WB Issue#158

Australia’s leading natural health & living magazine

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Love who you are

WAYS TO OVERCOME ADRENAL FATIGUE

Create self-care rituals Eat for blemish-free skin Taryn Brumfitt talks body image Help your son embrace his shape

DECORATE YOUR HOME

sustainably

IS THE 5:2 DIET FOR YOU?

GO WILD, FOR NATURE’S SAKE

Honour your ancestors, heal yourself

HOW TO COOK WITH MEDICINAL HERBS SPRING’S SUPER PLANETARY CYCLE

COVER PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Issue 158 AUS $12.00* NZ $12.00 (Both incl. GST)

Yoga

SPECIAL REPORT MANAGING MENOPAUSE

for finding ease

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND | HAWAII’S HEART | FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Terry Robson Ph +61 2 9887 0320 EDITOR Danielle Kirk Ph +61 2 9887 0640 MANAGING EDITOR Kerry Boyne EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kate Duncan DESIGNER Rachel Henderson NATIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Kirsti Rae (Couper) Ph +61 2 9887 0369 QUEENSLAND ADVERTISING CONSULTANT Amy Frank Ph +61 488 424 232 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SALES & MARKETING Sandy Shaw Ph +61 8 8342 5989 VICTORIAN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AD SALES MANAGER Tracey Dwyer Ph +61 3 9694 6403 ADVERTISING PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Hannah Felton Ph +61 2 9887 0376 ADVERTISING SENIOR DESIGNER Martha Rubazewicz MARKETING CAMPAIGN EXECUTIVE Kye Blackett Ph +61 2 9887 0326 PUBLISHER Janice Williams COVER CREDIT Getty Images

CHAIRMAN/CEO Prema Perera PUBLISHER Janice Williams CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Vicky Mahadeva ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Emma Perera ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Karen Day CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Mark Darton CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kate Podger EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION MANAGER Anastasia Casey PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Nerilee Chen PREPRESS MANAGER Ivan Fitz-Gerald MARKETING & ACQUISITIONS MANAGER Chelsea Peters SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES 1300 303 414 CIRCULATION ENQUIRIES to our Sydney head office: +61 2 9805 0399 WellBeing Issue 158 is published by Universal WellBeing Pty Ltd, Unit 5, 6-8 Byfield Street, North Ryde NSW 2113, Australia. Phone: +61 2 9805 0399, Fax: +61 2 9805 0714. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd, Singapore. Distributed by Network Services, Phone: +61 2 9282 8777.

Editorial advice is non-specific and readers are advised to seek professional advice for personal problems. Individual replies to readers’ letters by consulting editors are not possible. The opinions expressed by individual writers in WellBeing are not necessarily those of the publishers.

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers. The publishers believe all the information supplied in this book to be correct at the time of printing. They are not, however, in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. Prices, addresses and phone numbers were, after investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, up to date at the time of printing, but the shifting sands of time may change them in some cases. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements which appear in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility must therefore be on the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisements for publication. While every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy, the publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. This magazine is printed on paper that comes from a mill that satisfies the requirements of ISO 14001. *Recommended retail price ISSN 0812-8220 Copyright © Universal Magazines MMXV ACN 003 026 944 universalmagazines.com.au IMPORTANT: This magazine is intended as a reference volume only, not as a medical manual. While the information is based on material provided by researchers, the magazine does not presume to give medical advice. Be sure to consult your physician before beginning any therapeutic program.

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FROM THE EDITORIN-CHIEF

E

verything has a use-by date.

Yes, I’m not qualifying that ... everything. Even the sun, that supposedly constant orb in our sky, will die in around 5 billion years, but in around 2.8 billion years, as it brightens, it will snuff out life on Earth. Impermanence is permanent and it doesn’t have to be on time scales like that of the sun. In every person’s lifetime, change is a constant, but we often live as if it isn’t.

I had change thrust in my face recently and, as usual, it was my darling daughters who thrust it there.

A fight had broken out, not over anything major as far as I could tell, but a fierce dispute. As an engaged gliderparent (a helicopter-parent but more environmentally sustainable), I attempted to intervene and find resolution to the dispute, which, frankly, was insoluble.

Amid the furore, both girls suddenly stopped and calm reigned where previously there had been emotional chaos. The girls looked at each other and then at me with a kind of sad resignation and, I think, a modicum of pity. Somehow, psychically, both girls knew what they had to tell me. The 10-year-old said, “Dad, we are sisters. Fighting is what we do.” To which the seven-year-old added, “Yeah, Dad. Just let us fight. It will be OK in a minute. You don’t have to worry.”

There were two things that struck me in that moment. First, my girls had way more self-awareness than I credited them with, so it was a proud moment. It was also a challenging and profound moment.

I realised in that instant that my role as

teacher, protector and solver of problems for my little girls was transmuting. Under the influence of the alchemy of time and living, my part in their life was changing.

Yes, I would still protect them sometimes, solve a problem here and there, and guide them where I could, but now I was also a companion and someone who would be taught by them. Our relationship was evolving and, if I tried to stay in my old role, I would be left in the primeval sludge of an outdated relationship.

It is so tempting to try to maintain things as they are, but that is to deny the true nature of things.

If there is something in your life that is not working, then maybe you are resisting evolving to a new place with it.

Review your life, see where you are stuck in age-old patterns, and try on a new pattern for size. The results will probably surprise you, but they won’t disappoint.

Terry Robson, Editor-in-Chief

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WELLBEING.COM.AU | 3

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24 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT

CONTENTS ISSUE #158 COMMUNITY 6 Your say WellBeing readers tell us what’s on their minds.

7 Twisdom Sharing your wisdom with the WellBeing community.

18 Road Test We relax at Solar Springs Retreat in the Southern Highlands of NSW. 20 Holistic Journey We talk essential oils with Greg Trevena of Essentially Australia.

22 Art for Art’s Sake Simonette Vaja gets inspired by human virtues and the beauty within us.

152 Real Life Experience Yoga has become part of one reader’s depressionfighting toolkit.

161 What’s On What we’ve been up to, plus what’s coming up for you.

BEAUTY, FOOD & HEALTH 8 The Pulse Read about why your knuckles crack and more in our medical news section.

14 Supplement Hops are green-hued flowers with a multitude of therapeutic properties.

16 Functional Food Meet ginger, a delicious

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34 spice with abundant healing potential.

34 Learning to Love Yourself Is it possible to give yourself daily compassion? Learn how to get self-care off your to-do list and make it an enjoyable part of daily life.

40 Beating Burnout If “I’m so stressed” is your mantra, you are at risk of adrenal burnout — or may already have it. Fortunately, you can reduce your adrenalin levels.

46 The 5:2 Diet Phenomenon Fad diets come and go but the 5:2 diet seems here to stay. However, is it suitable for everyone, effective and easy to apply? We take a look.

52 Complexion Boosters Expensive creams and lotions are common go-to

treatments for skin, yet proper nutrition is the most vital and direct route to skin health.

58 Herb Heaven on a Plate Herbs smell lovely, flavour your food wonderfully and are all-round nutritional superstars. Get inspired with these herby dishes by Pete Evans.

64 Special Report: Pause & Effect Menopause is a natural part of every woman’s life, so we examine natural ways in which you can support the ups and downs of this life phase.

134 Recipes: Whole Food Slow Cooked Maximise flavour and minimise fuss and time spent in the kitchen with these delicious slowcooked meals.

10 Lifelines Read about why leaders should “serve” and more in our body and soul section.

24 Thinkers & Doers: Taryn Brumfitt Positive body image champion Taryn Brumfitt shares how she transformed her body loathing into body love and is helping women worldwide to do the same.

28 Your Super Spring A rare planetary blend this spring offers you an extra-special chance to create and embrace new opportunities, success and happiness.

80 Finding Your Ease Through using an intention in your yoga practice, you can merge effort and stability with grace and comfort to create the ideal balance.

86 Honour Your Ancestors, Heal Yourself Connecting to and honouring your ancestors can help you tap into a deep source of wisdom as well as create healing in your own life.

90 The Wilds Inside In a world where concrete and machines are now normal, what effect would it have to reconnect with the natural realms that were once our homes?

132 Counter Culture Find out what’s new in books, music and film.

126 Discovering Hawaii’s Heart Hawaii is so much more than Waikiki. We explore beyond the crowds and find a Pacific paradise with soul.

OUR SECTIONS

COMMUNITY

EVERY ISSUE

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120 HOME, PARENTING & RELATIONSHIPS 74 Am I Buff Enough?

How boys relate to their bodies is a big issue.

Fortunately, there are many things that you as a parent or guardian can do to guide young males in the right direction.

102 Future Proof Your Interiors An easy way you can reduce waste and use fewer non-renewable resources at the same time is by incorporating eco-friendly, sustainable interiors in your home.

PLANET & TRAVEL 12 Green Beat Read about the effects of pesticides on bees and more in our environmental news section.

58 96 Sustainable Home, Sustainable Life Do you like the thought of greening your home but don’t know where to start? Three couples show that it’s not so hard.

108 Beating Fossil Fuel Addiction Ours is a society addicted to fossil fuel but, by redirecting money away from unwanted fossil fuel projects, it’s possible to foster change.

114 Trees Please Trees are not just beautiful, they’re essential for our existence — and also have a profound effect on our state of being.

120 Going Troppo From white-sand beaches to culinary delights and rainforest adventures, Far North Queensland has plenty to offer.

136 Education Focus News from our natural health educators: this issue, the International Center of Reiki.

138 Natural Source Health products from our advertisers.

142 Beauty Source News from the brands that care for your skin, naturally.

143 Food Source Healthy food products from our advertisers.

144 Natural Beauty Carla Oates knows that spring is the perfect time to cleanse from within.

145 Quick Kitchen Lee Holmes cooks up some delicious immunityboosting dishes.

146 DIY Detox Sally Mathrick asks if our perception of beauty and ageing needs a detox.

147 Digging In Jackie French delights in the earthy wonders of healthy soil and shares how to create it.

148 Pet Care Karen Goldrick discusses the problems pets can have with urinating as well as natural ways to address these.

149 Stargazing Christine Broadbent reveals the planetary influences for September and October, 2015.

150 Ageing Well Michael Elstein looks at what melatonin has to do with fighting obesity.

151 Back to Basics Karin Cutter addresses major nutritional deficiencies linked to antisocial behavior.

153 WellBeing Resource Guide A directory of holistic products and services.

BEAUTY

FOOD

HEALTH

BODY

MIND

SPIRIT

HOME

PARENTING

RELATIONSHIPS

PLANET

TRAVEL

COMMUNITY YOUR SAY

Your say

RADIATING LOVE R

Did something resonate with you in this issue of WellBeing? We’d love to hear your feedback. Write to us at WellBeing, Locked Bag 154, North Ryde, NSW 1670, email wbletters@universalmagazines. com.au, comment on our Facebook page or tweet us: @WellBeing_Mag. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

FROM THE EDITOR

F

or half a year now, I’ve been looking for an apartment to buy — in Sydney, where property prices rate among the most expensive in the world. Call me crazy, but ... no, actually, just call me crazy.

It’s been a daunting hunt: one unit I looked at in an unmaintained block in a high-demand suburb sold at auction for $130,000 more than the indicated price. That’s almost enough to buy a whole house in some towns!

The search has meant farewelling sleepy Saturday mornings, scrolling daily through listings of properties that seem to go up in price and down in quality by the hour, and traipsing through a succession of open homes with scores of other first-homeowner hopefuls. I’m on a first-name basis with real estate agents (they’re actually quite nice) and now know all kinds of property-related trivia, like that bathtubs and tiles can be re-enamelled to make them look new.

Who would have thought?

It has been stressful and tiring and disheartening — and a wonderful exercise in keeping things in perspective. After all, what a great privilege to be in the financial position to buy a home; not everyone can afford to do so and many people would love a simple roof over their heads, regardless of who owns it.

So, the odd tears aside, here’s how I’ve been staying chipper. I’ve started to reframe, turning the Saturday AM parade of pads into a weekly opportunity to discover my adopted city and get excited about what awaits. I’m trying to turn unithunting into a bonding exercise rather than a competitive one: “Oh, hello again!

Did you hear about the crazy price last week’s went for?” I’m uncovering a deep well of patience. I have also been thanking my lucky stars that I’m a ring-in from Queensland and don’t need to buy into this city to stay close to family.

What’s more, I’ve also started to think more creatively about living situations and to examine my values. Is there an intentional community or eco-village within commuting distance? What are the rules around setting up a tiny house in central Sydney? Could I continue renting here and buy elsewhere — and, if so, how ethical is it to invest there and potentially price locals out of the market? What’s driving this desire to possess, to own my home space?

I suppose that, like most things, you just have to do the work, make a decision and trust that you’ll find that sweet spot. My guess is it’s just over the hill (preferably next to the ocean).

Danielle Kirk, Editor

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T Thank you for all the goodness and love tthat radiates from your magazine! Even ssimply touching the pages of WellBeing i inspires me and reminds me of all the m magic and greatness in the world.

N Nelly Lenton

THANKS A MILLION T I just wanted to send a little Sunday llove note to say that I absolutely love yyour magazine. A million thankyous ffor what you do! @ @NaomiLArnold

INTERESTING & INFORMATIVE I have been collecting and enjoying WellBeing since issue #1 (first from my local newsagency and then a subscription) and have given some of the back issues to my local yoga school for the students to take home and keep or swap. (Sorry, I hope this doesn’t take away from your sales!)

I have found the magazine consistently interesting and very informative. I especially enjoy the in-depth articles on medical issues such as asthma and

STAR LETTER I am coming from a conference in Canberra and am waiting at the airport as I write this.

I’ve just bought your mag and, Terry, I wanted to share that my teenagers are starting to learn how to drive. In the past two weeks I had to by a manual car so they can learn on one. I happened to also have my husband in this new vehicle and I explained that we would need to fill the car.

As we entered the driveway to refuel, I exclaimed, “Oh, I’ll have to learn which side to refuel this car!” thinking how will I ever remember this new info?

My husband proceeded to lean over and show me the arrow on the dashboard. I was more thrilled at the prospect of not having to make a mental note every time I refilled.

I’m 44 and, yes, I love finding out new stuff. Thanks for asking the question, “What don’t you know?” I think that, starting from this premise, we also live a more liberating, mindful and engaging life.

All the very best with all that you and your team do.

Melanie Woods

COMMUNITY TWISDOM

ILLUSTRATIONS WITH SOUL I’m just taking the time to let you know that I love your magazine and look forward to reading each one. So many of your articles resonate with me. I am particularly inspired by the little illustrations by Soul Stories at the end of your magazine. They are beautifully unique. Thank you for an enjoyable read — WellBeing is the only mag I buy.

Fiona McKay

Twisdom We’d love to hear your tips for living well. Email us at wbletters@universalmagazines. com.au, comment on our Facebook page or tweet us @ WellBeing_Mag. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

WE ASKED: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE HERBAL TEA COMBO?

LONG-TIME FAN First of all, congratulations to Danielle Kirk and Kate Duncan for their new posts — it’s great to see that WellBeing recognises talent from within. I have to admit that, at first when I opened the mag and read about Danielle, I was concerned that we’d lost Terry. As a long-time fan of WB I’m so glad he is now The Big Chief.

I haven’t written in before but the article on Dr Libby Weaver was so inspiring. What an amazing, smart woman, totally full of life and compassion for others.

I love WellBeing for making us all think outside the box.

Tammy Nicol

Lemongrass and ginger.

Chelle Hungerford Home-made chai is awesome.

Simone Wilson Fresh ginger and organic honey.

A to Z Apothecary Chai spices and roasted dandelion!

Tara Appleton Fresh mint with lemon and honey is divine.

Georgia Pierce

A LOVELY TREAT I love going to the mailbox and getting treats! Thank you, WellBeing, for my lovely free copy of WellBeing Yoga. I can’t wait to put the kids to bed tonight and sit down with a cup of tea and my new mag.

Anna Partridge

THE WORLD INSIDE I found WellBeing a year ago at my local library. I just can’t believe the efforts of the WellBeing team to enclose the world in the issue. Thank you so much.

Navpreet Kaur

WIN

What’s your favourite herbal tea combo?

The writer of this issue’s star letter wins an anti-ageing gift pack worth AU$219.75 from zk’in. The pack contains one each of the Softening Cream Cleanser, Hydrating Mist, Line Smoothing Serum, Rejuvenating Moisturiser and Brightening & Hydrating Masque. Every product is dermatologically tested and non-irritant and contains performancebased actives proven to deliver real beauty benefits.

Whether your skin is feeling dry, irritated or just a little dull, this pack will rehydrate, reduce redness, smooth expression lines and brighten your complexion. Every product is also certified organic, cruelty free and vegan.

CONVERSATION POINTS Be a woman you admire, respect, who makes you smile. Seek enough to be more than the sum of all her parts. Add kindness, courage and just be. @NicolaGoodhew Finally in bed. No better time to start thinking about every possible thing that has or ever could happen. @PaulaHassell Nature observes us, just as we observe it. #consciousness @CarlGreer Think twice before buying anything with plastic microbeads ... they end up in our oceans. @TopcatToni How good is it to be in the garden?

Planted some cuttings of Dicliptera suberecta, a beautiful grey-leaf, spreading shrub, orange flowers. @jnbriessen1 My destiny will lead me where I’m bound. @krissyboucher Yep, hair up (specifically in a bun) = day of cleansing + creativity! @inspirefreedom_ Sunsets can make the most stressful things seem so insignificant. @amydonohue My local cafe new menu item: quinoa + chia pudding with blueberries + toasted almonds. #holyheavenlybrunch @_julieparker There’s an adorable little bird in my backyard chirping the cutest little chirps. It sounds so peaceful and happy. @lemonsunrise Had the most incredible week.

Looking forward to making next week even more so #lovelife #makeeverydayamazing @Sophie_CHT How do you get back on the #health wagon after you’ve fallen off ? I am gentle w/ myself and remember that every moment is a chance for change. @Kris_Carr We are not our thoughts and we are not our emotions. If we can learn to experience the mind in this way, then we are free. @andypuddicombe What’s your #selfcare action plan?

Mine include: #Fitbit, screens-off time, walking the dog, catching up with friends, #sleep

Photography Bigstock

candida. They are so well researched and supported with further reading.

Judy Tuckett

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 7

THE PULSE COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

Recent medical findings for a healthier body SHORT WALKS, LONG LIFE A new study was based on data gathered from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Since around 80 per cent of adults fail to get the recommended 2.5 hours per week of moderate activity, the aim was to see how much exercise — and at what level — might counter the problems caused by sitting. In the study, 3243 participants wore accelerometers that objectively measured the intensity of their activities. They found that light-intensity activities such as walking, light gardening and cleaning did show a benefit. In fact, two minutes of light activity each hour was associated with a 33 per cent reduced risk of dying. Assuming 16 waking hours a day, two minutes of strolling each hour will burn 1670 kilojoules in a week, which is not that far off the 2510 kilojoules burned by 2.5 hours of moderate exercise.

Source: Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

DRINK TO DOWN DIABETES This research was based on data gathered from more than 25,000 men and women aged 40 to 79 living in Norfolk in the UK. The participants recorded everything they ate or drank for seven consecutive days. The subjects were then followed for 11 years. It was found that if a participant replaced one serving per day of soft drink with a serving of water or unsweetened tea or coffee it cut the risk of type-2 diabetes by 14 per cent. Replacing a daily drink k of sweetened milk would yield even greater benefits, reducing diabetes risk by 20-25 per cent. However, consuming any artificially sweetened drink to replace a sugarsweetened drink did not reduce diabetes risk. In all, there was a 22 per cent increase in risk of developing diabetes for every habitually consumed daily serve of soft drink, sweetened milk or artificially sweetened drink.

Source: Diabetologia

KNUCKLE-CRACKING LOWDOWN New research has solved the riddle of what happens when you crack your knuckles by recording via MRI what happens in a knuckle in real time as it is cracked. The MRI video revealed that, as the joint surfaces separate, there’s no more synovial fluid available to fill the joint volume and, a bit like forming a vacuum, a cavity is created — and that’s the popping sound we call “cracking”.

Source: PLOS ONE

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This study involved 700 university students who answered questionnaires as to food consumption, exercise frequency, personality and social anxiety levels. They also underwent genetic tests to establish if there was a genetic tendency to anxiety. As well as looking at the food questionnaires to establish fermented food intake, the researchers examined fruit and veg consumption, taking in exercise habits as a control in their analysis for healthy lifestyles outside of fermented food intake. The results showed that people who consume fermented foods (like yoghurt, kimchi and sauerkraut) have fewer social anxiety symptoms, especially if they have neurotic tendencies. They also found that exercise was linked to reduced social anxiety but the fermented food link stood independent of exercise.

According to the researchers, it is the beneficial effects of fermented foods on gut bacteria that affect mood.

Source: Psychiatry Research

MINDFULNESS VS ANTIDEPRESSANTS In a new study, researchers recruited 424 adults who had recurrent major depression and were taking antidepressants. The subjects were randomly assigned to either stay on their medication or come off their antidepressants or receive MindfulnessBased Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). The MBCT involved the subjects being taught skills to identify thoughts and feelings associated with depression when they encountered them, then combat them with constructive responses. The 212 subjects in the MBCT group attended eight 2½-hour group sessions and did daily homework exercises. Over a two-year follow-up period, 47 per cent of people on antidepressants had a relapse compared to 44 per cent in the MBCT group. That shows that MBCT is as effective as antidepressants but minus the side-effects and with some benefits. The researchers say MBCT is a viable choice for people with recurrent depression. Source: The Lancet

Photography Bigstock

MEDIFACT

FERMENTED FOODS REDUCE ANXIETY

速

LIFELINES COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

Interesting slices of life BOSSES WHO SERVE These new findings are based on data gathered from surveys of more than 1000 people including managers, employees and customers of a chain of restaurants.

The findings show that when employees know the manager will put employee needs above her or his own then there are improvements in customer satisfaction, better job performance by employees and lower staff turnover. When bosses create a culture of caring, co-operation, fairness and empathy, employees in turn give back to the company and its customers; it is a very positive self-perpetuating cycle. The study found that leaders who “served” resulted in six per cent higher job performance among their employees, eight per cent more customer-serviceoriented behaviours and 50 per cent higher staff retention rates. The researchers say that “servant leadership” has a trickle-down effect resulting in employees who seek to serve customers and the business as a whole becomes more effective.

Source: Academy of Management Journal

GOOD PEOPLE, BAD CHOICES In this study, business school students were divided into pairs, one to act as the broker for a “seller” and the other as the broker for a “buyer” of a historic New York brownstone building. Before the negotiations began, half of the subjects were asked to recall a time when they cheated or bent the rules in order to gain advantage. The other half were given no instructions. The results showed that only 45 per cent of people who had been asked to think

about their ethics before the experiment behaved unethically in the negotiations.

This compares to 67 per cent of people who behaved unethically when they had not thought about their ethics.

The researchers say this shows that “good” people are more likely to behave unethically if they believe the act is an isolated instance and they don’t see it as an ongoing aspect of their behaviour.

Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

DID YOU KNOW?

EMOTICON POWER Today we all use emoticons, but how effective are they as a communication tool? According to a new study, even in the business context, they can be quite effective.

People rate customer service agents who use emoticons in their communication more positively. Analysis reveals that emoticons make people feel that they are emotionally connected. OMG, who’d have thought!  Source: Computers in Human Behaviour

MONEY THOUGHTS These studies looked at the link between cynicism and economic success. The first two studies were American and both showed that a high level of cynicism was associated with a lower level of income. Another German study involved 16,000 people. Nine years of follow-up showed that people with high levels of cynicism earned an average AU$384 per month less than those with low levels of cynicism. A final study looked at survey data from 41 countries and found that the negative link between cynicism and money was strongest in countries with higher levels of altruism and lower homicide rates.

The cynic is less likely to trust others and therefore less likely to join collaborative efforts or to ask for help in times of need. Cynics are also more likely to devote energy to protecting themselves, covering their own backs, resulting in a loss of job focus.

Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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This study involved a series of experiments designed to see how your thinking in terms of time affects achieving your goals. In the first experiment, subjects imagined they were carrying out tasks such as studying for an exam. When people thought in smaller time units, the exam seemed closer. In a second series of experiments, people were again assigned to think in terms of days, months or years and then asked to fill in a blank as to when they should start saving for university (or college; this was an American study) or retirement. People consistently said they would start saving sooner when they thought in days rather than years. Thinking in smaller units makes you feel more connected with your future self. If the future “you” is more like the present “you”, it helps you put aside present-day rewards in favour of future benefits.

Source: Psychological Science

Photography Bigstock

TIME TO ACHIEVE GOALS

GREEN BEAT COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

All the latest in environmental issues BEE WELLBEING

GREEN THINKING Green roofs are roofs where plants and grass have been planted instead of just having a roof. Aside from their obvious aesthetic qualities, green roofs offer many benefits. A new study involved subjects carrying out a boring mental task in a city office block. The task involved watching a computer screen as a series of numbers flashed up and, for each number, subjects had to press the corresponding key on the keyboard unless it was the number three. In the middle, the subjects were given a 40-second microbreak where they could look at a nearby rooftop. In some instances, the rooftop was an ordinary concrete rooftop, while others were able to view a green rooftop. People who looked at the green roof made significantly fewer mistakes and showed better concentration in the second half of the task than those who looked at the concrete roof. In so many ways, the colour of the future is green.

Source: Journal of Environmental Psychology

Researchers used data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a satellite mission run jointly

by NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, to calculate what changes had occurred in the weight of the Antarctic ice sheet from 2003 to 2014. The data showed that, on the western side of Antarctica, the ice sheet lost increasing amounts of ice, from 121 billion tonnes in 2008 to around 240 billion tonnes in 2014. The ice sheet on east Antarctica, however, did thicken during that time but gained only half as much ice as was lost in the west, so the overall loss of ice each year from 2003 to 2014 averaged 92 billion tonnes. There is nothing to confirm an anthropogenic (man-made) role in the ice loss, but the researchers find it difficult to explain without manmade climate change being part of it.

Source: Earth and Planetary Science

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CYCLE VS CAR Researchers from Lund University, Denmark, and the University of Queensland, Australia, drew on data that the Copenhagen Municipality uses to determine whether new cycling infrastructure should be built. This data compares the effect of cars versus bicycles when it comes to air pollution, climate change, travel routes, noise, road wear, health and congestion. The data shows that, if the costs to society and individuals are added together, the impact of the car is €0.50 per kilometre and of the bicycle, €0.08 per kilometre.

If you look only at cost benefits for society, then one kilometre by car costs €0.15 whereas society earns €0.16 for every kilometre cycled. In all, it’s six times more expensive for society if an individual travels by car rather than bike. So not only are investments in cycle infrastructure and cycle-friendly policies economically sustainable; they offer high returns as well.

Source: Ecological Economics

Photography Bigstock & iStock

ANTARCTIC MELT

Bees are a vital part of the ecosystem; over 33 per cent of our food supply relies upon them for pollination. In a new study involving 19 apple orchards in New York State, where testing took place over two years from 2011 to 2012, results showed that the more pesticide that was used, the lower the numbers of bees and bee species. These effects held true even when the pesticides used were labelled “safe for bees”.

This was also true for the use of fungicides. The data also showed that the effect was greatest in the generation following the one exposed to pesticide, suggesting that pesticides impaired bee reproduction. So it seems that native bees are very vulnerable to the effects of pesticides and fungicides and we should be thinking of smarter ways to produce our food than dousing it in chemicals.

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

You can’t avoid stress but you can help manage it

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SUPPLEMENT HOPS

Hops: from slumber to stomachs The common perception of hops is their starring role as the bitter taste in the manufacture of beer; however, hops have a multitude of therapeutic properties.

WORDS / DR KAREN BRIDGMAN

H

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS Hops contain up to 20 per cent of bittertasting compounds known as humulone, isohumulone and the volatile oil humulene, along with phenolic (flavonoid) compounds xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol, and possibly the most potent phyto-oestrogen known: 8-prenylnaringenin.

The bitter acids impart the antibacterial properties in both medicines and beer.

THERAPEUTIC USES Hops have tonic, nervine, diuretic and anodyne (pain-relieving) properties. Their volatile oil produces sedative and soporific effects and the bitter principle is stomachic and tonic. For this reason, hops improve the appetite and promote sleep.

Hormonal: menopause A large focus for hops research today has been in reducing menopausal complaints.

Hops have been shown to be effective in reducing hot flushes, improving sleep time and in reducing anxiety and depression — all symptoms due to decreasing levels of oestrogen and rising levels of luteinising hormone in the pituitary gland.

Sedative Apart from hormonal effects, the other major traditonal use for hops preparations was as a sedative. Studies have proven that hops increase sleeping time, reduce body

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particularly of protein, also lowers the gut’s populations of pathogenic bacteria.

Anti-microbial

temperature, reduce locomotor activity and show a central sedating effect. Hops have thus been shown to be effective for insomnia, plus nervousness and anxiety.

Hops’ sedative activity also aids tension headaches and gastrointestinal spasms.

Osteoporosis The changing levels of oestrogen in menopause contributes to the rise in osteoporosis risk. Research has shown all the major hops flavones possess oestrogen-like effects on osteogenic differentiation. When tested, a dose of 30mg/kg body weight in rats significantly increased bone mineral density; in the untreated animals, bone density reduced over the same time. Further studies must be conducted in women with this problem.

Liver detoxification An infusion of the leaves, strobiles and stalks as hop tea, taken by the wineglassful two or three times daily in the early spring, is good for sluggish livers. Hops trigger antioxidant liver enzyme production and these antioxidants protect the liver and breast tissue in a form that is particularly protective of breast tissue, inhibiting oestrogen-induced malignant cell transformation and providing antiinflammatory activities. This activity makes hops very useful in relieving menopausal symptoms and being cancer-protective.

Cancer-preventive properties Hops have been shown to be protective against both breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Gastrointestinal Hops have been shown to promote digestion (increasing gastric juice volume without increasing acidity) indicating that the bitterness of hops is a crucial factor in inducing gastric secretion through the cephalic (brain) phase. This digestion boost,

The volatile oils and extracts showed activity against the gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus and the fungus Trichophyton, but very little activity against gram-negative bacteria such as E. coli or yeasts such as Candida albicans. In other studies, the bitter acids were shown to exert antifungal activity against Candida albicans.

Xanthohumol has shown broadspectrum anti-infective activity against gram-positive bacteria and viruses such as cytomegalovirus, herpes viruses, HIV, malarial parasites and pathogenic fungi.

In China, alcoholic extracts have been used clinically to treat leprosy, pulmonary tuberculosis, acute bacterial dysentery, silicosis and asbestosis.

Anti-inflammatory Hops’ flavonoid components have repeatedly shown major anti-inflammatory activity. This indicates potential for pain relief in rheumatic conditions.

Antidepressant/anti-anxiety Hops have significant antidepressant activity. Hops baths that have been used to relieve menopause symptoms also act as mood regulators, reducing depression, anxiety, excitability and restlessness.

USING HOPS Internally The official preparations are an infusion (water-based) and a tincture. The dosages used are taken up to three times daily and before bed: 0.5–1g of dried strobiles as an infusion (tea); or 0.5–1mL of a 1:1 liquid extract (45 per cent ethanol); or 1–2mL of a 1:5 tincture (60 per cent ethanol).

Topically A poultice can be made from the tea of hop flowers (often mixed with chamomile), which traditionally was used to reduce painful swellings, including bruises, boils and rheumatic pains. A pillow of warm hops will often relieve toothache and earache and allay nervous irritation.

References available on request.

Dr Karen Bridgman is a holistic practitioner at Australian Biologics, Sydney, and Pymble Grove Health Centre, Gordon.

Photography Bigstock

ops (Humulus lupulus) are the flowers (the female flowers, primarily, called strobiles or “cones”) of a species of perennial climbing plants in the Cannabaceae family, a small family of plants (about 170) of which cannabis is one. It prefers moist, temperate climates and grows in similar soils to potatoes — and they are frequently grown together.

Male plants are specifically excluded from agricultural areas where hops grows, as only the flowers, not the seeds, are used.

There have been two major uses for hops over the centuries: For making beer: as a flavouring and stability agent, providing a tangy, bitter flavour. Traditionally, lower-alcohol beers were used as medicines.

As traditional medicines: as infusion, tinctures and topical applications.

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FUNCTIONAL FOOD GINGER

Ginger: spice up your health From digestive soother to anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, ginger is a delicious spice with huge healing potential.

WORDS / DR KAREN BRIDGMAN

GINGER AS A FOOD/SPICE Ginger produces a hot fragrant spice. The young rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a milder taste; mature ginger is drier, more fibrous and stronger in flavour and heat.

Ginger wine has been made commercially since 1740. The root is often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or made into tea (with honey) or sugared or honeyed and made into candy. Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger in cooking at a ratio of 6:1, although the flavours are a little different. For longerterm storage, ginger can be placed in a plastic bag and refrigerated or frozen.

INGREDIENTS A typical serving of 5g of ginger powder in foods provides few nutrients except manganese, and this dose comprises about 79 per cent of the recommended daily allowance for this mineral.

Ginger’s flavour, odour and therapeutic properties come from its active ingredients: gingerols, zingerone and shogaols, among others. These volatile oils comprise 1–3 per cent of the weight of fresh ginger.

It’s mainly the gingerols that boost the motility of the gastro-intestinal tract. They also have analgaesic, sedative, antipyretic (reducing fevers) and antibacterial benefits.

EFFECTS OF GINGER Anti-inflammatory In traditional Chinese and Indian medicine,

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ginger has been used to treat a wide range of ailments associated with inflammation, including stomach aches, diarrhoea, nausea, asthma, respiratory disorders, sore throats, toothache, gingivitis and arthritis.

The scientific data has shown that ginger produces its anti-inflammatory effects through multiple mechanisms. A study of osteoarthritis (there have been many) showed that ginger demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in knee pain even when compared with standard pharmaceutical pain relief.

Antioxidant & anti-microbial Ginger’s antioxidant effects are significant and, while they are not as strong as turmeric (in the same family), ginger has higher antimicrobial effects against a range of pathogenic food micro-organisms including E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus.

Anti-nausea & vomiting In various research studies, ginger has been shown to be an effective anti-nausea treatment for a range of situations: travel sickness, sea sickness, morning sickness in pregnancy (be careful of dose) and even for chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Gastro-intestinal tract protective effects Ginger has been used since antiquity in treating various gastric ailments, including constipation, dyspepsia, belching, bloating, gastritis, epigastric discomfort, gastric ulcers, indigestion, nausea and vomiting, to name a few. It has also been shown to be effective in preventing gastric ulcers induced by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like aspirin and indomethacin), the spirochete Helicobacter pylori, excess alcohol and stress.

Sialagogue (increases saliva) Ginger’s sialagogue action stimulates saliva creation, making swallowing easier.

Migraine relief A study conducted in a hospital in Iran found that ginger powder is as effective in treating common migraine symptoms as the pharmaceutical sumatriptan (Imigran).

Prevents liver damage from acetaminophen (paracetamol) Acetaminophen, known more commonly as paracetamol, is a popular painkiller and antipyretic. However, acetaminophen is also associated with a higher risk of chemically induced liver damage (hepatotoxicity), particularly in patients with liver disorders. A study was conducted to research whether ginger pre-treatment might reduce the acetaminopheninduced liver damage (in rats). The results demonstrated that ginger could prevent hepatic injury, alleviating oxidative stress in a manner comparable to that of vitamin E. Kidney protection Research has shown that ginger protects the kidneys against a variety of environmental challenges, including lead toxicity as well as the damage induced by chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin and doxorubicin.

Dysmenorrhoea (period pain) Ginger can help reduce the symptoms of pain in primary dysmenorrhoea. In a research study in Iran, 82.85 per cent of the women taking ginger capsules reported improvement in pain symptoms compared to 47.05 per cent of those on placebo.

CONTRADICTIONS & INTERACTIONS Ginger has very few negative side-effects when consumed in reasonable quantities.

Occasionally, a person will have a reaction if consuming it in large quantities, in which case it may cause heartburn, bloating, wind and occasionally nausea or a rash, but these occur more commonly with the powdered form. The symptoms will disappear when the person stops taking it.

It is generally regarded as safe. However, ginger may interact with the blood-thinning drug warfarin if taken in therapeutic doses, although this is “hotly” debated.

References available on request.

Dr Karen Bridgman is a holistic practitioner at Australian Biologics, Sydney, and Pymble Grove Health Centre, Gordon.

Photography Bigstock

G

inger (Zingiber officinale) is a flowering plant in the same family as turmeric, cardamom and galangal. All these plants are considered herbaceous perennials that annually grow one-metre-high stems, narrow green leaves and flowers.

The roots (rhizomes) of these plants are deemed spices. The origin of the name ginger possibly comes from Latin, Greek or Sanskrit, but overall the derivative of the name means “root”. About 50 genera and 1300 species exist worldwide and, because of the beautiful flowers of some varieties, ginger is also used in tropical gardens.

As a spice, the rhizome is gathered when the stalk withers and is then scalded and scraped to prevent it sprouting.

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ROAD TEST

SOLAR SPRINGS HEALTH RETREAT

On a high in the Southern Highlands A weekend at Solar Springs in picturesque Bundanoon, NSW, is no ordinary wellness retreat experience.

WORDS / KERRY BOYNE

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he Solar Springs experience begins with the scenic drive to Bundanoon, a lovely Southern Highlands village roughly equidistant from Canberra and Sydney.

Our 90-minute run took us south down the F5 Freeway, turning off at Mittagong and passing through the pleasant towns and villages of Bowral, Moss Vale, Sutton Forest and Exeter, then on to Bundanoon.

As we crawled through Bowral’s township, my friend and I were tempted to stop at some of the many interestinglooking clothing and homewares stores or refuel at one of the inviting cafes.

Remembering Solar Springs’ standard invitation to arrive in time for lunch, despite a 2.30pm check-in, we pushed on.

The first thing to impress on arrival is the stunning gardens with their combination of cottagey profusion and elegant, clipped formality. Mind you, these gardens have had many years to become so established: the place has been operating as a wellbeing retreat for around 30 years and before that as a guesthouse dating back to the 1920s, when there were as many as 50 guesthouses in this tiny village.

The well-worn but comfortable buildings carry their vintage with quiet dignity.

As soon as we were settled in our rooms, mine with a lovely view over Morton National Park and my friend’s overlooking the gorgeous front garden, we joined the other guests for lunch: a perfectly cooked pumpkin risotto with a delicate lemony flavour, along with big bowls of fresh salads of crisp greens and divine-tasting tomatoes. There was also sensational sourdough bread, which the chef makes on-site; but only on Fridays, we were told.

That first afternoon, we strolled around the six acres of grounds and then down to Bundanoon, before relaxing until dinner.

Solar Springs is not the only wellness retreat that offers wine with evening meals, but it was nevertheless a pleasant surprise to accompany a delicious three-course meal featuring fish for main. Vegetarians, vegans and anyone on special diets are also very well catered for.

Knowing that the one thing missing from the otherwise exceptional food and drink offerings was espresso coffee (brewed was available), we followed our

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retreat buffet breakfast on Saturday with a coffee down in the village, where we found a truly amazing quilting and embroidery show in progress.

Solar Springs is very much a part of the life of Bundanoon. Only a gentle walk from the shops and cafes, some of its facilities are open to locals. In fact, the two friends we planned to see while we were there have a membership to use the gym and indoor pool. They also dine at the retreat’s restaurant sometimes — a great compliment given that one is a very talented pastry chef at a local cafe.

There’s a great range of activities and treatments on offer, but you can opt in or out of any of it. Don’t worry, you’ll be applauded whichever way you go — vertical and energetic or horizontal and calm.

Our weekend packages included a massage and one other treatment each.

Electing Swedish at the same time on the Saturday, we had different masseuses, both top-notch. Later, my friend had a facial and I had the best pedicure of my life. The day was complete when our local friends joined us for a delicious three-course dinner.

The 75-minute Sunday-morning yoga class was a standout, too. As it was a new moon, our instructor led a restorative session which, though it was still a thorough workout, left us feeling blissful.

Then we had to choose between staying for Sunday lunch or leaving early enough

for shopping time on the way home. (The shops won by a whisker.)

With all the charms of its picturesque location in a region renowned for its cultivated beauty, a good range of activities and treatments by highly trained therapists, fantastic food and a scenic drive to get you there, friendly, relaxed Solar Springs is yet more than the sum of its parts.

If you opt not to drive, by the way, you can be met at the Bundanoon train station.

AT A GLANCE 26 guest rooms, some with ensuites, some with shared bathrooms; a separate cottage with four ensuite twin/double rooms and sunroom Activities include yoga, archery, bushwalks and glow-worm walks, swimming, aquarobics, bootcamp, stretch and circuit classes, tennis and more Spa treatments include massage therapies, beauty treatments and body hands and feet therapies Consultations include naturopathy (with iridology), Haemaview live blood analysis, success coaching and lifestyle counselling, and a Wellness Program with bioimpedance analysis (BIA) Food by French-trained chef Francois Razavet, twice awarded a Sydney Morning Herald chef’s hat Visit solarsprings.com.au for more information and packages.

