s from the One that the melody evolves,” she says. “These things have almost magical significance, and they form an important part of Christian mysticism.” Our earliest imprint Things are even more fundamental than that, according to Marcus Boon, a writer and professor of English at York University in Toronto. He believes there’s a definitive reason drones affect us at the deepest possible level. “They say that when you’re in the womb, there’s supposedly a drone-like hum, so you could say the drone is a ‘pre-birth’ sound,” he says. “I think there is a sacred element to drone music that has to do with the natural harmonics and the fact that when you produce a drone in a particular way, there’s a transcendental feeling that gives rise to a feeling of awe or euphoria. You relax into this drone-like structure and there’s a kind of loosening of the self that is pleasing, ecstatic even.”
I personally like to use the phrase ‘coming home’ to describe the underlying power of the drone. We have an essential human need to feel grounded and safely rooted. We are instinctively drawn to places that feel known and reliable, that are there for us to return to when we venture forth into the world around us. In musical terms, a drone provides just that home base, so that however far we might roam melodically from ‘home’, we can always find our way back to that unwavering and elemental source. It’s a sonic touchstone. In our busy modern world, where rhythm, melody and dynamics tend to be the driver of what music is supposed to be, it might seem the drone’s stripping away of these qualities to leave only the sound of, well, nothing much, is a perversity. And yet to assume that the static quality of a drone means it lacks power, or colour, or interesting music content is a big mistake. Drones can be full of information and event. Just listen to the hypnotically repetitive four-note drone of an Indian tamboura and you’ll discover a sound dance, an intricate pattern of shifting harmonics and microtones that move between consonance and dissonance. It unequivocally invites total absorption into the mesmeric sonic space it creates (which is why, of course, I had to have one). Further, in a therapeutic setting, drones offer the power of concentrating sonic frequencies to allow specific sound waves to be directed onto (into!) areas of the human body. We’ll look at this in a later piece. Surprisingly creative Modern composers, especially those testing the boundaries of what constitutes music, have never shied away from the possibilities presented by
drones. There are far too many to go into here, but some better known names include: LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock, John Cale and The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Miles Davis, Aphex Twin, Radiohead and Wilco. Finally (and I say this as a diehard Beatles fan), you only have to listen to John Lennon’s highly experimental ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ off the Revolver album to hear how creative a base for music a drone can be. Essentially, the entire song evolves over a C-note, as discussed by musicologist Alan Pollack, who holds a BA in Music and an MA and PhD in Music Theory and Composition (and is best known for having musically analysed every song released by the Beatles). “The harmony is virtually a single C Major pedal point throughout, suggesting an extremely novel application of the Indianesque drone,” he says. “[The track] is a veritable kitchen-sink of just about every trick in the Beatles’ book to-date, including: an Indian drone, modal tune, bluesy instrumental, tape loops, ADT [automatic double tracking], vocals played through revolving speakers, distortedly close-up miking of instruments, and a psychedelically mystical ‘outlook.’ One of the amazing aspects of this song is the extent to which this collage not merely hangs together, but pulls into such a powerfully focused, unified effect.” A powerfully focused, unified effect – I couldn’t have said it better. That’s drones for you. [I’d like to acknowledge Australian David Rutledge’s ABC podcast, ‘Monotony and the sacred: a brief history of drone music,’ in providing some of the background material to this article.] John Du Four
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Well Being With Sarah Noble HOW TO BE AUTHENTICALLY YOU Humans are wired for connection. We ALL want to feel seen, heard. We all want to be loved for who we are. But, somewhere along the way, we conform. We follow the crowd, we dull our real selves, to fit in, to please others, to not rock the boat, to seem a certain way. Our focus shifts from being authentically us as a child, to re-shaping and moulding ourselves to please others as an adult. There is only so much of pretending to be someone we are not, that we can tolerate before we decide enough is enough. The journey starts with YOU. For you to feel comfortable being your authentic self around anyone, anywhere, you first must feel comfortable within yourself. You must love and accept every part of you, the good, the bad and the ugly. Take some time and journey within, get to know yourself, the real you. Who are you? Beneath the layers, the masks, the labels. What are your values? Who do you want to spend time with? What lights you up? It can take some time to discover who we are, especially if we have been pretending to be someone else for so long. It can be uncomfortable. It takes A LOT of patience and compassion. Some things you can do to discover who you really are: • Have o1pen conversations with loved ones, who you can talk to about anything. Explore! • Journal - free write or use prompts like “why do I feel as though I cannot be myself?” or, “If I could live my authentic life, what would that look like?” • Spend time alone – often. No devices, preferably in nature, or some sort of grounding activity like yoga or meditation. • Once you have discovered who you are, it’s time to accept. Accept yourself as you are right now. As you were in the past, and as you will be in 84
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the ever-changing future. Accept your quirks, your (perceived) flaws. You are a unique individual, what a beautiful gift. The more you accept who you are, love who you are, the easier it will be to be yourself. The more comfortable you will feel being 100% YOU, and the more uncomfortable it will feel to NOT be you! What’s next? Practise! Get out there, in different situations, with different people and practise being you. Express yourself, state your opinions and views – unapologetically. Have FUN! Being you is a gift – celebrate it!! Remember to be kind and compassionate – if you step back briefly into putting on a mask, dulling your shine, or conforming, forgive yourself and try again! You will slip back in your journey, that’s ok. Just keep going, and eventually being you will be automatic, non-negotiable. Now, when you go on this epic adventure of Authenticity, it WILL be uncomfortable, it will make others uncomfortable. You may have to leave a job, move house, loose friends – remember, this is all part of the journey. When you step into your authenticity, you may outgrow some people. You are making room for those to enter your life that from the get-go, will love, appreciate and respect you for being 100%, authentic YOU. That’s what you want, so don’t let losing some things stop you from pursuing your authentic life. The more you are your authentic self, the more people/jobs/situations you will attract into your life, that align with the real you. That which does not will fall away. You will be born again, and you will never look back. Sarah Noble Mindfully You