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HOLISTIC JOURNEY ESSENTIALLY AUSTRALIA

Aussie bush aromas Greg Trevena is the essential oil equivalent to the Bush Tucker Man. He chats with us about his company Essentially Australia and the healing powers of our soil. plants are already accustomed to rainfall patterns, seasonal temperatures, soil types and insects native to the region.

This should ensure that the plant grows and produces comfortably without the need for heavy irrigation, heavy fertiliser and spraying for insects. My plantation is growing on a certified organic farm, so chemicals really aren’t anywhere near my crops. I truly believe that the preservation of wild, native ecosystems is extremely valuable as I have been able to find some potentially useful plants in these remnants.

What inspired you to establish your business? I had a bush-tucker jam business in 1988 called Rainforest Foods, which was largely motivated by the ABC TV series Bush Tucker Man. I was inspired by the series’ identification and exposure of potentially useful Australian plants.

I was also inspired by Landcare groups and their drive to replant Australian flora. I wondered how many other essential oils were still lying around on the Australian continent yet to be discovered and shared, and so I started out by developing lemon myrtle and distributing the oil for aromatherapy and personal care products. I grew my lemon myrtle business for more than 10 years before selling it and then in 2012 I started Essentially Australia.

What was your original vision for Essentially Australia and how has that evolved over the years? In the beginning, I wanted to make the complete Australian essential oil range available to the people, but now I come from a more organic place. My vision is more about growing, finding and adding unique new Australian oils to the market.

Tell us a bit about your rainforest plantation in Byron Bay. I’ve always had an interest in bush tucker and grew some local rainforest trees like Davidson’s plum, lilly pilly and lemon myrtle for jam making.

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It was in Byron that I discovered lemon myrtle’s essential oil potential and so began expanding our plantation to include fresh, aromatic and certified organic species and plants.

What types of plants and food plants do you grow? I grow rose myrtle, lemon myrtle and a few other secret ones yet to be revealed or released for sale. I also grow a rare local tamarind, a rare lilly pilly, Davidson’s plum, riberry and Illawarra plum.

What are your thoughts and practices on ethical land use, revegetation and sustainable farming? I agree with the principles of Landcare: to plant local tees y, the in their local environment. That way,

What exactly is an essential oil and how is it made? Essential oil is the liquid essence of a plant. It contains the characteristic odour of the plant, which plays an important role in the plant’s survival. For example, if you chew the leaves of lemon myrtle you’ll feel a burning sensation on your tongue. This helps to prevent an insect attack as insects eating the leaves feel this same sensation.

Essential oil is usually steam-distilled from the leaves of plants, such as eucalypts, tea-tree and lemon myrtle; however, some oils are extracted by steam distillation of the timber, such as with sandalwoods and cypresses. Other essential oils are extracted by solvent extraction, such as boronia, or by using CO2, as in the case of emerald cypress.

What is the best essential oil for stress and supporting your immune system?

I would suggest the oil Fragonia as it has elements of eucalyptus and is great p for the respiratory system. It also has perfume an and woody notes, which help to calm the nervous ne system, and has been demonstrat demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory and anti-ba anti-bacterial properties. It has elements o of tea-tree, making it antibacterial, a and is excellent for people suffering from fr stress, which in turn can affect the im immune system.

What lies ahead a for Essentially Australia? I plan to be growing some new and u unique Australian plants, whi which I have found in the wilds nea near Byron Bay, and releasing th them to the market in a successful way.

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ART FOR ART’S SAKE SIMONETTE VAJA

WellBeing gives space to the creative souls in our community SIMONETTE VAJA W: lovinglifestrategies.com, youtube.com/simonettevaja, facebook.com/simvaja B: contemplationart.net

Creative Power 700×500cm, 700×1000cm

22 | WELLBEING

Are you an amateur artist and would you like to see your art appear on this page? Email a high-resolution colour copy of an unpublished artwork to wbletters@universalmagazines. com.au or post it to WellBeing, Locked Bag 154, North Ryde, NSW 1670.

As a psychologist and creativity mentor and coach, I work with many people: some in my private practice in the Blue Mountains and others through my travels as a Beyond Blue workplace mental health facilitator. I also run retreats that focus on creativity and mindfulness practices.

I started painting with pastels — pure pigments on 100/100 cotton paper — as a way to unwind from my work and the everyday stressors of life. I never know what will emerge from this artistic process; I use my fingers on each hand to caress and form the features onto the page, and most of my artwork has come through as portraits expressing peaceful emotions.

I am inspired by all the people I meet through my work. I suppose that all the incredible resilience and coping abilities I have witnessed over the past 25 years have found expression through images and words. My vocation is to connect people to their own creativity and compassion; but not in isolation, rather to realise that we are all connected through the quality of our relationships with each other and our environment. This “compassionate ecology” is what inspires me to write, paint, teach and facilitate growth.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve been delighted to produce over 44 beautiful portraits, which I’ve used to create a card deck titled Creativity & Contemplation Cards for Mindful Living. This “contemplation art” is the culmination of my self and vocation; it focuses on human virtues and the beauty within humanity. You can find out more at lovinglifestrategies.com.

THINKERS & DOERS TARYN BRUMFITT

Embrace your BODY, beautiful Writer, speaker and positive body image activist Taryn Brumfitt is opening up a global conversation about the power of loving and valuing our bodies just the way they are.

WORDS / KATE MCKEE

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aryn Brumfitt is living proof that you can’t judge a person’s health and happiness by the way they look. Not too long ago, Brumfitt loathed her body and was seriously considering plastic surgery to “fix” her postchildbirth body. On the surface, she looked like she had it all: she was happily married, the proud mother of three young children and running a successful photography business. Behind the scenes, however, she was desperately unhappy with how she looked and suffering from crippling body issues.

The visit to the plastic surgeon was the catalyst that got Brumfitt thinking differently about her appearance — although not in the way that you might expect. Brumfitt didn’t go through with the surgery. She had begun to question the message she would be sending her young daughter if she went under the knife. As in, how could she teach her daughter to have a positive body image if she didn’t have one herself? How could she teach her children to love their bodies if she had surgically enhanced her own?

“I decided against surgery and then I hit rock bottom,” says Brumfitt. “I wanted to make the right decision for my daughter, but I was still stuck inside a body that I hated.”

After reaching an all-time low, Brumfitt had a light-bulb moment: what if she could actually live happily in the body she already had?

She decided that what she needed to do was fix her emotional wellbeing — not the way she looked. She needed to reprogram the way she felt about her body, her perception of beauty and health and the value she placed on each of these considerations.

“Looking beautiful is a fleeting moment in time. Feeling beautiful

24 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

subsequently opened up a much-needed dialogue about body image and has inspired thousands of individuals to discover the value and power of loving their own bodies from the inside out through the Body Image Movement.

BEFORE & AFTER

“Looking beautiful is a fleeting moment in time. Feeling beautiful is something you can have from the moment you enter the world to the moment you pass.” is something you can have from the moment you enter the world to the moment you pass from it,” Brumfitt says. “Beauty is nothing we can see; beauty is humility, kindness, compassion and humour.

“Health is not just physical but emotional and spiritual, too. I want my daughter and sons to grow up in a world that values them for achievements and accomplishments, not their good looks, thigh gaps or ageless skin.”

Questioning the way she thought and felt about her appearance and what effect this had on those around her was the beginning of this South Australian mum’s excursion towards self-acceptance. Her journey from a “body loather” to a “body lover” has

Brumfitt’s personal enlightenment about how she valued her body as a woman, a mum and former bodybuilder went viral when she posted a “before and after” photograph of herself on social media. We constantly see these types of images displayed across the internet, usually touting the benefits of a new weight-loss solution or revolutionary dietary plan.

Brumfitt’s before and after shots, however, were a little different. The “before” shot was a picture of a taut and toned Taryn in a skimpy bikini and “stripper” heels, performing in a bodybuilding contest. The “after” shot depicted a naked Taryn looking happy and relaxed, with a different physique — a natural one.

Not only did the images show that Brumfitt was unabashedly at one with her body, it also highlighted how far she had travelled physically, mentally and emotionally to get there.

“My health in my before photo was very unbalanced; to the eye I probably looked super healthy, but here’s the thing about health: it’s not just physical,” says Brumfitt. “During my short time having the ‘perfect’ body, I was often grumpy, extremely body obsessed and never really felt present in any given moment because I was always thinking about my next gym session or preparing meals in little containers.

“In the after photo I was at my peak, the healthiest I had been all my life.

While I had put some weight back on, I

THINKERS & DOERS TARYN BRUMFITT message about body acceptance that resonated with so many and continues to do so.

“The minute I learned to love my body I thought to myself I must share this with other women. I felt compelled. It was almost as if I had discovered a secret; I was just so excited to think that I might be able to help others feel as good as I do.”

AWARENESS & ACKNOWLEDGMENT

regularly moved my body, I was eating really nutritious food, I was meditating and I felt balanced.”

If you look at the after photo, you can see this on Brumfitt’s face. She looks present, happy and comfortable in her own skin. She looks free: uninhibited by the negative constraints of selfcriticism and the burden of feeling as though she had to be something other than what she was.

“I simply posted [the photo] to help other women to learn to love their bodies before, during and after; but the second I posted it, it immediately got

a gazillion likes and comments and I knew it had hit a chord,” she says.

Brumfitt’s post most certainly hit a chord — there were stories run about it in every country around the world, from France to South Africa to the US and everywhere in between. Since they were posted, her before and after shots have been seen by more than 100 million people and led to a number of TV interviews. Perhaps this was because Brumfitt’s photo perfectly illustrated a woman who was happy, proud and at peace in her own skin. It was Taryn’s honest, positive and straightforward

Anxiety and negative thoughts about one’s appearance certainly do not merely run skin deep. Loathing or resenting the way you look can influence your sense of self and greatly limit your capabilities as a person.

In the posts Brumfitt writes on her popular Body Image Movement blog, she mentions a “dark passenger”: the voice inside her head that told her she was fat, disgusting and ugly on a daily basis.

“It was the voice that always distracted me from being present in any given moment; it took away my joy and zest for living. It anchored me down and it didn’t allow me to be all that I can be,” says Brumfitt.

This dark passenger is something we can perhaps all relate to in some way.

It’s that pesky internal critic that draws attention to your self-perceived faults and foibles. That nagging voice can be a hard thing to silence at times and can be extremely debilitating emotionally, mentally and socially. One of the things Brumfitt discovered when seeking to change the way she saw herself was that, through practice, it is possible to silence the self-imposed negativity that may be holding you back.

Being aware of the negative selftalk is the first step to overcoming it. “I think for people in the initial stages of trying to love themselves that a good strategy is to ‘fake it until you make it’,” Brumfitt explains. “In the beginning, acknowledge the voice in the head, then confront the voice and then ignore the voice. After some time you will find the strength to say something positive and then you need to build on that. It’s like building a muscle: slowly and easy does it, but with work you will build that mental muscle.”

Brumfitt remembers the illuminating moment she looked in the mirror and saw herself for the first time. She saw not the things she wanted to change, or that had changed over time, but all the beautiful things that were actually there staring back at

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 25

THINKERS & DOERS TARYN BRUMFITT her. She no longer saw the “fat, ugly, gross person” that she had labelled herself as being for so long but rather the kind, compassionate and humorous human she actually was.

When she looks at herself now, Brumfitt sees beyond the aesthetics. “If I do catch a glimpse of my body, especially my tummy, I reflect on what my amazing tummy has done!

It has housed three children.

My breasts have provided over 4000 meals to my children. They definitely don’t look like they used to — and that’s OK. I have a rock-solid relationship with my body: I respect and appreciate everything she has done!”

As Brumfitt has shown through her own experience, simple things such as putting more value on your health than your looks, being kind to yourself and changing the language you use with yourself can make a big difference next time you see your reflection in the mirror.

people,” she says. “The second I learnt to love my body, all I wanted to do was share my story and strategies with other women. That is why I am so pumped about my book Embrace — it is 70,000 words that I hope will help women to reconnect with their bodies and start living life!”

Brumfitt has now travelled the world speaking about how to facilitate a global movement that teaches women and men the power of loving their bodies. She is currently delivering her Developing Daughters, Supporting Sons seminars across Australia and has just launched BIMGAP: Body Image Movement Global Ambassador Program.

Another example of turning thought into action is the documentary Brumfitt is filming, called Embrace, which has allowed her to speak and connect to thousands of women across the world.

Simple things such as putting more part of the documentary, value on your health than your looks, sheAsasked tens of thousands of being kind to yourself and changing CHANGING THE women worldwide who struggle CONVERSATION with the relationship they have the language you use with yourself Once Brumfitt realised how with their body an interesting can make a big difference. many people like herself question: what thoughts will were affected by a negative you be thinking during your body image, she began the Body “The exciting news, though, is that final days on this Earth?

Image Movement, an internationally we all have access to a life filled with “And guess what?” says Brumfitt. “No recognised movement that challenges positive and beautiful thoughts about one has ever replied ‘my stretchmarks, the objectification of women’s bodies our bodies. It just doesn’t come in the my wobbly thighs, my bottom, my arms, and recognises the self-objectification form of a pill, lotion or potion; it comes my belly or my cellulite’!” women put on themselves to look a from within. The lines on my face only Getting how you feel about your certain way. The Body Image Movement serve to remind me that life is short and appearance into perspective and seeks to question this ideology, open up the bucket list is long.” looking at it in a different light seems a dialogue and inspire women to think Altering our self-perceptions of to be a key component to Brumfitt’s independently about body image. ageing and change as a negative creates overall message. Looking beyond what “People, and in particular women, more room for the potential of fulfilment, you’ve always seen in the mirror and really need to understand that they self-nurture and ultimately growth. seeing yourself for what you are, not have access to change and can control “You, in this moment, are breathing, what you think you should be. Not their destiny. We live in a completely you are capable, you are able, you are judging your body but acknowledging it beauty- and body-obsessed world and living,” says Brumfitt. “Tap into some for all it has done and can do.

I want to change the conversation and perspective and gratitude and recognise Imagine what is possible if your the currency of how we value people, the power and joy that come from loving mind and body work together as friends or at least get a little more balance your body from the inside out.” instead of foes? Brumfitt sums it up back,” says Brumfitt. nicely: “Your body is not an ornament FROM PERSONAL JOURNEY “Women are told to fight and defy — it is the vehicle to your dreams.”

TO PUBLIC AWARENESS ageing, for goodness’ sake! I can think What started out as a deeply personal of a million things to defy and fight — Kate McKee is a freelance lifestyle writer and private struggle for Brumfitt has and ageing isn’t one of them. How about who writes for a variety of print and online turned into a global mission to help human trafficking, the sexualisation publications on topics ranging from natural people discover the value and power of of young girls or the objectification of beauty to interior design. Passionate about natural a positive body image. women: those are things to fight about, health and lifestyle, Kate loves nothing more “Helping others is what inspires not the very natural and beautiful effect than to share her interests and discoveries with me on a daily basis; it’s all about the of growing old. thoughtful minds.

26 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

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SPIRIT SPRING 2015

YOUR SUPER SPRING A time of rekindled warmth, fresh air and longer days, spring is the season for starting afresh. This year, a rare planetary blend will give you an extra-special opportunity to create and embrace new opportunities, success and happiness.

WORDS / KELLY SURTEES

Photography Getty Images

I

t’s natural to think of getting healthy and organised and making life improvements when spring rolls around. The fresh air, longer days and warmer temperatures can inspire you to flourish as your spirit awakens after the cool, introspective energy of winter.

Astrologically speaking, spring 2015 promises all this and more as a rare planetary combination forms.

Lucky Jupiter and confident Mars will join forces in Virgo, offering powerful celestial motivation for all kinds of dreams and projects. A call to authenticity and a push from the cosmos may help you take bold action in pursuit of your dreams.

Jupiter symbolises growth and abundance. In Virgo, Jupiter will first highlight the value of decluttering and organising as an essential starting point, especially if you want to create meaningful progress. As you restructure your world to give your most important priorities your best time and energy, you’ll create space to welcome new opportunities, success and happiness.

12-YEAR CYCLE Jupiter is in Virgo from August 11, 2015, to September 9, 2016 — a once-every12-years occurrence. Virgo is practical,

down to earth and interested in the body, so this entire cycle will bring a number of opportunities to simplify life, adopt more efficient habits and better nourish your wellbeing.

In a rare alignment, shortly after Jupiter moves into Virgo, energy planet Mars will join Jupiter, cycling through Virgo from September 25 to November 12, 2015. Mars and Jupiter will unite on October 17, but the entire period from late September to mid-November can bring welcome improvements and positive change, especially around health, wellbeing and organisational goals. When Mars and Jupiter join forces, fast-paced progress is possible.

This unusual celestial double-up means that this spring you may be inspired to conduct a more thorough review, edit and, where necessary, declutter of life. Virgo values wellbeing and simplicity, so this year with Mars and Jupiter working together in Virgo you may be inspired to make overdue life changes to support wellbeing or finally end or reduce stressful commitments and responsibilities. If you don’t normally spring-clean, doing so this year can lead to big results. If you normally spring-clean, challenge yourself to take on a larger or more involved project.

The last time Mars and Jupiter combined in Virgo was August and September 2004. You may notice that a longer 12-year cycle that began then is ending, or become aware a new chapter is beginning, especially during October 2015.

THE ELEMENT OF EARTH: MONEY, PROPERTY, ABUNDANCE As an earth sign, Virgo is associated with the practical, material and physical areas of life. In plain terms, this means spring 2015 will highlight physical health and wellbeing, financial organisation and long-term life goals. It’s about getting your body, budget and life as fit, functional and focused as possible.

The tangible nature of Virgo means you’ll want results you can feel or experience. This can highlight the value of setting measurable goals so that it’s clear when you do succeed.

Virgo is also extremely efficient, so you’ll want to do as much as possible with as little as possible. This can mean reducing wastefulness — of resources, stuff and time. Notice what opportunities you jump at and which obligations you drag feet towards. Then, reorganise your schedule and commitments accordingly.

If finances are on your mind, or you want to improve your budget or enhance

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 29

SPIRIT SPRING 2015

JUPITER & VIRGO Jupiter is the largest planet. It’s said that where Jupiter goes, energy and attention follow. As Jupiter settles into Virgo, the celestial focus is firmly on details, routine and simplicity. The Jupiter-in-Virgo cycle describes a period where you can better deal with the minutiae of life or get big results from small shifts.

Jupiter in Virgo holds the truth that “from little things big things grow” (thanks, Paul Kelly), so even the smallest changes can help refresh your life this spring. Virgo’s love of consistency suggests that regular daily rituals or routines can help ground you during this cycle.

In the book Pagan Astrology, Raven Kaldera describes the combination of Jupiter in Virgo as “the art of laying order on things”. People born with Jupiter in Virgo are described as being able to “come into a place, look around, figure out everything that needs to be fixed and then somehow do it. Not only that but, while they’re around, other people find themselves neatening up, organising and putting things back where they go.”

Even if you don’t have Jupiter in Virgo (and since, on average, only one-twelfth of the population do, you probably don’t!), this energy of “laying order on things” is available to everyone in the second half of 2015 and into early 2016.

Imagine if you could create order from chaos around one thing that constantly stresses you. What would that order look like? Who would implement it: you or someone else?

The expansive nature of Jupiter combined with Virgo’s exacting perfectionist streak can inspire you to more zealously pursue any selfimprovement goals. While going over the top and becoming obsessive isn’t

30 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

Add something that makes your heart sing to your daily life, for added joy.

or impulsive. However, in Virgo, the coolness of earth tempers Mars’ feisty side. This combination highlights a time in which focused action can occur or when perseverance is possible.

Dedication to routine or detail is likely as Mars in Virgo is inspired by the motto, “Plan your work then work your plan.”

MARS & ACTION Mars is a trigger planet that acts as catalyst for change, action and progress. With Mars and Jupiter working together in October 2015, it’s an The confident yet practical especially lucky month combination of Mars in Virgo can to take an inspired risk or pursue one of your help you cut away anything that passions with enthusiasm. is toxic, draining or unhealthy, Mars has a sharp especially during October 2015. edge — it’s the planet associated with the necessary cuts of a surgeon’s knife — healthy, you may be encouraged to raise and this cutting quality is enhanced your standards or set a new challenge in cool, calm and collected Virgo. The for yourself. confident yet practical combination of In Virgo, Jupiter adopts a disciplined, Mars in Virgo can help you cut away focused attitude. You may be less anything that is toxic, draining or spontaneous but more productive. unhealthy, especially during October To maximise this cycle, you’ll want a 2015. It’s as if the analytical and logical plan or a clear list of your goals and flavour of Virgo will help you make clear, objectives. Helpfulness and healing rational decisions. are highlighted, as Jupiter in Virgo finds value and a sense of meaning THINKING, PLANNING through providing support to others, & STRATEGY especially through acts of service.

Virgo is ruled by Mercury, a planet Consider dedicating part of your time associated with many air element or resources (like money) to a cause or qualities like communication, learning, charity about which you’re passionate. analysis and the sharing of facts or SEASONS & PLANETS knowledge. Any planet moving through The core qualities of Jupiter — heat Virgo will pick up the flavour of Mercury. and moisture — mean Jupiter is With air planet Jupiter ruled by naturally associated with spring, when thinking Mercury, new ideas and the natural world is increasingly moist fresh perspectives are likely. As your and warm, and the element of air. knowledge base develops, you’ll This “warm” and “wet” combination naturally want to make improvements creates a “rising up” type of energy, based on what you learn. This which is rejuvenating and encouraging. highlights opportunities to study or With the planet of spring — Jupiter travel as especially transformative — in practical Virgo for spring 2015, in the last few months of 2015. The focusing on real-world dreams can idea of “when you know better, you lead to success. do better”, as eloquently expressed Mars’ inherent qualities of heat and

by Maya Angelou, might prompt a dryness mean Mars is linked to summer commitment to learning. and the element of fire. This is where Action planet Mars will also benefit Mars’ association with action, energy from Mercury’s influence while in Virgo. and movement come from. As a hot This may make it easier to think before or fiery planet, Mars can be impatient you act and suggests thorough research

Photography Getty Images

abundance, set specific and progressive goals so you can build on small achievements. Be clear about whether you want to pay off a debt, save for an investment or top up your income.

If you own property, the emphasis on the earth element might highlight landscaping or garden projects, structural repairs or the need to fortify the foundations of your home.

If you have to organise or projectmanage a large-scale social or professional event, pay attention to details. Extra effort towards doublechecking in advance will ensure a smooth experience on the night.

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SPIRIT and a clear schedule will make you more productive.

WORKING TOGETHER: MARS & JUPITER Together, Mars and Jupiter act to push you to do something — anything! — about a passion or cause close to your heart. An important image for Mars and Jupiter is the “inspired warrior”: the warrior who fights for what she or he believes and for what they think will make a difference, both in their own lives and the lives of those around them.

As you gravitate towards opportunities that lift your spirits, you’ll find you naturally work harder and faster, as your enthusiasm for what you’re doing will help you move through even the most unpleasant of tasks. In this way, you honour Jupiter in Virgo by “laying order” on your time and schedule. The organising principles of Virgo can help you master a new skill or finally tackle that one area of your life in which you seem most scattered or unfocused.

LIFESTYLE TIPS TO HONOUR MARS & JUPITER Improve both your diet and exercise routines Take a class to learn a skill or hobby you’ve always dreamed about Declutter and organise the messiest part of your home or office Take a risk and commit to meaningful study or travel Streamline your budget so more of your money goes to debt repayment or savings

SUPER SPRING 2015 & YOU The general themes described above apply to everyone during the super spring cycles of 2015. However, you can further personalise this energy by considering your astrological chart. If you’re familiar with your birth chart, consider the topics associated with the house ruled by Virgo. These will be your most important areas of life to springclean and create growth in 2015.

Even though these planetary triggers peak in October 2015, they will remain active until September 2016, so you will have plenty of time to put your plans into action.

If you’re not familiar with your chart, use the star sign guide below. Read the guidance for your star sign (also known as your sun sign) and, if you know it, for your ascendant or rising

32 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

what you want by putting time and money into manifesting a private dream. Put yourself — as well as your hopes and wishes — first.

Libra. Relaxation, retreat and spirituality. Take more time to simply be. You may prefer to spend time alone, exploring your spiritual This spring you might devote more side or catching up on rest. energy to the people It’s your spirit that needs a who really matter. declutter now, so embrace a slower pace to get back in touch with your heart.

Scorpio. Friendships, professional networks and social connections.

Reflect on the people you With air planet Jupiter ruled by love seeing and those you prefer to avoid. Then, thinking Mercury, new ideas and adjust the balance of your fresh perspectives are likely. social time accordingly.

Taking on a larger role in a sign. For instance, if you are a Cancer, professional organisation can lead to a read Cancer, but read Sagittarius, too, if lucky break or exciting new opportunity.

Sagittarius. Career and professional you know you have Sagittarius rising or aspirations. Get to the heart of what you ascendant.

Aries. Health, wellness and work want to achieve. Let go of distracting routines. Improve your daily rituals obligations so you can pursue a big to enhance work-life balance and to career dream. A little effort can take you improve wellbeing. Add something that a long way towards success.

Capricorn. Travel, meaning and makes your heart sing to your daily life, purpose. Life might take you into for added joy.

Taurus. Romance, pleasure, creativity unfamiliar territory as adventure and children. Make having fun a bigger beckons you towards foreign shores part of everyday life. Be generous in or international opportunities. Get out love and support new adventures for of your comfort zone and dare to put your inner child or for those children in experience and enjoyment ahead of your life. ambition or success.

Gemini. Home, family and living Aquarius. Money, especially couple situation. Declutter your house, sort out and family investments and taxes. any family dramas or organise a regular Declutter your finances and sort catch-up with your favourite relatives. out your debt situation once and Consider upgrading or improving your for all. Long-term financial topics, living situation. like insurance, superannuation and Cancer. Communication, siblings, inheritances, may need attention. learning and getaways. Review Ensure you have an organised financial your schedule and see where you filing system.

Pisces. Relationships, both can squeeze in extra time for new personally and professionally. Nourish experiences. You’ll learn new ways your most important partnerships, at to express your truth and dabble in a work and at home. You might devote variety of ways to get your point across, more energy to the people who really both in person and online.

Leo. Money, especially income matter and less to those who take from and personal savings. Seek new you more than they give. opportunities to earn money, like retraining for a promotion or starting Kelly Surtees is a writer, astrologer, teacher and a side business. Consider negotiating editor who loves reading, writing and escaping into a better salary package. Tweak your the ocean. She travels regularly between Australia budget so more money is invested. and Canada. Find out more at kellysurtees.com or Virgo. Personal development and facebook.com/KellySurteesAstrology, or follow her on Twitter: @keldreamer. individual goals. This spring, celebrate

Photography Getty Images

SPRING 2015

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SPIRIT PRACTISING SELF-CARE

LEARNING TO

love yourself

You can read about nurturing yourself, think about it and plan to do it, but is it truly possible to give yourself daily compassion? It sure is â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and it starts with identifying what self-care means to you.

WORDS / AMY TAYLOR-KABBAZ

34 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

SPIRIT PRACTISING SELF-CARE

THEORY VS ACTION As the daughter of a hippie, I grew up with the idea of self-care all around me. My mum would help me fall asleep at night with her simple relaxation meditation and I was always taught the power of positive thinking, healthy food choices and yoga. I even went to the self-development gurus’ seminars in my teens, but it was always just a “theory”.

Whenever life got tough, I never seemed to put my lessons into action.

My bookshelf was full but my life was not. And I’m not alone.

Megan Dalla-Camina is a strategist, coach and author of Getting Real About Having It All (Hay House). She, too, found herself facing the realities of finally putting the theory into practice after years of pushing herself to exhaustion.

“For so many of us, myself included, it takes a big wakeup call in the form

of a health scare or life crisis for us to stop and realise we really need to do something. Many of us live in a place where we have cognitive knowledge of what we ‘should’ be doing for ourselves, but many of us don’t do it — or at least not with any regularity.”

Dalla-Camina says there’s a number of different ways people approach self-care in their lives. “First, there is the category of people who don’t even think about this stuff. They are so busy, so wired, so driven that they’re not even conscious of what they really need. There’s no level of awareness whatsoever,” she says.

“I used to be in that category a long time ago. I had 20 years in the corporate world as a workaholic, which culminated in a total burnout after pushing my body for 15 years and I was at the brink of exhaustion. I was travelling overseas a lot: at one point

“When we say we have to change, there is an underlying assumption that there is something ‘wrong’ with us. We’ve got to drop the beating-up on ourselves.”

I was three weeks out, one week back home, and I did that for about five years — which for anyone who has done that knows how brutal that is on your body. I just didn’t have the tools to know how to heal myself.

“Then there’s the category of people who know some ‘stuff’, read a little bit, pick up a magazine like this, say they’d like to follow it but then don’t do anything about it.

“And then there’s the category of people I like to call the ‘drifters’: they really want to be doing this but they don’t know how to make this a part of their everyday lives. They are open, interested and truly believe in the benefits but they are either too busy, don’t have the

Photography Getty Images

M

ost of us know what we need to do for our own wellbeing. Eat well, exercise and stretch, connect with nature, turn our phones off, sit quietly. We read about it, think about it and plan to do it ... one day.

Until, quite often, a health scare or life crisis stops us in our tracks and forces us to re-evaluate our self-care.

Why is that? Why, as intelligent and knowledgeable human beings, do we avoid that which we know will bring us the most happiness and good health?

Because we believe self-care is about huge life-changes — changes that will take up a lot of time we simply don’t have and that deprive us of things we really love. We add it to our to-do lists, make New Year’s resolutions around it and convince ourselves we’ll be happier, “When ...”

Which is precisely why it doesn’t work.

So how can you get self-care off your to-do list and make it an enjoyable part of your everyday life before a crisis forces you to? You start small and stay very flexible, as I’ve discovered on my own journey to self-care.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 35

SPIRIT PRACTISING SELF-CARE

SELF-CARE IS NOT ABOUT CHANGING EVERYTHING AT ONCE Life has a funny way of showing us what we need to learn. After years of writing about it, studying it and talking about it, I found myself at a point in my life when I had to start walking my talk. As a self-care blogger and journalist, it was more than a little ironic that I found myself in hospital, stressed and rundown with a threatened pre-term labour at 28 weeks pregnant.

My superwoman lifestyle had finally caught up with me.

So why, after more than eight years of writing about self-care and a lifetime of “knowing” it, did it take me this long to actually start practising it? Over the past 18 months, the answer to that question has become very clear to me: because I thought I had to change everything.

And that is a big scary concept. No wonder I kept putting it off!

Connie Chapman is a successful Sydney-based certified life coach and host of Awareness Radio. Connie works closely with people on their idea of selfcare and says many of her clients have the same misconception.

“Many people think it’s an all-ornothing approach, a bit like when you start a diet,” she says. “The minute they eat something bad they say to themselves, ‘Oh well, my diet is ruined.

I may as well write off the whole day.’

The same thing happens with selfcare. The minute we set really high unrealistic expectations and then notice we haven’t achieved them, we almost go further into self-sabotage and proving we’re a failure.

“When we say we have to change, there is an underlying assumption that there is something ‘wrong’ with us.

We’ve got to drop the beating-up on

36 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

“First of all, we get to choose what self-care means to us,” suggests Chapman. “It’s different for everyone. Start exploring what feels good to you, not what you think you should be doing. Ask yourself, ‘How am I feeling and what do I need?’ Write out a love list or a joy list of the things that make you feel good and feel like self-care to you — it could include having a hot bath, walking along the beach, cuddling with my child, playing with my dog — and you’re free to choose whatever you want from that list!

“It’s the intention of self-care that has to be clear — and the intention of self-care is to feel good!

The intention of selfcare is to love yourself, to nourish yourself, to support yourself. I tell people it is moment to moment and it’s all about the choices you make in each of those moments.”

Dalla-Camina agrees.

“Start by asking yourself, ‘What is the smallest thing I can do today for my health and wellbeing? What is the smallest thing I can do for my restoration right now?’ And start with that. It could be as simple as sitting down with a cup of herbal tea and really sitting and tasting it. It could be five minutes of meditation.

It could be colouring-in with your children. Find what works for you and feels good for you now, and start there.”

Write out a love list or a joy list of the things that make you feel good.

“The moment you make the most loving choice for yourself, you are practising self-care.” ourselves and start focusing on what’s already right in our world.

“The real key to this is realising that self-care is actually just self-love. The moment you make the most loving choice for yourself, you are practising self-care. You are that person in that moment. You can pat yourself on the back in the moment and say, ‘I am the best person I can be because I just chose the best thing I could to nourish myself.’ And that’s what it’s all about.

WHERE TO START WITH YOUR REAL SELF-CARE JOURNEY? So where do you start? Whether you’re a drifter, a novice or a reformed workaholic, how can you start to get the self-care off the wish list and into your real life?

THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY Meditation is not sitting in the lotus position and chanting om. Nor is it reserved for monks and hippies. You can be a corporate lawyer and meditate and you can make it work in your life.

It was that very simple realisation that gave me the freedom to first start “playing around” with meditation after years of believing it would be stifling and confronting.

“I used to have a very rigid morning routine of self-care that I would have to follow every morning, but I would get to the end of it and I would be exhausted,” Connie Chapman relates.

Photography iStock

support or don’t really know how to start.”

And often, for the “drifters”, the biggest hurdle to starting a regular self-care practice is the misconception that it has to be all or nothing, DallaCamina says.

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CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

38 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

“Start by asking yourself, ‘What is the smallest thing I can do today for my health and wellbeing?’

It could be as simple as sitting down with a cup of herbal tea and really sitting and tasting it. the wrong idea about meditation and therefore never get started. But I tell my clients to simply sit down and connect with your breath for five minutes in the morning and evening ... and you will begin to see the benefit.”

Ultimately, it’s all about what feels right for you, and not getting caught up in the quest for perfection or the unrealistic images that abound in social media.

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle,” advises Chapman. “Rather than hold yourself to someone else’s standards, start with your own standard of what success feels like to you, and that’s enough. If, some days, sleeping in until 9 o’clock feels like the most loving and supporting thing you can do for yourself, do that. If your self-care practice is something you are dreading, or is on your to-do list, or is a ‘should’ ... let it go! Choose something that makes you feel good that day.”

Amy Taylor-Kabbaz is a writer, speaker and creator of happymama.com.au. She is the author of Happy Mama: A Spiritual Survival Guide and commentator on parenting and wellbeing. You can follow her on Twitter: @amytaylorkabbaz.

Photography iStock

“And I thought, ‘This morning routine is not supporting me!’ So now I have my time each morning which I allocate to my self-care, but I’m allowed to fill that time with whatever I want.

“Some mornings I feel like a green smoothie and pulling out my journal and reflecting on how I’m feeling.

Other days I feel like a herbal tea and resting in bed. Other days I might feel like I need movement, so I will make a smoothie with some cacao in it to give me some energy and go for a run on the beach or do some yoga. And then, through my day, I am constantly checking in with myself to see what I really need. I feel like I’m nourishing myself when I’m really listening to what I need.”

Meditation is often an overwhelming first entry point for many people, but it’s important to remember that meditation can also be flexible.

“I’ve also let my meditation practice become very flexible,” says Chapman. “Some days I really want to sit in meditation for half an hour, but other days five to 10 minutes is enough. As long as I’m making time to bring my attention inwards, and connect with myself and tune into some higher guidance for support, I let it be flexible about how and when I do it.”

“Five minutes a day, twice a day — that’s what I would recommend to people just starting out,” agrees Dalla-Camina. “So many people have

Since my “awakening” in hospital nearly two years ago, my life has changed beyond recognition. I am calmer, healthier, happier. I have changed my career, connected with my marriage, built a more blissful life.

But, if someone had told me all this at the time, the pressure would have been too much; the idea that so much was going to change would have made it all too “big” and unachievable. The key to my success in really bringing self-care, meditation and mindfulness into my world has been little, consistent steps.

Daily moments. Small wins. And not putting too much pressure on myself.

“Start where you are and follow your energy,” says Dalla-Camina. “Find your easiest entry point, whether that’s a smoothie, a walk with your dog, a guided meditation. Once something becomes a habit, you then move on to a new habit. So many programs and focus in the media is on ’21-day programs’ or ‘five simple steps’ ... and it just doesn’t work like that. Not long term. Which is why people get so frustrated — they try to change 500 things and wonder why nothing sticks.

“There are so many small and simple things we can do throughout our day which will make fundamental differences to how we show up every day; we just have to do them,” DallaCamina says. “We have to make that commitment. Whatever it is. But it’s all about small things done frequently.”

In the end, the years of self-care study paid off for me. Faced with the realisation that my lifestyle was harming me and my baby, I finally made a promise to us both to practise what I’d been preaching. And the most amazing part of all? It wasn’t that hard! Five minutes a day has turned into 15 and now I can honestly say I am that person I always longed to be.

When you let go of the pressure to change everything and instead start with something that feels simple and achievable, you can soon notice how much better you feel. And, before you know it, you’re living a life totally different from the one you had previously.

BODY ADRENAL FATIGUE

BEATING BURNOUT If “I’m so stressed” has become your mantra, you are in the frontline for adrenal burnout. Maybe you already live there. Don’t tough it out until you can have a holiday to re-establish balance. You need to start reducing your adrenalin levels today.

WORDS / STEPHANIE OSFIELD

Photography iStock

H

ave you ever had a near car accident or almost tripped down the stairs and then felt so shaky and hyped up that you have to steady your nerves?

Blame it on the fight-or-flight response — a hangover from our cavemen days when we needed to be ready to wrestle a sabre-toothed tiger at any moment.

Yet, with our modern lifestyle and substantially changed stressors, we no longer have the opportunity to burn off stress hormones through fight or flight, so they keep circulating in our bodies like an anxiety-provoking chemical soup.

As a perceived threat triggers a powerful “danger” signal, this activates the HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary axis), a feedback loop between your brain and other organs such as the kidneys that causes a cascade of stress hormones, including adrenalin and cortisol. In small doses, these hormones can cause short-term health fallout such as nausea, tummy pain, headaches and perspiration. However, if you’re suffering chronic stress and releasing adrenalin repeatedly all day, you can suffer adrenal burnout or fatigue, leading to chronic health issues. This has another domino effect, making your anxiety alarm go off too easily. It causes your flight-or-fight response to become more and more sensitive so that your body starts to respond to everything, from a loud noise to a bug on your arm, like it is an emergency.

ADRENALIN OVERLOAD If you are suffering adrenal burnout, you may also be experiencing

hypoglycaemia; this is because stress causes the blood glucose levels in the body to rise. Over time, instead of cortisol levels remaining elevated, they may actually drop, particularly in the morning when they should be rising.

This can be why you struggle to get out of bed when you’re going through a stressful period.

In the long term, elevated adrenalin can predispose you to conditions like type-2 diabetes. In addition, it can impact on melatonin, which helps drop your body temperature in readiness for sleep. When your melatonin levels rise at night in readiness for rest, your high adrenalin levels may work against this potent sleep hormone, keeping you alert and preventing you from enjoying deep, good-quality shut-eye.

Over months and years, the impact of this kind of adrenalin overload can lead to many health issues including the following.

Concentration lapses Stress-induced brain drain, where you find it hard to focus or feel your memory is not working, is caused by the hippocampus, a little seahorse-shaped organ in the brain. When too much cortisol is chronically pumping through

your system, the dendrites (the little branches that connect brain neurons) start to shrink, affecting thinking and memory, and the hippocampus can’t get through a clear message to put the brakes on your adrenalin.

Body burnout With each adrenalin hit, your body shuts down crucial functions to preserve energy. Digestion, growth and reproductive processes all slow.

The immune system also grinds to a halt, which means your defences may be down when they should be fighting disease. Research shows that the more stressed you are the less effectively your natural killer cells perform, making you more likely to pick up viruses and colds.

Consequently, stress is linked to many different health conditions, including cancer, autoimmune disease, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome and migraine.

Heart harm At the Baker Medical Research Institute, Professor Murray Esler and co-workers have conducted a great deal of research around stress and found it has more of an impact on the heart than the liver, lungs, kidneys and muscles. With every adrenalin surge, fats are released into the bloodstream to provide extra energy to the heart, which uses free fatty acids as its principal fuel. So adrenal overload is a fast track to atherosclerosis, where cholesterol buildup causes the arteries to narrow.

BREAKING THE BURNOUT CYCLE To keep your adrenalin levels in balance, lifestyle is the key. The following strategies can help turn down the tension and reduce your trigger-happy emotional and hormonal responses, and in turn reduce your adrenal fatigue.

Slow your breath When you lose your wallet or sit for an exam and your flight-or-fight response kicks in, you breathe in more oxygen.

In the process, you also breathe out more carbon dioxide. Under normal

With our modern lifestyle and substantially changed stressors, we no longer have the opportunity to burn off stress hormones through fight or flight, so they keep circulating in our bodies like an anxiety-provoking chemical soup.