Mindset Matters With Angela Cheruseo SEE YOUR IDENTITY 2020
Identity crisis It’s that time of year - we look back - evaluating how far we’ve come. We take a look at what our hopes were for 2019. Perhaps you re-thought your career, a relationship, or finances. Perhaps you are reflecting on how effective you have been in your purpose in 2019? These are all great things to be doing. Remember though that identity is paramount. Purpose comes from identity. It isn’t the other way around. Working first from the place of knowing who you are will get you firmly grounded - secure, based. So who are you? How do you tick? What triggers you, what are your skills, passions and motivators? These comprise your identity... There is little point in making a plan for 2020, those 'new years resolutions' - hoping for success and longevity – without a grounded foundation in identity of self. It is hard to plot a course when you don’t know your starting point. What many do I see this a lot. It goes like this ….. to take control of 2020: First - decide what you really want and be determined to finally succeed
These are all important yes – but – no not yet! What comes first This is where to start: understand how you are wired, what is the essence of you. What is not you and simply a reflection of others or you pleasing others. Who are you truly when you peel off your life circumstances or past. Know yourself at your core, at your essence, as you were created to be. Our emotions cloud these truths. Feelings frequently do not necessarily reflect reality. You can feel like collapsing but still be fighting. You can feel like the victim and be the victor. You can feel limited but still not have exhausted all that is inside of you. You cannot define yourself by how you feel. Your feelings cannot be trusted. Your emotions will lie to you. Why? Because your feelings are a combination of your current experiences, they are built up from your history. They are a response to what happened not what is about to happen. Do not be distracted by the fury of planning and goal setting without having found the peaceful and non-emotionally driven place to hone in on your identity. Identity is first.
Second - accept and take responsibility for where you fell short, no blaming others or your past
The you, your core and essence.
Third - move forward, get out of your comfort zone, make the necessary changes, create a plan, act, and be willing to learn
This is the foundation needed from which to launch into and succeed with your purpose for 2020.
Finally – be expectant of success (the true meaning of hope is being positively expectant!) stay focused, determined. Review limiting mindsets and beliefs, visualize success, stay motivated, surround yourself with the right people.
Angela Miccio-Harris Angela Cheruseo NZ
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Soulful Business With Sabrina Weber EXACT STEPS ON LAUNCHING YOUR SOUL-DRIVEN BUSINESS AND WORK LOCATION FREE Maybe you are dreaming of that Digital Nomad lifestyle, sipping on coconuts in Bali while working from your laptop or perhaps you just want more flexibility and time with your loved ones while doing work that feels meaningful and creates positive impact. Whatever your driving force, one thing that is clear and common ground for women like us is that we reach a point in our lives where that soul calling becomes so loud and strong that we literally feel like bursting from the inside if we don’t let it out, we can’t not share it. But then “who am I to tell others how to eat, move or do life in general?!” Well honestly, how dare you not?! You are a messenger whether you’ve acknowledged this already or not, you have a message / a gift to share with the world, it’s your duty and responsibility to do so. In fact you’ll be doing a disservice by keeping it all to yourself! There are literally people out there right now, desperately googling for answers that you could share with them so easily… so how dare you, not? Here is a quotable: “It’s not about you, it’s about your message.” Take your ego out of the way and allow the message to flow through you, as it was always intended. So how do we actually take your purpose work and package it up into something tangible that can reach the people who need it while also allowing you to live life in your highest frequency? - Because side note, you being in your absolute power and feminine energy will allow you to have an even greater impact! Isn’t that cool? Ok then, let’s look at the 7 nuggets I’ve boiled this down to: 86
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1. Before you do anything else, get super clear on your vision and why you are wanting to do this. I love taking my women through a perfect day visualisation, really tapping into how your life and you will look like. Letting yourself feel and experience that vision. It is THAT feeling that will keep you going and anchored as you pursue your dream lifestyle and business. 2. Who is your message for? Who do you serve and what problem can you solve for them? Again, it’s about clarity, really ask yourself or journal on what exactly is the outcome you want to create with and for your soulmate clients. 3. Once you honed in on points 1 and 2 you can now create sacred offer(s) that not only serve your soulmate clients in the best possible way but also work for you! That is the beauty of being your own boss, you make the rules and you design offers that fit in with your dream lifestyle. If anything is possible how would you want to show up for your clients? Allow yourself to be creative and do things YOUR way, authenticity is key here. 4. Branding yourself. For the most part in this line of work we are the brand, you are the brand. This takes some getting used to but really what it comes down to is, who are you in your happiest and most free, relaxed state? And how can you bring this energy into your work? Once you click on this you will become a magnet for all that you desire! Yes, it’s that powerful. 5. Back yourself. Meaning your energy and mindset need to be fully aligned with what you want to create. If you don’t believe or invest in yourself, then who else would?! Having a solid spiritual practice that works for you is an absolute game changer and nonnegotiable if you are serious about creating impact and freedom. 6. Allow yourself to be supported, investing in yourself and your business is saying YES to the universe. You are claiming that yes, you believe in this and yes, you are willing to take action and go the extra mile.