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BODY ADRENAL FATIGUE

circumstances, carbon dioxide is like the respiratory system’s green light, prompting the red blood cells to release more oxygen. But, in stressful situations when your level of carbon dioxide drops, your red blood cells become like Super Glue, holding on to oxygen, which means that less of it reaches the body’s cells.

Over-breathing also makes the blood vessels shrink, so the little oxygen that is in circulation takes longer to reach your brain. This deprivation of oxygen has no long-term effects but it can cause temporary feelings of lightheadedness, confusion and feelings of unreality, which can trigger anxiety or cause it to escalate. A classic sign of this can be yawning when you are stressed. To counter over-breathing, learn a method like Buteyko breathing or establish a pattern of breathing in and out to the count of three. Each time you breathe out, say the word “relax” to yourself. Try to take shallow rather than deep breaths and breathe through your nose, as mouth breathers tend to gulp more air.

Think calm, stay calm When you find yourself treating everything as urgent or a big deal, ask yourself:

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Over-breathing makes the blood vessels shrink, so the little oxygen that is in circulation takes longer to reach your brain.

1. What is the evidence for my fear?

2. What is the effect of thinking the way I do?

3. What alternatives are there to what I thought?

By challenging overreactions to situations that make you anxious and tense, you can break the vicious cycle of worry and prevent your anxiety (and adrenalin) from rising so high.

Replenish & balance minerals When your body flicks on the fight-orflight reaction, in addition to releasing adrenalin and cortisol, you also pump out a chemical called aldosterone. This can cause your body to retain more sodium in the kidneys so your body holds on to more fluid in case you need to run for lengthy periods or stand and fight. At the same time, excess aldosterone leads you to retain more

Move your body Exercising does not mean you should run marathons or do exhausting Bikram yoga sessions. Listen to your body and work out which forms of exercise best serve your health without depleting you. Some people report that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), where you do bursts of anaerobic exercise that make you breathless followed by short periods of rest, has an immediate and beneficial impact on reducing anxiety levels and induces an enduring feeling of calm after the workout. Or you might find that yoga, Pilates, qi gong or tai chi are better choices when you need to de-stress.

Though all exercise causes cortisol release, bear in mind that higherintensity or endurance training causes higher levels of this hormone so, during periods of intense stress, when your

Photography iStock

Good sources of magnesium include dark leafy greens such as kale and spinach.

copper and, simultaneously, increase your elimination of zinc and magnesium — both minerals that are known to promote greater calm within the body.

This makes sense. When you are stressed, your body does not want any minerals that calm you, slowing down your responses, so it offloads them.

In addition, as a mineral like zinc is essential for helping to remove metals like copper from the body if they are in excess, so depletion of zinc can lead to a greater buildup of copper which, in the brain, will cause excitability and agitation. These responses will then cause your body to secrete even more zinc and magnesium and result in even greater copper buildup, leading to a problematic cycle of mineral depletion.

In light of this, it’s important to replenish and replace those important minerals when you are feeling particularly anxious, rushed or under the gun. In addition to supplementation of zinc and magnesium, include more foods rich in these important minerals.

Natural sources of zinc include seafood (particularly shellfish), wheatgerm, beef and lamb, spinach, pepitas, mushrooms, nuts and pulses. Good sources of magnesium include dark leafy greens such as kale and spinach, nuts and seeds, fish, lentils and beans, avocados and whole grains such as brown rice.

It’s also worth consulting a naturopath about your supplementation as in some people zinc should only be taken for short periods, while in other people taking zinc supplements could lead to a deficiency in copper, which needs to be balanced.

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BODY ADRENAL FATIGUE

cortisol levels are already elevated, a more flowing, meditative form of movement may be a better choice.

De-stress with diet Stabilise your moods by eating three meals a day. Include foods high in vitamin B6 such as Brazil nuts, avocado, cheese, carrots, oranges, lentils and peas. Vitamin B6 assists the brain to produce gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a chemical that helps cells in different parts of the brain communicate with one another — a great help if stress is impeding your concentration.

Eliminate foods that you know your body is sensitive to — or check whether you are sensitive to common problematic foods such as gluten, dairy, soy, corn and eggs. These can cause your body to have inflammatory reactions that can change your hormonal profile, leading to imbalances.

Reduce your intake of caffeine, sugar and alcohol, all of which can stimulate your body to pump out adrenalin and cortisol. Side-effects may later include shakiness, heart

palpitations, difficulty sleeping and a general sense of anxiety. In addition, excessive salt forces up your blood pressure and as a result your body produces more adrenalin, leading to increased edginess and tension.

Processed foods have been shown in research at Deakin University to contribute to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Higher intake of trans fats also doubles the risk of suffering depression and anxiety, according to Spanish research involving 12,000 university students over six years.

So to combat adrenal fatigue it’s critical to minimise your intake of takeaway foods and aim to brown-bag your lunch, cooking at home from scratch as much as possible, using fresh ingredients such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains and good-quality protein.

Sing out Put on a favourite up-tempo CD while driving home, cooking dinner or getting ready for work. Studies show that laughing and singing help release endorphins — natural painkillers

As a perceived threat triggers a powerful “danger” signal, this activates the HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary axis), a feedback loop between your brain and other organs such as the kidneys that causes a cascade of stress hormones, including adrenalin and cortisol.

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TAKE TIME FOR MEDITATION Meditation helps you move from a state of thinking into a state of sensing and being, which can greatly alleviate stress and lower levels of stress hormones. To help achieve a meditative state at different times of the day, try to focus on: Your morning shower. Instead of thinking about what you have to get through today or how late you’re running, commit to enjoying the sensation of the warm water and how wonderful it feels on your skin.

Music. Close your eyes for a moment and lie still or engage in an active dance meditation.

Sounds. Soak up different sounds in the room and beyond, including the wind, cars passing by, people talking in another room, birds singing etc.

Your cup of coffee/tea. Savour the smell and each sip, noticing how it tastes on your tongue and then how it warms you as you swallow.

Your movements. Notice the pace of your steps when walking or your posture and level of muscle tension when sitting and typing at your computer.

Humming. Start humming or chanting in a rhythmic fashion and enjoy the releasing feeling as you do this.

Sun on your skin. Take five minutes to sit or lie in the sun and imagine its rays of light are sending golden, relaxing energy throughout your body.

that promote the release of feel-good chemicals in your brain.

Talk things over Debrief with someone close to you who has an empathetic disposition or see a counsellor who uses an approach that suits your personality and philosophical/ spiritual approach to life. The simple act of talking through your feelings and having someone listen and suggest other ways to think, act and interact with the world can be a very powerful and effective antidote for adrenal fatigue.

Stephanie Osfield is an award-winning freelance health journalist, published in Australia and overseas. She is an advocate of nutritional medicine and specialises in all aspects of health, from exercise and disease prevention to stress, depression and women’s health issues.

Photography Getty Images

Studies show that laughing and singing help release endorphins — natural painkillers.

FOOD THE 5:2 DIET

The 5:2 DIET phenomenon Fad diets come and go like fluctuating weight, but the 5:2 diet is a stayer. Since Dr Michael Mosley introduced the intermittent calorie restriction regime in 2012, converts are consistently lowering weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.

But is it effective, easy to apply and suitable for everyone?

WORDS / CAROLINE ROBERTSON

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It’s become a part of my life, making me more aware of portion sizes every day.”

DIGGING YOUR GRAVE WITH YOUR FORK Restricting calories for two days weekly works well for many people because it gives the digestion a chance to rest, repair and expel excess. Your body regenerates and increases its metabolism when you cut calories, whereas when you completely cut food it goes into starvation mode, storing fat and slowing metabolism. Intermittent calorie restriction also allows your

Intermittent calorie restriction also allows your elastic stomach to return to its normal size so you tend not to overindulge. elastic stomach to return to its normal size so you tend not to overindulge.

People habitually eat when they’re not hungry because they believe their body needs certain amounts at certain times.

They also eat for emotional reasons such as to reward, counter fatigue, cover distasteful feelings or for pure pleasure! The overconsumption of empty calories has led to widespread obesity in the developed world. Hippocrates said “let food be thy medicine” but, for many, food has become fodder for disease and death. Overeating and under-exercising contribute to conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, heart disease,

skin disease, Alzheimer’s, chronic inflammation and ageing.

Eating is essentially for energy; food is for fuel rather than gluttony. Healthy nutrition includes natural phases of fasting. This tames the tastebuds, refines the palate, restores body balance, clears the mind and reconnects you with spirit.

Resting digestion with periodic fasting triggers your self-healing potential.

Modern medicine is now confirming what great healers have practised for centuries, including Paracelsus who preached: “Fasting is the greatest remedy — the physician within.”

FAST HEALING Practising periodic calorie restriction within healthy limits has abundant benefits. Optimal improvement occurs when light-calorie foods are nutrientrich and as pure as possible. Plentiful fluids and moderate movement facilitate the cleansing effect.

Following are some researched rewards of intermittent fasting.

Anti-ageing Longevity has long been linked to low calorie consumption. Science has found that sirtuins, proteins produced on low-calorie diets, are a youth elixir.

Animal studies since the 1930s have consistently shown a 40 per cent increase in maximum life span through lifelong dietary restriction. Cutting calories also reduces growth hormone IGF-1 levels, which results in higher cell longevity. Low-calorie diets increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein vital for a healthy

Photography Getty Images

B

efore Dr Michael Mosley devised the 5:2 diet, he was part of an epidemic problem.

Suffering dangerous markers for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and a high-fat BMI spurred him to seek solutions. By restricting his diet to 600 calories for two non-consecutive days weekly, Dr Mosley improved enormously: in just three months he lost 9kg of fat, including 10cm around his waist, balanced his BMI and improved indicators for diabetes, heart disease and cancer. His 2012 documentary Eat, Fast, Live Longer and book The Fast Diet have since inspired thousands to follow the 5:2 formula.

The success of the 5:2 diet lies in its simplicity. You can eat anything for five days of the week, though it’s advised to stick to the recommended daily calories of 2000 for women and 2500 for men (being British, Mosley works in calories; in kilojoules that translates to 8363kJ and 10,460kJ). Then, on two nonconsecutive days, the calorie intake is 500 for women and 600 for men (2092kJ and 2510kJ).

5:2 devotees have found that eating this way not only helps their health and weight loss but the meal mindfulness shifts overeating habits. Karen Huggett, director of At Ease Natural Therapies, who lost 8kg in six months on the 5:2 diet, explains.

“The biggest surprise for me was not the scale reading but the inches I lost around my midriff and hips, dropping two dress sizes,” she says. “I found it easy providing I pre-planned my fast-day diet and didn’t eat out on these days.

FOOD THE 5:2 DIET brain, nerves and new neural pathways.

This increases memory and cognition, and reduces risk for Alzheimer’s, according to an extensive study.

Awareness of eating habits By monitoring and minimising eating for prescribed periods, you become more conscious of unhealthy eating habits. You stop automatically shovelling food into your mouth, pausing to pre-plan a highnutrient, low-calorie intake. When you focus on quality rather than quantity, you reduce waste and savour every mouthful.

Many people find that when they eat more mindfully their senses of smell and taste are also heightened.

Cellular regeneration When the body is no longer burdened by constant food processing, it can attend to housekeeping and repairs.

Autophagy, or self-eating, is one of the processes the fasting body uses to disassemble and rebuild damaged cells. Research indicates that damaged cells contribute to ageing issues and mopping them up reduces ageing freeradicals. Reducing calories also boosts energy-producing mitochondria, which then release fewer free radicals and repair cells more efficiently. Fasting switches on stem-cell synthesis, which is vital for immunity and regeneration, according to recent research by Professor Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in the US. Clear skin & improved joints A recent article in the British Journal of Dermatology concluded that “short-term fasting periods may improve severe symptoms” of skin complaints. Over my 25 years, I have observed adult patients who regularly fast improve symptoms of acne, eczema and psoriasis. This is because the blood gets a chance to purify and alkalise. Survivor contestant Tina Wesson said her rheumatoid

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Write a to-do list you can turn to if your mind wanders to kitchen capers.

arthritis was much better on the minimal diet during filming. Ayurvedic doctor Rama Prasad finds joint pain is pacified by fasting. Dr Prasad says, “Inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia are fed by toxins; stop feeding them and they are starved of sustenance.”

Eased asthma One study by Professor Mark Mattson and Dr James Johnson involving obese asthmatics concluded that, after two months of intermittent fasting, volunteers improved their asthma and lost weight.

Increased energy Food shopping, cooking, cleaning, digesting, assimilating and eliminating food can consume a lot of energy.

Minimising this activity frees up our energy and boosts mitochondrial production of our cellular power, ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

Weight loss Though weight loss is the main motivation for most people following the 5:2 diet, it’s the health benefits that seem to drive their discipline in the long

term. On average, people lose around 0.45kg a week on the 5:2 diet. This sometimes plateaus or even reverses.

It’s important to exercise and to eat healthy quality and quantities of food on non-fast days to maintain weight loss.

Healthy weight is vital for a long, healthy life. Obesity contributes to cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation and autoimmune disorders.

The 5:2 diet Facebook group is filled with happy testimonials such as this from Mr C Yates: “5 stone in 5 months ... plus no longer eating bread like I’m a duck.” Ms L Corrigan shares, “How about cholesterol down from over 6 to 5.3? That’ll do nicely, thank you!”

May reduce breast cancer risk Dr Michelle Harvie and Professor Tony Howell, of the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre at the UK’s University Hospital of South Manchester, found that 5:2 intermittent fasting reduced weight and hormones like insulin that promote breast cancer growth.

Mental clarity Brain fog from overeating can result from endotoxic byproducts of an

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Better sleep You may have observed that a heavy dinner disturbs your sleep. Conversely, sleeping without being stuffed can have you awakening lighter and more refreshed. This is because while you were resting so was your digestion. This comment from the 5:2 diet Facebook group is a common insight: “My wife and I are coming up to our ninth month of 5:2 fasting. The morning after a fasting day, we have noticed that we sleep far better and wake up feeling pure, refreshed and much more vibrant and energetic.”

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FOOD THE 5:2 DIET

5:2 TRIUMPH TIPS

overburdened digestive system seeping into the brain. Veteran fasting expert Dr Gabriel Cousins remarks on how fasting has improved his patients: “Concentration seems to improve, the mind becomes more tranquil and a natural joy begins to appear. It is my hypothesis that when the physical toxins are cleared from the brain cells, mind-brain function automatically and significantly improves and spiritual capacities expand.”

Money saving It’s surprising how much money most people put into their mouths.

Intermittent fasting can cut your food bill as you reduce shopping and eating out significantly. Being aware of buying only nutritious food that you will definitely eat ensures food or money isn’t wasted.

Purification The digestive organs naturally start to detox and discard waste when they get a chance. Intermittent fasting gives them a window to clear the clutter. As Dr James F Balch, MD, says in Prescription for Nutritional Healing, “A fast can help you heal with greater speed; cleanse your liver, kidneys and colon; purify your blood; help you lose excess weight and water; flush out toxins; clear the eyes and tongue; and cleanse the breath.”

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Spiritual awareness Many spiritual traditions endorse regular fasting. It takes our awareness from the dense body to the subtle spiritual realm. Our bodies feel lighter and our senses quieter. Yogic science says that, by controlling the tongue through awareness of eating and speaking, we can then control other emotions and appetites such as lust.

IS 5:2 FOR YOU? With initial discipline, many people find the 5:2 diet easy to follow with fast results, especially when compared to stricter diets. Nutrient-rich foods keep you full on fasting days so you don’t feel deprived or weak. Some people, however, may find prolonged pauses between meals make them moody, dizzy, tired, anxious and sick. Spreading snacks through the day may resolve these

textures including smoothies, soups, salads, vegie spaghetti, popcorn, bean burgers, pasties and mushrooms.

Satisfy your tastebuds by sipping tangy teas through the day. Fennel is great to reduce sugar cravings while green tea stabilises blood sugar and suppresses hunger.

Stay steadily busy on fast days to distract yourself. Write a to-do list you can turn to if your mind wanders to kitchen capers.

Supplements that can reduce appetite and give you energy include N-acetylcysteine (NAC), alpha-lipoic acid, chromium, DL-phenylalanine and L-glutamine.

Have low-cal snacks handy, such as beetroot dip, hummus and celery sticks, to tide you over.

Increase leverage and motivation by telling others you’re following this fast and do it with someone supportive.

However, don’t share your resolution with unsupportive people.

If you fail to follow the diet one day, dedicate another day to it without remorse or guilt. This is a long-term lifestyle habit rather than an extreme quick fix.

Don’t overeat on non-fasting days.

This will only sabotage your success.

Many 5:2 adherents find that once they have attained their weight and health goals they are able to maintain progress by reducing the calorie-restricted diet to once a week — essentially a 6:1 diet.

issues. This diet isn’t recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women, children or teenagers and people with diagnosed diabetes or eating disorders.

If you suffer from a chronic illness, check with your health provider to ensure this diet is suitable for you.

RESOURCES The Fast Diet by Dr Michael Mosley The Fast Diet Recipe Book by Mimi Spencer The 5:2 Fast Diet Cookbook by Samantha Logan The 5:2 Cookbook: 100 Recipes for Fasting by Angela Dowden 52recipes.co.uk Caroline Robertson is a naturopath, homœopath and Ayurvedic consultant. For consultations, health retreats or guided meditations, you can find out more at carolinerobertson.com.au.

Photography Shutterstock

Protein meals make you feel fuller for longer than carbohydrate meals.

Don’t let a grumbly tummy dissuade you from following the 5:2 diet. After a few weeks you’ll adapt to eating less and even enjoy feeling lighter and clearer. Stave off hunger pangs and reap optimal health results with the following tricks.

Get a calorie counter book or app so you can keep track of your intake.

Pre-plan meals and draw inspiration from cookbooks such as The Ultimate 5:2 Diet Recipe Book: Easy, CalorieCounted Fast Day Meals You’ll Love by Kate Harrison.

Avoid eating out on fast days as you may yield to temptation.

Protein meals make you feel fuller for longer than carbohydrate meals. High glycaemic index foods such as sugar, pasta, potatoes and grains will make your blood sugar rollercoaster from a high to a low of cravings.

Favour foods such as legumes, fish, nuts, egg whites and low-carb vegetables. Dr Mosley describes a typical low-cal day: “A protein-rich breakfast — normally scrambled eggs or kippers. I drink several cups of black coffee and tea during the day, work happily through lunch and rarely feel any hunger pangs until late afternoon.

When they happen, I simply ignore them or go for a brief stroll. In the evening, I have a bit of meat or fish and piles of steamed vegetables.”

Make dishes delicious with herbs and spices.

Have a colourful variety of tastes and

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SKIN SAVERS

We often turn to expensive creams and topical solutions to treat our skin problems and overlook the most important way to support skin health: from within, with proper nutrition.

WORDS / LISA GUY

E

ating a good, wholesome, nutrient-rich diet is paramount when it comes to promoting good health and radiant, youthful-looking skin.

Unfortunately, not all of us eat well and a lot of people, especially those who follow a typical Western diet, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get the recommended daily intake of important nutrients needed to maintain healthy skin and prevent premature ageing.

Here are some of the best skinnourishing nutrients around for beautiful, healthy skin. Have fun getting your glow on by including complexionboosting foods in your meals.

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SKIN-NOURISHING NUTRIENTS Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) CoQ10 offers exceptional protection against oxidation and inflammation, two major causes of skin ageing. CoQ10 is essential for energy production inside cells and is a highly effective antioxidant.

CoQ10 is also important as it helps recycle other antioxidants in the body, such as vitamins C and E. Premature ageing is one of the main consequences of having too little CoQ10.

Supplementing with ubiquinol (the active form of CoQ10) along with eating foods containing CoQ10, such as wild fish (sardines, mackerel, tuna), organic lamb and beef, is recommended.

Silica Silica is a trace mineral that is vital for healthy skin. Silica can boost collagen production and increase skin hydration.

Collagen is one of the main structural proteins in our bodies; it gives skin structure and strength.

If your diet is lacking silica, your skin will lack elasticity, be more prone to wrinkles and heal from wounds more slowly.

Having muesli or porridge for breakfast regularly is a great way to increase your silica intake, as oats are one of the best sources of this important skin nutrient. Add some banana, too, for an extra silica boost.

BEAUTY COMPLEXION mineral, together with increasing zinc-rich foods like grass-fed meat, seafood, chicken, eggs, pepitas, sunflower seeds and tahini.

Photography Getty Images

Omega-3 fatty acids Omega-3 essential fatty acids, found in oily fish, are highly nourishing fats that are vital for keeping skin soft and healthy. Increasing omega-3s in the diet will help keep the skin properly hydrated and promote smoother, more youthful-looking skin. Due to their ability to inhibit inflammation, omega-3 fats are extremely beneficial for treating inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, acne and rosacea.

Your skin is one of the first places to show signs of an omega-3 deficiency.

Some of the most common signs are dry, rough skin and dandruff.

Oily fish are the best source of these beneficial fats. Salmon, trout, mackerel, cod, sardines and anchovies are all excellent choices. Taking a good-quality fish oil supplement daily is also recommended to help maintain optimal omega-3 levels and beautiful, healthy skin. Vegetarian sources of omega-3s include nuts and seeds, particularly walnuts, chia and flax seeds and their oils.

Zinc Zinc is an essential mineral that plays a vital role in the health of skin. Zinc is needed for the proper structure of skin proteins and cell membranes.

It promotes healthy wound healing and has an anti-inflammatory effect, beneficial for treating eczema.

Zinc is beneficial for acne sufferers as well, as it helps control the production of oil in the skin along with helping to balance out hormones responsible for breakouts.

Supplementing with around 50mg of elemental zinc daily is recommended for optimal skin health, especially for anyone deficient in this important

Vitamin E Vitamin E is the most abundant fatsoluble antioxidant found in the skin.

Sebum contains vitamin E, which forms an oily protective layer on the skin.

Vitamin E plays an integral role in the skin’s antioxidant defences and provides protection against UV radiation, pollution and free radicals that damage skin cells, causing the breakdown of collagen and resulting in wrinkles and premature ageing.

Topical applications of vitamin E have been shown to be absorbed into the epidermis and dermis where it helps soothe dry and rough skin and can help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Vitamin E is also commonly used to help prevent scarring and stretch marks.

Eating more vitamin E-rich foods like avocado, cold-pressed olive oil, walnuts and almonds will help keep the skin moist and supple, as they have a moisturising effect that improves the skin’s ability to retain water.

Selenium Selenium is a trace mineral that plays an important role in your skin’s cellular antioxidant defences. Selenium is a

component of glutathione, one of your body’s most important antioxidants, which protects the skin from inflammation and premature ageing.

Including selenium-rich foods in the diet may also offer protection from skin cancer.

Brazil nuts are a particularly good source of selenium. Having just two Brazil nuts a day can supply you with your daily recommended intake. Other good sources include seafood, red meat, wheatgerm, eggs, garlic and brown rice.

Vitamin A & beta-carotene Vitamin A and beta-carotene (which is converted to vitamin A in the body) are essential skin-nourishing nutrients.

Vitamin A promotes healthy skin cell turnover, is essential for repair and maintenance of the skin and offers antioxidant protection.

If you are low in vitamin A, your skin will become dry, rough and scaly and you may notice raised bumps on the back of your arms (hyperkeratosis pilaris).

Good sources of vitamin A include liver, organic butter, preferably from grass-fed cows, and cod liver oil.

Beta-carotene can be found in high levels in orange fruits and vegetables such as carrots, mango, pumpkin, sweet potato, apricots and green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin C Vitamin C is a highly effective antioxidant, playing an important role in regulating collagen production and encouraging healthy wound healing, as well as preventing bacterial infections associated with acne. Vitamin C can also help prevent and treat UV-induced skin damage.

Rich sources of vitamin C include papaya, guava, strawberries, kiwifruit, citrus fruits, broccoli, capsicum (peppers), mango, parsley, kale and other dark-green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin C is sensitive to heat, so eating these foods raw or lightly cooked will help maximise their vitamin C content.

Sulfur Sulfur is found in all cells in the body, especially in hair, skin and nails. Sulfur is an extremely important mineral required for healthy and youthfullooking skin.

It’s important that we get adequate amounts of sulfur in the diet to maintain collagen production. Poor collagen production is one of the main contributors to wrinkles and ageing skin.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 53

BEAUTY COMPLEXION Green tea can reduce premature skin ageing and offer protection against many types of cancers.

also very soothing on the skin and can help ease inflamed areas and sunburn. For a quick and easy revitalising facial at home, simply apply some fresh wheatgrass juice to your face and allow it to dry for around 20 minutes, then rinse. Your skin will look and feel radiant.

Raw cacao Eating raw chocolate or cacao, which is chocolate in its natural unprocessed form, is actually extremely beneficial for the skin and the rest of the body.

It’s the high levels of sugar added to processed chocolate SUPERFOODS FOR that causes skin problems and RADIANT SKIN should be limited.

These complexion-boosting power Raw cacao contains high foods will help keep your skin soft, levels of polyphenols, namely supple and more youthful. flavanoids and resveratrol, which have superb antioxidant action.

Wild salmon These polyphenols can prevent Salmon is one of the best sources damage by protecting Your skin is one of the first places to oxidative of healthy omega-3 essential collagen from the sun’s harmful show signs of an omega-3 deficiency. UV rays. fatty acids, which are beneficial fats needed to keep the skin soft These polyphenols can also Some of the most common signs are and supple. Salmon also provides help improve blood flow to dry, rough skin and dandruff. plenty of amino acids, which the skin, which increases the are also important for building delivery of oxygen and important Wheatgrass collagen and elastin, both major skin nutrients, resulting in Consuming wheatgrass often will help proteins in the skin. healthy, glowing skin. promote clear, healthy skin and reduce Salmon is also an excellent source The best way to eat raw cacao is the likelihood of breakouts. Wheatgrass of the super-carotenoid, astaxanthin, by adding the powder to smoothies, is a superior source of chlorophyll, which is responsible for giving salmon porridge, healthy desserts, baked goods a fantastic natural detoxifier. This their characteristic reddish-pink and protein balls, or by sprinkling the superfood also contains skin-nourishing colour. Astaxanthin is one of the most nibs in muesli and trail mixes. When you vitamins A, C and E, which are potent powerful antioxidants with exceptional buy chocolate, make sure the raw cacao antioxidant nutrients with collagenability to fight skin-damaging free content is at least 70 per cent to reap its protective effects. radicals and prevent premature skin full health benefits.

Wheatgrass is a superoxide ageing. This super antioxidant is also dismutase (SOD) boosting food. SOD is naturally found in krill, trout and Green tea one of the most powerful antioxidants marine algae.

Green tea is rich in polyphenols, namely made by the body that helps slow down catechins and epigallocatechin-3gallate (EGCG), powerful antioxidants cellular ageing. If you don’t have enough Berries that can reduce premature skin ageing SOD, cells in the body, including skin Berries are jam-packed with skinand offer protection against many cells, will start to age faster and die. As loving nutrients, including vitamin C and beta-carotene, which are brilliant types of cancers. EGCG slows collagen you get older, SOD production is reduced. for boosting collagen production. breakdown and can help regenerate The best way to have wheatgrass is They are also rich sources of powerful ageing surface skin cells. Aim to drink organic and freshly squeezed at home antioxidants called anthocyanins, three cups of organic green tea daily to or from your local healthfood shop or which help protect the skin against free fully reap all its wonderful skin benefits. greengrocer. Wheatgrass powder is radical damage caused by overexposure another convenient, easy way to include Green leafy vegetables to the sun. more wheatgrass in your diet. Add a Green leafy vegetables are packed Berries are a low-fructose fruit, teaspoon to green smoothies or vegie with beta-carotene, complexionso they won’t cause the sharp spikes juices, or make a morning shot with a boosting vitamin C and antioxidants. in blood sugar levels that are linked little freshly squeezed orange juice.

Green “leafies” also contain high levels to an increase in sebum production Wheatgrass also has antibacterial of chlorophyll, which can help improve and breakouts. Berries also pack an and antiseptic qualities that can help cell oxygenation. To get the most out of anti-inflammatory punch, helping to improve skin healing. Applied topically, your greens, they are best enjoyed raw decrease inflammation in the body and wheatgrass can help fight bacteria that in salads, lightly steamed or sautéed slow down visible signs of ageing. can promote breakouts. Wheatgrass is

54 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

Photography Getty Images

Sulfur is also required to make glutathione, one of your body’s most valuable antioxidants that fights free radicals and dampens inflammatory skin conditions.

Sulfur is most abundant in egg yolks, poultry, grassfed meat, fish, garlic, onion and brassica vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage).

Fermented brassica vegetables like sauerkraut are particularly valuable sources of this important mineral. The fermentation process makes the sulfur content more bioavailable.

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BEAUTY (in a little olive or coconut oil), or added to vegetable juices or green smoothies.

Try adding a tablespoon of chia seeds to your breakfast cereal or smoothie.

Carrots Supercharge your skin’s health by including more carrots in your diet. Carrots are considered a truly super skin food as they contain high levels of betacarotene. Beta-carotene aids in skin repair and regeneration and increases skin cell turnover, giving your skin a healthier, more youthful appearance.

Raw carrot sticks with hummus, grated through salads or added to vegie juices are great ways to enjoy this nutritious food.

Pomegranate Including pomegranate in your diet regularly can help regenerate skin cells and boost collagen production to help keep skin smooth and well toned. This beautiful red fruit is abundant in the polyphenols, anthocycanins and ellagic acid, and vitamins A and C, which are potent antioxidants that help protect skin cells from oxidative damage caused by sun exposure, a major skin ageing accelerator.

Pomegranates also contain punicalagin, which is a superantioxidant nutrient that helps preserve collagen in the skin, giving your skin a smoother, firmer appearance.

Pomegranates are delicious eaten on their own, sprinkled through salads, added to breakfast cereals or yoghurt, or consumed as a juice.

Broccoli sprouts Broccoli sprouts are little nutritional powerhouses, full of important complexion-boosting nutrients like vitamins C and A. Broccoli sprouts also contain Pomegranates also contain high levels of sulforaphane, a punicalagins, a super-antioxidant powerful antioxidant compound that helps fight cancer, reduce nutrient that helps preserve collagen inflammation and support in the skin, giving it a smoother healthy liver detoxification. firmer appearance.

Broccoli sprouts contain Fermented foods anywhere up to 100 times Making probiotic-rich fermented the level of these anti-cancerous foods (such as yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, miso and fermented vegetables like compounds compared to broccoli.

AGE ACCELERATION sauerkraut) staples in your daily diet Broccoli sprouts are the best SOD Wrinkles are a natural part of is one of the best ways to boost your (superoxide dismutase) boosters; they getting older. We all eventually get friendly bacteria and promote good help fight damaging superoxide free them but some of us seem to get gut and skin health. These foods are radicals that lead to cell death and them at a younger age than others. commonplace in the diets of many ageing. Adding raw broccoli sprouts to Overindulging in sugary foods can cultures around the world but are, meals is an easy way to give your skin also make your skin age faster due to a unfortunately, missing from the a big nutritional boost. They can also be process called glycation. This is when common Western diet. easily and cheaply grown at home, or sugar in your bloodstream binds to Fermented foods are also high in you can buy broccoli sprout powder to proteins in the body, particularly vitamin K2. This important vitamin add to smoothies and fresh juices. collagen in the skin, to form tissueis produced by not only bacteria in destroying new molecules called fermented foods but also by beneficial Avocado AGEs, or advanced glycation end bacteria in your gut. Vitamin K2 helps Avocado used topically is a popular products, resulting in rigid, dry, prevent wrinkles and premature skin natural beauty treatment — but eating brittle and wrinkle-prone skin. ageing by inhibiting calcification and avocados is even better. Carotenoids like hardening of elastin, which is one of beta-carotene, zeaxanthin and lutein are the proteins that make our skin flexible free-radical-fighting antioxidants found monounsaturated fatty acid has a and smooth. in avocados that protect skin from the moisturising effect on the skin, helping Supporting a healthy balance of gut damaging effects of the sun and other it retain moisture to keep it soft, supple bacteria with fermented foods can environmental stressors. and well hydrated. enhance innate immunity in the skin, Avocadoes are also a great source of helping prevent pathogenic bacteria pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), needed Chia seeds to support healthy skin growth and residing on the skin’s surface and Chia seeds are one of the richest plant regeneration, and vitamin E, which can reducing inflammatory skin conditions sources of omega-3 essential fatty acids, important for keeping the skin reduce the damaging effects of pollution like psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis. soft and healthy and well hydrated. and UV radiation from sun exposure.

Chia seeds also provide amino acids, It’s the oleic acid content of Lisa Guy is a highly qualified naturopath, author and vital for boosting skin renewal and avocados, however, that benefits passionate foodie, and the founder of artofhealing. com.au. She is based in Sydney, Australia. repair, and zinc to improve skin healing. skin the most. This beneficial

56 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

Photography Getty Images

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FOOD COOKING WITH HERBS

F

rom rosemary to thyme to parsley, and so many other varieties in between, herbs grow abundantly in the garden and even in containers if you’re pushed for space. After more than 25 years spent experimenting with herbs in the kitchen, I know these botanical beauties are key to infusing the dishes you cook every day with great taste and depth of flavour.

Known as the part of the plant used for its aromatic purposes, herbs are the bushy leaves and shrubbery that can be used fresh or dried. All other parts of the plant, including the buds, bark, root, seeds, berries or fruit, are referred to as spices. Just like spices, not only can herbs elevate your culinary creations to delectably delicious, but I really dig them because, as the cooler months arrive, they are both excellent to add to meals and a rich source of healing.

HERB HEAVEN on a plate

Herbs are among the most satisfying plants to grow and use regularly in your cooking because they are all-round nutritional superstars.

WORDS / PETE EVANS

ANCIENT POWER It’s no secret that scientific studies continue to link our diets and lifestyle changes over the past 50 years — along with the exponential growth of processed foods and increasing exposure to environmental toxins — as significant factors in the onset of chronic diseases.

That’s why so many of us are now seeking far more natural solutions by turning the foods we eat into tools that can help us achieve better health.

Since ancient times, herbs have proved helpful in maintaining human health and improving quality of life.

Used for centuries for culinary purposes, herbs have also formed the cornerstone of many natural remedies used to manage certain physiological disorders. No wonder, then, that they are the foundation of many traditional medicine practices.

Herbs are so therapeutic because they harbour a wide variety of active phytonutrients, including flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulfides, polyphenols, carotenoids, coumarins, saponins, plant sterols, uramins and phthalides. Along with vital vitamins and minerals, these naturally occurring plant compounds are key to achieving optimal health. Responsible for influencing colour, scent and flavour in so many of herbs and vegetables, phytonutrients are proven to have many disease-preventing, medicinal properties.

What I love most about medicinal herbs (and what Nic is sharing with me through her medicinal herbalism studies) is that each and every one has unique healing properties.

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By focusing on getting them into your diet regularly, over time, herbs can work to create better-functioning immune, digestive and respiratory systems, as well as help calm skin conditions and reduce the severity of colds and coughs.

PEPPERMINT Peppermint is a stand-out herb and during winter it’s one that my family and I use regularly. Nic steeps it in either a hot or cold infusion for the girls; for me, it helps keep coughs and colds at bay.

The reason peppermint is so good for this is because it acts as both

an expectorant and a decongestant.

Peppermint’s essential oils can also be used as a chest rub or inhaled to help clear nasal congestion and are also well known for helping relieve tension headaches and ease sore muscles.

Peppermint oil capsules have proved a natural alternative for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It can also work to relax the muscles of your intestines, allowing gas to pass and easing abdominal pain.

When I’m using mint in the kitchen, I love scrunching up (the technical term is “bruising”) fresh leaves in my hands

FOOD MEDICINAL SPICES TIME FOR THYME Another favourite herb of mine that comforts me during the winter months is thyme. Not only do I love the fragrance it imbues any dish with, it’s also abundant in antioxidants due to the key flavonoids it contains. These are apigenin, naringenin, luteolin and thymonin, and studies have proved their ability to protect and increase the percentage of healthy fats found in cell membranes.

As reported by the George Mateljan Foundation, “In particular, the amount of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid) in brain, kidney and heart cell membranes was increased after dietary supplementation with thyme.” Thyme also contains a significant amount of key vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A and C, iron, manganese, copper and dietary fibre.

By using it in your cooking, thyme may also help inhibit glycation and the formation of dangerous advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in your food, making thyme helpful in preventing heart disease and premature ageing.

Since thyme oil has antibacterial, antispasmodic, antirheumatic, expectorant, hypertensive and calming properties, it can help relieve everything from menstrual cramps to respiratory illnesses to skin conditions. Like peppermint, thyme oil can also be used as an effective mouthwash to improve oral health.

I’m a massive fan of chicken roasted with garlic and thyme, which leads me to another favourite herb that I just can’t get enough of in my food: rosemary.

fat-soluble vitamin A, which is important for a healthy, protected immune system.

PARSLEY By far the best-known and most popular herb in the world, parsley is also a nutrient-dense superstar. A member of the same family as celery, its bushy green leaves are packed full of vitamins and minerals. It’s also especially high in iron, containing twice as much as spinach, and is detoxifying.

Rich in vitamins C and K, it can be added to almost any dish as either a flavouring or garnish and is a fantastic way to get a boost of antioxidants.

Medicinally, parsley is known to be an excellent digestive aid and the tea made from it is known to be a traditional remedy for indigestion, bloating and gas.

Of course, there are so many more medicinal herbs I would love to dissect in great detail, from lesser known ones such as fenugreek and ginseng through to that summer pesto staple, basil.

In fact, there are so many varieties of amazing herbs out there, I encourage you to think about the ways your food can be medicine.

I reckon it’s time to get inventive and explore packing the meals you create with as many medicinal, healing herbs as possible. Here’s a selection of my favourite recipes that let herbs shine as the superstars they are.

Cook with love and laughter, Pete

ZUCCHINI “CARBONARA” Serves: 4, Prep time: 20 mins Cooking time: 15 mins

ROSEMARY

Zucchini “Carbonara”.

because they give a better flavour. This is one of my favourite herbs to add to so many of my all-time favourite Southeast Asian dishes, such as chicken larb salad, which has a divine trio of herbs: mint, Thai basil and coriander. I also love adding mint to soups and other salads.

However, mint’s fresh leaves are equally fantastic mixed through olive oil with garlic, French shallots, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of ground cumin to make a delicious homemade mint sauce.

It’s one of our favourite sauces served with lamb cutlets and a side of green vegies. Yum!

I love the scent of the essential oils in rosemary leaves when you pick them from their woody stem, and the smell wafting from the kitchen when rosemary is roasting in the oven with a succulent piece of good-quality, organic meat.

We usually do a big roast once a week — often on a Sunday — so we can use the leftovers through the week.

Nothing goes together more perfectly, in my opinion, than cold cuts of roast chicken with rosemary, garlic and lemon tossed through a fresh, green garden salad.

Interestingly, rosemary is related to mint and, as a result, exhibits many of the same healing properties. Known for protecting the immune system and improving digestion, rosemary is particularly anti-inflammatory. Along with potassium, calcium and folate, this herb also contains significant amounts of

2 tbsp duck fat or coconut oil 6 rindless bacon rashers (about 350g), diced 2 onions, finely chopped 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped ¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 600g zucchini (about 3), julienned 4 free-range egg yolks (optional) Egg sauce 2 free-range eggs 1 tbsp arrowroot (see note) 185mL chicken or vegetable stock 125mL coconut cream To serve Macadamia nuts, finely grated Chilli flakes (optional) For egg sauce, whisk eggs and arrowroot in a bowl to combine.

Bring stock and coconut cream to the boil in a saucepan. Add 60mL of the coconut and stock to egg mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk in the remaining hot liquid.

Warm baby beetroot & sorrel salad

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 59

FOOD MEDICINAL SPICES Return the mixture to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until the sauce thickens (5–7 mins). Season to taste and keep warm.

Heat the fat in a large, deep frying pan over medium–high heat. Add bacon and fry, stirring occasionally, until it just starts to colour (3–5 mins).

Reduce heat to medium, add onion and garlic and cook until translucent (8–10 mins). Add parsley, then add zucchini and toss until just tender (2 mins).

Remove from heat, toss egg sauce with zucchini, season to taste and divide among bowls. Place an egg yolk on each portion, if using, and serve, scattered with macadamia and black pepper or chilli flakes.

Note: Arrowroot is found in the baking section of the supermarket.

Chicken & Liver Larb Salad.

BROCCOLI SOUP WITH HOT SMOKED TROUT & ROSEMARY Serves: 4, Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 25 mins 2 tbsp coconut oil, duck fat, tallow or other good-quality fat 1 brown onion, chopped 2 heads broccoli, broken into florets & stalks, chopped (600g) 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary 1 tbsp dill (leaves only), finely chopped, plus extra for garnish 750mL chicken or vegetable stock

Broccoli Soup with Hot Smoked Trout & Rosemary.

Just like spices, not only can herbs elevate your culinary creations to delectably delicious, but I really dig them because, as the cooler months arrive, they are both excellent to add to meals and a rich source of healing.

Sea salt & cracked pepper 1 hot smoked rainbow trout, skin & bones removed, flesh flaked 2 tbsp sunflower & pumpkin seeds, toasted Zest 1 lemon Heat a saucepan over medium–high heat with coconut oil or fat. Add onion and cook for 5 mins until translucent.

Add broccoli stalk and garlic and cook for a further 5 mins until starting to brown, stirring occasionally.

Add broccoli florets, rosemary and dill, then pour in stock and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to medium–low and gently simmer for 20 mins or until broccoli is tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Using a handheld/stick blender, blend soup until it has a thick, chunky texture.

Ladle soup into serving bowls, then top with smoked rainbow trout flakes, a sprinkle of toasted seeds and a sprinkling of lemon zest. Serve hot.

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CHICKEN & LIVER LARB SALAD Serves: 4, Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 8 mins 3 tbsp white sesame seeds 500g organic free-range chicken breast or thigh mince 200g organic free-range chicken liver, trimmed, vein & sinew removed, finely chopped 2 tbsp coconut oil, tallow or duck fat 4 tbsp lime juice 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 small red chilli, deseeded & finely chopped 4 red Asian shallots, finely diced ½ bunch spring onions (green part only), finely sliced Large handful mint leaves, torn Large handful coriander leaves, torn Small handful Thai basil leaves, torn Fresh cabbage or lettuce leaves, cucumber & sliced okra, to serve Activated almonds, chopped, to serve

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FOOD COOKING WITH HERBS Baked Eggs with Artichoke, Salami, Tomato, Olives & Mint.

Add sesame seeds to a wok or frypan over medium–high heat and cook, tossing the pan continuously, for 2–3 mins or until sesame seeds are golden and toasted.

Remove from pan and leave to cool.

Wipe frypan with kitchen paper and heat over medium–high.

Add a little oil or fat and cook mince and liver, stirring frequently, for 2–3 mins until cooked and crumbly.

Stir in lime juice, fish sauce, chilli, shallots and spring onion.

Remove from the mixture from the heat and leave to cool for 1 min. Toss mint, coriander, Thai basil and sesame seeds through chicken mince.

Serve the larb with your choice of cabbage or lettuce leaves, cucumber, or sliced okra and sprinkle with activated almonds and sesame seeds for a nice crunchy texture.

BONE MARROW WITH GREMOLATA Serves: 4 4 × 12cm beef bone marrows cut lengthways, knuckles removed (ask your butcher to cut the bone marrow) Gremolata Large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 2 anchovies, finely chopped ½ lemon, finely zested & juiced Salt & pepper

Mint’s fresh leaves are equally fantastic mixed through olive oil with garlic, French shallots, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of ground cumin to make a delicious homemade mint sauce.

To make the gremolata, combine ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Season bone marrow flesh with salt and pepper and roast for 12 mins until starting to brown.

Remove from oven, spread some gremolata over marrow and return to oven, then cook for a further 5 mins or until marrow is cooked through.

Place bone marrow on serving plates or platter and serve.

BAKED EGGS WITH ARTICHOKE, SALAMI, TOMATO, OLIVES & MINT Serves: 2, Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 20 mins

Bone Marrow with Gremolata.

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1 tbsp coconut oil, duck fat or tallow ½ red onion, sliced 400g tin diced tomatoes Salt & cracked pepper 8 kalamata olives, pitted ½ preserved lemon, thinly sliced

140g jar artichoke hearts, halved 50g good-quality salami, sliced 4 free-range eggs ¼ tsp dried chilli flakes (optional) 2 tbsp chopped mint Place medium-sized frypan over medium heat. Add oil and onion and cook for 4–5 mins, or until softened. Add tomato and cook for a further 10 mins or until slightly reduced. Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Add olives, preserved lemon, artichoke and salami, and gently mix to combine.

Reduce the heat to low.

Make 4 wells in tomato mixture with the back of the spoon and break open an egg into each. Cook for 5 mins or until the whites have set and the yolks are soft, or cook further to your liking. To finish, sprinkle with chilli flakes and freshly chopped mint.

Pete Evans is a chef, Paleo ambassador, health coach, restaurateur, media personality and author of a new book, Family Food. W: peteevans.com.au

SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH MENOPAUSE

SPECIAL REPORT

Pause & effect Menopause is a natural part of every woman’s life, so it’s worth thinking about natural ways to support the ups and downs of this life phase.

WORDS / DR KAREN BRIDGMAN

WHAT IS MENOPAUSE? Of the 300,000 to 400,000 eggs a woman is born with in her ovaries, only about 400 will mature during

64 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

her reproductive lifetime. By the age of 50 not many active eggs are left.

With menopause, the lack of active follicles (the cellular coating of the eggs) results in reduced production of oestrogen and progesterone. This drop triggers the pituitary gland in the brain to increase the secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH). Not having any active follicles to stimulate after menopause, these hormones trigger the ovaries and the adrenal glands to secrete increased amounts of androgens, which can then be converted to oestrogens in the fat cells of the hips and thighs, mainly.

Menopause is a normal physiological process.

It is not a disease that has to be medicated — as it is frequently perceived in medicine.

These levels are, however, much lower than that needed for reproduction but should be sufficient to maintain health.

Menopause is a normal physiological process — and possibly the only major physiological change we can choose to be conscious of. It is not a disease that has to be medicated — as it is frequently perceived in medicine. As 90 per cent of women reach the age of 60 in the Western world today, successfully managing the change can be a vital issue.

In many cultures, women don’t experience adverse symptoms associated with menopause. For example, Asian women have less frequent and less severe hot flushes, suggesting that dietary and lifestyle practices can make a difference.

Research shows that the reduction of symptoms is associated with their flavonoid-rich diet. It also suggests

that botanicals with a high flavonoid content could be effective in managing menopausal symptoms.

While there are obvious dietary and environmental factors to consider, social and cultural factors contribute significantly to how women react to menopause. Unfortunately, in Western society, with its emphasis on youth and beauty, older women are often culturally devalued: look at our stories, fairytales, even semantic shifts with the negative use of “crone”, "old hag” etc. These terms used to mean “wise woman”, but not so today. Yet research has shown that the cultural view of menopause is also directly related to the degree of symptoms of menopause.

THE MEDICAL APPROACH A decrease in the level of ovarian hormones during menopause is the main cause of the increase in both physiological and psychological changes that significantly impact on the quality of life and health of older women.

Current medical opinion primarily uses varying combinations of oestrogen and progesterone as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) but, with the potential side-effects of increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, the question needs to be asked: is this really necessary?

Hormone replacement therapy While medical HRT has assisted some women to manage menopausal symptoms and improve their quality of life during this time, long-term use is not recommended. A major research study — The Women’s Health Initiative — conducted a clinical trial using conjugated equine (from mare’s urine) oestrogens, treating 10,739 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79. This trial was stopped early owing to lack of overall health benefits and increased risk of stroke. After one year of treatment, this study showed no

Photography Getty Images

M

enopause is defined as the cessation of menstruation (in women) and usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55. Twelve to 18 months without a menstrual period is a commonly accepted timing. Before menopause is the perimenopausal phase when many of the symptoms begin to occur — continuing for up to three years before a woman is considered postmenopausal.

During the perimenopausal phase, women ovulate irregularly (there can be months of increasing anovulation) (no ovum released), due either to reduced secretion of oestrogen or to the resistance of the remaining follicles to ovulatory stimulus.

About one-third of women experience severe symptoms, one-third exhibit moderate symptoms and the other third have very few symptoms at all. Correcting the hormonal imbalance associated with premenstrual syndrome before menopause can make a big difference to the severity of symptoms experienced during menopause itself.

The common symptoms women experience during menopause are (and they can vary from person to person): Main symptoms may include: hot flushes, dry skin, weight gain, vaginal dryness and urinary problems (incontinence), insomnia and mood changes, lack of energy.

Secondary symptoms may include: aching joints, backaches, disturbed sleep patterns, palpitations, headaches, increasing facial hair, crawling feeling under the skin, reduced memory and concentration, changes in sexual desire.

Lower levels of testosterone can be an issue and contribute to lowered energy, reduced libido and reduced cognitive function.

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significant improvements due to the hormone replacement in the areas of general health, physical functioning, pain, vitality, mental health, depressive symptoms, cognitive function or sexual satisfaction.

The Women’s Health Initiative also reported an increased risk of stroke with prescribed hormone therapy, with the mechanisms of risk potentially related to oestrogen’s proinflammatory and pro-thrombotic effects. However, the overall risk was considered uncertain; but further data from the same trial also provided strong evidence for an increased risk of cardiovascular disease with use of combined oestrogen plus progestogen in postmenopausal women.

Further research has indicated potential problems with hormone replacement and increased risk of breast cancer. In a study, 413 women taking these prescriptions were followed over a one- and two-year period. The results were disturbing, leading to the conclusion that use of oestrogen plus progestin (synthetic progestogen) for up to two years was associated with increases in breast (mammographic) density.

As a result of these trials, the prescription of hormone replacement was decreased significantly over subsequent years and women are looking at viable (but safer) alternatives.

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DIETS FOR MENOPAUSAL WOMEN While the food we consume on a daily basis is important at any age, the

Research has shown that the cultural view of menopause is also directly related to the degree of symptoms of menopause. difference can be more marked when our health is under challenge — which can be exactly what menopause is for many women. There is substantial research indicating that a diet higher in vegetables assists in the protection from a broad range of chronic degenerative diseases. Therefore, concentrating on vegetables (including, but not restricted to, fennel, celery, parsley and alfalfa), fruit (particularly berries, apples and low-GI fruits), nuts and seeds, whole grains (not wheat) and soy ferments such as miso and tempeh will provide a high phyto-oestrogen intake.

Wild fish and seafood are excellent sources of protein and help to keep the thyroid functioning normally. The predominantly plant-based diets of some cultures may explain why their women rarely experience menopausal symptoms. High plant-based diets are also protective against osteoporosis,

cardiovascular disease and risk of breast and colon cancer.

Phyto-oestrogens Phyto-oestrogens are non-steroidal plant-derived compounds with diverse chemical structures possessing weak oestrogenic activity. Their constituents include coumestans, lignans and isoflavones. Phyto-oestrogens in foods and herbs are considered oestrogenprotective, as they assist in the liver metabolism of the more toxic forms of oestrogen, breaking them down to safer forms that can then “block” oestrogen receptor sites. These “safer” forms of oestrogen have activity that is considered beneficial without the sideeffects of HRT. Soy (Glycine max) Soy products are a common source of phyto-oestrogens. Four major research studies have been published where the scientists examined diets enriched with soy, or soy protein or 400mg standardised soy extract. The studies showed positive effects in the reduction in the incidence of hot flashes, reduction in vaginal dryness and decrease in night sweats from all forms. Soy has also been demonstrated to be protective for bones. Make sure the soy products you buy are non-GMO, however. The soy ferments (miso and tempeh) are even more beneficial for your health.

BOTANICAL REGULATION OF MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS Herbal medicines are most popular with women aged 40–50 years — the age group around perimenopause and menopause — and this popularity is likely to increase as more women become wary of the risks of hormone replacement therapy and demand a good quality of life during menopause.

As mentioned, there are several major factors to consider, including improving hormone balance and serotonin regulation. Important issues for the long term are the management of osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease prevention. Before menopause, women are protected from cardiovascular disease due to the higher levels of hormones, but when postmenopausal the incidence reverts to the same as that of men.

Botanical medicines used to relieve symptoms of menopause have multiple activities, from hormonal balancing with the phyto-oestrogens, mood

Photography Shutterstock

Black cohosh has been shown to increase oestrogenic activity via direct binding of active constituents to oestrogen receptors.

Medicine & mood changes While the changes in hormone levels during menopause create many physical symptoms, oestrogen withdrawal specifically results in a decline in the release of neurotransmitters, primarily norepinephrine and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT), which can result in a change in thermoregulation in the hypothalamus.

This, in turn, leads to frequent sweating, hot flushes and night sweats, and increased depression and anxiety.

Knowing the neurotransmitters involved, increasing the amount of serotonin by activating specific 5-HT receptors, along with inhibiting serotonin reuptake in synapses, are possible approaches in preventing the symptoms.

In order to avoid hormone replacement treatments, some women have opted to use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to manage these menopausal discomforts. However, these also come with a number of undesirable side-effects such as sexual dysfunction, nausea, weight gain, sleep disturbances and the risk of addiction.

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH MENOPAUSE regulation by balancing serotonin, flavonoids reducing inflammation and providing cardiovascular protection, and components that improve musculoskeletal outcomes such as reduced osteoporosis.

Plants with either 5-HT ligands or activity resulting in inhibition of serotonin reuptake potentially increase serotonin levels and include St John’s wort, black cohosh, kava and dong quai.

Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) Black cohosh is a perennial plant native to eastern parts of North America. The dried rhizome is used for medicinal purposes and its main active constituents include triterpenoids, flavonoids, phytosterols, tannins and cimicifugin. Black cohosh has been shown to increase oestrogenic activity via direct binding of active constituents to oestrogen receptors. It is the most-studied alternative to hormone replacement therapy and one of the most effective, as it not only relieves hot flushes and vaginal atrophy (a big problem for continuing sexual activity for many women) but also improves depression.

Dong quai (Angelica sinensis) Dong quai is a perennial plant whose root is a popular remedy in traditional Chinese medicine. It is predominantly a female remedy that has been used to treat many female disorders, including menopause. It has good uterine tonic activity, improves liver function, relieves hot flushes and acts to stabilise blood vessels.

A recent study conducted on rats showed that dong quai root may inhibit bone turnover markers, thus potentially preventing bone loss. The mechanisms of action are through the pro-inflammatory cytokines as these are well-known regulators of bone metabolism. Dong quai was shown to be as effective as oestrogen replacement for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis — with a strong safety record.

A Phase II clinical trial treating menopausal women with dong quai showed significant improvement in both Liquorice has multiple activities in improving menopausal symptoms.

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physical and psychological scores as well as reduced hot flushes, improved bone density and enhanced quality of life.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) Another major source of phytooestrogens is red clover, a herb frequently used to relieve menopausal symptoms and one that has multiple health effects. Red clover was traditionally valued as an antispasmodic and an anticancer treatment, not as an oestrogenic agent. Interestingly, red clover and soy share similar but distinct chemical profiles. Both contain flavones such as genistein and daidzein; however, red clover has significantly higher levels of these flavones and it’s these that are believed responsible for the herb's oestrogen-like effects.

Red clover has been shown to reduce hot flushes in many women and also to improve bone mineral density; in addition, one study showed an improvement in lipid profiles (thus assisting in cardiovascular protection) by increasing the HDL (protective) fraction of blood lipids. Overall, studies showed no adverse side-effects.

Hops (Humulus lupulus) Hops have been shown to be effective in reducing hot flushes, improving sleep time and reducing anxiety and depression — all symptoms being related to decreasing levels of oestrogen and rising levels of luteinising hormone (LH).

The potent phyto-oestrogen in hops (8-prenylnaringenin) is effectively absorbed in the human intestines, triggering measurably higher plasma oestrogen levels, with a concurrent lowering of LH levels. In one study, 67 women were treated for 12 weeks with a hops extract (compared with a placebo group) and the treated group showed significant improvement in their symptoms of hot flushes.

In another study, a gel containing hops extract was used as a vaginal application in women with vaginal atrophy. Although the study numbers were small, the women reported marked improvement in the symptoms after the first week of treatment.

Women taking hops have also demonstrated an improvement in bone strength. Studies in rats showed that the effect on increasing bone mineral density was greater than that of both genistein (the active soy ferment compound) and resveratrol.

Hops have been shown to be effective in reducing hot flushes, improving sleep time and reducing anxiety and depression.

Sage (Salvia officinalis) Sage is an old herbal remedy prescribed to reduce hot flushes in menopause, particularly night sweats, thereby allowing improved sleep. Sage has a role in improving memory and concentration and has been shown to have a positive effect on dopamine without adverse side-effects.

Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) Liquorice contains phyto-oestrogen components. It has antidepressant properties, reduces hot flushes, improves adrenal cortisol and stress management and lowers cardiovascular risk with its antioxidant and lipidlowering activities. Overall, liquorice has multiple activities in improving menopausal symptoms. One caution: be careful with long-term high doses as these may also reduce potassium levels.

Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) Chaste tree has profound effects on pituitary function and has been shown in menopause to have beneficial effects on LH and FSH secretion, thus relieving hot flushes and improving energy.

St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) & passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) St John’s wort and passionflower showed significant improvement in menopausal symptoms, reducing hot

SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH MENOPAUSE in nervous system function and psychosomatic (the mind/body) dysfunction in menopausal women who took a standardised 300mg kava extract daily for 2–3 months. Kava significantly improved symptoms of anxiety and insomnia (thereby increasing energy and wellbeing) in menopausal women.

Red clover has been shown to reduce hot flushes in many women and also to improve bone mineral density.

St John's Wort can improve serotonin levels.

Photography Shutterstock

flushes, insomnia, depression, anger, palpitations, headaches, vertigo, fatigue, muscle and joint pain and numbness — all these symptoms improving significantly from the third to the sixth week of the study. It was determined that these two herbs — prescribed either singly or together — are successful alternative treatments for menopausal women. Both these herbal medicines improved serotonin levels, enhancing the quality of life in the women in the study.

Kava (Piper methysticum) Kava rhizome contains kava pyrones (also called kava lactones), which have anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) and sedative activity. Two double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trials found significant improvement

flow to the brain but also enhances energy production within the brain by increasing glucose supply and improving the transmission of nerve signalling.

Ginkgo must be taken for at least 12 weeks for noticeable improvement.

HORMONES TO CONSIDER SUPPLEMENTING

Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus) Shatavari root is regarded in Ayurvedic medicine as an aphrodisiac and a female reproductive tonic with rejuvenative actions for all ages. Shatavari is considered a remedy from the rasayana group, meaning it strengthens the health of all tissues of the body. Shatavari root contains steroidal saponins, which support a subtle oestrogen-modulating activity. Shatavari also reduces symptoms of anxiety.

It is an effective demulcent for dry and inflamed membranes of the lungs, stomach, kidney and sexual organs.

Hence it may assist in the treatment of vaginal dryness in menopause.

DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) DHEA (an adrenal hormone) works at a different level from the supplements and plants that have hormonal activity.

It’s one of the main precursors for the androgens, which in turn are converted to oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. DHEA levels are lowered when a person is stressed (it is manufactured into cortisol preferentially under stressful conditions) and supplementing has been shown to increase oestrogen and testosterone levels in peri- and postmenopausal women, alleviating their symptoms and improving their general sense of wellbeing, energy and sexual function.

Ginseng (various) There are several types of ginseng, including Panax ginseng (from Asia), Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus), American (Panax quinquefolius) and Indian (Withania somnifera). While they have differing therapeutic profiles for many conditions, all these ginsengs show activity in improving adrenal function (and therefore stress management).

Healthy adrenal function is important in managing changes like menopause and in protection against immune dysfunction and chronic illness. The various ginsengs overall improve bloodsugar management, liver glutathione levels and hormonal balance, and have major antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. They provide neuroprotection (improve memory and concentration along with reduced anxiety and depression) and increase energy levels.

Ginsenosides exert oestrogen-like actions without direct receptor binding.

Melatonin Melatonin is a major regulator of sleep, mood and the human circadian rhythms. Chronic insomnia is a common problem in menopausal women, triggered by a drop in melatonin levels. This is associated with hot flushing, particularly at night, restless leg syndrome and sleep disorders. At the same time, menopausal women with low melatonin are twice as likely to experience significant depressive symptoms. Research is showing that postmenopausal depression and insomnia are related to variations/ reductions in melatonin secretion.

Current research also indicates that melatonin regulates many aspects of physiology, including cardiovascular function and the antioxidant enzymes related to ageing. Melatonin is considered a useful cardioprotective agent as it reduces the severity of essential hypertension, limits abnormal cardiac physiology and reduces heart damage from ischaemia, reduces cardiac hypertrophy and limits the frequency of heart failure — certainly in research on rats, at least.

Studies on humans support this research due to melatonin’s powerful antioxidant properties protecting the cardiovascular system.

Ginkgo biloba Ginkgo biloba leaf is worth mentioning as it has positive effects on the vascular system and, by improving peripheral circulation, regulates high blood pressure, relieves cold hands and feet and improves the memory loss that frequently occurs with menopause.

Ginkgo improves mental health in patients with cerebral vascular insufficiency. It not only increases blood

OSTEOPOROSIS (& OSTEOPENIA) Bone is a dynamic organ that undergoes turnover many times during

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a lifetime. This remodelling process involves cycles of resorption, followed by the formation of new bone to replace old bone and to strengthen bone in response to repeated physical stress.

As we age, bone resorption begins to exceed bone formation, resulting in a yearly net bone loss (up to 1 per cent a year), leading to osteoporosis and increasing risk of fractures.

Osteopenia is a lessening of calcium in the bones (the early stages of this process), whereas osteoporosis is the severe stage of bone fragility when sufferers are at increasing risk of fractures, especially in the hips (neck of femur) and spine. The conditions responsible for the diminishing strength of bones are multifactorial metabolic problems with a variety of dietary imbalances. Osteoporosis is considered an issue with abnormal calcium metabolism (a more complex issue than a simple calcium deficiency).

Reversing osteoporosis is therefore a complex metabolic issue: bone microarchitecture needs to be improved, osteoblast proliferation (bone rebuilding) needs to be increased and osteoclast (bone remodelling or breaking down) activity reduced.

Much is written about the role of calcium, but the source of calcium is critical. Calcium in foods is bound up with other micronutrients that regulate its metabolism, including magnesium, boron, zinc and silica (and phosphorus), and these are not always found in calcium supplements. If calcium

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Diets high in vegetables and fruit (ideally more than nine serves a day), and adequate proteins such as legumes and ďŹ sh, showed better overall health, fewer menopausal symptoms and better bone structure. can have adverse side-effects long term. There has been significant research looking at dietary and herbal alternatives that, over time, have been shown to be successful.

Dietary guidelines for menopausal management & boosting bone density These dietary guidelines apply generally to improving health in older women.

Avoid wheat as bone density is lower in women with wheat sensitivity, gluten intolerance or coeliac disease. Coeliac disease is the most severe condition, and has a genetic component. One of the main issues with wheat intolerance or allergy is that ingestion of this common food triggers an inflammatory process along the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. Apart from the chronic inflammatory response and the subsequent immune challenge (a major trigger of inflammatory autoimmune diseases), this also results in poor absorption of many critical nutrients and therefore leads to multiple deficiencies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even with an otherwise good diet.

Diets high in vegetables and fruit (ideally more than nine serves a day) and adequate protein foods such as legumes and fish showed better overall health, reduced menopausal symptoms and better bone structure due to high phytonutrient ingestion and an overall alkalising effect. The calcium and vitamin D levels (among other nutrients) were measurably higher in these diets.

High phytonutrients such as lycopene, phenolics, flavonoids, resveratrol and pectin derived from tomatoes, apples, grapes, berries and citrus fruits, and especially dried plums (prunes), are antioxidant and have a pronounced effect on improving bone. A diet high in these nutrients generates a higher bone mass, with higher trabecular bone volume and thickness and lower trabecular separation, thus indicating enhanced bone formation and suppression of bone resorption, resulting in greater bone strength.

These osteoprotective effects are mediated through the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory pathways and their downstream signalling mechanisms, leading to increased osteoblast mineralisation and increased inactivation of osteoclasts.

Onions and garlic have boneprotective properties, increasing bone thickness by inhibiting the resorption activity of the osteoclasts. Diets high in omega-3 fatty acids are protective for bone and also reduce the inflammatory activity associated with various forms of arthritis and cardiovascular disease.

Medications adversely affecting bone strength Osteoporosis and its clinical consequences of increased fractures are well-known issues in chronic autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In both male and female populations, the prevalence of reduced bone density is reported to be doubled in comparison to the general population. Patients are at increased risk of both spinal and hip fractures. Research evidence supports the view that bone loss is a disease that is related to both the increased inflammatory process and to glucocorticoid use independently.

To manage bone strength, the inflammatory process must be regulated, preferably through the use of nutrients and herbal medicines, and both the bone nutrients and vitamin D should be supplemented.

Photography Shutterstock

Apples and prunes are antioxidant and have a pronounced effect on improving bone.

replacement is needed, naturally sourced calcium may be a better option.

Calcium hydroxyapatite is ground-up internal part of bone and contains all the nutrients needed in the correct proportions, so is potentially the best choice. Coral calcium and zeolite have shown promise in rat studies, so these are often considered good options.

Cod liver oil contains vitamin D, although a variety of supplements of this vitamin have been shown to increase blood levels when a person is low. Get your vitamin D checked, however, as there is an ideal level of vitamin D: 100nmol/L, usually. Vitamin D is a critical nutrient but needs to be in the correct proportions. Cod liver oil also contains vitamin A and the antiinflammatory omega-3 fatty acids.

Medically, bisphosphonates are prescribed for osteoporosis, but these

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CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE PREVENTION Increasing the intake of foods that are high in antioxidant and antiinflammatory components is vitally important, but oestrogen also plays a major physiological role in the cardiovascular system by protecting against heart disease. This is facilitated by its atheroprotective effect on plaque stabilisation and collateral vessel formation.

Oestrogen has favourable effects on insulin, glucose and lipoprotein levels but, because the antioxidant effect of oestrogen is lost once women reach menopause, the incidence of atherosclerosis increases. This is associated with a higher level of oxidised LDL in the blood and higher levels of oxidation. This increasing oxidation makes postmenopausal women more susceptible to metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, both of which (in a circular argument) are implicated as risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Consumption of foods and herbs rich in antioxidants that also regulate blood sugar may therefore be helpful in enhancing the beneficial effects of other therapies for postmenopausal patients.

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) Fenugreek is worth mentioning because it is high in flavonoids and polygalactomannans, giving it multiple roles in regulating insulin (fenugreek seeds regenerate beta-cell activity in the pancreas) and beta regulating cholesterol metabolism by increasing the protective HDLs. It is anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, improves testosterone levels and reduces fatty liver. It also has reasonable levels of phyto-oestrogens.

Nutrients for cardiovascular protection Two dietary vitamins, vitamins C (ascorbic acid) and E (alphatocopherol), can be used to reduce the incidence of disorders associated with an age-related decrease in oestrogen. Rich in their antioxidant capacity, these vitamins scavenge free radicals and neutralise oxidative

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stress. One study assessing the effect of these vitamins on postmenopausal women found higher levels of the various oxidative markers and lower levels of the antioxidant enzymes in those who did not supplement vitamins C and E in their diets. These vitamins are not only major antioxidants but also associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease via their inhibition of cholesterol synthesis and LDL-cholesterol oxidation.

Both vitamins have also been shown to reduce the intensity and number of hot flushes by improving adrenal function, allowing increased hormonal production, specifically oestrogen, and supporting a greater antioxidant defence system in postmenopausal women. When considering vitamin C alone, its intake has been associated with a protective effect on bone. This can be seen through its suppressive action on osteoclast activity, which thereby prevents accelerated bone turnover and eventual bone loss.

A WEE PROBLEM BUT A VERY INCONVENIENT ONE: INCONTINENCE Incontinence is increasingly common in older women and it continues to deteriorate with time. It can, however, be managed if caught early. Incontinence is caused by several factors: the hormonal diminution of oestrogens and progesterones, along with the longterm effects of damage from childbirth.

This latter is more difficult to treat, but the former has possibilities and the treatments are along the lines of those already mentioned — with a couple of additional herbs.

The diet has to be one in which the bladder irritants are removed, the most common being wheat, but refined sugar, caffeine and alcohol can also exacerbate the problem. A diet high in flavonoids can strengthen the bladder. Incontinence also has its roots in neurological conditions such as anxiety. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome may contribute to this condition.

One useful herb is the Ayurvedic herb Cratavea nurvala (varuna) as it has multiple effects on improving the health of the urinary tract including the reduction of bladder irritability.

EXERCISE There is an old adage that says “use it or lose it”. While this may have

Regular exercise improves balance and muscle strength.

multiple applications, it is very true for maintaining both bone strength and good cardiovascular function. Overall, the research shows that average bone mineral density is higher in women who exercise regularly than in those who don’t exercise. Weight-bearing exercise is particularly useful. Regular exercise also improves balance and muscle strength, thereby reducing the incidence of falls in the elderly.

An interesting study showed that the ancient Chinese exercise regime tai chi chuan is particularly effective for elderly people as it maintains neuromuscular co-ordination, muscle strength and flexibility, is weight bearing and improves the function of the cardiovascular, respiratory and immune-endocrine systems.

BUILDING LONG-TERM HEALTH Menopausal women may suffer from a variety of symptoms, including hot flushes and night sweats, which can affect their quality of life. Although hormone therapy has been the treatment of choice for relieving these symptoms, it has been associated with increased breast cancer and cardiovascular risk, leading many women to search for natural, efficacious and safer alternatives, such as botanical remedies and dietary supplements. Data from clinical trials indicate that foods and botanical medicines are useful to reduce menopausal symptoms, improve bone density and reduce the incidence of chronic disease, setting the foundation for long-term health.

References available on request.

Dr Karen Bridgman is a holistic practitioner at Australian Biologics, Sydney, and Pymble Grove Health Centre, Gordon.

Photography Getty Images

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Am I

BU F F

It’s well known that girls often struggle to like how they look but boys can rate their bodies just as negatively. We examine the issue as well as what you, as a parent, can do.

WORDS / CARROL BAKER

A

fter footy practice, 13-year-old Bailey jogged 3km home, then hit the home gym after dinner to do some reps. One of his mates, Troy, also 13, goes to the gym most days, pushing himself to the point of soreness, but he says it’s worth it because his “guns” are getting bigger.

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As part of his fitness regime, Troy’s also started skipping meals because he wants to stay lean.

Body image and how it can negatively affect teenage girls has been scrutinised in the public arena for decades. But mention the words “boys” and “body image” in the same sentence and most people just look baffled.

It is, however, a big issue. Ask those in the know and they’ll tell you that negative body image does not discriminate across gender. In fact, the 2014 Mission Australia National Youth Survey of 13,600 teens identified body image as one of the top three concerns for boys.

Dr Vivienne Lewis, a psychologist with expertise in body image and eating disorders, says it needs to be taken very seriously: “In the last five years it’s become a significant mental health issue. Some researchers are also predicting that you might see the balance shift in the next 10 years, that men and boys will be a lot more dissatisfied with their body image than women.”

Photography Getty Images

enough?

PARENTING BOYS & BODY IMAGE GIRLS VS BOYS

LOOKING FOR CLUES

While both boys and girls are concerned about the shape and size of their bodies, there are often differences between the sexes regarding how they think they should look. Girls typically desire to be thinner, many wanting to emulate the waiflike models they see sashaying along a catwalk. Boys, on the other hand, typically want to look like their sporting heroes, to be fit and muscular but also lean so they have muscle definition.

According to Dr Lewis, it’s a tough call for boys. “That lean, muscular physique is much harder to achieve than a thin physique, so generally speaking boys will struggle to meet their perceived ideal body image much more than girls will,” she says.

Achieving the “right look” can bear a hefty pricetag for boys as well as girls.

Unlike girls, it’s unusual for boys to binge and purge, but you might notice your boy being extremely restrictive about his food intake and snubbing whole food groups.

Dr Lewis says the boy may also show secretive or unusual behaviour. “You might find your child refusing to attend a social event because it interferes with their gym routine, or not wanting to eat at a particular restaurant because they don’t have particular foods on offer on the menu,” she says.

To further cloud the issue, some signs that your son is struggling with body issues could also be confused with normal teenage hormonal-driven behaviour. For example, being secretive or putting personal boundaries in place, like not wanting to get changed in front of others.

THE SHAPESHIFTING MALE In the past, men were portrayed in the media in a number of ways. The tradie with his singlet and tool belt, the sombre-looking businessman swinging a briefcase, the larrikin bloke fishing with his mates and sharing a beer.

These days, though, a man is more likely to be photographed wearing a sixpack rather than drinking one.

Dr Lewis says the idea of the functional, hardworking man is being replaced by media images that primarily focus on a man’s appearance or, specifically, the aesthetics of the male.

“On the cover of a men’s magazine you’ll see chiselled abs, legs splayed open so the genitals look larger and content inside the magazine on how to get fitter and leaner,” she says.

MEDIA MADNESS? The portrayal of a slim-hipped, muscular male begins at an early age, about the time when boys start playing with action figures. Unlike the impossibly proportioned Barbie doll (whose life’s purpose seems to be modelling sparkling frocks while zooming around in her pink car with Ken), these hulky male figures are heroes with a serious agenda and super powers that can save the planet.

Are advertising gurus and the media inadvertently messing with our boys’ heads?

But, then again, social media arguably also has a part to play. Some say the rise of the selfie is spawning a generation where narcissism is the norm, where kids have to look a certain way to fit in, no matter what the cost. The more “likes” they get when they post a new selfie, the greater their ego boost.

PUBERTY BLUES A boy’s body changes with the onset of puberty. Along with a deepening voice and the growth of facial hair, he grows in height and his limbs lengthen, chest broadens and bones increase in width and length. Growth spurts can be not only rapid but also uneven so, if you think your teenage son appears to be all arms and legs, he probably is!

This is why teens can appear gangly and uncoordinated and their chances of injury or accidents increase.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES In search of a svelte muscular form, boys and young men are working out: pumping iron and, in some cases, pushing themselves far beyond their physiological limits. Clinical exercise physiologist Bill Sukala says that, at the extreme end of the spectrum, exercising too much can cause permanent damage to the growth plate: the area of growing tissue near the ends of the long bones in children and adolescents.

“If boys exercise too hard when growth plates aren’t fully developed, you can potentially prematurely close the growth plate, which results in a shortened bone,” he says.

According to Sukala, instead of hitting the gym, preteens and those in their early teenage years benefit from a variety of different sports and physical outdoor activities that work a broad range of muscle groups: playing team sports like soccer, bike riding, swimming, rough-and-tumble play,

Instead of hitting the gym, preteens and those in their early teenage years benefit from a variety of different sports and physical outdoor activities. shimmying up monkey bars or other play equipment and swinging off ropes hanging from tree houses, for example.

Around the mid-teenage years when testosterone begins to surge and your teenager starts to notice the opposite sex, he might start to want to bulk up a bit. And, of course, the place he’ll want to do this is at the gym. If a teen wants to work out at a gym, Sukala says, they need to be fully supervised. “What you don’t want is teenage boys simply mimicking what they see others do because, more than likely, they’re going to be in for a world of hurt,” he says.

They should aim for moderate weights and moderate repetitions, coupled with learning good form and proper breathing techniques, he adds. “These are all good habits to develop early.”

It’s best if a teenage uses lighter weights until he reaches his early 20s, when he’s physiologically mature and can build muscle. Then he can progress safely to bigger weights.

A HAZARDOUS HABIT Unfortunately, with the desire to boost muscle mass and strength to gain a competitive edge, boys are also using steroids. Anabolic steroids are extremely dangerous, especially in young people.

They can cause permanent liver damage, high cholesterol levels, diabetes and heart problems — and that’s just the long-term effects.

“Steroid abuse, particularly among late-teenage boys, is unequivocally a real issue,” says Sukala. “Boys want big muscles to look good for the girls and to be the cool guy in the group, but some boys are so driven they’ll do anything to gain that competitive edge.”

So, what signs indicate that your son could be abusing steroids? Sukala says early telltale signs can vary from individual to individual, but there are usually some common denominators.

“If your child is abusing steroids you might see them devouring muscle magazines (this is where muscle envy kicks in). They might also get acne and they’ll possibly become more agitated or angry,” he says.

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PARENTING BOYS & BODY IMAGE To make matters worse, athletes and bodybuilders are now using designer drugs that are a form of steroids and that are reportedly undetectable. As soon as the long arm of the law catches up with one lot of unscrupulous manufacturers, another lab springs up elsewhere, peddling these harmful performanceenhancing drugs.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? There are many things parents can do to gently guide their sons in the right direction. Being a role model for healthy lifestyle habits is one thing parents and caregivers can really get on board with.

The right chow Kick-starting a healthy lifestyle starts with encouraging your child to eat healthy foods. As preteen and teenage boys grow into manhood, their nutritional needs change. According to nutritionist Lisa Guy, they need far more nutrients: extra calcium to build strong bones and more protein and iron to support muscle growth. “Teenage boys appear to be eating all the time — this is because they need extra calories and nutrients to fuel their growth spurts,” she says.

This is where parents can help kids to make healthy food choices that will hopefully become lifelong eating habits.

Guy says one important consideration is healthy “food-to-go” options. “If hungry teens start snacking on convenience snack foods that are full of sugar, saturated and trans fats, and soft drinks, this is where the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing health issues can occur,” she says. Instead, encourage your busy child to pack healthy food-to-go options: cheese and crackers, trail mixes (raw nuts, seeds and dried fruit), homemade protein balls or healthy muesli bars.

Make your mealtimes family times and get kids into preparing family meals. It’s a great way to connect with your kid while you are slicing and dicing — and you’ll be teaching your child an invaluable life skill (one their future spouse will thank you for).

Teenage boys tend to eat a lot of cereals and grains, so make sure they are going for the wholegrain option

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instead of the white variety. Choose oats (muesli, porridge), brown rice and pasta, grainy bread and wholegrain crackers. “These are rich in fibre and contain important nutrients like B vitamins, iron and vitamin E, and slowreleasing complex carbs for energy,” says Guy. Look within Accentuate the importance of other people’s personality traits over appearance. Perceived “beauty” really is only skin deep. Dr Lewis says to look for examples in everyday life. “When you comment about a person to your child, emphasise their qualities, for example how kind, caring or compassionate they are, not how slim or attractive they might be,” she says.

Celebrate body diversity. Some people are genetically destined to be taller, shorter, rounder or leaner than others — and that’s all OK. The endgame everyone should be pitching for is to be the healthiest you can be; to nurture your mind, body and spirit.

Don’t be preoccupied with weight.

If you’re anxious about weightgain, popping diet pills and trying different diets to shed kilos, you may be inadvertently sending the wrong

message to your kids. If a parent is trying to lose (or gain) weight, make sure you are sending a clear message that it’s for health reasons, not looks.

Aim for being real. The elite sportsman who is super toned has probably not only won the gene-pool lottery but has personal trainers, personal chefs and dietitians at his beck and call to keep him looking buff. Some are also not shy about going under the knife to achieve the look they want.

IF YOU ARE WORRIED Be alert to diet and behavioural changes. Some changes are, of course, more obvious than others and they can vary, depending on whether the child is seeking to buff up or slim down.

Internal alarm bells should be going off if you see a boy who exercises to the point of exhaustion, refuses to eat certain meals or regularly binges on food then disappears after dinner for a shower or to the toilet.

If you are concerned about your child, contact your health provider for referral to a health professional.

Carrol Baker is a freelance journalist who writes for lifestyle and health magazines across Australia.

Photography iStock

“When you comment about a person to your child, emphasise their qualities not how slim or attractive they might be.”

Encourage your child to eat healthy foods.

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Finding your ease Does your yoga practice line up with your intentions? Through harnessing the power of an intention, or sankalpa, you can combine effort and stability with grace and comfort into a practice that soothes your whole self.

WORDS / LUCY CORMACK PHOTOGRAPHY / JANITHA JAYASINGH

A

good habit to get into as you begin your yoga session is to take a moment to consider an intention to shape your practice. This is called a sankalpa, or yogic resolution. A sankalpa would usually take inspiration from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali — the foundational text of Ashtanga, or Raja, yoga.

Intentions, particularly those involving physical activity, are often achievement-oriented and, as with all good intentions, you want to do your best. For yogis, in particular, the combination of setting an intention and overcoming obstacles seems a logical step on your path to selfrealisation. And yet, in my experience, many people setting intentions for their practice seem to benefit most when that intention has to do with being more easeful and less achieving in their nature. Why? Could yoga possibly be the antidote to the condition of the overthinking, over-demanding mind?

YOKING THE MIND & BODY Without a doubt, Patanjali’s path of Raja yoga highlights the link between mind and body, particularly in how you should be situated physically

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and mentally in your yoga postures.

Two of his directions from book two of the Sutras are “asana is a steady, comfortable posture” and “by lessening the natural tendency for restlessness and by meditating on the infinite, posture is mastered”.

We all experience that tendency to restlessness and we know these days that physical activity releases endorphins, which benefit the body and balance our state of mind. Could that be the reason yoga has become such a favourite pastime?

It’s just my opinion, but I believe there’s a lot more to it than that, so let me illustrate why I think yoga might be beneficial.

Yoga is a very mindful practice. The emphasis on precision and “flow” makes the experience like a kind of moving meditation, however energetic or slow the movements are. There is a strong focus on breathing, which often serves to draw your awareness to the way the fluctuations of the breath mirror the changes you experience in life. As Donna Farhi points out in her holistic guidebook Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit, this sometimes brings difficulty and pain and at other times brings ease and joy.

And then there are the asanas, the physical yoga postures themselves. I feel they deserve more attention as a means of finding ease. Many yoga poses are initially experienced as a challenge to fit the mould of how you think they should look, but eventually you adapt each posture to suit your individual physical framework — finding ease is finding asana.