7. Trust your intuition. Start nurturing your connection to your inner self (insert: universe, soul, god..) and develop that muscle. You know so much more than you give yourself credit for, give yourself permission to act accordingly. Above all, be playful and know that it’s ok to change your mind as you go. Focus on what feels good and run with it, action is what creates magic, get started and evolve as it is meant to be. Surround yourself with likeminded people who ‘get it’ and yes, family and close friends are not always those people for us and that is ok too. I am so excited for you and cheering you on from afar! Sabrina Weber Sabrina Weber
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A Balanced Life With Sarah Jensen SET ASIDE SELF-DOUBT Recently, I had an idea. A big, juicy, delicious idea that blew my mind and filled my heart with all the goodness and love. No sooner was the idea out of my head and onto paper than the self-doubt kicked in. Does anyone need this? Would anyone want this? Will anyone buy this?
because it’s not about me. I’m just the person the Universe has recruited to make and deliver these projects to those who need it. The order’s been place, and I’m the big-hearted business owner who’s here to fulfill that order. I wanted to share this with you because I know that feelings of self-doubt and blocks around sharing our creative work can hold so many of us back in crippling ways – in business and in life. I see so many truly incredible people with so much to share who don’t create out of fear, self-doubt, or self-judgement, and this HAS to stop.
My inner mean voice had cranked the volume to maximum, and the barrage of negativity had me ready to quit before I’d even begun. Then a voice, as plain as day, hit the pause button on the nasty narrative and said to me, “Sarah, it’s not your job to doubt the idea. Someone needs this and you’re the person who needs to create it.” It was like fireworks going off in my mind. My shoulders relaxed and I sighed out a big breath of relief. In that moment I realised I’m just a conduit for the Universe to speak through. I’m not here to judge the ideas or doubt what I create, I’m just here to make sure it’s created. Think of it this way, it’s like someone’s put in an order for a hot, tasty pizza, and I’m both the pizza maker and the delivery driver. I’m not here to judge the pizza. I’m not here to doubt the person who put in the order. I’m just here to ensure the pizza is made to order and delivered to the person who wants it. And, with that knowing, it took away ALL of the pressure I felt about creating in my business 88
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Because we need what you have to share. We need you to shine your wisdom, knowledge, creativity and heart out into the world. So next time you have an idea that fills you with joy (and fills your head with self-doubt) think of yourself as the Chief Fulfillment Officer, here to make and deliver what someone on this amazing planet has put in an order for – because it’s what they need right now to support or guide them on their path. And then go forth and create that project with all the love, and heart, and care you have in you, knowing and trusting that it NEEDS to be made. From my heart to yours.
Sarah Jensen Sarah Jensen
Mindful Colouring Conscious Art Practice
To download a printable copy of this monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colouring pages, please click HERE - we would love to see the finished art if you want to tag @TheInspiredGuideNZ on Facebook or share to our page. Have Fun! Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Sweet Treats With Sarah Sears MINI BERRY CHOCOLATE TRIFLES The easiest dessert recipe you can ‘wow’ your guests with and have prepared hours before they even arrive…
How’s your week going so far? I’d like to think that however it is (good or bad), that I am about to make it that much better with these mini berry chocolate trifles… These trifles are the answer to any immediate dessert craving you have and they are also the answer to a stress-free dinner party dessert. You can serve them as individual desserts or as one big dessert, served in a large glass trifle dish. However you make them, know that they have a lot of ‘wow-factor’ for very little effort. When I’m having people over for dinner, I like to have most things prepared before our guests arrive so that I can enjoy their company instead of spending most of the time busy in the kitchen. That’s just one of many great things about this dessert – it tastes even better when it’s had time to ‘soak’ in it’s flavours, which means you can prepare it ahead of time, all ready to go for when it’s time for dessert (clearly the most important course of my evening). I’ve been making these little berry and chocolate trifles for a few years now and they are always a hit – I think you’re going to like these. I usually make mine with pieces of chocolate cake, berries + their juice/or syrup, chocolate/ plain yoghurt and cream. I like to use up cake ‘scraps’ that I have in the freezer (I often have left over cake tops in my freezer from leveling cakes – never throw these away by the way!). In case you’re not a cake hoarder like me and you don’t have spare cake lying around, you can use any store bought cake, brioche, sponge fingers or 90
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whatever you fancy or my popular chocolate cake recipe on the following page. There are no rules with this dessert, you can get creative and add any flavour, cake, fruit, topping etc. that you like. Here are some ideas… Flavour Variations: This dessert is great for any season, celebration or occasion. Mix it up and use what you have on hand, like: ♥ Vanilla sponge cake, berries, and cream (great for summer) ♥ Gingerbread, custard/eggnog and brandy/ rum (for a winter-y/Autumn feel) ♥ Chocolate brownie, chocolate mousse, berries, sherry and cream ♥ Vanilla cake, banana slices, custard and cream ♥ Chocolate/vanilla cake, jelly, ice cream, cookie crumbs (whoa, so yummy) ♥ Banana cake, banana slices, cream and custard ♥ Vanilla cake, limoncello, lemon curd, blueberries, cream ♥ GF/Vegan Option: GF/Vegan cake, berries, banana mixed with 1 tablespoon cocoa, cashew cream The list could go on and on…what would you put in your mini trifle? How to Make Mini Trifles: ♥ Layer it up ♥ Gather 4 drinking glasses, parfait glasses, glass jars or any other clear vessel and place on a tray. ♥ Place 1 – 2 tablespoons of fruit in the bottom of each glass. Then place broken up cake over top, to reach 1/3 of the cup. ♥ Pour 1 tablespoon fruit juice/syrup from berries or your favourite liquor over cake ♥ Top with cream, yoghurt, mousse or what ever you fancy on top.