How do you combine effort and stability with grace and comfort? How do you find ease in asana?

At the beginning of a practice it’s always a good idea to have a sankalpa you can use off the mat as well as on the mat — something that will have a simultaneous effect both physically and mentally (for example, setting an intention to be mindful of your breath in each moment). This forms the basis for combining effort and ease: you don’t set a goal but you do have a focus.

This also awakens you to the truth that a physical yoga practice is going to affect you mentally as well as physically.

It’s a meditative movement designed to create mobility, strength and flexibility as you move into and out of each posture, following the lead of the breath — encouraging the free, unrestricted

BODY YOGA FOR A SENSE OF EASE breathing you may have lost through bad postural habits and unnecessary holding patterns, possibly even from emotional blockages.

With full, deep breathing there is a dislodging or releasing of held emotions, whether you are aware of it or not.

Stability comes when the breath is leading the movement. Ease and comfort come when you are able to breathe fully and deeply in each posture.

WARMING UP So, many of the yoga moves require a breath-synchronised movement.

What postures should you practise, then, to find that balance of breath and movement, effort and ease?

It’s impossible to answer that for everyone as we are all different: various postures and sequences work well for different people. However, let me specify some of the breath-synchronised movements I believe help to bring more ease. The movements are, of course, much more complex, but this little introduction will indicate how one of the primary movements — the rounding/ compressing-lengthening/extending vinyasa — can contribute to your quest for finding ease in your practice.

Most warm-up postures are based on the way your body naturally moves with the breath, movements that allow the body to expand on inhale and find a softening release on exhale. The choice of asanas is plentiful: child’s pose and cat-cow, in particular, underlie the free movement of the head, tail, spine, shoulders and hips in extension and flexion, as well as a natural oscillation.

All are initiated by the breath.

These warm-up postures also let you respond to gravity: they teach you to yield. In other words, you learn that the pose is holding you and not the other way around. When practised in synchrony with the breath, this encourages circulation in the body and brings a sense of ease and effortlessness in the movement. In yoga, if you are able to find this combination of letting the breath move you while yielding to the earth early on in your practice, this will set the foundations for finding ease for the duration of your time on the mat.

FINDING YOUR BALANCE As you move on in your practice you can become more dynamic, adding more vinyasa, or flow, to the movements by saluting the sun.

From standing, you use an inhalation to reach the fingertips to the sky and,

at the same time, ground the feet down into the earth in extended mountain pose, creating length and space through the entire body. You relieve the effects of gravity in this way: reaching up and grounding down allows you to maintain enough integrity through your structure that you receive the rebound of gravity up through your body. By lengthening the spine and creating openness in the front of the torso, neck, chest and shoulders, you reverse the compression effect you get from day-to-day life, allowing you to maintain an upright posture, even in later life. This position is the basis for the standing poses, where you find ease by being able to expand and release from a stable foundation.

The sun salutation sequences also include the primary movement of rounding and compressing. The first of these postures is the standing forward bend, uttanasana. Forward bends cool and calm the nervous system and they also allow you to look inwards, bringing

Many yoga poses are initially experienced as a challenge to fit the mould of how you think they should look, but eventually you adapt each posture to suit your individual physical framework. your awareness back to the stillness of your centre. The effort, however, is in keeping active through the lower body; as you press the feet into the floor you are also drawing up through the legs to get a good healthy stretch along the whole back side of the body. By grounding down with the feet, the rest of the body can lengthen and extend as a result of that push, thus reinforcing the balance between effort and stability with comfort and ease. You accept that the earth is there to support you while at the same time using gravity to help stretch and release.

Some people may need to make this pose more easeful. Experiment with softening the knees and taking the feet apart but, at the same time, also really drawing your abdomen onto your thighs and the crown of your head towards the floor. Everyone is unique. Finding your ease means finding what works for you, establishing stability and comfort in each and every posture.

In yoga, much of the focus is based on finding this balance between stability and comfort. It is most noticeable in the restorative postures, in particular the final posture of savasana: you lie down and let the ground take the weight of your body and all you have to do is be still and breathe! The balance is less noticeable in the standing postures, unless the teacher cues it well; nevertheless, you should maintain this awareness in order to keep the ease in your practice.

STAYING MINDFUL Another key to finding ease is to really engage with the alignment of your body and how that fits into the posture you are practising. This is where people are often drawn to the urge to align the body to the posture instead of the other way around. By setting an intention at the start of your practice, you can use this to keep check of when you are disengaging from your focus and trying to fit a mould that exists only in your own mind. It will be clear when your focus has slipped: the more you lose your mindfulness, the quicker the breath becomes, and in some cases you may completely lose your balance. But that’s all just part of the experience of learning.

Much of what is learned in yoga is based on the “mindset” around the intention of the practice. Think of the sankalpa mentioned above, for instance, where the focus was “to be mindful of the breath in each moment”. For an obvious example of slipping away from this intention, think of times when you’ve been pushing yourself to the point where your breath has quickened and your heart rate sped up.

In yoga, it is only through the control of having a regular heart rate and long, deep breaths that you can keep your awareness intact as well as practise safely and with ease, without risking loss of mindfulness.

Combining effort and stability with grace and comfort is the key to finding ease in your practice. With an easeful practice, you can build strong, healthy bones, muscles and ligaments by comfortably sustaining postures, and lubricate your joints to create a sense of lightness and freedom. Yoga also works the mind: as you lengthen and expand away from the earth you feel energised, as in backward-bending postures, while the rounding and contracting you get from forwardbending postures means these are more nurturing, introverted and calming.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 81

BODY YOGA FOR A SENSE OF EASE Together, these dynamics form a balanced practice. Focusing only on lengthening and expanding feels unsupported and can be exhausting over time, while the rounding and contracting without the opening reach outwards will shorten the muscles across the chest and make you feel lethargic. Together, the postures create a complete practice: a practice for finding ease, a practice you can rediscover and re-explore each time you are on the mat. This may be something to think about when setting your intention.

Mountain pose.

Mountain pose, arms wide.

Child’s pose.

Extended mountain pose.

Child’s pose Start in child’s pose, feeling your breath flowing in and out for 5–10 breaths. Feel the spine lengthen as you inhale and, as you exhale, soften and release through the back body.

Cat pose.

Cow pose.

Cat-cow pose Come onto the hands and knees: shoulders, elbows and wrists stacked one on top of the other, hips directly over the knees. Moving slowly, exhale into cat pose, inhale into cow pose.

Feel the spine awakening on the inhale and releasing on the exhale. Repeat five times.

Extended mountain pose Ground the soles of your feet into the earth, spreading all 10 toes across the floor, and draw up through your legs, engaging the quadriceps. Lift the shoulders up and then draw them back so the chest is open. Reach the arms out and up as you inhale, bringing the palms of your hands together above your head.

Enjoy the length in the spine. Exhale as you return the arms alongside your body.

Repeat three times.

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info@byronyoga.com | byronyoga.com

BODY YOGA FOR A SENSE OF EASE

Standing forward bend.

Standing forward bend, lengthening out the spine.

Lifting the leg for Warrior I.

Standing forward bend From extended mountain pose, take your hands down past your heart as you exhale, folding forward, keeping your feet active. Bend your knees, placing your hands on the outside of your feet as you fold onto your thighs, moving your face towards your shinbones. Lift up onto fingertips as you straighten your legs,

inhaling, with the spine lengthening from the tailbone to the crown of the head.

Exhale as you bend the knees and fold again with the palms on the floor outside of your feet. Repeat five times.

Warrior I.

Downward dog Step your feet to the back of your mat, forming a deep inverted V from the shoulders to the wrists and from the hips to the heels.

Downward dog, Bend the knees if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re tight pedalling out the feet. in the hamstrings and take your dog for a walk, bending left knee and pressing the sole of the right foot towards the mat. Alternate from side

Downward dog.

to side; breathe in to create space in tight areas and breathe out to release tension. Repeat five times on each side.

Warrior I Come onto the toes with knees bent, sweep the right leg towards the sky and step the foot through the hands into a lunge. Plant the back foot, inhale and sweep the arms up, keeping the front leg bent. Hold your warrior I for five breaths.

Keep the arms up and the shoulders apart to enjoy space across your back as you lengthen and expand.

Lucy Cormack runs regular yoga classes and lives in the Bayside area of Melbourne, Australia. To find out more about Lucy, including her 21-day meditation challenge and yoga DVD Prana Samana: Creating a Home Yoga Practice, visit lucycormack.com or email radiate@pranasamana.com. She would like to thank Donna Farhi, whose teachings on navel radiation and centring down strongly informed this piece.

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Over 1600 students have taken the master level of Holy Fire Reiki Training Holy Fire Reiki is a new form of Reiki introduced by William Lee Rand. It is both powerful and gentle and provides purification, healing, empowerment and guidance. It is taught as Usui/Holy Fire Reiki in which the Holy Fire symbol is used along with the 4 Usui symbols in levels I&II and ART/Master. It is also taught as Holy Fire Karuna Reiki®. Holy Fire energy is noticeably refined and comes from a high level of consciousness. Some of the qualities students have experienced include: Works continuously even when not thinking about it and spontaneously heals issues as they come up; Always respects free will; Heals deeply and quickly without distress; Heals relationships and interactions with others; Releases worry and replaces it with a sense of safety in a most pronounced way; Tends to develop all the personality traits that are healthy for a person to have such as love of self and others, kindness, patience, confidence, vitality, enthusiasm, optimism, trust, joy, peace and so forth.

W William Lee Rand, has dedicated his life to Reiki and has practiced and taught full time in cclasses around the world for the past 26 years. He has studied with six Reiki masters including t three from Japan and has done extensive research on its history and practice. He is president of t International Center for Reiki Training, the Center for Reiki Research and the Reiki the M Membership Association, is editor-in-chief of the Reiki News Magazine and has written n numerous books and articles on Reiki including Reiki, The Healing Touch, Reiki Fire, An Evidence B Based History of Reiki and Reiki for a New Millennium. In addition to introducing Holy Fire Reiki, h has also developed the Usui/Tibetan system of Reiki in 1989 and Karuna Reiki® in 1995. he

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SPIRIT HONOURING ANCESTORS

HONOUR YOUR ANCESTORS,

heal yourself Connecting to your forebears can help you heal any invisible fault lines that run through your life as well as tap into a deep intergenerational wisdom.

WORDS / ROSAMUND BURTON

A

t Halloween, when children dressed as witches, ghouls or ghosts knock on people’s doors and ask for a trick or treat, they are re-enacting an old pagan belief. Halloween is known as Samhain in the pagan Celtic calendar, the night when the veil between the living and the dead was thought to be at its thinnest and when it was believed that the ancestral spirits would come knocking on families’ doors and ask to be welcomed in.

Most people in the Western world have lost the tradition of honouring their ancestors and see no benefit in it, but ancestors are very significant in traditional cultures. Connecting to your departed family members can help you tap into their deep wisdom as well as heal any invisible fault lines that run through your life.

HEALING LOSS & GRIEF Rosemary Wanganeen is a loss and grief counsellor based in Adelaide.

Until the age of five, she lived on an Aboriginal mission. Then her parents gained an exemption under the Aborigines Protection Act in the hope of making a better life for themselves and their family. This was the only way they could legally live outside the mission and it required cutting all ties with their Aboriginal culture as well as not speaking their traditional languages.

The family moved to the town of Clare, where they were the only Aboriginal family. Rosemary grew up never hearing her parents talking in language and, despite her grandmother being fluent in Kokatha, she never heard her speak it.

The death of her mother, when Wanganeen was 10 years old, meant that five of her siblings and she were

86 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

separated from one another and put into children’s homes. At 17 she got married. Both her marriages were to white men who were drinkers.

Her second husband beat her severely and she was taken to a women’s shelter. Wanganeen describes this as her “rock bottom”. But one day, as she was looking at her battered face in the mirror, it transformed into an old traditional Aboriginal woman’s face.

This woman told her she was about to find faith and trust in her own abilities.

This was 1987 and the start of a fiveyear healing process.

Wanganeen began to look at all her “inner children” who had been victimised when she was a child and a teenager. Then she looked at how she was taken away from her family and became part of the Stolen Generation.

Asking why anyone had the right to do that to her led her to look into Australian history, English history and as far back as the Greek and Roman empires. She discovered that Plato, after the loss of his beloved teacher Socrates, coined the idea that grief was a weakness. From then on, she believes, people started to shut down and suppress their grief because they didn’t want to be seen as weak.

Says Wanganeen, “If you suppress your grief it’s got to go somewhere, so it becomes externalised, and the grief anger, which is a normal part of the grieving process, can turn to rage, which can become violence.”

As she gained understanding of her own trauma and that of her ancestors, Wanganeen believes she released the suppressed contemporary and unresolved intergenerational grief inside her. She also became more connected to her ancestors. “I was

seeing, feeling and hearing them, and then putting into practice what they were telling me to do.”

In 1992, she had a dream, which precipitated packing up her home and driving with her son to Amata in Central Australia. It was there that her son had been born 10 years earlier.

“Intuitively, I got told to go back up there and sit down in peace and wait to be told what to do. Because my body was emptied out of all that grief energy, it was light enough now to be able to see, feel and hear things on a spiritual level. So I was able to see, feel, hear and meet my grandfather — my mother’s father — in the form of a crow.”

Wanganeen is three-quarters Kaurna, the Aboriginal tribe from the Adelaide plains, and part Kokatha and Wirangu, who are from the west of South Australia. She is also part English, several generations back.

Wanganeen had not grown up in a traditional culture but, instinctively, she had found her way back to her roots.

Rosemary Wanganeen does counselling and loss and grief work with Aboriginal and nonAboriginal clients. She firmly believes what’s missing from the human consciousness at this time is a relationship with our ancestors.

“In Aboriginal culture we never had one god,” she emphasises, “but we have our spiritual ancestors. They have all the power, knowledge and awareness because they have walked this earth, so they know what it’s like to be a human being.”

FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS Although many people may feel little connection to their ancestors, according to Sydney-based Family

SPIRIT HONOURING ANCESTORS is healthy and that love flows freely between them.

Slovenian-born Maria Dolenc is one of eight children but never felt as though she was connected to her mother or belonged in her family. Her mother was one of nine children and, at the age of three, had been given away to her aunt. According to Hellinger, if somebody in a previous generation has been given away as a child, then often in a later generation a person will not feel part of the family.

Dolenc always felt angry with her grandmother for giving her mother away. But in Dolenc’s Family Constellation session the representative of her grandmother said, regarding giving her three-year-old daughter away, “Times are difficult. I am doing what I believe is best for this girl.”

“I would have kept that story that she was terrible but, since then, I feel more loving towards my grandmother,” Dolenc confides. “I no longer see my mother as a victim and now I do feel a sense of belonging to my family.”

Sometimes, events that occurred several generations before a person was born are not acknowledged or accepted by the family. So the individual takes on the family burden of guilt and shame, which can result in mental or physical illness, addictive behaviour or relationship difficulties.

Family Constellations work gives people the chance to decide to not carry this onus any longer. “We are training now to be the best ancestors,” Dolenc says. “I can respect what happened, leave behind what doesn’t belong to me, take the goodness which was there and honour the lives from which I came.”

Photography Getty Images

THE ANCESTRAL CONTINUUM

Constellations therapist Maria Dolenc the departed exhort a huge influence on us. “We are part of our ancestors,” she says. “My mother’s and grandfather’s genes are in me.”

Family Constellation Therapy is an innovative method of healing family dynamics. It was developed by Bert Hellinger, a German psychologist and former priest, in the 1990s while working as a family therapist. It is now being practised throughout Europe, America and Asia and also in Australia.

Family Constellation work can be experienced one-on-one with a therapist but is particularly effective

when done in a group. One person’s issue is the focus of a session and other attendees are asked to represent different members of that person’s family. This therapy works at an extraordinary energetic level. Workshop participants who have never met one another before find themselves experiencing the emotions of the family members they have been asked to represent.

Bert Hellinger believes there is a natural order within family systems.

Every member has an equal right to belong to the whole and has a rightful place, which ensures that the family

Natalia O’Sullivan and Nicola Graydon are authors of The Ancestral Continuum (Simon & Schuster). As a child and in her late teens, O’Sullivan, who is of part Spanish heritage, had a recurring dream that she was blindfolded and walking towards a door. Years later she was taken by her cousin to the prison where her grandfather was held during the Spanish Civil War, before he was blindfolded and executed. It was exactly the same as in her dream.

O’Sullivan’s dream of her heroic grandfather, known for his fairness and philanthropic nature, has inspired her to help others to discover their own extraordinary ancestors and also to help people heal the trauma that is often passed down through the generations.

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The ancestral altar is a place of prayer, ritual and meditation. You can make a shrine in the garden or use a windowsill or a small table. But it needs to be somewhere you can spend some quiet time alone. and a deep understanding of the dead and the yet-to-be.

“It always struck me when I came home to England that there was this cut-off,” she continues. “The ancestors are dead and gone. We’ll celebrate them on their birthdays, but there’s no incorporating them into our daily lives and experiences.”

CREATING AN ANCESTRAL ALTAR One way to form a stronger connection with your ancestors is to create an altar, explains Natalia O’Sullivan. Often people do this subconsciously, putting all the family pictures in a corner.

Because you see the photographs of family every day and send them thoughts and feelings, you are acknowledging them, and sometimes that’s all that is needed.

But for people wanting to communicate with their ancestors, rather than just acknowledging them, O’Sullivan recommends creating an ancestral altar. The ancestral altar is a place of prayer, ritual and meditation.

You can make a shrine in the garden or use a windowsill or a small table. But it needs to be somewhere you can spend some quiet time alone.

PRAYING TO YOUR ANCESTORS Another way to connect with your ancestors is to set aside 10 minutes every day for that purpose. Light a candle on your altar, then talk to them, say a prayer, sing a sacred song or hymn, or chant a mantra. Ask your ancestors for what you need at this time. Then give thanks. You can close by saying “Amen” or “Blessed be” or chanting “Aum”.

Another way to connect to your ancestors is through meditation.

Light a candle and say a prayer to the ancestors, asking for guidance and help. Then focus on your breath and become more and more relaxed. Ask to receive light, pure compassion and love from your ancestors. Once you feel their light and love surrounding your body and filling your mind with peace, you can begin to ask for inspiration and intuitive answers to personal issues.

Do this on a regular basis and keep a record in your diary of what you have seen and felt. While it may seem that not much is happening each day, looking back through the journal over the weeks and months, you’ll become aware of the ancestral connection you have made.

RESOURCES The Australian Institute for Loss & Grief, lossandgrief.com.au Maria Dolenc, mariadolenc.com.au The Ancestral Continuum, by Natalia O’Sullivan and Nicola Graydon Rosamund Burton is a freelance writer specialising in mind–body–spirit issues. She is author of Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers: Adventures Along Ireland’s St Declan’s Way. W: rosamundburton.com

Photography Getty Images

“Ever since I was a child I could see my ancestors and the ancestors would tell me their stories,” O’Sullivan admits.

“So I realised that there was a lot that I was drawing to myself, which was not my story but the story of other people in my family.”

O’Sullivan has worked for the past 20 years as a holistic therapist and psychic and spiritual counsellor. Often, she says, when clients are struggling with aspects of their lives, “one of their deceased relations will come through and shed some light on their issue, a bit like a guardian angel”.

She believes everyone has a guardian ancestor who cares about, guides and encourages them on a spiritual level. But there are also ancestors whose actions have caused problems down a family line for generations. To heal these, she says, connect with those ancestors and talk about them with the rest of the family.

If those ancestors have been heard, there is usually a release that creates an energy shift and healing for everyone.

Nicola Graydon, the book’s co-author, is a journalist who specialises in writing about indigenous cultures. She is of Afrikaans and English heritage and was born in Africa. In West African and South African traditional cultures, she says, people wake up early every morning and connect to their ancestors. They talk to their ancestors out loud, as if they were on the other end of a telephone.

“It’s not worshipping the ancestors; it’s talking to them as if they are in the room,” she explains. “There is a reverence to the elders but it’s very personal, emotional and connected. These people have very little on a material level but they have an incredible richness in their relationships and their communities,

Place photos of your ancestors on the altar as well as mementoes of them, such as letters, jewellery and objects they treasured. You can include statues that represent your ancestral deities, such as Buddha, the Virgin Mary or Krishna. Add some stones or crystals or anything else that represents the natural world and your ancestors’ origins.

Next, purify the space and the objects. This can be done by burning incense or using a sage stick. Or you can use sound, such as drums, bells or chimes. Your altar should be cleansed in this way at least once a year, either on a day relevant to you or, O’Sullivan suggests, Halloween, October 31, the Celtic Festival of Samhain.

Put fresh flowers on the altar and make offerings of fruit, nuts or sweets.

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SPIRIT REWILDING THE SOUL

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SPIRIT REWILDING THE SOUL

The WILDS inside In a world of dishwashers and traffic and concrete floors, can we reconnect with the vast natural realms that were once our homes? Can we rediscover a wildness of being and so take better care of the wilds outside?

W

hen world-renowned change agent George Monbiot stepped calmly onto the TED stage in Edinburgh in 2013 and began to talk, a ripple spread through the audience. However, rather than the wave of shock that usually accompanies his hard-hitting climate forecasts, it was instead a stirring of inspiration, a warm current of hope, an imaginative wonder at the possibilities that his story offered. In an entirely different kind of environmental report card, Monbiot explained how the simple act of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the US, after an absence of over 70 years, set off a “trophic cascade” of changes that transformed the entire ecosystem to an extent that was unanticipated by even the scientists involved.

Deer started avoiding certain parts of the park and immediately those places started to regenerate. Bare valley sides quickly became forests of aspen and willow and cottonwood.

The number of songbirds, of migratory birds, increased greatly, as did beavers, the dams they built providing habitats for otters, muskrats, ducks, fish, reptiles and amphibians. The wolves killed coyotes and, as a result, rabbits and mice numbers began to rise, which meant more hawks, weasels, foxes and badgers. Ravens, bald eagles and bears came down to feed on the carrion. And so on down the line until the river itself, eased of erosion

pressures, changed its very shape, creating pools and riffle sections where micro-life could thrive.

“Rewilding” was the name Monbiot gave this process of mass restoration of ecosystems, the future of conservation.

The rewilding of Yellowstone went viral across social media platforms, blogs and digital highways. After a long dry spell, conservation was back in the headlines.

While fantastic purely for its radical simplicity, there was another reason the story garnered so much interest.

Instead of fencing humans out of nature to protect it, Monbiot’s vision put humans firmly back in the centre of the equation, as hinted in his opening words.

“When I was a young man I spent six years on wild adventures as an investigative journalist in some of the most bewitching parts of the world,” he said. “I felt more alive than I have ever done since. When I came home I felt the scope of my existence gradually diminishing, until loading the dishwasher seemed like an interesting challenge. I was scratching at the walls of life, trying to find a wider space beyond. I was, I believe, ecologically bored.”

Rather than excluding humans, Monbiot’s rewilding also speaks of the need to address the over-domestication of our modern minds. Only those who love nature and connect with their own innate wildness will create and caretake wild landscapes. Rewilding of the land, it seems, also requires a rewilding of the human soul.

Photography Getty Images

WORDS / CLAIRE DUNN

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SPIRIT REWILDING THE SOUL

REAWAKEN, RECONNECT & REVISION It is a cause psychotherapist and freelance outdoor educator Lee Trew dedicated his life to after a series of “rewilding” experiences as a young man. One of the first was a bushcraft workshop at the Glastonbury music festival in the UK. “When the instructor told us we were going to learn to make string I thought ‘cool’. I then watched him walk through the crowd to a patch of stinging nettle. Within minutes he had stripped it and woven it into a strong cord. It was awesome,” says Londonborn Trew.

Back at home, Trew planted out his garden with nettle and began searching out more opportunities for nature connection. At a Forest School Camp, Trew found himself sitting in a circle of

smiling people around a fire and, for the first time in his life, realised there was another way to live than the narrow life hitherto mapped out for him; that healthy human and wild environments were possible. His ongoing training in indigenous bushcraft and nature awareness culminated in a year-long wilderness journey, an experience which, Trew says, “rendered me utterly unfit for office work”.

Emigrating to Australia, Trew founded BluegumBushcraft, supporting mainly young people to experience a deeper connection with themselves, the Earth and the community they create during the ReWild programs.

“Many kids, especially boys, are bored and struggling at school. We’ve had kids come with multiple disorder labels: autism and ADHD. Time and again, over the days we see an awakening, a reigniting of this spark of life and joy.

Suddenly the world is full of adventure.”

Much broader than just survival skills, Trew sees rewilding as a “massive movement taking place in every level of the human environment”, a revolution to reawaken our instincts, to reconnect with the intelligence of the body and heart and, in doing so, revision the global story we’re

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collectively telling. It’s a big vision, and one that starts with a hawk-eye view of human history.

“We were all once wild,” says Trew, “only starting to farm 10,000 years ago, compared to hunting and gathering for between 200,000 and 300,000 years. Part of rewilding is recognising that in our genes, our bodies and bones, we come into the world with certain expectations.

“We expect that the sky is going to be our ceiling, that the sounds we hear will be those of nature, but we get quite a different experience. Knowing this, some of the issues we face can be seen as a response to the simple fact that it’s quite unnatural to be living the way we do.”

Pointing to the current popularity of the paleo and 5:2 diets as signs of a swing back to the lifestyle our bodies are programmed for, Trew says that, rather than returning to living in the bush, rewilding is an invitation to ask ourselves how we’re designed to live and in what conditions we thrive. According to Trew, just like in Yellowstone, we too can reinvigorate a “wild natural state of being” by repopulating our internal landscape with another kind of top-order predator.

“Top-order predators such as wolves and big cats are observers, their survival dependent on accurate, sensitive and intimate knowledge of landscape. For us, that means rediscovering our own instinctive awareness.”

It’s a sense awareness borne of the need to survive on the savannahs, a far cry from our city experience where, as creativity and innovation expert Sir Ken Robinson says, our bodies are often just a means of getting our heads to a meeting. However, at its core, Trew says, is a process of reclaiming our “internal sovereignty”.

“A wild person in wild places exists in the flow of the moment — lighting a fire when they’re cold, eating when they’re hungry, sleeping when tired. Part of rewilding is listening and responding to that inner knowing.

“You could bring a wild creature into the city and sit it behind a desk in a suit and tie and it would still follow its instincts. Rewilding is the body and heart waking up and taking over the reins so that we hear and act on our deepest desires.”

WILD MINDS Cultivating a “wild mind” is also the mission of American depth psychologist and wilderness guide Bill Plotkin. “To have a wild mind is to have a whole mind. People with wild minds are those who have cultivated and embodied their innate human wholeness — the full rainbow spectrum of capacities, talents and sensibilities that constellate our evolutionary birthright,” says Plotkin.

As outlined in his recent book, Wild Mind, Plotkin believes the primary task

Photography Getty Images

Only those who love nature and connect with their own innate wildness will create and caretake wild landscapes.

SPIRIT REWILDING THE SOUL

“We expect that the sky is going to be our ceiling, that the sounds we hear will be those of nature, but we get quite a different experience. It’s quite unnatural to be living the way we do.”

or semi-wild places, they range in scope from tracking, nature observation and vision quest rituals to deep imagery, dreamwork and ecstatic dance.

INTO THE WILD fellow creatures; flowers and forests; mountains, rivers and oceans; wind, rain and snow; Sun and Moon.”

This worldview is what Sydneybased author, activist and founder of the Rainforest Information Centre John Seed calls “deep ecology”, an approach to facing world problems that unites “thinking, feeling, spirituality and action”.

“If we look at indigenous cultures, we may notice that, without exception, rituals affirming and nurturing the sense of interconnectedness between people and nature play a central role in the lives of these societies,” says Seed.

“Deep ecology involves moving beyond the individualism of Western culture toward also seeing ourselves as part of the Earth. This leads to a deeper connection with life, where ecology is not just seen as something ‘out there’ but something we are part of and have a role to play in.”

To facilitate this, Seed brings people together in interactive processes, rituals and meditations that help people “remember” their “entire evolutionary journey”.

Plotkin, too, suggests practices for cultivating a wild mind. Enacted in wild

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Author and community educator Maya Ward has forged her own path towards a wildness of being, which she maintains now with regular free-form dancing, gardening and creative writing.

Stepping onto the narrow verandah of her “shemple”, her temple-inspired shack on the banks of the Yarra River in Victoria’s Warburton valley, Ward recounts her rewilding wakeup at age 19. “I was on an overnight hike in the Blue Mountains with friends when one of them sprained an ankle. I ended up camping out in a cave with her for four days until she could walk out.

“Being stuck in one spot with that responsibility changed something. I spent time watching lizards, sitting in the sun, watching. I was feeling that place on its terms in a totally different way. Suddenly, there was a mutuality, a necessity to listen. With that came a sense of depth that I’d never experienced before in nature.”

Years later, Ward embarked on a three-week walk from Melbourne to the source of the Yarra, in a kind of modernday pilgrimage described in her book The Comfort of Water: “Instead of the usual national park experience of being

led through a string of beauty spots, we had to follow the way of the river, the will of the non-human. I learned by listening. Every day, I was humbled by the experience.”

Opening up to the river in this way opened Ward to the “otherness” within.

“When I really listened, I had a sense of my soul the size of the world. I am so big, so mysterious and beautiful. That sense of separation between myself and the other fell away. I realised that this is how we’ve been for 99.9 per cent of our human history.”

In the end, rewilding for Ward means waking up to what brings us alive. “Ask yourself, where do you feel most vibrant and alive, what’s beautiful and powerful in your life, and follow that.

“For me, that’s in listening deeply to nature. When you listen to anything with depth you see so much beauty, and with that comes love. It’s a very warm, rich and delicate experience. I am wild nature learning about itself, and within that is knowing myself as all of it.”

Rewilding, it seems, is a place defined by as many paths as there are people on them. It’s up to each of us to decide which one beckons. As Monbiot says, “Let nature decide, and nature, by and large, is pretty good at deciding.”

Claire Dunn is the author of My Year Without Matches: Escaping the City in Search of the Wild, available in bookshops and online.

Photography Getty Images

necessary to turn our society around from life destroying to life enhancing is to reclaim our “original wholeness”, our “indigenous human nature granted to us by nature itself”.

Experiencing his own initial rewilding on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak in 1979, Plotkin says that, in order to step more fully into our humanness, we must first cultivate a relationship with the “more-than-human world”.

“It’s time to take another look at ourselves; to re-enliven our sense of what it is to be human, to breathe new life into ancient intuitions of who we are and to learn again to celebrate, as we once did, our instinctive affinity with the Earth community in which we’re rooted ... to rediscover what it means to be human beings in a wildly diverse world of feathered, furred and scaled

Natural beauty is a

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PLANET SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DAY

Sustainable home, SUSTAINABLE LIFE Like to green your home but aren’t sure where to start? Meet three couples who’ve taken innovative yet achievable steps to make their homes kinder to the planet.

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY / KYLIE TERRALUNA

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ould you like your home to be environmentally healthy but don’t know where to start? Do you like the idea of having reduced bills in a comfortable, non-toxic home while reducing your impact on the Earth, but need the knowhow?

Whether you want to implement small changes immediately or are seeking solid information for retrofit or rebuild, passive design, permaculture, solar power and sustainable technologies,

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get inspired, get out of your house and get into someone else’s at the annual Sustainable House Day, held each September throughout Australia.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DAY? Sustainable House Day (sustainablehouseday.com) is a nationwide event in which impassioned sustainable homeowners open their doors and hearts to the general public, providing educational talks and tours

of their own homes for free. First established in 2001, this inspirational, generous community day is an initiative of the Australian Solar Council (formerly the Australian Solar Energy Society or AuSES), currently managed under licence by EnviroEvents.

In the 2012 Sustainable House Day, 220 homes opened with 38,000 visitors, 400 volunteers, 31 sustainable community groups and 75 local events. Forty councils participated nationally. In many homes on this day each year, experienced builders, architects, designers and sustainability group members are on hand offering expert advice. Event manager Jodie North says, “Homeowners who open their homes press the message of sustainability whether just one person attends or 500. They are passionate and really want to see sustainable living grow within the community.”

Meet three couples who opened their doors during the 2014 Sustainable House Day. As each demonstrates by example, sustainability is empowering, achievable and aims for all of us to see out a viable future on this beautiful planet.

PLANET SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DAY

SUE & MICHAEL: Coogee, NSW “Our house is a big heat sink; we don’t need feather doonas any more. In winter, we have just one thin blanket over each bed.” ~ Michael For Sue and Michael’s family of five, Sustainable House Day has always been a research and information-gathering event. “We have been able to build a lovely home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs that is sustainable and price equivalent and the ongoing costs are no longer there,” says Sue. Sue and Michael completed their sustainable build in 2012. It features under-floor solar hydronic heating, green concrete, a grey-water reed bed, sustainably sourced timber, low-flow taps, toilets, showers and waterefficient appliances, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) carpets, paints and glue, HDPE water pipes (minimal PVC), sun-reflective paint on the roof and, among other inclusions, a beautiful, untreated swimming pool that serves as a native billabong. Their gardens are either food-producing or natureinviting, encouraging local wildlife.

This couple sought out homes with solar hydronics featured at each Sustainable House Day. Sue says, “To be able to talk to a real person and understand their experience has been so beneficial for us.” Due to street location and to give access, the garage remained in the north on their land, so they placed all the solar photo-voltaic array and hot water systems there. These systems use the energy of the sun to power the home and heat all domestic hot water.

“The solar hydronics is embedded in the house,” explains Michael. “In winter, excess water is piped through masonry floors to keep the house warm. It’s gasboosted so, if there are heavy rains and not enough solar, we’ve got gas to draw on.” They gave themselves a “second” northern frontage towards the rear of the house by having an open verandah on the side and north-facing glass doors to the living area at the rear of the property.

To incorporate as much light into their home as possible, Sue and Michael used north-facing clerestory windows with eaves. In summer, the open windows allow warm air to be drawn out of the house and eaves prevent sunlight falling directly on internal surfaces, Sue explains. In winter, both light and warmth can enter when the sun is lower in the sky. They used double-glazing on all windows, which added about 10 per cent to the cost “but made it so much more comfortable”, says Sue. All the window frames are thermally broken.

Cupboard refrigerators get very hot, so they elevated the fridge on blocks with grates at the top and bottom and created a draught area around the fridge within the cupboard space, reducing energy use. They insisted on towel rails for each family member. “The architect couldn’t believe we were specifying so many towel rails,” says Sue, “but it is so much better for the environment.” With the towels drying properly, they only need to wash towels fortnightly.

There are small things you can do to green your own home, encourages Sue, like LED downlights. “You are paying a similar price and LED hardly needs replacing. The power use is a fraction of the price [of that used by standard lights] and doesn’t generate as much heat.”

Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances translates to reduced money and power usage, she notes, and has cut their own power bills in half.

They planted deciduous trees outside west-facing windows: another energy saver and a beautiful addition to the outdoors. Deciduous trees exclude sun and heat in summer and enable sunshine to penetrate into the residence during winter, after their leaves fall.

“I can only control what I do, and lead by example,” Sue reflects. She is on the Green Team at work and the Sustainability Committee at her children’s local primary school, helping create the school’s compost system and saving AU$150 a week in waste.

Their own family turned the weed patch at the end of their cul-de-sac into a neighbourhood composting area, with four compost bins amid native plants and surrounds.

“It’s also like a rain garden,” Sue smiles. “There’s a whoosh of rain and it’s a lovely entrapment area to water the garden.” Her philosophy towards life is, “I can’t make neighbours compost, but I can provide them with the opportunity.

It’s all about encouraging others to take responsibility for their own waste.”

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PLANET SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DAY

ROMAN & JANNA: New Farm, Qld “You don’t need to buy expensive things to live healthy lives.” ~ Roman The Spur family — Roman, his partner Janna Cejnarova and their toddler Lada — are proof you can live sustainably in a rental property. In a one-bedroom unit, they live affordably, focusing on natural health and on building community, with creative, inexpensive living strategies that lighten their impact on the earth.

Theirs is a story of living simply. They earn around AU$1800 a month and pay $1200 in rent, leaving $600 a month to live on. Their grocery expenditure is less than $50 a week, with most of their food coming from their small 100-square-metre self-created organic backyard and including herbs, fruit, vegies, nuts, grains, eggs, honey and harvested seeds for baking bread.

They make their own cleaning products and shampoos and use homegrown aloe vera for their personal skincare, toothpaste and smoothies at home. They cook most of their food by solar power and proudly purchase green power. Their electricity consumption per quarter is around AU$100. They drive diesel on $20 a week, but mostly cycle.

This family has not gone without.

They are happy and don’t need much in the way of material possessions. Since arriving in Australia seven years ago, they have visited most of it and, while in fulltime work, have saved $300,000 to buy their own home. Roman urges, “If you can’t afford it, don’t buy [a home] ...

Look at the bigger picture [and] holistic approaches to living.”

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t focus on joy He will inspire you to and create self-sufficiency through their small business Spurtopia (spurtopia. blogspot.com.au), teaching workshops by donation about future resilience and growing food in your own garden, backyard or balcony space.

Roman, who has a PhD, had always been a sustainable designer until he left his job two years ago to create his family utopia. On Sustainable House Day, people come to the Spurs’ place to learn about their organic garden within a rental property, their lifestyle choices and Roman’s solar inventions.

Roman and Janna are enthusiastic and infectiously optimistic, and will inspire you to live comfortably on less.

“We use the sun for our benefit — we can’t believe more people aren’t doing it,” says Roman. They made their own solar hot-water system from corflute (a hollow, fluted plastic board), a shower screen and irrigation tubing costing $50. And, says Roman, “The hot water tank is a rubbish bin and stores 200 litres of water at 50–60°C.” Their handmade solar oven is crafted from recycled materials and a satellite dish forms the solar cooker.

The couple share excess food with other tenants and barter at a regular fruit-and-veg swap. The real estate agent agreed to their keeping chickens after receiving a written petition of

consent, signed by other tenants living within the unit block.

They also have two beehives in their thriving garden, which produced 160kg of raw honey in the first year. “Beehives are the most efficient system you can have in your backyard because of the [surrounding] pollination. We then have honey — and sweeten the neighbours with honey. You harvest around 500g of pollen a day, as well as royal jelly, beeswax and propolis.” Roman says he asked the neighbours’ permission first and “had no idea about beekeeping [until he] read a book and joined a beekeeping club. It doesn’t need to cost a fortune.”

As there is a lot of concrete in their backyard, Roman made raised garden beds from Styrofoam self-watering broccoli boxes. “They keep it cool in summer and warm in winter,” he explains. “If we can make it for free, then you can, too, and we want to share our inventions.” Their worm farms are made from planter buckets and Roman suggests that renters use a fruit and vegetable pyramid so that your fruit and veg move with you.

Roman revealed that his and Janna’s rental property is due for demolition, so the entire ecosystem in their backyard will be destroyed. However, they are busy filming their sustainable rental experiences for their website. Speaking of what drives him, Roman says, “We are leaving our children with a lot of garbage to deal with and they are going to ask, ‘What did you do about it?’”

This couple’s answer encourages you to take the first steps, urging you to create your own sustainable utopia within the urban experience of life.

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PLANET SUSTAINABLE HOUSE DAY

“The most important [sustainable action] is to have green power, because in doing that you minimise the largest source of your emissions in one easy, low-cost way.”

HELEN & JAMES: Elsternwick, Vic “I always thought it insane to use the best drinking water in the world to water a garden.” ~ Helen Helen and James have transformed their dark and draughty 1890s Victorian house into a comfortable, light-filled, sustainable and air-conditioningfree home (sustainable-house.net).

“Our objective is to live well with less e impact,” says Helen. “Progressively, we look at everything and question what we can turn off that’s non-essential.

Anyone and everyone can live like this.

Cutting greenhouse [gas] emissions is our priority.” Their energy consumption is around 70 per cent less than the typical family home. They have zero greenhouse gas emissions from electricity with the use of solar and 100 per cent green power.

Helen says, “The most important [sustainable action] is to have green power, because in doing that you minimise the largest source of your emissions in one easy, low-cost way.

It’s the cheapest, most important form of doing the right thing you can have.”

Helen exclaims that Sustainable House Day, in their home, “is like a festival!” In 2014, they had 237 people through and opened over another three days for school and community groups.

“People chat, there are debates and well-informed people contribute their

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own insights. It’s a positive wellbeing community where a lot of people are on a journey to live more sustainable lives.”

She explains, “We went to Sustainable House Day for over a decade and wanted to reciprocate. When people realise they are part of the problem and solution, they change their lives and want to share it with others.”

When they moved into their house in 2001, Helen and James immediately blocked the chimneys and sealed gaps throughout. The fireplace is used as a thermal chimney to draw air in and stabilise the temperature of the house.

On their website, this duo supply data on energy consumption and water savings in their home to inspire you in yours.

One of the biggest features on their land is their hydroponic glasshouse for year-round harvest. Helen says, “We have been able to substantially change our water use as a result of having rainwater tanks and a greywater system. Our extensive garden now is lush and only watered with town water at the hottest time of the year, if at all.

This is a major saving to us and our public watering system.”

Helen says, “There is a hunger for genuine information and experiences on sustainable living, not only among home owners but also among people renting apartments.” Examine your own ecological footprint using online sources and see where you can make changes straight away, she suggests.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) states that Australians have one of the largest ecological footprints per capita, rrequiring 6.25 global hectares per p person. New Zealand is not far ahead, w with their ecological footprint rrequiring 4.9 global hectares per p person in 2010. According to the WWF, ““If the rest of the world lived like we d do in Australia, we’d need the rregenerative capacity of 3.6 Earths to ssustain our demands on nature.”

Sustainable House Day gives you the opportunity to visit urban homes and rural homes, retrofit homes and purpose-built ones, and some rental properties. You can check out apartments, off-grid homes, get information on thermal performance, solar and wind power, visit community gardens, strawbale houses, sustainability centres and much more. Jodie North of EnviroEvents says, “The information is available and it’s free, so get out there and tap into it!”

Kylie Terraluna is a writer and yoga teacher on the vedic path of wisdom. She travels Australia, teaching WellBeing’s Yoga Immersion Weekends for Love and Happiness. Join her for a beautiful weekend of transformation. W: kylieterraluna.com.au

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PLANET SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR DESIGN

Green on the inside Do you want to create interiors that are unique to your style as well as make your heart glow? Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how to make choices that are affordable and sustainable.

WORDS / KATE ST JAMES, FDIA

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PLANET SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR DESIGN

I

’ve been interested in sustainability and sustainable or environmentally friendly architecture and design for more than 30 years. To me, the concept of conserving resources and using them in a responsible manner just makes sense.

During this time, there have been many important developments, creating even more opportunities to choose environmentally friendly products and services. So, while the principles of environmentally sustainable design (ESD) haven’t really changed, the range of products and services certainly has, making it easier for homeowners to choose to “go green”.

In Australia and New Zealand we have an enviable quality of life compared to many countries. We have access to many natural resources, which we need to manage responsibly to ensure they last for future generations. Reducing the amount of waste you generate is one way to help preserve our resources.

In the Australian instance, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 53 million tonnes of waste is thrown away each year, much of which ends up in landfill. That’s around 19 120L wheelie bins per person! This is second only to the US. In New Zealand, the figure is proportionally lower according to population, but still more than 3.2 million tonnes of waste goes every year into landfill.

We all need to play our part and recycle as much as possible to reduce the amount of waste we create and the environmental harm caused by our actions. By choosing more sustainable goods and services that put less strain on resources and create less waste, you will not only be doing yourself and your family good, you will be helping others and the environment.

One way you can reduce waste and use less of our non-renewable resources is by incorporating eco-friendly, sustainable interiors in your home.

Photography Getty Images

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR DESIGN? Sustainable interior design means designing interiors that are made to last. Using environmentally sustainable materials as well as manufacturing methods that don’t impact negatively on our environment or us has a number of benefits. It not only encourages long-term use, but

intelligent, responsible design also provides healthier spaces and connects people with the natural environment.

All interiors should be designed in a timeless manner, whatever your taste. Avoiding short-term trends will give you interiors of enduring style that never look dated. As the late Coco Chanel said, “Fashion fades; only style remains the same.”

WHY DO YOU NEED IT? It’s wise to embrace sustainable interior design for many reasons, including: For longevity. Buying products that don’t need to be replaced every few years places less strain on current resources, conserving them for the enjoyment of future generations.

For health & comfort. You can improve your health, comfort and enjoyment with better thermal qualities, using passive design principles. You can also improve indoor air quality by using products with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and provide a greater connection to the natural environment by using eco-friendly products.

For economy. By buying better-quality, longer-lasting items and employing passive-solar design principles, you can save on energy bills and save money.

For future sales potential. There is a growing trend among a number of real estate agents to give homes for sale an “eco” rating in order to inform potential buyers about the house they are considering buying. By improving a building’s ambience, functionality, energy use and maintenance, you may increase its future sales potential.

HOW DO YOU GET IT? One of the first things to do when creating your interiors is to decide what you will purchase from new, renewable sources and/or what existing products you’ll use by upcycling and/or recycling.

If you’re interested in upcycling or recycling, you can visit stores that specialise in recycled materials such as windows and doors, fireplaces, bricks, tiles, roof sheeting, baths, hand basins and furniture and furnishings. Just look online to find your nearest location.

You’ll be amazed at what you can find.

However, not all products need to be recycled and your interiors do not need to look like historical relics or “hippie” dwellings. If your look is more contemporary and you just

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 103

PLANET SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR DESIGN have to have new, you’ll find there’s a wide range of new products available, both locally made and imported, that are manufactured using sustainable materials and practices.

When sourcing new products and materials, ensure you consider not only the manufacturer’s green credentials but also the life cycle of the product and where it was manufactured.

While some products may appear more expensive in the first instance, it’s important to weigh up the costs versus the benefits. These are durability, longevity, sustainability, maintenance and health advantages.

HOW DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?

MAKING A MOOD BOARD Creating a mood board can be one of the most enjoyable and interesting parts of the interior design process.

The mood board is what interior designers and decorators make when preparing a new design. It gives you a tangible feel for what you want to create.

In simple terms, your mood board ideas consist of everything you like and dream about. To get started making your mood board, collect images of things you like and admire.

Then assemble everything you’ve collected onto a board, preferably a large A3-size board.

The mood board is your visual reference that acts as a guide to keep you on track with your design and eventual outcome.

Once you have created the board, step back and look at it. What colours dominate? What styles are present?

These are the colours and styles you want to employ in your interior design. These are the things you like; it’s your home, after all.

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Make mood boards Create a mood board from all the things you love. This will give you the basis of your preferences and a place from which to move forward.

Seek professional assistance Interior designers are trained professionals who can help you find your style and provide ideas, products and solutions you may not have thought about and which may not be readily available to the general public. They can often save you money, as any outlay on their services can often be recouped by the savings they can provide on products and getting the design right the first time.

HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR STYLE? There are many different styles you can create. Here are some ideas: Antique & vintage pieces Quality antique and vintage furniture that has been well cared for or restored can look as beautiful and timeless as the day it was originally created.

Upcycled flea market finds You’d be amazed at what people throw out and you can save thousands of dollars by collecting and cleaning up these pieces yourself or by having them professionally restored.

Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

Avoiding short-term trends will give you interiors of enduring style that never look dated.

Contemporary furniture & furnishings Look for companies and brands with green credentials that are manufacturing modern pieces with responsible materials and manufacturing methods.

Green materials, systems & strategies Environmentally sustainable design strategies include passive-solar design such as ideal site orientation, radiant heat and geothermal cooling, heatresistant exterior finishes and glass, sustainable materials, energy-efficient appliances, water-saving taps and toilets, as well as eco-friendly furniture and furnishings.

WHAT PRODUCTS CAN YOU USE? Many designers create exciting new products from waste materials such as glass and ceramics, used tyres, seatbelts, soft-drink bottles, timber offcuts, cardboard, paper and textile offcuts, and industrial waste.

Eco design also uses new sustainable materials and production techniques, including FSC-certified

Photography Getty Images

Read magazines Magazines provide a wealth of information and advice on products and services along with case studies by design professionals.

Surf the internet Websites are such an invaluable resource for researching ideas, products, suppliers, architects and designers.

Read books Many books are written on the subject of sustainable design and living.

Visit showrooms Seek out showrooms and suppliers with green credentials.

PLANET SUSTAINABLE INTERIOR DESIGN

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Use hemp for soft furnishings. Producing four crops a year, with low water requirement and no chemicals, hemp is strong, durable, naturally antibacterial and has many uses. in a range of colours and finishes. Cork tiles are hard-wearing, soft underfoot, warm and sound-absorbent.

All-natural linoleum is made from linseed oil, recycled wood flour, cork dust and limestone. It is renewable, durable, biodegradable, low maintenance and available in a range of colours and designs.

Many paints can be harmful to the environment and your health through off-gassing, which can continue for many years, so look for paints with low or no VOC (volatile organic compounds).

Product selection & lifecycle analysis When buying products, look for certification such as GECA, Green Tag, FSC and Fairtrade. Not all products will have certification, so ask the supplier or manufacturer about their green credentials and those of the products and supply chain used in bringing them to market.

WHY CHOOSE GREEN, RESPONSIBLE INTERIOR DESIGN PRACTICES? Environmental benefits: low impact on people and the environment Economic benefits: energy conservation, low maintenance, longer life and potential sales value Health benefits: greater thermal comfort, better aesthetic and material quality, improved air quality and connection to nature Social benefits: reduced strain on infrastructure, healthier eco systems, reduced use of natural resources, improved quality of life

By creating beautiful, energyand resource-efficient houses and interiors unique to your style that are light-filled, comfortable, durable, sustainable and healthy, you will be contributing to less environmental pollution, thus gaining a deeper connection to nature and a greater return on your investment.

With beautiful results such as these, why would you choose to decorate any other way?

Kate St James is an interior designer and writer with a passion for sustainable design.

Photography Getty Images

(Forest Stewardship Council-certified) timber; fabrics and rugs made from hemp, thistle, bamboo, organic cotton and wool; low- or no-VOC paints, glues and finishes; natural linoleum flooring; rubber, cork, wool or fleece for carpets and carpet tiles.

Use hemp for soft furnishings. Hemp is an ideal material for furnishing fabrics and many other interior products. Producing four crops a year, with low water requirements and no chemicals, hemp is strong, durable, naturally antibacterial and has many uses including for building materials, bed linen and furnishings, personal care products, clothes and food.

Choose wool or fleece for carpets.

It’s a 100 per cent natural fibre from a renewable resource. It’s less wasteful in manufacturing than nylon carpet, naturally soil-resistant, uses no harmful VOCs and has superior looks and longterm durability. Wool carpet tiles reduce waste as it’s easy to replace one tile if damaged and, when moving house, you can even take them with you.

Timber flooring from FSC sources is ethical, renewable, warm, durable and beautiful. Available in many species and colours, natural timber is an excellent, long-term choice.

Cork floors have come a long way since they were first released to the market. Cork is a renewable material with superior durability and is available

Another consideration is the life cycle analysis of products (from cradle to grave or, more appropriately, from cradle to cradle), which assesses the environmental impact associated with each stage of a product’s life, from initial material extraction to processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance and ultimate disposal — or, more importantly, recycling.

Product stewardship & manufacturer responsibility Product stewardship refers to a manufacturer taking responsibility for the life cycle of the product they produce from “cradle to cradle”, so reducing the impact of the product on the environment. It includes: 1. Refurbishment of the product for possible reuse by the existing customer or on-selling/remarketing to new customers 2. On-selling or donating the product in existing condition to other commercial businesses or organisations 3. Disassembly of the product components and/or materials to reuse in new product manufacturing Source: Corporate Cult Furniture

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BEATING FOSSIL FUEL ADDICTION To avoid climate disaster, we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. There are ways you can let them go.

WORDS / MARTIN OLIVER

O

ur society is addicted to fossil fuels and needs to go cold turkey. According to a January 2015 study published in Nature, over 80 per cent of the world’s currently identified coal reserves should be left in the ground (90 per cent for major producer countries including Australia), together with 50 per cent of the gas and a third of the oil. This is necessary to have a fair chance of keeping the global temperature rise by 2100 below two degrees Celsius and avoiding a runaway climate disaster.

Most of the “easy” fossil fuels have already been extracted. Much of what remains is difficult to get

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to and increasingly associated with human rights abuses and excessive environmental damage, prompting the new coinage “extreme energy”. In a recent development, oil companies are preparing to sink wells inside Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park, arguably the most biodiverse place on Earth and home to two uncontacted Indian tribes.

Analysis of industry data has identified coal as Australia’s top source of dangerous particulate pollution, while coal burning has long been recognised as the primary cause of thick urban smog in China. Coal power is one of the top two global sources of airborne mercury emissions, which are contaminating the oceans and

restricting the number of large fish that can safely be eaten, such as mackerel and tuna.

One way to help bring about change is by taking personal action. We can limit our vehicle use, stick solar panels on the roof and buy green power.

Another avenue is to sign petitions and write letters, but these might be ignored. Then there is direct action.

In her recent book This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein gives the term “blockadia” to the groundswell of protests taking place across the world against unwanted fossil fuel projects, from Maules Creek in inland New South Wales to the Rio Tigre in the Peruvian rainforest.

PLANET FOSSIL FUELS

Church bodies have been prominent in the divestment campaign, a significant stance given that, as moral authorities, people often look to them for leadership and guidance. One highprofile divestor is the Uniting Church in Australia whose president, Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney, was quoted as saying, “As Christians we are called to respect and care for the whole of creation.” Similar language has been used by many other divesting churches.

McKibben is aware that shutting down the fossil fuel sector in the short term is unrealistic and also undesirable unless alternatives have been put in place. Divestment instead works in a trailblazing fashion, tilting public opinion and creating an intellectual climate in which restrictive laws are far easier. In his words, “The aim of divestment is not to bankrupt fossil fuel companies financially but to bankrupt them morally.”

For those unmoved by the moral imperative, a further incentive is likely to be higher returns. An analysis of indexes run by the US company MSCI found that, between 2010 and 2015, investors who went fossil-free earned 13 per cent annually compared to 11.8 per cent for the others.

COUNTER-ARGUMENTS

Australia is a country blessed with abundant solar resources.

Photography Getty Images

THE DIVESTMENT MOVEMENT Another option is to engage in the market-based campaigns that have proved effective in recent years. Given that fast and radical global action on high-carbon industries is an increasing possibility, tackling climate change could leave fossil fuel investments worthless in the medium-to-longterm, according to the Bank of England. Buzzwords such as “wasted capital”, “stranded assets” and “carbon bubble” are increasingly finding their way into the debate.

A divestment campaign was kicked off in 2013 by Bill McKibben, then head of the climate action group 350.org, and has since been growing rapidly. This is

targeting coal, oil and gas (including various forms of unconventional gas).

Much of the activism today involves urging institutions to quit fossil fuels, the campaign growing so mainstream it has been endorsed by UN and the World Bank.

At the latest count, divestment policies had been adopted by: 26 universities and colleges (including Victoria University in New Zealand) 42 cities and towns (including six in Australia, Dunedin in NZ) 2 counties 74 religious bodies (including 10 in Australia, 6 in NZ) 32 private foundations 19 other institutions

Inevitably, discussion about divestment has prompted a range of responses, including some arguments against selling off these holdings.

One that sounds credible on the surface is that you lose the chance to engage with a company with a view to pushing reforms and your place at the board is taken up by someone who probably doesn’t care. While this shareholder advocacy strategy is good for tweaking behaviour, experience indicates it’s likely to fail when faced with rebuilding a company’s operations from the ground up.

Then there is the view that divesting will present buying opportunities to savvy investors, thereby neutralising any downward price movement. This falls down on two counts: the amounts being divested are too small at present to yield bargains; and large-scale buyers may be put off by the growing risks.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 109

Windfarms are just one method of achieving sustainable energy.

Immediately following the 2013 election of Tony Abbott, 350.org Australia prophetically warned that the Coalition is a deeply ideological fossil fuel supporter.

It argued that rational argument and lobbying can only go so far and that divestment is the most powerful strategy.

Since then, the Abbott Government has tried to boost global demand for Australian coal by attempting to sabotage the 2013 international climate negotiations in Warsaw. Domestically it has gone for broke, repealing the carbon tax, attempting to abolish or lower the Renewable Energy Target and trying, so far unsuccessfully, to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority.

A swathe of proposed coal mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, if fully developed, would use up six per cent of the world’s remaining carbon budget. Activist energies have focused on the expansion, necessary for Galilee, of the Abbot Point export terminal on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. To date, 11 overseas banks have all signalled they will not be funding some aspect of the Galilee mines or associated infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Australia’s big four banks are all holding their cards close to their chest, refusing to signal their intentions, although the Commonwealth Bank is facing particular scrutiny for its advisory role on Adani’s proposed 11-billiontonne Carmichael mega-mine.

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Spearheading the Australian divestment campaign has been Market Forces, an affiliate project of Friends of the Earth Australia. This group organises periodic national divestment action days and has identified roughly AU$20 billion (NZ$20 billion) in fossil fuel loans by the big four banks over the past five years. No equivalent research has been carried out in New Zealand.

Coal still holds sway in the Australian political arena despite a severe

Most of the “easy” fossil fuels have already been extracted. Much of what remains is difficult to get to and increasingly associated with human rights abuses and excessive environmental damage. downturn in the industry. Over 2012– 2015, it massively underperformed compared to the rest of the share market, the “pureplay” coal companies operating in Australia shrinking in value by 60 per cent during this period. Falling coal prices have been largely driven by decreasing demand from China and India as they ramp up renewables.

Perhaps the most revealing episode was a two-week-long media storm following the Australian National

A FOSSIL-FREE WORLD If there is a major shift away from fossil fuels, in line with the divestment movement’s aims, how do we stop the world from grinding to a halt?

For stationary power, Australia is blessed with abundant solar resources and baseload power offering a continuous supply can be achieved via solar thermal concentrators with molten salt storage. New Zealand has a head start, with 80 per cent of its electricity already coming from renewable sources, largely hydro power, and scope to achieve the remainder with windfarms. In both countries, demand for off-site power generation is being curbed by domestic photovoltaic and solar hot water systems.

From around the world, there are multiplying examples of the energyintensive demands of industry being met by wind turbines, biogas or mammoth rooftop solar installations, with other major opportunities available from investing heavily in energy efficiency.

The use of oil-based plastics could be reduced, coupled with a shift towards the use of more sustainable materials.

In terms of vehicles, new breakthroughs in efficiency are being made with hybrid cars and electric models that can be charged

Photography Getty Images

FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

University’s decision to sell holdings in seven mining companies, most in the fossil fuel sector.

Criticisms of the decision were made by Tony Abbott, five other federal ministers, the mining industry and elements of the media. Vicechancellor Ian Young was even summoned to appear before a Senate committee.

New Zealand has been actively encouraging oil and coal seam gas development while enacting a law intending to stop recent flotilla protests, which will mean a heavy fine for anyone coming within half a kilometre of drilling rigs or ships. The Key Government has been criticised for a weak stance on climate change and between 1990 and 2012 the country increased its greenhouse emissions by a staggeringly high 111 per cent despite agreeing under the Kyoto Protocol to stabilise them over the same period.

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PLANET FOSSIL FUELS

New breakthroughs in efficiency are being made with hybrid cars and electric models that can be charged using solar power.

incorporated into cars points to highlevel collusion between auto makers and oil companies.

Such achievements make a nonsense of oil scarcity as well as the calls to expand biofuels, some

PERSONAL DIVESTMENT Australian research carried out in 2014 for 350.org Australia showed that an impressive 67 per cent of those polled were supportive of investing their money away from fossil fuels. Here are some suggested areas where you can put this into practice: Bank accounts As an alternative to Australia’s major banks, most small banks have no direct exposure to this sector and this is largely the case for building societies and credit unions, too. New Zealand options are Kiwibank and the Cooperative Bank, in addition to credit unions and building societies.

Superannuation Australia’s first and only fossil fuelfree super fund is Future Super, with a second option being the socially responsible funds run by UniSuper, an industry fund available only to university employees and their partners.

Australian Ethical Super has a policy of steering away from coal and coal seam gas mining, making it nearly fossil-free.

A very useful resource is Super Switch, a site covering the largest 35 funds, allowing users to see at a glance

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the percentage of their fund’s holdings that are avoiding the fossil sector.

In New Zealand, SuperLife’s Ethica fund excludes fossil fuel extraction and Grosvenor’s KiwiSaver socially responsible investment funds screen out companies whose primary activities are in the fossil fuel sector. A further option is Australian Ethical Super, although currency conversion is a hassle and currency exchange risks need to be taken into account.

Investment funds Among investment funds, Hunter Hall in Australia is completely fossil fuelfree and open to worldwide investors.

Australian Ethical Investment is close to being fossil-free and is an option for both Australians and New Zealanders.

Home loans In early 2015, switching mortgages became the new front in the Australian divestment campaign with the launch of Future Home Loans, a mortgagebroking company that compares products from roughly a hundred fossil-free lenders. Similar options are available in New Zealand via credit unions and building societies.

To date, 11 overseas banks have all signalled that they will not be funding some aspect of the Galilee mines or associated infrastructure. grown on arable land, as “sustainable” substitutes for petrol and diesel.

When faced with the threats to the planet and the climate posed by fossil fuels, taking the easy option by adhering to a business-as-usual approach can be seen as dangerous insanity masquerading as mature level-headedness. The alternative is to become a part of this historic, world-changing movement.

RESOURCES Market Forces, marketforces.org.au Super Switch, superswitch.org.au Future Home Loans, myfuturehomeloans.com.au Divest Fossil Fuels, divestfossilfuels.org.au 350.org Australia, 350.org.au 350.org Aotearoa, 350.org.nz Go Fossil Free Australia, gofossilfree.org.au Go Fossil Free New Zealand, gofossilfree.org/nz

Martin Oliver is a writer and researcher based in Lismore, Australia.

Photography Getty Images

using solar power. Shell technicians modified an Opel station wagon in 1973 to achieve 0.6 litres per 100km and had by the late 1970s reached 0.2 litres per 100km. The fact that these ultra-high efficiencies have not been

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PLANET TREES

“I see a tree. A trunk with branches, twigs, needles. How young I would be if that was all there was to it. But it is a larch, it moves its long curtained arms and it dances and mourns. How old I am.” ~ M Vasalis, Vergezichten en Gezichten, (Panoramas and Views), 1954

H

ave you ever hugged a tree? Or placed your hands on its trunk and felt its strength, power and life? Trees are the lungs of the Earth. It’s common knowledge now that if trees didn’t exist and breathe, neither would we because of their role in absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. One tree alone can supply almost 260 pounds of oxygen, which provides two people with oxygen for the entire year. Most know this basic process reduces greenhouse emissions, but trees create a multitude of surprising benefits beyond keeping us alive.

For many years, I lived near a national park in Sydney’s northwest. I walked religiously in the forest every day. I would revel in the energy of the soaring gums, enjoy the sunshine glittering on their leaves and listen to them rustle in the breeze. The river was wide and deep and, at times, I couldn’t resist diving in to absorb the glorious feeling of nature all around me. Upon leaving, I felt clear, happy, energised. It was as though the forest had enchanted me; imparted some magical spell to clear me of my worries.

The Japanese have a word for this type of activity: they call it shinrinyoku, which means “taking in the atmosphere of the forest” or “forest bathing”. And that magical effect I was once so sure about is now grounded in scientific research.

TREES please Trees are necessary to sustain life on this Earth but, as we find out, there’s much more that these green giants can bring into our lives.

WORDS / SONIA ZADRO

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Photography Getty Images

The director of the Japanese Forestry Agency, Tomohide Akiyama, coined the phrase shinrin-yoku in 1982 to encourage people to take advantage of the therapeutic value of being in the forest. Some of the effects of forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, are as follows.

A 2010 study reviewed field experiments conducted in 24 forests across Japan. In each experiment, 12 subjects walked in or viewed a forest or city area. Researchers took a number of physiological measures, such as blood concentrations of cortisol (a

Photography Getty Images

FOREST BATHING FOR HEALTH

stress hormone), pulse rate and blood pressure. All biological measures showed that forest bathing produced a significant relaxation response, lower stress levels and improved immunity when compared to city environments.

Other studies back up these effects and have shown that forest bathing also decreases hostility and depression and increases liveliness. Forest bathing was especially helpful for long-term stress and therefore may assist in decreasing the incidence of stress-related conditions. It was also found that pleasure and happiness only become greater as tree density increases — up to the point at which the trees are too tightly packed, then the scene becomes foreboding and can increase fear.

An argument for why this effect occurs is that phytoncides —chemicals emitted by the trees, including natural preservatives, antimicrobial compounds, fungicides and volatile organic compounds of the kind found in aromatherapy — may produce the positive effects of the forest, though concentrations of these are low and vary from forest to forest.

Furthermore, studies reveal that even just observing a scene of a forest and introducing trees and plants inside a place where one spends time have significant positive benefits. Bringing plants into your environment has been shown to improve health in offices,

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reduce illness in hospitals and increase productivity in the workplace.

Plants can also help you concentrate better at work. A recent study found that people performed better on a task and could hold their concentration longer in an office with plants compared with those who were in an identical office without plants.

It makes sense then that being among trees may have helped some of our greatest thinkers arrive at their most timeless conclusions. After all, Plato and Aristotle did their best thinking in the olive groves around Athens, Buddha found enlightenment beneath a bo tree and Isaac Newton realised his theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree under which he was sitting.

Even being able to observe a natural environment through a window is thought to influence recovery from surgery. One study published in the journal Science found that when patients were able to see trees through their windows after surgery rather than a view of a wall they stayed in hospital for approximately one day less and used weaker painkillers. Even the nursing staff made fewer negative comments about patients who had a view of trees.

LIVING IN GREEN SPACES Given that walking among trees and even observing them can produce such positive effects, surely living in a

more natural environment should have health benefits. Two large-scale studies have shown this. A large study in the Netherlands found that residents of neighbourhoods with abundant green space tend, on average, to enjoy better general health.

In Japan, a comparison was made between having easy access to walkable green spaces with trees and plants and mortality rates in a large group of elderly inhabitants of Tokyo over a period of five years. The study found that living in a neighbourhood with access to lots of green space correlated with lower mortality risk.

Walking and living among and even viewing trees makes us more relaxed, healthy and positive, so what is it about trees that affects our brains? Research using MRI scans provides answers.

When subjects viewed urban or city scenes, there was an increase in activity in the amygdala, which is associated with anxiety and impulsivity. Viewing urban scenes also increased activity in the anterior temporal pole, which is associated with anger and depression.

Viewing scenes of trees and nature, on the other hand, produced increased activity in the anterior cingulate, which is associated with emotional stability and a positive outlook. It also produced activity in the insula, which is associated with love. Both of these areas are also linked to increased empathy.

Photography Getty Images

Forest bathing produced a significant relaxation response, lower stress levels and improved immunity when compared to city environments.

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EVEN MORE TO OFFER Psychologically and emotionally, then, it’s clear that trees are of enormous benefit. They produce clearer thinking and a more positive, happier outlook, and make us more relaxed and balanced. If you think that keeping us humans alive and promoting our psychological and physical wellbeing is a big enough job for any living thing, however, think again.

Trees provide even more benefits: Trees reduce pollution. Urban trees in the US filter out around 711,000 tonnes of polluting particulate matter each year. By removing harmful airborne pollutants, trees help prevent asthma and other respiratory problems.

Trees decrease noise pollution.

The US Department of Transportation reports that 30 metres of dense vegetation beside a busy highway can cut down noise by five decibels.

Trees can increase the value of your property. Homes with large trees in the backyard and streets have a 3–15 per cent higher property value than those without trees.

Trees decrease crime. Public housing areas with more trees and greenery have been shown to experience 52 per cent fewer total crime incidents.

Trees cool cities. A park filled with trees can be up to 7°C cooler than the surrounding city area at night.

Trees decrease car accidents. Trees act as a psychological cue to drive slower

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Bringing plants into your environment has been shown to improve health in offices, reduce illness in hospitals and increase productivity in the workplace. and calmer, even allowing you to faster anticipate curves in the road. A recent study reported 46 per cent fewer car crashes on main streets and highways following landscape improvements.

Trees and shrubs control glare from the sun, headlights and street lights, glass, water, snow and wet pavements.

In addition, they accent buildings and provide privacy.

Healers such as the Ayurveda practitioners from India or Chinese medical practitioners have always advocated being among nature as a form of natural medicine. It was believed that trees, plants, rivers and mountains were filled with energy, a vital life force that could be transferred to promote one’s health. As urban civilisations emerged, even greater emphasis was placed on the medicinal benefits of nature; for example, by Roman physicians such as Cornelius Celsus, who believed walking in gardens promoted health and sleep.

As can be seen from the research discussed above, this is not just the stuff of Romantic poets.

ONWARDS & UPWARDS Trees do a lot more than sustain human life. They have considerable influence over our ability to feel empathy and love, to experience balance, to think clearly and relax.

Their absence promotes stress, possibly even crime, and contributes to confusion and anger.

Humanity is now becoming the controller of the world forests. Threequarters of the Earth’s original forests have been cut. Logging of the remaining tropical and northern forests continues and the experimentation of planting sterile genetically engineered trees is underway.

Given the profound effect of trees on our state of being, the question must be seriously considered: what has the impact of the mass destruction of trees been? Not just on the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen and the greenhouse effect, but on how we feel, behave and relate as humans — physically, psychologically and emotionally? And what will this impact be in the future if their mass destruction continues?

Sonia Zadro is a clinical psychologist with 20 years’ experience and a freelance writer. She is interested in helping people heal and opening their minds through science. For further information, see soniazadro.com.

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TRAVEL CAIRNS & PORT DOUGLAS

L

azing on Four Mile Beach, my sarong spread among scattered palm fronds, I scan the turquoise shoreline in search of anyone who might disprove my theory. In this sea of tranquillity, an endless, white-sand beach bordered by bush almond trees and the deep blue, every joyful body splashing in the shallows, every peaceful soul floating beyond the breakers and every blissedout traveller lounging on the sand confirms my hunch that sunshine makes people happy.

Science would back me up, but in Port Douglas — Far North Queensland’s

most idyllic beach holiday retreat — the evidence is smiling right back at me. With the long wet long gone and the north’s season of sunshine in full swing, I’m on a mini-break from nearby Cairns, eager to join the wintertime crowd of frazzled souls warming up and unwinding on a tropical cocktail of lazy beach sessions, sunset seafood dinners and soothing island escapes.

Port Douglas has come a long way since its sleepy days as a far-flung fishing village. Despite all the great cuisine and comfy beds on offer, this tiny headland sandwiched between Four Mile Beach and Dickson Inlet harbours

a seriously laidback undertow. There’s a dizzying choice of places to wine and dine and an exhausting menu of activities to fill any escape: catamaran cruises to coral-fringed islands, 4WD adventures to rainforested waterholes and croccy cruises up the wild Daintree River.

With closer proximity to snorkelling and dive sites on the outer Great Barrier Reef that see far less visitation than those near Cairns, Port Douglas is an ideal launch pad for serious divers and snorkelers. Quicksilver seems to dominate the daytrip fleet but smaller vessels offer more intimate, customised diving, sailing and fishing trips, too.

Going troppo For beach babes and rainforest-goers, adventure seekers and luxury lovers, the Far North Queensland’s tropical pleasures are many.

WORDS / CATHERINE LAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY / DAVID BRISTOW

TRAVEL CAIRNS & PORT DOUGLAS For a big splurge and a special underwater experience, a yacht charter to distant Undine Cay brings you to a tiny rise of sand that all but disappears with the rising tide. Cirqued by vibrant coral gardens and frequented by a stunning procession of green sea turtles, reef sharks and luminescent fish, Undine Cay fuels memories that are bound to linger long after the bill has been forgotten.

More affordable but equally recommended is a daytrip to Low Isles, a wild cluster of white sand and coral sprouting coconut palms and flourishing fringing reefs. Here, I slip on my snorkelling gear and kick away from the

beach, my shallow dives dividing a jazzy parade of dazzling fish. So still is the old green sea turtle I float over that I almost don’t notice it — unlike the black-tipped reef shark that senses me in a flash and darts suddenly away, out of sight.

After a few whirlwind days underwater, I dry out and discover a dozen fun romps on land, too, beginning with a wander around Port Douglas’s weekend markets. Drifting from stall to stall, devouring soursop ice-cream and ice-cold chocolate-coated bananas, I pick up irresistible tropical goodies: barely-there silk sarongs hand-painted in wild tropical themes, luxurious Davidson plum moisturiser, Daintree tea and dried mango.

Because it’s Sunday, the nearby Ballyhooley Railway is in full steam, mustering trainspotters with its piercing whistle for a historical jaunt along 100-year-old tracks. It’s a cheap thrill at just AU$10 a head but, en route to the

station, I’m waylaid by a session with a local massage therapist and, afterwards, a sunset cocktail on the shady decks of The Tin Shed, a bar with arguably the best waterfront views in town.

Port Douglas is famous for being somewhere you can indulge your fivestar appetite with sand on your feet, and the long strip of eateries along Macrossan Street eagerly serves the casually dressed holiday crowd. Port Douglas is a fun, adventurous, indulgent kind of town, but you can reconnect, too, at beginner-friendly Deep Yoga Studio that even welcomes kids (under-fives are free). For genuine quietude, head north into the more remote, rainforested wilds of Daintree National Park.

INTO THE FOREST Cape Tribulation may have wreaked havoc for Captain Cook when he holed the Endeavour on an offshore reef back in 1770, but it’s been a source of immense pleasure for forest-lovers ever since. Across the Daintree River, a winding, 35km-long scenic drive to Cape Tribulation leads through World Heritage-listed crocodile and cassowary habitat: misty mountain-clad forests

Clockwise from left: Beautiful beaches abound from Cairns to Cape Tribulation; a comfy perch for a Lumholtz tree kangaroo; a rainforest spa in the Daintree; anchored off Low Isles, Port Douglas.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 121

TRAVEL CAIRNS & PORT DOUGLAS carved with dazzling, aquamarine streams that spill out onto long, sweeping arcs of sand.

A nature-lover’s day trip might include stops at the Daintree Discovery Centre where you can scale a 23-metre-high tower into the jungle canopy, Cow Bay for a swim and Cafe on Sea at Thornton Beach, where you can work off your lunch by beachcombing south to the mouth of Cooper Creek. Look west as you walk, to the summit of Thornton Peak or Wundu (1375m), reputedly one of the wettest spots in Australia and home to the Thornton Peak melomys and the rare Bennett’s tree-kangaroo.

Sampling tropical fruit ice-cream is an irresistible part of any Daintree visit and ice-creamery Floravilla’s tempting ices are made with local Mungalli Creek biodynamic dairy products. Don’t miss a

Clockwise from main: Wash away the blues on Snapper Island off the Daintree coast; a jabiru strikes a pose; blue quandongs, a favourite cassowary snack.

Cape Tribulation may have wreaked havoc for Captain Cook but it’s been a source of immense pleasure for forest-lovers ever since. swim with jungle perch in the waterhole beside Mason’s Store or a short stroll along either the Jindalba Boardwalk (1.3km) or Marrdja’s brilliant 1.2kmlong interpretive trail that leads through lowland rainforest to the mangroves that surround Noah and Oliver Creeks. At Cape Tribulation itself, iridescent blue Ulysses butterflies accompany walkers on the easy trail that crosses to Myall Beach, a magical sunrise viewing spot.

Increased traveller demand for eco-accredited retreats with a holistic approach to health and wellbeing has meant several Daintree sanctuaries now team their luxuriously appointed bungalows with organic menus, meditation classes and spa treatments that incorporate Indigenous rainforest remedies and age-old practices.

Top picks include Cow Bay’s Daintree Wilderness Lodge, where stilted cabins linked by private walkways come with sunroofs that bring the natural world into very close proximity. This small-scale operation’s advanced eco-accreditation and its mostly organic, locally sourced breakfasts included in the price make it an appealing choice for around AU$300 a night.

However, if starting your day in meditation and enjoying healing

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Ayurvedic spa treatments and a sunset yoga class in a purpose-built rainforest temple are your idea of bliss, then a stint at Prema Shanti might be the holiday you’re looking for. There are swimming holes close by and all group classes are included in the surprisingly affordable daily rate (from AU$90 twin share).

For solitude-seeking couples or families, Halwyn is a holiday rental with a difference, set on three secluded acres of rainforest a short drive south of Cape Tribulation. What makes this AU$400a-night property unique is the secluded waterfall and creek that not only fill a private swimming hole but also provide hydro-electricity to power the spacious, split-level pole home.

Budget options include the rainforest safari huts at Crocodylus Village, flashpacker-friendly PK’s for close proximity to Cape Tribulation and Daintree National Park’s Noah Beach campground where you can bed down on the sand for just AU$5.75 a night.

COASTAL CRUISING From Port Douglas, the Captain Cook Highway hugs a skinny strip of bitumen carved between steep cliffs and the sea, following a coconut-palm-fringed coastline that stretches 60km south to

Cairns. Past Thala Beach Resort and Turtle Cove (a gay- and lesbian-friendly holiday favourite), I pull over at Rex Lookout to watch a pair of hang gliders launch themselves into the abyss, spiralling slowly upwards and away over Wangetti Beach.

At the bottom of the hill, I watch estuarine crocodiles jumping for their chicken breakfasts on cue and handfeed otherwise elusive cassowaries at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures, then grab a coffee and a quick dip at picturesque, palm-fringed Ellis Beach.

Cairns itself provides a good choice of big-chain, five-star luxury and great access to the Great Barrier Reef, but it’s Palm Cove’s sweeping golden arc of sand, 20km north of the CBD, that eclipses the competition with a relaxed beachfront of boutique hotels, sassy bars and elegant, relaxed waterfront dining. Famous for its grand strip of miraculously preserved melaleuca trees, Palm Cove is an immensely pretty spot where luxurious retreats and restaurants rub shoulders with fish-and-chip

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TRAVEL CAIRNS & PORT DOUGLAS eateries, a surf lifesaving club and the local caravan park.

There’s an authentic, intimate feel to this sandy strip where you can spend a morning sea-kayaking around Double Island just offshore and an afternoon indulging in exceptional spa treatments.

Worth trying is the signature Mala Mayi body treatment at Peppers Beach Club, where you’re wrapped in a Mapi mud cocoon before a session of rain therapy and massage; or, if your partner is willing, the 2.5-hour-long couples’ journey at Alamanda Spa.

Clockwise from main: Barron Falls; a flying fish at the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon; the jewel-hued purple-crowned fruit dove.

CORAL SEA ESCAPES It’s the patchwork of colourful coral reefs, barely-there sand cays and idyllic, palm-fringed isles that eventually lures travellers back to Cairns and into the underwater world of blue-spotted rays, green sea turtles and hundreds of flashing-by fish. High-speed catamarans and leisurely paced sailing vessels reach popular reefs and floating pontoons in less than two hours, delivering you to day-long adventures with glass-bottom boat tours, guided snorkelling tours and diving lessons, while overnight liveaboard boats linger at sea for thrilling night dives and unparalleled quietude.

Other grand reef escapes include a stint on Green Island’s spectacular 6000-year-old coral cay, accessible by boat or helicopter and home to an opulent five-star retreat that is well worth the splurge and, for day-trippers, an aquarium where you can hold a baby crocodile and observe green and hawksbill turtles up close.

For a tropical-island fling with off-the-beach snorkelling, rainforest walking trails and the chance to swing in a hammock with a cocktail in hand, it’s hard to beat Fitzroy Island (fitzroyisland. com). This hilly, rainforested, continental island with 339 hectares of national park and a single resort is a 45-minute boat ride from Cairns. Beachfront rooms overlooking Welcome Beach and a great snorkelling site at Bird Rock start from AU$175 a night in peak season. Yachties, daytrippers and honeymooners mingle at Foxy’s Bar as the sun goes down and, if you’re exploring on a budget, you can pitch a tent at the beachfront campground for a tiny AU$32 a night.

OVER THE RANGE From high on the Kuranda Range just 20km from Cairns, Barron Falls plunges 265m, carving a path between eucalyptcovered ridgelines and lush thickets of rainforest. The falls’ wet-season guise

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For a tropical-island fling with off-the-beach snorkelling, rainforest walking trails and the chance to swing in a hammock with a cocktail in hand, it’s hard to beat Fitzroy Island. is most impressive, but the Barron River flows year-round and getting there is especially good fun.

From Cairns, the Kuranda Scenic Railway offers a leisurely jaunt up the range, while the elevated Skyrail is a bit more thrilling, dangling you high above the treetops and leading to three hillside stations where you can get out to explore rainforest walking trails leading to lookouts over Barron Falls. Both options are recommended and you can tie them into one excellent daytrip, priced from AU$109.50 for adults (skyrail.com.au).

For self-drive travellers keen to explore Kuranda, the Budaadji Canopy Walk winds through Barron Falls National Park to reach lookouts on the very edge of the canyon. About 10km away at Speewah Campground, more secluded walking trails let you explore the forest and a compact camp provides good facilities at a bargain price.

Back in Cairns, overlooking the vibrant tidal mudflats of Trinity Bay, the esplanade’s lagoon and parklands are studded with outdoor art creations — most noticeably, the five woven flying fish sculptures created by Torres Strait artist Brian Robinson. There are sheltered picnic areas with free barbecues and a good choice of cafes, bars and restaurants dotted all along the waterfront.

One of the coolest things you can do in Cairns is join one of the free yoga, meditation or fitness classes held on the wide wooden decks surrounding the Lagoon. On Mondays it’s Sahaja yoga meditation (7am start), Wednesdays is tai chi (7am), Pilates is on Thursdays (6.30am) and Friday is yoga day (6.30am).

Mums enjoying an escape with a baby in tow can join Wednesday’s Mumbalates class — a fitness session for mothers and bubs — held near the lagoon at Fogarty Park from 9.30am.