♥ Repeat steps 1-4 and top with fresh berries …and voila! Mini trifle.
MINI BERRY CHOCOLATE TRIFLES INGREDIENTS 1 cup greek yoghurt (or chocolate mousse/ pudding) 250ml (1 cup) cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon sugar 400g frozen berries, thawed (keep berry liquid), mixed with 1 tablespoon sugar 1 chocolate cake (recipe on next page), cut into cubes 1/2 cup fresh berries (optional) METHOD Prep Time: 10min | Skill: Easy | Serves: 4 1. Beat cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the yoghurt (or chocolate mousse/pudding), set aside. 2. Place 1 tablespoon of berries in each glass and arrange 3-4 cubes of cake on top of the berries. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of berry juice/ liquid on top of the cake. 3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of yoghurt-cream mixture on top of the berry juice, then add more cake, berries and juice. 3. Repeat this process until you reach the top of the glass. Decorate each trifle glass with fresh berries and extra berry juice or sprinkle sifted cocoa powder on top. Serve straight away or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. * Mini trifles can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Do note that the more liquid, the better. The cake likes to soak up as much of it as possible so don’t hold back. Enjoy! Sarah Sears What Sarah Bakes
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Sweet Treats - Extra With Sarah Sears POPULAR CHOCOLATE CAKE
It’s finally here – my most ordered, most popular chocolate cake recipe. This has to be my all time favourite; my most used and most popular chocolate cake recipe. Since having been back from maternity leave, cake orders in the Cakery have been streaming in. But do you know what? Out of all the cakes I’ve made since being back – all of them have been this popular chocolate cake recipe. I think that’s saying something about how much people love this cake. Because of this, I thought it was time I share it with you so that you can make it in your own kitchen too. Why is this such a popular chocolate cake? 1. It is made with oil (no butter) which makes it irresistibly moist and moorish. 2. It is incredibly easy and quick to make 3. It is better than your average chocolate cake 4. The buttermilk provides acidity which enhances the fluffy, light texture as well as flavour 5. The hot water ‘blooms’ the cocoa which creates a lovely dark colour and enriches the flavour also. Have I convinced you to try this popular chocolate cake yet? If not, I hope the pictures can help entice you. I can’t even tell you how many mouthfuls of this chocolate cake I have had, but it’s definitely a lot and it still happens to be my favourite. I never seem to get sick of it. Ever. It can even be made into cupcake form! INGREDIENTS 250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour 400g (2 cups) sugar 77g (3/4 cup) cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 + 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 92
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250mls (1 cup) buttermilk (see recipe) 125mls (1/2 cup) melted coconut oil 2 large eggs 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 250 (1 cup) boiling water Buttercream (see recipe) METHOD Prep Time: 15min | Cooking Time: 30min Skill: Easy | Serves: 24 1. Preheat oven to 175C (350F) and line two 8" (20 cm) cake tins with baking paper. 2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar (yes the sugar – enhances the texture), cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well and set aside. 3. In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla. Gently stir this in to the dry mixture until just combined. Then add hot water and mix until well incorporated (but try not to over mix). 4. Pour cake batter evenly into cake tins (I like to use scales to get both layers perfectly even) and bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. 5. Once cakes are slightly cool, transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Once completely cool, whip up your favourite buttercream (or the one suggested – I love adding chocolate ganache to it). Level cakes with a bread knife and ice/ frost.
CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM 200g butter, softened 1/4 teaspoon salt 40g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder 350g (2-3 cups) icing sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Beat butter and salt together for one minute. Sift in cocoa and continue beating until well combined. Gradually add icing sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
A BIT ABOUT BUTTERMILK
Contrary to what a lot of people think, buttermilk is not simply ‘butter added to milk’. Traditional buttermilk is the liquid that is left over from churning butter but the term buttermilk can also refer to fermented milk or cultured buttermilk. All are sour, acidic, thick in texture and are great for baking (though traditional buttermilk might be hard to come by in your local supermarket). Why do we need buttermilk in baking? The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the alkaline of the baking soda. When this happens, carbon dioxide is released which removes the sour taste of the buttermilk and the soapy taste of the baking soda. It is also what helps our pancakes, muffins and sweet breads to rise sky high with an airy, tender and fluffy crumb.
BUTTERMILK INGREDIENTS 250ml (1 cup) milk (cows or dairy free milk of choice) 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice METHOD 1. Gently stir the vinegar/lemon juice into the milk and let it sit for 5-10 minutes or until it has thickened. The milk will curdle and look like it is no good to use anymore – this is what it is meant to look like! 2. Use in your recipe as you would storebought buttermilk. NOTES *If you use a non-dairy milk (e.g. almond milk), note that the buttermilk mixture will not be as thick. ** If your buttermilk isn’t clumpy, add another dash of vinegar or lemon juice. Sarah Sears What Sarah Bakes
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Feel Great Food With Lee Holmes PAN-FRIED PINEAPPLE WITH MINT AND COCONUT YOGHURT
In the wellness blogging sphere and health world, there tends to be a fear of dessert. Of course, everyone’s aware of the raw treat’s era, but that’s about where we’ve stopped when it comes to ‘healthy’ desserts. I want to tell you a big wellness secret: we don’t need to succumb to endlessly chewing on raw brownies or bliss balls to be healthy (I’m certainly no hater because I know that they’re delicious but there’s a time and place, people)! I would like for you to take a second, hold my hand (through the computer screen… yes, I see you, extend that hand out right now), and close your eyes. Listen to me as I say this: health is all about moderation, not deprivation. You’re allowed to eat dessert, in fact, I encourage you to do so. While we eat nutritious food to keep our bodies thriving, we need dessert to keep us sane! If you’re looking for a gut-healing dessert to have on hand for any and every occasion, you can’t go past my Pan-fried Pineapple with Mint and Coconut Yoghurt from Supercharge Your Gut. After cooking up a storm of a main meal, my philosophy about dessert is simple: the simpler, the better. However, simple doesn’t have to mean a couple of cut-up, depressed old strawberries or a boring bowl of name-brand vanilla ice-cream. If you’re ready for a dessert that’ll take your tastebuds to paradise and beyond, it’s time to hone in on one of my favourite fruits, the mighty pineapple. Now, I know pineapple can look a little intimidating from the outside but trust me when I say this: it’s most definitely worth the fight. The versatile and low-fructose pineapple contains an anti-inflammatory digestive enzyme known as bromelain - you know, the one that makes your tongue feel a little bit fuzzy after eating too much of it. Digestive enzymes are a vital tool when trying to maintain or rebuild gut health. They help break down larger molecules of food into more easily absorbed particles and 94
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so, are essential for good digestion and nutrient absorption. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to break down our foods properly. Through a whole range of complicated digestive processes, these enzymes break our food down into amino acids, fatty acids, cholesterol, simple sugars and nucleic acids. In cases of leaky gut, digestive enzymes can help take the stress off the gastrointestinal tract and counteract the enzyme inhibitors that are found in nuts, seeds, beans, potatoes and lentils. People who have age-related enzyme insufficiency, leaky gut, liver disease, Crohn’s disease and other digestive diseases may require digestive enzymes in the form of supplements. However, certain foods, such as our wonderful pineapple, can naturally enhance digestive enzyme production. Bromelain can also help fight inflammation, assist in nutrient absorption and aid digestion. This means it’s a perfect ingredient to include if you’re experiencing any pain, tenderness, redness or indigestion. Did you know that pineapple has been used as a natural remedy for indigestion and allergies for centuries? I’m a sucker for traditional uses of foods! I just find it so fascinating… Anyway… While fresh pineapple is obviously delicious, when it’s pan-fried, it’s seriously next level. I’m talking caramelised and gooey in the best way possible. Cooking pineapple will also help break down the tough cell walls of this fruit, making it easier to digest the goodness and nutrients. Pan-fried pineapple pairs perfectly with probiotic-rich coconut yoghurt. Probiotics are high in anti-bacterial properties, which helps us grow the friendly bacteria in our guts. While this is useful for everyone because we all want sparkly-clean and functioning guts, it’s especially important for those who’ve taken an antibiotic for a winter flu or other ailment. Probiotics can help get your gut back into tip-top shape after antibiotics and even reduce antibiotic-related diarrhoea and constipation. Other factors that dismantle microbial diversity include acid-blocking drugs, stress, modern environmental toxins, chemicals
in our water supply, pesticides on our food, using antibacterial soaps and cleansers, and the rising preference for planned caesarean sections, which can actually negatively impact our future generations microbial biodiversity. However, there is some good news! We CAN help increase our microbial diversity by eating a wholefood, organic, varied and colourful diet filled with delicious foods, that include a range of probiotics. Probiotics are necessary for aiding digestion and helping with absorption of important nutrients to produce serotonin, the happiness hormone. But I mean, how can you not be happy when my baked pineapple recipe makes you feel like you’re sitting under a cabana in Fiji, drinking a Pina Colada and getting caught in the rain? Not only does coconut yoghurt add to the gut-healing goodness of the recipe, the creaminess of the yoghurt cuts through the sweetness of the pineapple in all the right ways. This combination of classic summer flavours, pineapple, mint and coconut yoghurt is sweet, creamy, rich and plain old delicious. Trust me, everyone will be saying crème br-who? by the time they get their hands on this gut-friendly indulgence. Oh, and unlike most desserts out there, it won’t leave your tummy tied up in knots. Now that’s dessert with benefits. You’re welcome.