Journalist Catherine Lawson, photographer David Bristow and their three-year-old daughter Maya form an intrepid travel writing team whose first book, Highway One, the Ultimate Australian Road Trip, was published by Australian Geographic in 2012.

Discovering

Hawaii’s heart Think Hawaii, think Waikiki? Think again. Hawaii’s spiritual heart is indelibly etched throughout all her islands, including Oahu. All you need to do is peek around the next corner.

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY / CHRISTINE RETSCHLAG

TRAVEL HAWAII

T

he palm fronds are dancing the hula in the gentle Waikiki breeze and it would be oh so tempting to be seduced by this scenario, plonk myself down on the white sands of one of the world’s most photographed beaches and gaze at the horizon for the next eight days.

And that’s exactly what I did 22 years ago, as a young backpacker on a stopover from Europe, and it was simply divine. But for the past two decades a niggling feeling, which blossomed into an overwhelming urge, nudged me to return to this Land of Rainbows and impossibly good-looking people to see what else there was to this Pacific paradise. Incurable travellers will confess it’s both a blessing and a curse, this blatant desire to discover what’s “around the next corner”, but the one thing I know is that it cannot be ignored.

STORIES FOR A TRAVELLER So that’s how I find myself on the island of Oahu on a full-day circle eco-adventure with Discover Hawaii Tours and a man called Maurice, who grew up on the island in the late 60s.

At this stage, I should point out there are actually 132 islands that make up Hawaii but only seven of these are inhabited. Oahu boasts the largest population with around 1 million people, while the remaining 300,000 Hawaiians are scattered among the other islands. In terms of scale, Oahu is 1125km in circumference and the Big Island — the largest in the archipelago — is six times larger.

The word hawaii itself means “breath of life” and you’ll see many locals greet each other by pressing noses and literally taking in each other’s breath in what is arguably the most charming

acknowledgment on the planet. As for Waikiki, where we begin our journey, it was so named by the early Hawaiians because of its spouting water.

“The Hawaiians were like the Greeks — they had a number of gods they worshipped. There was no water source, so they believed the god took his spear and pulled it out and water came out of the earth,” Maurice says, as we wind our way out of Waikiki and snatch a snapshot of suburbia before we begin our journey, which will take us past the bluest beaches, down lush valleys, through ancient Hawaiian grounds and around incredible waterfalls.

There are evocatively named places everywhere and, when Hawaiians speak, they do so with an American accent, but they play it like a ukulele. There’s a stringy, sing-y lilt to their tone and, as they wrap their mouths around every vowel, it’s like being at a luau, or party.

Like many first-nation people, early Hawaiians had no written language, so culture was passed down by storytelling, such as supernatural birthing tales where the wives of chiefs would come to sacred stones to give birth. At the stone, a medicine man would perform a ritual to help relieve the pain of childbirth and to empower the children to become strong chiefs.

The word hawaii itself means “breath of life” and you’ll see many locals greet each other by pressing noses and literally taking in each other’s breath.

It’s chiefs, in fact, that early Hawaiian surfing was reserved for — but some traditions evolve and, nowadays, Hawaii is a surfer’s mecca with board riders dotting the coastlines like exclamation marks. Away from the crowds at Waikiki, surf-lovers can head to Haleiwa, an old surf town of the 60s that produces good surf, particularly when Chile experiences an earthquake and the waves roll in several days later.

Hawaiians adore their lore and legends as much as their pumping surf, and one of the most revered tales is of the ancient Makahiki Festival, which began in November and ended in March and was in celebration of the god Lono, who made things grow.

It was a time for games, surfing and hula. Work was forbidden as it was a time to strengthen the body.

Indeed, there is so much happiness to be found in Hawaii, yet there is also a modern history of heartbreak. We pass a particular beach on which Maurice says his grandmother was standing, collecting shells as a child, on December 7, 1941, when she saw a squadron of Japanese planes flying overhead. Scared and confused, she rushed back home and sat around the radio with her family and learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Hawaiians are huge of heart, however, and these days that blip in their history is another tale for tourists rather than an ugly grudge.

A SACRED FEELING I fly to the Big Island and arrive at Kona, where Sheraton Kona cultural tour officer Lily Dudoit guides me to a spot by the ocean and encourages me to “really just experience and feel it”.

What appears to be a cluster of rocks is actually one of the island’s sacred sites.

Opposite: Oahu's north shore. From left: Hawaiian elder Pi’iLani Lua; hang ten with one of the many keen surfers; local kids at Keauhou Bay.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 127

TRAVEL HAWAII “We consider this site to be extra special and sacred, a gift from our elders to learn about our history and past,” says Dudoit. “The real gift is the message which is within the site, but we need to spend time with these sites to understand their stories.

“My mother would always make sure we stopped at the water’s edge to say thank you. That respect for the ocean runs very deep for us. We wanted to make sure the stories stay pure.

“As long as we stay true to the land and don’t try to make it what we want it to be, it will take care of us. If we take care of the land, the visitor will come for rest and nourishment and they will come back.

“We are in the current now where we are able to bring back the historic sites and what they are meant to be. Walk softly, talk softly, respect the place and the land will open up to you.”

Dudoit also speaks of the ku’ula, stones named after the ancient fish god that were considered a lucky charm to keep fish coming into the bay.

“Everywhere in Hawaii we are known for our myths and legends,” she says. “We have the little people who only come out at night to do their work. We call them Menehune and they are said to have reddish skin colour.

“There was a couple who had their wedding photo by this tree and, when it was developed, there was a Menehune peeking out from behind the tree.

“They like to make trouble.

Sometimes things go missing or they move something. You don’t find them; they find you.”

SUSTAINABILITY IS KING The Sheraton Kona also offers a wide variety of activities, one of the most popular and magical of which is the opportunity to dive or snorkel with the manta rays in Keauhou Bay. Partnering with Eka Canoe Adventures, which raises funds for local schoolkids, the hotel invites guests to board a Hawaiian sailing canoe replica at night on this sustainable tour, in which these gentle giants swim right up and eyeball you before performing a languid tumble turn. The Sheraton Kona also has an education centre in which visitors can learn more about these sensual sea creatures.

Another sustainable addition to Keauhou Bay is the Akule Supply Company, a cafe that serves fresh catches such as mahi mahi straight from the trawler for breakfast. General manager Joey Keeney says Akule is named after a type of fish on which the locals survived and he has worked hard to make his casual establishment as eco-friendly as possible.

Hawaii is a surfer’s mecca with board riders dotting the coastlines like exclamation marks.

Fresh herbs and fruit from Lokahi Garden Sanctuary.

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“We are sitting on the pond where royalty used to be,” he says. “This place was created to be conscious of these aspects. The plates and everything you dine on are biodegradable to keep within that cultural aspect. Food is served on banana leaves.”

Sustainability is king on the Big Island, the home of Madame Pele, the volcano that was flexing her muscles in late 2014. At the tiny township of Hawi on North Kohala, Richard Liebmann and his wife Natalie Young own Lokahi Garden Sanctuary. This sustainable organic farm and botanical sanctuary captures Hawaii’s sacred heart through residential healing and wellness programs.

Richard is a former native New Yorker who studied to be a naturopathic physician at university and avoided conscription to the Vietnam War. Natalie, who has a Masters in social work, hails from Georgia and “grew up with a grandfather who was a health nut”.

The couple, who met in Hawaii 30 years ago, have been running their 4ha garden sanctuary and wellness centre for the past eight years on what was an old, overgrown sugar-cane farm.

“We actually climbed trees because we knew there was a view,” Richard says of their property, which overlooks the ocean. “We’ve planted more than 800 trees on the property — everything from mangos to papayas, to bananas to passionfruit.

“It is quite profound what can happen when you eat food that is nutritious. The Polynesians were agriculturalists. When people come here into this space, the environment is just so nurturing. The energy is here; we’ve worked with it.”

Despite their healthy living, Richard says he and his wife are omnivores. “I’ve been up and down the different diets over the years and as a practising physician I’ve seen a lot of unhealthy vegetarians,” he says. “It comes down to the health of the animal and how it is raised.”

The couple prepare lunch plucked straight from their garden, starting with a mocktail of fresh ginger, turmeric, honey, coconut oil, peppercorns, lemon juice and aloe vera. It’s all part of the retreat experience for guests, who spend anywhere between 10 days and two weeks at Lokahi Garden Sanctuary.

“We spend a lot of time with clients to try to determine what their health concerns are,” Richard says. “What we find is that people are depleted. They need to be nourished and replenished.

We ask about body, mind and spirit.”

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TRAVEL HAWAII Natalie, who also performs natural therapies using herbs, flowers and fruit and vegetables from the garden, says most of her clients are “successful yet exhausted”. “They are thinking there is more to life than what they have been doing and being,” she says. “They need to think again about who they are truly and what’s authentic for them.

“In Hawaii they have this term, ohana — it’s like extended family. When people come and stay with us they become our ohana.”

Richard and Natalie also work with Hawaiian cultural practitioners, including an elder who performs a greeting ceremony. There is also a sunrise visit to the active volcano, Pele.

“We are giving you this opportunity to see how you can live your life in a different way,” Richard says. “It’s all about how you greet what comes to you every day. The power of healing resides within you.”

OLD HAWAII For a taste of the “old Hawaii”, I head to the island of Maui and to the tiny township of Hana. Travaasa Hana is Maui’s oldest resort and families have been repeatedly flocking to its plantation-style shacks overlooking the ocean for the past 40 years. While the drive from Maui is spectacular, as it hugs cliffs and coastline, it’s also a long four hours with its 600 windy bends. My advice: take the road one way and a small plane ride the other way to the resort, stopping near the airport at Hana Farms for a farm-totable clay-oven pizza, which supports local organic farmers.

The green, green grass of Travaasa Hana, Maui’s oldest resort.

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“In Hawaii they have this term, ohana — it’s like extended family.

When people come and stay with us they become our ohana.”

Hawaiian cultural specialist Kainoa Horcajo says that Hana is one of the wettest places on Earth, receiving a walloping 1016 centimetres of rain a year. “You can see waterfalls everywhere we go,” he says.

“The sense of community out here is awesome,” Horcajo continues. “It makes you feel good about humanity.

“A lot of people here still survive on subsistence living, so they fish or hunt for their survival. The Hawaiians don’t believe so much in bartering but free trade. We view it more as you give what you have — there is a reciprocity to it.

As in ‘I have the ability to give you this — please take it freely.’

“This land is a great teacher in how to survive. It’s a traditional insurance policy.

Hawaii has this way of letting you know whether you should be here or not.”

The organic movement is alive and prospering in Maui with properties such as the 145ha Ono Organic Farms working some 28ha of its property since 1972 to supply fruit to places such as Travaasa Hana. Over at Kahanu Garden, I meet elder Pi’iLani Lua, a proud Hawaiian woman who hails from a long Hula line.

At these lush gardens, people have been sending fruit trees overseas since

2009 to help battle world hunger.

One of their trees — the 'ulu, or breadfruit tree — is believed to have the potential to solve the crisis of hunger in Africa. The gardens are also home to a sacred temple.

“Our ancestors were thankful people,” she says. “The reason for praying wasn’t to ask for any favours; they felt you had to summon the spirit to your presence.

“Hawaiian kids come here for educational programs. They harvest taro and sweet potato and plant more.

But mostly we teach them how to be humble. If you want to call yourself of this land, you have to be humble.

“We teach them humility because, with humility, doors fly open before you reach them.”

ESCAPE ROUTES Getting there Hawaiian Airlines offers a number of regular services from east coast Australian cities, including improved aircraft and schedules out of Brisbane since last December. hawaiianairlines.com Staying there If you visit Oahu, stay at The Modern Honolulu (themodernhonolulu.com). On the Big Island, spend a night or more at the Sheraton Kona (sheratonkeauhou.com). Staying in Maui? Try out Travaasa Hana (travaasa.com/hana) or Andaz Maui (maui.andaz.hyatt.com).

What to do To see more of Oahu, take a Discover Hawaii Tour (discoverhawaiitours. com). On The Big Island, book a retreat at Lokahi Garden Sanctuary (lokahigardensanctuary.com). On Maui, visit Kahanu Garden (ntbg. org/gardens/kahanu.php) and Ono Organic Farms (onofarms.com).

More information To book your Hawaiian escape, go to gohawaii.com/au.

Christine Retschlag is an award-winning Australian journalist who has worked for the past 25 years in Australia, Hong Kong, London and Singapore. In 2006, she won the Australian Travel Writer of the Year award for Best Trade Story as well as the Jack Butters Memorial Award for Travel Writing Excellence. In 2007, she won Best Australian Story over 1000 words and won Best Food Travel Story in 2014. She is also the author and architect of successful travel blog The Global Goddess, theglobalgoddess.com.

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SPIRIT BOOKS, MUSIC & DVDS THAT WILL ENRICH YOUR LIFE

COUNTER CULTURE REVIEWS BY HOLLY CUNNEEN, KATE DUNCAN, DANIELLE KIRK & CHRIS STAFFORD X+Y charms and amuses.

Genius is on display in The Wrecking Crew.

THE RIVER COTTAGE AUSTRALIA COOKBOOK

DVDS X+Y DIRECTED BY MORGAN MATTHEWS STARRING ASA BUTTERFIELD, SALLY HAWKINS, RAFE SPALL

THE WRECKING CREW DIRECTED BY DENNY TEDESCO STARRING LOU ADLER, GLEN CAMPBELL, CAROL KAYE

WOLF HALL DIRECTED BY PETER KOSMINSKY STARRING MARK RYLANCE, DAMIAN LEWIS, CLAIRE FOY

culminating in the eight-month marathon that produced Good Vibrations.

Not only skilled but versatile, the Wrecking Crew, as they became known, were the sound behind the Monkees, Sonny & Cher, the Byrds, the Mamas & the Papas, Nancy Sinatra and even, on one or two occasions, her famous dad.

They were Phil Spector’s celebrated “Wall of Sound” and the template for Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. Some of them, such as Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, became stars in their own right while others — like bassist Carol Kaye, a single mother and the only woman in the Crew — were just happy to be making more money than the US president.

Unless you have pay TV you may have missed the miniseries of the year.

Wolf Hall, based on the Hilary Mantel novels, turns the conventions of Tudor drama inside-out. There are no scenes of elaborate pageantry and no sonorous Shakespearean speeches; rather, the characters speak in everyday English. In this 16th-century House of Cards, most of the aces are held by Henry VIII’s fixer Thomas Cromwell, a low-born high flier usually depicted as a shadowy villain but here very much centre stage, subtly underplayed by Mark Rylance. In a triangle of ambition and betrayal, he locks horns with the scheming Anne Boleyn (Claire Foy) and the capricious Henry (Damian Lewis) in a game where the prize might be the keys to the kingdom — or the steps to the gallows. Brilliant. CS

As charming as it is funny, X+Y is the story of Nathan, a young maths prodigy bordering on autism who’s good with numbers but mystified by people. When he wins a place on the UK team at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Taipei, Nathan is drawn out of his shell by spirited Chinese rival Zhang Mei (Jo Yang), who dismantles his defences and alerts him to the joys of the wider world.

It unfolds with the predictability of a simple algebra problem, yet X+Y equals joy thanks to its excellent cast, led by Asa Butterfield (Hugo) as the troubled genius, Sally Hawkins as his anxious mum, Eddie Marsan as the no-nonsense, “chop-chop!” team leader and Rafe Spall as Nathan’s maths tutor who, behind his sardonic, irreverent manner, has serious problems.

Genius of another kind is on display in the documentary The Wrecking Crew, about the group of session musicians who played on an extraordinary Wolf Hall, the number of 1960s hit records, miniseries perhaps most famously as Brian of the year.

Wilson’s collaborators as the music he composed for the Beach Boys became ever more ambitious,

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PAUL WEST, BLOOMSBURY Hidden among the hills of Central Tilba in southern NSW lies a beautiful old dairy farm that Paul West, host of River Cottage Australia, calls home. Ever since British chef and sustainability advocate Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall brought his popular TV series River Cottage to our shores, Paul — a passionate chef and farmer — has been educating and entertaining us about food, self-sufficiency and sustainability. The River Cottage Australia Cookbook shares Paul’s divine dishes, sweet anecdotes and views on the importance of community.

Alongside his recipes sit tips such as how to make cheese and bread as well as advice on growing fruit and veg. It will make you want to pack up and seek a simpler life. KD

ART THERAPY COLOURING BOOK MICHAEL O’MARA, HARDIE GRANT BOOKS Looking for a fun, simple and stressrelieving activity to accompany your morning coffee or settle the mind before sleep?

Creative art therapy could be your new hobby. Adult colouring books are the new craze and, after turning over a few pages of Art Therapy Colouring Book by Michael O’Mara, we can see why. Colouring in these beautiful mandalas, repetitive patterns and geometric shapes draws you into the present moment where you can experience calmness and allow your confidence and creativity to surge without fear of mistakes or right-or-wrong techniques. By focusing on the one task, you can meditate, relax and heal as well as feel pure joy at creating stunning art. O’Mara has created something to colour for every adult. KD

ORIGINS

THE VILLAGE EFFECT

GUT

SUSAN PRESCOTT, UWA PUBLISHING Parents, rejoice! You’re perfectly situated to help your little ones lead a diseasefree life because prevention is key. In Origins, Dr Susan Prescott, a paediatrician and specialist in childhood allergy and immunology, explains why the environment kids are raised in impacts on their health and longevity and how best to tackle the risk factors shared by so many chronic diseases.

She draws on the latest research to explain how things like diet, inactivity and time indoors affect a child’s wellbeing at each developmental stage, and covers an array of diseases. Yet this book, she writes, is “as much about the health of our societies, of our economies, of our environment and of our human spirit as it is about the biology of health”. Holistic and helpful? We love it. DK

SUSAN PINKER, ATLANTIC Think about how it feels to be surrounded by a community, that group of people in whom you’ve invested time and affection — and who’ve reciprocated in kind. The emotional response you’re having is at the heart of developmental psychologist Susan Pinker’s book The Village Effect: the long-term beneficial effects of face-toface interactions. Pinker uncovers the vast benefits of having a strong social network — no, not the Facebook or Twitter variety but the very real, non-virtual kind. She draws on science, history and case studies to explore the spectrum of social dynamics, from how social contact changes babies’ brains to how our friends help us find love, and ultimately to show why real-life relationships are critical if we want to survive and flourish. DK

GIULIA ENDERS, SCRIBE PUBLICATIONS

SUPERFOOD SNACKS GUIDE

GET WELL, STAY WELL

SHARON MUIR & STEFAN MAGER, LONGPAUSE PTY LTD The Superfood Snacks Guide is a health foodie’s dream. The four-page pamphlet — intelligently laminated for ease of use — contains 25 simple, healthy, delicious treats you can make in minutes. With a page dedicated to visual preparation tips, you’ll be easily inspired to whip up these moreish mouthfuls. The guide calls for nutrientdense and energising superfoods such as goji berries, almonds and figs and is a wonderful kitchen hand for newbies to the healthfood scene or seasoned superfoodies looking for fresh and fun variations on bliss balls. With treats such as halva superfood balls and chocolate ginger truffles, the whole family will enjoy prepping these snacks just as much as eating them! KD

KATHERINE MASLEN, GRIFFIN PRESS As a leading Australian naturopath with more than nine years’ clinical experience, it stands to reason that Katherine Maslen wants to share her knowledge. In Get Well, Stay Well, she relates how important it is to know your body inside and out: what’s normal for you, what isn’t and how your body communicates. A key concern of the modern diet and lifestyle is that we are overly, often unknowingly, exposed to metals, plastics and chemicals daily via the food we eat, the cosmetics we use and the cities in which we live. The meatiest part of Get Well, Stay Well is dedicated to how you can cleanse yourself of these toxins and lessen their impact on your health.

Considered, concise and informative, Get Well, Stay Well will open your eyes and you won’t ever close them again. HC

THE GUT BALANCE REVOLUTION GERARD E MULLIN, PAN MACMILLIAN Both Giulia Enders and Gerard E Mullin expose our wondrous inner workings. In Gut, by combining simple, well-researched information and entertaining cartoons, young scientist Enders explains the basics of nutrient absorption and reveals the latest research linking bowel bacteria with depression, obesity, allergies and Alzheimer’s. A quirky, light-hearted yet informative read. A little weightier in tone, The Gut Balance Revolution offers a specific, scientific and evidence-based approach to understanding the gut and managing weight. An associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in the US, Mullin includes a health program that details how you can transform your inner ecology, lose weight and thrive. KD

SHINE TRACE BALLA, ALLEN & UNWIN Death and grief can be the hardest things in life to grasp, let alone explain to your kids. Rather than overcomplicate things in an bid to unravel the inexplicable, Trace Balla pares it back with Shine, a beautifully illustrated, touching children’s book about love and loss. She notes that during these times all we can do is love and support each other — nothing more. Balla wrote Shine for her sister and children during a time of devastating loss so they could find solace in the undying strength of love; the sincerity behind the story is unmistakable.

It is often said that the simple things are the most effective; Shine is no exception.

Uncomplicated yet poignant, it’s as much for adults as it is for children. HC

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 133

FOOD WHOLE FOOD SLOW COOKED QUINOA & CHIA PORRIDGE Serves: 4 Cooking time: 2 hours slow cooker, 25 mins stovetop 4 cups unsweetened almond milk 2 granny smith apples, peeled & coarsely grated 3 tbsp dates, finely chopped 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped ¾ cup quinoa flakes 3 tbsp chia seeds 3 tbsp dried cherries, cranberries or chopped dried apricots Rice malt syrup or honey, to serve Raspberries & toasted slivered almonds, to serve If using a slow cooker, put all the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on low for 2 hours.

If using the stovetop, place almond milk, apples, dates, vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over low heat. Cook for 20 mins until the apple starts to break down.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 5 mins until thickened.

Remove the vanilla bean and serve the porridge with rice malt syrup or honey, raspberries and toasted slivered almonds.

QUINOA, KALE & RICOTTA CAKE Serves: 6 Cooking time: 4¼ hours slow cooker, 1½ hours stovetop 1 cup tri-colour (red, black & white) quinoa, rinsed

THE SLOW-COOKING SOLUTION Recipes & images from Whole Food Slow Cooked

by Olivia Andrews, Murdoch Books, RRP AU$35

W

e’re all seeking the “perfectly balanced” life: an existence where the scales are poised evenly amid family, work, health, fun and friends.

Yet given our busy lives this becomes a far cry from reality. The constant push for perfection is unrealistic and exhausting. More often than not, we need to loosen our expectations and tighten them around what we do know: that regular exercise, eating healthy wholefoods and practising relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation keep us in balance. For the moments when the weight of the world settles snug on your shoulders, Olivia Andrews’ beautiful cookbook Whole Food Slow Cooked will help keep you stable. Her easy-to-make, healthy and leftover-friendly recipes maximise flavour and time and minimise fuss. Each dish includes slow-cooker, stovetop and oven methods and can transform a morning meltdown into a 5 o’clock success. Whole Food Slow Cooked offers a solution to crafting a fulfilled life where being “real” creates more balance than being “perfect”.

4 cups kale leaves, finely shredded 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 2 spring onions, thinly sliced 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 600g ricotta 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup finely grated parmesan 1 large handful parsley, coarsely chopped 1 handful mint, coarsely chopped Cucumber chunks & mint sprigs, dressed with olive oil & lemon juice, to serve

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If using a slow cooker, grease the base with oil and line with baking paper. If using an oven, preheat to 180°C. Grease and line a 22cm spring-form cake tin.

Put the quinoa into a saucepan and cover with 4 cups of water. Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 10 mins, then add the kale and cook for another 2 mins. Drain the quinoa and kale, then refresh under cold running water.

FOOD WHOLE FOOD SLOW COOKED Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Add the quinoa and kale and mix thoroughly, then spoon into the slow cooker or tin, smoothing the surface of the cake.

If using a slow cooker, cover the lid with a clean tea towel, securing the corners around the knob with string or an elastic band — this is to prevent any condensation from dripping onto the cake. Cook on low for 4 hours until set and cooked through.

If using an oven, cook for 1¼ hours until set and cooked through. If necessary, cover with foil to prevent it from browning too much.

Serve with cucumber and mint salad.

CARAMEL PORK BELLY Serves: 6 Cooking time: 4¾ hours slow cooker, 1 hour 50 mins stovetop 1 tbsp grapeseed or rice bran oil 1.5kg skinless pork belly, cut into 5cm pieces 1 cup chicken stock 1 tsp cornflour (only needed for slow cooker) 3 tbsp kecap manis ¾ cup rice malt syrup

1 tsp ground white or black pepper 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 4 garlic cloves, crushed 3 tbsp fish sauce 4 star anise Handful snake beans or green beans, cut into 5cm lengths Steamed rice, Thai basil & sliced chilli, to serve Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over high heat. Cook the pork for 5 mins until browned.

If using a slow cooker, combine the chicken stock and cornflour in a bowl until smooth and set aside.

Combine the kecap manis, syrup, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, fish sauce and star anise in a bowl. Pour the mixture into the pan and cook for 3 mins to glaze the pork.

If using a slow cooker, transfer kecap manis mixture, combine with the chicken stock and cornflour, and cook on high for 4 hours.

If using a stovetop, bring kecap manis mix to the boil, then reduce heat to low.

Cover with a lid and cook for 90 mins until the pork is tender.

Once cooked, skim any fat from the

surface and add the beans. If using the slow cooker, cook for a further 30 mins. If using the stovetop, cook for 10 mins until beans are tender.

Serve with the steamed rice, Thai basil and chilli.

SELF-SAUCING DARK CHOCOLATE, FIG & HAZELNUT PUDDING Serves: 6–8 Cooking time: 2 hours slow cooker, 45 mins stovetop ½ cup butter, melted 1½ cups coconut sugar 1½ cups self-raising flour, sifted 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 cup almond milk 2 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup cacao powder 6 dried figs, coarsely chopped 100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped 4 tbsp blanched hazelnuts, toasted & coarsely chopped Lightly grease the slow cooker if using this method, or preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 2.5–3L baking dish.

In a bowl, combine the melted butter, 1 cup of the coconut sugar, flour, egg, milk, vanilla and 3 tablespoons of the cacao. Fold in the figs, chocolate and 3 tablespoons of the hazelnuts and spoon into slow cooker or baking dish.

Scatter with the remaining sugar, cacao and hazelnuts.

Gently pour over 2½ cups of boiling water. Cook on low for 2 hours if using the slow cooker, or 40 mins if using the oven, or until set, then serve.

Set aside for 5 mins before serving.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 135

EDUCATION FOCUS HOLY FIRE REIKI

ABOUT WILLIAM

HOLY FIRE REIKI

H

oly Fire Reiki was introduced

by William Lee Rand in January 2014. It is taught as Usui/Holy Fire Reiki, in which the Holy Fire symbol is used along with the four Usui symbols in Levels I and II and ART/Master. It’s also taught as Holy Fire Karuna Reiki®. It’s powerful and gentle and can provide purification, healing, empowerment and guidance.

One of its more wonderful effects is the feeling students experience of being deeply loved. This in turn helps heal the students’ ability to love themselves and others.

The use of the word “holy” in the name Holy Fire is not intended to have a religious meaning. The word holy has as its root meaning as being whole and complete, and this is how it is used in Holy Fire Reiki.

One distinctive feature of Holy Fire Reiki is the way a student receives the energy. Usually in Reiki training, a student receives the healing energy through an attunement. However, in Holy Fire Reiki this process takes place during an “ignition” in which the Holy Fire energy is ignited within the student. During this process, the Reiki Master doesn’t interact with the student but guides them into a receptive state. After this, the Holy Fire energy directs the process, creating a unique experience for each individual.

Another interesting feature of this Reiki form is what’s called “pre-ignition”: a similar process to the ignition that’s done 24 hours before the ignition. It prepares the student to receive Holy Fire. It does this by purifying the student’s aura and chakras of

136 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

any energies that conflict with the higher vibrational quality of Holy Fire energy. It also creates the space needed within the student’s energy field for the Holy Fire and helps the student become more receptive to it. This process begins at the time of the pre-ignition and can continue for the 24hour period preceding the ignition.

Holy Fire Reiki is a refined healing energy and comes from a higher level of consciousness. In the students’ experience, it: Works continuously, even when not thinking about it, and heals emotional issues as they arise Always respects free will Heals relationships and interactions with others Releases worry and replaces it with a sense of safety Provides guidance that is palatable for every level of life experience, often empowering the student to carry out the guidance Tends to develop all the personality traits that are healthy for a person to have, such as love of self and others, kindness, patience and confidence Induces a nurturing feeling of being loved Continues to develop to be more evolved and effective once received Holy Fire Reiki training has been taken at the Master level by more than 1600 students. Many of these students had been Reiki Masters for years before taking Holy Fire. Below are some comments: “Holy Fire Reiki is the most profound experience of my life. The ignitions were deep, gentle, life-altering and are ongoing.

nd William Lee Rand h has studied with rs, six Reiki masters, including three from Japan, and has done extensive research on its history and practice. He t ti l is president of th the IInternational Center for Reiki Training, the Center for Reiki Research and the Reiki Membership Association, is editorin-chief of Reiki News magazine and has written numerous books and articles on Reiki, including Reiki, The Healing Touch, Reiki Fire, An Evidence Based History of Reiki and Reiki for a New Millennium. In addition to introducing Holy Fire Reiki, he also developed the Usui/ Tibetan system of Reiki in 1989 and Karuna Reiki® in 1995. He has dedicated his life to Reiki and has practised and taught full-time in classes around the world for the past 26 years.

William is a warm, accepting and confident teacher who brings out the best in his students. He is coming to Australia in September and October 2015 to teach all levels of Holy Fire Reiki training.

I have been receiving profound emotional healing since my ignition and know it will continue. I have been a Reiki Master for eight years.” ~ Nancy Merrifield, RN “[After Holy Fire Reiki] I have had thoughts/feelings arise about past issues and there is no energetic charge to them.

They are past patterns that are being cleared. If I have a thought that I might allow to grow into worry or anxiety, it clears immediately, with no effort on my part. I then realise an overwhelming sense of absolute peace. Working with Holy Fire in sessions and classes is also effortless, and students and clients have profound experiences, more so than reported in the past. I have been a teaching Reiki Master for the past 22 years.” ~ Laurelle Gaia For more information about Holy Fire Reiki classes, visit reiki.org/ReikiClasses/ AustralianReikiClasses.html. To learn more about Holy Fire Reiki, visit reiki.org/holyfire.html.

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It provides an oxygen and nutrient delivery system that may be absorbed quickly and efficiently by your body’s cells. Antioxidant-rich, highly alkalising and safe, Cellfood is made from all-natural plant substances, contains only the finest ingredients and is low-allergy.

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ECOSTORE BABY CARE RANGE ecostore’s plant- and mineral-based baby-care range is a safe, gentle choice to nourish and protect your baby’s delicate skin and hair, which are more vulnerable to the potentially harmful effects of nasty chemicals.

Each product has been carefully formulated to match the natural oils and amino acids in baby’s skin.

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WOMEN OVER 40 TEA Women Over 40 Tea is prepared with selected herbs that assist women to maintain their balance and radiance over 40 and beyond. Rich in phytonutrients and isoflavones, this tea may support hormone balance, improve sexual vitality and rejuvenate the endocrine and nervous systems.

E: sales@superiorherbs.com.au W: superiorherbs.com.au

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ULTIMATE BEDS Finally a healthier bed option is available in Australia thanks to Ultimate Beds. Free from harmful materials, using 100 per cent certified organic cotton covers and non-toxic foams, it has seven zones and five comfort levels for ultimate spinal posture and support.

W: ultimatebeds.com.au

MENOPAUSE SUPPORT

NUTRA-LIFE PROBIOTIC 50 BILLION

Eris Pharmaceuticals’ Menopause Support contains a unique blend of traditional herbs that help to support women in the transition to menopause. It provides a natural alternative that supports emotional, physical and hormonal balances. Take just one tablet, twice a day.

W: eris-lifeinfocus.com

Nutra-Life Probiotic 50 Billion is a highstrength formula containing 11 strains of specially selected probiotic bacteria. It helps support healthy immune function, general gut health and the maintenance of healthy gut microflora. Shelf stable* and convenient for travel.

Always read the label. Use only as directed. *Store below 25°C HOWARU® is a trademark of Danisco A/S and used under licence.

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RETREAT TO BYRON BAY OR BALI

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Give your health and vitality a mid-year boost. Choose from Byron Yoga Centre’s tempting three- or eight-day healthboosting retreats. Book one of the special June offerings at the Byron Yoga Retreat Centre or join the Bali retreat in July.

W: byronyoga.com

Healthy Essentials Bilberry 12,000mg Macula & Eye Health Formula now contains clinically proven high levels of lutein, astaxanthin, betacarotene, zeaxanthin and much more. This formula may assist with overall healthy eye function. Vegan friendly.

Available in healthfood stores nationally.

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POWEROLL MASSAGE OIL

ASK FOR SINUPRET FORTE® Helps relieve symptoms of sinusitis and sinus pain.

Always read the label. Use only as directed. If symptoms persist, contact your healthcare professional. CHC70584-04/15 W: flordis.com.au

POWEROLL is a unique blend of essential oils specially formulated to relieve muscle pain. It contains emu oil and other natural ingredients. The roll-on applicator glides easily over skin, massaging aches and pains as it applies the extra-strength oil.

Indications: relief of muscular aches and pains. May assist in the management of lower back pain. Temporary relief of the pain of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis or arthritis.

W: poweroll.com.au

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 139

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Beauty Source PRODUCTS & SERVICES FROM OUR ADVERTISERS WILD ORGANIC BABY RANGE The Wild Organic Baby Range features five new products to pamper your baby. Each item contains certified organic ingredients and is designed to be gentle and effective on sensitive skin. Made in Australia by PPC Herbs.

W: ppcherbs.com.au

HEALTHY NAILS, HAIR & SKIN Blackmores Nails Hair & Skin is a comprehensive formula that provides essential nutrients for strong nails and healthy hair and skin. It contains a clinically trialled dose of biotin, which may increase nail thickness and reduce splitting and chipping.

W: blackmores.com.au

ECO BY SONYA’S PINK HIMALAYAN SALT & LEMONGRASS SCRUB Eco by Sonya’s new Certified Organic Pink Himalayan Salt & Lemongrass Scrub is a revolution in dry scrubs.

It targets stretch marks, dry flaky skin, cellulite and pigmentation, detoxifies the skin, provides intense exfoliation and delivers ultimate hydration, leaving your skin feeling smooth after rinse-off.

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LAVERA BASIS Lavera Basis offers a range of products to suit every skin type.

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SYNERGIES SKIN VITAMIN B SERUM Vitamin B Serum is a must-have for all skin types and contains high levels of the active ingredient, vitamin B3 (niacinamide). This formula is designed to rejuvenate and strengthen the skin, enhancing skin clarity and luminosity. It is thought of as the great multitasking cosmeceutical.

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ZK’IN LINE SMOOTHING SERUM zk’in Line Smoothing Serum rum is an Australianmade certified organic wrinkle-smoothing cally proven active product. Contains a clinically pression lines. 75 per ingredient to smooth expression cent of trial volunteers achieved results the day on. For all skin types. following first application.

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142 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

KOSMEA ROSE BODY LOTION New Kosmea Rose Body Lotion softens skin while assisting with hydrating and firming. This rose-infused body lotion includes Kosmea’s signature Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil, Gotu Kola and Hyalurolift for the ultimate fusion of skincare benefits and sensory bliss. AU$29.95.

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Food Source

PRODUCTS & SERVICES FROM OUR ADVERTISERS ENGLISH TEA SHOP The English Tea Shop’s Wellness Gift Box consists of a harmonious collection of teas and time-honoured healthy ingredients to help you achieve everyday wellness as part of a balanced, healthy lifestyle while also helping you relax, refresh, slim down or achieve natural sleep.

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NATURE’S PERFECT CALCIUM

1-2-3 GLUTEN FREE 1-2-3 Gluten Free mixes are produced in a dedicated gluten- and allergenfree facility in the US. With a fantastic product range of 14 baking mixes and over 100 recipe variations, there is something for everyone to enjoy!

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GreenCALCIUM is a 100 per cent pure plant source of calcium, magnesium and 72 other organic trace minerals important for optimum calcium absorption.

One serve of GreenCALCIUM provides over 600mg of elemental calcium that’s easily digested and utilised in the body.

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ORGRAN BUCKWHEAT SPIRALS With a proud philosophy of creating pure, natural foods with nothing artificial added, ORGRAN has been a pioneer in gluten-free nutrition for 30 years. ORGRAN was the first in Australia to manufacture buckwheat pasta. Since then, the product range has become the biggest of its kind in Australia.

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YARRA VALLEY GOURMET FOODS Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods brings together the freshest local produce to create an all-natural range of beautifully packaged gourmet preserves. We produce in small batches from the finest, purest ingredients to make simple food with extraordinary flavour.

T: +61 3 9737 1753 W: yvgf.com.au

QI RELAX TEA Qi Relax Tea gives you the warm flavours of chai without the calories (no milk or sugar required). It’s a delicious blend of soulwarming spices: cinnamon, cloves and ginger with an added twist of orange.

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WELLBEING.COM.AU | 143

COLUMN

NATURAL BEAUTY

BY CARLA OATES

T CARLA OATES is a natural beauty expert and the author of Feeding Your Skin.

To assist the liver’s phase-two detoxification pathway, avoid processed, sugarrich foods and eat nutrient-dense wholefoods.

144 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

he skin is a good barometer of imbalance within the body’s systems. It is often described as the third kidney or the second liver because, if any of these elimination organs are overloaded and under-functioning, the skin will pick up the slack and try to push out more wastes and toxins. This is a common cause underlying many skin conditions. Assisting the body’s natural cleansing processes will help promote skin that has fewer reactions and is calmer and less inflamed.

A comprehensive cleanse is best customised to the individual and so best done under the guidance of a naturopath. However, you can follow these general rules to help ease you into spring feeling healthy and looking radiant.

1. Reduce your consumption of and exposure to sugar, alcohol, white flour products, cigarettes and cigarette smoke, chlorinated water and highmercury seafood (eg tinned tuna).

2. Assist the liver’s phase-two detoxification pathway. There are two detoxification phases and it’s important to assist the body’s phaseone detoxification by supporting phase two; this ensures that toxins eliminated are neutralised and mopped up, not left roaming around the body. Avoid processed, sugar-rich foods and eat nutrient-dense wholefoods. The pathways are responsible for detoxifying and excreting various chemicals, hormones, toxins, pathogens and allergenic food substances (salicylates, histamines, amines, sulphites, glutamates).

3. Reduce or eliminate processed and packaged foods from your diet. Eat a variety of seasonal wholefoods and try to make sauces from scratch.

Prepare for the week ahead by making big batches of food and freezing them. Keep a cooked organic chicken and cooked quinoa in the fridge to add to salads for lunch alongside fresh nuts, hummus, carrot sticks and celery sticks.

4. Avoid common skin and gut irritants, including gluten and dairy. Opt for freshly made almond or coconut milk and try eating live sprouted seed breads — they’re lovely toasted with avocado, hummus and pesto.

5. Avoid cooked vegetable oils as they are inflammatory and put another load on the liver.

Instead, cook with coconut oil or ghee. Fats and oils are best consumed fresh and as part of a wholefood, like avocado, nuts and seeds. Olive oil is best consumed fresh on salads, not heated.

6. Eat good sources of protein, which are key as the body needs amino acids to detoxify properly.

Good sources include organic nuts and seeds, tempeh, organic eggs, low-mercury fish, organic chicken and red meat once a week if desired. If you eat red meat, opt for grass-fed; unlike grainfed, it’s rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3s.

7. Eat lacto-fermented foods and food rich in prebiotics and probiotics, which support the body’s detoxification and elimination pathways.

Probiotics directly neutralise some chemicals and toxins so they don’t have to be processed by the liver, helping ease its burden. They manufacture vitamins essential for the liver’s role in detoxification and methylation. They increase IgA levels in the gut, vital for a healthy gut wall coated with mucous and friendly flora.

If this paste is stripped away, the gut wall is easily damaged and can become “leaky”. A leaky gut allows harmful substances (microbes, wastes, toxins, undigested foods) to seep across it into the tissue and blood, which have to go to the liver for further processing. The enzymes in probiotics turn soluble fibre into a mucousy gel that soothes, lubricates and feeds the bowels.

Prebiotics feed the probiotics and help them proliferate. Prebiotic-rich foods include chicory, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, bananas, onions and legumes. Foods rich in fibre support the elimination process and remove toxins so they’re not reabsorbed into the bloodstream.

8. Eat antioxidant-rich foods. Antioxidants are vital for the skin’s health and beauty, particularly due to their anti-inflammatory role; all skin conditions have inflammation at their root.

9. Start your day with lemon juice squeezed into water and drink two litres of filtered water daily.

The body becomes the filter of impurities present in our water so filter out chlorine, ammonia, particulate matter, heavy metals, sediment and herbicides and pesticides with a good water filter.