This dish is best served warm with some creamy coconut yoghurt and zesty lime.
PAN-FRIED PINEAPPLE WITH MINT AND COCONUT YOGHURT Serves 4 INGREDIENTS: 2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil 6 pineapple wedges, skin removed zest and juice of 1 lime 250 g (9 oz/1 cup) coconut yoghurt mint leaves, to garnish METHOD: Melt the coconut oil in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add the pineapple, drizzle with the lime juice and cook for 4–5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Serve warm, with coconut yoghurt, garnished with the mint and lime zest. Lee Holmes Supercharged Food (Adapted from the original post by Lee on November 26, 2018)
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Feel Great Food-Extra With Lee Holmes SEA SALT, FRESH RASPBERRY AND SLIVERED ALMOND CHOCOLATE Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too short not to savour the divine sensation that chocolate brings. And this sea salt, slivered almond and fresh raspberry delight is a super-romantic gesture, perfect for the holidays to treat friends and family or when trying to impress a special someone. The addition of sea salt to homemade chocolate is a must, and seems to lift the point of sweet bliss to new heights. Makes about 150g (5 1/2 OZ) INGREDIENTS 60 g (2 1/4 oz) coconut butter 2 tablespoons coconut oil 55 g (2 oz/1/4 cup) grated cacao butter 1 heaped tablespoon raw cacao powder 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup or 1 teaspoon stevia powder 2 tsp Love Your Gut powder generous pinch of sea salt 1 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter (optional) handful raspberries, halved handful slivered almonds, toasted
FREE eBook by Lee Holmes
A happy gut is a gift that keeps on giving. It's like Xmas for your body all year long. If there's one good thing you do for your body over the holidays (and we hope there's more than one!) it should be to look after your gut. A clean, toned gut is the way to make the more of the holidays - more energy, less bloating; more nutrient absorption, less build-up of waste in your system. It's hard though to maintain good gut habits over the silly season. That's why I've written a gut guide that's packed with hacks. The Healthy Holiday Hacks eBook contains: 5 in-depth articles about gut health Loads and loads of tips and hacks to keep your gut healthy and happy Information on how Love Your Gut can help 11 Supercharged gut-loving and totally delicious recipes!
DIRECTIONS Line a baking tray with baking paper. Melt the coconut butter, coconut oil and cacao butter in a bowl sitting over (but not touching) a bowl of very hot water and whisk to combine. Add the cacao powder, Love Your Gut powder, rice malt syrup, salt, vanilla and peanut butter, if using, and whisk to combine. Pour into the prepared tray and scatter over the raspberries and almonds. Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or until solid. Remove from the freezer and break into shards or chop into squares. Store in an airtight container in the freezer. *Purchase Love Your Gut powder online or if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have it you can omit it from the recipes it will still work. Lee Holmes Supercharged Food
CLICK HERE (When Online)
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Helpful Herbs With Mandy Haywood PEPPERMINT
mentha piperita “If any man can name all the properties of mint, he must know how many fish swim in the Indian Ocean” – Wilafried of Strabo, 12th century Parts used: Aerial parts History: The use of Peppermint dates to ancient times, where it was a highly valued herb among Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Dried leaves were found in Egyptian pyramids as far back as 1000 BC. Romans wore Peppermint in their crowns, and it was used for decoration during their feasts. It became popular in Europe in the 18th century and herbalist Nicholas Culpeper quoted that "it is useful for complaints of the stomach such as wind and vomiting, for which there are few remedies of greater efficacy." Nutritional constituents: Vitamins: A, C, niacin Minerals: Iron, Magnesium, Calcium, Potassium, Copper, Iodine, Silicon, Sulphur, Manganese and Zinc Spiritual/cleansing benefits: Money, lust, healing, travel, exorcism and protection. To assist intuition and spiritual insight. Astrology: Virgo (August 23 – September 22,) Traditional/Current Medicinal uses: Peppermint was traditionally used for digestive conditions and is still prescribed similarly today. It encourages digestive function by increasing gastric secretions, and bile. It also helps to soothe spasms and cramps by relaxing the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, and can therefore relieve abdominal pain, flatulence and indigestion.