10. Minimise free radical exposure. Free radicals are formed in the body as a natural byproduct of metabolism but they can also be left behind by alcohol, diet (sugar, fried foods, burnt and charred foods), cigarette smoke, pollution, environmental assault, pesticides etc. Avoid these foods and exposures and eat more foods rich in protective antioxidants as well.

11. Do regular, moderate exercise and dry body brush to aid lymphatics. Dry body brushing is a very effective way to improve lymphatic flow, eliminate toxins and help reduce cellulite. It’s best to dry body brush in the morning before you shower, for around 2–3 minutes.

12. Clean up your skincare routine. What we put on our skin can find its way into our bodies, which is why it’s important to lighten the toxic load on the liver with clean, green skincare and personal care products, preferably certified organic.

Finally, while intermittent fasting can help bring your body back into balance, it’s vital to eat!

Starving yourself will not assist detoxification and may lead to further imbalances. The skin is the last place to get nutrients, which go to more vital organs first, so eat nutrient-dense wholefoods and exercise regularly for good skin and health.

Note: The signs of toxicity listed above may be signs of other medical problems. However, often they are the body’s signal to you that it needs some cleansing from the inside out.

Photography Bigstock

SPRING CLEANSING

COLUMN

QUICK KITCHEN

BY LEE HOLMES

RECIPES FOR IMMUNITY

I

mmunity is your body’s natural defence against disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

A strong immune system can help fight colds, coughs and chest congestion, as well as protect against more serious diseases and ailments.

Here are some key immune-boosting foods.

ZINC Zinc is a mineral that is incredibly important in the development and functioning of the body’s infection-fighting white blood cells. A number of studies have revealed that zinc-deficient people are more susceptible to a variety of diseases.

How well we absorb zinc depends heavily on the foods it’s consumed with. The amount of protein you eat is a factor contributing to zinc absorption, as zinc binds to protein. Zinc is mainly found in lean red meat, poultry, eggs, seafood and in smaller quantities in whole grains, nuts and seeds and fortified breakfast cereals.

Adult men should aim for 14mg of zinc daily, while women should aim for 8mg.

Jolly Good Butter Chicken 1 tbsp sesame oil 1kg free-range chicken breast, thickly sliced 70g unsalted butter 1 tsp garam masala 1 cinnamon stick 10 cardamon pods 1 tsp sweet paprika 1 tsp ground cumin (optional) 1 tsp ground chilli (optional) 400g tinned diced tomatoes 1 tbsp sugar- & additive-free tomato paste 400mL additive-free coconut milk 1 ripe banana, sliced 1 tsp shredded coconut 2 cups steamed brown rice 1 Lebanese cucumber, diced & chilled 1 dollop mango chutney (optional) Place a large, heavy-based saucepan over high heat and add the sesame oil.

Cook chicken in two batches, turning regularly for 5 mins or till browned. Set first batch aside then cook the second one. Remove from pan.

Reduce the heat a little and add the butter.

When the butter has melted add the spices and cook, stirring, for 4–5 mins, until fragrant.

Return the chicken to the pan, along with the tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir and simmer for about 20 mins. Turn down the heat to low and stir in the coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 mins.

Mix banana and coconut in a small bowl.

Serve with butter chicken, along with brown rice, cucumber slices and mango chutney if using.

GARLIC Garlic is an immunity-boosting superstar that is available all year round. One garlic clove has

over 100 sulfuric compounds, which are powerful enough to wipe out bacteria and infection.

Raw garlic is best, since heat and water inactivate sulfur enzymes, which can diminish garlic’s antibiotic effects. In clinical trials, garlic’s toxin-fighting properties seem to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, fight tumorous cells and inflammation and kill parasites in the body.

Immune-Boosting Garlic Soup 3 garlic bulbs, whole, unpeeled 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 40g unsalted butter 1 large brown onion, finely chopped 1L homemade vegetable or chicken stock ½ tsp ground turmeric ½ tsp ground cumin 60mL apple cider vinegar 1 tsp Celtic sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp dried mixed herbs (optional)

LEE HOLMES runs Supercharged Food and has just released her new book, Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian.

Visit her blog at superchargedfood.com for more cooking inspiration, recipes and tips.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Cut the top off each garlic bulb, place on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Transfer to the oven and cook for 45 minutes. Remove and leave to cool.

Once cooled, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins into a small bowl. Transfer to a food processor and whizz for a few seconds. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 10–15 mins, or until translucent. Stir in stock, turmeric, cumin, vinegar, blended garlic, salt, pepper and herbs, if using, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover and cook for 30 mins.

Serve hot. For a creamier soup, stir in 60mL of coconut milk before serving and heat through.

GINGER & TURMERIC Studies have shown that ginger has powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. It helps to boost immune function and fight cellular damage; boosts digestion and bowel function; and promotes sweating, which detoxifies the body and can help prevent illness.

Turmeric contains curcumin, a compound that increases the level of immunity-boosting proteins in our bodies. These proteins help to fight bacteria and viruses when they try to attack. It is also a natural anti-inflammatory and painkiller.

Cleansing Ginger & Turmeric Tea 250mL almond or rice milk 2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp finely grated ginger 6 drops stevia liquid

Heat milk gently in a small saucepan until it reaches room temperature.

Put turmeric and ginger in a mug. Add a little warm milk and stir to create a smooth paste. Add remaining milk and sweeten with stevia.

Turmeric contains curcumin, which increases the level of immunityboosting proteins in our bodies.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 145

COLUMN DIY DETOX

BY SALLY MATHRICK

DETOXING PERCEPTIONS OF AGE & BEAUTY

A SALLY MATHRICK

Photography Bigstock

is a practising naturopath.

She runs Sparkle Detox and Wellness Courses and Retreats. See sparklewell.com.au for more information.

Why do we find the ageing process so repugnant that we spend so much time and money on products and practices that are often toxic?

146 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

geing is not valued in our society; antiageing is. In 2013, humans around the world spent US$122.3 billion on anti-ageing creams, hair dyes, injectables and other “youth-enhancing” procedures. That spend is predicted to increase significantly in coming years as baby boomers retire and their children begin to age behind them.

The anti-ageing trend includes injecting synthetics, toxins or cellular products into the body, sanding skin with chemical abrasives, covering and colouring skin and hair with chemical cocktails and surgically cutting and lifting faces and bodies.

What is it about ageing that is so bad? Why do we find the ageing process so repugnant that we spend so much time and money on products and practices that are often toxic? Are we programmed to play out acts of self-violence in order to stop us from looking our authentic age?

I wonder if our perception of beauty and ageing requires a “detox”?

In my 20s I read Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth and was both appalled and saddened by Wolf’s exposé of the ingrained disempowerment and shaming imbedded within the “beauty” industry. Wolf showed how women’s low self-esteem was fuelled by beauty or fashion advertising, which suggested, “You’ll be perfect when you buy X.” This lack of celebration of the authentic self triggers a range of actions (using toxic chemicals, unhealthy diets or harsh practices) and also propels a competitive, no-one-wins model for women: achieve an unachievable myth of some stereotyped beauty; don’t just be yourself.

I never wore makeup in my 20s. Now I’m 45 years old and have been wearing toxin-free makeup since I was 40. The ageing issue is beginning to get more airtime in my life now.

Conversations with friends include the questions “Will you have ‘work’ done?” and “Is there such a thing as ageing gracefully?” My morning reflection reminds me of some sagginess that takes a while to iron out (or that doesn’t at all). In all honesty, my ageing is triggering me. Despite my best efforts, I too have been programmed by the contemporary (marketing) paradigm of beauty and ageing.

So, how does one deal with those liver spots, that sun damage, the sagging neck skin and wrinkling hands? And what about, god forbid, drooping breasts and grey hair of the future?

Surgery to lift eye flaps, to tighten up jowls or restructure the breasts? Cellular growth factors, laser treatments, bleaches, fillers or muscle relaxants to cover over the ravages of the decades? There’s certainly a lot on offer;

however, to me, most of it appears to be quite violent — like a war on the body.

Cue: facial rejuvenation acupuncture. This is a form of traditional Japanese acupuncture, reinvigorated by Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, which uses tiny-gauge needles to enhance body health and facial “freshness”. Firstly, it enhances tone throughout the face by balancing energy flow. Secondly, the physical micro-trauma from the fine needles (which you mostly can’t feel) enhances local collagen production to rejuvenate the skin.

Japanese acupuncture understands that each area of the face reflects a particular organ’s health. When the organ is burdened with toxins or functioning below par, the corresponding facial zone will lack vitality. Stimulating the organ’s energy within the system supports its capacity to detoxify, bringing more vitality to the face. After a series of 10–15 acupuncture sessions, the claim is it will rejuvenate the face as well as enhance health of the whole body. After one session, my face did look significantly fresher.

Diane Carter of Wellspring Japanese Acupuncture explained the Japanese concept wabi sabi: perfection in the imperfection. This concept recognises the unique perfection in things that might be considered broken or worn out. The foible makes it more special. After a series of facial rejuvenation acupuncture, Carter says the wrinkles soften and the face looks fresher and more vital but, most importantly, the perspective of the woman towards her own beauty changes. Carter says many of her clients simply feel so much better and connect with their inner beauty. They start to love and accept themselves more.

“The lessons of your life are written on your face,” says Junia Kerr, who started Sage Beauty in North Bondi over a decade ago. Kerr is a warm woman, very comfortable in her skin, who “loves her wrinkles”. She suggests that valuing the stories written on our faces is an act of selfcelebration. Appreciating the visible signs of age allows us to see the authentic evolution of each individual’s life. Kerr suggests we connect and relate more deeply with one another when our faces show our stories; she suggests research backs that up. In addition, she says, when you love yourself (and your wrinkles) you’re empowered — so you’re not so susceptible to the marketing forces of the multi-billion dollar “anti-ageing” industry.

Maybe I need to value my own wabi sabi: to embrace and celebrate those signs of sagging and imperfection each morning, as testimony to what life has delivered me so far. Perhaps we all do.

COLUMN

DIGGING IN

BY JACKIE FRENCH

THE GOOD SOIL 2. Recycling garden and kitchen waste, urine, animal waste, paper: anything that will decompose (except for human, dog, cat and pig faeces and any other waste that may be infected with pathogens that may infect other humans).

3. Homegrown fertiliser: deep-rooted perennials, green manure, algae and “nitrogenfixing” plants (rhizobia are bacteria that live in nodules on the roots of leguminous plants and fix aerobic nitrogen in the soil, while other freeliving bacteria like azobacter and Clostridium pasteurianum also fix nitrogen from the air).

4. Dung from small animals like sheep, chooks or earthworms: its beneficial effect is heightened by the increased nitrogen-fixing soil microflora associated with it.

5. Making nutrients already in your soil more available to the plants.

Once your soil is fertile you only need to replace the nutrients you take out as flowers, fruit, vegetables or lawn clippings. Otherwise your garden will recycle itself: fallen leaves fertilise the trees and shrubs and flowers that die down and become mulch for the next lot.

Many gardens suffer from being overfertilised: too much nitrogen causes soft, sappy, pest- and disease-attracting green growth; wellfed shrubs and flowers produce more leaves than blooms; and the high-nitrate, lush, green leaves on vegetables are associated with stomach and bowel cancer and blue baby disease.

The best fertility is natural fertility: mimicking the way soil is naturally created through the addition of organic matter (mulch), the breakdown of rocks and the accumulation of nitrogen in the soil by nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Feeding your plants is good, but you can feed them too much. Too much of one element can cause an imbalance in another: too much nitrogen or phosphorus may mean potassium deficiency; too much potassium can mean magnesium deficiency; too much sulphur and the land turns into desert; and too much copper will kill your garden, too.

All this is a long way of saying: mulch your plants, with gum leaves if they are natives and would grow with gum leaves, pine or casuarina needles if they are camellias that would naturally grow in acid soils; lucerne hay scratched over by chooks — with a bit of manure — for fruit trees; and compost for veg, or organic manures and lucerne mulch. Once you find a regime that works, use it. For us, it’s rake fallen leaves in mid-winter, use as mulch, scatter on extra fertiliser and add lucerne or other mulch as necessary. But what works for you — and your soil and garden — may be quite different.

Healthy soil is stuff that grows things and keeps on growing those things. Long may we cherish it.

JACKIE FRENCH is the author of The Chook Book (Aird Books). Her oldest chook, Gertie, is now 17. Although Gertie’s sisters have all long since fallen off the perch, Gertie still lays extremely large brown eggs most days of the year.

So mulch. And mulch and mulch and mulch. We turn anything that has once lived into mulch.

Photography iStock

W

hat is good soil? There is no simple answer. Ask a market gardener and the answer will be about chocolatecoloured loam, nitrogen, phosphorus and trace elements and (if they are good growers) soil structure, levels of organic matter and healthy and prolific soil life from worms, nitrogen-fixing bacteria and beneficial fungi.

Ask a desert casuarina tree and the answer will be quite different ...

To grow the most suitable plants for a certain area, you need healthy soil. If you want to grow lettuce on a sand dune, you’ll have to change the soil drastically to do so. This doesn’t mean the sand dune is bad, infertile or unhealthy — just inappropriate for the plant you want to grow.

The only real criterion for healthy soil is that it stays healthy. Many farming practices degrade soil in some way: nutrients are lost, soil structure and water-carrying capacity are destroyed, and levels of organic matter and soil life decline, either slowly or dramatically. In grain-growing parts of Australia, six tonnes of topsoil can be lost for every tonne of wheat produced.

But for your average back-garden soil, the following rules can apply: Rule 1. If you don’t want to change your soil, plant what would naturally grow there. This does not mean just “native plants”, which can come from anywhere between Tasmania and WA, but the ones that grow naturally in your area.

Rule 2. Keep out mess. Mess means builder’s rubble, left-over concrete or paint and other stuff that is all too easy to just pour down in the backyard, including pesticides and herbicides.

If plants can survive in nature without human intervention and poisons, humans can figure out how to keep them healthy without poisons, too.

Rule 3. Feed the soil, not the plant. Most of our veg and fruit trees evolved with deep healthy soil, lots of earthworms and fertility won by the slow accretion of autumn leaves turning back into soil or the (eventually good) soil washed down by rivers and glaciers or ejected by volcanoes.

So mulch. And mulch and mulch and mulch.

We turn anything that has once lived into mulch — or it becomes chook food that becomes chook poo that helps add nitrogen and phosphorus to help break down the fibrous elements in the mulch. It also includes deceased animals, though they are “placed”, not “tossed”, with our own words of gratitude for their lives. This would include me eventually if I had my way but family feelings — and council regulations — probably mean this won’t happen. Not to worry.

Finding good food for your soil falls into five basic categories: 1. Buying or scavenging fertilisers, either artificial or organic ones like manures, blood and bone and mulching materials.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 147

COLUMN PET CARE

BY KAREN GOLDRICK

WATERWORKS PROBLEMS

C KAREN GOLDRICK

Photography Bigstock

is a holistic veterinarian at All Natural Vet Care, Russell Lea, Sydney, Australia.

T: +61 2 9712 5844 W: naturalvet.com.au

You can also encourage drinking by offering flavoured drinks. My favourites are diluted spring water from cans of tuna, homemade low-salt chicken broth and just boiled water poured over dried liver treats and cooled.

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ats and dogs, like people, may end up with problems with their “waterworks”.

Urinary tract infections, urinary incontinence, toileting in the wrong place or blood in the urine are just some of the problems vets see.

What signs might alert you that your dog or cat has a waterworks problem? You may notice your dog making several attempts to pee (not to be confused with normal marking behaviour, which is usually preceded by sniffing other dogs’ “emails”). Sometimes you will notice that your pet’s urine is a darker colour than usual, or may have some blood clots or a strong smell. Dogs that are toilet trained may urinate inside or wet their bed. Cats may urinate outside of their litter trays. Cats and dogs may lick their genital area more obsessively than usual.

If your pet is showing any of these signs, it is important they have a vet check. Ideally, take in a urine sample. (You can ask when you make your appointment how best to collect this.) A urine check will help your vet detect a bacterial infection or alert them to the presence of crystals or possible bladder stones, or an underlying metabolic problem that may also affect their waterworks (such as diabetes or kidney disease).

Your dog or cat may need some conventional treatment. It’s important to treat bacterial infections with the correct antibiotic to prevent more serious consequences like kidney infections or bladder stones. However, in addition to this, we can use natural remedies both to help your pet cope with the treatment and help prevent recurrence. Discuss these options with your vet to ensure they are suitable for your dog or cat.

I always recommend increasing liquids, especially fresh water. Liquids will help flush out infections, support the kidneys and reduce the chances of crystals forming. Make sure your pet has easy access to water; this is especially true for older pets. Old dogs may be reluctant to walk all the way outside to drink, so provide water near their favourite bed.

Even so, some dogs — and especially cats — do not seem to drink much. Try adding extra water to their food. Feed wet foods instead of dry (or add water to dry if your pet must eat a prescribed dry food). You can also encourage drinking by offering flavoured drinks. My favourites are diluted spring water from cans of tuna, home-made low-salt chicken broth and just boiled water poured over dried liver treats and cooled.

DIET Dogs and cats with bladder stones or urine crystals may be on a prescribed diet to try to

dissolve crystals. Do not change this without consulting your vet. It is possible, under veterinary guidance, to formulate home-made “wet and fresh” diets to work in the same way.

For cats, diets using fresh red meat are used to help acidify urine and prevent struvite crystals from forming. Make diet changes slowly. Your pet will need frequent urine checks to ensure the diet is working.

Cranberry (Vaccinum macrocarpon) extract has a reputation for treating cystitis. Studies have shown that consumption of cranberry juice reduced the recurrence of urinary tract infections in women. It is believed it has the capacity to reduce the adherence of bacteria like E coli to the bladder wall. We do not usually recommend cranberry juice for our pets because it’s too high in sugar but highquality extracts of cranberry can be used, mixed in food. Cranberry is safe to use in dogs and cats though it may not be ideal for pets with urate or calcium oxalate bladder stones.

Check with your vet.

Other herbs that may help with urinary tract infections include marshmallow (Althaea officinalis, a demulcent and emollient), crataeva (Crataeva nurvala, a bladder tonic and antiinflammatory) and cornsilk (or Zea mays, a urinary demulcent and mild diuretic) as well as some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal formulae. Ask your holistic vet for an appropriate combination of herbs for your pet.

Urinary incontinence can occur in older desexed female dogs due to a hormone imbalance. Some of these girls will require treatment with low doses of synthetic oestrogen. However, we find many respond to acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments and appropriate TCM herbal formula, so it’s worth exploring these treatments first.

Stress and anxiety are known to predispose animals to cystitis, especially in cats. I have known cats to pee blood on the way home after a stressful visit to the vet! Male cats that are showing signs of this or straining to urinate need to be checked by your vet immediately because a urine blockage in a male cat can be life threatening.

We use combinations of Bach Flower Essences as well as lifestyle changes (increased litter trays, security in the household especially where there are multiple cats, environmental enrichment) to help reduce stress in these kitties.

Probiotics will help support large bowel health, especially during or after treatment with antibiotics. I try not to give probiotics to animals at the same time of the day as antibiotics. Use long term in pets that are prone to recurring infections.

COLUMN

STARGAZING SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2015

BY CHRISTINE BROADBENT

VIRGO

LIBRA

Expansive Jupiter now in Virgo suggests good things to come. Yet Virgo New Moon on Sept 13 must be carefully navigated. This solar eclipse begins a fateful time, when you may think the goal of a lifetime can no longer wait. Beware: patience and careful preparation are key; delay big spends until mid-October and refuse to overreact Oct 7 & 11. Energy rises from Oct 17 and Lover Venus, now in Virgo, aligns with Jupiter Oct 26. Fond hopes that seemed distant begin to show great promise.

SCORPIO Saturn departs Scorpio on Sept 18: that extra Saturn realism and discipline ensure you get good returns on the energy you’ve invested these past two years. Waxing Moon energy helps you gather ideas, but it’s October’s planetary shifts that move things along.

Ideas coalesce near Oct 13’s New Moon, then Mars is the star Oct 16–18, when you can rapidly mobilise a team. Jupiter blesses a shared enterprise that only gets stronger with Sun-in-Scorpio help Oct 24–31.

SAGITTARIUS Saturn’s return to Sagittarius on Sept 18 is both warning and blessing. It warns against exhausting physical and emotional resources by clinging to something that’s broken; its blessing is that you can clarify how to build new foundations. It follows an eclipsed New Moon in your career sector and coincides with a three-week go-slow communications cycle: your usual networks are not the answer; review work roles.

Late September may seem to eclipse your hopes but midOctober's insights set you on an exciting, enterprising path.

CAPRICORN Capricorns are said to grow younger as they age by becoming more relaxed about life. Trials in late September, early October could dent your serenity yet acceptance is key.

Understanding emerges that a more rewarding way of living is within your reach. Ways to work smarter, and clearer priorities, arise from mid-October’s New

When the love planet moves into direct motion Sept 6, you can let fly with all your plans.

Sept 9–10 & 23–24 are the best days for success.

Yet, a go-slow communication cycle suggests you review plans, rethink schemes and delay key new initiatives from Sept 18 to New Moon in Libra, Oct 13. Careful research prior will help you claim the practical know-how that’s come from a long period of emotional confrontation and changes. Oct 13–31 builds on teamwork, removes negative influences.

Moon in your career sector.

Projects you started late April flourish now. By Oct 26–27, you relax into an easy new rhythm.

AQUARIUS As the “knower” of the star signs, the limits of your knowledge are most obvious regarding love. August made those limits clear and, after Sept 6, you more easily ask caring questions of loved ones. Receptivity opens doors; Sept 23–28 shows the potential of linking energy with the right people. Full Moon Sept 28 helps you eclipse confused agendas; Oct 13’s New Moon helps you organise a new mental adventure! Practical planning is accented Oct 16–31.

PISCES Aug 30–Sept 1 clarifies the nature of a long-considered dilemma, but it's late October that your true course of action is clear. With the spiritual, healing energies of Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, wait for inner guidance to emerge. If Sept 10–17 tests your faith, hold firm. Energy, enterprise grow after Sept 25. Once Lover Venus returns to your partner sign Oct 9, a new cycle of cooperation coalesces, most clearly by Oct 26 — a perfect time to cement a partnership.

ARIES Early September affirms your love of life and your Fire rises. Yet Aries has been much tested, and Sept 28’s Full Moon and total lunar eclipse in Aries is the last of the eclipse cycle that’s contributed to those tests. Make peace with the past two years' losses and gains;

move on. This climax morphs into a deep awareness of true priorities as October unfolds with its challenges, revelations.

Careful preparation, attention to life details protect you and lead to an extra-productive late October and early November.

TAURUS When Saturn finally leaves your relationship sign Sept 18, consider what you’ve learnt about partnership and commitment in the past two years. As your ruling planet Venus moves into a direct cycle Sept 6, you’re primed to renew your home and family focus.

Here, it’s what occurred in August that best informs you.

Your credibility, status can get a great boost Oct 9–31; Oct 11 & 17 require caution. Jupiter’s bold optimism lights your love life now; a Full Moon in Taurus on Oct 27 adds fire in the belly.

GEMINI Jupiter expands all things home and family from mid-August; Sep 13’s New Moon points you in the right direction. Keep words simple and non-theatrical to get a willing audience in September.

Late September’s joyful Full Moon energy rekindles key friendships, maybe heralding a new collaboration. Jupiter’s year-long cycle gains focus; Sept 18–Oct 10 helps you to sideline unneeded diversions.

Oct 12–31, the ability to create order from disorder and do small, practical tasks empowers you, paving the way.

CANCER September begins with a polarising perspective that

CHRISTINE BROADBENT loves her work as a travelling astrologer and sees clients in Sydney and Auckland. She also offers personal consultations by phone and Skype. For information on Christine’s seminars and upcoming events, email christine@ astrologyspot.com.au, visit astrologyspot.com.au or call +61 402 664 101.

questions old beliefs about teaching, learning, travel; by Oct 31 you'll see those areas differently, making correct action easy. Let’s look at the journey to that shift: Sept 6 gets your finances moving; Sept 13’s solar eclipse and New Moon remind you why caution is necessary around communication and signing papers. A lunar eclipse at Full Moon Sept 28 highlights career choices for review. New Moon Oct 13 supports practical action at home, placing you for those late October revelations!

LEO Lover Venus weaves a special story for Leo in 2015 and, aligned with mid-August Leo New Moon, sets her seal on you. Sept 1–6 unites that new-start energy and primes you for love and adventure. As Venus takes the lead, you must follow your heart to optimise this time. Do not let the tests of Sep 10 & 25 or early October muddy your vision. Instead, let the easy changes of Sep 23 to Oct 23 carry you along and you’ll find that a greater sense of security and serenity results.

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AGEING WELL

BY MICHAEL ELSTEIN

THE MELATONIN DIET

W

e all know melatonin as the sleep hormone. But what does this common remedy for jet lag have to do with fighting obesity? In order to understand how this hormone can be harnessed to defeat the enemy, we have to examine what it is that regulates the amount of food we eat. Here the principal hormone is insulin.

DR MICHAEL ELSTEIN

Photography Bogstock

is a Sydney-based antiageing physician and writer. He is the author of three books, including his latest, The Wellness Guide to Preventing the Diseases of Ageing.

He has also designed the app The Diet Guide to Ageing Prevention.

At night, melatonin turns down the rheostat on insulin, making this an inopportune time to consume large amounts of food.

150 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

INSULIN IN ACTION When we consume carbohydrates found in cereals, grains, fruit, vegetables and salads, which ultimately are broken down in our digestive tract to smaller carbohydrates or sugars known as glucose and fructose, or we eat fats sourced from nuts, seeds, fish, butter, milk and avocado, insulin sees to it that these essential nutrients are transported to our liver, muscle and fat cells, where they are either used to manufacture energy or are stored, providing a ready reservoir for energy production as required.

Insulin is not only concerned that we have enough resources to immediately furnish us with the energy we need to function, but it also sees to it that we have reserves of glucose and fat ready and waiting to be used as an energy source should we be entering times of scarcity, when these are no longer freely available. What insulin also does is instruct the brain to tell us we have had enough to eat. Appetite centres in our brains are switched off when insulin informs them that further consumption is no longer necessary.

In summary, insulin ensures that food and principally glucose are employed to create energy, that glucose and fat are set aside so we can tap into these resources on demand and that the brain is told to terminate eating behaviour when this activity ceases to serve us.

The moment you get up in the morning, insulin sets to work ensuring that whatever you consume is driven into your muscle and fat cells. The peak of insulin activity actually occurs earlier in the day so that by nightfall its functions are truncated.

Our two major energy sources are glucose and fat. Insulin determines that we employ glucose to produce energy rather than fat. Our muscle cells tend to prefer fat to satisfy their energy needs. Insulin wants to override this, viewing glucose utilisation as a better option.

The more we eat, the more we engage insulin, the less fat we burn. Therefore it would seem that regularly grazing small amounts of food to stimulate metabolism, often employed by weight-loss consultants, would appear to be unwise advice.

We are no longer hunter-gatherers frantically cavorting around the savannahs desperately in search of our next feed, so the amount of energy we need to derive from the food we eat to accommodate our mostly sedentary lifestyle has

considerably diminished. What hasn’t changed, though, is our prehistoric genes.

Our DNA is petrified of the possibility that we might enter times of scarcity, so our cells are programmed to put things away for a rainy day.

The more you eat and the less active you are, the more you store. However, this storage capacity has a limit and insulin’s capacity to endlessly pour fat into fat cells has its tipping point.

What bloated fat cells do is assemble masses of inflammatory cytokines, harmful molecules that get in insulin’s way, preventing it from executing its vital functions as well as undermining the activity of other hormones.

Instead of fat freely accessing the cells in which it would normally reside care of insulin’s custodianship, it now pours into the circulation, further compromising the workings of insulin.

When insulin ceases to fulfil its duties, energy is not engineered efficiently, our brains aren’t instructed to terminate our eating behaviour and we don’t effectively burn fat.

With ready access to endless amounts of food and the wiring of the brain that governs our eating behaviour becoming unhinged, compounded by the fact that insulin is no longer able to successfully orchestrate energy production, we are compelled to eat even more in a futile attempt to re-energise a sluggish metabolism. Herein is the root cause of the obesity tsunami.

ENTER MELATONIN Melatonin might be the saviour to deliver us from obesity-driven extinction. Melatonin is the master hormone, the conductor that masterminds the behaviour of all our hormones.

It is especially solicitous of insulin. Melatonin ensures that we make sufficient amounts of insulin, as well as assisting insulin so it can execute its function.

Our bodies need to be exposed to some natural light during the day and optimal darkness at night to make ample supplies of melatonin. When the sun rises, melatonin goes to work, happily helping insulin do its energycreating and fuel-storing duties. At night, melatonin turns down the rheostat on insulin, making this an inopportune time to consume large amounts of food. Our natural rhythms and our ability to operate with metabolic impunity are determined by how much we follow the immutable laws governing the executive functions of insulin and melatonin.

Suffice to say we have turned nature on its head. We need to revert to a time when melatonin and insulin were maximally operational. Aside from eating less and less often, one of the ways you can do this is by significantly reducing your food consumption after dark.

COLUMN

BACK TO BASICS

BY KARIN CUTTER

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR a fresh mango or ripe pear for ice-cream, he’d be allowed a day at the local swimming pool.

It was very much a “foot-in-the-door” approach and there were many hiccups along the way. However, by the end of three months Colin had — for the first time in his life — sampled a sweet, juicy orange, a baked potato in its skin with a little unsalted organic butter and chives, small tasty tomatoes, puréed sweet potatoes and even a vegetable stirfry topped with cashew nuts.

As Colin’s intake of vitamin C rich foods and protein slowly improved, May was amazed and delighted to relate that her son was showing rare signs of co-operation and a greater willingness to participate in family outings. His destructive and unfruitful behaviour had minimised. At school he was less threatening in his attitude to fellow students; class insubordination had improved and he was less of a troublemaker.

After eight months, Colin — for the first time — allowed some tissue samples to be taken at one of our appointments.

The results confirmed my worst suspicions.

The boy was still significantly depleted in vitamin C, every one of the B complex family as well as the minerals calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron.

These specific deficiencies are the ones most often correlated with behavioural problems.

As the months passed, Colin slowly continued to become less temperamental, cranky and suspicious. We were even able to eventually do some food sensitivity tests, which showed that the boy had a major intolerance to synthetic food colourings. As one of his favourite treats was layered rainbow cakes, these had to be refused.

Fortunately, clever May worked out an excellent alternative based on lemon juice, natural vanilla, baking soda, some rice and coconut flour. She filled the layers with fresh strawberries and a paste of blended Australian organic dried unsulfured apricots and ricotta cheese.

Tests revealed that Colin also had an elevated level of the neurotoxic element cadmium. Iron deficiency tends to increase the absorption of this and other toxic elements. Colin’s father had always been a heavy smoker and this could have been a source of exposure.

Fortunately, the essential antioxidant glutathione is one of the most reliable ways to counteract cadmium in tissues. The best sources of this tripeptide are asparagus (which Colin hated), avocado (he grudgingly tried and eventually looked forward to), free-range eggs (he developed a real passion for these), freshly shelled walnuts (he only tolerated them finely crumbed in small serves of Waldorf salad) and whey. As Colin digested dairy products without issue, a whey-based mango smoothie was a hit.

Over the years, Colin has grown into a fine young man with a promising career and very happy parents — oh, and his own surfboard.

KARIN CUTTER runs a naturopathic clinic in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.

T: +61 2 6582 4435

By the end of three months Colin had — for the first time in his life — sampled a sweet, juicy orange, a baked potato, small tasty tomatoes, puréed sweet potatoes and even a vegetable stirfry.

Photography Bigstock

B

y the time that May had finished describing some examples of her 10-year-old son Colin’s antisocial deeds, she was almost inconsolable. Racked with sobs, face red and swollen, the poor woman was distraught and trembling. Her husband refused to acknowledge the boy’s existence. He came home late from work most evenings, ate his dinner, then chain-smoked his way to bed.

Certainly, the information I’d just been given would challenge the adrenals of even the most phlegmatic and tolerant of parents.

Colin had always been a handful. Where there was noise, there he would be: playing loud music, slamming doors or screaming over his Xbox.

His language was invariably abusive towards his mother. He had scrawled graffiti over his bedroom walls. He tended to intimidate anyone smaller and younger. He was responsible for countless broken windows in the neighbourhood.

The straws that finally broke his mother’s flagging spirit had all occurred during the last six months. Colin had found a half-used bag of cement mix in one of their neighbour’s carports.

He’d used it to concrete the car’s front wheels to the garage floor. After the delivery of a new dining setting, Colin had used a hammer and chisel, filched from his father’s workshop, to smash holes into the solid backs of each chair. His most recent escapade involved placing a garden hose inside the partly open window of his mother’s car and then turning it on full bore.

I have to say that the thought of meeting the lad caused me great angst. However, instead of creating chaos and being unco-operative, Colin immersed himself in a techno-gadget and only occasionally peered up at me suspiciously.

A physical examination was soundly rebuffed but I managed to extract enough information from May to make me suspect at least one major nutritional deficiency and possibly more.

Colin was very prone to developing large bruises and had been hospitalised with several nose bleeds on two occasions. His temper was unpredictable and even hysterical at times.

His favourite foods were chips, crispy noodles, breadsticks, doughnuts, pizzas and ice-cream.

Faced with the unco-operative dilemma posed by this young boy, his mother and I came to the conclusion that perhaps a promise-and-reward approach would be worthy trying.

Colin had been asking for a surfboard and surfing lessons for the past couple of years. His parents had refused in view of his bad behaviour.

They felt it was one way to punish him.

After much discussion, Colin’s mother agreed to try a different approach. She would give her son an added incentive at mealtimes. If he agreed for one week to eat a serve of creamed spinach or other tastily prepared veg with his chips, he could go to a movie of his choice. If he substituted

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 151

COLUMN

REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE VANESSA BOWEN

LIGHTNESS OF YOGA Yoga is many things to many people and, for one reader, it’s helping to light a path in the darkness of her depression.

Photography iStock

S

ince my early teens, I have struggled with feelings of worthlessness and self-hate.

Bouts of lethargy and tearfulness punctuated my life. It was easy to write these experiences off as the normal experience of adolescence but, as I entered my 20s, these feelings didn’t recede. Three years ago, I was finally diagnosed with depression and embarked on a quest to help tame my Black Dog. Last year, I started cultivating a home yoga practice. I had tried and enjoyed yoga many times before this; however, this time it was my intention to begin setting aside time for yoga each day and really concentrating on the practice.

I’ve noticed that my moods have been much better since I began doing yoga on a regular basis. I’m better at coping with stressful events and, when I do have a depressive episode, it tends not to last as long.

So how does a bit of stretching and focused breathing help me to manage my mental illness?

It gives me a sense of accomplishment. When I’m feeling depressed, I have this little voice in my head that feeds me all sorts of negative messages. It tells me that I’m a failure, that I can’t do anything right and that I’m worthless.

Overcoming that loop of horrible self-talk can be tough.

When I practise yoga, I find myself improving little by little. Some days I’ll stretch a little further than I did the day before; perhaps I’ll hold my balance without wobbling or maybe I’ll manage to pull off a pose that I’ve never done before.

It’s these little improvements that give me a sense of accomplishment. Small victories are a huge deal when you’re battling depression, so doing an activity that gives you the opportunity to improve and grow is a great idea.

It’s given me a greater respect and appreciation for my body. A big part of my depression stems from a dreadful relationship with my body. For years, I hated the way I looked and tortured myself to get to a point where I could be happy with my body. But that point never

152 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

It was like my yoga practice lit a fire within me that thawed the numbness I’d felt. came; no matter how much weight I lost, I still hated my body and could always find some fault with it.

I’ve spent the past few years working to improve this relationship, and that’s meant taking steps to care for myself and finding ways to make peace with my body.

Yoga has been a huge help in this area.

It isn’t a competitive sport and you don’t need to worry about doing every pose perfectly. It’s largely about doing what you can do, appreciating your body’s abilities and respecting your limitations.

Through my yoga practice, I feel that my view of my body has changed. I’m more able to appreciate what my body can do rather than focus on how it looks.

I’ve begun to realise that, if I treat my body well, it serves me so much better than if I starve and punish it. Yoga has given me a greater sense of respect for

my body and I feel more at peace with my physical self.

It’s great for stress relief.

I am a terribly anxious person and stress out about the littlest things.

That constant anxiety can be debilitating. Yoga forces me to slow down and take a few deep breaths, to focus on the here and now.

When I’ve had a rough day, I try to come home and spend 20 minutes on my mat rather than curl up in a ball and panic. Before I started practising yoga, I’d work myself into a terrible state just trying to figure out a way to settle down. It was very counter-productive. Now, I have an activity that I know works to help me de-stress.

It gives me something to look forward to each day. One of the toughest parts of depression is that all the activities that used to fill me with awesome feelings began to generate no emotional reaction at all. Each of my favourite hobbies became an exercise in going through the motions, yet I had no idea what to do to pull myself out of that slump. I felt so frustrated and worthless and I became convinced that my feelings of numbness and despair would go on forever.

But my yoga practice changed this. After each of my early sessions, I had a feeling of relief. As I began to recover, feelings of determination and joy followed. It was like my yoga practice lit a fire within me that thawed the numbness I’d felt. Slowly, I began to enjoy my old interests once more.

Now, I can reassure myself that I’ve got my yoga practice to look forward to. While it doesn’t work every time, most days that 20-minute practice is enough to lift my spirits and calm me down. Knowing that is a huge relief and gives me something to look forward to at the end of a hard day.

Yoga has become an important part of my depression-fighting toolkit. It has helped me to slay some of my inner demons and reminds me how it feels to be joyful and present.

Vanessa Bowen is a blogger from country Victoria.

She writes about fashion, self-care and mental health. In addition to yoga, Vanessa enjoys yarn crafts, cosplay, karaoke and cats.

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SPIRIT WHAT’S ON

Illustration Tams at Soul Stories: soul-stories.com

WHAT’S ON

WHAT WE’V WE’VE BEEN UP TO Editor-in-chief Terry and editorial assistant Kate have been busy working with experts like wholefood chef Lee Holmes (pictured above left) on segments for our soon-to-be-released WellBeing Lounge segments on YouTube. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, editor Danielle (pictured above right) got thoroughly spoilt at a nourishing retreat with holistic coach and wholefood chef Jo Rushton and yoga teacher Emma Cruickshank on the NSW central coast.

WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU August–October, AU The Bloody Long Walk bloodylongwalk.com.au August 1, AU Jeans for Genes Day jeansforgenes.org.au August 7–9, Sydney, AU Good Food & Wine Show goodfoodshow. com.au/index.php/ location/Sydney August 14–16, Barossa Valley, AU Barossa Gourmet Weekend barossagourmet.com August 20–30, Melbourne, AU Melbourne Writers Festival mwf.com.au

August 23–28, Global World Water Week worldwaterweek.org August 23–29, AU Hearing Awareness Week hearingawareness week.org.au August 24–30, AU Keep Australia Beautiful Week kab.org.au August 26, AU National Meals on Wheels Day mealsonwheels.org.au August 28, AU Daffodil Day daffodilday.com.au August 30, Sydney, AU Italian Food & Wine Festival

sydneyitalianwine food.com.au August 30, Vic, AU A Walk in the Park parkinsonsvic.org.au August 30–7, Nevada, US Burning Man burningman.org September 10–11, Sydney, AU Taste Orange tasteorange.com.au September 13, Global Sustainable House Day sustainablehouse day.com September 20–23, Sydney, AU Fine Food Expo finefoodaustralia. com.au

September 22, Global World Car-Free Day worldcarfree.net/wcfd October 1–31, Sydney, AU Good Food Month sydney.goodfood month.com October 2–5, AU Kundalini Yoga Festival kundaliniyogafestival. com.au October 2–10, AU Mental Health Week mhw.waamh.org.au October 2–11, AU National Organic Week organicweek.net.au October 3–11, Blue Mountains, AU Leura Garden Festival

leuragardens festival.com October 8–11, Berry, AU Berry Gardens Festival berrygardens.org.au/ berry-gardens-festival October 16–November 1, Orange, AU Orange Wine Festival tasteorange.com.au/ winefestival.htm December 2–4, Wellington, NZ Past, Present & Future: 100 Years of Nutrition events4you.co.nz/nutr 2015/programme.html December 6, Melbourne, AU Sussan Women’s Fun Run (register now) sussanwomensfun run.com.au

JOIN THE WELLBEING COMMUNITY Connect and share with a group of caring, passionate experts and motivated people. Read the latest wellbeing news online, see what our bloggers are talking about, send us your thoughts and keep in touch via our social-networking communities.

VISIT US ONLINE wellbeing.com.au LIKE US ON FACEBOOK facebook.com/WellBeingMagazine

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER twitter.com/WellBeing_Mag CHECK US OUT ON PINTEREST pinterest.com/WellBeingMag FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM instagram.com/WellBeing_Mag READ OUR BLOGS wellbeing.com.au/blog SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK wbletters@universalmagazines.com.au SIGN UP TO OUR E-NEWS wellbeing.com.au/enews

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