It is well known for its ability to reduce nausea and vomiting and can be used for morning sickness, migraines and headaches that are linked to digestive function. Peppermint is often found in anti-inflammatory creams for the muscular skeletal system due to its pain-relieving qualities when applied to the skin. It is a helpful remedy for nervous tension as it reduces nervous system activity. It can alleviate pain, anxiety and help to promote sleep. Peppermint can also be used to bring down a fever during colds or flu’s as it promotes sweating. How to use: • Peppermint essential oil can be applied to the temples to relieve headaches • Peppermint can be made into a cup of tea by using either the fresh or dried leaves by adding to hot water and is helpful for nausea, indigestion, travel sickness, headaches, flatulence, colic, fevers and as a relaxant • Fresh peppermint can also be added to cold water with lemon for a refreshing drink • Peppermint tincture can be prescribed by a qualified Medical Herbalist Culinary uses: It can be added to salads and is popular eaten with cucumber and yoghurt in Middle Eastern cooking. Mint sauce and Roast lamb are a classic combination. Mint makes an excellent garnish and pairs well with chocolate. Mandy Haywood Naturopath & Medical Herbalist
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Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
Soulful Living With Kerry Kingston THE BEDROOM EDIT - SECRETS TO A SERENE ROOM & RESTFUL SLEEP We spend on average one third of our life sleeping, so having the perfect space to rest and recharge is important to the rest of our lives and how we operate during the day. Here are a few tips from a holistic home perspective to ensure you have a serene space to aid restful sleep: 1. DE-CLUTTER AND CLEAN Think of this as a spring clean and re-alignment for your room and sleep pattern. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like certain items in your space or no longer have use for something but find its just there out of habit, store it, remove it from the room or give away. This especially includes items under your bed, recently a client (with doubt) removed a container of unused clothes from under the bed and now declares they are sleeping much better! Allowing for more space, allows for energy to flow and cleanse. Having a less cluttered streamlined space will make room for serenity. Finish by cleaning with natural cleaners, behind cabinets, under the bed, windowsills, anywhere that stagnant energy and dust can settle. 2. EVERYTHING HAS A PLACE If you have room to rearrange the space, give it a go! If possible your bed end should not be facing the door. There are remedies for this if no other placement is possible. Look for balance in your room between furniture on either side of the bed, ornaments and matching table lamps. A solid headboard is grounding in the space and is a great dĂŠcor focus.
3. NATURAL ELEMENTS In Feng Shui some recommend no plants in the bedroom, however I say one plant is ok. It brings in a fresh natural element. Good quality artificial flowers or plants are ok too. I especially like fresh flowers or handpicked lavender. Crystals are said to aid restful sleep, and my bedroom favorites are: amethyst, selenite, howlite, moonstone, rose quartz and blue lace agate. 4. THE FEELS There is nothing better than a clean freshly made bed, especially if natural fibers and organic fabrics are involved! Soft toned lighting in the room is essential; using an eco-efficient bulb is the way to go. A feature wall in light tones and soft hues in this area can be a perfect addition along with a few cushions on the bed to finish the look. And finally a soy aromatherapy candle (remember to blow out before sleeping) or natural room sprays with relaxing lavender, ylang-ylang or Sandalwood can help ease you into a relaxed sleep. 5. RITUAL My go to before bed ritual includes a chamomile or sleep blend tea - others may enjoy a relaxing bubble bath to unwind with beautiful scents or a calming meditation. I like to complete a to-do list for the following day to clear my mind and then read a few pages of an inspirational book. And my journal is never far away for any ideas or dreams I would like to record upon waking. Sweet dreams... Kerry Kingston Kerry Kingston Design
When the room is balanced you are more likely to feel balanced and peaceful in the room and within yourself. Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Healthful Environment With Carla Friend CREATING A HEALTHY HOME ENVIRONMENT If you have set yourself the new year's goal to live a healthier lifestyle, your home can be an important part of that journey. Reducing your toxic load on your body can benefit you in many ways; weight goals can be easier to achieve, energy levels will improve and overall you will see a change in your health and wellness. These are my quick-fire ways you can significantly reduce the irritants and toxins in the home. None of them cost any money and you can implement these tips today. 1: DITCH THE FAKE SMELLS This is my number one for a good reason. What makes up a "fragrance" is hundreds of unregulated chemicals, and there is no requirement to inform the consumer of the ingredients. What we do know is these chemical cocktails contain phthalates, (these make the scents stick and last longer). These phthalates may disrupt our hormones, induce miscarriage and cause many other health implications. Switch to products with essential oils listed in the ingredients. 2: REMOVE SHOES AT THE DOOR By simply getting occupants and guests to removed their shoes before entering the home this can reduce the amount of dust in the home by 50%. The particles that get tracked in by shoes can be everything from soil and faeces to insecticides, vehicle exhaust or lead. This is very important if you have an asthma or allergy sufferer in the home or a young child, as they spend most of their time low to the ground therefore they are most susceptible to the allergens and toxins that get tracked into the home. “Infants can ingest up to 10 grams of dust per day”. 3: TURN OFF WIFI AT NIGHT. There is more and more evidence that our beloved WIFI is not that great for our bodies, especially the little ones.
"Caution until proven safe.” Turning the WIFI off at night gives the body a break from the potentially harmful signals that we get beamed through us all-day every-day. I also recommend turning your phone onto flight mode at night or not having it in the bedroom. Also, if your child uses a tablet or other device for quiet time, download the movie or game and then switch the device onto flight mode. 4: OPEN WINDOWS DAILY It is surprising to me how many homes I go into that are shut up and the windows never opened. Personally, it's part of my morning routine to open up all the windows, it's the best fresh air system there is. Real fresh air from opening a window helps remove odors from the air, regulate humidity and ultimately improves your indoor air quality. Even on rainy days opening a window can increase negative ions in the home. 5: DUST REGULARLY WITH A DAMP MICROFIBER CLOTH. The dust in your home can be the source of many allergens or toxins that effect your health and you may not even be aware of the direct link. Most of the dust in our home is made up of human dander (skin cells) which can create the ideal breeding ground for dust mites, which is a common allergen. I recommend a quality microfiber cloth as they can hold 7x their own weight due the design of many little loops that trap the dust. They are best used damp to avoid sending the dust airborne again. “Up to 18kg of dust accumulates every year in a six-room house”. Carla Friend Twinkle & Bean Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Living Naturally With Hannah Shaw THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDRATION
Water is the basis of all life and that includes your body. We are approximately two-thirds water, (the brain alone is 80% water!), the majority being in our cells and lymph system. However, our cells lose water as we age, going from 75% at birth to as low as 50% by middle-age. Water is crucial to our survival, we will typically only live for three days without it. Every chemical reaction in our body requires water, it is particularly necessary for energy production. Dehydration causes dysfunction of the process behind energy production and reduces the body's ability to repair and replace cells increasing your risk of disease and death. Dehydration speeds up the aging process (particularly noticeable in the skin), while optimum cellular hydration slows down and even reverses biological aging. As we age we also lose the ability to get water from the extracellular environment, to the inside of our cells. Medical Medium and Dr Zach Bush both describe chronic dehydration as being a concern for most people today and often we don’t even realise it, or even feel thirsty. Chronic dehydration causes the blood to thicken which has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system. Water and adequate cellular hydration is crucial in helping remove toxins and oxidants from your body. In a dehydrated state, you end up accumulating toxins due to a lack of electrical energy flow. Environmental toxins, certain diets, caffeinated beverages, soda, alcohol and salt all contribute to dehydration - even if you’re drinking plenty of water. Dr Libby mentions that a lack of minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride) or poor adrenal gland function (often due to chronic stress, trauma, excess caffeine or alcohol), are also significant contributors to dehydration. Adequate hydration is not simply about drinking enough water throughout the day but more specifically, it’s about getting the water inside your cells as the water you drink can often be urinated out before it has the chance to get into your cells. Water consumed via our diet goes a long way in replenishing our cellular hydration and maintaining optimal cellular function. Raw fruits and vegetables contain cellular water and are surrounded by molecules that enable the entry of water into cells.
We absorb cellular water slowly, which provides us with longer lasting hydration. The added advantage of consuming water through fruits and vegetables is that you also benefit from the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fibre that they provide. Awareness with water quality is essential for proper hydration. We don’t all have access to the same quality of water throughout the world and sometimes drinking supplies can become contaminated. A chemical called chlorine is added to the water to make it safer to drink; however chlorine can have an adverse impact on your health by affecting beneficial gut microbes which are responsible for approximately 70% of immune system function. Clean and safe drinking water is paramount for hydration and there are many ways in which we can remove chlorine (and other contaminants or pathogens) if we are concerned about the potential health impact. Water filtration options come in a wide variety and filter at different levels and types of water contamination. Filters include: carbon and ultraviolet (UV) filters, reverse osmosis filters, on-tap systems or water filtration jugs and drink bottles. For chlorine specifically (which is commonly added to tap water) you can filter your water using evaporation by boiling it or allowing it sit uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours. It is important to understand the quality of drinking water where you live and especially when you are traveling due to the risks involved with contaminated water. Get on track to re-hydrating your body by drinking lemon water first thing every morning, eating an abundance of raw fruit and vegetables (i.e. a daily smoothie and salad), and drink plenty of high quality filtered or natural (clean) water or other hydrating drinks such as coconut water and cucumber juice throughout the day. In addition, Dr Zach Bush MD recommends: taking humic acid, reducing exposure to electromagnetic frequencies (cell phones, computers, WIFI etc.), and increasing electrolyte intake. So the next time you feel that afternoon slump sneaking up on you, reach for a piece of fruit and a glass of water and trust that your cells will love you for it! Hannah Shaw A Nourishing Notion Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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with Alison Elsberry Nurturing the authentic, Soulful expression of children Offering classes to parents, educators & youth professionals Alison 027 201 4444 alison@alisonelsberry.com www.alisonelsberry.com Issue #7 | The Inspired Guide | January 1st 2020
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Kerry Kingston Design Holistic Interior Design & Soulful Living. Interior Styling & Planning Feng Shui, Crystals & Oils Eco Conscious Spaces 021 730 010 (Auckland, NZ) kkdesignnz@outlook.com www.kerrykingstondesign.com
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First published online in Nelson, New Zealand by: Sears Co | Amanda Sears www.searsco.nz editor@searsco.nz 027 974 3879 Layout and Production: Studio S | Sears Co Publishing and Design: Studio S | Sears Co Images: Supplied, CreativeMarket.com, Unsplash.com, RawPixel.com or Self Issue #7 Published January 1st 2020 (Digital)
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